The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Ohio State’s Turnaround, How Texas Should Feel, and the State of the SEC with Van Lathan. Plus the Unfair Hatred of Notre Dame.

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

Russillo starts the show with Van Lathan as they react right after Ohio State’s win over Texas to advance to the national title game (00:52). They discuss the Buckeye’s turnaround, how Texas fans should feel about how their season played out and a little on the Marcus Freeman-Brian Kelly jokes being thrown at LSU fans. Then, Ryen breaks down Notre Dame’s win on Thursday night over Penn State including why the Irish haters are unfair (43:50). Finally, Ceruti and Kyle join for some life advice including an email the guys are afraid went over their heads (53:01).  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A special Friday night edition of the podcast. We're going to talk about Ohio State marching on through Texas in the Cotton Bowl to head to another national championship to take on Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish. Ohio State, quite the story for this program over the last month. We'll take a look at the game, dig into it. Vans probably get some SEC stuff. And is there any part of you that feels good about Ohio State's full circle moment here

as they look to win another national title? I'm gonna have my thoughts on the Orange Bowl, Notre Dame's win, the storylines that we're battling throughout the night with Notre Dame and how they are perceived nationally in the James Franklin stuff, and we're gonna have life advice. So a late one for you. ["Better Man"]

From the director of The Greatest Showman comes the most original musical ever. I want to prove I can make it. Proof to who? Everyone. So, the story starts. Better Man, now playing in select theaters. Fresh off of victory for Ohio State against Texas, the plucky eight

seated Buckeyes finding a way to advance to the National Championship Game 2814. And my brother in this college football fraternity. Yeah, Van Lathan joins us. How are you, sir? I am well, my friend. How are you? I'm good. It was it was a good football game. It was good to see Ohio State Texas. It felt impossible to pick against them. And yet Texas found a way to hang in.

I'm sure they're going to be killing themselves for giving up the screen touchdown to end the first half. Trevion Henderson, they had the wrong defense called for that, but they still have a chance first and goal at the one. It goes backwards. And Ewers, who I imagine his inner dialogue when he drops back is, eh, I'll figure it out. Gets Strip Sack Sawyer, his roommate,

when they were at Ohio State together, runs it back 80 plus yards to the touchdown. Ohio State will be playing Notre Dame for the national championship. So let's just talk about the game. First thing for you. Texas played their hearts out. They were running into a team that was playing as good as I've seen the college football team play in a crucial moment in a crucial era in a long time. And the question in the game was going to be whether or not Texas could match up and not be overmatched, not be overmatched in the secondary by guys like Jeremiah Smith,

not be overmatched along the offensive and defensive lines, and whether or not they would be able to deal with the sheer talent that Ohio State is putting on the field. And they did, they did. It's almost a testament to Ohio State's team that the mistakes that Texas made in the game, particularly the screen pass like you were talking about,

and some of the play calling when they got down near the goal line at the end of the game Those two things ended up biting them in the ass so hard And when you're playing a team that's playing as well as Ohio State is Any little advantage eat any you miss gap integrity you call the wrong play you Make the wrong penalty commit the wrong penalty shot say and and you lose the game. And they have to play just that much better. So a little bit better to take the

victory home and they weren't capable of it. Yeah, I think every football game and you know, I even felt this way about the Orange Bowl, what you want to talk about a little bit later, but like in that game, it's like, it feels a certain way, but that doesn't guarantee you victory. And this game, it felt like Ohio State was scarier. Maybe that's carry over what they had done against Tennessee and even more impressive what they did against Oregon where that thing was just like humiliating for an entire half. And Texas has had their issues putting teams away. I don't think you'd ever watch them and think that they're not

loaded with talent. The red zone numbers offensively were always pretty alarming. They also had that weird stat where they hadn't scored a touchdown in the third quarter for six straight games. They made that happen and they tied it up. But it was throws, it was throws to the running back for the most part because Golden is out for a good chunk

of the middle of the game. He does come back and make a big catch a little bit later on, but it looked like he wasn't able to go or he was telling the guys he couldn't go. Then he got back into the game. Gunnar Helm, the big tight end, who's been terrific all year long,

didn't really make an impact until later in the football game. Right. So there's always like this settling. Like you feel like if you're even in talent, you can get to some settling part of it. But I just, I can't understand yours because I know when it's right and it's working,

it's like, oh, he's so composed. Nothing ever rattles this guy. And you're like, yeah, sometimes I wanna see be a little bit more rattled. He's stepping into sacks, really no pocket awareness like to move around. Like once the pocket was gonna get dented from some side of it, they just it was tough for

him to get out of it despite the fact that maybe the biggest play of the entire game for Texas was the third and 11 where he flips it off to his side. So you know, I can't say that there weren't any plays where he made a play but the overriding theme seemed to feel like if Ohio State was going to get to him, it was going to destroy most of his plan and ultimately that ended up being the game winning play. Yeah. I mean, look, at the end of the game, they just they couldn't block them.

There was penetration coming from everywhere, from the left, from the right, up the middle. There was that one play that I think you're talking about where he climbed the pocket right into the defensive tackles nuts. Like he went right in the middle and just kind of sat there and ah this is this over um I do think that there's a talent gap it's not a massive talent gap but I think more than there being a talent gap player to player there was uh a stark difference in how these teams were putting their shit down in games. Ohio State has looked unbeatable, and Texas has looked like thoroughly beatable,

thoroughly beatable against whomever they play, if you feel like you got a shot. And so for me, I really thought in this game for some reason that, especially the way the game started to look early on when Ohio State was kind of having their way with Texas in the first quarter of the game, that they would end up running away with it.

And Texas found a way to hang in there and gave themselves a shot to win the football game. Look, I don't know what to make of the team down there. It's one of the oddest teams I've ever seen. They had times this year where they looked like they were the best team in college football, where they looked like they were playing the best. They had a quarterback controversy, if not a loud quarterback controversy, a quarterback controversy being whispered, to where there is a large portion of their fan base right now, sitting in their homes, all over Texas,

all over the Southeast, that believe that if Archie Manning would have started that game tonight, that they would have won. And when I say, and every team loves the backup quarterback, but they don't know- Yeah, not like this though. Not like this, like not like this. Like not not like this. And so to get that far and to be knocking on the door of an appearance in the college football playoff championship game and there's still so many questions left about particularly this Texas team to where if they don't want

this game, I wouldn't have been like super surprised, but I expected them to lose and they did. Ohio state from where they were just a few weeks ago and so against Michigan to where they're at now and to think about their path to the national championship. Okay. You know, I know everybody has Tennessee jokes, but I mean, I still think Tennessee's a good football team and they destroyed them, okay?

Destroyed them, like took their will from them before it was even halftime. To do what they did against Oregon in that first half, probably the best first half of football, considering the opponent that we're gonna see all season long. And then, you know, to hang in there against the Texas team,

when the start of it, right, you're thinking, okay, they're going to roll, but that's just not the way football works, right? There's a reason we keep watching this every weekend. I think the most important thing to remind ourselves here of like, how would a tech, or how did Ohio State get into a funk? Like, yeah, you know, maybe Texas figured out

the running game there a little bit. Clearly, Texas, their number one priority was limiting Jeremiah Smith, who had one catch for three yards. Yeah. And I also think like Smith is a factor on that Henderson screen. Because you are playing so deep thinking like, hey, they'll probably just throw a jump ball to this guy. But the linebackers are so far back, you get that much momentum, you get the offensive lineman out there. It's a bad spot. But as I was

thinking about, like, how did this fall apart for Ohio State, it's actually pretty simple They were behind the stick so bad after that first touchdown possession their second possession They were second and 24 and third and 26 third possession second and 20 fourth possession third and 18 Fifth possession third and 10 leads to fourth and 17 Touchdown interception then a three and out, no penalties, ninth possession, second and 20. So that's five possessions and it's four straight possessions in the first half where through just the worst penalties

at the worst possible time or pressure that Ohio State just wasn't even gonna convert first downs. They can't even run their normal offense because they're so backed up behind the stick. So I think that's the part of this that'll be lost and like, how did hang in there? Because if, look, I don't want to say if that doesn't happen because you know, whatever, I mean maybe I do it sometimes but if that does, I mean that's four straight possessions where you're like, okay, so we have no chance of converting any of these first downs and that's the biggest reason why an offense that came out, which is funny too because

during the regular season it looked like Ohio State was a slow starting team offense that came out, which is funny too, because during the regular season, it looked like Ohio state was a slow starting team. They come out, they look like up, here we go again. And they're just going to hit these dudes all night. Howard is absolutely torquing the football, like just rifling it in all over the place. You're like, dudes look open. Where's the pass rush. This could get ugly. And then their penalties slow them down as much as Texas defense, which still played a really good game.

They played a really good game. They played a really good game. They had a really good game plan. After Smith just dominated Oregon, if I would have told you last night, if I've told you before this game that he would have the line that he would have had in this game, there's no way you would have thought that that game would have been a game that Ohio State would have been able to win. You wouldn't have thought that he would have been that unproductive and they still won

the football game because he was such a big part of their offense in the last game. But Texas's game plan to take him away opened up other opportunities for Ohio State. Other guys were able to have big games. Other people, like even on the fourth down play where you end up having the Will Howard scramble, he scrambles right up to this quarterback keeper all the way, you spread them out and they have to respect what's going on out there.

So you get a light box, you don't think the quarterback's gonna run. He runs, stumbles down, that continues the drive there. So they were able to use the explosiveness that they have on the edges to affect and manipulate what Texas was doing on defense in other ways. And other guys back there had bigger games. You know, I have a question for you. This was a match up of two quote unquote offensive geniuses. Ryan Day, Steve Sarkeesian.

If you are looking, if you're taking away from this game, who's your more geniusy genius? Who was more creative? Who schemed up plays open? Who did more with what they had? Who won the battle of the minds between those guys today? Yeah, I felt like Sark hung in there really well because there was nothing. Look, because Ohio State's a better football team. I mean, this is the football team we were talking about in August, right?

When you're going, do you realize how loaded this team is? And the questions were about Will Howard. And I remember reading Bruce Feldman stuff. We had him on before the playoffs, he was just started. And there were other big 10 coaches that had gone against all the different teams. They'd have all these different conference covered, right? They ran through all of it.

And there were a couple of opposing coaches that were just like, yeah, I'm not quite sure if Will Howard can do it. I'm not sure if he's the guy. I felt after the Oregon game, I go, I think they're gonna be all right there. I know the Michigan game was terrible, but I feel like Ohio State had more to work with,

so maybe the expectation was more. Clearly, I just wasn't gonna pick against them no matter what, even if I just, I have times where I wanna be different and just go like, ah, I don't wanna just pick Chalk all the time here. But I think Sark figuring out a way to get the running backs involved, especially when Golden was out of the game because Bond has the drop, you know, the freshman there who just, you know, Wingo is, is super fast and talented. He's not a huge part of what they're

doing. I think him finding ways to get matchups with the running backs and blue having two touchdowns against that kind of coverage, like Sark was hanging in there knowing that he was outmanned. Yeah, I agree. You agree with that? All right, I do. I do. I think most of the things that they got, it wasn't like they were dominating and winning one on ones or I mean, they were making plays out there. But I thought he had a really, really, really good scheme, attack plan to go out there.

And really, to be honest with you, what ended up happening at towards the end of the game is once the fire got lit under the defensive line, as over on Ohio State, they just started dominating. They just started winning their one-on-ones. Obviously Sawyer, just busted through at the end and disrupting the entire Florida game. I think that's the one time that I saw Quinn Uers and I was like, give me something right there.

Like, he's in there, he's sitting there, he's waiting for whatever to come open to come open. I'm like, there's a guy breathing down your neck. Give me something. Give me a step forward, roll out of that. Give me a sprint to the sideline. I want to see you a little bothered because you got a meathead white boy ready to kill you right now. And it doesn't look like your blood pressure is rising a little bit. Like your heart rate's not elevated at all. But I thought Sark did a great job.

I wonder how Texas fans feel about this game. If you look at Texas in their program in the totality of things, you have to be ecstatic about where you are right now, particularly with the future with Arch Manning coming back and what they've been able to do. But I really think that there are people in Austin and Texas fans from See the Shining that thought this was the team.

I really think there are a lot of people out there like that. I think coming back this summer and maybe some moments, but I'm sure that Georgia game was a wake up call in Austin and then the rematch. And then the problem is, is that there's just a handful, like even the A&M game, they dominated that A&M game in the final score of 17-7 because of the red zone issues, and really they shut out A&M's offense.

So after the Arizona State game, the fact that that got to overtime, okay, that was, that probably was like the final dulling of the senses where Texas fans went in. It's not like they weren't watching these Ohio State games going like, okay, maybe we have a chance. But I doubt there was like this arrogance or this supreme confidence because they just watched this team just feel like based on the expectations,

something was a little off. Like really good team, but just something was a little bit off and the final score is probably the right score. And as we're talking about like who was better with the game plan, I don't know what Chip Kelly supposed to call in third and 26. I don't know what you're supposed to call on second and 20. So there was just such a large chunk of this game where I'm sure the playbook was stuff

pages they couldn't even look at because they were screwing themselves up so bad in those series. Football fans buckle up because for the first time ever, we've got five straight days of playoff football. And FanDuel is celebrating with the great playoff payoff. That's a no-sweat same-game parlay every day for all five days. With a no-sweat same-game parlay,

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Gambling problem call 100 Gambler or visit rg-help.com. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. There's a lot going on in my college football mind right now. All right, just open it up. Where are we? Are you worried? Is the SECs eliminated?

Are you gonna be all right? I'm gonna be fine, but I look at small things. Oh, you do, okay. I look at small things. I look at Judkins coming from Ole Miss and getting to play real big boy football now in the Big Ten. It used to be that you got a transfer from the Big Ten school, not Ohio State,

which is top flight, blue blood. And they would be playing big boy football at Georgia or big boy football at Bama or someplace like that. I think the SEC and the coming back to earth of the conference, I think it's real. And I don't think it's a blip. I think that you'll see more competition and more fighting fire from these other conferences.

The most SEC game I've watched all year took place yesterday night and it was Penn State versus Notre Dame. That looked like SEC football to me and I didn't watch very much SEC football in the SEC. I think there are a lot of factors to it. I'm not quite sure how rich the fan-based boosters are down there to be able to compete with the NIL. I'm not so sure when you have a football tradition like exists in the SEC, I don't know how quick people really are to want to go with the times. So there are a lot of people down there in those parts

that were probably a little bit more hesitant to flip fast. I mean, Saban got the fuck out, right? So I do think that all of the people that have wanted to see the SEC not be able to dump their chest and talk about, we have the best conference, we have the most guys in the NFL, we have the best players in the NFL,

are going to see see at least initially for the next couple of seasons, handful of seasons, the conference be a little bit less powerful than they've been in the past. Yeah, maybe I'm open to it. We're going to have a national championship matchup here where it's two non-SEC schools back to back years with last year being Washington and Michigan. And that hasn't happened in 20 years where you went back to back years for it. And I was looking up something because I was going through Notre Dame's playoff appearances and you go back to those

SEC Big 10 matchups in the playoff and you're like the SEC stomped those teams all the time. So it is trending in that direction. I don't know if the transfer thing, I think case by case, you can go through it. Um, you know, Caleb downs isn't leaving Alabama if Saban doesn't retire. Um, and clearly Ohio state after the Michigan losses, it felt like you're reading it all summer being like, they got people involved. Like there were dudes not paying for like they were, they were stepping on other orthodontist bills to make sure that Ohio State could get a couple extra dudes in there. So maybe it's happening, you know,

like maybe it is happening. I think the quarterback play in the conference was below the standards, but I'm surprised you think Penn State Notre Dame looked like an SEC game considering Penn State's receivers. I don't know that an SEC team would ever put out a team like that at that receiver position Yeah, I guess what I'm talking about more is the the physicality that the game it was played with

The Penn State I saw one picture of one of Penn State's receivers. I he looked like a social worker That's all me put him on Twitter. It's like so, you know know not much going on But what the reason what social workers can't ball Shit some of these guys might be fucking social workers the guys are fucking 29 years old playing playing college football now, but What I mean is the there was a Look, this is gonna sound stupid and I'm not gonna be able to articulate it perfectly But when you watched SEC football in the past, there was a branding to it. There was a way that they played.

When you saw Jamal Adams, or you saw Odell Beckham Jr., or Tyron Matthew, or Patrick Peterson, when you saw these guys flying around, you'd see them play teams out of conference. And these teams just could not match the intensity that that caliber of athlete was bringing to the field. And if you wanted a team to be able to match that type of intensity, you had to get it in the SEC. That's just not true anymore. Like I've watched games and seen like Tennessee looks like

an ordinary good college football team. Like Alabama looked like an ordinary good college football team. Ole Miss looked like an ordinary good college football team. Texas, as well as they play today, looks like a team that's not a dominating team. That's the best team. That's the final team that's left out of the SEC.

And so, death issues, issues of dominance along the lines, the NIL changing things and taking kids away from players. You know, I can't remember the last time LSU didn't have a bunch of animal dog demons along the defensive line. It's just different now. And so I think it's different. And I'm not sure, it's not just the transfer portal,

it's NIL, it's not being able to put on one defense and be like, oh my God, this defense has seven first and second rounders on it. And we're everywhere. We got guys on the back end, we got guys in the trenches, we got guys at linebacker, and then we have safeties back there that are playing I think it's different now and I think it it'll be that way

For a little while. I do think that They will adapt to How things are I do think that they do think that things will change. But I'll be honest with you, like being an LSU fan, it is a concern about how well resourced we are, right? Like we're, the reason to go and play for LSU

was because of that. It was literally because of the soil. It was literally because if you're from the 337 or the 318 or the 225 or the 504, it meant something to play for them. Now, these kids that are coming in there, they're from a specific socioeconomic background, a lot of them.

And you can't fucking tell them to turn down four or $5 million. You can't tell them to turn down four or $5 million. You can't tell them to turn down a half a million dollars. That's a life changing money in Louisiana. And that'll make you go somewhere else. And if we are, if we don't have the boosters that can play in those types of deep waters,

we're doing better in NIL now. And if we don't have coming from a state that's not a really rich state, if we don't have the people that'll put that money up, I mean, we're going to be at a perpetual disadvantage. I want to close on like the last part of this though, just kind of talking about the Ohio State run here and you know, there have been different times and it usually has more to do with the days where I was doing it every day. And you would go through stretches where you'd be like, I can't stand this fan

base the most, you know, and then sometimes it would get cycled out and be like, you know what fan base is the most annoying this year. It's, it's this school. It's this program. Ohio State has been ranked number one for me for a bunch of seasons. Oh, wow. All the years that I've been doing this. But once day lost to Michigan again, I would say last year, this year was, it was impossible to defend the outcome of that game and the way that game was played. Like I didn't start the next day going like, Hey,

but I, I looked at day and the whole point that I'd the way that game was played. I didn't start the next day going like, hey. But I looked at day and the whole point that I'd made a year ago was that it was funny because I was hearing the same stuff about Harbaugh. And because Harbaugh brought all this attention to himself, like it's just extra with Harbaugh, right? And it wasn't really to the standard, they weren't beating Ohio State. And people were like, you know,

and then people really, with those two fan bases, lose their minds about that rivalry. Like I'll, I think there's way more Ohio state fans. If you just pulled it, like good polling too, not the Iowa poll. If it were a poll where you said, let's let's little victory lap for you there. Huh? Yeah. My, my people. If you pulled Ohio State fans and said would you rather beat Michigan or win an international championship the people would say we'd rather Just beat Michigan. It's way higher than you think it is which is an insane answer, but I think it's I think it's accurate

I think I'm being accurate about this. So look, I'm telling my own history about the whole thing And I just felt like look look, day wins enough games, like you guys are out of your mind and be careful who you think you're gonna be getting because so many of the programs are like, all right, let's get rid of this guy and like is Saban available, right? There's a big part of me that thinks about Jack Sawyer,

right, linebacker for Ohio State, where he has an incredible game against Michigan and they screwed up, They lose the one time, like the other years you can kind of understand it. I think two years ago, that game's still strange to me. Last year, not surprising, Michigan wins the national championship. This year was impossible.

This year it couldn't happen. Right, and it happens. And then it leads to like a lot of stuff that I don't agree with where Michigan's planning the flag, which fine, go ahead and do it. But it's not Jack Sawyer's fault for deciding like, this shit's over, okay? I'm not doing this.

And then people would say, well, when you lose, there's nothing you can do. It's like, all right, you know, hey, I'm from Michigan, we beat you guys. I'm gonna send suggestive DMs to your sister now. Well, nothing I can do. Yeah, nothing I can do, we lost. If we have a fight,

if I get in the fight playing basketball and I lose the fight, that doesn't mean you can fuck my girl. Like, you know what I'm saying? There's a limit, my girl. Right, right. So like the fact that Jack Sawyer and other guys in Ohio State were like,

I know, what are we supposed to let you do? Just piss everywhere? Yeah. Like we're not having it. And that was not a popular opinion. And I think about him making that play and now being in the national championship and how this has come,

it feels like more than full circle. It's like full circle and another lap for this team to be in the national championship. Clearly, favorite, I'll get you lined here in a second. Is there any part of you that, even with some of my history with Ohio State, who I haven't always loved it, I can tell you today,

I feel good about this redemptive arc from where they were at in that Michigan game. So they lost the game and I want you guys don't take this from me. Ask this guy my friend in Mecca Mecca Don. He's a rapper. Okay, he played for Ohio State. He's the biggest fucking Okay. He played for Ohio State. He's the biggest fucking Ohio State fan ever. He goes out there.

Mecca Don at Mecca Don. M-E-K-K-A-D-O-N. He's the biggest fucking Ohio State fan ever. Him and his brother. His brother is some kind of weird robot man. Well, I'll tell you his brother. some kind of weird robot man. When I tell you his brother, okay. Interesting crew. His brother.

Okay. Is like the most impressive person I've ever known. He has a JD from Stanford and an MD from Harvard. Like it was weird. Like these guys are like crazy accomplished guys. And Jim went to pin the whole nine. He played Ohio state, Dean with went to Penn for law school. After they lost the game, if you guys don't believe me,

I called in Mecca, I said, the funniest thing is gonna happen to you guys. And he was like, what? I said, you guys are gonna win a national championship. I was like, the fight at the end of the game was a good thing. You guys are gonna win a national championship. You guys are gonna get into playoffs, win a national championship. You guys are gonna get in the playoffs,

win a national championship, and then it's going to be what I call the Southern Grambling debacle, because there is another college football game that means more than the season. There's only one I can think of, it's the Bayou Classic. You guys ever been like watching TV on a Saturday after Thanksgiving and you're like, well, this is black college football game on NBC.

That's the Bayou Classic. And let me tell you something about the body classic being a Southern guy, rest in peace. Dad, most of the fans watching that game would rather win the Bayou Classic, Southern versus Gramley, then win the SWAC or go have your team play in the Celebration Bowl or play for a Black College National Championship. That game is a one game Super Bowl that the entire season revolves around.

Okay. And so for the Ohio State fans now that lost to Michigan, I think that was key to those players deciding being embarrassed like that and that staff being embarrassed like that and deciding we have to put it all together because this is the lowest moment that the program has experienced in a very long time. That loss was the lowest moment that the program has experienced in a very long time. That loss was the lowest moment that the program has experienced for a very long time. It's one thing to lose to Michigan. It's another thing to lose to Michigan when you are more competent than Michigan in every conceivable

way. And it looks like Michigan just punked you and took your hearts out of your chest. Now we'll see. We'll see how much they, because I think things have changed now. I think they've seen the team play so well that while they're still frustrated about the Michigan game, I think when it's all said and done, having another national championship,

they're gonna be cool with it. They're gonna be okay with it. They're gonna be fine with the way the season played out. But they were, I was talking friends off the ledge. They were done with day. They were done with the whole fucking thing. They were done with everything. But I knew that that would light a fire under the team

and we would see them play their best football. Well, you were right, because again, the path there and to do this is impressive as they did in the first two rounds. And clearly look, they were the better football team for three plus hours tonight. You know, you don't watch that game, have them win 28-14 and go, well, that was weird.

How did that happen? Like to me, Arizona State, Texas was weird. Like that was just, it was kind of a common theme with Texas, right? That was my man, Scatagories though. Shout out to Scatagories, bro. Boy, I tell you straight up, I have not been that impressed. I haven't been that impressed with a white boy

I didn't know since I first heard Eminem. When I first heard Eminem, I was like, God damn, it's like that? What Dre find this motherfucker at? Like he was really rapid. And Scadaboo came into that bitch saying, I'm the best player. And then he went ham like college football 25.

I loved that game. I was watching from a mineral pool in desert hot springs down there, Palm Springs was over there for the thing. I was all floating in the hot springs watching Scadaboo just go nuts. And I, when you have, Ryan, you had to have love then, right? That's like your, that's,

Scataboo is so racillo coated, is he not? Yeah, there's a thread I'm working on for my people because it's been a good run with Jokic and I just need to piece it all together. I make it your approval. I'll have it in drafts and I'll send it to you to see what you think. But Yogic don't count.

It's not one of yours. Really? Bruh, first of all, decide who you are. Because do you like, Yogic, you can't have Yogic. You can't have him. Are you claiming Freeman? Hold on, here's the deal about Freeman though. Freeman said he don't want to be claimed.

That's a free agent. Y'all can have him. Like Freeman said he don't want to be claimed. You can't have Yokich. That's an H-1B visa. Y'all hate those. So what I'm saying is. I don't even know what that is.

Like you can't have Yokich. All right, all right. These are your people. These are your hopes. Check when he comes back. Yeah, Doug McDermott's ours. Doug McDermott, Cooper Flagg, Tyler Hero. OK, he's not Robinson, but he could play like there's so many different guys in there,

but you can't have your kids. You can't have Lucas. Those are HB1 visas. Those are like guys over there. They don't. You can't have him. Scataboo is a guy like that. That's America, bro. Come on, America first. Yeah, no, Scataboo is always fascinated me too, because like when it started getting I mean, the numbers are just absurd,

right? And he start talking about him a little bit more. You know, the Iowa State Big 12 Championship game and the broadcast is like, you know, they had a post scataboo aside this offseason be like you need to be a leader and you know, you need to work on conditioning and just how you interact. It was like, they had to pull Scataboo aside this off season and be like, you need to be a leader and you need to work on conditioning and just how you interact. And it was like, man, this guy was just a fat dick

to everybody. Because that's basically what they were saying, was the vibe around him. And it's like, you know what? That guy has to kind of be a dick. He has to have been a dick to be this good and then be like, you guys still don't believe in me the entire time I want to back up to something else. You said though

Sure, give me your thoughts on an early 20s. Rosilla when he first heard Eminem. Oh man Because see this is the thing You gotta be able to see yourself in it Cuz I didn't believe it and my name is comes out and I'm like, what a tough position and then all of a sudden I'm listening to other shit and this motherfucker is like, a serial killer had murdered a material

in the cereal box on top of your cereal. Here we go, game with iron medicine out of my mind. Anyone know what it does then? There's seven different levels of devil washing with horses and human sacrifice, cannibalism, cannibals, exorcisms, animals having sex with them, camels, mammals and rabbits. I'm like, yo, this guy's fucking rapping. You probably thought when you listened to it, you probably had a moment of like, I'm like, yo, this guy's fucking rapping. You probably thought when you listened to it,

you probably had a moment of like, I'm a part of it. I'm not just watching. He's talking to me. He's talking to me now. Yeah. Like that's Ryan Rizzillo rap. He's rapping for you. And so I probably think that you felt seen,

you know what I mean? Much like the way I felt when Barack Obama was elected to the presidency. I thought you knew me, Van. I thought you knew me. You don't like him. I resisted it hard. I went out of my way to resist it.

I was like, what is this wack shit? See? Oh yeah. I don't like that. Why would you? So why would you resist Eminem? See, I loved him. Loved him.

How did that work for you? Like how many of your guys resisted it? Oh my God, bro. It was so, them college years was so hard. It was like, I remember one time me and my man Sean got into an argument. Could you throw it on in the car? Were there certain cars?

You were like, no. Bruh, I couldn't, I made, there was this whole thing, like freshman or sophomore year at Tech where I just leaned into being the counterculture guy in the crew. I was making them watch Seinfeld. I was like, bruh, it's funny.

And they're like, man, what's wrong with you? I have an identity, I'm like, bruh, it's not my habit, it's fine. It's no black people want it, it's funny. It's a my habit. It's fine. It's no black people want it. It's funny. It's a funny show. And when we first started listening to Eminem, it was renegade.

I remember there was a message board. I was on the message board. The message board was talking about how bad M did J on renegade. And I was like, bro, y'all gotta hear this song. I'm telling you, J is J. He is a God. He has a much better rap career in catalog than Eminem.

But on that song, Em fucked over Hov. He did. And on that one song, he fucked over Hov. Hov is way more versatile, a better rapper than Em, a better artist than Em. But in that song, he fucked over him, and that converted all my boys. Because if black people, we're nothing if we're not fair. We're fair people. I was unfair. I was being unfair. I was like, turn that shit off.

I don't want to hear this. Cause I did not want to be the guy in my truck in my pickup truck with the windows down just cranking my name is. See, that's just because of optics. You wanted to be Tribe Called Quest Rassillo. You know. That was probably Jizza, Liquid Swords.

I could just never stop listening to that, even years later. And that's great rap, right? But you felt like you weren't free to listen to Eminem. But now. I know, I didn't want to. I appreciate him now, I respect it, much like I respect even Penn State season.

Oh, wow. Yeah, there you go. Hey, not bad. There you go. See, to me, I needed Penn State to win the national championship badly. I needed them to do it. Why?

Because everybody else, this has been one of the hardest college football seasons for me ever. I'll be honest with you. I was terrible this year. Yeah. The only thing I had was my early Oregon pick, which then made me handcuffed to them when they played Ohio State. So that actually ended up screwing me over, even though it looked good for months. Go ahead. So even though I picked Ohio State and I told MECA that Ohio State would win,

I've had a long-standing rivalry with the Ohio State football fans. Even me and the MECA have argued on this podcast before going way, way back to after the time LSU stumped a mud hole in their ass in a national championship game. So I've had a longstanding rivalry with them. Then you have the obvious narrative of Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame, Brian Kelly, LSU rivalry that's popped up out of nowhere and isn't going anywhere. So I didn't want them to win. And then Rachel Lindsay, who is my co-host on Higher Learning is a Texas alum.

Now I ask her right now who the offensive coordinator for Texas, she probably couldn't tell you. However, she loves Texas. She's a quote unquote huge Texas fan who can't name one person on the D line, but like huge Texas fan. So if Texas won, on the D line but like huge Texas fan So if Texas won I was gonna have to deal with that the only team that I could root for without having to get shit from a fan base was Penn State and

I know what it's like to root for James Franklin now, and I'll never do it again My name is James Franklin You want to take a guess at the line for Ohio State Notre Dame as we finish this? I don't mean to put you on the spot so you can pass three. Whoa. No, my friend, Ohio State minus nine and a half. Oh my God. What do you think about that? Oh, it's definitely gonna be a touchdown. I mean, you know, we'll see where we're at tomorrow,

but I'm not surprised. It's over a touchdown. I put you on the spot there, yeah. No, it's fine. I think Notre Dame plays it closer than that. I really do. Well, so somebody likes those nine and a half. I do like that. I think Notre Dame plays it closer than that. I really do. Well, sounds like somebody likes those nine and a half. I do like that.

I think Notre Dame plays a little closer than that. I think that's a little bit of, yeah, I think they're doing something that one of my good friends, Josh Fade, has done, which has underestimated Notre Dame the entire year. I think you motherfuckers are going to Billboard, not Billboard, Locker Room Notre Notre Dame right into a national championship if you're not careful.

I think it's gonna be a closer game than that. Could be wrong. Well, the respect angle is there because Vegas does not respect them. Where can we check out all your stuff? Promo time. Higher learning. Ring reverse.

Whenever I'm with my friend, Vassilo here, check us out, Riggs and Murtaugh. And also I wanna say one thing before I get out of here. The Brian Kelly, Marcus Freeman thing is bullshit, okay? I'm sick of it already. I'm sick of the bullshit, okay? Let us deal with, this is the new rule. Nobody else can talk about Brian Kelly. Let us deal with Brian

Kelly. You guys worry about your own coaches. All right. Marcus Freeman fucking great looking. He's doing this whole thing. You don't want to be black is cool. Like it easy. Easy. That's not what he said. I don't want to be associated with that. I'm joking. I'm joking. It was a fine answer to someone who is putting a weird position to be asked about their race all the time. It's fine.

I'm joking. A lot of respect for him. He's done a great job at Notre Dame, but I am so annoyed right now at even the LSU fans who are incessantly having an argument that I believe to be apples and oranges. Let Notre Dame and the rest of them play football. You got some Baton Rouge boys there, Ryan Clark's kid, Jayden Osbury. Let them play football. Good luck to them. But other than that man, check me out. Still loving the game. We'll see what the SEC does next year. You're the best man. Enjoy your Friday night.

A late taping here for the Rossello podcast. So we really appreciate you disrupting what is on deck. Imagine some EDM, some alley, some place that Entourage had an episode for season three. Oh, he has a controller up. So some Madden, are you doing some recruiting? Oh, no, it's college football. I've had to recruit, rebuild LSU secondary. That's what I'm doing. Stay safe, Los Angeles. I love everybody out there, man.

Yeah, absolutely. Glad to know you're safe and you're part of the county. I wanted to spend a couple of moments talking about the Orange Bowl. Notre Dame's win over Penn State. So now we know that Notre Dame's gonna be playing Ohio State for a national championship after beating Penn State. And my first thought after the game and really going into it,

but I felt like the game was confirmation of it. That both of these teams are good. They're both good football teams. And I want to start with Penn State and that's not in a disrespectful way. It's just simply the fragility of the narrative. And the narrative is a word that I've learned at absolutely despise, but it fits here. And how different the narrative is for James Franklin and Penn State,

even if they were just to make it to the national championship game, and it'd be a big 10 fest, Franklin could talk about what he's been building and tell the college football world it's about the process and getting to that next step and all these different things that would feel real in anticipation of a national championship game. But you have an awful night for Maler,

which we'll get to his interception, a defensive back falls down. Great house who was terrific for Notre Dame. Their receiver takes to the house again, you have the turnover, and it's a game-winning field goal, and Penn State's out. So now, you can spin it this way, where if you look at the Franklin resume against the top teams, it's atrocious. He's one in 14 against the AP Top Five.

I'll tell you right now, there's not a ton of coaches that have great records against AP Top Five. There's rarely a guy in there where you're like, man, another great record against AP top five. You wanna take it out a little bit further, he's four and 19 against the AP top 10. I think the most alarming one for Franklin, he's now three and 10 when both Penn State

and the opponent are ranked in the top 10. If you wanted to add to that, now that they've been eliminated, which I think is everyone's favorite thing to do with every single team that's eliminated now with the playoffs, because you even have more rounds to do it, is yeah, well, you know, they couldn't beat Ohio State in the regular season. They lose to Oregon. I thought they were terrific in the Oregon game. I thought they were great against a tough USC team that has a bad record. I thought that they stepped up big against Minnesota, who I think is a good football team, right? But if you want to, you can say, well, you know.

SMU Boise's ridiculous seed and then they play Notre Dame and they can't win the game. I you know I just after watching it all season and I I hope that despite getting stuff right wrong I am watching all season. It's just. Yeah, didn't go their way. At three zero 20 minutes into the game, I thought it was going to go Penn State's way. It reminded me a bit of what they were doing against Oregon and getting that push against them.

And it felt like Oregon can really do anything with this offensive line and this two headed monster running back and Tyler Warren, he knows going to make a ton of plays. But I'd ask you this Penn State fans, what was your favorite play by a receiver in the orange bowl? I'll wait, it's going to take you a while. But, you know, as the game was playing out, like 20 minutes in, and I try to remind people of this all the time,

you're watching football, team goes up 14, nothing, and everyone's like, thanks for playing. You know, thanks for showing up. You're like, it's actually two, nothing. Let's see what happens when they settle in. Let's see when the defense and the offense aren't as prepared for each other at the beginning of the games

and maybe haven't figured out each other's tendencies. But it really felt like Penn State's game for the first 20 minutes. And it was only three nothing because of the physicality of this. And then you add to that the Notre Dame loses a left tackle. They lose another offensive lineman. They lose Riley Leonard for a series in this

where the backup and Jelly actually got them to a field goal, so it's 10-3 at half, and you're like, all right, they're in this, but Penn State feels like the better football team. And look, the Singleton, K-Tron Allen and Allen's probably one of my favorite single players in all the college football this year. You feel like you can keep going back to that and it'll be enough, but it's not enough

when your quarterback was as bad as Allard was last night. I mean, you think Allard was bummed out at the end of last season. This is gonna be a tough off season, getting through all of this for that guy mentally. McElroy on the call, there was a couple things with him and I know it ended up being a thing that people were making fun of for him

because he was saying like, look, I trust Aller in this situation. And then he throws an inexcusable pick back across the middle of the field. A great play by the Notre Dame defensive back to even make a break on the ball and hold onto it. But if you're at your own 28 with 33 seconds left, as I've said all the time,

I don't really like when teams, and it happens a lot less than it used to, I don't like when teams are so cautious because possessions are so rare that, if you got 40 seconds, maybe throw it to midfield, maybe you get a PI, maybe you break something free. I mean, look at the end of the first half with Texas and Ohio State in a way,

that was kind of the game with the screen pass to Henderson. So not saying you're expecting to score there, but I don't like being cautious. The problem is specific to that game for Aller was like, I understand what McElroy's saying, he's likely to not turn the football over, but watching him that night, I mean, he was just awful. And I mean, he had 12 completions

and there was all sorts of incompletions. It just weren't even close. So it's the turnover. It's a game winning field goal and Notre Dame is playing for a national championship. Now as I was watching the game play out and I'm just thinking about different ways to talk about it for the podcast, which is you know, a big part of what I do. I've always felt like Notre Dame is unfairly criticized for their playoff failures. This

year, the SEC has faced the brunt of the criticism in a down year. Everybody else is ready, like sick of hearing about these guys, and now they're not even in the National Championship, so I totally get it. So I don't know that Notre Dame could have matched kind of the venom that is flowing around this season, which basically everybody's just taking turns doing these different things. But I always use this as an example. Like when Ohio State got smashed by Florida and LSU and back to back championship games, and then everybody started like pointing at Ohio State, like laughing at him. You're going, you're making fun of them because they're in the national championship and getting crushed. And it speaks to the recency of it, more eyeballs watching this kind of stuff. And it just never really made any sense to me. It's like

everybody would trade with them, except for the teams that beat him in the national championship game. It's an awesome program They're in the mix basically every single year and you're gonna tell him like something's wrong with him in those matchups Something was wrong for him for a night and Notre Dame if you go through it I remember being a Miami for the national championship pre 14 playoff in 2013 they got smoked right You go to 2018 season they lose to Clemson in the playoff in the first round 30 to 3 destroyed two years later in 20 They lose to Bama 31 14 and it's like this

You know never put him back in I mean that stuff was actually being said I don't know if it would have happened again now because with 12 teams like you're not leaving Notre Dame out of this whole thing But there seems to be an extra level of pleasure because whether it's the outdated relevance, sure, they're not as relevant as the 40s. You got me. All right? They're not at a conference.

Who gives a shit? Why do you care? And scheduling-wise, historically, they usually always schedule pretty tough. This year was down, but whatever. I mean, they're a really good football team team and so they avoid the fourth straight postseason loss which I would have thought you know again they got the win against Georgia so we're just moving the goalpost if you were to count this one because it's not

for consecutive but the fourth exit within 12 years and if you're thinking of it as a BCS matchup to 14 playoff matchups and this expanded field to have four playoff appearances in that short amount of time, 90 plus percent of the college football programs would trade places with those guys. But it's just not what we do because we just keep waiting every single week to when the team is losing. And then you're like, well, you know,

never really saw it with them, which you can certainly do. As I said, you can do with Penn State right now. This game was about toughness for Notre Dame, mental toughness where it didn't look like it was going their way. Riley Leonard being knocked out of the football game. A guy that didn't need to throw it against Georgia but ran it in big spots, made big throws here.

Again, great house, the receiver was terrific. And it's just a nasty defense. And on top of everything else, Jeremiah loved touchdown at the goal line. To do that against the personnel he was doing against for Penn State was just absurd. I think the Carter injury didn't show itself in the first half.

I think when he got landed on, it was definitely a factor there. But they found a way through the offensive line adversity, losing Leonard and the other injuries that they've had on the defensive line. This Notre Dame team is a very mentally tough football team. I also was rooting for Freeman a little bit because I didn't love the Franklin stuff leading up to it.

Franklin kind of little brothered him a little. And I think that bothered Freeman. There's pieces you can read right now that'll tell you it bothered Freeman. So that part of it and just the way Freeman carries himself, the way he just handles everything, I'm happy for him. And there's actually part of me that's kind of happy for Notre Dame to be in this game.

We also know what's going to happen if they get smashed against Ohio State. They'll be like, well, you know, Georgia didn't have the quarterback. Penn State was never that good. They had boys, you know, you just keep doing it over and over again, which I think sometimes you lose the point.

Penn State, Notre Dame, certainly Notre Dame now going for the title. Both good football teams, really good football teams in a year that feels light on great teams. 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. Life advice, life advice, rr at gmail.com. All right, let's get cooking boys. We had a lot of people reach out about the theater incident and the world is torn on this one.

Hey, you absolutely should have gotten those guys fired. They represent the company on and on and on. Men of Duty chiming in on that one. And then we had some other people going in a million other different directions. We're not going to read any of them. So thank you for your submissions. Thank you for your time and your service. Thank you for your time and your service. So speaking of service, we had a lot of follow ups to my airport guy scam thing, asking for money to get back. And I size it up pretty quickly or I am still upset about the $10 I gave the guy in Faneuil Hall 20 years ago.

But a lot of people would chime in like that's a hundred percent a scam. That guy is a scammer. Not that they know who he is specifically, but the biggest thing being if you're active duty, like you would not be at an airport with no money, hoping to get on a flight within a couple hours or whatever. I remember too, like as I walked out, I saw him like looking up at the boards, looking at his phone. So I was like the scam, the scam continues in case somebody had given him money.

They were like, look, he's checking. He's checking if there's any delays on his way back to Fort, fill in the blank. All right. Exercise, sleep and downtime. You've got a parent, a non-parent and a non-co-inhabitant. New listener, started listening this fall to get more into college football. It was my buddy and I started betting on the weekly sleigh, the life advice session, hopefully didn't follow my college football this year. The life advice section has turned into a pleasant surprise.

And now I have a million questions that I'd love your thoughts on, but I'll try and keep this one to an area that I feel is connected by three competing priorities, I guess I should have given some stats, uh, Canadian 40, 5, 11. That interests you. That interests me. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I should have given some stats Canadian 40, 511. That interests you, Saru. Canadian? It's not going on in Canada right now. There is.

Are we going to get it? Can you check? Can you Google that, Kyle? Google what? Are we getting Canada? I thought we were getting Greenland. That to? It wasn't that to me is a rap. Yeah. I would imagine, you know, we want Canada. Natural resources.

Hell yeah. I love when people show map and they complain about Canada and they'll show like the border and the density of population. And it's like, if you have housing issues, what about all of this? You're like like somebody doesn't understand climate very well. Right. I've seen that. Anyway, all right. Two kids girls 10 and 12 been in the Navy since I was 18. I've never liked the gym but long distance running biking

racing is my jam. So I'm proud to say I've qualified for Boston with a sub 305 marathon and ran the Catalina Island Marathon in three hours 30 minutes did the Canadian Army Ironman look that one up in six hours 35 minutes and an Ironman 70.3 in five hours 35 minutes. Longest I've ever ran is the hundred and eight kilometer in 14 hours 30 minutes. F what 14 hours 30 minutes of running he said again for the audience to understand fyi an ultra marathon is considered any distance 50 wait any distance 50 kilometers and above right all right did play hockey growing up so player comp would be

Lyle O'dowlin currently training for a full Ironman this summer, which leads to my question. As I said above, I'm in the Navy, which translates to me traveling one to two out weeks per month for work. My wife works full time. Both my kids play competitive hockey

plus other extracurricular activities. So far, man, this has been about a schedule. Did he write in just to tell us his marathon times? I'm impressed man. If that's what you were trying to do, it worked. It worked. I'll tell you that much. I'm fully impressed, but so life is fucking busy.

He says, I've started training for this iron man, but I'm finding it harder to balance everything compared to when I trained for the half iron man, knowing that each of your situations are different. How do you balance exercise, sleep and downtime? How much do you work out on a weekly basis? What is your weekly sleep cycle? Do you have any downtime where you're completely off the clock and checked out? For me, that's usually outside family work, exercise commitments, involves drinking beers,

watching sports, occasionally with friends. So I guess a follow-up question would be, how much do you drink during a regular week? I know these are all personal questions. Is this somebody's doctor? Is this one of the three of us? The marathon was the Trojan horse to get us to answer these questions. We're worried about you.

Just send it an email and get everybody's answers. Yeah, I don't, I guess I think we did something like this on Friday Feedback. So how do you handle your work-life balance, Kyle? Sleep's my number one. Exercise is erratic. Sometimes if, you know, a bit of a segment.

How many hours of sleep? Give me your sleep schedule. I'm like, I'm a firm seven, and I could be talked into eight. If it's like 9.30 and I'm looking at her like, should we just knock out? And she's like, I thought you'd never ask. It's like, so yeah, we'll at her like, should we just knock out? She's like, I thought you'd never ask. It's like, so yeah, we'll do that sometimes, but I'm at least seven.

I was always the second guy asleep at the sleepovers because I know what happens to the first guy. So I was always just planning out. Still out at sleepovers? No, I'm just saying, I've been a tired guy my whole life. I've been a, you know, like it gets dark out and I'm starting to feel it. Two, three hours of darkness. And I'm like, let's just go to bed.

And so I was just, you know, just waiting for the first guy to knock out. So, you know, they could do whatever. And then then I'd go to sleep at peace. So I'm just saying I've always valued sleep. I'm down to pretty much two drinking days a week. One of them is usually golf. So I'm walking and drinking and that's probably about four. That's not even a real day.

It's like a half. Yeah, exactly. That's probably about four Coors lights. Yeah. And we're probably about four. That's not even a real day. It's like a half. Yeah, exactly. It's probably about four Coors lights. Yeah. And we're walking nine holes. So that's, I'm good for one of those and one frolic and I don't know. That's probably, that's probably like seven drinks at a frolic time now. So, um, I don't know. And then exercise, like I'll do it.

I do my walk stuff in the morning, my walk jog thing. And then, uh, you know, if like a Bill segments take it too long, I'll just stand up, I got some 35s behind me, I'll start doing stuff with them. We'll do curls during Bill's monologues. Yeah. I gotta start doing that. Totally, yeah.

Yeah, I got some 10s that I got from my father-in-law, some 25s, and I got a lot of range with those, so I've been messing around. That's cool. Hell yeah. Little advice for Ryan's open there, Steve, there are lots of 25s and I got a lot of range with those. So I've been, I've been messing around. Hell yeah. Little advice for Ryan's open there, Steve, if you just keep some, keep some dumbbells near you and just pass the time. Did I have, I told you, I have the treadmill. I have like the treadmill, the desk treadmill thing, my parents moved and they

had like one of those really thin ones. And I was like, I'll take it. So I tried it. I used to be better about it and I'm not, I have to get back at my grind, but I used to just like walk a couple of miles while I would like answer emails and stuff and you know, cause like it's just, I don't know, I and I'm not. I have to get back, I'm like crying. But I used to just walk a couple miles while I would answer emails and stuff. I don't know, I have a bad time, or I'm bad at, I should say,

balancing a lot of my work day. Because it's also weird, because you work from home, and you're like, man, should I be at my desk all the time? Or can I go do stuff? There's still this weird thing in your head about what's kind of acceptable and what's not. Even though as a manager, quote unquote, I'm like, I get your head about like, what's kind of acceptable and what's not. Even though I, as like a, as like a manager, quote unquote, I'm like, I get your work done.

I don't really care. Like what time you do any of this stuff. And as long as people aren't complaining, I'm happy to keep it moving. My sleep thing is weird. I am a night owl. I've always been a night owl, which is kind of weird cause my dad is like

the most morning person of all time. Like he wakes up at four every day and like starts his day. And I, I don't know that I'm ever comfortable going to bed before midnight, but having a kid kind of fucks that up pretty badly. Cause then luckily she's been a good sleeper. But, um, so like, I used to be like a hard eight plus hour a night guy. And I am, I've kind of moved into the seven and sometimes less range is because I like

kind of refused to go to sleep early and I've been weirdly okay. Like I thought it would impact me more. I'd be tired more. And maybe it just like, I look tired. I got bags in my eyes, who knows? And maybe you're like that in the long run. It's not going to be a good thing, but I've kind of just gotten less sleep and have been okay so far. Uh, so I don't know if I'd recommend that, but that's at least what I do. And then what was the other one? Oh, drinking. I kind of only drink when I play video games with my buddy.

So that's like maybe one night a week and it's a couple drinks. That's about it. When's the last time you went out to a bar and just were like, it's on? It's been a while. It's been a long time. Actually, I'm trying to think. It's probably like once a month maybe, if that. Oh, okay.

All right, I thought you were gonna say maybe it had been like six months. No. Was it Denver? Denver we got after, pretty good. Yeah, that was fun. We had a good time. Although you guys complained that I left early, even though it was like six months. No. Denver, right? Was it Denver? Denver we got after it pretty good. Yeah, that was fun. We had a good time. Although you guys complained that I left early,

but it was like 2 a.m. I just noted that you were the first guy. Did I complain that you left early? No, that's true. I just noted because in a place with Bill and Ryan, you left before both of them. I just thought- It was like 2 a.m.

And my body focus at 4 a.m. It was over. Yeah, like I was not. When dudes were leaving. I thought they were calling Hoopers, I left. I don't know what you want me to do. It was over. It was over. Yeah, like I thought we were calling Ubers. I left. I don't know what you want me to do. It was over.

It was over. They wanted to close. And then they were kind of like, you know what? This is a really good crowd for a midweek deal. Like they would have been out of there hours before. Right. So I don't think that they were gonna complain because we were taking care of them.

But it's actually kind of funny. I've got a situation coming up. My buddy who lives in Chicago, we don't get to see him very often. He's coming in for like a weekend It's kind of like a hey get out of the apartment Let my wife have the apartment door so for a weekend and not bother and he's got a couple trips a couple stops like in The Northeast on the way so we're getting them for a Friday night and like the crew is trying to figure out like what?

Yeah, we booked him for a Friday night And we're like should we just do like, like just to get weird sleepover situation? We were talking about like getting Airbnbs in like the town over just like, just to have a safe space for the night for the boys, which is a little bit weird, I guess, when you say that out loud. It's kind of weird, but as you were saying, and I'm like, is that as weird as that?

I can see Matty like, leave your location out. But now I kind of love it. I can see Matty like, why don't you take this air tag with you? Yeah. Because like the problem is like, yeah, like a couple of us have kids, like the kids will come over, but then they've got bedtimes, but I want to stay. I want to kind of get after it with my guy.

So I don't, I don't really know how I'm going to play it yet. So that was kind of on the table, but that would be a good after a night for sure. So many other texts, right? I was like, somebody's going to bang a hundred dudes over here. Uh, I've already talked about my weekly thing when I did it on Friday Feedback and then after I did it, I was like, oh cool, you work out a lot and you're talking about it and then you work a lot and then you have a side hobby or whatever. I think the ultimate thing is that this guy's talking about training for ultra marathons.

Guess what? You are more dedicated to whatever your pursuit of fitness is than 99.9% of the people walking the fucking planet. All right? So like for us to give you perspective on how to balance it all, you have decided to take on some of the most physically challenging endeavors in any competitive field and you're doing it and you're clearly doing it really well and it makes you feel better. So like, if you don't have guilt, like what my, my real advice to you'd be like,

what thing are you trying to unlock? Because clearly you enjoy the pursuit of these high intensity, extreme sports that you're a part of that you are wired a very different way. Um, and I think you should be psyched about all of those things. So why are you coming to us for advice? Really? Like there's nothing, none of us are gonna be able to tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing

because I think it's very clear that you have a higher level of commitment to challenges that would strike fear in almost every man. The Ironman thing is kinda getting me now though, and this is a good hypothetical. So two point, no, no, just let me finish. Hold on. 2.4 miles swim, 112 mile bike ride.

And obviously the marathon, which is 26.2. What percentage do you think you'd finish? Like if you just had to do one of those things, like which one do you think you could finish the highest percentage of? I think it's the bike ride, even though it's 102 miles. Oh, I'd be the swim for me. I got girls like Johnny. 2.2, almost two and a half miles of swimming.

That seems like the hardest one. Yeah, miles long. I was gonna say swim two, but I don't know. We talking ocean swim, right? I mean, where are you gonna find two miles, like a big lake maybe? If you could turn around. I'll even let you do it in a pool,

but like two point, how many laps in a pool is 2.4 miles? A lot of laps. Unlimited time. If you're telling me, if you could finish one of these, I think I would choose the two miles in the water. The bike thing, man, you get that lactic acid burning up in the quads. I mean, again, we're just talking about sitting around

and then, hey, pick one. Which one? Everybody would drown. Bike thing, the second charge up a Which one? Everybody would drown, the bike thing, the second charge up a hill, you'd be like, I'm out. So it'd probably be walking the marathon. Yeah, no, it'd be walking the marathon. Walking the marathon. Yeah, but at least the mile you get some downhill,

you know, you get the cruise, you put on cruise control for a little bit, you know, I don't know. Cruise control? Yeah, you know, you go downhill. I don't know. All right. I think it's, you go downhill. All right. I think it's the bike.

Anyway, let us know. The advice we give that guy is don't ask us for advice. Find, check in his Goggins hasn't asked me anything going on because we can't. You don't need our help. Let's see here. This one is good. And it's just so specific and weird.

I don't know what's going on with the sorting today. I mean, sorting issues. Dream job destroyed by maniac. My name is Greg. That would be fun if it was that guy. I was told to give a proper player comp to receive advice. The truth is I don't watch much basketball. Generally I prefer movies.

So my player comp is probably my favorite movie character. Like the great Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit, 2012, 169 minutes, Serdy's like seen it four times. I'm always willing to listen. You're a big Lord of the Rings guy, correct? I am, but not The Hobbit, you know, I don't know. The original three. It was fine. Give me more of that world.

That's fine. Yeah, the original three, obviously. I actually almost got so fired up yesterday that I was like, it was gonna be like my first like video trend thing I would ever do. There was a guy, you know, you've seen those things where like, they give you like a random thing and then you gotta rank it one to 10 or one to nine? Yeah. This guy did it.

And I'm always just like, Oh, this is stupid. This is stupid. There is one guy that ranks gross food and like gags and that, I don't know. I I'm like drawn to that for some reason, but this one that I saw was the one time I was like, I might actually do this one. I'm not going to do it now that I said it. It was characters, uh, from the Lord of the Rings ranked that you would want to have a beer with.

And I was like, this is fucking perfect. I followed the guy right away. Cause I was like, I hope you do another one of those. Anyway, Lord of the Rings, I'm in on all that stuff. All right, two big guys on it. All right, so I'm always listening. I'm always willing to listen and to take the advice of wiser men,

I much prefer the safety of my hobbit hole, watching films and enjoying my cozy life. I was recently given the job. Second director's time. Similar to Tom Hanks in Big, 1988, 104 minutes long. That's funny. This is good, this is good, Kyle.

When he gets a job as a toy designer, I was given the opportunity to be the resident expert on a web film review series. Again, a resident expert on a web film review series, meaning the other host will call him Tim. He seemed to be a family man, also the title of a fantastic film starring Nicolas Cage, 2,125 minutes,

and truly interested in learning more about films from someone with my expertise. However, here's where I need your advice. Since you host a popular podcast and have obviously dealt with a wide variety of personalities in your industry, I need help with. Since you host a popular podcast and have obviously dealt with a wide variety of personalities in your industry, I need help with how to continue my dream job yet keep my sanity. I first sometimes noticed that Tim did not seem to actually be watching the movies he

reviewed sometimes. You will often seem unsure if a film is animated or live action. I'm not talking about great movies that mix both such as Roger Rabbit, 1988, 103 minutes or Cool World, 1992, 107, 147 minutes. He doesn't have runtime, but we might add it. I'm talking about fully animated films with talking squirrels. I'm fairly certain that Tim is not a film buff at all. Tim is also extremely abrasive. He will yell and scream at the staff. He often appears to be inebriated and I believe uses a vape pen to do drugs. He subscribes to every crackpot conspiracy theory there is. This often bleeds into our reviews and he'll end up, and he'll bring up an anti-fax nonsense, holistic medicine, or call for the

public execution of political figures. Is this a scam? This can't be happening. What I'm trying to think is this a guy that exists already that he's trying to like put into an email? Yeah, is he describing a movie character? It has to be. Or like a guy. Or just a guy, because it's Alex Joe. I don't know who this is. He's hijacked my highly rated and fan favorite segments

to play his terrible music he makes, introduces bandmates to talk about his personal life. A show that was supposed to be for film buffs has turned into a soap opera and everyone knows that soap operas are not movies. The final straw was I recently partnered with a fellow movie buff and we began cataloging a collection of great films to be stored. Wait, is this about Simmons or something? Like what's going on? I don't know. I'm nervous. I am nervous too.

It's not about me, right? No, I know. Like ruining your sports show. I don't know. Right, then there's gonna be an email that we get like two days from now. How could you not know that that was about Family Ties season four?

Like you're right, I forgot. So the final straw, I recently partnered with a fellow movie buff and we began cataloging a collection of great films to be stored in an exclusive library for the enjoyment of other buffs. These are being kept as VHS tapes as the quality is impeccable

and the cost is minimal compared to modern DVDs. I believe Tim purposely destroyed a large chunk of this collection out of jealousy of the expansive library that was being built. Police said that the fire was suspicious and my renter's insurance is holding back. So this isn't true. What is it referring to? Yeah, I know. This is really what we're trying to, like, what did this guy do where we're not figuring out what the punchline is. Regardless, the insurance could never replace the sentimental value of such a collection of great cinema. It's truly priceless. I can't talk today. This guy's in my head. As I sorted through burnt

and destroyed classics such as Citizen Kane, 1941, 119 minutes, The Wizard of Oz, 1939, 102 minutes, and Willow, 1988, 126 minutes. I love Willow. Uh, in my temporary library, a storage garage, I knew that I had to take action. Should I quit my dream job? Is it possible to make him realize he's running? He's ruining a great outlet for people who love great cinema. I fear I may never get the opportunity to review these great movies again. How would you proceed? What time was that sent?

Well, it was sent midday. If it's real, start your own podcast or whatever YouTube channel. That's the only thing I have. I don't think it's real though. There's something that we're not figuring out behind that. Like is he trying to say that someone in the world that we're in is doing something and then the other person is ruining it, but then the fire and the insurance thing, again, he wrote this before the fires happened. So I don't think he was. The weirdest version is none of it happened

and he just made it up to have an interesting email. That would be the weirdest version of it. The weirdest version is it's real. Well, yeah, I guess so. But I don't think there's any chance. All right, we end this week on a mystery. Yeah, nothing. Tune in next week.

Yeah. God damn. Man, it's gonna be in my craw for days. I really hope it's not something that like we're just being really stupid about. It's like, oh yeah. But I don't know. Yeah. But see, but that can happen like every now and then. And, and I, you know, there are on airs people that I don't even like that'll make mistakes where I'll think that's a tough spot.

They were in a tough spot there and you know, people make mistakes or whatever. And so when it happens where you're like in it and you're trying to figure out like what's my advice going to be or whatever, and then you were kind of be like, Oh, like when that guy did the cure lyrics, it was like, all right, you got us, but are you fucking serious? This was remember the cure lyrics from 40 years ago. Well, that's your loss by not listening. But I loved them. I don't remember their lyrics, but this one, um, this loss by not listening. But I loved them. I don't remember their lyrics. But this one, this one is very weird.

I can't, yeah, I don't know what the code is right now. Maybe somebody else will figure it out. And if you do figure it out, try not to be so hurtful about it. So how about that? All right, enjoy your weekend. Brian Rosilla podcast, thanks to Kyle, thanks to Wargon. Well, thanks to Wargon's presence. War Well, thanks to just like wherever else this is. Well, we're going to, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Whoever else is doing this great job. Uh, Ryan Russo podcast, Ringer Spotify. Must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

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