Pardon My Take - Notre Dame HC Marcus Freeman, CFB With Andy Staples + Mt Rushmore Of Business Jargon With Hank’s Dad

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

Football is back and we have once again been let down by DJU. We talk the games from Saturday plus the final preseason games (00:00:00-00:21:09). Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani are absurd and deserve more attention (00:21:09-00:26:50). Who’s back of the week including Oasis and RFK Jr selling coke (00:26:50-00:41:21). Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman joins the show to talk about this season, his football career, how he recruits, and tons more (00:41:21-01:20:03). Andy Staples joins us to preview the College Football season, Heisman and who is going to the playoff (01:20:03-02:02:12). We finish with Mt Rushmore of business jargon with Hank’s dad. Also don’t listen to the lottery ball it’s not important (02:02:12-02:33:15).You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake

Hey, pardon my take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. On today's pardon my take, we have some college football. We got two guests, great guests, head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Marcus Freeman on the show. We also have our good friend Andy Staples previewing college football week one and the new playoff. Football, real football, we're talking real football. So this week we're gonna do college football.

Next week we're obviously gonna do NFL. We have the Mount Rushmore business jargon with special guest Hank's dad. It's come down to a two man race between Hank and PFT. So Hank's bringing in additional people. That's fine. Yep. Hank can do whatever he wants. Bringing in help. Yep. We got Who's Back of the Week. We got a great show for you and it is brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. We had the appetizer last week. Now it's time to feast. College football is back. Don't miss any of the action. Jump in at DraftKings Sportsbook It's a full slate for of games for week one

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For new customers, get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In New York, call 877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY467369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling.

Call 888-789-77777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. Okay, let's go. Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. Score big with DraftKings, all college football season long. Download the DraftKings SportsFork app now. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, August 26th and football is back and for the feels like 75th year in a row. I lost money thinking that DJ Unglele was going to be the DJ Unglele from the COVID year in that Notre Dame game that he played. He played against Notre Dame with Clemson and I got burned. Yeah. It seems like he doesn't like to run with the football that much anymore. He doesn't

do the thing where he's like, Hey, I'm 245 pounds. I'll just put my head down and run over you. This is it was just every year. Every year I'm like, this is the year DJ you and I feel bad for Florida State fans. This whole off season they were going to be on like a fuck you tour in college football this year because of unfortunately how last season ended for them. And we do still stand with Florida State at the end of last season. Correct. You did what you had to do.

Uh, but this was a, a bad way to start out traveling all the way over to Ireland. I would assume that some Florida State fans probably imbibed one or two beverages over an island, got drunk off Guinness, your poops black, and then you get to see that stinker. Yeah. And then you had on top of that, that Kirk Herbstreet twisted the knife saying man tough loss for the Noles over an island to a good Georgia Tech team. The great news is with the new 12 team playoff there's still plenty of opportunities to climb back into the bracket regroup and keep battling. Yes. Now he's he is technically right that

they're not out of it. With the new playoff it actually Florida State has controls their own destiny now. Whereas last year they won all their games and didn't control their own destiny. So they actually control their own destiny even though they lost the first game. So they're not out of it. But man, does that suck, especially how last year ended. And then to be like, you know, revenge tour starts now, DJ you, I'm going to believe in him for once. Well, no, I believe in him every single year. Uh, that one game, I actually think we should actually maybe do like a, maybe it's, maybe it's a Mount Rushmore. Maybe it's just a segment

where it's like, if you didn't watch this one game, you would think about someone totally different. If I had just somehow missed DJ you throwing five touchdowns against Notre Dame during the COVID year, I would, it would, it would have stopped me from having so much pain and lost bets. Yeah every year after that I'm pretty sure there's a couple Carson Wentz games out there that Definitely applied to this. Yeah, they're just like you see one 73 degrees outside See one day over and it just fucks you up forever Yep then you're never gonna get out of that hole either because you keep you know deep down in your soul like this guy is

out of that hole either because you keep you know deep down in your soul like this guy is capable of accomplishing the Unthinkable somewhere in there is that guy and it's up to somebody to bring it out of them Yeah, and it just didn't happen it didn't happen But it is Georgia Tech always fucks people up in like these weird situations, too Yeah, they're I mean they're they have played sport obviously last year the Miami game. Yeah, oh, no is the biggest bad And they only had I think 14 possessions total during this game. Yeah. Right. So they just controlled the clock and they, they, they did it. And yeah, you have Kirk Hershey twisting the knife. It looked like a great time out in Ireland. I did love how, how mad everyone got about Pat McAfee doing getting drunk in a bar. Yeah. You, you had him do a show at an Irish pub. That's

exactly, I stand with Pat McAfee. That's exactly how he should act. Absolutely. You're in Ireland. You want to adopt the culture of that town. Like how could he? What do you mean how could he? You put him in a bar. When you send him to Utah, guess what he does? Doesn't have a single thing to drink. Right. When in Rome. You make him do a show in a bar, he's going to get drunk.

And when they cut to the booth in the actual game and they were holding Guinness, people took that and were like, you got ESPN, people getting drunk at their shows and in the game, it's like, that's a crazy reach. Yeah. Also, I'm fine. You're in Ireland. I'm okay with that. If announcers want to drink beer while they're announcing a football game, it would make

things a lot more entertaining. If Al Michaels, well, he probably already has a couple of glasses of scotch, nothing big. Yeah. But yeah, if you had, you know, if Tom Brady wanted to crack open a couple like zero carb seltzer and tequilas, I'd be okay with that. So week zero, I hate week zero, by the way. I think it's- Why don't?

I hate it. I just think, just give me like four more games than what they give us. Because the Georgia Tech Florida State game ended and I was like, all right, next game. The problem with the Hawaii game was not, it's not even a real game. Yeah. I find it. I, I'm okay with having the appetizer with having just four games, but I want them to be back to back. Right. So I, I want, I want you to start, uh, that second game was Montana state and New Mexico, right? Which was incredible. Montana state covered big time underdog. Great game. Won won the game outright. Won the game.

So I would have loved to see that start kickoff right afterwards. And then have the next one right after that and then have Hawaii kickoff late at night. In theory, week zero I'm fine with. It's just the execution of it. Give me eight games. Eight games.

Give me one time, give me a morning, an afternoon and night big game. And then sprinkle in a couple of these other Nevada SMU games. That's what I want. And they just don't, it just sucks. My problem was after the first game was over, I was at a bar, and then I was like, man, I can't wait for this next game that I'm kind of pretending to care about because I'm betting

on it. Don't really care about this game if it was in any other week. But then you have like 45 minutes to an hour of just like reminding people, hey, we got to stick around because we got to see what happens with Montana State later. And it's like everyone goes through the motions of college football is back, but like it really isn't. I really, I just, I just wish there was more. That's all. It's good appetizer. It's a fine appetizer, but it just give us more. Give I, you can't, football's a drug.

They basically were like here you go have have this drug and then whoops sorry you're gonna have to wait another five days for more of the drug. Yeah I died I need I need the drug right now. We need to have I can cut it off in the summer I could I can live without the drug but the minute you put the drug in front of me I'm gonna get fucked up and want to just go you know lose my whole life and just sit in a motel for the next six Months what about this? What if they put a new week before week zero week negative one fine and there's just one game No, I mean I need I need my need more of the drug. They just gave us a taste

I wanted I want the whole thing. What if it's the worst possible football game you can imagine No, I want I want more. I need more. They got me hooked. I mean, I'm already hooked No, I want I want more I need more these they got me hooked. I mean, I'm already hooked They got me extra hooked it like d3 you get 1d3 game and week negative 1 and then they put on 0 then you get 8 Games it's like easing yourself in I just I just needed more I needed more I left I left being like man I wish I had more watch the entire SMU Nevada game and I was like give me another game. It's another great game Yeah, well It was college football. It was an interesting game.

It was a wild game. SMU had a player kicked out for spitting. They were like burning timeouts at random times, not being set. I don't even know if you spit on anybody if you just spit on the ground. It was the craziest thing ever. And Nevada was going to punt and then they blew the whistle through the flag and I was like, oh, it must be, you know, delay a game or, you know, false star, whatever, move them back. And they're like, no player spit. He's out of the game. And now Nevada has the first

out. It really was a good weekend of, uh, of just quintessential college football though, because you had the weird stuff going on in Ireland. You had a wind delay in the Montana state New Mexico game where in the fourth quarter, Montana State got the ball with what looked to be like a 55 mile an hour wind at their back the entire time. And then you had the weird shit that happened and the craziness and the chaos at the end of the SMU game.

Yeah, and we also had the, which I didn't realize, I should have done a better job, that now college football has a two-minute warning, which I don't really like. Yep, yep, they do. I don't like that. They reminded us several times that, which I appreciate that. You know what? That's why we consider it was important. Yeah. I just, two minute warning was kind of

fun that they didn't have it. Yeah. It's because it also was a great casual. Like you could, you could spot the casual watching, like an NFL guy who just tuned into their first college football game. They're like, Oh, uh, he was out of bounds on that catch. Nope. One foot, one foot or, you know, Oh, where's the two minute warning? Nope. They don't have that. Why is the clock stopped right now? Cause they got a first down. I want the games to be slightly different so you can kind of spot them in the wild. Yeah. But at the same time, when you watch receiver make a catch in college and he gets two feet in, you're like that guy could play in the NFL. Yeah, he could play on Sundays. Yeah, he could play on Sundays.

Any other I saw, I mean, we're just going through the roster cuts. Trey Lance threw five picks. I feel bad for Trey Lance. He almost had Skip Bayless on his side. Yeah, I was loving it. And then right on QE threw a pick six. I actually feel bad for Trey Lance because it's not his fault that he got drafted number three.

Or is he number three? Top five. Yeah, it was at least top five. He threw five picks. Someone had a tweet. I should have bookmarked it, but it was basically like Trey Lance in the last five years. It was like high school. He played, I don't know, like 300 snaps college. He played 300 snaps. And then since being in the NFL, he's played like 150. He just hasn't played football he hasn't played that much he's an all-time guy of this guy could be great because I saw him really really play well in one game and he had that run he had that touchdown run that looked

awesome it was in the the FCS national championship game against JMU right absolutely crushed I don't do you throw like one interception when he was in college he was he was he was awesome and then he got his entire senior year taken away for COVID but yeah he I feel bad for Trey Lance. I officially feel bad for Trey Lance. I think he'll be okay. Yeah, I mean, he did make a lot of money being picked third overall. Mike White also got cut. Yeah. So they're doing Skyler Thompson right now. Yeah, they're gonna bring Mike

White back to the Jets. Mike White could win you a game on the New York Jets. I don't care who he's playing against. I don't care. He could come off the bench in the first quarter and Mike White has that ability to just somehow throw for three touchdowns for the Jets. Right. Who's your backup right now memes? I didn't realize you had Jordan Travis, but he's injured. Tyrod Taylor. Oh, Ty God. He's going to have some freak injury that nobody else in the history of football is going to have. Yeah, I mean, I didn't ask for your backup. Your backup probably is irrelevant this year. Yeah, at least for the first five snaps.

Come on, man. Izzy's back, though, memes. Izzy had a great game. Izzy's still back. Yeah, it's Izzy season. It's Izzy season. Defensive line backups look good. I know everybody cares about the Jets.

That's awesome. Yeah, it's huge. It's getting way down in the deep shit. I was everybody cares about the Jets. That's awesome. Yeah it's huge. It's getting way down in the tree. I was actually thinking about whether I should bring up that the Bears made a trade for a couple defensive linemen don't know if it moves to the needle but they did. Jalen Hurst threw his first pick at training camp. Oh wow. That moves a needle. He got that out. Last day of last day of practice in training camp. Probably bounced off Dotson'son's hands yeah we're gonna get Brandon Iook on the commanders and we've got Luke McCaffrey and Martavis Bryant we don't need John Dodd just ready for football I'm just ready for football we did have I'd say the best NFL story from today was Jim Harbaugh and the elevator yes it was incredible so the Chargers a couple

Chargers players including Justin, got caught in an elevator before, I think it was before the game against the Cowboys this weekend. And Harbaugh was- Was that the same hotel where a room blew up? No, I think that one- That was in Oxnard, I believe. The fire was in California. Dallas and the hotel, something's going on.

So Harbaugh was asked after it. So Harbaugh, I guess, was the elevator right before, which makes on. So Harbaugh was asked after it so Harbaugh I guess was the elevator right before which makes me believe that Harbaugh probably did this on purpose and got the elevator stuck on purpose but afterwards he did an interview and he said talking about the elevator they're stuck for two hours Justin Herbert and some Chargers players said you get in those situations and it's a test the wills I was proud of each of the guys and the two women that were on that elevator. That's a win. You feel good about yourself. You were challenged. It was a test of will and you pull it down or pull it in. And then talking about Justin Herbert- This is my favorite part.

... getting off the elevator and it was hot. As each person came off the elevator sweating and some had the shirt off, Justin Herbert, his hair was a little wet, but his shirt was completely dry That was another thing that blew me away He said I bet on the Chargers now. I think you left out the best part of that quote He said for Justin Herbert his hair being a little wet, but his shirt completely dry He said that was another thing that blew me away. This guy is just a beast Yeah, he is he's a beast Hank when you were stuck on that elevator was your shirt dry

He is he's a beast Hank when you were stuck on that elevator was your shirt dry Yeah, we're only there in there for 10 minutes or two hours a long It's a very time to be a stuck in an elevator very long somebody peed on that elevator I want to know about that. I want to know who pissed yes, honestly I would say that if Justin Herbert didn't pee on that elevator selfish teammate because that means that he wasn't hydrated enough That's true You should be you should be peeing all the time. If Hardball had come out and say, it was incredible, Justin had to pee six times on this elevator

because he was so hydrated, I'd say, that's a guy setting an example and a tone for all the rookie guys on the team that need somebody to look up to for hydration. I have to say, I know we did that whole talk with Will. He's picking the Chiefs to not win the AFC West, saying it's a scrappy division. And I'm still, I think we did that whole talk with will he's picking the Chiefs to not win the AFC West saying it's a scrappy division and I I'm Still I think we announced that the Chiefs are gonna win the AFC West like six months ago sticking with that

but I might put a little something on on the Chargers just because Not to win the AFC West, but maybe just win the Super Bowl because Harbaugh The guy just does things like this. Yeah, I mean he's a winner He also said that Friday was a key step in the team getting good at making yourself harder to break. Love that. We got to get stuck in an elevator.

Love that. I'd sweat so much. He would be like, this guy's a wimp. How long would it take you to start complaining when you were stuck in an elevator? I'd say less than a second. I complained before the elevator's even stuck. I'm like, damn, I'm in another elevator. When you're getting on an elevator, You know, this time my great grandfather died.

And then he said, who's got a better than those guys that were on that elevator? No one. No one. No one. Nobody. Do we have any other football stories? I had a couple other things I wanted to touch on. The elevator one was really my favorite. Yeah, that was the best. Hank, you had something? No. Well I had something for you on the way in. So on the way and I was talking to I ran into the guy in my building who helped us get out of the elevator and we were talking about the incident he kind of made a joke. Oh you get stuck in the elevator again. I was like no. Thanks for helping. And he was like telling me a story about I thought he was talking about my building. He said my friend like

that happened to him. The woman came went to the floor He didn't tell anyone and she died What like they were looking for and and I was like the guy just didn't tell anyone like she he knew she got stuck Down there, and then he said yeah, he got arrested for being dumb, and I was like here, and he said no different building And then I was like all right. See ya. It was dive. She didn't tell anyone He was it was a little wild small talk conversations that he was like yeah, and my friend was you know He had a similar situation happen But the the thing fell down and he didn't tell anyone and the family was looking for and it smelled bad

And I was like so she died he's like yeah, I is he arrested he's like yeah 20 years. Oh my god You all right good to see that's a nice little yeah Hank did you want the other thing I had for you yes Did you see Jason Tatum's tattoo? Yeah, what'd you think did you see a pf2? I'm gonna look it up right now I think if I had actually your yeah, yeah your media well no no first before you look it up guess now. I think if I had accolades. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your immediate. Well, no, no. First, before you look it up, guess what the tattoo is. Jason Tatum's tattoo is of his son. Nope. But his son's dunking on him. Nope. It is a trophy. Okay. It's of the Larry O'Brien trophy. Nope. You'd think because he just won it. It's also won a gold medal. Is it of the gold medal? No.

It's better. It's even better. Jason Tatum got a tattoo of himself lifting the All-Star MVP trophy. Named after? Named after his good friend who he corresponds with frequently. Kobe Bryant. But he just won the gold medal in the Larry O'Brien. Those aren't named the Kobe Bryant. The gold medal is the Kobe Bryant medal.

Come on. What people get, you know, touching tattoo tributes to people that they've lost and they care about. Come on, Hank. What does it say on it? It says, like something, G-R-A. Come on, Hank. Is that Grail?

Did he say this is my Grail? I mean, dudes get crazy. Everyone's tatted up. But Hank, he just got this tattoo. He just won two of the most impressive things. No one gives a fuck about the All-Star MVP. He did not win NBA finals MVP. That's true.

You probably beat him in that.. You had three of them. Tattoos take a long time to, you know, sketch up and plan out. It's hard to do a gold medal. He probably is waiting to get those ones, but they're coming. So he got this designed at the, like the second he won this trophy. Do you know what, you know what it is Hank? And I know like, listen, I know you're sensitive about his aura. This is a Joe, this is a Joe B tattoo. No that. Yeah. That's the P like you get that too. If that's the most you've ever won. He

hadn't won the eight shit. Yeah. He is. He's won. Say it again. He's won the finals. I understand. But that's not a, you don't get the all star MVP as trophy. If you win the all star game MVP, the NBA finals and a gold medal in the same year, you can do whatever you want. Yeah, and you should get the NBA finals and the gold medal tattoo before. How many tattoos you got? Who are you to criticize that?

If I won an NBA finals, if I won an NBA final, an All-Star MVP, and a gold medal, All-Star MVP with the last tattoo I'd put on my body. But what if he gets the other two, then? Is it forgiven? I think it's better than if- It would be slightly forgiven, yes. It's better than if Joel Embi had gotten this tattoo because that would have been it would have that's loser talk Yeah, but that this is a tattoo Joel and bead would get

He doesn't have tattoos, but he would not one because he's never won anything gold medal First of all, what would be what a real MVP? Sketch of himself a draft night. Yeah, so he You're upset that he doesn't have a real MVP tattoo No, I mean all star MVPs more important than real MVP But to me this this just calls into question his his or even further It seems like he's forcing the or negative 5,000 aura. How's getting a tattoo of force? He gets what he likes

Okay, because he likes all star MVP's and it's also a terrible trophy. he gets what he likes okay cuz he likes all strombie pieces It's also a terrible trophy. What is that trophy? It's a Kobe Bryant trophy. I know but what is it? It looks like a bad building. It looks like a giant martini shaker Yeah, or like a really shitty wedding cake or if if like the the looks like a world series Lear if the World Series trophy just let itself go. Yeah. Yeah got really fat Yeah, I did crystal butt plug that was the other thing. I wanted to talk about briefly with the boys I want to talk a little baseball because We've got two guys having probably the like craziest

Years that we've had in a long time Aaron drudge hit his 50th and 50th home run today. He's on my Dingers only. He's closing in on the AL record. Who had first pick in Dingers only? That would be me. Who'd you take? I took Shohei, and Shohei just joined the 40-40 club. Fastest. The fastest of all time to join it. He's going to demolish the 40.

He's probably going to have the most combined, or like, I don't even know how to phrase that. No one's ever been to the 50-50. No one's going to demolish the four. He's probably going to have the most combined or like, I don't even know how to phrase that. No one's ever been to the 50 50. No one's been. So he has a legitimate chance to go 50 50. He could get 50 50 on this. Uh, I think a rod has the record, right? It's like 44 44, 43 43. He was, but he was so the 40 steroids. Yeah. The 40 40 guys, uh, he did it, Shohei did it in 126 games, and the second fastest was Alfonso Soriano in 2006, 147 games. So he's got a full 30-plus games to get to the 50-50 club, which has never been done.

He also did it in the most dramatic fashion, hitting a walk-off grand slam. It's just crazy. On the first pitch with two outs, Shohei and just casually the next day, threw off the mound for the first time. Cause oh yeah, if you don't remember, Shohei has a career ERA of 233. Yeah, he's also like the best pitcher too. He is.

He's just taking a year off. It's insane. The fact that he was like, oh yeah, I have a UCL. So I'm just going to become one of the best base dealers now and the home run. So Shohei's doing that in LA. And then Judge hit his 50, he hit his 51st, so he is now three guys, or sorry, four guys total before this have three seasons or more with 50 home runs. Babe Ruth, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Alex Rodriguez, Aaron Judge joins that group. He's also the first player in MLB history with 50 plus home runs, 120

plus RBIs and 100 plus walks before September. And he's on pace for 62 this year. It's pretty crazy. Yeah, it's absolutely wild. If MLB was competent, if they had a way of rigging the games like some of the other leagues do sometimes, they would make sure that it was going to be a Yankees Dodgers World Series. Instead, we'll probably end up, I don't know, Cleveland and San Diego. It's also like why the constant, the MLB needs a face of the league and the MLB, what's the marketing problem for the MLB? It's okay to just say the MLB is just, they're just so far behind football that once

September hits it's football season because these two guys and what they're doing is so insane and so awesome that MLB unfortunately has become more of a regional sport where you root for your team and don't probably tune into everything else. But these guys are the face of the MLB and they're like couldn't be better. Yeah. Two of them. I mean, Shohei is having an incredible season. And they're both awesome.

I'm loving watching. And outside of not talking to the Little League World Series, Aaron Judge seems like a good dude. I was going to say, I think the face of the league is the United States Little League World Series team. Facts. Because we win. We win again.

We beat Taiwan. I said Taiwan. It's disgusting that Little League World Series is in the pocket of the Communist Party of China. Chinese Taipei. Ah, the little league world series has now officially decided that Taiwan belongs to the Chinese government. It's crazy. Weird, huh? Weird. The little league world series. Hank. What are your thoughts on that? Do you recognize the sovereignty of Taiwan? I think it would help to give some context or maybe younger listeners who aren't fully aware what the difference is Maybe like somebody that's eight nine years younger than us that might be listening out there

Yeah, yeah hypothetically on a couch somewhere So you're saying okay the team identifies as Taiwan. Post World War II, what happened was- Like where are the players on the team? Wait, wait, wait, I'm going to set it up for you. It depends on who they're saying their allegiance to. Hank, post World War II, the communists and the nationalists had a big war against each other in China. Before they were fighting- Big hold. They were fighting on the same side against the Japanese.

And after World War II, the communists won. The nationalists flew over to Taiwan. They set up their own country there. Now to this day, the Communist Party in China, the Chinese government still claims that they own everybody that's living in Taiwan and it's called Chinese Taipei. Like, you remember a couple seasons ago when ESPN drew that seven-dash line or whatever around the South China Sea,

and they gave fishing rights to the Chinese government in the South China Sea? That's what the Little League World Series is doing with Taiwan. They're just giving it to the Chinese. So the Little League World Series is in bed with the Chinese. In bed with the Chinese. Correct.

No better than LeBron or Steve Kerr. Yeah Yeah, so they the tie the yeah Taiwan who we are Taiwan's name. Yeah, so we beat Taiwan today. That's all I'm saying not Chinese Taipei But it was a fuck out of Taiwan two to one. Yep. Yep an extra small or two small balls back, baby Florida now that's a real island. That's, yeah. That's how we, Florida probably declares itself as its own country. Hell yes. We would never do that in the United States.

That big boy on Florida was awesome. He was electric. Yeah. He's still home. They had two big boys just mashing. Yeah. The United States, we stand for something and that's why I was glad we didn't have to play against Puerto Rico.

Yeah. Exactly. We got this. So, baseball's back though. Baseball's fully back. So back. Both, exactly. We got this. So baseball's back though. Baseball's fully back. So back. Both those guys. Should we do our Who's Back? And then we'll get to two interviews. We've got Marcus Freeman and Andy Staples. Who's Back of the Week? It is brought to you by Buffalo Wild Wings. Book your fantasy football draft at Buffalo Wild Wings to get a championship ring. Book at buffalowildwings.com slash fantasy. There's no better place than Buffalo Wild Wings.

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Oh, yeah. Yes. I don't think I talked about it on the show. I definitely talked to PFT about it But there is an HBO documentary I think it came out a while ago, but I stumbled upon it in the spring maybe early summer and I Was went down to oasis rabbit hole and just became obsessed. I definitely was talking to PFT about it for a while before the pop-punk show So I'm pumped. I was not really I I was you know in the I know, you know, Wonderwall Category like I knew yeah some of them got bangers. The documentary was great

They were like the biggest band of all time in the 90s and they have bangers Yeah, and and they got a drama the brother drama is so they got aura like the Liam Liam Gallagher as aura like through the moon He is one of the funniest characters So I'm very very very very late to the party But like me and Robbie Fox will just send each other like I you know it was in my algorithm for a while where I was Just getting you know all the old videos and and when I'm drunk I'll just like turn on some of their live concerts and stuff. It's all the concerts have like

700,000. 700,000 people in bucket hats. Yeah. And they're wearing, they're like waving giant, giant ass flags. They only perform at the biggest music festivals. It's incredible. And meanwhile, like they're on stage and Liam is calling his brother cunt in between songs. His roasts are so good. If you ask Liam Gallagher about like any modern musician, he'll just talk to you for about 30 seconds about how bad that guy sucks He's like he is on the Mount Rushmore of haters, but in a hilarious way. Have you told Billy about this? No, I'm sure he's excited. Okay Hank found a second band. Yeah, are you worried what Billy strings is gonna say? No, I think Is there room for two? Yeah, there's room for two my youtube like if you went on my youtube because that it's not it was it was definitely a phase kind

Of like food like I was in like a three week Oasis obsession phase that petered off, but sometimes when I'm when I'm drunk like you come home I think I saw like a meme on Twitter It's like you know you're drunk when you're just someone's turning on full-length concerts Yeah, that oasis like turning on their old like the Wembley or whatever like that happened still Glastonbury, yeah, yeah, they had a it was like 400,000 yeah, no is every single concert the same way and I was watching documentary like yeah, I knew one song I didn't know they were this big and they're like the biggest band in the world. Yeah, how long do you think this reunion is gonna last?

Will they put over under I'm gonna say One and a half concerts. Do they have to go to a different country? Probably. It feels like a lot of the beef always starts whenever they have to fly anywhere. If, okay. If you've got a beef in America, Spain one at a time. I'm guessing the first concert's going to be in England somewhere.

Yeah, so they'll stay together. The second one, let's just say hypothetically, is Scotland. If they have to come to America for a tour, it will not last. They won't make it over that body water. Absolutely not. Did you see, where is it? If it's drivable. If it's drivable, they can do it.

If they can take separate cars there, yeah. Our colleague, Don to the Don, had a very funny. OK, my favorite. This is Don to the Don. My favorite Liam Gallagher story is from 2017 Lollapalooza. They stick him with the worst slot of the weekend, 4 PM Friday. I show up at 3, get on side stage, show up on for the show.

He goes on, immediately starts bitching out his sound guy and guitar player. Three songs later says, fuck this, and walks off stage. Yeah, he does that all the time. He's just like, I'm not doing this. He's talented enough where he can keep getting away with it. He did that, I think they were supposed to do MTV Unplugugged and he said, I just don't like how acoustic sounds. Yeah, I liked it. And just didn't do it right before.

The documentary part of it I liked because they were right before the internet and technology. So they were really like the last kind of big rock stars. Liam Gallagher is a rock star. The New Beatles. Doesn't, yeah. Doesn't give a fuck. Yep.

OK. Who's back? Who's back? I got a couple of whose backs of the week. My first is Logan Paul. Yeah. Logan Paul's fuck. Yep. Okay, who's back? Who's back? I got a couple who's backs of the week My first is Logan Paul. Yeah, Paul's back. Yeah, wait when he pushed his dog Yeah, apparently pushed his dog off a speeding boat. Yeah, that was bad I saw that it so that he could then rescue his dog and then get a lot of hits on video for being like Oh, look my dog fell in the lake and I saved it. Yeah, you can see his arm pushing his dog Yeah, that was bad.

Jail. Really bad. Prison. Now I want to see Mike Tyson beat the fuck out of him. Noted dog lover, Mike Tyson. You think the videos, the amount of videos they've done in like different height, like they could figure out a way to push a dog off a boat without having to be so obvious.

Yeah. Not that I'm condoning that, but I'm saying it was so obvious that he did that. It should have been like somebody else's arm. And then the video is, I beat this guy up and saved my dog, but I beat him up because he pushed the dog into the lake. We left him for dead in the water. Yeah.

Yeah. So my other who's back. Cute dog, by the way. Very cute dog. My other who's back of the week is James Winston. Yes. James Winston, for some reason, he's still in charge of giving all the pregame speeches

to the Browns, even though he's not technically QB1. But he's pregame QB1. I think he's heart and soul QB1. Deshaun Watson is, what's gonna happen this year with him? I don't know. We're gonna do some previews coming up, but like Deshaun Watson has to be one of the biggest question marks.

Is he good still? We don't know. No one knows. We don't know if he's good or not. He had a couple games last season where he looked like, okay, that was, that looked like an NFL quarterback. Right. And then a lot where it was like, this guy stinks and he's got a great coach. He's got a great coach and

Jamis is now in the building and Jamis will be the most popular person that building and his video, his pre pregame speech videos continue to go viral. Cause he talked about CC's pizza and yeah. And it just gives you goosebumps. And you're like, I,'re like, I just want to get out there and play for Jameis. He's the best. Yeah. So Jameis is, so he gets paid $4 million a year. And I think if he only acts as a motivational speaker, he's worth $4 million a year to have on retainer.

Yeah. When he retires, we will hire him at Barstool to just do that. Just give us speeches every single day. Him and Ben Herbert, we will be the drill tweet. Can someone help us with barstools finances? Rent this, you know, sound equipment this Ben Herbert trainer 10 million, Jamis Winston 4 million and all they do. Pre game speech. Jamis pumps us up and then Ben Herbert makes us harder to break. I just, I would love to. Yeah, it is worth paying James Winston $4 million a year just for vibes. Agreed.

And that's what they're doing. Agreed. Okay, my Who's Back of the Week is hilarious hit pieces that don't really land. Now this is very specific, but not to get political, but if anyone is paying any attention, RFK dropped out and then endorsed Trump. And then there was a bunch of people coming out against RFK, his own family. Again, not to get political. I just saw one story that made me laugh that I thought was good for the show. There was a explosive bombshell that was dropped that is titled RFK Jr. Accused of being a

cocaine dealer at Harvard University as Former Classmate Speaks Out and it's just this dude who's apparently been sitting on this for like 40 years That he's like yeah, I bought $40 worth of cocaine from RFK in college I don't know if you you realize that that does not help being like this guy sucks. So it was uh He said that his excuse for it was I was offered to purchase cocaine from a Kennedy So I did it. Yeah, that's I would but I would have done the same the whole point of a hit piece is to be Like we all now feel bad. Like we feel like this person is a scumbag You're like, yeah 40 years ago. This guy sold me coke. It's like oh that kind of rocks

I did read it at the very end it put in a note saying like The point the reason why I'm writing this right now is because Trump has suggested the death penalty for drug dealers. How do you feel about endorsing guy that would have had you killed when you were 18? It's like I'm so I'm so I'm sure I'm sure he still would have done it. He's a fucking Kennedy. Yeah. That's what he probably was the coolest guy at Harvard. They break the law. That's what they do. So so I just it made me laugh and I, I like, again, we don't talk politics on the show, but that political, uh, did you, or it definitely made me laugh because it was just so ridiculous. The biggest back, this guy has been sitting on this. Did

you see the other coming forward about the whale? No, the whale was a much more normal store. Very cool. So he took his daughter daughter tools He found like a beached whale that was dead and they took his daughter to the beach and used a chainsaw To cut off the whale's head and then bungee cord the head of the whale To his minivan and whale juice started leaking into the car. Oh my onto his daughter Jesus that's weird guy normal. That's pretty normal. I'd say yeah, he's a weird guy But yeah coming out and being like, guy sold me Coke in college. Got him. Wow, I'm going to change everyone's mind now.

You got to lead with the whale story. All right, Huey, finish this off. My Who's Back, conference realignment. The UConn Huskies seems like they're trying to get into the Big 12. And they're big pitches that they'll spend more money on football particularly. And that Big 12 is very bullish on basketball and they want more basketball to be a little bit higher of an income for them. They tried to go after Gonzaga a couple years ago that did not work out.

So now they're trying to go after Hurley and the Huskies and trying to bring in some basketball eliteness to that conference. Max, what do you think about the idea of UConn switching conferences? You would love it. Hate it. Hate it. Absolutely hate it. All right, so this would suck because I do love the Big East as it's currently said as a basketball conference. Hurley's talked to us before about Northeast, the Italian league, all that stuff. It would suck. It also would make the Big 12 the greatest college basketball conference of all time.

I just would because now you'd have Kansas, you'd have UConn, you'd have Arizona, like Cincinnati. It'd be just crazy college basketball every single year. Baylor. So I don't want it to happen because I want UConn to stay in the Big East, but I also realize that the Big 12 would just be so fucking good with basketball. But I don't want it to happen. No, I don't want it to happen either. I don't want it to happen because you have these thoughts in your head of things that are just known to be true all the time and will never ever change.

That's UConn is a Big East school. That will never change. It's never changed. Even though they were in the East. It's never changed in the past. It'll never be any different than that. But no, I don't want that to happen. UConn should be in the Big East.

They're home right now. Let's leave them home. Yeah. I did look at the get-in price at Fog Allen for when UNC comes to town First time UNC's ever played at the fog. Do you know how much it costs to go to that game? $700 I think it's like 1800 Wow $2,000 just to get just to get in the door of that game. We got to go to Fog Allen this year

Yeah, we're talking to our friend Eric Chenoweth. He's going to take us there. It seems like an awesome place. Actually, you know, it'd be great as we could take a road trip in Vanny. Yeah, we could. To the fog? So we'll be ready by the winter? Yeah. Really? Winter of what year? We'll circle back, but yeah. Have we got the timeline up here? I got faith. That's subject to change. I don't know. Is faith a mechanic? If faith fix a car that a van that hasn't driven. Summer's over. Wheels are in motion. Summer's not over, Hank.

No, the wheels literally are not in motion. The wheels have not been in motion for five years. Hank, you're the one who always says, hold on to summer. Oh wow. Locked in. Labor day. Summer's over, so I better not see you golfing. That's not, I mean, the fall golf is the best golf.

What about winter golf? In Arizona. Summer's not over. We capture Super Bowl. Don't do this to us. Oh man. Yeah, I don't want this to happen either. It would suck.

I also feel like Danny Hurley should just get all his money and be out of his contract if this happens. It should be in his contract that Yukon stays in the Big East. Yeah Yeah. Yeah, it was just so perfect that It was right before college football started. We're like, all right new normal new conferences. No pack 12 12 team play. Oh, yeah Here's another one. We're not done yet. That's why it's been my take from the beginning Just get us to the finish line. Tell us when we're done with this stuff Okay,

let's get to our interviews. We have Marcus Freeman, head coach of Notre Dame Fighting Irish and then Andy Staples talking college football. And it is college football season. It's brought to you by Coors Light, big rivalry game coming up. Choose chill with the world's most refreshing beer, Coors Light, Mountain Cold Refreshment that can chill even the most heated rivalries. When you're looking to keep it chilled, there's only one beer to choose, Coors Light, the mountains on the bottles and cans, even turn blue when your beer is cold. So you know when your Mountain Cold Refreshment is ready for you to choose chill. When things heat up, choose chill and then crack open a Coors Light. Coors Light is the one to choose when

rivalries heat up. So when you're looking to cool things down and enjoy the game, choose chill and reach for a Coors Light. Get Coors Light is the one to choose when rivalries heat up. So when you're looking to cool things down and enjoy the game, choose Chill and Reach for a Coors Light. Get Coors Light delivered straight to your door with Instacart or GoPuff by going to coreslight.com slash take. Thank you to Coors Light, our wonderful sponsor. The coldest beer out there, the best beer out there, the best beer for college football. Okay, here he is, head coach of Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman. Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is head coach of Notre Dame Marcus Freeman. Okay we now welcome on a very special guest. It is head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Marcus Freeman. They have a new series out called Here Come the Irish.

It will be out August 29th on Peacock. Let's start with that coach. So basically hard knocks right for a college team, when you were approached with that, were you, were you like a little bit nervous about like, Hey, do we really want to do all access or what was your thought process behind having you guys do this show? Yeah, I think it's something we've talked about probably for about a year now. And the first thing I think of is a little bit, you're bit you're protective of your team and hold on. I don't want episodes coming out throughout the season and our guys

wondering why they're not in a certain episode or looking for characters and stories. But, um, you know, then we started talking more in depth about it and, and, you know, they're going to capture stuff from all year long, but they're going to put them out at different times that really won't interfere with our season. And so That was a hundred percent good with that but i've seen a glimpse and pieces of the first two episodes and uh, I think it's awesome they've done a well a really good job of Not only just showing the football side of things but but telling the stories of our players showing

You know some of the things that the fans and so some of those guys that aren't fans would like to know It's pretty entertaining. Yeah, so give me one guy. guy that's, that's either on the team or on your staff. That's going to be a breakout star of this. Cause every year in hard knocks, we always get like one guy that we fall in love with. We didn't know about, but it's like, oh my God, this guy's hilarious. I love that. Who's that person on a, on Notre Dame? Who's hilarious. I don't know who's hilarious, not who we hope. And he better be the breakout star. It better be the quarterback, you know, and if he's the breakout star, then you know what? Things are going to go really, really well for us. Yeah. How's his hair? Is his

hair as good as Sam's? No, he doesn't have the long hair. He's pretty clean cut. But he's got a listen, he is a, he's got a unique personality, ultra competitive. But you know, I think him and Sam are two completely different individuals. Yeah. Yeah. How long would Sam take getting you know, ready after a game in the shower, all the product was he was he always the last one out? You know what, I know that he was never out before me. And I and, uh, I take a while cause I have to do media and some other things after a game and I always beat him out of the locker room. Yeah. So yeah, your, your, your quarterback, Riley Leonard, uh, who last year he went through,

you know, the injuries and everything. Was that part of it? Like seeing how, cause he's a gritty guy and he fought through a lot of stuff and he's kind of one of those perfect, like he's a gamer. Were you, when you were deciding, you know, transfer portal, you're like, this is a guy we've played him, we know him and we know that he can fight through stuff. Was that part of the process? Absolutely. That was part of the thought process when we ended up going after him. We played him obviously in season, you study him for weeks leading up to that game and

in that game and he's a tough competitor. You end up getting hurt at the very last play of that game. And then I hear about two weeks later, he bounces back and he was healthy. But he is an ultra competitor and that's a huge part of what we're looking for. Yeah. I know you obviously were fans. We can gamble on games. That game was awesome. Cause Audra Castamay ran that touchdown at the end. Yeah. I think the analytics would tell them to take a knee. Um, yeah, but maybe you guys drew for him to score that touchdown. Listen, if you had a chance to score a touchdown, I understand the right move to do is to take a knee there. Do you, do you tell the guys, cause it's like scoring a touchdown in a big time college football game, it's hard to turn that off. Are you able to tell them before like, Hey,

if you break this, go down. Yeah. You know, in that situation, the analytics book would tell you to go down, but we were down, I think two points at that point. And I got a firm belief that like you never want to take points off the board. And so you're down. I never tell our offense to take, take a knee at the one yard line. I say score. Now if we're tied or we're winning, now we'll alert you, hey, alert down down, because what we want to do is kick a field goal with zero

seconds on the clock. And so that's just where the analytics plays out. And as a head coach, you've got to make a decision. But we did not tell him to go down. Yeah, yeah, I forgot you guys were down one. So it would have been, oh, yeah, you're right. That would have been a weird situation to obviously you can end the game with a field goal, but you never want to take that risk. No, no doubt. No doubt. Someone can go wrong with any type of field goal extra point. You,

I can't take points off the board. Yeah. And we're very happy that, that he didn't go down at the one. Yeah. So shout out to him. His points are good. That should be your motto for the team. points are always good No one will ever complain about points. I saw that you were in in camp You were wearing a shirt that caught my eye You were wearing a shirt that just said grit on it, which we appreciate we love doing on this podcast We do a grit tour every year for the last eight years And I'm curious to know what grit means to you at, at Notre Dame football. Some of the haters out there might say Notre Dame football, not gritty.

What would you say to the haters? Uh, you know what? We have to be gritty. Um, you know, I don't know what some of those people would say about the past, but that's something we believe in. It's really the motto of our offense for this year. And I don't think I think I might have the t-shirt on right now. And I don't know if you can see it. I think I got it. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Grit I got it. There we go.

Yeah, grit, grit. Love it. But yeah, it's the motto of our offense. Coach Denbrock, we just hired him this year to be our offensive coordinator. He brought that when he came, and I love it, man. It's a way for me to show our offense a little bit of support. But I'm a firm believer in if we want to have success, we better have grit. And that's something that every person in this program needs to have.

So what does grit mean for your offense? If it's an emphasis on your offensive mentality this year, are we talking full backs? Are we talking like old school stuff? No, it's a mentality. It's a mentality. It isn't a, I don't know if you're going to see us in old school, two back ISOs and running the ball every plate, three yards in a cloud of dust. But you know what? Again, it's a mentality. We talk about the GB and having gratitude for the opportunity that you have. But at the same point of it, it's a mentality that I don't care

if we're throwing the ball, running ball, we're zone read, we're do whatever you're doing offensively. If you don't have grit and that mentality, you're not going to have success. Yeah. Um, so you're, you know, the head coach of Notre Dame football, you're under 40 years old, incredible success. Does your dad still think you're not that big of a deal? It was funny. I was just talking to him today and, uh, I was telling somebody like, I still think, you know, my dad thinks I'm a little kid, you know, and that's just my dad's 80.

But I have a 17, me and my wife have a 17 year old son that just took an official visit. And I remember telling somebody else, like, I still view him as a little kid. So I don't know if it's something as parents or as fathers that we never just see our young children as adults or these grown men, but he definitely still sees me as a young Marcus for sure. Yeah, because the famous story when you guys were playing the Fiesta Bowl, there was a sideline report that your dad, even though you've had all the success in the world, doesn't think you're that big of a deal.

Is that something like if you win a national title, will he be like, Hey, you're a big deal now? Are you waiting for that? I sure as hell hope so, man. You know, that would be an awesome opportunity to celebrate with him. But he's got a unique way of keeping you humble, right? And he never lets you get too big. He reminds you, you know, where you've come from. But I mean, that's the relationship we have. You know, my dad was in the military for 26 years. He was, I think, 43 when I was born. So we have obviously a little bit of an age gap between us.

But I don't know if he'll ever change, man. That's just who he is until he's done on this earth. Yeah, that's I mean, it's good. It keeps you humble. Yeah, it's good to have somebody like that. Even if you're at the highest of highs professionally, your dad's like, you know what, like you could have done a lot better. I feel like we need to look at the mistakes more than we looked at the successes there. You have another hater by the way, I don't know if you're familiar with the trash talk that James Laurinaitis has

been putting your way recently about college football. First of all, have you played college football 25? Absolutely. We have four boys at the house and two girls. So all four boys play college football. And so I've played it a few times with the kids for sure. Do you always play as Notre Dame? Um, most of the time, funny story, last night I was telling somebody that I get home late, the kids are playing one of them's using Notre Dame. He was like, dad, you want to play? And I'm like, sure. And he was like, okay, I'm Notre Dame.

You can't use Notre Dame. So I'm like, all right. So I ended up getting texts saying them. And I'm like, after I'm playing with them, like, you know what, this is a good way to scout your opponent. I want to see who the stars are and all those different things and how they work. So I don't know if I'll continue to do that,

but most of the time I'm Notre Dame. But maybe during the week we play a new opponent, I'll start using them on college football. Yeah, I like that Yeah, cuz because Lauren I just said that you weren't very good at playing at playing video games He said they used to beat you like every time that you guys played back in college He said some very mean things about your video gaming ability actually You know what I listen man, like I don't think it was as bad as he tried to portray

But I know he won probably more than, than I did for sure. But at my point is like, you need to spend more time preparing, studying, getting ready for whatever we're getting ready for and less time playing that game. Yeah. Fair point. But I do like the angle of, of taking your next opponent and just playing just college football, 25 of them every single week, just to get ready. Like you're scouting before the scouting. That's right. Exactly right. I'm like, this is genius, man. You can play a game, play with your kids, but also be able to say, okay, we're scouting before the scouting. That's right. Exactly right. I'm like, this is genius, man. You can play a game, play with your kids, but also be able to say, okay, we're scouting our opponent.

Yeah. I mean, the stadium pulse for, for, uh, was it Kyle field? That's going to be, that's going to be an intense environment. Have you thought about that? I mean, they have the 12th man, but Notre Dame has the real 12th man, Jesus on their side. That's going to be a tough environment to go into. Yeah. It's going to be loud. Um, you know. We've played in some tough environments, but the thing about it,

you have to prepare for it. And so we have obviously a pretty loud speaker system here that you have to be able to plan, prepare. Something unique this year is that we have the coach to play our communication and you have to be able to prepare to be able to hear that maybe with the crowd noise, but also there's times you might not be able to hear it. So we have to prepare for both of those things. But at the end of the day, like if we execute, it won't be as loud as we think it's going to be. Yeah. I got a tough question, but you're, you're such a compelling speaker. And every time you, you post a video of you, you know, recruiting or talking to the guys and like, man, I want to run through. I don't like Notre Dame.

I'll just tell you that, but I want to run through a brick wall. But your career was cut short because you have an enlarged heart. How long did it take to mentally get over that that was taken from you? Because it's got to be really difficult. My body, I feel fine. I could play the game, but I can't anymore because the doctors found something. Was that, how long did that take for you to, to, to get over that? You know, I think at that time, um, I was wrestling back and forth. It was like, man,

how long am I going to be able to play in it? If I had a couple of knee injuries, I would have been on a couple of teams and, and I was kind of going back and forth. And then when the coach called and said, Hey, we want to sign you. I remember talking to my college coach. He was like, look, play as long as you can. And when they found the in-large heart valve, like it's obviously something you don't want to hear it and you're not expecting to hear. But I was always like, man, this is a sign from God. Like, hey, enough is enough.

You know, move on. You're not good enough to to play in the NFL. And let's let's start this next chapter. So I remember driving home from Indianapolis and calling my coach and saying, listen, coach Tress, I'm a, I can't play anymore. I'm ready to be a graduate assistant. And he said, okay, show up first thing tomorrow morning at six 30 and we're going to get started on this journey. That's, I mean, that's the perfect next step. So do you, do you use it, uh, as a positive

in recruiting ever where you're like, Hey, I can love you more than any coach. Like literally. No, I try to use that maybe with my wife and maybe sometimes the kids, but using that in recruiting for sure. So we were lucky enough to interview Jim Trestle like seven or eight years ago. Um, has he instilled the love of punting into you at all? He is a definitely a guy that values field position. There's at times that, that I remember those things and remember that motto. Um, but there's also times I'm a little bit more aggressive. You know, he was an offensive guy. He's comes from the offensive side.

Um, you know, I'm a deep, I come from the defensive side of ball, but I'm a little bit more aggressive than coach was. So I know there's times I go for it, maybe on fourth that he's probably shaking his head and says, punt the football. But there's also times I remember that little birdie saying, Hey, punt the ball, win the battle field position. Yeah. He's obsessed with it.

We like what we rattled off different situations. He just like, Oh yeah, that was a punt, incredible punt by us. Like we pinned him deep. It was, it was like the Sean McVay clips where he's like talking about a great play he drew up and it's just Jim Tressel talking about punts. He said it was the most beautiful play in sports because the, the possession switches on a punt. Both teams get possession of the ball and he was just obsessed with it. He was the first person ever. And I still use it to this day that told me the punt is the most

important play in football. And that was something I to this day that told me the punt is the most important play in football. And, uh, that was something I heard for years and years, the most important play, the most important play. And now as a head coach, I still use it just because it's the one play you can guarantee at least around 40 yards of field position. And, uh, there are some, obviously some really positive signs of, of having an elite punter and a really good punt unit, but there's a times on fourth down coach. I gotta go for it. Yeah. Speaking of coach Trestle, have you had a conversation

with him about today's college football and being like, man, this is different because this is, he's kind of the poster boy for like, can you believe this is what the NCAA did? And now we're at a point where players are getting paid, which we're all in support of. But have you had that conversation with them? Like, man, this is, it's nuts where we've ended up. Yeah, we we've had many conversations and uh, I think he's uh, obviously accepted what what's going on with the NCA and, and, and how the game has changed and players getting paid. Um, we don't really discuss, you know, obviously his situation and where we're at now But you know coach is such a an outside thinker right old school Where he I remember his advice to me was now with guys getting paid transfer portal

You have to double down on relationships and brotherhood because you know what you got guys from all over You know some are transfers for one year some some from for two years He's like you have to double down on your brotherhood and getting these guys commit to Notre Dame and each other. And so that's the most Jim Trestle response to NIL and transfer portal. But yeah, it's crazy how times have changed. It's wild to look back on that and, and think to yourself, like there was a six month news cycle where people were pretending to get upset because college players got tattoos. It led off every show and people had to pretend to be mad about it. And we're sitting at home like, what is the big deal about this? Why

are people so upset about it? Did you get any free tattoos? No, no, I didn't get any free tattoos. And I'll make sure I put that on the record right now. You kind of look to your left arm there. Yeah. I got long sleeves on right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You had a viral moment. It might have been last year the year before where you were able to flip it on a reporter who was your son's coach. Is that? Yeah. So how good did that feel? That must have been like it's, it's ain't no fun when the rabbit got the gun. You finally had your moment, but did he change any of his coaching after you,

you questioned him in the press conference? That might've been the only game I could've went to. It was a, during a bi-week and, um, I remember going out to see in one of my kids play and I look and I'm like, man, his coach is one of our reporters. And so I'm kind of just laughing and watching and he might've made some decisions that maybe I don't agree with. And the result wasn't what I'm sure he wanted. So I remember yelling to him on the field like, hey, Tim, I'm gonna ask you about these plays tomorrow.

And I think he thought I was joking, but I had it written down. I was ready to go after him a little bit, but it was all in good faith and good nature. Good dude. It just shows you a little bit of how small town You know South Bend is is that you know You got a guy that can ask you questions in a press conference and next thing you know

He's coaching one of your kids in a flag football league, but that's what makes it different around here. Yeah, it was a great moment It was I mean, I feel like every coach probably watched that was like man I wish I had that moment because you just get the worst thing about it is the worst thing about Is he did the ultimate no-no and he started blaming his other coach It happened. I'm like hold on now if I start blaming our coach you guys gonna write about me for days So it was great to turn the table on if that ever happens again I'll offer our publication partial sports if you'd like to write a blog about his coaching decision Yeah, you should start just your own newspaper. And then you start calling for his job.

That's what we'll do. I won't waste time in a press conference. I'm just going to write a blog about it for sure. A lot of people are calling for this guy's job, say he doesn't have what it takes, melting down in crucial moments. You go over every fourth down decision he makes. Yeah. It would be good for you because then you get to think about it from the standpoint of a reporter too and then you get to understand their point of view when they're questioning you later on. Absolutely. Absolutely. We work both ways. What's the key to recruiting? Because you are a great recruit. You've had great recruiting classes in your short time at

Notre Dame. Like I said, when I watch videos, I, I'm not a Notre Dame fan, but I'm a Marcus Freeman fan. So what, like, what is it that you think that you do better than, uh, other guys or you found has worked more? I think, you know, the, the thing I always believe in is you have to have something good to sell. Um, you have to believe in what you're selling, but at the end of the day, it's going to come down to relationships. And that is more important than anything. Can you get this young person and his family to trust you

in your football program, to lead their son for four years? And I'm actually going through it right now with my oldest son. And he's gone on a couple of official visits for wrestling. And I remember him coming home last night. He got home from a visit last night and he was like, man, I really liked it. This was a great school. And I'm like, what about the official visit you took two weeks ago?

He was like, yeah, that was good, too. But at the end of the day, I was like, young people can be persuaded in a moment. But who's going to continue to develop relationships and pour into you after the visit? And that's what I was like, you know what, it's still about relationships because you can try to sell as much as you want on a visit and say, let's get them to commit right now. But not many guys are just going to do it on that moment. And so can you continue to double down, continue to develop relationships with that kid? So at the end of the day, they're like, you know what?

This is where I want to be. And even after they commit, you have to keep doing it because everybody else is still recruiting. Everybody else is trying to get that kid to come visit their place. And so you have to continuously recruit and develop relationships with that person until he gets here on campus. Yeah. Has the D recruiting, has that, has that like been affected at all with the rule changes? We've always heard in the past that once you get a guy to come to school, then they show

up, they get in camp, and then all of a sudden you have to check his ego a little bit because in the past you've gassed them up, we need you here, you're going to start here, you're going to do great here. Then they get into practice and then now they have to be coached hard just like everybody else. Have you had to change that at all with the new rules about the transfer portal and all that? No, I haven't. Um, I don't, you listen, I don't intentionally try to de recruit you, but I am honest. And if there's times you need to be, uh, corrected or coached hard,

we're going to do that. Like that's a part of trying to get the best out of you. And what I'm hoping is that the relationships we build in recruiting the relationships will continuously build here helps you understand that. You know what coach cares about me. So he's getting on me. That's why we're doing it. When you just get on people and yell and scream and you don't have relationship with them and you don't tell them why, yeah, they're going to say, man, this dude is nuts. I don't want to play for him.

I'm ready to move on somewhere else. But if you can continue to tell them why have relationship with them, but be authentic and coach them hard and coach them and coach others around them hard I think they'll truly respect that and and that's the way this program does it. Yeah, that's fair So big cat as he said, he's not a Notre Dame fan. You could say he's a Notre Dame hater I go back and forth. I I like you. I don't really feel that strongly one way or the other about Notre Dame Let's just say that big cat and I are that strongly one way or the other about Notre Dame. Let's just say that Big Cat and I are,

we're brothers and we're in high school. We're 17 years old and we're five star recruits. How do you pitch us to come play football at Notre Dame? That's a great, great question. Great question. It's going to start with, with explaining to you that every goal you have as a football player, you can achieve a Notre Dame, right? You can achieve. I want to win my conference. Yeah. Well, then that's not a great, you want to rather win a national championship or a conference. Well, yeah, one at a time.

I don't want to go to class. Well, then you're not, you are definitely not coming to Notre Dame. Okay. That's a part of it, right? Is that we got to figure out what guys would fit here too, you know? And that's the one thing, like if you talk to a guy or you look at his Transcript and say, okay, he doesn't enjoy going to class He's not gonna go to class you have to move on like instead of trying to fight the the university to get this person in

The school you got to move on because they're not gonna succeed here anyway, you know And so that's probably the most important thing to say. Okay, everybody wants the great players Every school in the country wants this pool of players. Okay. And how do we figure out which one of these guys in this pool will fit at Notre Dame? And then you just go after them as hard as everybody else, but everybody wants that kid. Yeah. Right. And so we have to figure out which ones want that, um, and fit here and then just go after them. And, and one, like I said earlier,

like I don't want to teach in football. I want you to believe that you can achieve every goal you have in football here, but hold on. Let me also show you to what else this place provides you like, cause at some point it's going to be over as long as we all dream of playing like as long as Tom Brady, but there's one Tom Brady and you have to understand like a place like this can truly set you up for life after football. So, okay. So we got off on the wrong foot as recruits. Uh, let's say, uh, okay, Hey coach. Um, my goals in life are to, uh, play a little bit of college football, then be hired, uh, as like a financial analyst in Chicago by an alum from Notre Dame. Do you think this is a place I should go? There's a no brainer. I would list every single one that has done that, that we have in this network. I would get you on the phone with them. It would be nice.

Maybe try my hand at doing like some college football analysis on like NBC for a couple seasons and then switch over. You guys are giving me layups now. You're giving me layups. You guys will leave campus. I said, they're done. They're coming to Notre Dame. Let's get somebody. I just want to meet the Golic's. I want to pet the Golic's pugs and make that happen. Yeah.

That's done. They'll be here on your visit. That's what we'll take. On your visit, you get a chance to meet them. I got a dumb question, and it's something I just never thought about. You just named your captains. You got five captains this year. How is that process like work? And is it,

is it difficult for you to have to whittle it down to be like, Hey, here's our five captains or their guys that you feel. Can you name? Could you, if I were the coach, I'd be like, everyone's a captain. Why not? But can you name like as many captains as you want or is there a rule? You got to stick it to five? No, four can walk out for the coin toss, but I just believe that the number of captains will be based off the voting. And I'm not trying to give away one of the episodes of our Here Comes the Irish,

but that's gonna be on there how we did it. And basically to me, I describe what I believe a captain is, what I believe a leader is, and it's not always what you think it is. And I was saying, OK, if you want this responsibility, you really want to do this, stand up. And it was interesting seeing who really stood up and who wanted to be an opportunity to be named

a captain. Not many people did it as you would think. Not as many people as you would think did it. And then what I got to do after that is when you vote, I got to say, okay, right. What's the right number? Okay, you got a clump here, you got a clump here, you got a couple guys here, like what's the right number to truly lead this football team? And that's how I came up with five.

Last year was four. I think my first year was three. And so I also don't want to be a coach that has 10 captains. Like I want to say what's really a captain who fits this mode and we'll name him from there. This is why I'd be a bad coach because I would just take my best player who is eyeing the transfer portal and just slap that C on him.

I can't leave now, dude. You're the captain. Oh my gosh. You would lose all credit of what a captain is. Yeah, but I keep that player. I keep that player. He can't leave Every player would threaten to transfer Yeah

Coach I'm thinking about going to come in my office be like, yeah, I'm thinking about going to Alabama And I just pull out the C from underneath my desk like what about this? Here you go You can pay in a little NIL money or not Maybe maybe yeah Like a pinata. It's a giant C that you hit. Yeah Coach this is probably a dumb question for me hit. Yeah. Uh, coach, this is probably a dumb question for me too, because again, I don't know that much about Notre

Dame football. Um, but when people say wake up the echoes, are we wait, are they awake this year? Are we going to wake them up? What does wake up the echoes mean? Uh, they're up. They better be up. Uh, I think really it's just a credit to the past, right? Wake up the echoes. Those that, uh, been here, those that believe in this place. Let's not come up with the slogan. I've embraced it all in, you know, but I don't know where the slogan originally came from. You know, we got to, so the, so the echoes were asleep, but then you got to wake up the echoes. Is that, am I getting that right? Like they were asleep at some point and then it's your job to wake up the echoes on a weekly basis. Yeah, that that sounds good to me. Um, I really have never asked what the heck that slogan means. Um,

you might hear me say it every once in a while, but I'm listening. That description sounds really, really good. Okay. Yeah. You just gotta be loud. That's what I'm hearing. The echoes are loud. No, here, here, the part of it, it's a part of our fight song. You know, it's a part song. And so that's probably where they got it from. They took the slogan, but the part of it it's a part of our fight song you know it's a part song and so that's probably where they they got it from they took the slogan but the meaning behind it that sounds pretty good do you ever like catch you know like on a fall day like you catch the wind and you're like wait was that an echo or was that no that wasn't an echo no okay yeah because everyone notary is one of those two i, I don't like your aim,

but I've said it three times now. I do like when Notre Dame's in the mix. It's fun when Notre Dame is in the mix. It's good for college football. Something about the, you know, the gold helmets. It's just, it is college football and that, I guess that would be waking up the echoes. Yeah. We're, I guess we'll wake them up. Yeah. I wouldn't mind having them. I want to then put them back to sleep, but we'll wake them up. Yeah. They should be awake coach. Do you have special access to like old Notre Dame game film like how far back does that go? Yeah, you can black and white and I'm you could find any Notre Dame game film I don't sit here and watch a lot of no

I don't go way back that far, but you have access to anything you want around here Have you gone back to see if Rudy was offsides? No, I just listen whatever the movie shows is is what I believe. Okay. That's fair. No, not everybody's going to believe that. Right? I've heard some, some many people say he was off sides, but the movie doesn't say that. So I'm going to go with what the movie says. I think that's smart. Yeah. Um, so I, I, I went to, uh, Wisconsin. I'm a Badger. You obviously coached with Luke Fickkel at Cincinnati. He's a psycho. What would you say like his best attribute is and maybe the most psycho thing he does?

Because I obviously love him and I hope he has tremendous success, but what is it like being around him? He's demanding, but he does care about young people. He's tough, one of the toughest dudes I know, obviously a wrestler, played nose guard at Ohio State. Very demanding of those around him, but the same demands that he puts on those around him, he puts on himself, but he will continue to make sure that program is truly reaching its full potential. He's gonna get everything out of those guys and the coaching staff there.

So he actually coached me as a player at Ohio State when I was there. And so our relationship goes back many, many years and I wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for the things he taught me in our years together. So I have a lot of respect for him and look forward to see what he does in Wisconsin. Did he ever challenge you to a wrestling match? I'm not stupid now. Okay. There's a lot of stories I've heard about him as a wrestler and that's just one of those opportunities

that I'll pass up. Sure. Who do you think would win in a fight? Luke Fickle or Mike Vrabel? Ooh, I plead to fit. I really, but I would pay a lot of money to watch that. Yeah. Vrabel, we had him on a month ago. He said he could, he could whoop them. I don't think so. Very, yeah. Vrabes is very confident about his ability to pick his ass. Yeah. I don't think that you both, those two will both say they're going to whoop each other. Yeah. And that's only listen to you only the only way to figure out who wins that one is they got to go after it. Yeah. They're going to start fighting and then they'll be like like I really enjoy fighting you and then they'll just stop the fight and be best Friends again, I feel like that's how it's gonna work between the two of them as a defensive guy yourself

Like I feel like a lot of coaches go through this if they come up, you know on the defensive side of the ball Former player they get elevated to a head coaching position and they feel like okay I can't be like the full-blown defensive psycho that I used to be in the past because now I'm in charge of the entire team. At that point, do you hire somebody on your defense to fill that role of being just the crazy guy that's going to be able to, to dial up that intensity a little bit? Or, are you staying the same person going from defense to being the head coach? Yeah, I think the intensity you coach with doesn't change if you're the

coordinator head coach, right? You're going to, if you're an intense person, you're going to coach with intensity, you're going to have the energy and emotions. But at the end of the day, you're going to hire somebody as your defense coordinator that can get the job done. And we've done that here. We've got a great defensive coordinator and Al Golden. But, you know, I'm not looking for somebody to just be a raw, guy. I want somebody who's really good. And you know, we got one

here. Yeah. All right, coach. I know you got to run in a second. Last question for me, rollback question, rhobak.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rollback.com. Quick analytics question for you. You're down 14 and it's the fourth quarter and you score with three and a half minutes left. Are you going for two or are you kicking the extra point? No, I'm kicking the extra point. Oh no. That's wrong. Just so you know, it's a math thing. That's what your analytics so you know, it's a math thing. That's what your, that's, that's what

your analytics book would tell you. Oh yeah. It's a math thing. So what do you not? Well, I should have said, do you not trust your two point play? No, I just don't know if I, you know, if I want to use it at that moment. Yeah. You do want to use it at that moment to remember this conversation. This will happen. I know what the book would tell you. I know what the book would tell you. The book would tell you to go for two. So if you don't get it, you have more time to try to do it. No, no, no. It's not. It's like kick. It's a two point conversion. If you have a good two point conversion is probably over 50% success. You go for two. If you get it the first time, then you can win the game with an extra point. If you don't get it,

the analytics say you're going to get it the second time statistically. Yeah. Or you can say, Hey, listen, man, we make two extra points. We'll go to overtime. Oh no coach. I like this. You're at exact reason. I don't, that's why there's a lot of great things out of that book, but there's also some, some head coach decisions that I got to make that. Definitely. I can't always go by the book. All right. So promise me this. When, whenever this situation comes up and you kick the extra point and you lose it over time, you have to come back on, pardon my take just so we can be like, see, and then if we win, then what, then what do I get lucky? You got lucky. Yeah. Yeah. You got lucky. Yeah. That's how we do. We're not going to get the reset. You'll come to a game. You'll wear your note, a Notre

Dame Jersey and be on a side. I like, I like fine. If you win that way, you'll wear your Notre Dame jersey and be on a sideline. I like that. I like fine. If you win that way, I'll do that. I like your train of thought though, which is like, if we get to overtime, there's more football. We're a better football team. We'll probably win in overtime.

I love it. I hadn't thought of a better football team. You wouldn't have been down 14, but I would rather that's okay. That's a fair point too. Yeah. But I like the idea. I still like the idea that nerds aren't always right in football. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, listen, there are analytical studies and opinions out there and when you should go for it on fourth, when you should go for two point conversions. But there's also a human element to it, you know? And I have to, at the end of the day, use my best judgment, on what I believe is right for that right situation. And then again, their situation where I totally a hundred percent agree with the book, right? And I used the book, but there's also times where, you know what, I got to make sure that I can make a decision

that I believe is best for the team in that game. And that's actually on me coach, because like, obviously you're synonymous with Notre Dame. Now you're the head football coach. I forgot you didn't go to Notre Dame you have an Ohio State education so those type of numbers you'd have to take off your shoes and your socks to count to 14. I hear you man I know that West Cosmos degree did you really well brother. Oh look at me now. I got one last last question for you it's another analytics question okay So you're in the fourth quarter in this scenario and you're losing 31 to 23. You have the ball. There's two minutes, nine seconds left to play. It's fourth down and goal and you're on what the eight yard line you're on the

eight yard line fourth and goal. Again, you're already long. Okay. Say this one more time. Down eight and it's fourth. It's fourth and eight on the eight yard, fourth and goal on the eight yard line. And there's two minutes, nine seconds left in the game. Fourth down. Do you kick a field goal to bring the margin from eight to five? One score game to a one score game. With two minutes, nine seconds left. Or do you go for a touchdown and then you could maybe get a two-point conversion tie the game I'm going for it and okay the reason is the reason is is even if you kick the field

with some point you got to stop them yeah right if we don't get the the first down well guess what we got to stop them I forgot to mention too in this scenario Tom Brady is the quarterback of the team yeah he's the best quarterback to ever play hypothetically hypothetically. Hypothetically. So it would probably be tough to stop him. You're right. So I think you made the right call.

Yeah, you made the right call. You could be an NFL head coach. Yeah, you got it. What does the book say? Go for it. Yeah, yeah, go for it. The book says go for it. Yeah, do the opposite of what Matt LaFleur did.

Okay, so coach, thank you so much. Everyone tune in. It's going to be great. Uh, they basically have their own hard knocks. It's going to be awesome on peacock August 29th. Uh, really appreciate you coming on and I will stand to it. If you win a game in the scenario that I laid out, I will go to a Notre Dame game with a Notre Dame hat on and everything and cheer and wake up the echoes. But if you lose in that situation, you got to come back on and answer to us. No doubt about it, man. At least we might be in your head now. If that situation comes up, that's all we care about. Man, I might have to go for two now. All right. Thanks

so much, coach. Appreciate your time. Awesome, man. Thank you. It's been fun, man. Good to see you guys. All right. Take care, man. Good luck. Marcus Freeman is brought to you by our great friends at Game Time. I have huge news about the Game Time app. They've got something brand new. It's called Game Time Picks. Football season's here. We can't wait to get out to some games this fall with the help of Game Time, the official ticketing partner of Barstool Sports. We can't make it to many Sunday games. I'm actually looking at going to that Monday night game Bengals and the Commanders, get a chance to go out and see some football live in person,

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Get them with Game Time Picks. That's how you find the best seats on the Game Time app. Download the Game Time app today. Use promo code PMT to easily score great deals with the new Game Time Picks. What time is it? It's game time. Marcus Freeman was also brought to you by the Farmer's Dog. I love the Farmer's Dog.

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slash PMT. Plus you get free shipping. Go to thefarmersdog.com slash PMT and you get 50% off. That's half off at thefarmersdog.com slash PMT. And now here% off that's half off at the farmers dog dot com slash PMT and now here's a good friend Andy Staples. Okay we now welcome on our good friend Andy Staples for a little college football preview. Andy Staples from the On 3 Network you can listen to his podcast. It is college football season, Andy. We're very excited. Let's start big picture. This is our first year with the 12 team playoff. Um, so how do you think that's going to affect, uh, the regular season? I've heard it, you know, there's, there's two camps, regular season doesn't matter as much. I'm in the

camp of we're now going to get games that are elimination games in November that never would have had a shot to be that. A two-loss team versus two-loss team. Maybe even a three-loss team versus two-loss team kind of things where we get more games that mean more towards the end of the season. Yeah both camps are correct. Big cat, but it's not. It's not going to be the regular season. Doesn't matter anymore. Like that camp is wrong ultimately, but they're right. And the fact that you don't have the nuclear impact of say the kick six or Michigan, Ohio state last year would be a good example of that, where they're just like, okay, you're out. That's it.

Right. But what you're going to have is a lot more elimination type games. Like the big 12, any game that affects who gets into the big 12 championship game is a playoff elimination game. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that could be, you know, four games a week in November. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm excited for the big 12. The big 12 is, is, uh, it feels like it's with all the alignment, realignment, which is a bummer and losing the pack 12, which is a bummer. I'm happy that the big 12, at least on paper feels like it's still going to be the chaotic, uh, conference. That's just going to be week to week. You have no idea some high scoring games. I need the big 12 to keep that M. O. For college football. Yeah. Yeah. And guys like you guys are going to love that

because you just love watching good games. Like it doesn't have to be big name brands. And that's why I keep trying to tell people about the big 12. Everybody's so even. Like I can make a case for 10 of the 16 big 12 teams to win the championship this year and go to the college football playoff. And like I can argue it pretty convincingly for all 10. And that's going to be great once we get down into October, November. And then you know, I think people will fall in love with that as we go on. So the new Big 12 is fun. I think the new SEC is just out of its mind, like insane

what these games are going to be. I mean, you think about Georgia, Texas, and you got Georgia going to Alabama. You've got Texas and Texas A&M playing again. You've got Oklahoma playing LSU. Like these, these matchups that are going to become standard regular season matchups, just are mind blowing me right now. Yeah. It's going to become standard regular season matchups just are mind-blowing me right now. Yeah it's gonna be great once we get into it. I mean conference realignment it's bad for a whole lot of reasons it's confusing I think it loses some of the stuff that makes college football great that we love about college football but when it comes down to it on Saturdays when we

sit down on our couches we're gonna see these two teams like Georgia and Texas playing each other in conference in Austin and we're going to be like, okay, this is fun. I can at least acknowledge that. So I guess we can start with the SEC. Let's talk SEC. There's a lot of good teams. I think that the Longhorns have a chance. Their hardest game is Georgia at home. They do have to travel to Michigan. Obviously they lost their big boys up front on defense. But who do you like in the SEC right now? Who's your top team? So I still like Georgia in the SEC.

And I'm much higher on Alabama than I think most people are. I don't think they drop off that much. I remember going up there in the spring and just looking at the amount of aliens walking around on the field. It hasn't changed. Yes, they did lose Caleb Downs to Ohio State, and that's a big loss. Caleb Downs was the best player who entered the transfer portal this off season. But they're still top three in talent in the whole country. I think it's them, Ohio State and Georgia in some order.

And so I think they could be very good. And their schedule is not like Georgia's schedule where they have to go to Tuscaloosa, to Ole Miss, to Texas. I think they got a worse draw than Alabama did. So I think Alabama could be very good, could be an SEC Championship game type team. Texas can definitely make the SEC Championship game, which remember, no more East and West. This is like top two. They just came out with the tiebreakers last week. And yeah, there's a random draw at the end, which I just, I want them to do a coin flip at a truck stop

if they get to that, but it will be pretty crazy at the top of the SEC because you have all those teams. And then like in the SEC and the big 10, schedules matter so much more. Yeah. What did you draw like Texas of the ones that were like Texas Georgia Alabama Ole Miss Texas and Ole Miss probably got the best draws of those two Missouri and Tennessee got pretty good draws Oklahoma got screwed LSU got screwed and Florida they just basically backed over with a bulldozer. Yeah. Well Florida and Florida's probably not going to be very good. They're not going

to be as good as I mentioned but it doesn't matter with that. I like the Alabama tape because I was thinking about it. You know obviously it's gonna be very bizarre not seeing Nick Saban on the sideline. But is there a chance that with Kailin DeBoer taking the job who's had success everywhere he's gone, uh, the jail and Milro is actually going to be a lot better. Uh, cause you know, he struggled last year at times. I was at that Texas game when he couldn't complete a pass, but Kailin DeBoer is he's going to throw it deep. That's what his offenses do.

Jalen Milro is probably the best deep passer in college football. His problem is throwing it 10 yards over the middle. Uh, like I think Alabama's offense is going to be like insanely explosive and something like you saw maybe five years ago when they had that wide receiver room that was probably the best wide receiver room in the history of college football. Now they don't have the wide receiver room right now, though they, they like some of their young guys. There's a freshman named Caleb Odom that they love, but I think they could have a very good offense.

I think Jalen Milrow is going to be better this year, no matter what happened because think about what happened last year, guys, like Tommy Reese is the new offensive coordinator. He comes in. They're not really sure who their guy is. They're like, okay, we guess it's Jalen Milrow and they go with him for the first couple of games. They lose the Texas game

and I'm still not convinced they didn't go, you know what? We're tired of hearing you guys yell at us about the quarterback. We're going to start these. We're going to start one of the other guys and see what, and you'll see what we've been seeing. Yeah. And so they start Tyler Buckner against USF. They play him and tie Simpson and it's like, see, he's still, what's the best option? Yes. Yes. And I just yeah I think Alabama people because of the saving part maybe they're a little underrated for the first time in a long time where I still think they're going to be a really really tough team and that offense is going to be explosive. What about Tennessee because Tennessee's got they've got some some

big boys. It feels like they're finally kind of putting it all, you know, they got the quarterback they want Do you think this is you know, the Tennessee fans being like hey feels like 98 Can we actually have it feel like 98? I think they're feeling pretty good right now in Tennessee This is you know, James Pierce juniors their best player He's an edge rusher probably a top ten draft pick next year deepest defensive line They've had since I was a baby beat writer covering Tennessee and they had John Henderson and Albert Haynesworth and Will Overstreet. Like it's been a long time since Tennessee's been that stack on the D line. And then offensively Nico Iamaleava takes over a quarterback. And this is like a great test case because Nico's

like the first big NIL deal. The first guy who went to a place or maybe you didn't expect him to go because he got a big NIL deal, the first guy who went to a place where maybe you didn't expect him to go because he got a big NIL deal. And I actually think their offense is gonna be quite a bit better than it was last year because basically they had to give up the middle of the field because Joe Milton couldn't do a lot of the things

that they needed him to do to run the full offense. Joe Milton didn't have real good instincts on the read option mesh. You couldn't do a lot of RPO stuff. Nico can do that. Nico also has much better improvisational skills, which that was what made Hendon Hooker so good in this offense is if some stuff broke down, he could find you five or six yards instead of it being an incomplete pass, an interception or a five yard loss. Like he could just find a little bit of a positive gain.

Nico's gonna be able to do that too. And I think that helps Tennessee. I also think Tennessee's schedule helps. Like I didn't see state week two, that's pretty tough. But if they can go two and one, and this is not an easy stretch by any occasion, but if they go two and one against Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma, they're going to the playoff.

Like they're gonna be 11 and one or 10 and two and they're going to the playoff. Yeah. Like they're going to be 11 and one or 10 and two and they're going to the playoff. But I think they're talented enough to do that. George is the kind of bugaboo for them. It just, they've never really matched up well against them. So what's going on at Georgia? They're obviously, their quarterback's coming back again, right? So he's got some experience there. And then there's been, how do we say, like off the field, on the road issues for the Georgia Bulldogs recently. Is that any different than what happens all across college football? Or is this a problem that is, and maybe they turn a blind eye to it in a lot of places, or is this just been a Georgia problem? It's worse because Georgia had a traffic

incident where two people died a couple of years ago. And that magnifies it quite a bit. But I remember when I was a Florida beat rider covering the Urban Meyer teams, I just skipped past all the traffic stuff because there were so many more serious arrests to deal with. But yeah, every team deals with this traffic stuff. With Georgia, you'd think though,

you've had this, you lost one of your teammates, he lost his life, and you still have guys that are driving very, very fast in the hundreds, which I get it. College students do that, especially when you have NIL money or you have a deal with a dealership that gets you a Hemi that can go 150 miles an hour. I get it.

But at a certain point. When the coach is like, just knock it off, like maybe you do. And I I'm actually questioning Kirby smarts. Pull in the city of Athens and Clark County in the state of Georgia, because I would assume that Kirby smart having won two of the last three national titles could have probably gotten a mass transit system built in Athens by now. Yeah, or a little I'm a a little worried about his his level of juice. Yeah, or just build a road that go that only only Georgia football players use. It's like the autobahn, but

just yeah just for Georgia football players. You can get on it. It's a straight line go as fast as you want. They actually have a bypass in Athens and if you ever driven around Athens, there's not really a lot of traffic or people like they could just repurpose that circular bypass for that purpose. Yeah yeah. I want to talk real quick about the ACC. I love this conference this year just because it feels like every quarterback has transferred into this conference like to the point where Kyle McCord who is Ohio State starting quarterback last year is now Syracuse. Uh, but cam ward,

uh, is electric from Washington state is at Miami. Grayson McCall, who we all know, uh, is now at NC state. Who, who, who like, what's the team that you look at here and, and is ACC a multi multi-team, uh, in the playoff type of league this year? That's a good question. That's really up to the likes of Miami and Florida State and NC State and Louisville. Can there be a second team that is really good? Like to make that happen, you need a championship game that's essentially like an 11 and one team

against a 10 and two team and the 10 and two team wins. Right, yeah. Like you gotta have that. Miami has the roster and the schedule for that. Cam Ward, everybody's excited about, I know everybody's excited about him. I realized he was the top ranked quarterback in the portal. I will tell you from watching Cam Ward through the years,

it's a little feast or famine there. Yeah. So we're gonna find out, like Cam Ward's first game is at Florida. It's gonna be very loud. They probably have the better roster, but we're going to see how he deals with that. And if he can, then I'm very confident about them against this schedule. I mean, you look at it, they should not go worse than 10 and two against this schedule.

And then if let's say they lose to Florida State, Florida State is again, the best team in the ACC, which is possible, then you could have them rematch in the ACC championship game, both with really good records and maybe both get in. But NC State's in there. We'll see what happens with Clemson because Clemson is going to have a really good defense, but they're going to need, you know, one of those freshmen receivers to be really good. Cade Klubnick at quarterback's going to have to get better. They're playing Georgia right out of the chute. I I'm wondering what the takes are going to be after that Georgia game, because Clemson is one of four teams in the FBS that did not take a single transfer out of the

transfer portal. The other three are all service academy. So Clemson is the only one that doesn't require a congressperson to help you get in that didn't take anybody. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited for that Florida state Clemson game, the DJ Laley revenge game. That will be fun because it does like you look up and down the entire ACC and it's just guys, you know, who are somewhere else. Obviously, Kate club, Nick is still a Clemson, but it's going to be a fun league because on paper it looks like they have some good quarterbacks who played big time football who kind of like it was kind of like the pack 12 last year

where it was just like you look up and down the pack 12 and everyone's got a quarterback. They feel good about who's been in these big spots and watch Virginia Tech. Yeah. Their quarterback is Kyron drones who transferred from Baylor before last season. And it sort of took them about half a year to get it kind of figured out how it worked with him. But they've got him and then they brought in Colin Schlee, who was Sean Lewis's quarterback at Kent State a couple of years ago. He was at UCLA last year. But if you look at the 2022 season, what quarterback played the best at Georgia? That was Colin Schlee. So he's their backup.

So they should be a little bit confident to be able to run drones, which he's a very good athlete. And I just remember I was at the ACC spring meetings this past May. And whether it was coaches or ADs or people who just really cover the league thoroughly, every one of them was like, watch out for Virginia Tech this year. Yeah. He's got a big arm too, right? Drones?

Kyron Drones absolutely has a big arm. And we'll just say that Brent Pry sort of has gotten his legs as a head coach. It was a little shaky at first. Like you weren't sure this was gonna work out. And then kind of halfway through last season, it seemed like he figured some stuff out. Tyler Bowen, their offensive coordinator who had not been an offensive coordinator before this job, he kind of figured some stuff out.

So I think they could be considerably better. Yeah. What about Duke? Duke seems like they might be, I don't want to say good, but I'm interested by Duke because- Yeah, I don't think- Manny Diaz, right? I don't think Mike Elko left the cupboard there. And then you look at when Manny Diaz took over, they had several guys enter the transfer portal and then say, you know what, I think I'm going to stay here. And they bring in Malik Murphy, the transfer from Texas, who started two games for Texas when Quinn yours was hurt last year and won them both.

They're going to be tricky. They're going to be tricky because I don't think Mike Elko leaves and they just fall off. And I also think Manny Diaz, I'm glad he's gotten another shot at the head coach because I think Mike Elko leaves and they just fall off. And I also think Manny Diaz, I'm glad he's gotten another shot at the head coach because I think Mario Cristobal's first two years at Miami show you Manny was doing a pretty good job at Miami and then he goes and does a great job

as the Penn State defensive coordinator. So this is a good chance for him to show, hey look, I can do this head coaching thing. Yeah, you were talking about the spring meetings that got me thinking about just media days in general for coaches and amongst the different leagues. I personally love SEC media day.

I think that's one of my favorite days of the year. You always get some coach that goes out there that has like a point to prove and they've got like a quote that they're ready to unleash. And sometimes the quote doesn't even match up with the question that they're asked. They're just like, I know I got to get this out. Can you describe to us the different vibes of the different conference media days? Yes. Yeah. So I have been to all of them at this point. Some of them I haven't been to as recently as the others, but I was at SEC in Big 10 this year. Big 12 is the most chill.

Big 12 is the one where you might just run into a coach in a back hallway and he's like, hey, what's up? What'd you eat last night? Where do you know? Where'd you go? And you're going to get that at the big 12. The sec is very stage managed. Like we've got to get this guy here. We've got to get this guy here. This guy has three minutes and 32 seconds with you. And then he's got to go over here for four minutes and 34 seconds. And basically they're just running them around and then running them through these various ESPN rooms. Big Ten is in Lucas Oil Stadium and it's fairly stage managed but like Brett Bielma is just going to be hanging at some point. Maybe just sit down next to Brett Bielma. What's up? How's it going?

Man of the people. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Or PFT, your guy Kurt Signetti, former JMU coach, current Indiana coach, he hypnotized me at Big Ten Media Days this year. Hypnotized me. I'm talking to him and I'm like, oh crap, Indiana's gonna be good, aren't they? They're basically, they took half of JMU's team from last year and I'm looking at their schedule,

I'm like, so these lower tier Big Ten teams, could they have beaten JMU last year? I don't know if they could have no so I Want to say their totals five and a half like I think I'm all in on Indiana making a bowl game and cashing that over Ticket I like that I'm gonna count every single Indiana win this year as a jmu win in the big time you should for sure and and signetti He's I think he's as close to like a Nick Saban clone and his mannerisms And how he manages a football team as you can possibly get.

I'm not saying he is Nick Saban or that more public bravado than Nick Saban though. Like when, when someone says, you know, asked about him, he's like, I just win everywhere. Google it. Like Nick Saban would never say that, but Kirk Signetti will say that also he's 62. Yeah. It looks like he's like 47. Yeah. I don't know. There's maybe a Dorian Gray thing going on here. I'm not sure. But when you're in his presence, you're like, oh man,

this guy is going to win more than he's supposed to. He did poke the bear, though. And he was like, yeah, we're going to beat Ohio State. We're going to beat Michigan. That was a tough entrance that he made at Indiana. But we'll see. We'll see what happens. I believe they play them back to back.

Yeah. They're not going to beat Ohio State. They're going to lose by 40. I got a question about Ohio State, though. Ohio State's the best team in the Big Ten on paper. Oregon would have an argument. It does feel like it's Ohio State and Oregon, and then Penn State and Michigan should both have a chance,

maybe even USC. But are we sure Will Howard is good enough to win a national title at Ohio State? Because that's, I mean, Ryan Day this year, he has to beat Michigan. We know he has to beat Michigan. If he doesn't beat Michigan, they're going to be like, who knows how the season goes.

Let me push back on that big catch. Does he have to beat Michigan the first time? Yeah, true. Well, it might not be Michigan the second time, though, because it might be Oregon, right? But if you win the national title, do we care? No, that's true. Let me ask you this, guys.

If that kick that rung in the new year in 2023 in the Peach Bowl, if that kick goes in, and obviously Ohio State would have crushed TCU in the championship game, do we feel differently about Ryan Day even if last year's Michigan game is the same thing? Yes. Yeah, you definitely would feel differently. I think Ryan Day is a good coach, but I think the pressure for them this year with Michigan is that Michigan is no longer like they have definitely taken a step back and that's not, yeah, there's no excuse if you lose this Michigan, they should be at Ohio state team. Yeah. There should be a 10 point favorite, maybe even

more depending on how the season goes. Uh, and like if you can't beat this Michigan, now it's like, what's going on here? Harbaugh's gone. They're in a little bit of transition again. Michigan's still going to be very good. It's more that they were last year. They were one of the best teams ever. You know, the way they went through everyone. So do you feel like Will Howard though is that guy? Because I've, Will Howard's fun to watch. Will Howard's a gamer. He's tough as nails. I just don't know if he's the passer that you need when you get to that final four level

and you're playing a Georgia or you're playing a Texas or you're playing an Alabama. Like you need a guy who can, who can hit those deep shots consistently. And he, he's not really that guy as of yet. But who did he have at Kansas State? True, true. Other than Deuce Vaughn two years ago, who was helping him with that? Now, I'm back into this question. I'm going to turn it into a Kansas State question just because I want to talk about Avery Johnson.

But we'll stick with Will Howard in Ohio State right now. Will Howard's never been surrounded by this kind of talent. True. You got Emeka Buka, you got Colonel Tate. The recruitnics know who JJ Smith is. Everybody else is going to know who JJ Smith is once the season starts. Jeremiah Smith, number one recruit in the nation

for the class of 2024. You're not really going to miss Marv. Like I know, I realize that sounds hyperbolic, but this is one of the best, most ready made receivers that has come into college football in a long, long, long time. He is unbelievable. Like the best DBs at Ohio State are saying, I got to go against him at practice because he's the best receiver they have already.

So be ready for that. Plus they have Trevion Henderson and Quinshaw Judges. Yeah, their run game should be awesome. Quinshaw they got from Ole Miss. Yeah. Yeah. So like all of that is going to make Will Howard better. So Will Howard is not going gonna have to be Superman. Now, the thing Will Howard does give you is a six foot four, 235 pound guy who when you need him to get some yards, he's gonna get you some yards. The question for him is, is he gonna be able to take care of the ball enough

so that they're scoring and then they let that defense do its thing? Because the defense is the other thing for Ohio State. Where Ohio State looks a lot like Michigan last year is on defense, where you have all these guys who could have gone to the NFL and not as like free agent guys. These would have been third, fourth round draft picks.

And they decided to stay for one more year. Right. They then add Caleb Downs, who was, like I said, was the best player in the transfer portal. He was, he's a safety who the best player in the transfer portal. He's a safety who allows you to change everything about your defense. He allows you to move Sonny Stiles to linebacker, which is where he should have been playing all along.

They have a very deep defensive line. JT Tua-Malau coming off the edge. Ty Lake Williams inside. They have everything, which again goes back to your original point, the there's no excuse. And there really is no excuse. No, not only should they win the big 10, they should win the national title. There's no excuse. Right. It is national title or bus. Right. I think they're, I mean, they're going to be, I'm nitpicking here because that's what you have to do before the season starts. They're going to be a dominant dominant team. And that expectation is there now that

this is the team that, that should take them over the hump. Um, I'm excited for the big 10. I think it's going to be kind of crazy. Oh, I gotta tell, I gotta tell everybody about Avery Johnson first. Yes. Yes. You already know about Avery Johnson. Yes. But Avery Johnson is the reason Will Howard is Ohio state's quarterback. Yeah. This, there's this weird thing that has happened with the transfer portal and with NIL where basically if you pay up in NIL for a big time, highly ranked quarterback recruit, by year two you better be starting him. So Avery Johnson is a sophomore at Kansas State this year.

He's the reason they let Will Howard go. Jackson Arnold, five star guy at Oklahoma. He's the reason that Oklahoma let Dylan Gabriel go to Oregon. But Avery Johnson, I'm telling you right now, we've not seen a quarterback this fast, probably since Kyler Murray. Yeah. I don't know how good of a thrower he is yet. We saw a little bit last year where maybe you could see, Oh, the arm's pretty good. If the arms good, they're going to be so much fun to watch. And he's, he's a Wichita kid. He's from Kansas, which like a talent like that in Kansas doesn't happen very often. It's, it is going to be fun. And I, Kansas state's one of those programs

that they, they somehow got the guy behind, uh, you know, when, uh, what's his name left? Bill Snyder left. They finally, they got someone basically the same. Like they just keep running. Yeah. Just winning every, every FCS national title. It's great though. Cause they just, they're consistently like, Oh yeah. Kansas state. Yeah. Okay. They might not win 10 games. They're going to be tough no matter who, what, what week they play, who they play. That team is just going to be good and sound at football. Yeah. It's, it's going to be fun to watch. Now I don't know if he's got the skill talent around him to be like a Heisman trophy guy, but I am so excited to see what he can do because again,

we, we just haven't seen a QB that fast in a while. And that it adds another, another layer to it. I got a take for you, Andy. I want you to judge it. Somehow, someway, and I've always wanted Notre Dame to just join the Big 10 and just stop this shit and just join the Big 10. You're a Big 10 school. It would be awesome if you were playing Michigan every year. But somehow, someway, Notre Dame,

with the way the college football playoff is set up, and it's the top four highest ranked conference champions so they can never get a top four by right. But somehow some way Notre Dame we should explain the rules later. Yeah. Well we can do it right now. So it's the top four teams the top four conference champions get a bye and then it's five through twelve the first round is going to be home games for the higher seed and then they go and then they play, uh, where they play neutral and then they play in the bowl games.

So the top five conference champions get into the playoff automatically, but the top four get the buy and get the top four seeds. And so we've been doing all this on three where we're trying to help retrain everybody's brain. So we've been doing all these projected playoff things. And invariably, we'll put out the graphic on social media, and I'll have like Utah or Kansas State at the four seed as the big 12 champion, right? And people just lose their shit. They're like, how can they be the four seed?

Like, that's the rule. Yeah, like the ACC champ or the big 12 champ, they will probably be the three and four seeds. Right. Most likely. So, so that leads to me to my point that I want you to grade somehow some way. Notre Dame has actually ended up in the best position in all of this because if they are good, they are going to get the five seed. And what that means at the five seed is they get a home game against probably a group of five team at the 12 Yeah, and then their next game will be against the four seed who which might be the number 13 team in the yeah Yeah, we'll always almost always assuredly be an ACC or a big 12 team So they will essentially always avoid the big 10 and 8 in sec until the final four. And so somehow

Notre Dame has worked out the best possible way. Well, there were four people who designed this system, Greg Sankey, the sec commissioner, Craig Thompson, the mountain west commissioner, Bob Bulls B who was the, the big 12 commissioner at the time and Jack's war brick, the Notre Dame athletic director, this system and, and Jack's a smart guy. So he's retired now, but this was the gift he left Notre Dame with, because not only does it make it where they never have to join a conference, because if they're 10 and two, or well,

with this schedule, maybe they have to be 11 and one to get in, but usually most years with their schedule, if they're 10 and two, they're gonna get in. And yeah, they never have to play in a conference championship game. So they're not playing that extra game. So it's kind of only fair that they would have to play the first round, but you'd probably get

the first round at home if you're that good. So yeah, you get the number 12 seed, which is like gonna be the Mountain West champ or the American athletic conference champ that might be ranked 23rd in the actual poll. And then if you win that you get the four seed, which is potentially like the number 15 team who knows it'll be the, the, the fourth lowest ranked conference champ.

So yeah, the number five seed is the best one. If you don't have to play in a conference championship game. Right. If you do, it's a little bit different. Like if you're, let's say you're Alabama and you lost to Georgia in the SEC championship game, you're not really getting that big of an advantage because you had to play against Georgia and get beat up for, for an hour. Right. But if you're Notre Dame and you didn't, or let's say you're Ole Miss and you just missed the SEC Championship game and For whatever reason the committee decides the team that lost the SEC Championship game is gonna be ranked below you Like you're in you're in a catbird seat. Yeah, I got five spot is nice. Yeah, that's true

So that's the one way that that Notre Dame's whole plan could be foiled. It's just have a really good team Intentionally lose in their conference championship game. But if Notre Dame loses one game, they will almost always be the five seed. I don't know about this year, but yeah, a lot of years, a lot of years they will. Yeah, they'll, they'll, they'll end up cause they'll just be like, okay, Notre Dame, like they're the, they're the fifth best team there. We'll put them right there. I just, it's, it's crazy to me when I was looking at it, I was like, God damn it. They did it again. We've won them to get into a conference and they figured it out. They have outsmarted the sport for about a hundred years. And I mean, really it's, it

blamed the Michigan people. It's fielding Yost's fault. He blackballed them from the big 10. He got mad at Notre Dame. Notre Dame is like, okay, fine. We'll just go on the road. We'll go play army. We'll go play USC. And then they become this big national brand. Yeah. Yeah. Disgusting. Back to the big 10 real quick. Uh, when talking about Iowa and Nebraska. So Iowa lost like their entire offense with their punter and uh, he's, he's Bobby Taylor. He's hitting bombs in a, in training camp right now. And then their coach was suspended for maybe the funniest recruiting violation, I guess, trying to recruit a quarterback that

really worked out for him. It's so hard to get caught tampering. You have to be really bad at this to get caught tampering. And they got caught tampering. And of course, the receivers coach also gets suspended. John Budmair, former Badger quarterback, big cat, he got suspended too, which led to a bunch of people asking me on my show, Iowa has a receivers coach? What does he do all day? Yeah. And so, but this is such an interesting one because Iowa, like look at Iowa's

schedule and think about if their offense is slightly better, if it's slightly better. We've had the same conversation for like the last 10 years, like if they're just competent on offense, but they did, but they fired Brian Ferrence and they brought in Tim Lester. So they do have a new offensive coordinator. So let's imagine Cade McNamara is good or he doesn't get hurt or, or maybe it's Brendan Sullivan.

The Northwestern transfer comes in, but But K McNamara is a starter. And they are semi functional as an offense, they're still gonna be great on defense. You could have a Nebraska Iowa game on Black Friday, that could potentially affect the college football playoff. Yeah, yeah, do that high in Nebraska, because we just had Will Compton on and he Oh, I heard what he say,'re going to start seven and oh, and then we'll see what happens.

They got to beat Colorado and they got to get past your guy, Kurt Cignetti, but six and one or seven and oh, going to the Ohio state game is not out of the realm of possibility. I wanted so bad cause they'll have that little number next to their name and it will just be, and I think it might be a rude awakening when they go to Columbus. So Nebraska's quarterback is like what they, I mean, they just gotta, like I haven't been to a bowl game since 2016. Like if they just make a bowl game that that's enough, but if they can be better than that. And by the way, like if Dylan Ryle is the guy has a true freshman quarterback,

he's going to get so many tractor NIL deals. Like he's going to be the tractor magnate of Nebraska and he's going to get so many tractor NIL deals. Like he's going to be the tractor magnate of Nebraska. And he's not going to really have to go to the NFL. He's just going to be taken care of for the rest of his life. Yeah. So how good is he? That's a great question. We don't know.

We don't know. You watch him play in the spring game, you're like, ooh, look at all his arm slots, very Mahomes-esque. But you also go four high schools in four years. Flip from Ohio State, flip from Georgia. Like, so there's all that too. I need to see it. I need to see it. And we're going to get a good chance to see it because like they play Colorado in week two. And for all of the talk about Colorado, whether it's, you know, Dion saying this or that, or the now resigned assistant who is trying to get the sweet, sweet Saudi money for the

NIL. That's a wild story. I know it's incredible, but they have a pretty good D line that they have imported through the portal. If Dylan Riola can handle that, he can handle most of what's on the schedule. Yeah. So with Colorado, I feel like Deon's been especially spicy this year. What are his latest things that he said?

Like, I know he wouldn't take a question from a CBS guy because he doesn't like the CBS national brand or whatever. And this guy's like CBS Colorado. I think they ranked him, didn't they rank him 15th out of 16 big 12 coaches? That's probably Frinelli. We can blame, Tom Frinelli is now getting the media. Well he voted on him. Frinelli definitely voted in that one, yes. Yeah, so he's mad at that reporter, he's mad at another local reporter that's written some bad things about him, and then he's just like, the way he's been talking to the media has not given me confidence in Dion's team this year. Like when he...

Well, that press conference, I did a lot of reading between the lines on that press conference because I thought it was... He was telegraphing some stuff there. So, the one where he's sparring back and forth with the columnist who clearly doesn't like him, I'm fine with that. In fact, just have that discussion out in the open and I'll watch it. It'll be very entertaining for me. But that press conference, every time,

like he got asked about his D-line, he talked about how much he loved his D-line. He had asked about his secondary, he talked about how much he loved his D-line. He got asked about his offensive line, he would not talk about anything relating to his offensive line. That's a giant red flag.

Yeah. Giant red, like this is a team that gave up 56 sacks last year. They have to be better than that. And if they're not going to be better than that, then it, it might be the same season. I think they're going to be a little bit better. I think they'll improve enough to make a bowl game, but I don't know that they're going to be good enough to compete in the big 12. Yeah. Yeah. Um, all right, Andy, I got one last question for you. You're, you'll obviously be on again this you. You're obviously be on again this fall. We're so excited for college football to be back. Row back question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com.

Andy's wearing it right now. He's looking thin and in shape and looking great, partially because Row Back is great fitting shirts. Rowback.com promo code, take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com. All right, so last question. Give us the four buys. Give us the right now who is going to be the highest ranked conference champions. I feel like Ohio State and Georgia you can kind of pencil in, but the other two are tough. I do have Ohio State and Georgia. I am very basic when it comes to that. I think both of those are the best teams in their leagues. I have Alabama, sorry, I'm Alabama

number five because I have there my number three in my poll that, but I have Florida state winning the ACC. We're recording this after the Dublin game. So I may look incredibly stupid. Georgia techs won that game. That'd be brutal. Well, I bet on Florida States. So it'd be brutal for me too. We're about to Thursday night games with Utah and all those guys. But I, yeah, well, you know, I, I thought they were playing last Thursday, PFT. I was just as disappointed. I just can't wait. I can't wait for football. I didn't realize till after when, when we started the show and PFD said football is back. That's what he was referring to. Well, no, cause I heard him say Lindenwood and I'm like,

wait a second, was it, was there like a, Yeah, me too. a game starting a week earlier that I didn't know about? Yeah. I should be fired. So, so what happened was I pulled out my phone cause I knew the week zero schedule. I know what's happening this Saturday.

And then for whatever reason, I scrolled down on the app and it, the first games that it showed me were I thought week zero and I saw Lindenwood. I was like that it showed me were, I thought, week zero. And I saw Lyndon Wood. I was like, yeah, Lyndon Wood's probably playing week zero. That wouldn't shock me if Lyndon Wood had a third in the game. That would track. Absolutely.

But yeah, that was a mistake. Hand up. Misread the schedule. I just want college football to be back. So my number four seed is my big 12 champ. I am going with Kansas State, though I will say, because I've been driving the Avery Johnson bandwagon, I'm gonna keep driving it, I might drive it off a cliff though.

I got some information last week, and I'm a little worried, because my friend Jim Nagy, who runs the Senior Bowl, they put out a watch list of all the guys they think might have a chance to make the senior bowl. But it's also basically draft eligible guys they think will be in a camp. They'll either get drafted, they'll make a team, they'll be in a camp. And so I just compiled who has the most of all these. And then naturally it's a bunch of SEC teams that have the most like Ole Miss has 21,

Georgia Tech's saying them have 20. But so I was looking for the big 12, like who has the most? Utah has 13. They're always like that, yeah. I may have made a mistake here. And I'm just saying it now. In terms of coaches, in terms of coaches, you know, he's probably one of the most underrated. He's probably one of the best coaches.

No one really says like in that top three. and Kyle Whittingham will kick your ass. I finally figured out because Kyle grew his hair out a few years ago. I finally figured out after they beat USC in the Pac-12 championship game a couple of years ago, who he looks like. If you watch anything Stallone does now, like the reality show with the daughters or the, or the Tulsa King show. Kyle Whittingham looks like Stallone looks now. And he's got that mindbother. And Kyle Whittingham will beat your ass. I'm telling you right now, he hasn't missed a workout. Like he has a Lou Gehrig workout streak going, but he'll beat your ass. Yeah. He looks wiry. Wiry, but strong, like

very lean man. All right. So I'll give you that one. Kansas state slash Utah. That's fair. Oh, I'll take it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. We didn't talk about USC at all. What are the expectations here? Because they're defense. They can't be worse. I heard that they're tackling in practice sometimes now would be nice. Yeah. This has been my, this has been my frustration with Lincoln Riley because he's a smart person, clearly a very good offensive coach, great evaluator and teacher of quarterbacks. But why don't you just send somebody to a Georgia practice in November and say, hey, how do you guys do this? And then just do that.

Yeah. Because they're showing you how it works. And clearly, USC through the years, and Oklahoma when he was there, they're not tackling as the season goes on. They're tackling gets worse and worse and worse. So D'Anton Lynn, the new defensive coordinator, I imagine he came in and said,

look, we gotta tackle a little bit. He already did, he did with the bowl game. The bowl game, he wasn't technically coaching, but he was there helping out and they missed significantly less tackles than they did during the regular season. So they cannot be worse on defense. You know who else can't be worse on defense? LSU who they play in the season open. LSU's defense was awful last year. So they went out and

hired Blake Baker from Missouri as their DC. LSU is kind of the same players with new coaches. USC, they changed a lot of the players out to Danton Lynn went and got some guys that fit what he wants. Part of the deal with Alex Grinch, the old USC defensive career, I firmly believe that Alex Grinch his mind was poisoned when he was the defensive coordinator at Washington State. And he had this defensive tackle named Hercules Mata'afa, who was 225 pounds, but was awesome. Like this is a dude who could do like backflips off a 30 foot cliff

and that home in Hawaii. And he was amazing. And so Alex Grinch for the rest of his career, like he went to Ohio state, he went to Oklahoma, he went to USC. He's like, I don't need 310 pound defensive tackles. Hurt could do it. Yeah. And he always was play these two small guys for their positions.

And so USC is going to have the right size guys in those positions now. I'm still not convinced though I know you've got got Miller Moss is your Heisman guy big cat Yeah, yeah, I love I love that he stuck it out You know he came in the same recruiting class as Jackson Dart who's been Ole Miss's starter for three years now. Yeah, so But I I do wonder about them because if their defense doesn't get significantly better, they might struggle. And I want to point out a game involving your Badgers.

So USC plays LSU, they might lose that game. They open Big Ten play against Michigan, they might lose that game. The Badgers come to the Coliseum for USC's fourth game. Yeah. We might be see USC in a, a can't lose and or must win situation against the Badgers because if they're wanting to go into the Wisconsin game and their defense has shown any signs of leakiness, Phil Longo is going to be licking his chops to unleash Tyler van Dyke on USC's defense. And it would be an Alex Grinch revenge game. He's a safeties coach at the Badgers. Cause I know people are giving me shit. You have

Alex Grinch now. That's what I said. Yeah, right. I was like, he's not the defensive coordinator. He cannot fuck it up at that bad. Like yes, he could fuck it up. The safeties could be bad, but he, he, he, it's, we're limiting the issues here. So, yeah. Um, Andy, you're the best. We'll talk to you later in the season. College football's back. Thank you so much. Everyone listen to Andy. He's putting out pods every single week, multiple times a week on three network and, uh, there's no better time of year. Andy Staples is brought to you by Cars.com. They have sponsored the employee parking spot here at Barstool Sports. The Cars.com

parking spot is now property of Kyle Bauer who does not own a car so he just keeps that parking spot open all day and we have to drive past it wishing that we had won that parking spot. The Cars.com parking spot is so helpful. If you have a car, you don't have to battle for a spot, but the Cars.com, your garage feature is the most helpful thing that they have. You can track your car's value. I've actually taken a look at it, just seeing how much the El Camino is worth, how much it's going to be worth in two months.

Maybe you might get something different at some point. I don't have any plans on selling it, but I do like to see if I'm making money on my investment in my El Camino now that it starts and runs. And since KB's got the cars.com parking spot, he'll have plenty of extra time to create an account with cars.com and track his car's value. KB got the most prized parking spot at Barstool, but we can grab some valuable insights into our own cars value with the Cars.com Your Garage feature.

So if you're thinking about selling your car, you can go onto Cars.com. You can use the Your Garage feature and you can look and see how much is your car going to be worth in one month, two months, three months. You can look into the future and figure out the best time for you to sell your car. Track your car's value on Cars.com. That's Cars.com. Andy Staples was also brought to you by Part of My Cheese Steak. Football is finally back. Pre-season's here and ordering Part of My Cheese Steak for your game day meal or late night eats

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Find a Part of My Cheese Steak near you. Order yours now at partofmicheeese steak dot com and use promo code PMC20 to get 20% off your order. Okay, Mount Rushmore time and we have a very special guest. It is Hank's father, back on the show for Mount Rushmore. Now, remind me, the last time you did Mount Rushmore, what was it for? Water. Water?

That was a good one. We'd already done it before and didn't realize it till after. So, and how did you do? I can't remember. Not well. It was the old studio. So, Hank's basically bringing in a ringer here. He's. He's done. What was my third one? Oh, it was your third. What was the other one? Sounds you don't like to hear. Okay. Did you have

Hank's yawn on that? That's my yawn. Oh, that's right. Yeah. It's hereditary. He caught it from you. So Hank's bringing in a ringer, his dad, uh, I thought that's nice. Yeah, that's nice. Listen, Hank and I are pretty much neck and neck and it's It's nice to be able to have a dad that you can bring in from out rush. Yeah, Hank So Hank, I'm glad that you did that. It feels like you're rubbing it in a little bit, but that's okay Maybe I'll bring my ass in and something you don't have. Yeah, that's fair. Hey there the so I've clinched I've officially clenched rats. Thank you. So it is now a two-man race between Hank and PFT Before we do so we're gonna do the Mount Rushmore business jargon

Which was selected by Hank and PFT. They're max and I were just we're basically just playing out We're sitting the starters. Well, there was an idea to have Hank and I go mano a mano Yeah, but then it was the rest of it, but that's the score and that's a different style That's a different format of Mount Rushmore. We've never done that. Yeah. So is the, what are the standings? How far back is Hank? How many points are you back? I think three. Three points. I hope three.

So this, it basically comes down to can Hank steal a win and have PFT go last in one of these? Yes. Hank has, so Max has 70. I have 59 clinched. PFT was 52, Hank with 49. So three back. I think it's fair for Hank to use his dad in this draft because I have been in the business corporate world. Hank's corporate experience is just working at Barstool. So you have a blind spot there. So before we start that though,

I would like some thoughts on the summer of Hank. Summer of Hank was unbelievable. Yeah, what would you rank? Was it Missoula's duck boat or was it being the, what was it? The keeper of the light. The ringer of the bell of the lighthouse. I think the duck boat parade, I don't see how that could ever be top. Yeah, but he did, I mean the lighthouse.

Yeah, he did keep the lighthouse. It was an epic fan reaction to the lighthouse. Yes. It was. Did you an epic fan reaction to the late Did you have an epic reaction to when Hank went down to Dallas this year and accidentally slipped and put a hole in the wall That was funny. Yeah content. Yeah content machine Tiffany go moss. Is she invited to Thanksgiving this year? No, okay How do you how do you feel about Hank in his prospects of dunking? There's a possibility. Now is that, how do you feel about Hank's prospects of doing steroids to dunk?

Not a fan of the steroids. OK. You raise it better than that, Hank. He's been working hard. Yep. Has he? Wait, has he? His uncle can dunk.

In my prime, I could dunk a volleyball. So there is some, you know, he's got a shot. Unfortunately, dunking a volleyball will not pay out this bet. But the basketballs you guys have out there are palpable. Yeah, true. When you say he's been working hard, what has he been telling you?

What? I would like to know. He's been going to the gym. We've seen videos. He sent examples of his workouts. OK. OK. I mean, that's an improvement from nothing.

Yeah. It is. We were at summer camp last week And we had them lower the hoop down to eight feet I don't know if you you felt the same way Hank, but I got a gnarly bruise on my forearm. Oh wow I got I got dunkers harder now Yeah, so I don't know if you've been able to reach a point where you're able to even get a bruise on your hand yet No, I'm so just I'm reaching for the rim. I can touch the rim, but I can't get above it

Did you listen to Friday's show? Yeah. What'd you think about Hank's fart in our face? Just air, you know. Yeah. That's not uncommon in our family. We should've said to in Hank's defense, because our good friend Keith Yandel texted me

after listening to Friday's show, he's like, what the fuck is Hank's problem? Hank was violently hungover. Yes. So we were taping at 9 a.m. We should have prefaced that. That was one of those moments where we should have set the stage a little bit better for Hank in his defense. We were entertaining coworkers.

Yeah, yeah. How much corporate experience do you have when it comes to the business jargon? Do you have a significant amount? I have a lot. I mean, that was part of the Taco Bell ecosystem was a lot of corporate speak and you know Marketing presentations are just chock full of that stuff. Yeah has it changed

I feel like it's gotten more annoying though in the last 10 years and it was maybe 20 years ago It was always hilarious Like we would we as franchisees would sit in these meetings and they would just go off and we'd be like, what are they talking? Yeah, right. It's none of this makes sense. Okay, so Do I have first pick? Yeah. right. None of this makes sense. Okay, so do I have first pick? Yeah. Yep. I have first pick, ooh. Tough one.

Max, how are you playing these? I don't know, I don't really care. Okay, because I don't really care now either. I'm resting the starters. I could get last in every one going forward because I'm putting very little effort into these right now. Not even for the listeners?

That's kind of mean. Well, I don't want to take first place and and then you guys just like can't have those points. Right. No, you got to play it out. Yeah, I don't think you should think like that. But yeah, you should. After all, this is a podcast. There are people who are listening to your thoughts, Max. Yeah. Okay. So I have one one. Um, hmm. Okay. I guess I'll just go with, I have a list and I somehow wrote one thing down twice So I think that's subliminally telling me that I should pick that as one one I'll go circle back. He's most annoying. Yeah, you circled back on circle back. Yeah, I did I have it twice

Yeah, just when someone says let's circle back on this Just shut the fuck up. I don't know. I don't know why you're saying it like that. Just say hey, I'll hit you later They don't want to come to a conclusion, right. Just say, hey, I'll hit you later. They don't want to come to a conclusion, but they want the meeting to end. Right. Right. And circling back, yeah, I don't even understand it. I'm just going to circle around and back to it? Yeah, that's a great pick. I had that as my one-one. Just leaves it open to, they can hit you back up at any point.

Yeah. Right. And then say, oh, I'm circling back. How many of these do you use now, Hank, that you're corporate? Not as, I mean, a decent amount. Do you circle back? I don't think I've ever used circle back. I've thrown it out there because because I've been in situations where I don't want to Give a definitive like let's meet tomorrow because I don't want to meet tomorrow I'll just be like it's a good way to end a meeting like alright Yeah, we'll circle back on this stuff like you just told me a bunch of stuff that I don't really want to deal with right now

Yeah, we'll circle back. Mm-hmm circle back. Okay, let's talk about deal with right now. Yeah. We'll circle back. Circle back, okay. Let's talk about it later. Yeah. Yeah. All right. When? Who knows? Team Lockwood.

I think we're going to go with the logical next thing, which is put a pin in it. Yeah. Okay. We're putting pins in it. Okay. Similar to circle back, but yeah. Yeah, let's put a pin in it. That one makes you want to punch someone in the face.

What's the difference between putting a pin in it and circling back? I don't know. They all don't mean anything. That's a little more definitive. Yeah, they all don't mean shit. Is that just a reminder to circle back? Means we're not gonna get rid of it, it's gonna be up there on the board,

and we're gonna put a pin in it. And then we'll circle back. At the end of the day, yeah, like every single one that we pick means absolutely nothing. I do have like five, now that I'm looking at my list, I've got five that translate directly to circle back. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like Hank said, it's just trying to find a way to finish a meeting without an actual conclusion. Yep. Max, meatball. Meatball. Hey, should we get some meatballs? I'm kind of going to do another one that also kind of sounds like circling back. Let's table this conversation.

Oh yeah, tabling it. Okay. Add that too. Yeah, tabling it sucks. Tabling it sucks. All right, PFT, you got two picks. I got two. Okay, so I'm going to go with touch base. Yep. Touch and base to start out. Yep. Kind of means docking, but in this case, touch base. Let's just touch base. And then for the next one.

And it's also the worst about touch base is it's always like, do in this case, touch base. Let's just touch base. And then for the next one. And it's also the worst about touch base is it's always like, do you have time to touch base on this? Yeah. Just fucking tell me when you want to talk. It just means talk. Let's touch base later. Why don't you just talk to me now? There's nothing worse than the meeting before the meeting. The pre-meeting is the most like,

hey, let's figure out when we're going to meet. No, just dude, you already got me. you already texted me, you already emailed me, just do the meeting right now, tell me what I need to know right now. Yeah, you know what's beautiful about this list is I don't think any of this language exists in football. No. Once you step inside a football building,

you don't circle back on anything, you circle forward. No, and also none of this really exists in our lives. That's true. We've somehow found a job that we've eliminated all of this stuff. Thank God. I think if somebody told me to touch base on something, I would just leave. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, your second pick. It's something that you do... right after you touch base. Okay. You get on the same page. Oh! Hmm.

Let's get on the same page on this I like that pic do I have time to change it nope I feel like I've no I like that all right all right page get on the same page get on the same page I'm second-guessing it now no that's okay I'm not on the same page with myself no you're good don't okay all right all right there was a lot of yeah there's a wasn't Shit talk a little shit over there now that I'm looking it's not on my list Okay, not on mine, although even have a list I've I don't know any of this in this lingo like I haven't done a second of it's not on Max's list

You've never had like an office job before though. No, I'm saying we're always getting on the same page. Yeah. Yeah I'm gonna go. There's a lot of moving parts. Oh, yeah There is a lot of moving part. That's just saying I don't want to do this No, that's saying it's like it's not my fault. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts Yeah, like we're trying to get it done, but there's a lot of moving parts. Yeah. Yeah, it's basically just corporate excuses Yeah, it is Yeah, it's basically just corporate excuses. Yeah, it is Excuse it's a it's a just a blame game. Yeah, I did have that on my list. Yeah moving parts is good. Yeah, okay

That's team Lockwood, so I think keeping with making excuses it's above my pay grade. Oh, okay Well not for Hank. Nothing's above his pay grade. That's facts top No, well big cat mean big guy have kind of played tennis sometimes, where we'll be like, can I talk to Big Cat? Oh, yeah. No, I- Big Cat, way more Big Cat to me, where people come up to me like, Big Cat, so I had to talk to you. Yeah.

I'm like, what? It's the two people at Barstool who get the most, I just don't feel like answering, is Gaz and Hank. Yeah. Like, if anyone ever asks for a job from outside of these walls, I'm just like, Gaz, well, figure it. Here's Gaz's email. That's just it.

Yeah. And then if someone asks for something that involves money or anything, I'm just like, Hank can answer. Yeah. It's great to have somebody like that around. Or like a hard answer, like you don't want to ask. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Talk to Hank first. Yeah. Am I doing a good job? I don't know. Ask Hank. I think a lot of people do that with the board and the board might not even ever exist, but you get asked a tough question

Well, I have to run for by the board real quick. Yeah, and I'll get back to you. Yeah. Okay. I got two that are Kind of related and they drive me fucking insane One I'll even say right now like my brother-in-law says it to me all the time I fucking want to kill him when he says it ping Uh, Ping You. I'm gonna ping you. Yeah, Ping You. What the fuck does that mean? Yep. What does ping mean?

It could mean anything. It could mean send an email. It could mean... Just shut up and just say you're gonna text me. It could mean a text. It could mean a phone call. It could mean a homing pigeon. There's all sorts of stuff. I don't understand what ping you means. It drives me insane. And the other one is, and this might be because I just expect people to be able to answer at all times. Uh, Hank knows that when he's on vacation. I hate when people say they're out of pocket. Yeah. I f it drives me nuts. You have a fucking cell phone. Your

whole work is in your pocket. What does that mean? You're out of pocket or people that yeah, automated emails. Yeah. You can answer a text. You're out of pocket drives me nuts. Which is out of pocket mean like you're only using what's in your pocket. Correct. But yeah, your pocket is your is your whole work. Yeah, that makes no sense anymore. That excuse is done. Right. Like I would understand it if we were in like 1975 and you left work and there was no way for anyone to reach you. But what do you mean you're out of pockets right here? Yeah, people have automated emails. And I'm'm like when you get one kicked back, like I

think that means I can't get this question answered. Right. Oh yeah. I don't think I've ever done the email like kickback. No. You have imagine if that's what I did it once. You did. Yep. Here. The worst is text. Yep. Have you guys ever gotten on text? No text someone I didn't know that was possible. Yeah, Hank actually made fun of me for a week at when I did it because I Well, I was out of the country But you're still looking well, and I just said and I just said if you have any questions ask memes Yeah, basically, but basically what I said and I've never done it again because Hank Ruined me when he when he when he sent me an email. He got it back

Well, it was a professional though. Were you like it in no of contacting me, please reach out I think I was just like I feel better. I'm out of the country this week. If you have any questions Here's memes is email. I mean that would have been a great way to do it to use memes actual name and everybody I think I probably did I was like go to hit memes his email. I am I almost just said person doesn't exist Yeah, especially in our job. I don't know. What would one be urgent enough that like we need to get a hold of max Yeah, there's I mean and there's really that urgent were they like if you're more so like ad stuff that like an ad will reach Out and be like hey, they need this right now. Can you please switch this? But is someone even that I'll just still be like hey, hey P this right now. Can you please switch this? What is someone even that I'll just still be like hey, hey Pug hey memes

Can you switch this someone else on the email so yeah out of pocket and ping you? Ping me ping you ping me anything ping yeah fucking drives me nuts I'll ping you yeah hit you in the head with the golf you say ping no not a thing. Thank God I have the same reaction to ping me. Yeah, what does it mean? Just you and especially when they text you I'll ping you it's like you're doing it right now Again, it's just back to like when someone contacts you and they're setting something up It's like we're talking right now even the word ping in the context of it doesn't make sense Makes no sense in theory I I think a lot of people want to sound more professional than they actually are. So saying like, I'm gonna text you later for some reason.

They don't like the sound of that, but saying I'll ping you. It's like, oh, that's businessy. I should be getting paid for using words like that. Ping, okay. I think this is, so this is a positive one. I think it's helpful in business jargon. It's when you have a meeting and someone says,

hey, I got a hard stop, 930, or whatever the time is. Give me that hard stop. Hard stop? Then I know meeting's over. You are a lockwood. Hank, how do we feel about that pick? Good. That was a bad pick. You put a pick above it.

No, but it's a perfect lockwood pick because it's saying like, oh, I can't do any work after this moment. Yeah. Yeah. I like hard out better than hard stop. Ooh. Hard out, hard stop. I got a hard stop

Oh, no, they're looking there this oh no. I pointed to the bottom Situation Damn yeah, my favorite Hank one is If you need me for the yak I'll be around which is just him saying I'm about to go golf Damn. Yeah, my favorite Hank one is, if you need me for the Yak, I'll be around, which is just him saying, I'm about to go golf. Oh, I said, do you need me for the Yak? Oh, do you need me for the Yak? Yeah, yeah, I'm about to go golf.

All right, Max. Don't have the bandwidth for that. Yep. Okay, that's a good one. Yep. This is basically saying you're an idiot. I'm lazy. What's saying I'm lazy? Yeah. It's like, I can't do that. But it's also literally saying you're an idiot. Yeah. Yeah. Like a you're a rudimentary computer. My brain doesn't connect at those speeds. Dial up. Talk to somebody smarter. Yeah. Don't

have the bandwidth. All right. So I got two now and I like these two. Yeah. Let me loop you in. Okay. Looping in. I had that. Looping in. And then for my last one, I'm going to go with a classic, tried and true, per my last email. Nice. Yeah, which is a nice passive aggressive way of saying-

Subtle way. It's saying, fuck you. Yeah. Per my last email, you dumbass. Yeah. Yeah. Saying they're, yeah. You've, you've, or, or you're just not responding to my emails. Yeah. Yeah. Saying they're, yeah. You've, or you're just not responding to my emails.

Yep. Yeah. This one is kind of normal conversation, but it's how I start probably 90% of my emails that I've ever sent before in my life. And it's just thanks for reaching out. You do thanks for reaching out? Oh, yeah.

Every time. You start every email. If it's someone that isn't within Barsht. Like if it's. I guess I just don't, we don't, we've never emailed. No, I mean I'm not the biggest emailer, but when I do it's like, and it's someone I don't know, I'm like, oh thanks for reaching out. Oh that actually makes sense. So it's usually when I send people to you because I'm sending I'll have a conversation with someone like here just just email our producer kind of you'll be like, thanks for reaching out for reaching out. And then I

just be like, yeah, thanks for reaching out. But I don't think I don't think this is going to happen. That's very professional of us. Yeah. Good thinking of like one specific example in the last couple of months where someone asked me for something I was like just please reach out to our producer max. He can handle and then you just wrote. Thanks for reaching out Yeah, I was like thanks for reaching out max The autocomplete that starts up like on your gmail when you respond to stuff Probably I wonder if I wonder how much it's learned about you. It's probably learned a lot of thanks for reaching out. Yeah. Okay. The lockwoods have to get back on the same page for this last one.

We are on the same page. Uh, but we will probably be doing this afterwards. Let's take this offline. Okay. Taking something offline. Some offline offline. Yeah. Okay. Uh, my last pick, it's not, it just, again, these are, I just did like straight pet peeves. I cannot stand When anyone refers to anyone as a rock star I had that on my list it fucking drives me nuts Calling somebody rock star or not a rock star. You're working like you're you're working in accounting. I'm not a rock star That's literally not a rock star. I would also include Ninja in that. They do Ninja a lot too, but yeah, any of those things, it's just-

Oh, she's such a rock star. Oh, he's such a rock star. No, no, actually no, he's not a rock star. Talk to Greg, he's a rock star at accounting. If he was a rock star, he would not be talking to us. Yeah, I wonder- He'd be a rock star doing drugs and living the best life ever.

What professions do you think are the furthest away from being an actual rock star? Yeah, something like in the CIA like yeah director of the state might be rocks reach out to Leon Panetta He's a yeah, if you're if you're like assassinating people heads of state That's kind of rock star anyone that maybe an actual thing with an excel spreadsheet Yeah as far away from being a rock someone who works the IRS Yeah, there's definitely been someone who's been referred to as the IRS, Hank, is by the way, where you pay taxes. Got it.

I know you don't do that. Reach out to the head auditor over there. He's a rock star. He's a rock star. All right, what do we miss? Net, net. Net, net's a good one. That might be personal to us.

Yeah, that's very personal to us. We had one coworker that would say net, net. I had along the same lines of Rockstar kind of somebody who says that I'm passionate about and then something that absolutely nobody is passionate about. Yeah, like someone's like I'm passionate about real estate Yeah, no one's passionate picnic Picnic you guys know picnic. No, it's picks one So much screws up and they can't get the computer work and you end up it realize it's the person So you say that's a picnic issue problem in chair, not in computer. Oh, I like that. Good. I like that. I want to

use personally, probably the only one on this list is when I will send an email and be like, I'm CCing this person and it's essentially saying, I'm not, I'm no longer responsible for this email. Like this is not my issue. I'm giving you the person Synergy synergies, that's like a classic one. Yeah, that's a classic That's an old-school one think outside the box think outside the box Yeah on your radar want to put something on your radar that one drives me nuts because it's like what am I supposed to do? They're not really telling you to do anything. They're just putting it on your radar. Yep What about using the word effort as a verb? We're gonna effort this. Yeah, we're gonna effort

This there's a lot that I don't know here The the other ones on my dad had a big list that I didn't never even heard him picking up jello Oh, oh, I like that. It's kind of like boiling the ocean. We need our next Baja blast hurting Hurting cats. Yeah. Getting a 30,000 foot view of something. Yeah. Ways hurting cats would be hard, right? Difficult. Yeah. It's like similar to picking up jello. Yeah. Yeah. I just have jello. I like picking up jello. I just had fiscal year on mine. I don't think that's really jargon, but you know, every time I never really understand it, but it's a thing. I know it's a thing

Really is an entire Mount Rushmore of us just like flexing that we don't What queue are we in right now? We are in q3 q3. Okay sure Yeah, it's definitely okay. Well. I thought every other queues don't mean the heart of you, but it depends on the fiscal year Yeah, that's true man. You know don't some companies measure fiscal years in February. Yeah, like ours should be like after the Super Bowl. Yeah. Yeah It's a fiscal year. You don't know what Q it is. You know, I know our Q should only be the football season Yeah, Q1 hasn't even started out where yeah, we're in pre-q Yeah, we should we should do the fiscal years only the football season and then everything else is yeah offseason Yeah, so like weeks one through four is off season. Yeah, I like that.

So like weeks one through four is Q1. Lovey Smith used to do that where he'd be like, yeah, one through four would be quarter one. We got to go three and one in the first quarter. That's how you want to start. Best practices? Yeah. Wear many hats.

Yeah, wearing many hats is good. That means that person just isn't good at anything. Being a thought leader. Yeah. That's such a funny term. Yeah, I'm a thought leader. Yeah, in the in the accounting space. low hanging fruit. Do we do we did bandwidth low hanging fruit back burner. Move the needle, move the needle. Yeah, yeah. That's usually done by a rock star or a drug dealer. Yeah. I'll give you

seven minutes of your day back. Oh yeah. What's that? In the meeting early? Yeah. Okay. I'm in some meetings now where that's like, because I still kind of like, I don't really deal with it that much, but I'll be in some meetings where that's like a big like, all right, everyone gets 10 minutes of their day back. And it's like, oh my God, I can't exit this call.

To get ready for your next meeting. Yeah. Without telling somebody that you need to sharpen your pencil on this Because that is like saying you need to do a better job at doing your job Yeah, but they're not gonna be able to make you meeting they say I'm gonna be out of pocket. Yeah. Yeah out of pocket Yeah, that one drives me nuts every time every time so you can get into any meeting anywhere Anytime what about calling slideshows decks? Is that just what they're called for you? Yeah, I got a deck take a look at my deck

Yeah, look at my deck Yeah, so no one's yeah, yeah, send me a picture of your deck. We got to manage expectations Gonna tee this up. That means that whatever you're about to do is gonna suck. Mm-hmm Yeah over promise. It's yeah under deliver. No, that's the wrong way to do it under promise over deliver Oh, man, if I had to deal with these words thousand percent Hundred hundred percent hundred went to a thousand percent. Yeah. Yeah, it's been the pen ever since pen has been like we've been just back to Barclay I've dealt with probably like 80% less of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the people that believe these words is hilarious

Yeah, just passionate. It. The people that believe these words is hilarious. Yeah. Just passionate. It's crazy. People that know people there. It is like an art form, like seeing someone in a setting where they can just say nothing. Right. But make you believe something is actually impressive because I can't do it. But like I've been in meetings where I'm like this person that isn't saying anything. Yeah. There's, I mean, there's some jobs. Yeah. There's some jobs where it's just all your entire job is just to meet and that's it you just go to from meeting to meeting. Mm-hmm. I'm passionate about new strategies and e-tail. I had a guy tell me that one time. No you're not

patting you just want people to think that you like your job. Yeah. That's all that means. Of course to buy something. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very curious to know what Huey's picks for this would have been because Huey I don't this would have been, because Huey, do you have any corporate experience at all? I didn't have a pick. Behind Chef? Yeah, I quit Pro Quo. Quit Pro Quo, okay.

That was the only thing I was thinking of. Quiddies. Yeah, these are all over my head. Literally. That's a good one. They're above his pay grade. Yeah, they are above your pay grade. Memes, did you have any?

Memes probably wants to kill anyone who says any of these uh you guys nailed all of them good afternoon that's a good one what yeah when you start off an email that's just that's just normal life just like fuck your after I love how means that's just like normal like human interaction means like fuck that you jargon you don't care about my afternoon just tell me what you want that's just real life that has nothing to do it like if you see someone in the street you say good afternoons memes how his weekend was like you motherfuckers like you don't know I like that memes

because when someone says good afternoon to you you know that whatever follows that is gonna ruin your afternoon yeah there's not enough time left in the day to make my afternoon good now. Yeah. You just made it significantly worse. Yeah. OK. You're so miserable.

Oh, no. Yeah. You talked me into that one, Memes. That was a good one. Yeah. Oh, man. All right. Well, great Mount Rush war.

The final week is going to be intense. How do you boys think you did? I think I did pretty good. It would have been nice to have my dad here But that's okay Hank and so I hope I hope this was a great father-son moment It's gonna come down to the same page and what was the third pick you guys had? Hard stop hard stop that's got I feel like that's gonna be a battle between those two. Yeah, what happened on on hard stop? What what did you was on our list? I was on our list. What did you point to though?

It was on our list. What did you point to a good pick? What is the bottom on our list? I was on a lot. What did you point to though? It was our list. What did you point to good pick? What is the bottom of the list? I think yeah, what did you point to it was another one that got chosen later and after that oh which one? Oh, I pft. Oh, no, so I don't Was it loop you in per my last email my last? Oh, I swiped per my last email and you guys was nice. We were on the same page. That's yeah You got to be on the same. We spread point thing yeah that happens you get lost in the snake yeah yeah I got lost in the snake I think after the first pick yeah yeah big time all right let's finish with numbers if you get this Max has never

gotten the lottery ball number though yeah yes yes I have yes I have Mickey Mouse never gotten the lottery ball. That's Mickey Mouse. PFT hasn't gotten neither. Not on this machine. 5. 7. 8.

20. 56. 42. 3. I'm giving 99 back to Pug. Those boys know we're doing it? 99. It was Pug.

Pug's not here today. Probably would have gotten it. Shane always gets 21, but it won't be 21. Oh my god. Is that 20? Yup. You piece of shit! Now you got nothing! You got absolutely nothing! I've gotten it! I've gotten it! Why are you so upset? I've gotten it! You're so upset! This, I'm so upset. This is the best. God, you're a piece of shit. Yeah, he is never going to get this. I really

need you to get a piece of shit. I needed you to get it. I made a promise. I fucked up. I pulled out all the stops. I went for 99 when Pog abandoned it. I did everything I could. Oh, you pieces of shit. This is the best. I'm the best lottery ball king. You number two. We've all we've got is like we've I've gotten it. Have I got it twice? I might've gotten it twice. Yeah, listen. I mean, good congrats. You got it once now. PFT. Oh, I it's all on me. I'll take accountability. It's it's now firmly entered the phase of, of being a thing memes. You've never gotten it though, right? Memes has never gotten it period. Yeah, no not in the old machine not in the new machine not on the road Congrats Max. Congrats. Good job. Good job. I think I did guarantee the PFT would get

Up let me down big time. So fucked up. So is it it's PFT's never gotten it, huh? Never gotten it Not on this machine Memes have you ever ever gotten it tough? It's not not not so fun when the rabbs got the gun I'm gonna have to prepare for people just yelling random numbers at me. Yeah Don't wait that don't do if you see PFT a pop punk or anywhere out and out and about walking that walking Blake DC Friday Philly Saturday don't or if you're in Philly Saturday Don't yell numbers at him like if it's in between songs There's a little lull don't just start I usually said 20 before he could and I didn't this time. I like that's true

Mm-hmm, that's actually so true No, I'll wear it. All right. See everyone on Wednesday. Love you guys. God damn damn it man. I'll be coming for your love, okay Shining away I'll be coming for your love, okay Needless to say I'm on sentence But I feel it's time to roll it away Slowly learning that life is okay Say up to me

It's for better to be safe but sorry Say up to me, it's better to be safe than sorry Say up to me, it's better to be safe than sorry Things that you say, is it life or just a play memories away? You are things I've got to remember Me, you're shying away Well, I'll be coming for you anyway Me, you're shying away Well, I'll be coming for you anyway Take on me

Take on me Take on me I'll give you love Let us dream Let us dream Take on me Take on me Take me up

I'll make your dreams come true Take me up Take me up I'll make you