The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Part 2: Notre Dame Beats Georgia, and the State of the Declining SEC. Plus, Friday Feedback!

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

Russillo starts Part 2 of the podcast by recapping Notre Dame’s victory over Georgia, before taking a look at the SEC to see if it’s declining (0:27). Then, Ceruti and Kyle join to answer your mailbag questions in the latest edition of Friday Feedback! Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, live streams, 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 Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NURDAY MOVES ON! They take out Georgia and they take out another chance for the SEC to beat in the title game. We will do the state of a declining conference and we've got a Friday feedback for you on Thursday. So enjoy part two of today's show. 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.

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Notre Dame advances, winning the Sugar Bowl against Georgia just moments ago. So we're taping for you here, throwing it on the front of the Friday feedback. And then I want to talk a little bit about the state of the SEC because this is not what you were looking for as another team has eliminated Texas, the last hope for the conference. So Notre Dame wins 23-10. This was a game, I think if you were a Georgia fan

in the beginning wondering what Gunnar Stockton was going to look like, you probably felt good about it. We've talked about Georgia's drops all season long and these guys are making some tough contested catches. They weren't running the football great, but the defensive line looked like they were in it. But let's do a little quick football math. Georgia infield goal range fumble, minus three points. You fumble at the very end of the first half, a short field, touchdown minus another seven points. You could also question, like look, when teams have a possession,

I can't stand when teams don't look at the opportunity of having possession, even with less than a minute to go. But it was weird that Georgia would ice the kicker for Notre Dame prior to that, using one of their three timeouts, if then they were gonna try to do whatever they could possibly do on the last possession. So something to think about there.

Opening kickoff, even if you feel like Georgia has, I don't know why you would have felt they'd had momentum other than just a reset and then Notre Dame runs it back. So that's another seven points. So 17 of the 23 are on plays where if you're Georgia with a quarterback who granted in a Texas SEC title game, it's not like he wasn't getting big game experience in that, but still a massive unknown going into this game. They're like, okay, the defense is going to be all right.

And receivers might be a little bit better. Although you had a huge drop from Bell in the second half. If you give them 17 points, you're probably not winning this football game. And I think the best part for Notre Dame, they line up on fourth down, look like they're going to punt it in the fourth quarter. Uh, they run their offense back onto the field. Georgia runs their defense back on the field. Georgia had already used the timeout in the second half.

And as I'm watching it, I'm like, are they going to jump off sides? Are they going to jump off sides? They jump off side, they convert the first down, obviously off the penalty. So a great job by Marcus Freeman, just messing with Georgia's players. Georgia had time to sub in, but I was thinking like, should Kirby just call a time out here to settle everybody down going, you realize they're probably not going to snap the football. And that's exactly what happened because I mean, even though they did snap it. I don't know if they were planning on snapping it.

Maybe he addressed that in the post game. But obviously you'd want to snap it once you had Georgia lined up off sides to get the free shot on top of everything else. And after that play, they run nine more plays ultimately punting it, but it doesn't really matter because at that point, I think it was 7-17 left when that happened in the fourth quarter. Yep, 7-17 left on the game clock. And then at that point, Georgia's getting the ball back with two minutes left and down two scores. So it wasn't going to

happen for them. Notre Dame's old line, I don't know that it mattered. I think their running to the edges was terrific. And the Riley Leonard runs were really, really big for them. And because when you looked at Riley Leonard, maybe they were just pacing him a little bit more towards the second half of the season and wasn't as big of a part of the offense. And they obviously have two great running backs to go with this group. And I didn't know if that was something they were strategically doing, maybe trying to rest him up for a playoff run here. Um, but at a game that felt like, you know, when it was zero, zero for the, through the first quarter,

I'm sitting at home going, this game is going to come down to one, just absolutely enormous turnover. That's exactly what I felt after 15 minutes. Like something is gonna happen, it's gonna be a low scoring game. We thought that going into it, but ultimately, if one team has this disastrous turnover that might decide the game.

And that's what happened here. But credit Notre Dame for a bunch of different things in holding up enough, because early on it looked like Georgia was going to dictate this game, the defensive front, uh, cause those guys actually look pretty good, but they got some good stuff on the edges. Uh, and Riley Linder was really tough in this one and Freeman to pull off that. Lineup for the punt thing and then sub out everyone and put in their offense

and then get the penalty. Just a massive, massive part of the game. I mean, so many things went wrong for Georgia in this one, but I cannot imagine the joy for Irish fans after Notre Dame seals the game. Not zero on the clock, but the game is over. And the first ad is an SEC, it just means more ad. Your joy, if you were watching at home and you're a Notre Dame fan, or if you're just, you know, you hate that conference, you must've enjoyed that.

Another ad, I was a little bit like when Playoff P, there was like the Paul George Gatorade ad and they came right out to him missing a huge shot for the Pacers in the playoffs. Another ad I would ask about strategic placement. I don't know if a RuPaul drag queen TV show ad is best optimized for the Sugar Bowl audience. Just a thought. Okay, so Georgia loses.

Let's talk SEC. The SEC is at seven and six for their ball record. I'm gonna throw a lot of stuff at you here. I'm gonna see if I can come to some kind of conclusion. We're gonna work on this together. We're gonna work it out together. The big 10s, eight and five, the extra loss though, I had to had big 10 Oregon there,

so you can make it seven and four if you want to. If you want to say they only have four losses that are against non-big 10 schools, that would be great too. I've done that in the past when the SEC has gone up against each other. Really what we're talking about here is the Big 10 and the SEC in this argument because now it feels like, wait, is there a window here? Is this happening? Is the shift happening from all of those dudes like me that have, I don't want to say propped up the SEC, just argued in favor of it

because I felt like the results backed it. I kind of could never really understand the opposition argument other than just people being prideful, people being sick of it. And like, look, I kind of get it too. I traveled, what, to 60 plus campuses. I've been covering college football now since 2006. I fell in love with college football all over again.

I prefer Saturdays to Sundays when it comes to football. You know, there's, I think I've talked about this enough, but I just fell in love with the sport again because I just remember when I was on the air in Boston, you could have the national championship game on the night before and then we come in on a Tuesday and be like, all right, Red Sox offseason, do they have enough bullpen options? Seriously, we didn't never ever talk about it. So there's this gap for me of being super into it and then also having it be part of the job at ESPN. And I always felt like I came from it from a very honest position. I grew up in the Northeast.

I went to Vermont, which is obviously a soccer factory, but I wasn't somebody that went to one of these schools. I didn't grow up there with so many of the former guys that I worked with, these dudes that just played elsewhere. I'm like, you think I'm biased? This guy just picked Michigan again, again, before Michigan was rolling like they were last year. So I know that some of you just don't want to hear it from me at all because you feel like I've been poisoned by the ESPN waters. And I just can only tell you it's not really what you think it is, but I can understand how you come to that conclusion. So there's just a lot of stuff at work here for the passion and the anger.

And now the excitement, if you've hated the SEC to see what continues to happen, really a carryover of last year's bold disappointments into this year with what we're looking at here, barely 500 record, Texas being the only team that is left. Um, and look, I get the SEC part of it. That's really, really annoying. You know, I kind of thought I'm like, why would anybody doubt Texas if they were in the playoff last year, they beat Bama at Bama in 23, like did people really think that they were going to struggle?

And you talk to Texas fans and be like, yeah, that's all we heard. I'm like, well, I'm not, I'm not monitoring all the message boards. Like none of them actually, cause I couldn't imagine what a waste of time it would be. But look, it's out there. It happens. I remember doing a live show in Gainesville and we were doing trivia for college game day on radio. And there was some question about the pack 12 and some guy, Gator visor,

Jean shorts right out of central casting, it was a pack 12 question. He just screams pack 12 football, seven on seven, you know, and you're just like, yeah, that guy kind of sucks and he's annoying and you hate him and he doesn't even acknowledge you. And so I get where this all comes from. Right. But we do compare the conferences and I think it's always important to kind of, because of sports and being so cyclical, like are we in the middle of something? So let's run through

some of the facts here. Texas is eliminated against Ohio State. That, by the way, I say that like in an exasperated voice because I can't imagine I'm picking against Ohio State the rest of this thing. So say Texas is eliminated, that put them at seven and seven be another win for the big 10 against the sec and this year the big 10 has been terrific. Now we can get into like what each bowl result means. Like if you're a Bama guy, you can't be talking about opt outs, the receiver position in that game against Michigan when they're missing two first round defensive line, right?

So you can't do that. You can do it. Maybe you want to just pour over the rosters and who opted in and who opted out and what the Bulls even mean, but all right, go ahead. Go for it. How does Bama lose to Michigan? Being that big of a favorite, you give them what? Three turnovers to start the game

and they go 30 yards for like 16 points. That's how you lose that game. South Carolina losing to Illinois. I would think based on some of the weird Illinois results over the regular season, even though they have a really good defense, I didn't expect that. They pull that one out there too. So the record head to head here is completely in the big tens favor, but more importantly, because I think when we talk about the best conference and I'm not

just going to run the draft stuff to you, right? Because all the draft picks didn't work this year, although I think it's generally a good thing to think the best players are on the best teams. I don't know what sport we don't do that with, but in this case, there's something happening where if Texas is eliminated, that would be two straight years where the national championship game does not have an SEC team in it. Last year, Michigan taking out Washington and of course, whatever we end up with this year, if Texas is eliminated. That hasn't happened in 20 years. Back to back years where the National

Title game does not have an SEC team. 2004, USC in Oklahoma. 2005, that all-timer with Texas and USC. You had LSU win it in 2003, but prior to 2003 from 99 to 02, it was four straight years without an SEC team in the national championship game. I was younger. I was not in the media. I remember liking it on CBS being like, man, those games are kind of fun. But even in that window, I wasn't paying a ton of attention. I don't know if we talked about it that much, right? I don't know if we did what we're doing now. And look, we just have more access to each other. So we're just seeing

a ton of it. So there's one part of it. We can look at the bowl records from the last few years. Again, the bowl thing is maybe not the best indicator, but look, the data is the data and it's, it's not been great for the SCC, although it's not some huge margin here. So part of me always feels like, like, so you're going to be sitting there whipping it out because you're over 500 in a bowl game, in the bowl season. So the SEC last year was five and four, the Big Ten was six and four. In 22, the SEC was seven and five, the Big Ten was five and four. In 21, the SEC was actually six and eight, but there was an extra loss in there because in 21, the title game was Georgia and Alabama. So nobody was going to hear an anti-SEC argument that year, me included.

The Big Ten was six and four that year. In 2020, the SEC was eight and two. The Big Ten was four and five. There was also a year back in 2014, we call it Danny Cannell Day, where the SEC just had an abysmal bowl season. He came in the next day to work being like, I'm right. I think Van Pelt even apologized to him. I was furious.

I'm like, okay, let's see if this is actually something that is real. Uh, and it wasn't real. It was just a bad bowl season, but this is two straight years and it's likely going to be two straight years without a team from the sec playing for national championship. So maybe we are in it. Maybe we were in this shift, which I do expect to happen in sports. And I don't know if it's the NIL.

Cause that's honestly, you completely expose yourself as a non ball knower when you're like, oh, finally the other schools can pay players. I mean, I love Shane Gillis too, but it's not really accurate. The portal thing may be true, but it's also true that players are leaving other programs to go to higher level SEC programs.

So the portal is kind of working both ways. Again, I've got to see a couple more years of it to see if I'm ready to go. Okay, the crown is now someone else's. And again, it's really probably only the big 10 in this conversation. But there's a couple things I can never really get past is because the anti SEC media members that I've been hearing about for 15 years, I think it got heated up about I think, I feel like 10 years ago is when it really got cranked up. But again, that's my only personal journey. So I could be wrong on that one is that if you've

hated the SEC, like the evidence is in your favor right now. Okay. It may be down. This may really be happening. But the people that hated the SEC said the same shit when none of the data was in their favor. So part of that makes me go like, is this, is it all just disingenuous? You know, like, okay, you were right. It's, it's been a bad stretch. This might be two years of this. But what were you saying when you didn't have any of this evidence? Well, you're saying the exact same thing. And the problem wasn't even that it was a moving target.

It was like no target. It was always this vague, oh, it's not that much better. Okay, but explain what that means. Well, no, it's just not that much better. So you don't like the way one conference is talking about in relation to the rest of them. Because I'd ask you this, because this really you either hate or like this open

based completely on your allegiance to any of this. But if you hate Kirk Herbstreit, right? If you think he is everything that is wrong with college football, because of the Florida state argument last season, because of his Indiana takes, which I completely agreed with, cause you've already heard mine.

If you hate him for that, do you love Joel Clatt? And do you love Joel Clatt because he is the righteous one here? Or is Joel Clatt just arguing against the thing you hate? Because that's again why it becomes so political. You may hate the opponent so much that you are voting and supporting something that you know is just as equally flawed, but you just hate that other side of it. And I think that's kind of what happens.

A lot of this, um, there was a college football tweet during the Oregon game from a college football writer. Oregon's getting blasted by Ohio state. It's 34 nothing. And this guy obvious because I can always tell whenever I'm looking at it, and I don't look at it that much anymore because I'm just exhausted about the whole thing,

but it'll be like, ooh, that's kind of a spicy little number on that tweet. Let me look it up. Oh, went to a Big 10 school. And look, the SEC guys are just as obnoxious. Like, what'd you expect when Paul Feinbaum sits down when the playoff committee announces the 12 teams? Like, did you expect fair and balanced?

Well, of course not, all right? So there's this tweet that's out there when Oregon's down 34 zip and the writer essentially says, I wonder if Kirk Herbstreet will spend the rest of the game saying that Oregon shouldn't be in the playoff. And that's where I sort of circle back around and go, I'm out again, because it's stupid to say something like that. Oregon beat three playoff teams, Ohio state and Boise and Penn state 13

and O big 10 champs and yep, they got smoked by Ohio state. You think you're making a good point, but you're actually making such a terrible point that then I'm like back on the other side of things. But here's the problem is that my position, right? As, as a guy that thinks like the sec superior and all these different reasons in the history, keep looking it up. And I'm like, can you get the five teams in the big 10 saying these five teams could all win a national championship with it 15 15 years and it's not a completely reach

for four or five. And look, that used to be a better argument before they added teams like Oregon, Washington, who played in a title game. If USC ever figures their stuff out, there's far more options for that argument to go in the big 10's favor. But I'm left with kind of this thought again,

after 19 years of really being into this, because I do love the sport. And we could sit here and say, hey, let's all just chill out, but we're not going to, I'm not going to chill out. So I shouldn't expect you to either. But if you were on television covering finance, which I always find fascinating that to do that every day has to be more exhausting than even sports, because sports, we can think a game is going to go some way.

We're surprised all the time. And then we talk about what happened in the game and why we ended up with the outcome that we did. With stocks, it's just, nobody knows what the hell's going on, but you have to come up with a reason for why it happened. I've asked different people that we've had on from financial media about this because I'm just like, we've had on from financial media about this because I'm just like, you're on TV, you have to kind of say something. In the past, with some of these outcomes, I'm like, I feel like you're just talking about a stock being down. But if you put together the two years and if Texas gets eliminated and some of these

head to heads and what the big 10 did to the SEC, this year, I do think you're going on TV talking about the SEC being at not a 52 week low, but a hundred and four week low Friday feedback a YouTube special with Kyle Sarudi and potentially war gone here Yeah, hopefully get your mic up kid and Look We have some emails. Some are good, some are okay. This is a common theme.

I feel like we have to do this every few months. Maybe I don't even read these anymore. Podcast timestamps. Six, what's your 45? Yeah, I don't know. Anyway, why does the time on the app never match the actual time? So we have to listen to ads, not you. 100% of the pods I've listened to, you Simmons PMT are garbage. Are you garbage? Yeah, that's a show.

Oh, that's a show? I thought we were just calling. I was like, damn, I don't like that tone. That's a show. Yeah. All right. Well, then he says he loves us. So guys, I'm gonna go ahead and say that. I'm gonna go ahead and say that. I'm gonna go ahead and say that. I'm gonna go ahead and say that. I'm gonna go ahead and say that. I thought we were just calling. I was like, damn, I don't like that tone. That's a show.

Then he says he loves us. Guys, we have I think it's a Spotify versus Apple thing. They're dynamically inserted. However, there is a possibility that things will change in the future.

Because right now the way we do ads is dynamically inserted. So we put a point where the ads go, Ryan reads a bunch of ads, and then they get cycled through. So some ads are 90 seconds long, some ads are 60 seconds long, some ads are 45 seconds.

So it's just hard to tell where the next segment's gonna start. And that's just, we can give you a ballpark. It's really, it's the best we can do. I never understood what it was, and then I would listen to podcasts and then listen to some timestamps or try to line it up. And then I think you could correct it in three to four seconds.

And I was like, this is what people are bitching about. Yes, it's true. But it's genius. The reason we do it is great because you think like, I mean, I've used this example, it's not like somebody, let's say somebody famous like passes away or something great because you think like, I mean, I've used this example. It's not like somebody, let's say somebody famous like passes away or something happens and you're like, oh, I'm going to go listen to that 2020 interview that Bill has with this guy.

And instead of listening to the 2020 Tacoma ad, you hear an ad for that's relevant. So it's like, it's, it makes the whole back catalog, like, I guess, profitable and more relevant from an ad perspective too. So it makes sense why we do it. I feel like ads in general kind of suck, uh, for a lot of reasons, but like, if you're been on YouTube and like, you're just watching something like a middle of a point, all of a sudden it just hard cut. And it's like, these are popular videos that I'm like, we haven't figured out a better way to put ads in these

things yet. I, you know, imagine if I were in the middle of just a sizzler of a take. Yeah, we at least wait till the end of the segment. Come on, could be worse. Yeah, it's free too, isn't it? So, I think it's just one of those things. Listen on Spotify. There are greater challenges.

Why did somebody have to die for Kyle to make his point? I'm just trying to think, why would you want to go back? Why would you want to go back to listen to something from three years ago, unless it's like, oh, I like that guy. Wonder what he was talking about on Bill's Pod or something. What does help for like 60 songs, right? You're going through the catalog.

It's Harvilla's Pod, you know what I'm talking about. Like if you go back and want to listen to a certain song that he did three years ago, then yeah, you're going to get an ad that's more relevant. Yes. For topical positive. Zero songs to explain the odds. Yeah. Yeah.

An invitation to Indiana. What, which date did this come through? Well, it was only a few days ago. Rossello Roots, nephew Kyle in Oregon, is a long time listener, one time frolic room visitor during IU's road game at UCLA last season. I've been sad to see my beloved Hoosiers caught in the crossfire of Ryan's feud

with Conference and Playoff expansion. To help mend this unnecessary divide, I'd like to invite you to the great state of Indiana for either a live show or simply a relaxing vacation in the Heartland. I've come up with three half-baked ideas. Shout out to Wilds. Oh, Kevin Wilds.

Invade the McAfee show. Not sure if this is feasible due to relationships with the worldwide leader, any history of Pat, but it could be an entertaining crossover. A live show in Bloomington hosted before the game of choosing bonus points. We have nearby hotels and an airport with direct flights. It might mean more in the SEC, but here in the Midwest, we do have modern infrastructure live show in Westfield, Indiana, a bit out there, but hear me out. You could broadcast during the live tour stop next summer. Um, so yeah, he said, he's, he said he actually could make it happen. I've been Tom Kreen had us out when it was what the 2011 Superbowl we were in Indianapolis for however many days back then.

ESPN used to send us out there for a million days and we went out. We went to an audio game. I think they've set us up like a foldable table. They just made a table for like me, Stanford, Steve van Pelle. I think Ray Netschy might've been withable table. They just made a table for like me, Stanford, Steve, Van Pell. I think Ray Netchie might've been with us too. And it was awesome. Awesome experience.

It's definitely all sick. Great experience. However, with the way some Indiana fans have reacted and they still won't shut the fuck up after losing to Notre Dame, just because other teams lose, because your team got in on a clerical error. I will not be doing a live show. Wounded stuff. And that's directed at the Indiana fans that like it's been over for two weeks, guys. It's been over for two weeks just because Oregon had a bad first half and look, they got smoked in that game. It

has nothing to do with you. Nothing to do with you. I would say perhaps a fourth idea, Mark Titus has been putting a hard sell on the Indy 500 for me for years. I heard that's like an incredible time. So that's two reasons I would want to go to Indiana would be Bloomington, cause the bar scene is great and assembly hall is cool. So a game and then out afterward would be fun.

And then also I'd like to check out what the Indy 500 is all about. You strike me as more of a Daytona guy. Never been to either. I've been to one race, it was actually terrible. It was that thing they were doing at the LA Coliseum. And it's like, the cars couldn't go more than, I don't know, like 50 miles an hour because it's so small.

It was like a week, like it was a new age NASCAR event they were trying, it was awful. But I'd like to see the real thing. Borgon fired up the camera. Do we have some race facts, buddy? I had, no, no, no, back to Indiana. I called the game there for the student radio station at Penn State 2014.

So we're the like the opposing student radio station. They put us on the roof of the Indiana football stadium. And like we're the only ones up there. You look to the right and there's this little shack. And we asked someone, we're like, what's the deal with this little shack on the roof? They're like, oh, that's like John Mellen camps. We're like, why does he want to be on the roof?

They were like, well, you can't drink in the stadium. So like he comes up here and you can drink whenever he wants. That's awesome, dude. The Cougar fact. Yeah. God, that's tech. His dad was up there just pounding beers, it was great.

That's awesome. I think you can drink there now in the Big Ten. I think so. But back then you couldn't. What a fact. Unbelievable. Yep. Unbelievable.

Were you hoping to be a play-by-play guy at some point, Orgon? Never. No, I wanted the trip though. I wanted the trip. So I was really into going. And I was like closing out the broadcast, I had the headset on, and his dad just comes up and starts talking to me, Melancham's dad.

And I'm like trying to like talk to him, but also like doing the broadcast at the same time. It was great. That's the true distraction. That doing that just for the trip really aligns with your airport lounges thing, right? Like I want the drinks. I want the free martini.

I like it. All right, shout out to the, as Saruti said, what a great cougar drop right in the middle of all of that. All right. Your mint takes are absurd. Just wanted to let Kyle and Saruti know their mint take is fucking atrocious all caps. Mint desserts are the absolute best.

Mint mousse tracks ice cream. Right, who can trust you if they're the best? And is up there with chocolate. Yeah, that's the thing is I think you ruined it by saying that mint desserts are the best because I'm not doing that. I just think that some mint chocolate chip ice creams never hurt anybody and you two guys despise it.

It is one of those things that you either like or hate. I would just leave it. I don't hate it. I just would leave it. Would you go to a flavor pal? That's what you're serving tonight? I just wouldn't have. I was like, no thanks. I'm done. I'll just have coffee. What's your go-to flavor, Kyle? I'm just a regular chocolate. We're talking ice cream or just dessert in general. Yeah, well yeah ice cream I guess.

Ice cream? Yeah, probably chocolate. Mix it up with some stuff in it, but I'm easy to please. I don't want to get too weird. I actually like vanilla ice cream too. Sounds like you need accessories. Sure. I mean, dude, Ben and Jerry's, they'll dress up some chocolate ice cream. Ben and Jerry's, you know, they know what they're doing. Okay.

What's your favorite dessert? I get made fun of a lot because you know, I'm a 30, what am I 36 now? I don't even know how old I am. Your old male and I don't really like regular cake. So I get like the football, a Carvel cake for every birthday that I have. Like I love ice cream cake. Like I'm a six year old, but ice cream cake, that ice cream cake is so good. Speaking of chocolate, just chocolate milk, but it's like the little crumbly things too,

and the fudge on top. It's the best dessert. Like I don't care that it makes me, maybe I'm 12, maybe you think I'm 12, but it just is better than regular cake. Although I did have a trace Lachey's cake New Year's Eve. 10 out of 10. Whoa, little trace Lachey's.

It's good stuff. That's kind of like a wet cake, right? It's very wet. In a good way. That was terrible. That was terrible. Getting into Italian ice again. Luigi's Italian ice.

That's really nice. Lemon, really nice. Especially when you turn it over, get to that stuff in the bottom. That extra layer of syrup. Yeah, all right. Let's go. You got anything here before we move on? bottom. That extra layer of syrup. Uh, yeah, alright. Let's go. You got anything here before we move on? I told you I'm in on mint man.

That's it. But dessert, maybe not like a one. I love like a key lime pie. Why is that funny? I don't know. It's funny that he said that to me. I don't know. It wasn't on anyone's list. The right choice.

It's on my list. Okay, I was hoping my co-hosts were said that to me. I don't know. It wasn't on anyone's list. It's the right choice. It's on my list. I was hoping my co-hosts were gonna ask me, we were gonna do a little throw it around, you know. Well, I thought you would just say, I didn't know you needed to be asked, dude. Well, sometimes I get spots you guys did. It's nice to be asked. Rolls.

Yeah, I'm Key Lime Pie, would be my pick. So I'm right there with the war gun. Wow. And by the way, handles, is it handels or handles? There's an ice cream place out here that has key lime ice cream. And it is insane. How good it is.

I've had some great on pies. Just wouldn't put it up there. The top of my list. Not a fan. I don't like pie. Right. Well, that's your loss. But now you're now you're on an island because I love pie. It's not that I won't eat pie. If I did have to eat a pie, it'd be, it'd be pecan pie.

But, um, nah, I don't know. Not a big, like baked fruit guy. Let's get out of this. I feel like our Q scores are going down with that fruit. I don't like baked fruit. I don't really like baked fruit. Have you had a key lime pie before? Yeah.

No, I'm just saying typically is like root cherry apple, you know, blueberry. I don't, I typically don't like that. Yeah. No, I'm just saying typically fruit, cherry, apple, you know, blueberry. I don't, I typically don't like that. Yeah. Okay. Apple pie. I could deal with. Yeah. Come on. Who does that? People were mad, but I need ice cream. I need, I need, I need, you know, vanilla ice cream on top of it. Like I was trying to feedback on their YouTube page. Last one wasn't great. How many ovens does one man need? Hey fellas, maybe it's something you need living solo

in Manhattan beach, but can Ryan lend any insight into why it looks like there are up to four what appear to be ovens over his shoulder in the kitchen. Go cats go. All right. It does. It's two ovens, the microwave coffee maker that I've never used.

Oh, you got like an espresso thing in there? Like a built-in espresso thing? Yeah, apparently it's unbelievable. I've never used it once. Ah, whip that, break that thing out. Homemade espresso is the best. Speaking of desserts, affogato is the best dessert. What?

Affogato? Sure, look at that. Avocados? No, not avocados, not Tom Brady. That seems pretty standard. No, affogato is just, it's a shot of espresso. You pour it, just pour over vanilla ice cream. It's incredible.

The best dessert, he says. It actually is the best dessert, yeah. Sounds like next time we go there, espresso martinis all around. It sounds like it, let's go. You guys think the last visit was bad. You guys would be looking at that machine, Saru's gonna be like,

hey, let's get this thing fired up. Like, don't know how to use it. Never used it. I have two ovens. I think two ovens is very standard for some homes. Some of the more modern ones. It's standard for guys with money, totally. Yeah, I've used one.

I don't use the other. I don't have baked goods going along with a roast. The other's a microwave. What do I bake? Yeah, like what food do you bake? Can't see. Um, the funny thing is, is I had a really big cooking phase where every, when I was living in Connecticut, I had a stretch there where like every couple of weeks I would print out a recipe while I was leaving ESPN, I would go to the gym.

Then I go over to whole foods. I pick out the, and then I would see if I could do it. I was really into it. And then I just stopped if I could do it. I was really into it. And then I just stopped. I don't know, I stopped being into it. I'm into it. So I'll end up leaving a grocery store with like, that was an $80 meal?

What the fuck? Can you make stuff with stuff you already have? Like, all right, I'm gonna get some cardamom, that's $7 for some fucking crushed seeds or whatever. Are these the right leaks? You know, like, I don't know. Do I need leaks? I don't think I do.

But in the soup, you probably do. Yeah, potato leek soup, made that. Definitely need the leaks. That's good. Love that soup. Yeah, so what do I say now? I don't know. Sometimes I'll do some kind of chicken thing,

but then I realized like you like it when you grill it a hundred times out of a hundred. So why are you doing it this way? I don't cook as much as I used to. I used to cook a lot, a lot. And I was super into it, trying different things. And then if I didn't get it right, I'd be like, okay, what did I get wrong?

I'd go back to it. Those days are long gone for whatever reason. Maybe it's the NBA. I've been making my own roast beef lately. It's been really nice. I've been making my own roast beef lately. It's been really nice. I'm working on my own. Making your own? Yeah.

But I just can't get it sliced as thin as I want, but I'm not like a deli slicer guy. So that's not something. Buy one. I just got room for a deli slicer, man. I would love to know that you had a deli slicer on the counter, fully operational. I can see Kyle getting really into it. Yeah. Dude, I'm already pretty into it.

It's got three speeds. I gotta tell you. Some people already pretty into making roast beef. Some people say they like jerk meats. Do ya? Uh. I did see somebody that was like, you know, one of those stupid Instagram hacks. It's like, if you buy a meat slicer and you buy this like,

you know, two foot long piece of cheese, you could have cheese for two years. Like, yeah, but like, that's not practical. Like these, yeah, God, we've gone over this. Um, homemade roast beef though, that's kind of sick. I will say my go-to thing I bake, God, we've gone over this. Homemade roast beef, though. That's kind of sick. I will say my go-to thing I bake and it's just it's like the easiest thing in the world and you have leftovers and makes your house smell really good. Buy a chuck roast, like a three pound chuck roast, salt and pepper that thing, throw it in a pan, like oven 300 for like six hours.

It makes your house smell incredible and you have leftovers for like the entire week. I would suggest a little rosemary with that too. try that. Rosemary would be good Yeah, it's fancy. Nice work. Look at you guys prep. It's like you're his sous chef right now Yeah, that's it yeah, they they put a lot of ovens last two houses I've been in maybe last three places they went double ovens. See a blender there too I'm sure that gets put to good use. The blender is used a lot So there you go. Harmonica Vindication.

So, 57165 bench 150. All right. Jose Alvarado, Scrappy Gremlin, small guy who can't shoot, also a white Puerto Rican. All right, so our guy's a white Puerto Rican. In one of your sides from these past few months, you had this whole spiel about seeing Bono play harmonica and giving him unwarranted praise

for him being able to play a few notes well. Yeah, the crowd went bananas because he blew another harmonica a couple times during I think a rattle and hum session. In your analysis, you mentioned how you had picked up the instrument previously and remarked that after some time you figured out how to make certain note combination sound good. I write to let you know that this is how practicing a skill works, especially a musical one. Non-instrument players assume that it takes some divine knowledge to figure out how to play one well. In reality, it just takes time and dedication. It is true

that a diatonic harmonica may make the music learning process simplified because it can only play in two keys per harp. That being said, playing the harmonica in a way that sounds good to the ears is not necessarily easier than picking up another instrument. In music theory, there's a thing called the pentatonic scale in which almost any combination of notes in the scale can be considered good on the ears. Any instrument can learn this. And most pop stars literally just use this in their solos.

It is not necessarily an essay on the harmonica that is easy to sound good in the harp. I've also attached a link to songs that use the same chord progression, just a different key. Kyle, I'll forward you this. The breath may surprise you. It is not as hard as we think to make music sound good. We can all do it, but commitment and gusto is required.

Here's what I can tell you. I taught myself how to play the harmonica when I was a teenager. I am trying to teach myself how to play guitar now. They are so different as far as the challenge. All right, if you have a decent ear and understand time a little bit and you have a couple go to moves in the harmonica, you can literally be impressive to an

audience that has no fucking idea how easy it is within weeks. And this was this, this was the New Zealand rant, I believe I think there was a harmonica rant within the New Zealand travelogue, because I felt like I came from an educated place of teaching myself how to do it. And then realizing how incredibly unimpressive it was, which you could say mirrors some of my career achievements. Now teaching myself how to play guitar the last couple of years. It is, and I spent a majority of the time on this

finger picking style that was definitely harder and more advanced, but then trying to do some of that stuff and learn the electric thing. The muting alone, they don't tell you that kids. When you're rocking Van Halen, they don't teach you about all the muting and stuff where you're not only playing scales and figuring out where it fits on the fretboard. I can understand time on the fretboard, you start to figure some stuff out, pentatonic scale, already know it, all over it, a lot of Almond Brothers stuff goes back to it, all right?

So like there's these moments where you're unlocking something going, oh my God, this makes sense. I expect the note to sound like this. I'm anticipating what the next note is going to sound like because you're spending, but between all the different combinations of things you can do and on top of electric, trying to make sure the muting throughout playing, whether you're muting with your strumming hand or muting with the fat of

a finger playing on a string that's not even actually the note that you want to play, they're two entirely different fucking universes. All right. And I've taught myself. I'm not a guitar player. I can play a couple songs in the style that I wanted to. So I like, I appreciate your email and I know what you're trying to do, but it's hard to come at me with this when I attempted to play both instruments in one.

When there's moments with a guitar where you're like, are you kidding? That's what the guy's doing. Other than John Popper, because that's a whole nother level of harmonica. You could, you could give me a six pack of cores light and tell me what time we start on a Friday and I could be at a dive bar in Atlanta and I could bang out two songs and you would think I was like awesome. And I haven't played the thing in 20 something years. Yeah. I think there is a, there's levels to this instruments. Like my, my daughter has like one of those like eight keys, Xylophones, you

know, that you just kind of bang on. Skipping the recorder. If the recorder, yup. Uh, I, you know, you, you have some downtime playing around with her. I taught myself how to play Noel, because it's very simple, it's a key progression. At no point was I like, hey, I'm gonna go on tour now. I figured out music.

There's just levels to this. I feel like the harmonica, yeah, I'm sure there's a more advanced way to play any instrument. Of course there is, sure. But it's like the entry level into a harmonica. It's just easier than most other instruments. So, I don't know. And as somebody that played it all the years

of watching your guy come out and blow a few lines on the heart, it's a crowd pleaser. The amount of talent you have to have versus reward, there may not be a bigger gap in any performance. All right? Just the appreciation of just a guy just railing that moment on a hermione

You're like man. This is some honky-tonk in here. Yeah Yes, what do you got work on holy shit, I love some Rudy's honky-tonk. Yeah That was amazing yeah, listen every once in a while surprise you Surrey your guy Shalet trained with a harmonica coach for five years for the Bob Dylan movie. Five years. It seems like a long time. He didn't need to. It could have been five days.

That's such bullshit. I'm calling, this is the first, that's it. Chalamet was at the peak. This is the first moment he's on the other side of it because this Chalamet run was unsustainable. There was no way he could be this popular, this high approval. I want to read that article, Oregon forwarded that to me immediately. That is absolute horseshit that he spent five years training to play the harmonica for this role. I do not believe that.

Figure out how you could spend five years, you know, what do you like an hour every month? He'd be like for five years. Yeah, like maybe I don't know He did train though to sing like he did have I believe he did have that's not what I'm talking about No, I know I'm just saying like I don't think the guy's full of shit like I think he actually did do some training to be Bob Don't haven't seen the movie yet heard it's good. Heard he did well, but it's okay Okay. I heard the movie was okay, but he good right he was yeah that's all the magic loss Palo had quite that but yes all right I don't think there's anything else to add

to that one yeah I don't know if that guy's going to love that or not. I just can't fathom. And I'm not guessing. I've tried. Um, did we do? Did we already do this one? The willingness for Kyle and Sturti to have their wives come on the show. Yeah, we already did that.

Right. Yeah, we're not going to do that. I threw it out there. I think, I think Maddie would do it, but I don't? Yeah, we're not gonna do that. I threw it out there. I think Maddie would do it, but I don't know that I'd want her to do it. Jesus, dude, I thought we were a united friend on this. Okay. I don't know that I want her to do it though.

So maybe it's different. I don't think you wanna do it. Okay, we did a couple of emails that are from newer Toronto listeners and they wanna know why I don't like the Raptors fan base. Again, anytime it's about a fan base, let's all just accept that it doesn't mean it's everyone. Okay? I don't, there's fan bases I cannot stand and I know that it doesn't mean every single person that roots for that that team is a terrible

person. However, the Raptors history goes back a few years ago where we were talking about how the, I don't know what I just did word-wise there, but I combined two. We were talking about Kyle Lowry. All right. And he's going to make the hall of fame because everybody makes the pro basketball hall of fame. And I would like the basketball hall of fame to have this entry level tier, just not be in it. Um, and to me, like Kyle Lowry is a nice player. He's got the title. Uh, who knows?

I hope this doesn't get stirred all up again. I said he is going to make it, but like he, to me is the kind of player. Like in the NFL, he would not make the pro football hall of fame and baseball. He wouldn't make to the baseball hall of fame, but basketball puts everybody in. So he's going to be a hall of famer, but at no point did I ever feel like, oh, he is one of the best players at his position. And I know people are going to go look at his assist numbers here and look at all this different stuff, whatever he was abysmal in the playoffs for multiple

years on top of everything else, but he's going to get in for whatever reason. He got picked up by some weird crew out of Toronto. And they went at me in a way that I've never in 20 years of doing this, have ever experienced anything like it, like sexual assault jokes about relatives. Um, and just like, not just. Shit head guys, but like normal people, like normal people, when you would see their profile, there was like one kid who like played soccer at a college and was just saying the most vicious stuff ever. And I'll usually DM him like once a year,

just saying, what's up man? Still thinking about you. So about this- Pick one guy. Yeah, I just picked one guy. I'm haunting him the rest of his fucking life. So the point is, is I was sick to my stomach fam. I mean, it was just, Jesus Christ,

it was this awful, awful group of Raptors fans that went so far beyond. And like, look, here's another example. Like, I don't know. Well, I know why Toronto does it. Like every fan base that feels like the media doesn't like them has to come up with a reason other than just like,

maybe I don't think your team is as good. It's usually what it is. In Toronto, whenever they're the aggrieved party, it's always, oh, it's an American thing. But then it's like, okay, but what's your counter to the American teams or the cities or the fan bases that I don't like that specific year, right? Like I wasn't the biggest Houston guy there

for a bunch of years. What's more American than Houston? An urban sprawl. But if I don't like the Raptors for a couple years, it's because I'm threatened by the foreign nature of where they're, so all of it's always wrong and usually pretty stupid and this victim thing of like, oh, we're the non-American team.

So everybody and whatever. And so like when I picked the under this year, fire up the Raptors whistles, a bunch of different Raptors blogs, media members, different people like, oh, classic American arrogance taking the under on the Raptors. Or I do this for a living and I don't love your roster. Could it be that? Could it be that you were a little harsh in the over-under spot? I think rightfully so, but there was a little, cause what,

what was the line you had? What are they doing? What are the rappers doing? Basically, it was about how they were spending the four, the four max slots, not for max contracts, but like their four highest paid guys, the three guys this year, the four guys next year, four max contracts, but like their four highest paid guys, the three guys this year, the four guys next year, it's like, man, that's a lot of money wrapped up in those kinds of guys. And so it always, when it's the Raptors,

it's never about basketball. It's the, these are the same criticisms that I have said about numerous other American franchises all the time, but they're so narcissistic and caught up in the culture of like a border that they think that I'm incapable of just looking at a basketball team and having a thought on their players, which again, this is basically all I fucking do with my life. And it becomes like this whole other thing with them in a way that no other city ever responds. So yes, I cannot stand their fans, the ones that act that way,

not the ones that are totally normal and completely understand it and realize this summer, their team probably was going to be very good. I, so there's a little backstory for you. To your point, I think almost every fan base in any sport has this group. So it just, I have gotten into it Raptors fans too. A lot of it goes back to the 2001 draft. 21. 2021 draft. Yeah, sorry. I always screwed that up. The annoying thing is like, so I'm obviously, you know, I'm one of like two or three Magic fans, anybody knows.

There's a there's a magic. Twitter is piss me off recently cuz there's been times in like because I'm not like as much of a hard to Homer I made a comment when bill asked me about his pot like months ago about like fronds in the shooting I was like yeah you know disappointing you know I like I like to, Polo's been better, but he's not better. You know, people that get mad about that and they're like, hey, look at this six game sample size at the beginning of the year, he's shooting 35%, dude, wanna take that back? And you're like, you're supposed to be, you're a fan. Like you're supposed to be, I'm not anti you. So it's every fan base, man.

It's just like some of these, I don't know, Raptors fans have definitely like taken and latched onto you for sure. Yeah, and I have really, I mean, whatever it was, it was like people didn't even know who I. And it just ended up in some Toronto thing. And it's from this part of Toronto too, that I don't even think like, I think people from Toronto are like, yeah, that's a weird area. I didn't know.

I don't know that. I don't know the different factions of Toronto. 22. What was that? What was that accent you did? I didn't, I didn't know what that was. That was that girl. Did sufferable girl from Toronto.

That was pretty good actually. I haven't seen this. Okay. If you weren't planning to do that, I got to ask you, what was that accent you did? I didn't know what that was. That was that girl, the insufferable girl from Toronto. That was pretty good, actually. I haven't seen this. Okay. If you weren't planning to do that, I got to say that everyone who knows that will know what you're talking about. So nice job, buddy. What do I need to look up to know this?

Think her name is Clash. Maybe the Osh. Clush. I can wait because I actually, this is, it's the worst accent you're ever going to hear in your entire life. Oh boy. Instagram. I don't know what it is that she's doing.

I guess, I could probably guess at what she's blending in there. Or trying to. I'm just gonna leave it alone. Can you just Google horrible woman Toronto accent and it's gonna come up. I Googled plush Toronto and big miss big, big moves. The official plush.

Is that who I'm? I don't even got her. You got it. Do you want to listen to the audio? I do. I just need it here. Talk more. Okay.

Let's when we, when we play something, you know, just pick something random. There's one that's like the moneymaker. Yeah, there's the one that she's been eating off of, like the Hawk to a girl, like that's the video. I can't hear it, but probably get demonetized if we do. I had to click when she was rapping, so I don't know if she's a rapper. Oh, no, dude.

It's not it. Okay. No. Just type in, type in Toronto accent six to my stomach fam. Pfft. That's sick. All right. Oh man. This is good. This is not good.

The Toronto accent already has a road rage accent. I'll do this. Text those, let me know. I kind of wanted your live reaction. Kyle, can you find it in a second and send it to Saruti? This feels like the Joe Rogan show right now. Jamie, Jamie, can you get that video? Oh, she did this.

She's done a freestyle. She's flooded it now. There's a freestyle with Sick to My Stomach because that's how this stuff works. Should have a coin coming out soon? I found it. Yo, you're sick to my stomach. I saw, yeah.

Is that one of those podcasts where like the OnlyFans people go on and they just argue? That's what it looks like at least. You ever seen those? I don't know. We should do one of those podcasts where like the like the only fans people go on and they just argue That's what it looks like at least you ever seen those I know she's do one of those how come we don't have one of those at ringer sorority It's like an only fans forum Just bill in the middle of it. Yeah, so It was in an Airbnb. That's why we don't Airbnb Hey, sir, Rudy, can you give me one more honky tonk yell on the way out of here?

I can't do it like out of nowhere. All right. Hold on. Yeah. Yeah. Really good. Wasn't as good. No, well it was, it was expected as opposed to the other one wasn't

as, cause we used to do a thing with our roommates where it was like concert yells and it was exactly that. It was like a Leonard's, Leonard Skinner it was like concert yells. And it was exactly that. It was like a Lynyrd Skynyrd guy, like walking in, jeans shorts, just feeling himself parking lot into the venue. And we had one of our roommates that used to just give up this like Steve Miller band, like Howl, and it was great. And then he would just do it. We'd be at bars and we'd be like, you can do your Steve Miller. And then another guy had a Lynyrd Skynyrd. And then he would just do it. We'd be at bars and we'd be like, do your Steve Miller. And then another guy had a Lynyrd Skynyrd

and people would just look around and be like, what the fuck are those guys doing? And boy, did we laugh and was fun had memories. Yeah. You guys should get help to do it. Try to build some. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Okay, probably the worst one we've ever done.

Thanks to Sarudy Kyle and Wargon, that was Friday Feedback, a YouTube edition special, exclusive. Now it's gonna be in the pod too. We'll take it on. Oh, is it? Yeah, we'll take it on to the, yeah, we'll take on the Georgia stuff

and your bigger college football thing. That makes it even worse. Okay, all right. It was originally going to be a YouTube only, but you know what, we added a bonus pod today. Originally we were only gonna do two, yeah, two pods, so we got bonus content, so it doesn't even have to be good. All right, thank you for all of the support.

Happy New Year to everybody listening, bye. 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. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.