The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Dumb to Still Believe in the Bengals and 49ers? Plus, New CFB Rankings, Where to Put Alabama, and Heisman Talk With Todd McShay.

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Russillo opens the show by handing out his Week 5 NFL awards (0:36) before sharing his updated college football rankings after a week of upsets (21:59). Then, he’s joined by Todd McShay to break down how NIL has evened the playing field, share their updated Heisman thoughts, and recap Sunday’s NFL action (39:52). Finally, Ceruti and Kyle join for Life Advice (76:02)! Did I handle a youth soccer confrontation correctly? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Todd McShay Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode, we're going to get into the NFL wins and losses. We'll do what a lot of shows do, but I'm just going to talk about Baltimore's incredible result there. Do some of that with McShay as well. Buffalo struggles, Niners lost to Arizona. A couple of the things with Caleb Williams big game. College football. I'm running through my top 12. We're talking bandy upset against Bama. Probably won't like the poll.

That's fine. Life advice and our Monday FanDuel pick. It's the Ryan Rosilla podcast presented by FanDuel. Football is in full action and FanDuel's highest rated sportsbook is the best place to bet it all. Here's why I love FanDuel's highest rated sports book is the best place to bet at all. Here's why I love FanDuel. I love in-game odds. I love it. You low a side, you haven't bet it.

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additional details must be 21 and older and President select states gambling problem call 1-800 gambler or visit RG dash help.com this episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember.

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Sign up now. Just search Movember. Week five, let's just start with the best win. It's Baltimore at Cincinnati in overtime, 41-38. This is an all time Lamar stuff kind of game, just sprinkled in with just special Lamar moments. Down 38-28 in the fourth quarter. Cincinnati just hit on a huge 70 yard play,

so a one play touchdown drive to Jamar Chase. Chase's biggest day since week five of last season. So it's 38-28, second in goal at Cincinnati six after that touchdown by Chase. Lamar rolls right, he stiff arms Hubbard at defensive ends, like 250 pounds twice. Jumps up into the air, Hubbard kind of chucks him as he's doing this jump pass.

They throws back towards the middle of the end zone, Isaiah likely for the touchdown. Win probability, a low 9% for Baltimore at this point. If you're new here, I do not understand the attraction to the win probability stat. I don't understand how this became content, but it's used every game. Maybe it's just to sell ads.

Anyway, Burrow, who had just an incredible game, 392 on 30 to 39 passing, five touchdowns. He's the first quarterback to lose a game with over 375 yards and five touchdowns since Mahomes lost in 2018 to the Rams in that incredible 54-51 game. Mahomes in that one was 33 of 46 for 478, six touchdowns, but had the three picks.

Speaking of picks, I was surprised it was only six years ago that a quarterback had had five touchdowns in a game in that many yards and lost, but it's actually happened eight times in NFL history. So the problem for Burroughs that his pick kind of was the game here because Baltimore's backed up Cincinnati's in their territory and Burroughs trying to hit Jamar Chase against Marlon Humphrey.

There's contact there. And I don't mean that as a penalty, but the contact probably throws off the timing or the positioning of the throw. Burroughs thinking his guy, the receiver is going to win in that spot. And Humphrey just makes a great read, jumps it. And it's a pick. It gets one of those picks where you go, you can't have that receiver's going to win in that spot. And Humphrey just makes a great read jumps it. And it's a pick.

It gets one of those picks for you. You can't have that pick game situation, the entire thing that you're thinking about, but at least I think I can understand that burrows expecting that to work. Way more often than the result of what you had, you could sit there and say they were careless or they should have done something else. The run wasn't exactly working at that point. It's just a pick you can have, but at least I understand more so than just other picks

where you're like, what the hell are you doing? So that leads to the turnover. Baltimore comes back down and ties it. Lamar has almost as bad of a turnover. First possession in overtime, fumbles the snap because he wasn't looking at the snap. He said that he looked up at the play clock. He was actually miserable after the game.

It's kind of funny reading some of his quotes. He's like, I would have been the happiest guy in this locker room if it weren't for that fumble. So you're thinking that's going to be a problem. But then Cincinnati comes down, they go to kick a game winning field goal. They botched the snap. I can't believe they got the kickoff considering

where the holder was actually holding the football. And then Henry puts together this huge run where I think it's like the fifth fastest he's ever run in his career on that huge run, like over 21 miles an hour, which is just incredible once that guy gets going. Baltimore kicks the field goal, win the football game,

and there you go. So Cincinnati, who was looking, I mean, this game was so big for them to avoid going one and four losing a division Game on top everything else because now you're left here. We're like, what do I do with Cincinnati? Well, I actually think they're good Good may be aggressive because we can get to some defensive numbers here in a second But I still think beating them is a good win and considering that Baltimore has to come back since any needs it's so bad Baltimore's coming off this dominant win against Buffalo just a week ago. Like Cincinnati needed this.

You know, to say they needed it much more than Baltimore. Yeah, actually I will say that because it felt like that's what that's the outcome of this game to now sit there at one and four on Monday, five weeks in the season. And we know the slow starts from Cincinnati, but we thought at least the offense was getting things figured out, scoring 105 combined points the last three games. So I could say it'll be okay. And it might just mean that Cincinnati's a tough out if healthy on offense because of how good this group looks

on offense last year. It looks like it's supposed to look, but they're one in four. The resume for Baltimore, let's talk AFC and NFC seating stuff. I'm going to do a little of that today in the open, just cause it's always kind of funny looking at how the playoffs like shake out right now. So with this win and a dominant win against Buffalo, uh, the Raiders loss was just kind of fluky. They've had some bad penalty games, but. You know, just a lot of weird stuff happened in that Raiders loss was just kind of fluky. They've had some bad penalty games, but you know, just a lot of weird stuff happened in that Raiders game. And then they lose the season opener at KC on the out of bounds play that would have sent it

to overtime if that had been a catch. So if we looked at like Baltimore with a college football eye, the resumes of this because Baltimore is the three seed today in the AFC. Cincinnati, by the way, is 16th. That's not good. Uh, Casey's number one, Houston's number two. But if you look at the Bills, when this come back at Cincinnati, Casey's going like, Hey, we're four and Oh, like, what are you, like, can you make the argument that you actually think today Baltimore is the best team in the AFC despite the record?

Um, I don't think it's outlandish at all. And, you know, Houston's really good, but if you think of where you're at with Kansas city, part of that is that they're four and O and the standard for them is so high and at the beginning of the year, I'm like, look, I'm just going to pick Kansas city to win again, cause I can't fathom you're going to get another year. Like you did 23 Mahomes. It's the worst statistical season of his career. And 24 has actually been worse.

The defensive numbers for Baltimore aren't great. Their EPA is 23rd, their 25th and opponent's yards per play allowed. But if you look at their defensive numbers, here's where I think you have to kind of, well, it's not kind of, you just look at it and tell the truth. The truth is, is Baltimore's already played three of the four best quarterbacks in the NFL. Alan beat them, crushed them, Burrow yesterday, and then Mahomes week one. And the fourth quarterback in that conversation would be the

guy behind center for the Ravens. So I don't think there's any other team that you can say, Hey, who else has played that resume of quarterbacks in that many of their games already to such an early part of the season? Nobody. So the defensive numbers, although alarming for Baltimore, there's a reason, there's a specific reason.

So I'd expect the defense with this coaching staff, their history, they'll get better. Uh, it was such a huge part of who they were last year, but I think it's about who they've gone up against and the fact that they're three and two already playing Alan Mahomes and Burrow. They could just feel even better about them. I, you know, between what's happened in just the span of not even two full weeks, knowing that Houston, Kansas City have better records.

Okay. But this is, this is really special stuff, what they've done the last couple of weeks. Where's loss? I don't think it's the bills at Houston because how we feel about Houston. Right. Um, but Josh Allen was nine to 30 for 131 yards. He has his lowest completion percentage in a game.

Uh, and it's not just him. It's the lowest completion percentage in a game for a quarterback with 30 or more pass attempts in the last 30 years. Now in the first half, the pressure was just crazy against Allen. It felt like they were trying to get the ball out as quickly as they could. It just immediately you saw that the Bills offense

was completely disrupted. They settled down defensively, so that's good. And we start playing the injury game. Some teams have better excuses than others, but look at Dallas last night and their defensive lineman, who they were missing going in and then dropping two more dudes in that game against Pittsburgh, which I have a couple of thoughts on, but the other part of Alan was on throws 15 or more yards down

the field, he was 0 for 11 on those throws. And Keon Coleman had the huge play, the rookie, and the touchdown to the left side. So you felt like Buffalo was getting back into this, but really what everybody's talking about today is the final position for Buffalo, where they've got the ball at their own three yard line, 32 seconds left in the game. Houston has all three timeouts. where they've got the ball at their own three yard line,

32 seconds left in the game. Houston has all three timeouts. So the first throw is to the left side to Keon Coleman, which ends up being offensive pass interference, which is almost kind of shocking that they'd even throw that flag at that point. It didn't really even matter because it's just incomplete pass.

It wouldn't have mattered. They're so backed up. It's not like you're really losing a ton of yardage there. I didn't like that throw because I thought it was so dangerous for Allen. I don't know if the goal was to try to find a way to score if they were watching Kirk Cousins highlights before the game this week, but it wasn't likely that it was going to happen at all with the score tied at that point. So then second down a throw, third down, there was a deep shot and only 25 seconds

comes off the game clock, but Houston had all of its timeouts. So if Buffalo ran it three straight times, if you do the math on it, you can make the argument that you may have had the same outcome with Houston getting the ball back with great field position. Having already used the timeouts in theory, but still a chance. They probably would have gotten the ball back with the same amount of time. In the moment, I hated it. I'm like, what are they doing? I think it had more to do with the Coleman throw, the decision there to be like, you're this backed up. That throw has to be an easy win, not a contested win, rookie wide receiver.

That throw has to be an easy win, not a contested win, rookie wide receiver. Like that's a tough spot there. I just, I don't know. Like I think I, as I've thought about it for 24 hours, it's the throw decision as opposed to the game planning it out. And I know most people, and I was like this yesterday as it was happening, it was like,

Buffalo, what are you doing? The goal should just be a first down, run some clock. Don't let them get the ball back in great field position. Take a game winning field goal, which is exactly what happened. But I think Houston deserves a ton of credit in the fact that they were able to get one playoff, get the time out down and get it within 60 yards

for the game winner and that's exactly what happened. But I still don't think that's the worst loss because it isn't, it's Houston. You're at Houston, they're really good. It's San Francisco. They're up 23-10 at home against Arizona. That's at the half. And then if you look at the second half possessions

for the Niners, four possessions, a pick, the fourth and 23 that they had to go for because their kicker gets hurt. The Mason fumble is the game loser. If there's a play, if there's one specific play to look at in this game and say, when was it absolutely, even though they still had to lead there, but things go differently.

It's first in goal at Arizona's eight and Mason fumbles. There's a game ending pick where Purdy gets hit and that leads to the pick. So those are the four possessions, pick fourth and 23 downs, fumble inside the 10 and then the final pick. So not great, but you were still up after the downs fumble inside the 10 and then the final pick. So not great, but you were still up after the Mason fumbled. And Kyler's dropping back and he's kind of having like a Kyler day where sometimes

it looks great and sometimes it doesn't look great. Third and five San Francisco sends the house at him and Kyler being smaller dropping back, trying to avoid this rush and get a throwing lane. It's just physically, it's not going to be easy for him all the time, especially if he doesn't know where all the pressure is coming from. So you can't just roll out to one side. So on third and five, the blitz is the perfect call. Looks great.

Fourth and five, let's do it again. I think it's the right play defensively because on top of everything else, he's trying to get the ball out and over everybody because it got batted down. I think on that third down fourth and five looks very similar. He's rolling. He's not even rolling back. He's like running backwards for his life. Throws the pop-up to Harrison, which looks a lot like some of those DeAndre Hopkins moments when Kyler was really dealing where it was just like, as long

as I can give Hopkins a chance, I know he's going to win Harrison wins. They move the ball down the field, end up kicking the game winning field goal. And as we said, it was the pretty pick after that. So if we look at Shanahan's record with leads, he was 38 and 0 when entering the fourth quarter by 10 or more points. First loss ever. This is now a second loss this season where the Niners clearly looked like the better football team than the opponent because they blew the game against the Rams, but they were up only 24-17 in that one. So that wasn't the 10 point lead. So they're two and three, the two blown leads. We could use the McCaffrey excuse.

They're the 14 seed today, but I'm not worried. I'm not going to worry about the Niners. I know what the record is. I know what the seeding says today. I think the NFC seeding is kind of a mess. Minnesota clearly the one seed with their win against Jets now five and oh, they in Kansas City, the only undefe their win against Jets, now five and oh. They and Kansas City, the only undefeated teams, but how about the two,

three and four seeds in the NFC today? Washington, who we'll get to a couple of their offensive numbers. Atlanta is the three seed. And then Seattle is the four seed, even with their disastrous loss against a beat up Giants team. And I know Seattle has been dealing with a lot of stuff the last two weeks on health on the defensive side of the ball for them. So San Francisco still number two in offensive yards per play.

Baltimore is number one. Washington is number two, who's now sitting in four and one. And look with the commanders after the Giants game in the week one loss, if the Giants has had a kicker, I think Washington's own too, but Jane Daniels just continues to put together these games where it looks like this could be the kind of thing where if you're a team that hasn't had a quarterback for years, you're like, do we actually have one? Well, it looks that way. And you added another awful Watson game to his 24 resume.

The Watson numbers just come back historically bad every single week. And even with Washington, you could, you could make fun of, okay, well, where's the really good win in there? I think the Sinse win is actually a really good win watching that game play out. Like I didn't watch Cincinnati going, this team's bad. Now, defensively, Cincinnati is not very good, but I just thought for a rookie to play the way Jayden did in that game against Cincinnati, it was just so impressive that I can't diminish it and be like, hey, they haven't beaten anybody.

And we know how tough it is in this league to just continue to string a bunch of wins together. But I have a hard time believing like week 14, we're looking at the ANACI seeding going, yeah, Washington's two, Atlanta's three, Seattle's four. And that's why I think when you look at the Niners and this start, I'm still not worried about it yet. And I know they had the awful stretch for like a month last year. You could probably play that game with a lot of really good teams. It's not what you'd expect. The blown leads are super frustrating, but when I watch San Francisco, I don't

go, what's their, their bad. I just, I don't feel that way. So we'll see if my stubbornness holds out. I want to talk a little bit about the Devontae Adams thing, the receivers in general here. Adams has wanted out as we know, and there's just a bunch of teams and fan bases kind of put him at the top of their Christmas list, whether it's the Bills, the Jets seems to make a ton of sense because they were going to go with

an Aaron Rodgers and go all in on this season. Like what's the point of the jet seems to make a ton of sense because you're going to go with an Aaron Rodgers and go all in on this season. Like what's the point of getting cute now? The money's will just go even more all in. But it reminds me a lot of the Sanu market. Remember Mohammed Sanu? So Adams is 31. Sanu when he was traded to the Pats was 30. Adams 6-1, 2-15. Sanu 6, 2, 2, 10, both play wide receiver.

Uh, Fresno Rutgers, both have red in the uniforms and somehow New England, cause I've heard the Rogers push for Adams, but reluctance to pay a second rounder for Devante Adams. Um, well, New England used a second rounder on Sunu for eight games and 26 catches. And then he was gone. I was reaching for those similarities. There was a joke about the Pats trading a second rounder for Sunu. Last night we saw some stuff with the receivers, George Pickens, who, you know,

there's a reason why the Georgia thing and post-draft, it was always like, yeah, man, this guy's really talented. The always fucking open eye, stickers. I love the confidence, right? But it kind of feels like it's a little dismissive of all of the other stuff going on behind you as you run down the field. Um, you know, digs and Josh Allen, I saw the videos after the fact.

I didn't see the full video. I saw like the cutups where it was supposed to be awkward or something. It's crazy reading all the pre pregame stuff or lead up like anything this week that you read about Houston and Buffalo and everybody that covers it on the Buffalo side was, they weren't even being cute about it. They were like, well, now that he's out of here, that it was that much of a pain in the ass. You had, um, Dobbs suspended from the Packers this week.

You had CD after deck through that awful pick to the left pylon, say something to Dak, where Dak doesn't even acknowledge him. I think he says something about jump ball, just throw up a jump ball. So it looked worse when people were confused about what he actually said, but that's not necessarily that egregious. But it is a collective thing with that position that I'll never quite understand. And I used to say cornerbacks would make the worst boyfriends, right? Like if you were a girl show up to your cornerbacks apartment, he's in bed with somebody else, like he would just point to someone and be like, well, she had coverage over the top.

You just blame everybody else. But receivers, I feel like if you dated a receiver, they would remind you at lunch at times, be like, you had a chance to compliment me 30 minutes ago and you didn't. And that's kind of on you. I don't know if it's something about being fast. Like think about all the people you knew were really fast when you were a kid. Were they dicks? Were they worst?

The worst in your friend crew? I could make a couple cases that maybe that's true, but I don't know. It's, it's probably not large enough of a sampling, but being an NFL coach or a quarterback and having receivers think that they're entitled enough to just when, when they don't get to touch the ball. Like guys can be winning games. And it's like, yeah, but I didn't get enough touches. And I understand it's probably really frustrating to just keep running down the field all the time

and maybe get like two or three targets over three and a half hours. Having a block probably isn't a ton of fun all the time unless you really like trying to do that. But you'd probably like to touch, everybody likes to touch the ball, even as adults, but it feels like, and I don't know, I don't even think it's a generational thing because you can go back years where receivers have been doing this forever.

I don't know why receivers feel like they're always on their own program. That in some rare, it's not everyone that's played this position, but some rare examples where I wonder what they care. Would you rather have 11 for 170 and lose? And I think the answer for some of these dudes is yes. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with FanDuel, America's number one sports book. Because right now, new customers who bet $5 get 300

in bonus bets if you win. The FanDuel Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. Okay, tough weekend for the gang, but undeterred. So here's the number right now. Saints at Kansas City plus five and a half. Look, there's a couple of props in there that maybe are a little fun. If you want to get on this Kelsey bandwagon, perhaps the McShay fade over nine

and a half receiving yards in the first quarter. Kelsey's had far more targets the last two weeks than he did the previous two. But that five and a half number. Let's look at that because right now NFL underdogs of five and a half or more points are now 19, four and one against the spread this season with 13 outright wins week one, three and one week two, six and oh, again, against the spread. Again, against the spread. Week three, five and one. Week four, three, two and one in this past week, two and oh. I would also add in the research number that we give out on Friday.

People really like the Saints in this one. And it seems like a lot of the research also likes the under. So that would be the lean Saints plus five and a half. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. Just visit Fandual.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E,

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Restrictions apply. Seat terms at sportsbook.fanDuel.com. Gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. This week's college football poll is going to be a little bit longer because I just think it deserves the attention after having five of the top 11 teams this weekend lose. Could have been a six, the Miami down 35 to 10 at Cal. Shout out to the East Coasters at CEDA for that one.

And we are dangerously approaching no one is good season where you can start getting into the transitive property of, well, this team beat this team, but that team did this and all of a sudden it's like, okay, you want to do this? Let's do it. Let's do it all day. I'd like to believe somebody is good, but I'm confused. I don't think this poll is going to be very popular this week and I'm not doing it for any other reason and all the reasons I'll explain. So let's get into it. Some thoughts on Bama's loss at Vandy as well. Texas stays at number one for me. I had him number one last week. The AP had Bama. Coach's poll had Bama. Texas was off. one for me. I had him number one last week. They P had Bama coaches, Paul had Bama.

Uh, Texas was off. Congrats to Texas. Number two, Ohio state. Not really much debate on this one. Uh, five and O they beat an Iowa team that Iowa, it's kind of like the Kyrie rule, right? Kyrie, the expectations were so low what he would mean to a franchise because of his history, the stuff he did. And then he gets to Dallas and it's smooth sailing. They make it to the NBA

finals. It was even better for Kyrie because he could have absolute donut playoff games and nobody seemed to care because it was like, well, he didn't punch a kid. The standard for where you kind of thought, what's going to happen? Like, when's he going to ask out? Is he going to, is he going to quit on the team? Is he going to do all this? And he's like, no, he's out there playing hoops, playing hoops all season long. The team did really well.

And then it's like, man, people need to apologize to Kyrie. Like, I don't think so. But our standard for him had gotten so low that him just playing basketball again was like, thought to be this incredible accomplishment. And that's kind of what Iowa's offense is like is just because this year isn't as disastrous, historically like mocked every single week as we had trackers because of what they had said about their own offensive coordinator and these marks they had hit. But Iowa's offense isn't good, it's just better than disastrous. So Ohio State, who we've said throughout the season,

they don't even have to play the, I don't think we've seen their A game. They can play like a B minus game and it still doesn't really matter. So yeah, I'm giving them a benefit of the doubt a little bit. And they go to Oregon to play somebody real this week. Three and a half point favorites in Eugene. So staying with Eugene, Oregon. somebody real this week, three and a half point favorites in Eugene.

So staying with Eugene, Oregon, I don't, I don't necessarily love having them three and that's probably based on my own expectations for them before the season gets started. Maybe it's the two Dylan Gabriel picks on Friday night, but here's what has been solved since the early numbers from the first two weeks, Idaho and Boise, they can run the football again. Jordan James is one of my favorite players in all of college football. If you are not ready when you think you're about to tackle him, it is going to hurt. 24 for 165, seven yards per carry, zero sacks again in that win against Michigan State. So after the two week stuff, a lot of the concerns about giving up sacks and not being

able to run the football, that stopped. And look, they've taken care of who they needed to with an undefeated record, smashing Oregon State, UCLA who wasn't good and then taking out Michigan State who I don't think many of us have much expectations for after watching the first month. Number four, here's where it gets interesting. I don't love it and I know know some of you are gonna hate it, but I still have Bama there for. I'm allowing you to just take a breath.

The AP and coaches did not care about head to head. They jumped Georgia ahead of Bama, which as the season progresses, head to head isn't the end all be all, but this becomes a bit like that TCU Baylor debate that we had like 10 years ago where the team that lost the head to head is pointing at the other team saying, yeah, we lost to you and you're good, but your loss is way worse than our loss. Losing the Vandy is worse. Losing the Bama. I understand it, but I don't know. It just felt weird a week later to go,

now I'm just gonna put Georgia back in front of him. But that's what everybody else did. So there you go. I have a lot on Bama here, so I'm just gonna keep moving. I have Georgia five, why? Good loss. Took Kara Auburn. Highlight of this game was probably a fourth and one

where Peyton Thorne had to make a read on the edge and he kept the ball and Javon Walker, 11 for Georgia, who I love just blow the whole play up where if he had handed it off inside, I don't know that they would have converted it. I don't know if there was some kind of call that Thorne was supposed to make at the line of scrimmage. But Walker just disrupted, destroyed the whole play. So that's, sometimes you get to tip your cap to them. But it was fun because I love when our guy,

Sean McDonough, gets a little spicy and you knew he just wanted to, he was asking McElroy, like, what is Freeze doing? Because Freeze was yelling at Peyton Thorne and nobody likes Freeze right now. And Freeze is yelling at Thorne and I don't know if it was because he kept the ball or if he was supposed to do something else

in the line of scrimmage. And McDonough like wanted to so badly just like unleash on Freeze cause Freeze has just a very low approval rating right now. And McElroy like left a bit of an out going, I don't know if there was something else that Thorn was supposed to do there. But McDonough was ready to attack and I was all for it.

I was excited about that one. All right, number six, Penn State. Penn State is four in both of the polls, which I completely understand. And maybe is the right call. And maybe this is a bit about the Fox, wait, Penn State's behind Georgia in the coaches, they're five.

Maybe it's a little bit about the Fox propaganda that we saw in the UCLA game where they were like, if you'd had 12 teams in the previous playoff format of four teams, Penn State would have made the playoffs six times, three more than any other program that didn't get in. And they're like, okay. They're like, oh, they're the only team to start the last four years. Five and oh, like, okay, then what happened?

So even though the West Virginia game, like last year, the trick mean to kind of really believing in Penn state last season, uh, a 34, 12 domination, the offense does look that much better with the new OC. And look, when you look at Aller's stats, if you go back to last year and this year, the completion percentage has gone from 60, 71%. The yards per attempt, 7 to almost 11. Last year, his touchdown pick split, remember this, like how impressive it is on paper, 25 and 2. I actually thought that became a problem because it just showed how apprehensive he was about certain throws.

He was just like, I'm not going to throw a pick. This year the split's nine and one. But look, all I care about with Penn State is what do third and sevens look like against Ohio State? That's the only thing I care about. USC doesn't look as daunting as an opponent this upcoming week with their loss to Minnesota. I still think USC is a decent enough team. We'll see what happens there.

But momentum wise, you feel better about Penn State. So look, the defensive numbers, they're fifth in opponent's yards per play allowed, 3.8, that's these five games though. Last year they were number two in college football. I love Abdul Carter. I love Jaylen Reed. We know the defense is really good, but some of the yardage numbers allowed last year, okay, they were number two in college football.

I'm not sure Michigan even wanted a first down in the second half of that game last year. So they don't play Michigan. They've got the SC game. They were number two in college football. I'm not sure Michigan even wanted a first down in the second half of that game last year. So they don't play Michigan. They've got the SC game. And as we said, 11-2 is when they're gonna be playing Ohio State at home. And the rest of the way, Washington, nice win from them.

Purdue's awful Minnesota, the USC win. And then the Maryland Terrapins. So look, does it feel a little unfair to have Penn State behind a couple of these SEC teams? Yeah, I'll allow it. Not in line with the AP and coaches poll. Look, does it feel a little unfair to have Penn State behind a couple of these SEC teams? Yeah. I'll allow it. Uh, not in line with the AP and coaches poll. Yep.

Accurate. Based on nothing. No, I don't think it's based on nothing. Are you telling me I'm giving Ohio State the benefit of the doubt the way I'm not giving Penn State the benefit of the doubt? Yep. You're absolutely right. Guilty.

Um, if it were two losses, again, you know, two losses, let's not even talk about it because it's even a kind of conversation. But I always feel like with one loss, I'm still gonna be reluctant to vote somebody ahead of the team with one loss that I just don't think is as good as those other two teams. And to this point, yeah, it's a little carry over from the previous year.

That may seem ridiculous as well, but I think we're all guilty of it in the way we look at these top tier programs. It's not the end of the world. All right, I've got them sixth instead of fourth. All right, Miami. I have them at seven. This is probably a two week thing with them.

They're sixth in both polls, so it's not like I'm way off on this one. Cam Ward is one of the only guys in college football who could bring his team back the way he did against Cal that night. That was awesome. The atmosphere was great. It was such a fun game.

Just late, chaotic. Having said that, Cam Ward also scares the hell out of me. I feel like when he drops back his inner dialogue, more often than not, it's like, fuck it. The pick back to the middle. This guy loves throwing back to the middle of the field more than any player at the position that you're gonna see. It's, it's, and sometimes I think, because he had a throw against Florida where it worked.

He also had a couple where it didn't, but he had a throw against Florida where it worked, where I, I think he's convinced that he's the guy that can actually do it. The cowl interception, he had probably four throws that I was like, he's, he loves going hard to his right and then throwing it back on the inside. The, the interception that he threw was like a pop-up back towards the middle of the field. But again, how many other quarterbacks are going to come back in that game down 35-10? It also speaks to how good the receivers are. But there's a bit of a Virginia Tech hangover in this one as well for me. So there's six and oh, congrats.

I have seven. Coin toss time. I've got Clemson eighth. The defense isn't great. They're 57th in yards, opposing yards per play, but they're running it really well. Club Nick has almost as many rushing yards as last year with 97 less carries.

He's only been sacked four times. The touchdown interception ratio, 19-9 last year, 14-2, not even halfway through the season this year. And I just wanted Clemson in front of both of the next two SEC teams. And that's Ole Miss at number nine. I think the win at South Carolina, what if I threw this theory at you?

Because I know this will be met with a bit of a rejection based on what the rankings say. But Oklahoma is 18th in the AP 16th in the coaches poll South Carolina is not right but what if I said that Ole Miss's win at South Carolina with Lenora Sellers back is in the same ballpark as Tennessee's win at Oklahoma I'm not saying it's identical, and maybe it's harder because one team has the number in front of it,

but I just think South Carolina with the QB back and that defense and for Ole Miss to be that dominant is a good win. It's a nice recovery from the home Kentucky loss where it's like Ole Miss is just, if they were frauds, that's a a closer game or they lose a South Carolina based on what I've seen from the Gamecocks defense so far this season and it was 27-3 so I think that's a nice bounce back for them so that puts Tennessee at number 10 which

is the opposite order of what the AP has, but the right order according to the coaches. Again, who cares about any of this stuff, really. Tennessee loses to Arkansas, and it's incredibly frustrating because I was really locked into this game, watch the entire thing, and Green, the quarterback for Arkansas, some of the numbers aren't great,

and he always get five picks, but I think he's a baller, he's just tough to deal with. He's a tough runner, he wasn't necessarily tough on the ground in this game against Tennessee, because Tennessee's defense was really good, but he's just tough to deal with. He's a tough runner. He wasn't necessarily tough on the ground in this game against Tennessee because Tennessee's defense was really good. But he's knocked out of the game as Tennessee leads 14-13. And Tennessee, after that moment, punt punt, turnover on downs.

So Tennessee's defense was number one in the country in opposing yards per play. Now it's at number three behind Ohio State and Texas. But I think it's at least fair to ask what's going on with Nico Iamaljava. Let's have this conversation. Now we can point to some of the offensive stuff. I think going into that game, they were averaging 58 points per game, which is best in college football. They had the 71-zip spot against Kent State. So maybe it's a little misleading. But if you've watched Nico and I've watched three full games of it now, he's under 200 yards his last three games.

No picks. Okay. He's sacked a few more times than you'd want. I think he's part of the sack blame as well. He's only had over 31 yards rushing once in a game this season. And I really want to focus on that last drive because that was alarmingly bad. So they're down 1914, even though the backup is in for Arkansas, 35 seconds left. He hits the tight or excuse me, the receiver Thornton Jr for a 42 yard

pass on a third and two, where he rolls out to his left, the edge rusher falls down because the move Nico puts on him is so nice on the rollout. And he throws just a special ball right down the field, leads the receiver perfectly, moves the chains. So now you've got first and 10. But then the next throw, and I don't know it's because he was so hyped up from the previous play, 87 Kitzelman, the tight end.

He throws it like a hundred miles an hour at him. And there's just no, like there's moments in a game with Nika where I think his arm talent is so incredible that he's firing. I also think guys are dropping some of these passes or they're super contested catches, which maybe he needs to take some easier wins there. So it was happening throughout the night. And honestly, there's just, I keep waiting for this big game. That was my lead up.

I knew I was screwing myself when I gave out this game because Arkansas is actually better than their record would suggest going into it if you've seen their losses. But I've wanted this big kind of Heisman. He, right. I mean, look, he was already on the Heisman awareness stuff anyway, but there just hasn't been enough from him. And I think he's actually a little too inconsistent, despite the arm talent throughout the course of these games.

But on fourth and five, it's just inexcusable. It's worth them five of the Arkansas 20 with six seconds left. And he runs out of bounds. Like I have no, you know, we can talk about how calm and he's so in control. He just lost all concept of what he couldn't do on that play. And at that point, it doesn't matter if it's a pick, you got to get the ball up into the air and he runs out of bounds. concept of what he couldn't do on that play. And at that point, it doesn't matter if it's a pick, you got to get the ball up into the air and he runs out of bounds. So I'm probably being a little harder on Tennessee, but I don't know.

I mean, look, I've got them 10. I don't have them 17. 11, let's give it to Iowa state 12 and the AP 13 and the coaches bowl 12. I'm tempted to go A&M, but they don't have the head-to-head against Notre Dame. I could say LSU because Notre Dame's loss at home to Northern Illinois is far worse than LSU's neutral site loss to USC,

but let's go with BYU because why not? Couple of thoughts on Bama's loss of Vandy. We know it's historic. I hope you've been listening to the pod when I talked about Vandy's quarterback, Diego Pavia listed at six feet, heart listed at seven foot one. Um, if you watch a Virginia tech game to start the year, you're like, this, there's something here. There's something going on.

The Mizzou game, just a bad-ass running around, trying to find it. Like he's already out of breath before the first snap because he's so hyped up. And yes, I know Vandy lost to Georgia state was two and two who lost Georgia Southern, but throw out the records when state plays Southern. Um, but they're not the doormat that we were all used to with Vandy over the years, and I can only tell you what I saw because when I was watching what was happening in the game, because there were other games I thought I was going to prioritize on a Saturday, I'm thinking I have to watch Vandy Alabama. And I'm glad I did. I know some of you probably think I'm going to come in and

rip on Milro. This isn't a Milro game. I mean, look, the pick six with a tip ball, the fumble wasn't great. That's not where I'm going to go. They scored 35 points. That should be enough against Vandy. But a defense with Bama that I had questions about, especially in the first half against the USF quarterback Brown, who's just, you know, his own problem. And then they looked like they'd fixed it against Wisconsin. Maybe that's a Wisconsin story. It looked great against Georgia in the first half, but Vandy gashed this team, 418 total yards. The third and two to clear out a throw for Pavia for the touchdown and make it 40-28. And I cannot tell you, like you had to watch this game to understand how stressful it was for Bama to make a decision on handoffs. The way Pavia runs this offense, the way they make you think about all of these different things that could possibly be coming your way, it either freezes you,

frustrates you, or wears you out. And it did all three of those things to Bama's front. And they kicked Bama's ass. Normally in a game like this, that's this historic, because if you look at it, Vandy doesn't win this game ever. If this is going to happen, if the number one team in the country

is gonna lose to an unranked team, and it's Vanderbilt, right? Not like sneaky Illinois with a nice defense. It's usually gonna be like, what happened in the turnovers? And it wasn't just about the turnovers. unranked team and it's Vanderbilt, right? Not like sneaky Illinois with a nice defense. It's usually going to be like, what happened in the turnovers? And it wasn't just about the turnovers. Like they, Alabama couldn't get off the field. This is almost as shocking as that.

Was it the Trevor Knight game with Oklahoma where Bama just could not get off the field in third down? That was Oklahoma in that bowl game years and years ago. I think it was a cotton ball. Um, this wasn't really fluky. That was Oklahoma in that bowl game years and years ago. I think it was a cotton ball. This wasn't really flukey. And it's Vandy's first win against Bama in 40 years. And now their record improves to one in 60 all time

against AP top five teams. I know some of you want me to have Bama 10. I'm just not going to do it. Because look at it this way, 12 team playoff, Bama is in. 14 playoff, hey, you lost to Vandy. Probably would argue against that. Got Todd McShay with us on a Monday. I want to start with the college just because of how crazy all the upset stuff was.

Look, I can be stubborn about a lot of things. People have just heard my top 12, but when I see the upsets happen, it then turns into well with NIL and with the portal. And I think Vandy is a great data point of, well, look, it's a little bit different with what they were able to do and bringing in Pavia and the OC and all that kind of stuff.

But we've had upsets before, right? And granted it's five of the top 11, but are you willing to suggest that this is, this is something, a leveling of a playing field? Cause my guess is like, we probably don't have to prepare for Illinois, NC state and, and BYU and the playoff five years from now. Yeah. I think it's interesting, right? Right.

Like when you look at the big picture with all the transfer portal and the NIL and, you know, a lot of moving parts personnel wise, I mean, because basically it's the NFL and free agency now, right? And you're so like college football for forever has been, all right, we're going to, we're going to bring in a recruit a player out of high school, we're going to bring him right, we're going to recruit a player out of high school, we're going to bring him in, we're going to develop him, we're going to redshirt him if we need to, and we're going to have guys in the program for four or five years. Three if we turn them over for Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Clemson, those schools. I think what we're seeing is kind of the beginning of what, as long as the system remains,

then every single program with the exception of Clemson is really driven heavily by free agency, if you will. And so my point in this is you're counting on blue chip prospects, four or five star guys coming in and all that, but there's a level of consistency that's missing. There's not an offensive line that's necessarily developing the same way they used to develop. You're plucking a star receiver here, a star corner back there. You've got all these different moving parts. To me, what's interesting is I see it that now that very elite top group, they're more vulnerable. I mean, don't you see that? Like, George is a little bit more vulnerable. Alabama's vulnerable

to a game like last week. I just think you're counting on these guys who now have only played three, four games together. And maybe if coming in from a different school, there's going to be some communication issues. There's not going to be that consistency. There's not going to be an understanding and a familiarity in the system. So not to get into this like long winded answer, but I think we're seeing this year more so than any year I can remember that the elite programs are still the elite programs,

but they seem more vulnerable. Do you see that? Sure, after this weekend, but I need more seasons. Like I need, I need way more information. I like to get ahead of the trend rather than like three years from now. We have this conversation, you know, like maybe this is a result of, of what the current college system.

Right. But you make a great point in the consistency and you know, the culture words brought up a little bit too much, but if there's not the escape hatch of the transfer portal, it's like, you got to figure out how to fit in, right? Your offensive line has more continuity and all these different things, but like look, Bama, Georgia, Ohio state, Texas, like these schools are still going to get guys unless they just have a disastrous stretch and the wrong people are in charge for like a two, two coaching cycle string

of years. And, and, you know, it's, it's always like a weird reminder to go to like, remember when Bama was down, be like, yeah, it was for a while. They couldn't get it right. They couldn't get the coach right. Yeah. I just not going to watch one Saturday and

think that the landscape has shifted because, because of NIL and the transfer portal. Like, yeah, it can be different, but I need more results to think that. All of the top teams are just going to, I don't know. I think teams lose all the time. Like, yeah, no, I agree. I'm not, this isn't an alarmist conversation. This is you and I have been been a conversation as to, okay, it seemed a little extreme, right?

Totally. I mean, Fendi, even though I look at the point, Fendi is actually like way better if you haven't watched him and after the Virginia tech game was the first Virginia tech might be pretty good too. Right. Newsflash. Cause you know, you lose to Fendi, the world's over and now it's like, well, Fendi is good. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's there's always there's got to be a reason and unless we're just saying you

know what what a fluke what a fluke you know just it just all happened and and I don't I don't think this is like the end of what college football is we know it but I do think there's something too that it's hard now to, you know, a player gets injured, who's coming in? Have they been in the program? How long have they been? There's just, there's a lot of factors to it. And I think it, quite honestly, like it's perfect timing to have a 12 team playoff. I think also you look at like, are these games still valuable? Are they still important? Like Georgia, Alabama felt as important as ever, you know, and now you go and you lose against, you know, your Alabama, you go and lose a follow-up game against

Vanderbilt. Well, it's good news for everyone that you probably can lose two and still get in. And so I think this week we're learning, like, think about this in previous years in a 14 playoff, that might be it for Bama. It could be. Well, if we had, and it all depends on the year, right? It depends on the year you're having the conversation, which I think was lost to off as a role of,

this team did this, how come five years ago? And you're like, that's just not, it's a completely disingenuous argument because you need to compare. It's like voting for awards. Like, I can't believe this guy won this Heisman this year. It's like, okay, what was the rest of the crowd like? All right.

So, so the same thing happens every year when we had the 14 playoff of like, well, they've never done this or never done that. It's like, well, if we had had 30 years of it, that for different stuff would have happened. Um, I think with the 12 team playoffs you could go well maybe everybody knows they have the out. I don't think Bama rolled in to Vandy and was like wow this game doesn't even matter now that we have the Georgia winner. I don't think kids actually. You go back and watch that tape like I didn't see necessarily especially in the second half, the final two and a half quarters,

I didn't see it at Alabama team where I'm like, oh, they're like, man, we got Vandy next week. We're at Vandy, 330 game, 230 local. It's fine. I didn't see a team that was grossly unprepared or was just half-assing it on the... I did not see that on tape. I think it's important to point that out. I saw a Vandy team that executed at an exceptionally high level.

I just, you know, I saw an Alabama team. Yeah. Was it their best game? No. Was it the effort they had in the first half against Georgia? No. But the effort overall was good. They, they just rolled out there.

They, they played an adequate game. And most of the time that that would be enough to beat a Vanderbilt program. But this Vanderbilt team's a lot better than we expected. And quite honestly, I watched that tape and I was like, Vandy played great. That was my biggest takeaway. It wasn't Alabama just blew it. Vandy played great. That was my biggest takeaway. It wasn't Alabama just blew it. Vandy played great.

The stress they put on the defense, you deciding who you need to attack. Yes. Keep up that consistency of just making you think about every single handoff, every angle, and that's why I think you saw so much frustration from them. It's not them going, can't believe we're losing to Vanderbilt. It's like, I can't believe we can't get off the field. Like we can't get these guys off the field when I think he's going to keep it. guys off the field. When I think he's going to keep it, he hands it off. When I think he's going to hand it off, he keeps it. Like they're just, they're working us every time. And I think emotionally and physically it was exhausting for that team. So it sounds like we're

building up Vandy here a little bit too much, but back to kind of the original thing that I derailed a bit is that I would have loved in the four team system to be sitting there in December talking about what a Vanderbilt loss is. And I would likely be going, I'm sorry, like even if Vandy is better, which they are, and we've got five teams for four spots, now look at Bama, we're to win the SEC title and be 12 and one, then they're gonna be in

because it's the SEC and there's a chance that they had turned things around. But if it was- And the loss was back in early October and what, what team are they now? And like, yeah, they could have recovered, but I'm saying like in this new 12 team playoff system, it allows for one game like that, I believe. Yeah. I mean, that's the part that I've been kind of arguing against the entire time.

And like Herbstreet and Fowler who are my favorite, they're the best in college, they're the best at telling the story. But in the moment of Georgia, Bama, it's like, Oh, hey, the 12 team playoff, like this thing still feels real. And you're like, yeah, okay. Like no one's having a bad time watching this football game, but it always gets back to like my Michigan, Ohio State thing. If it's the last couple of years, awesome game, really excited, I'm gonna watch, I'll spend my four and a half hours with it. But if at the end you tell me,

yeah, both teams are still in, it's not the big of a deal, then it isn't as big of a deal. And sometimes it can feel a little self-serving for the college football product. I wanna talk about Nico Iamaleava, because I'm kind of waiting for it, man. And that was the game you'd expect. Not that they had to score 40, but that last drive and doesn't mean it's going to happen every single time.

The last play was terrible. Are you seeing anything that the less educated eye would not see? I'm seeing a freshman. You know, I'm seeing the inconsistency of a freshman, not not having a lot of wars to draw upon, not having a lot of game snaps and reps to draw upon. His physical tools will allow him to overcome many, many things. It's like watching a rookie quarterback going in the NFL that has mobility and can overcome,

you're not going to have the answers to the test as a rookie in the NFL or as a freshman in college that you're gonna have as a second year player, third year player, senior, fourth year player, whatever you want. And so that's why I think it's been so important to the development of NFL quarterbacks to come in and have that mobility and have that ability to kind of like,

all right, I don't have the answer, but I can create a new answer, right? We've seen that with Jaden. We're starting to see that a little bit more with Caleb. And I think the same principles hold true as a freshman quarterback without the experience to draw upon, without seeing the picture as clearly as you need to see it and as clearly as he will see it later this season and year two and year three, it's going to continue to get clearer for him and he's going to have

answers to the test that he doesn't have right now. So while there are a lot of moments that he's able to overcome that lack of experience, there's still moments where he can't and it's going to get him in trouble and he's going to make some mistakes. And so these are their natural growing pains there's nothing I'm seeing where I'm like oh man like we we got it wrong on this guy or yeah I'm not just you know what I mean for the record that's not even close to where I'm at it's just that I would have liked to have seen the Niko game by now I don't disagree and I And I think that this will look back at this game

and say, he learned from this, you know, and he improved upon this because now you have coaching tape to go back to and now Hypo can bring him sit down and go through, all right, what did you see here? When we talk about, you know, in year two, year three, he's gonna have more answers to the test. How do you get more answers? You make mistakes and then you get coached properly on, all right, you saw this, you

did this, it should have been, your reaction should have been this. And so like, yeah, it's hard as a Tennessee fan to sit there and say, but he's so talented, he's got all these, but this is part of the growing process. And it's the risk you take when you bring in a young quarterback like this and you rely on them to carry this team. So there was always going to be this risk, but how does he improve upon this? And that's coming upon the coaches and Nico, they've got to grow upon what just happened. Let's talk about Heisman because he was certainly on the radar,

but I still think there's so many voters and you always have to remember that there's so many Heisman voters. I think there's a lot of people that vote that are like the news director of a local broadcast or there's, I just think there's a lot of people that vote for this award that are not exactly locked in all day on Saturday. And I also think the history of it too, like it was gonna be tough for a freshman. Freshman was gonna have to do something really special to even win this award. But, you know, whether it's viewers and the injury part of it, you know, Millrow loses a little momentum.

Cam Ward's still in the mix here. I'm all in on Travis Hunter because I just think the award should be the best player in college football and we're defaulting to quarterback on best team way too often. But let's talk about your boy, Janty, who now with Boise is over a thousand yards on the season. He's got 16, he has a season's worth of production. He has like all conference level production. And we're ready for these numbers.

They're, they're, they're ridiculous. And you picked them last week in our Heisman thing that we'll do quickly after this. That might be the best Transaction of any front office member of anyone. Yeah, I mean, that's why but like the conversation we just had like it's my job to get a get a week ahead of these things and and exploit you for it No Ashton Genti like you ready for the last three? I've saw this this graphic or somewhere the last three running back Heisman winners.

And granted, different level of competition. I got it. But if you're going to play at this level of competition, it's not in the SEC or in the Big Ten, then you've got to out-produce those numbers to be in the conversation. But Derek Henry in 2015, at this same point, 570 rushing yards, nine touchdowns. Mark Ingram at this same point in 2009 when he won it, 487 with six rushing touchdowns. Reggie Bush in 05, 601 with six rushing touchdowns. Jinty right now at that same point in time, 1,03 31 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns. That's more than twice as much as many rushing yards,

well, then Ingram and basically twice as many rushing yards as Derrick Henry and Reggie Bush right in the neighborhood and more than double the touchdowns of Ingram and Reggie Bush. He has 300 less yards than he had all last season with 125 less carries. Yeah. The numbers are great.

And that's kind of the jumping off point. Like where does he stack up against other guys and he's got to have more production because he's not playing in the SEC. Got it. But, but then you start looking at the tape and what he's like, yes, it's against lesser competition, if you will, but it's also like how he's doing it. We're not talking about gaping holes by like, you know, it's a group, it's a really good offensive system.

Boise States had success for decades now, right? But it's not, when you watch it, it's, it's contact balance. It's slippery in the hole. It's a combination of power and then the burst of speed. And it's not, again, the NFL draft has nothing to do with the Heisman. But there's a certain skill level. If we're going to, if he's going to outperform and wind up winning the Heisman trophy over Travis Hunter, who's doing things that we've really never seen before, or he's going to

wind up winning it over Jalen Milrow if he goes undefeated from this point on and plays a lot like he did in the first half against Georgia. There's gotta be a certain skill level where people put on the tape and watch him. And I understand your point. Not everyone's gonna be studying the tape, but you gotta see things that are special. And what I'm seeing from him is special.

And what NFL scouts are seeing is something where it's like, shit, he might wind up in the same range as Bijan Robinson, like somewhere in like that top 10, top 15 range. Bijan was at number seven overall pick in this last draft. So it's not just like a scheme. It's not just he's exploiting things or he's great on the college level. His skill set is exceptional. He's going to be the first running back draft.

He's breaking tackles. He's breaking multiple tackles. When he gets the corner or he comes off of a tackle, the explosion and burst that he has is on another level. Yeah. I think the Boise thing will hurt him because of the competition and the just continued gap between now the Power 4 and everybody else. But it's not like they're completely off the radar. So that maybe isn't in favor. But when

you looked at whether it was, I'll say it again, like Milro Cam, all the quarterbacks, as of today, the momentum is not there for any one of them in a way that maybe we're accustomed to latching the Heisman stuff to. And I haven't done this open yet, but I just think we're so stupid sometimes where Charles Woodson has 30 catches and he plays all American level defensive back. And you go, well, this, this guy is in the Heisman conversation because of how valuable he is and it's like, yeah, he caught some balls, he returned some kicks. And that's, that's awesome.

But Travis Hunter is doing it at at elite level, the entire game. Like whenever we've debated baseball players and you almost feel like you can just end it and go, okay, so what did Babe Ruth do as a pitcher? And then he hit that many home runs. Right. Like, what are we doing? Like, how are we even debating this against anybody else when nobody else has been able to do that? And look, if Otani puts together a 15 year stretch and starts pitching And for Hunter, especially now looking at Colorado, who I had completely written off two, three weeks into the season, you know, after the Nebraska game, I was like,

I just don't want to hear about him anymore. They've, they've found a way to win some games and maybe, you know, maybe there's a record there where it'll matter, but I think the lack of quarterback momentum now is a big factor in the way that we're playing the game. And I think that's a big factor. And I think that's a big factor in the way that we're playing the, you know, maybe there's a record there where it'll matter but I think the lack of quarterback momentum now is In the favor of the two guys that we're talking about the most here for voters

I would think and it goes back to our initial conversation like the elite teams are still elite, but it's not like man, it's so clearly just Alabama in Ohio State this year, or so clearly Georgia and Ohio State. So like that, it's twofold. There are two individuals that are doing things that nobody else is doing this year. And really historically, nobody else has done. Right? I mean, I just listed like the running backs

to when the high has been going back to 05. He's almost doubling the production of those guys. That's special. That's something that nobody else is doing. Hunter, something nobody else is doing. You gave the Charles Woodson example, like Charles Woodson, a phenomenal player, his value, the team they had that year, all those things,

but Travis Hunter's doing it on both sides of the ball at a higher level. And so you've got these two special unique players. Just to jump in there, you think, I don't know that you think Hunter's a better corner than Boston. No, no, no, I'm not saying, I'm saying. I'm saving you from that, because I'm not there yet.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. I'm just saying the combination, like you said, like 30 catches or whatever it is, like Hunter is one of the elite receivers in college football. Yeah, you're right. I'm just saying the combination, like you said, like 30 catches or whatever it is, like Hunter is one of the elite receivers in college football. Yeah, right. And he's an awesome corner. You know what I mean?

So it's like, to me, that's an even higher level. It's not a gimmick. He's actually doing something nobody's done. Correct. I mean, unless you wanna go back to Gordy Lockbaum or Jim Thorpe. Holy cross. Tough season so far from the cross.

Good old Worcester. So in a year where it's not, it doesn't feel like it's just going to be the best quarterback on the best team or the quarterback on the best team. It adds up. These two special players are doing something that's so unique. Like Ohio State, it's not going to be a quarterback. Alabama, Milrose get the best shot. Cam Ward is playing at a really high level, but like it's been tough sledding the last couple of weeks. And I talked about it three weeks ago. I said, every scout I talked to, it's like,

yeah, September's great, but let's see if the consistency is there. Is he making the same mistakes in late October and November that he has made historically, you know, in Washington state. So I think the door is open is the best way to put it. The door is open for a dual threat player, however you want to put it, you know,

a two way player like Hunter or an exceptional running back like Gentie. Let's talk some NFL here. I was so impressed with Baltimore to be expected. I think they might be the best team in the AFC. If we were doing college football rankings to them, you couldn't put them ahead of Kansas City for obvious reasons, the record,

the head-to-head and all that different stuff. But to go into Cincinnati being down 10 in the fourth quarter and then pulling that out. So we could sit here and talk Lamar all day and we'd be right to do so. But it seems like you want to talk a little bit about one in four Cincinnati look, I still like. I do too.

And like there, but all my takeaways were like the Cincinnati team's good. And you got Higgins back and Jamar chases, like that career performance and burrow, like burrow was dealing man. I just can't imagine having an issue with Burrow after the last few weeks. Like the pick is terrible, but as I said in the open,

I understood what his read was there. I understood what he thought he was gonna get away with. He doesn't think Humphrey's making that play. And there's contact that throws off the time and the whole thing. I'm just glad you said it, because like I've seen a lot of, like the rules are a quarterback with recognition

loses big game. Well, let's fire up the fucking cannons on Monday. Like there's just, there's certain moments in an NFL season, like you have an issue with that guy. Do you watch any other game? 30 of 39 Higgins and chase combined for 19 catches and 176 yards or 276 yards. Like it was an awesome performance. Awesome offensive performance.

And the defense, by the way, like not a great defense, I got it. But like pretty good. Derek Henry had 14 carries for 41 yards and was stopped in the end zone for safety before the breakaway 51 yard run that he had to set up the game winning field goal. So like, it's hard to walk away from like the Ravens awesome job, like give them all

their flowers, all the river. But like, since there's a bunch of one in four teams today, we wake up, there's a bunch of one in four teams on Monday after the fifth week in the season. And they're the only one where I'm like, don't count them out. They can still get in the playoffs. And Pittsburgh's going to come back to the pack. I don't know. They were like, literally, the field goal.

We're talking about a field goal. The holder can't get it. And they're executing a chip shot field goal away from being two and three and, and the Ravens being about three and two. You know what I mean? Like, so I just, I'm not willing to give up on Cincinnati yet. They've got the giants. They've got the Browns. They've got the Eagles.

They've got the Raiders next four. We'll see. But I mean, I click on their schedule and it's somebody destroying them. Although they do lose the tiebreaker. Talking about them five a sudden we could be talking about them five and four. Yeah, maybe. You know, but then the tiebreaker, Cleveland's one and four, New England's one and four, Jacksonville finally gets on the winning side. Trevor Lawrence hadn't won a game in like a year. Cincinnati's your 16 seed today. So exciting. Speaking of seeding, I was talking about Washington being the two seed in the NFC. I don't know if that's going to last.

But you can dig into the schedule. I, you know, we're kind of mirroring thoughts here in Cincinnati. It's like Cincinnati's win for Washington. That's a good win. I don't care about the record part of it, but the offense is cooking and they made Cleveland look like they weren't even worthy yesterday. Is the hesitation, Hey, we haven't seen it before. Is the hesitation to say they're a playoff team because of anything else.

If you're there maybe you're not there maybe you think they are plenty yeah i just. I'm hopeful right i like i'm kind of i just love rookie quarterbacks who can go out and actually like do the things we're watching something that's so unique. like do the things. We're watching something that's so unique. But I always kind of pull for these rookie quarterbacks because I've come to understand like just how challenging this is. So I'm always keeping a close eye on Washington every Sunday, every week. And to me, and it's not answered by playing Cleveland. I think we all know that and recognize and keep it all in perspective. But like every week that goes by, it's like I'm starting to believe a little bit more. Two things that stood out to me that will remain question marks, again, nothing's answered, but the run game.

We know what they can do. As long as Jaden stays healthy and with McLaurin, they are going to throw the ball and they're going to be successful in that area. But when you combine the run game and what they did there with Daniels Bryan Robinson jr. Austin Eckler and Jeremy McNichols they combined to rush for 211 yards on 31 carries that's like and against that defense that's something right I think we can all agree that's something yeah I'm worried about Cleveland's defense just the vibe thing when your offense is that bad

and you go, okay, let's look at the personnel and you're like, how come they're not good? There's a Denver example that I have from years ago where that Denver defense was loaded. You just expect, and they just went, this sucks. This sucks every Sunday. And you see that on the sideline. You're starting to see that behavior, the body.

Garrett's a little dinged up. I think there's another guy they were down but go ahead yeah I'm just saying it's something it's not nothing yeah and then on the defensive side yes you should have one of your best weeks against Cleveland I mean it's an absolute train wrecked Sean Watson like that's a whole 30 minute conversation we can have but they they had a lot like they had a lot of positive moments. They forced a fumble, sacked Deshaun seven times. These are games where you build confidence,

you kind of build some momentum, but they entered with the third worst defense in the league. So to come out of that and to be as successful as they were, I think that that's a confidence building performance. But the defense is going to be the question, the run game as a balance is going to be very important. And both of those areas was, and they've been impressive, man. I mean, how could you not put them up there in the top three or four teams in the NFC right now if you're doing power right? So I just don't know how you don't. Well, you put Minnesota in there. Yeah. San Francisco falls into the Cincinnati category for

me. I'm like, okay. They're two and three now, right? Yeah. But I mean, you want to start talking about like playoff seating right now. San Francisco is only ahead of Carolina in the Rams. They lose the tiebreaker with the Giants and Arizona. They got the saints tonight. The Eagles are out of the playoffs. The bears were in the playoffs yesterday until the Packers came back and won that game, which, you know, the Rams defense is so bad this year and the first half of the Packers getting love back a second week, I'm thinking like, you guys are going to be able to put up any numbers against the Rams. Like what the fuck's going on here?

And then of course, 14-6 in the second half. So, um, the NSC is just really weird because parts of it are new and, you know, the Atlanta thing with cousins like this feels real because the personnel and Atlanta is just one of those teams you felt like if they had had an average quarterback play, you had to take them a little bit more serious. They, I swear to God every year with Atlanta, like the last three or four

years, every time I'd get to like week eight or nine, I'd go, what's their record? Like they're like two or three wins better than I thought they were. I just kind of like lose track of Atlanta all the time. So a couple really dramatic wins for them that makes you feel better about the record part of it. But. How you feel about Atlanta today versus after week one, when they were in the pistol and Kurt Cousins was not moving, they one when they were in the pistol and Kurt

Cousins was not moving. They were tipping this snap to Pittsburgh over and over again. You know, Watt was getting a jump off the snap that was like how vastly different that offense looks from week one to now. I mean, I've gone back and studied it. Like it is, it's true. It's like they came in the year, like let's give away week one and let's let Kirk like get settled in and feel

some confidence that obviously this is not the game plan, but it's so different week one to what we're seeing in the last couple of weeks. It's, it's pretty remarkable. I loved what the Thursday night crew too did like kind of like breaking down how he's still post Achilles injury, like not loading up, loading up into the throw or whatever, but I mean, look, the last two weeks, they pull those games out, um, it's like he, the numbers that he put up in that Tampa game are historic things, like you go through all the guys that had 500 yards in a game passing,

like Brady's only got one, Marino has one and Cousins in 509, 42 or 58. People used to be mad when they wouldn't run the football in that game. It's like, cool, let's just keep doing this. I have like two quick things. We'll make it just a few minutes here. Caleb was so good yesterday. Yes, it's Carolina, but if you look at every week here, it's clear that he's getting better. The downfield throws 20 plus yards. He was three of 23 on the season on the throws prior to the Panthers game. So yeah, sure. You can do the default, hey, the Panthers,

but for the people that don't like Caleb, it's like, well, so he can't, we can't be happy. Those of us that love him dearly, Bears fans, we can't be happy that he just looked good. And that's how I felt. So you had mentioned that you wanted to talk about it. So I went back and looked at it. I breezed through, we call it newsreeled it, you know? All right. Newsreeled some of the tape.

Here's what stood out to me. He's calming his feet down. Caleb is absolutely starting to negotiate safeties with his eyes, which is hugely important at the position, and he's looking guys off. In the first couple of weeks, it was just a scramble drill. You could see the panic in his eyes when you're studying his helmet, where it's going, locking on,

doing all the things that rookie quarterbacks do that cause problems. I saw a quarterback who was more comfortable throwing all three levels. Like I didn't see that in the first couple of weeks. I saw more comfortable throwing the ball on all three levels. Um, understanding the importance of protecting the ball still like. There's some wild plays like that. I forget which play it was wild.

Like, you know, he, he was, wild, like, you know, he extended, extended, extended, and was able to eventually just throw the ball away. There's going to be some scramble drill plays that like maybe turn into some problems, but more often than not, at least we'll get him out of sack and or could lead to some huge plays down the road. But for the most part, he was playing within the offense.

He was just more calm with his eyes and calm with his decisions, protecting the football and honestly, just like watching him. I feel like watching him the last few weeks after the first two weeks. There's like anxiety, like, Oh, what's coming next? And now I'm watching and I'm like, all right, I can breathe a little bit studying him. He's starting to get it. You know what I mean?

Like I don't, but I do. Cause I don't watch it that way, but it makes sense. Like, so I want you to run. And when you put it, when you put in a grade on Caleb that I put on him and a grade on Jayden that I put on Jayden, those are elite level grades. Okay. And so when you pull it so when you start to watch him in the NFL, I probably shouldn't, but I'm a little anxious isn't the word, but a little

agita. Like, did I miss on this? Or like I'm starting to see scary signs. And increasingly over the last three weeks, I'm like, oh, I don't have to... It's like having a kid who's making good decisions when he gets into his teen years. Like, I don't have, I can reduce the curfew a little bit. Or, you know, I can go to bed tonight and not worry that he's gonna do something really stupid. It's kind of like, I'm starting to feel that, which is all very promising. You know, you let, it's like 70% completion is the last three games, 104.5 passer ratings, the last three games. And the past two weeks is the big thing. You ready?

Versus the Blitz the past two weeks, he's 17 of 19. Two touchdowns, 200 passing yards. No turnovers. That tells me when you get to this level and all the mistakes he had and the pressure and what it was causing for him, the last three weeks, he's played really well, the last two weeks to see those numbers and to watch the tape and to see how he's calming down and he's starting to get it.

And like if you're a Bears fan, if you're someone who's believed in him, this is the trajectory that you're dying to see and you were scared that you weren't gonna see after those first two weeks. Okay, last thing, draft revisit because we didn didn't do some of other standards this week. Nico Collins, he left the game with a hamstring injury here. He's a third round pick out of Michigan and he's okay the first couple of years. Last year he goes for 1,300 yards and he's been one of the five best receivers in the NFL this year. Give me perception then of like what he was because clearly NFL teams

agreed if he lasts until the third round. Excuse me. So, and yeah, and I just went, I went back and looked, I had him as the 13th best receiver in that class, a 76th grade, which is like dead middle. Um, and I had him as the 75th ranked overall player. I don't remember exactly when he w but he went around the middle of the third round. So the great, okay. 89. So a little bit higher than where he got drafted, but same range.

So the grade lined up with where he wound up getting drafted, but doesn't, does not line up with what he's become. Right. And so I go back and look, I just read through my notes, obviously big physical guys, 6'4", 2'15". The things that stood out to me in my evaluation, I remember watching them on tape and I had two Michigan games live that year. It was like the 20, or it was the 2019 season,

but it was the 20, I forget what it was, but I think it was the 2019 season, I had two games live. He actually, he's one of those bigger receivers that actually had initial burst off the line of scrimmage faster. Normally those guys are buildup speed guys. He actually had more burst and could get from zero to 60 faster. He had, he was outstanding on like contested catches going up, you know, 50, 50 balls, jump ball, but inconsistent with his hands, with ball skills, dropping focus, you know,

focus drops, those sorts of things. The biggest question with me, and I remember distinctly is, can he, can he rid himself of coverage? Can he separate like, and guys in the league get, get by, there are a lot of, you know, examples in history of guys who get by, they can't separate with their feet, but do it with late separation is what scouts call it, you know, the ability to box out, nudge, go up and out muscle defensive backs. He was not able in college at a consistent level to rid himself of coverage to separate with his feet and with his athleticism. I think a combination of improved foot quickness and also understanding of the game, he has improved greatly in that area.

Knowing where soft spots are in zone, setting up defenders with moves, he's a shining example for receivers and what they can do to develop themselves at the next level and we see it over and over again. It's not unlike running backs where you can get guys third, fourth, fifth, sixth round that have issues that need to be developed, but can be developed.

Probably a little bit better to have CJ Stroud than Davis Mills as well. Probably worth throwing that. No question about it. Yeah. Well, uh, you're the man. We'll talk to you next week. All right, brother. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.

I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Our email address, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. The gang is all here. Something that came up here quickly. I got a link for something.

I think I remember meeting a female woman who was like, oh, I went on a date. The guy showed up with a Life is Good hat. So what's that mean? Oh, I went on a date, the guy showed up with a Life is Good hat. I was like, what is, so what's that mean? Like what happens, what's the reaction there? I wanted to talk to Oregon. Of the four of us,

the most likely to wear a Life is Good hat. Oh man. Oregon, do you have one? I've never even heard of this till about three, four minutes ago. How have you never heard of Mike is good? Producing mouth practice, insane. I think that makes you cool.

I would think the opposite, but. You don't think you're cool, Mike. Is that what you're telling us? No, no, no, no. That's like the coolest thing you can say, by the way. Yeah, I was gonna say. I know, but the certainty with which he delivered that line. And he wasn't trying to be funny.

Fuck, that was funny. All right, but you thought, hey, I'm uncool, my resume has leaned uncool. It's a strong resume of being uncool. Yeah, and so because that's my internal instinct, life is good must be a cool thing because I am not cool and we're telling you actually this might. Right, if I don't know it, it's gotta be cool.

I don't know if that's the case here. I think if you're wearing a life is good anything, it just means you're a good guy. I think that's really like, in general, that guy makes good choices, you know what I mean? I don't know if I believe that. You can probably watch my bike while I run in the store. I don't know if I believe that.

I'm asking but I already know the answer. When Gillis did like a rant, it might not even have been part of the bit where he was just like some guy who's like got salt life gear on. Yeah. So when I was in New Zealand and I was over in one of the cities,

and everything was sort of shut down and there was this really like funky area, kind of like, you know, think of like a stretch in New York city that still feels like it hasn't been just weeded out yet by development. And there was this vintage clothing store that had like Texas Rangers jerseys in there or whatever. And then there was like a used salt life long sleeve and it was so bad that it was awesome. And I just was wondering like how many people are just walking through this town in New Zealand going,

holy shit, you see their salt life stuff. So, yeah. Well, do you see they went out of, they're bankrupt, I guess. Salt life? There's no more salt life. Yeah, and I said, cause I saw this on Instagram. How the fuck am I supposed to live the Salt Life if I can't? Well, I didn't know, but apparently Salt Life clothing,

like a lot of landlocked people like it. Like it's kind of like a poser thing, which I don't have any, you know, I live near a beach. I didn't have any yet. Now though, the market's open. Price of the brick just went up, dude. But Huck is cool, right? Like that's when, you know, you market's open. Price of the brick just went up, dude. But Huck is cool, right? Like that's when, you know, you're out there.

Like you got to, I could get away with it because I got a boat. All right. I don't, I don't have any of that either. So no one has a life is good hat. I think Kyle, if he walked through a party. I've had a shirt. I've not seen Kyle. I've had a shirt.

Yeah. Pleasant Valley department stores, chock full of life is good stuff. Life is good to me screams like you're kind of a dad older dad type you know I don't know that it means you're a good person I just mean it means that you you probably don't care a ton. Well I think the good person gets life is good and I think maybe the not so good person just gets like a vineyard vines or something you know. And you're yeah it's in your frog shirt. It tells me you were wicked depressed a few years ago.

And now it's all good. Okay. I think we covered it. We'll get to some of those. Why did it come up? I don't know. Just Mike made me so happy today. And I'm like, I have this, it's not a hangover. It's a laughter hangover.

And that I have a huge smile on my face. Cause life is good, dude. Well, cause life is good. And cause four con was just, he doesn't talk a lot on the pod. We have him. He just throws it 98 on the paint. It doesn't even realize he did it. I'm just looking at these shirts and it's like, my favorite color is beer smoke show with like a smoker image.

Fuck yeah, dude. Kyle's like, wait a minute. What are you, why are you laughing? They still make those. Yeah. Do they have a double X? And what's their shipping? They got double X's.

They speak the language of the large men. What are you looking for right now? Are you looking, are you looking for life is good shirts? Or are you looking for salt life shirts? Me? Oh no, I wouldn't dare to assume I should be a salt life guy. I mean, I mean, I'm really like, if the shirt speaks to me, I'm not like going into the department store

as I do every trip home. I'm not like, let me see what's new in the life is good section, but I will look. I'm really looking for on sale polo stuff nowadays. Macy's has a great sale. I feel like you had to be where you were a big dog shirt guy back in the day, right? Yeah. Lock. Lock of the century. What are we saying? Big dog?

Yeah. Oh my God. Do you not know what big dogs are? The big dog brand? No, I had a lot of South Pole. Um, tried to get my hand as much like shady and G unit, but that stuff was just a little out of my mom's price range. Deco?

Yeah, so I did have a lot. I had some of those bugs bunnies holding pistols like counting money. That's kind of similar to big dogs, yeah. Okay, maybe that's what I was, yeah. But like an off brand usually, those ones were, like the good ones were like 60 bucks, and she was like, that's like four shirts worth of money.

I think the big dogs one was there was like a group of like six dogs all playing poker at a table. They're smoking cigars and that was just kind of the vibe of that look. I don't know where it came from. Tough guy, graphic shirts. Sure. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I've long those guys have not grown up. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. Uh, speaking of clothing brands. Or up to. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. Uh, speaking of clothing brands. Go ahead. Yeah. I think and one needs to come back. I miss and one gear. Uh, overall,

I loved it. I love the trash talk t-shirts now. Like you can kind of buy those on eBay and they're kind of expensive because people, you know, depending on what condition it's in, but yeah, they had good cutoffs too. Good cutoff. Great cutoffs. Yep. Vince Carter shoes back in the day. We're sure it's, we're totally fine. Yeah. I used to have a hookup at Antoine. I don't know that it led to anything for me though.

Um, yeah. Big dogs play to win. That's the poker shirt, but I'm, I don't know if this is official big dogs gear. That's what I'm worried about. Yeah, it is. Oh, it is. Any weather tag in the, in the photo you can see 10% off. They've got new arrivals. Man, we're just we gotta stop.

We gotta stop. These are the time. You're at seven minutes. I don't know. One. We're now way behind schedule, but we're just free ads all over the place. So let's. There you go. You're welcome. Although I don't know some of the ads might be like, there you go. You're welcome. Although I don't know. Some of the ads might be like, thank you. Yeah. Okay. One of them was out of business. So we've been defunct for a decade.

Salt life's like, now you guys give us a shout out. Thanks. I got to find that Gillis thing. Cause it was just perfectly delivered as, as you would expect for him. But who did I talk to the other day? I was like, oh, you think he's funny? And I was like, wait, you don't think he's funny? They're like, yeah.

Yeah, it's like, all right. Good job. OK, let's do a little conflict resolution here. Thirty five, five, ten, one eighty, twelve hundred club member. When I weighed 220, twelve hundred pounds. I don't max anymore. I focus more on running hoops, bodyweight and strength. My stats are only relevant to this incident. I don't look big anymore, but it should still be apparent to strangers that I lift. Okay.

Last week, I was late to my nine-year-old daughter's semi-final soccer match. In the second half, I arrived and ran up to talk to my mother-in-law who was sitting in a foldout chair. After a few minutes of chatting, I thought I heard a loud throat clearing, but it didn't really register. A minute later, I found myself breathing directly in the nape of another man's neck. There was no physical contact, but this man had decided to stand right in front of me. Several uncomfortable seconds followed.

I finally leaped in to see if this was a friend of mine just messing with me as a joke. Nope, this is a man probably early sixties. I'd never seen before. Seriously? I inquired. Yes, seriously. He responded as he scurried back to his chair. You don't think there was a more mature way to handle that? I asked. Maybe say, excuse me, sir. I thought you would have had the decency to see you were right in front of me, implored. His wife waved her hands at me as if she were hoping to defuse the situation. Two teenage girls, I'm assuming to be granddaughters, sat at the ground motionless and expressionless.

I assess the situation and summon the most sarcastic voice I could muster as I'm generally very quiet, non-confrontational, quote, I'm so sorry, good job. There's definitely better lines. Yeah, I think the good job definitely took some wind out of your sails. Yeah, the long sew. So it finishes here.

I thought he was onto something with the long sew, but I do think the good job really killed it. I stayed in the same spot to watch the last few minutes after the game, the offending party ran off. My daughter came over to tell me she scored two goals in the wind. Congrats to her, the athletes all over this family. I was expecting the next sentence to be like,

I didn't see either of them because I was so mad, but he did not say that. That's what I thought. I think I was expecting the next sentence to be like, I didn't see either of them because I was so mad. But he did not say that. That's what I thought. I think I was right. I was probably in their sight line, but I didn't have my ass in their face or anything. I wanted to hurt this man. Oh, but I think it was smart to deescalate.

I was late because I was coaching a local baseball team and I was wearing a shirt with the logo of the personal training gym I own. Oh, but like George Costanza, I've since thought, excuse me, of many qu, I own. Oh, but like George Costanza, I've since thought, excuse me, of many quips I could have used, but did I win by taking the high road? Yeah, I think he did.

I mean, he was 60, you're at a youth soccer game. Like, do you really wanna fight? Like, who answers, be like, yeah, I'm up for it. I'll mix it up at that. Like, nobody should ever say that. I mean, it can happen. Even though it was like, I punched him right in the face, right then and there. Yeah, knocked him down,. I mean, it can happen. Even though it was like I punished him right in the face, right then and there.

Knocked him down, his granddaughters, fuck him. He left. Made a huge scene. Yeah. My daughter doesn't talk to me anymore. Right. Nobody actually wants to do any of these things. I don't think. And I think you hand out the right, the win was not, but I

still think there might be a little guilt on your side. You probably didn't have a lot of self-awareness. Maybe your peripheral vision was off because you're focused on your daughter there, which isn't the worst thing that could possibly happen. Um, and he, he escalated it. It feels like to a point that didn't need it. He could have just said, Hey, like other people have had this happening before, what do they do?

Hey, is there any chance you could just move? Like, I can't see. There you go. So he, he got to a point that you felt like you needed to respond. The comeback could have been better, but I think overall there's a lot of wins in this as opposed to, um, you know, beating somebody up at a youth soccer game. All right, you know what, let's just do it. I'll do two conflicts, Ryan style last few weeks.

So leaving the gym the other day, this is about a month or so ago. I'm going over to this kind of pedestrian mall walking area where there's a million kids and they're shopping and all the kids play outside. It's a really cool outside shopping restaurant thing. And I was going to grab a bowl of chicken and rice after I worked out. So I'm a little sweaty feeling like I'm in a great mood. And I see this Rivian truck, uh, just start darting around. Like it's, there's like a scene from a movie being filmed.

And this is the car chase like I could not fucking believe somebody was driving the way this guy was driving and As he then turned around and like went to pass another car because I was thinking well Did he get cut off like did something happen to this guy to send him to insane town? So quickly to be driving around this parking lot like a complete asshole and people were just looking He's coming right at me, going way too fast. I do the hands out to the side, like, what the fuck are you doing?

He slams on the brakes, backs up the truck, rolls down the window and is like, you want to fucking go essentially. And I was like, God damn it. I was like, I can't believe he stopped. Like he's, and you know, I have no idea what the guy's makeup was. I was watching his hands because he was so confident.

Body type, I like my chances. But I was like, does this guy have a fucking knife or something? Like how is this guy this upset? And he's like, what's this about? I was like, seriously? I was like, you're mad at me? He's like, why are your hands out?

Why are your hands out? You won't fucking do something. And I was like, I don't really like, I'm sort of indifferent to the whole thing, but I can't believe you think I'm to blame here. He's like, you're fucking hands out. And then I started thinking like, does this guy a boxer? Was he a middleweight or something? Like,

what are we, what are we signing up for here? And I was like, if he gets out of the car, you can't hesitate. Okay. If he gets out of the car, do not fucking hesitate. That's when you lose in the first 10 seconds. And luckily, but there was a moment where I was like, do I actually want this? I was like, no, I want chicken and rice and then go to beach this afternoon and read my book.

And so I got to be honest with you. I felt soft for about a week. For about a week, I felt really soft and I didn't like it. I even had to talk to a friend about it. Now fast forward to a recent incident. Flying back from the Philly show. Yes, I was sitting in first class. Thank you.

Um, guy had an emotional support dog. He and his wife, the guy immediately show. Yes, I was sitting in first class, thank you. Guy had an emotional support dog, he and his wife. The guy immediately was an asshole, right? And I'm sorry. What was that, Kyle? 29A for me. Hey, did you have the weight of the entire performance on your shoulders? Well, some could say.

Ah, I'm kidding, I'm not that good. Well done, great report. You would have been good at this soccer thing. Yeah. So, look, when I see people with emotional support dogs, I'll admit my instinct is usually like, you think the dog's going to fix all this? Now, for some, because we do not rule out all of the people, because some people need it. There's a lot of programs I've looked at, not because I want one, don't need one,

but you understand the point. There's certainly people, if you're listening here right now, you've been through some shit, I get it. But I think most people that have emotional support dogs, like over 90%, it's bullshit. They want to bring them to the farmer's market. That's what my grandma did. She just ordered one off of Amazon.

She's like, I really like Willie, and I want him to be at the farmer's market with me, and that lady won't let me, so I've ordered this for ordered one off of Amazon. She's like, I really like Willie and I want him to be at the farmers market with me and that lady won't let me. So I've ordered this for 24 bucks off of Amazon. Now, as far as anyone's concerned, he's a goddamn service dog. And I think that's a big chunk of the pie. Yeah. Right. I think 90% is a really, really fair number.

And so this couple, super old, the dog basket was a Louis Vuitton basket, which immediately just should just, the people at the airline should go Louis Vuitton dog basket support dog fuck you like turn around. Leave the dog with somebody. So something happens with the stewardess, excuse me, flight attendant, and she was a sweetheart. And the guy started like getting really animated

with her and like grabbing her arm. And he was across the aisle, one seat up for with her and like grabbing her arm. And he was across the aisle, one seat up for me, one row up. And I'm watching because it's like right next to me and I'm starting to get a little pissed. So I was like, I don't like the way he's treating this woman. I don't like that he's grabbing her arm and she's trying to do everything she can to diffuse the situation. And so then he spent the next 20 minutes, like taking videos of her with his phone as I was watching.

I was like, fuck this guy. And so I went up to the stewardess and said, Hey, sorry, flight attendant. So just so you are aware, like every time you do anything, he's trying to videotape you, which I think in itself is a massive violation and totally screwed up and I don't know what was said, but I could just tell based on the mannerisms that he was totally wrong. Like he was totally, she was said, but I could just tell based on the mannerisms that he was totally wrong. Like he was totally, she's like, I've already filed a complaint on him.

So don't worry about it. So after he saw that I went to alert her, cause I just thought it was wrong that this old man was videotaping this younger girl while she was working. I sat back down and then the idiot, this dickhead takes his phone out and starts videotaping me turning around, pretending that I can't see. the idiot, this dickhead takes his phone out and starts videotaping me, turning around, pretending that I can't see.

He's like trying to hold it up like he's reading, but he had turned the camera around and then was videotaping me as I sat there and read my Akim Elijah and book by Mirren Fader. So now I'm like, well, this isn't the Rivian parking lot thing. I'm way more in the right here. And I just tapped him and was like, don't take a picture of me, man. And he, uh, he stopped. Then he lied.

He's like, I wasn't, I was like, I just saw your camera the whole time. So look, all I'm telling you, pick your spots. Definitely don't put it on an airplane. I would say, yeah, that's probably going to be it. That's like hiding, talk about the tents, you know, you're just in a cylinder going and I don't know how, that's probably gonna be it. That's like hiding. Talk about tense. You know, you're just in a cylinder going and I don't know how fast the planes go fast. You're just in a cylinder trapped going fast. So yeah, when you get put on twice, and your life becomes more

complicated. I think there's a there's definitely a rule for for the email or like, because it sucks because I feel like 60 the guy said he was he thought he was about 60. Right? It's probably right at that like weird age where you probably can't fight anyone in public like that. Cause then you're hitting an old guy. So there's probably like a don't hit old guys rule, but the old guy also probably knows that, Hey, maybe I'm a little older. No one's going to hit me. So he's kind of in that weird spot. He's kind of like me in like college where, you know, I was kind of just look like a little bit mouthy. Like I know.

Like diapers to diapers is mouthy to mouthy. It's like a different circle of the circle of life. There's some 60 year olds out there that hope somebody starts with them. I've seen some sick like just pound on younger dudes that are mouthy and going like. Those guys are on Nutanix. Aye, aye, yeah.

I didn't even know what it is. They feel like it too. We talked about the guy who was mad about the parking situation, he was his 30s. I was like, that's a 70 year old hobby. You keeping track of everyone's parking situation, as long as it's not directly impacting you, that you can not like it, it'd be unfair,

it's super selfish, bullshit, the same thing we talk about all the time, the motivation to be like, well, if I do it, it's fine. But sometimes some of these hobbies are like, you're too young to be doing this stuff. I'm probably still a little young to be parking lot police officer. And I almost paid the price for it. Or who knows? Cause that was a lose lose.

I lose and I lose. I win and I lose. Uh, the airline one was so much worse to me because he was, I thought, violating the privacy of a woman. And I was like, I've fucking had it. And nobody else was seeing what was going on. And I sat there, I was like, you can stew or you can just fucking say something to him.

And so I think in this case, like you got to look at the stew meter, right? Like a crock pot. Like you're just gonna sit there and keep stewing and stewing. The soccer thing, it was a quick brief interaction and then it was over. He left. Yeah.

You know, it's not like he was waiting for you and you were mouthing off and you were trying to do all the calculations. You'd be ahead of like, is this actually worth it? It was over. It was over quick and you didn't fight at your daughter's game. Yeah. No one's perfect. Obviously, especially when we're talking about comebacks.

And I think that's totally normal to be in the shower. Like, Oh man, if this guy, if I ever come and go fireless away for this type of situation again. But I think I spent a lot of years, I mean, I'm only 30, but I spent a lot of years behaving like I had nothing to lose. And I think like that's an easy, that's an easy card to pull when like, you know, tensions are high.

But so, so you feel like, oh, I could have done more. Maybe you have done more in the past. I certainly could say yes, but you you but that's part of growing up. So just have to remember you the reason you're not, you know, didn't haul off on this man and cause an incident was because you got shit to lose. Now you're at your daughter's game and stuff. So I think it's just, it's just, you got to got to remember as a guy who's like, probably behaved like he's got nothing to lose, fuck it, let's go, I'll mix it up. That's why you think maybe should you have done something different, but you were correct.

This is just you growing up. If you were looking at like all the paths of how many things could go right and how many things could go wrong, there's so many wrong paths for that one. There just are. Like this is behind you. But I understand that moment of going like

after the car thing and the guy back, I was like, you can't believe this guy's going to back up. Oh my God. And then I was like, oh, here we go. I was like, this guy's fucking heated. And I just couldn't, I was like trying to check them out a little in the car. I was like, is he sitting weird?

Like what? This doesn't- You mentioned Rivian too. Is there a truck or car he could have been driving that would have had you more nervous? Maybe the most astute observation you ever made because the Rivian played into the math a little. You're like, yeah, this guy can't be tough.

Like, fuck this guy. Or it's pretty new. It's really hard to get a scout on those drivers, right? We haven't seen him for that long. That's also fair. Like what stereotype do we have enough data? We probably don't, but the Rivian was part of the calculation.

But somebody needed to like at least alert him. But then I started going like, I got a, I just kept, he rolled down the window and I'm like, I'm just going to watch his hands. Cause he's going to grab something or that door handle. Did you have your Benchmade on you? No, you were just in your gym clothes, right? Well, I don't carry a knife.

Even as much as we like Benchmade's product, I don't have one at the ready. I've checked them out. They have some real small ones. I mean, it could probably even fit in like that little Jim Shore pocket. But I just say, hey, man, just so you know, I'm carrying. Then I take out like a one and a half inch.

Just flip many. Just like a deep boning. Like if you were a fish, I'd scale the shit out of you right now. Okay. I don't, I don't really know what the, uh, what we're doing here today. Here's a quick one. Adnan Burke, exhausting and email. He was on one.

He comes in hot. He gets excited for Adnan. Now I know he gets excited, but we gotta talk about like A block, C block material. Yeah, he unloads the entire, so I'm assuming, you know, we talk to him every couple of months really, so he's got a lot on his chest

that he wants to get off, update us on his life, things, but he must write it all down, and then he immediately gets on the pod and just reads the list, but also on like 2X speed too. And you know, admin to my knowledge, not a drug guy. So like some people are like, not a drug guy. That's why, that's why when I mentioned him like in Toronto,

when he was there for the all star game weekend and he was in the lobby, they could have done studies on him. Like how many? Neurons are firing in this guy right now. You can power a whole neighborhood with that exactly Okay, I don't this has turned into a hang more than I told two stories and we talked about salt life and life is good And big dogs so covered a lot here today. Hey you are You're you swung your swing in the election too, by the way lot here today. Hey, you, uh, you're, you swung, you're swinging the election too, by the way. Yeah. People were upset that Josh Brown was not more critical of this administration's, uh, economic stuff.

I mean, you should hear the immigration stuff we did that we didn't even run. Had to cut that. Shout out to war guys keeping his eyes open. That's a joke. Yeah, it was crazy. And then I just responded because I was like, I'm going to respond to the person that was like, you need to have somebody on from the right now to balance it out. I was like, no, I actually just know Josh a little and he had a book that I was going

to show. We should probably give this more context by the way. For people that are on Twitter, somebody tweeted at you, right? Saying, like, are you gonna have the other, you had a left leaning or whatever liberal journalist, quote unquote, are you gonna represent the other side? And you quote tweeted that saying, are you afraid I'm swinging the election?

I have guys that work in the industry that disagreed with a ton of what he said that hit me up after the fact. But as I tell the audience- A million dollars salary thing, I think was a, that seems high in 10 years that you're gonna need to make seven figures to be like, what do you say, like middle-class?

No, that one I had no issue. I think he's talking about like the lifestyle that you would hope to live. And maybe, I mean, that's up to each person's definition of like what that lifestyle is. And I think for where he's living and where he's from and he's been around the city. And I, I understood that part of it.

I think people had a problem with the way he had put the inflation stuff together. And again, a lot of times like we're only paying attention to the things that are negative towards us, whether it's sports or in life. And that was the thing that I think I've learned the most over the last, say, 10 years of doing this job is that there's such a relationship between everybody that thinks everything that's bad is only happening to them.

And it's like, well, that's actually the only thing you actually care about. So that's therefore the only thing that like signals your radar. And, you know, you could argue that Josh on the financial side, like is detached and there's so many people in the country going, yeah, well, that's not the reality for me, so therefore it's wrong. I don't know. I tell you I'm interested in it, but that is something I go in at a massive, it's Josh minus 21 points in that conversation. It's hard for me to sit there and feel comfortable arguing with somebody about economic trends. When I just know there's like, you know, there's some stuff that

Cuban's been saying recently that I'm really surprised by. And it's like, imagine having to debate him. Like I just, I'd be like, there's no point because I'm going to, I'm going to lose even if I think there's some things that I think are wrong. Anyway, uh, let's do one. Let's do this. This doesn't happen a lot. We'll end here.

We'll end here. We'll end here. Okay, greetings. 35, six foot one, 250, maybe a third down, running back build, basketball comp, Joe Johnson. Like that, stuck around a long time, Joe Johnson did. Let's get right into it. I looked at this bartender's Instagram and accidentally hit like on one of her posts

and immediately unliked. Will she know? I go in every week with my hoops crew and after we play, and she's usually there, I'm just going to assume she saw, how do I handle this? I think my strategy is to say nothing. And if she brings it up, I will just flat out confess. Yeah, I looked at it happens. Something with that effect.

How do you feel about it? Sorry. You have more on that. Cut. All right. I'll just keep going. How do you feel about my, sorry, do you have more on that Kyle? All right, I'll just keep going. How do you feel about my approach? What notes do you all have? Or do we have any other strategies I can go with?

Additionally, if the hoops crew found out I did this, how do I handle that? I think the same approach quote, yeah, I creep. I got caught slipping happens. Kyle. Um, do we know if, like, can you unlike something and will that go away from the notification? Do we know? Can we confirm that or no? I'm pretty sure you still get the notification. Yeah. I think you get the notification.

You don't get the notification that you unlike. All right. You get the. Well, here's one. Here's one. This is a classic Rosillo. How hot is she is like, is that is her Instagram? Are you just going to be dropping the bucket or, you know hot is she? Is her Instagram, are you just going to be dropping the bucket or is she like 500 followers, every like matters? Maybe she looks at us. Yeah, there you go. You start looking at the obtainable ones early on.

60,000 followers, Miami doesn't look like that's her apartment. She's not going to see that like. I'd be like, no. Really do. That's that guy from Thursdays. Yeah. She's in Bali again? I mean, you start seeing somebody just do the globe

in 12 months, pretty good chance you're out. So again, yeah, I creeped, I got caught slipping, happens. I also need notes for this as well. Another additionally, Kyle, are you keeping track of all the things we need to answer here? I got a whiteboard right here. There's nothing on it, but I could totally start writing stuff down.

There's a long distance girlfriend here in this equation. She won't find out, right? This won't be a thing, right? I can only hope if looks matter here, I look pretty good. My balding is what's stopping me from saying great. That was sent, um, in the last week. Well, if I got it at this time forwarded to me, we could be talking about almost a last call email. Well, 17 hours later, our man emailed a follow up to his own email answering every single one of these questions in amazing efficiency.

Quote, on second thought, who cares? I was just thinking, I was like, wait, is this a scenario? Did he like have this nightmare when he's like, this bartender, as soon as we walk in, after losing a tough game, she comes and she tells all my friends, you know what your fucking loser friend did? He found my Instagram and liked a photo,

then unliked it, and all your friends were like, oh, and then they call your girlfriend to let her know in Colorado Colorado and she's like, I think I need to break up like and then what you lose your job like it was like a spiral. Yeah. From like, I'm glad I'm glad he had a moment of clarity was like, it is terrifying though. This happened to me recently. And there's nothing you can do like, but the only thing you can do is nothing unless it's you know, unless it's like an extra there's nothing you can do. But the only thing you can do is nothing. Unless it's like an ex or there's some weird drama behind it. But if it's kind of a semi-rando, and that's who this person is, yes, you know them,

but you're not friendly, why would she ever bring it up? I mean, maybe she's joking and she brings it up at the bar, but your only move here is to not do this. Or you leave the like and give her a follow, right? Unless he was like 180 weeks in the past, then there's no excuse. Yeah. do this and or leave the like and give her a follow right unless she unless he was like 180 weeks in the past then there's no yeah he did everybody kind of knows the deal I think I think even when you get the like you probably know what the deal is I'm sure it's different it's probably very different from a guy girl

thing doesn't happen to me a ton I'm sure it happens if you're a semi attractive girl probably happens to you all the time but yeah doesn't happen a lot of male podcasters yeah I'd imagine'd imagine, well, you have too many followers, so you wouldn't know. Kyle and I are probably on that sweet spot where you never know. We see the likes, but it doesn't happen to me a ton. I don't have that many followers on Instagram.

I don't, I can see stuff, because then when it's verified, it comes up, and it's never that. I also don't think it's that weird, you know? I could just tell you right now, it's never. Well, now there's a new way of pay for verified who are like, oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Top of the troll list, here we fucking go. I like when I post, I'd be like, do you wanna boost this for like $140? Get it out there. That's how much it is, I've never clicked on it. I might start boosting some of them. No, because there's all sorts of different scales. It'd be like, how often do you want people to see,

how long do you want it to run? Be like, all right, this is me in Iceland, let's get this one out there for seven days, 300 bucks. Totally worth it. Priscilla in your face. Let's not can go. I'm like, who is this guy? Man, he does a lot of videos.

I'm like, I don't know. I'm not that worried about it. Like on every sports topic. It's kind of weird. Like this works. This works. You just can keep saying like, I don't know all the time. That's fucking weird.

All right, that'll do it for us. That's enough. We went way too long. Is Wargon still alive? You all right? It's gotta clean some of this up. Thanks to Wargon. Thanks to Saruti, thanks to Kyle.

We are on YouTube. We're on the web like Charlotte. So check out our YouTube page, YouTube only content. Probably a lot of NBA stuff as we have this football basketball overlap. Thanks to Saruti and Kyle. We'll be good to go Wednesday, Friday this week as well. So please subscribe to Ryan Russo podcast. Must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star

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