Notre Dame HC Marcus Freeman, CFB With Andy Staples + Mt Rushmore Of Business Jargon With Hank’s Dad
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No joke, I think I might have a cane sauce problem. I was raising canes the other day, getting my box combo with extra sauce on the side like usual. I have an order. When I eat my canes, it goes crinkle cut fries, chicken fingers, the Texas toast, and finish strong with the slaw. So I start eating, and before I know it, I'm scraping the bottom of my sauce, and I wasn't even done with my fries yet. This habit is escalating, and I'm 100% here for it. Dip into canes. Get extra sauce for me, please.

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On today's part of my take, we have some college football. We got two guests, great guests, head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Marcus Freeman, on the show. We also have our good friend Andy Staples previewing college football week one and the new playoff. Football, real football. We're talking real football. So this week we're going to do college football. Next week we're obviously going to do NFL football.

We have the Mount Rushmore of business jargon with special guest Hank's dad. It's come down to a two-man race between Hank and PFT. So Hank's bringing in additional people. That's fine. Yep. Hank can do whatever he wants. Bring in help. Yep.

We got Who's Back of the Week. We got a great show for you. Great football teams are built by having the right capability in the right positions. It's the same with great trucks like Chevy Silverado. You start off under the hood with four powerful engine choices that deliver massive towing capacity.

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I lost money thinking that DJ Ungulele was going to be the DJ Ungulele from the COVID year in that Notre Dame game that he played against Notre Dame with Clemson, and I got burned. Yeah, it seems like he doesn't like to run with the football that much anymore. He doesn't do the thing where he's like, hey, I'm 245 pounds. I'll just put my head down and run over you.

This is, it's just every year, every year. I'm like, this is the year DJ you. And I feel bad for Florida state fans, this whole off season. They were going to be on like a fuck you tour in college football this year because of unfortunately how last season ended for them. And we do still stand with Florida state at the end of last season. Correct. You did what you had to do. Uh, but this was a, a bad way to start out traveling all the way over to Ireland. I would assume that some Florida state fans probably imbibed one or two beverages over in Ireland, uh,

Got drunk off Guinness, your poop's black, and then you get to see that stinker. Yeah, and then you had on top of that that Kirk Herbstreit twisted the knife saying, man, tough loss for the Noles over an island to a good Georgia Tech team. The great news is with the new 12-team playoff, there's still plenty of opportunities to climb back into the bracket, regroup, and keep battling.

Yeah, that's a good point. Now, he is technically right that... They're not out of it. With the new playoff, it actually... Florida State controls their own destiny now, whereas last year they won all their games and didn't control their own destiny. So they actually control their own destiny even though they lost the first game. So they're not out of it. But man, does that suck, especially how last year ended. And then to be like, you know, Revenge Tour starts now. DJU, I'm going to believe in him for once.

Well, no, I believe in him every single year. That one game, I actually think we should actually maybe do like a... Maybe it's a Mount Rushmore. Maybe it's just a segment where it's like if you didn't watch this one game, you would think about someone totally different. If I had just somehow missed...

DJ you throwing five touchdowns against Notre Dame during the COVID year. I would, it would, it would have stopped me from having so much pain and lost bets every year after that. I'm pretty sure there's a couple of Carson Wentz games out there that definitely apply to this. Yeah. That just like you see one 73 degrees outside, see one game over and it just fucks you up forever. Yep. Then you're never going to get out of that hole either because you keep

You know deep down in your soul, like, this guy is capable of accomplishing the unthinkable. Somewhere in there is that guy. And it's up to somebody to bring it out of him. Yeah. Yeah. And it just didn't happen. It didn't happen. But it is a terrible one. I feel like Georgia Tech always fucks people up in, like, these weird situations, too. Yeah. I mean, they have played, obviously, last year, the Miami game. Yeah. Oh, that was bad. It was the biggest spoiler. And they only had, I think, 14 possessions total during this game. Yeah. Right? So they just controlled the clock.

And they did it. And, yeah, you have Kirk Herbstreit twisting the knife. It looked like a great time out in Ireland. I did love how mad everyone got about Pat McAfee getting drunk at a bar. You had him do a show at an Irish pub.

I stand with Pat McAfee. That's exactly how he should act. Absolutely. You're in Ireland. You want to adopt the culture of that town. Like, how could he? What do you mean, how could he? You put him in a bar. When you send him to Utah, guess what he does? Doesn't have a single thing to drink. Right. Went in Rome. You make him do a show in a bar, he's going to get drunk. And when they cut to the booth in the actual game and they were holding Guinness, people took that and were like, you've got ESPN people getting drunk at their shows and in the game. It's like...

That's a crazy reach. Yeah. Also, I'm fine. You're in Ireland. I'm okay with that. If announcers want to drink beer while they're announcing a football game, it would make things a lot more entertaining if Al Michaels... Well, he probably already has a couple glasses of scotch. Nothing big. Yeah. But yeah, if you had... If Tom Brady wanted to crack open a couple zero-carb seltzer and tequilas, I'd be okay with that. So...

Week zero, I hate week zero, by the way. I think it's... Oh, I don't. I hate it. I just think, just give me like four more games than what they give us. Because the Georgia Tech-Florida State game ended, and I was like, all right, next game. The problem with the Hawaii game was not, it's not even a real game. Yeah. I find it.

I'm okay with having the appetizer, with having just four games, but I want them to be back-to-back. Right. So I want you to start that second game was Montana State and New Mexico, right? Which was incredible. Montana State covered big-time underdog. Great game. Won the game outright. Won the game. So I would have loved to see that start kick off right afterwards and then have the next one right after that and then have Hawaii kick off late at night. In theory, week zero I'm fine with. It's just the execution of it.

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

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

They basically were like, here you go, have this drug, and then whoops, sorry, you're going to have to wait another five days for more of the drug. Yeah. I need the drug right now. We need to have it. Because I can cut it off in the summer. I can live without the drug. But the minute you put the drug in front of me, I'm going to get fucked up and want to just go lose my whole life and just sit in a motel for the next six months. What about this? What if they put a new week?

before week zero week negative one fine and there's just one game no i need i need i need more of the drug they just gave us a taste i want it i want the whole thing what if it's the worst possible football game you can imagine no i want i want more i need more they got me hooked i mean i'm already hooked they got me extra hooked uh like d3 you get one d3 game and week negative one and then they put on zero then you get eight games it's like easing yourself in

I just needed more. I needed more. I left being like, man, I wish I had more. I watched the entire SMU-Nevada game, and I was like, give me another game. It's another great game. Yeah. Well, it was college football. It was an interesting game. It was a wild game. SMU had a player kicked out for spitting. They were, like, burning timeouts at random times, not being set. I don't even know if you spit on anybody, if you just spit on the ground. It was the craziest thing ever, and Nevada was going to punt.

And then they blew the whistle through the flag, and I was like, oh, it must be, you know, delay a game or, you know, false start, whatever, move him back. And they're like, no, player spit, he's out of the game, and now Nevada has the first out. It really was a good weekend of just quintessential college football, though, because you had the weird stuff going on in Ireland. You had...

A wind delay in the Montana State-New Mexico game where in the fourth quarter, Montana State got the ball with what looked to be like a 55-mile-an-hour wind at their back the entire time. And then you had the weird shit that happened and the craziness and the chaos at the end of the SMU game. Yeah, and we also had the, which I didn't realize, I should have done a better job, that now college football has a two-minute warning, which I don't really like. Yep, yep, they do.

I don't like that. They reminded us several times of that, which I appreciate. You know what? That's why week zero is important. Yeah. I just... Two Minute Warning was kind of fun that they didn't have it. Yeah. Because it also was a great casual. Like, you could spot the casual watching, like, an NFL guy who just tuned into their first college football game. They're like...

oh, he was out of bounds on that catch. Nope, one foot. One foot, yeah. Or, you know, oh, where's the two-minute warning? Nope, they don't have that. Why is the clock stopped right now? Well, because they got a first down. I want the games to be slightly different so you can kind of spot them in the wild. Yeah, but at the same time, when you watch a receiver make a catch in college and he gets two feet in, you're like, that guy could play in the NFL. Yeah, he could play on Sundays. Yeah. He could play on Sundays. Any other, I saw, I mean, we're just going through the roster cuts. Trey Lance threw five picks. I feel bad for Trey Lance.

He almost had Skip Bayless on his side. Skip was loving it, and then right on QE threw a pick six. I actually feel bad for Trey Lance because it's not his fault that he got drafted number three. Yeah, number three? Top five. Yeah, it was at least top five. He threw five picks. Someone had a tweet. I should have bookmarked it, but it was basically like Trey Lance in the last five years. It was like high school. He played, I don't know, like...

300 snaps. College, he played 300 snaps. And then since being in the NFL, he's played like 150 snaps. He just hasn't played football. He hasn't played that much. He's an all-time guy of this guy could be great because I saw him really, really play well in one game. And he had that run. He had that touchdown run that looked awesome. It was in the FCS National Championship game against JMU. Right. He was absolutely crushed. Did he throw like one interception when he was in college? He was incredible. Zero interceptions. He was awesome in college. And then he got his entire senior year taken away for COVID. But yeah, he...

I feel bad for Trey Lance. I officially feel bad for Trey Lance. I think he'll be okay. Yeah, I mean, he did make a lot of money being picked third overall. Mike White also got cut. Yeah, so they're doing Skylar Thompson right now? Yeah. They're going to bring Mike White back to the Jets.

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

Come on. Izzy's back, though, memes. Izzy had a great game. Izzy's still back. Yeah, it's Izzy season. It's Izzy season. Uh...

Defensive line backups look good. I know everybody cares about the Jets. That's awesome. It's huge. It's getting way down in the deep end. I was actually thinking about whether I should bring up that the Bears made a trade for a couple defensive linemen. Don't know if it moves to the needle, but they did. Jalen Hurst threw his first pick at training camp. Oh, wow. That moves a needle. He got that out. Last day of practice in training camp threw a pick. Yeah, probably bounced off Dotson's hands. It's a real scrap. Probably not. We're going to get Brandon Ayuk on the Commanders.

And we've got Luke McCaffrey and Martavis Bryant. We don't need John Dodson. Just ready for football. I'm just ready for football. We did have, I'd say the best NFL story from today was Jim Harbaugh in the elevator. Yes, it was incredible. So the Chargers, a couple Chargers players, including Justin Herbert, got caught in an elevator before. I think it was before the game against the Cowboys this weekend.

And Harbaugh was... Was it the same hotel where a room blew up? No, I think that one... It was in Oxnard, I believe. The fire was in California. It's Dallas in a hotel. Something's going on. So Harbaugh was asked afterwards. So Harbaugh, I guess, was the elevator right before, which makes me believe that Harbaugh probably did this on purpose and got the elevator stuck on purpose. But afterwards, he did an interview...

And he said, talking about the elevator, there's stuff for two hours, Justin Herbert and some Chargers players. He said, you get in those situations and it's a test of wills. I was proud of each of the guys and the two women that were on that elevator. That's a win. You feel good about yourself. You were challenged. It was a test of will and you pull it down or pull it in. And then talking about Justin Herbert getting off the elevator and it was hot.

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

Yeah, we're only in there for 10 minutes. Two hours is a long-ass time to be stuck in an elevator. Somebody peed on that elevator. I want to know about that. I want to know who pissed on that elevator. Honestly, I would say that if Justin Herbert didn't pee on that elevator, selfish teammate.

Because that means that he wasn't hydrated enough. That's true. You should be peeing all the time. If Harbaugh would come out and say, it was incredible, Justin had to pee six times on this elevator because he was so hydrated, I'd say that's a guy setting an example and a tone for all the rookie guys on the team that need somebody to look up to for hydration. I have to say, I know we did that whole talk with Will. He's picking the Chiefs to not win the AFC West, saying it's a scrappy division. And I'm...

I think we announced to the Chiefs we were going to win the AFC West like six months ago. Sticking with that, but I might put a little something on the Chargers just because... Not to win the AFC West, but maybe just to win the Super Bowl. Because Harbaugh, the guy just does things like this. Yeah. The winner. He also said that Friday was a key step in the team getting good at making yourself harder to break. Love that. We get...

We got to get stuck in an elevator. Love that. I'd sweat so much. You'd be like, this guy's a wimp. How long would it take you to start complaining when you were stuck in an elevator? I'd say less than a second. I complained before the elevator's even stuck. I'm like, damn, I'm in another elevator? When you're getting on an elevator. You know, that's how my great-grandfather died. And then he said, who's got it better than those guys that were on that elevator? No one. No one. Nobody. Do we have any other football stories? I had a couple other things I wanted to touch on.

The elevator one was really my favorite. Yeah, that was the best. Hank, you had something? No. Well, I had something for you. On the way in, so on the way in, I was talking to... I ran into the guy in my building who helped us get out of the elevator, and we were talking about the incident, and he kind of made a joke. Oh, you're going to get stuck in the elevator again? I was like, no, thanks for helping. And he was telling me a story about...

I thought he was talking about my building. He said, oh, my friend, like, it happened to him. The woman came, went to the floor. He didn't tell anyone, and she died. What? Like, they were looking for, and I was like, the guy just didn't tell anyone. Like, he knew she got stuck down there, and then he said, yeah, he got arrested for being dumb. And I was like, here? And he said, no, different building.

And then I was like, all right, see ya. She didn't tell anyone? It was one of those wild small talk conversations that he was like, yeah, my friend was, you know, he had a similar situation happen, but the thing fell down and he didn't tell anyone and the family was looking for her and it smelled bad. And I was like, so she died? He's like, yeah. I was like, is he arrested? He's like, yeah, 20 years. Oh my God. That could have been you. That's a nice little, yeah, fun conversation to have.

Hank, did you want the other thing I had for you? Yes. Did you see Jason Tatum's tattoo? Yeah. What'd you think? Did you see a PFT? I'm going to look it up right now. I think if I had hackleyed. Yeah, your immediate. Well, no, no. First, before you look it up, guess what the tattoo is. Jason Tatum's tattoo is of his son. Nope. But his son's dunking on him. Nope.

It is a trophy. Okay, it's of the Larry O'Brien trophy. Nope. You'd think because he just won it. He also won a gold medal. Is it of the gold medal? No. It's better. It's even better. Jason Tatum got a tattoo of himself lifting the All-Star MVP trophy. Named after? Named after his good friend who he corresponds with frequently. Kobe Bryant. But...

He just won the gold medal in the Larry O'Brien. Those aren't named the Kobe Bryant. The gold medal is the Kobe Bryant medal. Hank, come on. What people get, you know, touching tattoo tributes to people that they've lost and they care about. Come on, Hank. What does it say on it? It says, like something G-R-A.

Come on, Hank. Is that grail? Did he say, this is my grail? I mean, dudes get crazy. Everyone's tatted up. But Hank, he just got this tattoo. He just won two of the most impressive things. No one gives a fuck about the All-Star MVP. He did not win NBA Finals MVP. That's true. He probably beat him in that trophy. Tattoos take a long time to sketch up and plan out. It's hard to do a gold medal. He probably is waiting to get those ones, but they're coming. So he got this designed...

at the, like the second he won this trophy. Do you know what, you know what it is, Hank? And I know like, listen, I know you're sensitive about his aura. This is a Joel, this is a Joel Embiid tattoo. No. Yeah, that's the, like you get that too if that's the most you've ever won. If he hadn't just won the NBA, yeah, he is. He's won. Say it again, he just won the finals. I understand, but that's not a, you don't get the all-star MVP as trophy. If you win the,

All-star game MVP, the NBA Finals and a gold medal in the same year. You can do whatever you want. Yeah, and you should get the NBA Finals and the gold medal tattoo before. How many tattoos you got? Who are you to criticize? If I won an NBA Finals, an all-star MVP and a gold medal, all-star MVP would be the last tattoo I'd put on my body.

But what if he gets the other two? Then is it forgiven? I think it's better than... It would be slightly forgiven, yes. It's better than if Joel Embiid had gotten this tattoo because that would have been... That's loser talk. Yeah, but this is a tattoo Joel Embiid would get. He doesn't even have tattoos. But if he got one, because he's never won anything. Gold medal. First of all, Nick. He won a real MVP? A sketch of himself at draft night. Yeah. So he...

You're upset that he doesn't have a real MVP tattoo? No, I mean, all-star MVP is more important than real MVP. But to me, this just calls into question his aura even further. It seems like he's forcing the aura. Negative 5,000 aura. How's getting a tattoo a force? He gets what he likes. Okay. Because he likes all-star MVPs. That's also a terrible trophy. What is that trophy? It's a Kobe Bryant trophy. I know, but what is it?

It looks like a bad building. It looks like a giant martini shaker. Yeah, or like a really shitty wedding cake. Or if the World Series trophy just let itself go. Yeah, got really fat. Yeah, like a crystal butt plug. That was the other thing I wanted to talk about briefly with the boys. I want to talk a little baseball.

Because we've got two guys having probably the craziest years that we've had in a long time. Aaron Drudge hit his 50th and 51st home run today. He's on my Dingers Only. He's closing in on the AL record. Who had first pick in Dingers Only? That would be me. Who'd you take? I took Shohei.

And Shohei just joined the 40-40 club. Fastest. The fastest of all time to join it. He's going to demolish the 40. He's probably going to have the most combined, or like, I don't even know how to phrase that. No one's ever been to the 50-50. No one's been to the 50-50. So he has a legitimate chance to go 50-50. He could get 50-50 on this. I think A-Rod has the record, right? It's like 44, 44, 43, 43. He was, but he was, so the 40-40. There's three steroids there. Yeah, the 40-40 guys...

He did it, Shohei did it in 126 games, and the second fastest was Alfonso Soriano in 2006, 147 games. So he's got a full 30-plus games to get to the 50-50 club, which has never been done. He also did it in the most dramatic fashion, hitting a walk-off grand slam. It's just crazy. On the first pitch with two outs, Shohei, and just casually the next day,

Threw off the mound for the first time because, oh yeah, if you don't remember, Shohei has a career ERA of 233. Yeah, he's also like the best pitcher too. He's just taking a year off. It's insane. The fact that he's like, oh yeah, I have a UCL, so I'm just going to become one of the best base stealers now and the home run. So Shohei's doing that in LA. And then Judge...

Hit his 50, he hit his 51st, so he is now three guys, or sorry, four guys total before this have three seasons or more with 50 home runs. Babe Ruth, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Alex Rodriguez, Aaron Judge joins that group. He's also the first player in MLB history with 50-plus home runs, 120-plus RBIs, and 100-plus walks before September. And he's on pace for 62 this year.

It's pretty crazy. Yeah, it's absolutely wild. If MLB was competent, if they had a way of rigging the games like some of the other leagues do sometimes, they would make sure that it was going to be a Yankees-Dodgers series. Instead, we'll probably end up, I don't know, Cleveland and San Diego. It's also why the MLB needs a face of the league. What's the marketing problem for the MLB?

It's okay to just say the MLB, they're just so far behind football that once September hits, it's football season. Because these two guys and what they're doing is so insane and so awesome that MLB, unfortunately, has become more of a regional sport where you root for your team and don't probably tune into everything else. But these guys are the face of the MLB and they couldn't be better.

Yeah. Two of them. I mean, Shohei is having an incredible season. And they're both awesome. I'm loving watching. And outside of not talking to the Little League World Series, Aaron Judge seems like a good dude. I was going to say, I think the face of the league is the United States Little League World Series team. Facts. Because we win. We win again. We beat Taiwan.

I said Taiwan. It's disgusting that Little League World Series is in the pocket of the Communist Party of China. What were they called? Chinese Taipei. Ah. The Little League World Series has now officially decided that Taiwan belongs to the Chinese government. It's crazy. Weird, huh? Weird. The Little League World Series. Hank, what are your thoughts on that? Do you recognize the sovereignty of Taiwan?

I think it would help to give some context to our maybe younger listeners who aren't fully aware what the difference is. Maybe like somebody that's eight, nine years younger than us that might be listening out there. Yeah. Yeah. Hypothetically on a couch somewhere.

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

the communists won. The nationalists flew over to Taiwan. They set up their own country there. Now, to this day,

The Communist Party in China, the Chinese government, still claims that they own everybody that's living in Taiwan and it's called Chinese Taipei. Like you remember a couple of seasons ago when ESPN drew that seven dash line or whatever around the South China Sea and they gave fishing rights to the Chinese government in the South China Sea. That's what the Little League World Series is doing with Taiwan. They're just giving it to the Chinese.

So the Little League World Series is in bed with the Chinese. In bed with the Chinese. No better than LeBron. Or Steve Kerr. Yeah. Yeah, so the country of Taiwan. Yeah, I'm with you. That's fucked up. Taiwan. It's Taiwan's name. Yeah.

So we beat Taiwan today. That's all I'm saying. Not Chinese Taipei. But it was awesome. Beat the fuck out of Taiwan. Two to one. Yep. Yep. And extras. Florida. Small ball's back, baby. Florida. Now that's a real island. Yeah. Florida probably declares itself as its own country. Hell yes. We would never do that in the United States. That big boy on Florida was awesome. He was electric. Yeah. He's still home. They had two big boys just mashing. Yeah. The United States, we stand for something. And that's why I was glad we didn't have to play against Puerto Rico. Yeah.

Exactly. We got this. So baseball's back, though. Baseball's fully back. So back. Both those guys. Should we do our who's back? And then we'll get to two interviews. We got Marcus Freeman and Andy Staples. The MMA event of the year, Battle of the Giants, is coming up fast.

Lineal heavyweight world champion Francis Ngannou makes his return to the cage versus Hanan Ferreira. Women's MMA GOAT Chris Cyborg takes on 2023 PFL champ Larissa Pacheco.

Johnny Ebelin goes toe-to-toe with Fabian Edwards with the Bellator middleweight title on the line. Battle of the Giants and Ganu vs. Fajera goes down Saturday, October 19th at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN Plus Pay-Per-View. Hank, who's back of the week? My who's back of the week is Oasis. Oh, good. Yes.

I don't think I talked about it on the show. I definitely talked to PFT about it, but there is an HBO documentary. I think it came out a while ago, but I stumbled upon it in the spring, maybe early summer. And I was went down to Oasis rabbit hole and just became obsessed. I definitely was talking to PFT about it for a while before the pop punk show. So I'm pumped. I was not really. I was, you know, in the I know, you know, Wonderwall.

Like I knew some of them. You got bangers. The documentary was great. They were like the biggest band of all time in the 90s. And they have bangers. And they got aura. And the brother drama is so funny. They got aura. Like Liam Gallagher has aura like through the moon. He is one of the funniest characters. So I'm very, very, very, very late to the party. But like me and Robbie Fox will just send each other like I, you know, it was in my algorithm for a while where I was just getting, you know,

all the old videos and and when i'm drunk i'll just like turn on some of their live concerts and stuff it's all the concerts have like 700 000 people yeah 700 000 people in bucket hats yeah and they're wearing they're like waving giant giant ass flags yeah they only perform at the biggest music festival incredible and meanwhile like they're on stage and liam is calling his brother cunt yeah in songs he his roasts are so good if you ask liam gallagher about like

any modern musician, he'll just talk to you for about 30 seconds about how bad that guy sucks. He's like, he is on the Mount Rushmore of haters, but in a hilarious way. Have you told Billy about this? No, I'm sure he's excited. Hank found a second band? Yeah. Are you worried what Billy Strings is going to say? No, I think... Is there room for two? Yeah, there's room for two. My YouTube, like if you went on my YouTube, because that, it was definitely a phase kind of like food, like I was in like a three week Oasis obsession phase that...

petered off but sometimes when i'm when i'm drunk like you come home i think i saw like a meme on twitter it's like you know you're drunk when you're just someone's turning on full-length concerts yeah that oasis like turning on their old like the wembley or whatever like that happens still glastonbury yeah yeah they had a it was like 400 000 yeah no every single concert is the same way and i was watching documentaries like yeah i knew one song i didn't know they were this big and they were like the biggest band in the world yeah how long do you think this reunion is going to last

Will they put over under, I'm going to say...

One and a half concerts Do they have to go to a different country? Probably It feels like a lot of the beef always starts whenever they have to fly anywhere If, okay They've got a beef in America I think Spain one at a time I'm guessing the first concert's gonna be in England somewhere Yeah, so they'll stay together The second one, let's just say hypothetically, it's Scotland If they have to come to America for a tour, it will not last They won't make it over that body of water Absolutely not Did you see, where is it? If it's drivable If it's drivable, they can do it If they can take separate cars there, yeah

Our colleague, Dante the Don, had a very funny... Okay. My favorite, this is Dante the Don. My favorite Liam Gallagher story is from 2017 Lollapalooza. They stick him with the worst slot of the weekend, 4 p.m. Friday. I show up at 3, get on side stage, so pumped for the show. He goes on, immediately starts bitching out his sound guy and guitar player. Three songs later, says, fuck this, and walks off stage. Yeah, he does that all the time. He's just like, I'm not doing this. And he's talented enough where he can keep getting away with it.

He did that, I think they were supposed to do MTV Unplugged, and he said, I just don't like how acoustic sounds. Yeah, I liked it. He just didn't do it right before. The documentary part of it I liked because they were right before the internet and technology, so they were really the last big rock stars. Liam Gallagher is a rock star. And the New Beatles. Yeah, doesn't give a fuck. Yep. Okay, who's back? I got a couple who's backs of the week. My first is Logan Paul.

Yeah. Looking Paul's back. Yeah. Wait, when he pushed his dog? Yeah. Apparently he pushed his dog off a speeding boat. Yeah, that was bad. I saw that. So that he could then rescue his dog and then get a lot of hits on video for being like, oh, look, my dog fell in the lake and I saved it. Yeah. But you can see his arm pushing his dog off the boat. Yeah, that was bad. Jail. Really bad. Prison. Now I want to see Mike Tyson beat the fuck out of him. Noted dog lover, Mike Tyson. You'd think the videos, the amount of videos they've done in different heights, they could figure out a way to...

Push a dog off a boat without having to be so obvious. Yeah. I'm condoning that, but I'm saying it was so obvious that he did that. It should have been like somebody else's arm. And then the video is I beat this guy up and save my dog, but I beat him up because he pushed. We left him for dead in the water. Yeah. Yeah.

So my other who's back the dog, by the way, very cute dog. My other who's back in the week is Jameis Winston. Yes. Jameis Winston. For some reason, he's still in charge of giving all the pregame speeches to the Browns, even though he's not technically QB one, but he's pregame QB one. I think he's heart and soul QB one. Deshaun Watson is.

What's going to happen this year with him? I don't know. We're going to do some previews coming up, but Deshaun Watson has to be one of the biggest question marks. Is he good still? We don't know. No one knows. We don't know if he's good or not. He had a couple games last season where he looked like, okay, that was...

That looked like an NFL quarterback. Right. And then a lot where it was like, this guy stinks. And he's got a great coach. He's got a great coach. And Jameis is now in the building. And Jameis will be the most popular person in that building. And his video, his pre-game speech videos continue to go viral. Because he talked about CeCe's pizza. Yeah. And it just gives you goosebumps. And you're like, I just want to get out there and play for Jameis. He's the best. Yeah. So Jameis is. So he gets paid $4 million a year.

And I think if he only acts as a motivational speaker, he's worth $4 million a year to have on retainer. Yeah. When he retires, just to give speeches, we'll hire him a parcel to just do that. Just give us speeches every single day. Him and Ben Herbert. We will be the drill tweet. Yeah. Can someone help us with barstools finances, uh, rent this, you know, sound equipment, this, uh,

Ben Herbert, trainer, $10 million. Jameis Winston, $4 million. And all they do... Pre-game speech. Jameis pumps us up, and then Ben Herbert makes us harder to break. I would love to... Yeah, it is worth paying Jameis Winston $4 million a year just for vibes. Agreed. And that's what they're doing. Agreed. Okay, my Who's Back of the Week is hilarious hit pieces that don't really land. Now, this is very...

Very specific, but not to get political. But if anyone is paying any attention, RFK dropped out and then endorsed Trump. And then there was a bunch of people coming out against RFK, his own family. Again, not to get political. I just saw one story that made me laugh that I thought was good for the show. There was a explosive...

bombshell that was dropped that is titled RFK Jr. accused of being a cocaine dealer at Harvard University as former classmates speaks out and it's just this dude who's apparently been sitting on this for like 40 years that he's like yeah I bought $40 worth of cocaine from RFK in college and

I don't know if you realize that that does not help being like, this guy sucks. So it was, he said that his excuse for it was, I was offered to purchase cocaine from a Kennedy. So I did it. It's like, yeah, I would have done the same. The whole point of a hit piece is to be like, we all now feel bad. Like, we feel like this person is a scumbag.

you're like, yeah, 40 years ago, this guy sold me Coke. It's like, oh, that kind of rocks. I did read it at the very end. It put in a note saying like the point, the reason why I'm writing this right now is because Trump has suggested the death penalty for, for drug dealers. How do you feel about endorsing a guy that would have had you killed when you were 18? I,

I sold me coke in college. I'm sure he still would have done it. He's a fucking Kennedy. Yeah. He probably was the coolest guy at Harvard. They break the law. That's what they do. So it made me laugh. Again, we don't talk politics on this show, but that political story definitely made me laugh because it was just so ridiculous. This guy has been sitting on this. Did you see the whale story? Yeah, did you see the other story about the whale? No.

The whale was a much more normal story Very cool So he took his daughter He found like a beached whale that was dead And then he took his daughter to the beach And used a chainsaw to cut off the whale's head And then bungee cored The head of the whale to his minivan And whale juice started leaking into the car Onto his daughter

Jesus. That's a weird guy. Normal. That's pretty normal. I'd say. Yeah. He's a weird guy, but yeah, coming out and being like, guy sold me Coke in college. Got him. Wow. I'm going to change everyone's mind. Now you got to lead with the whale story. All right, Huey, finish this off. Uh, my who's back. Um, conference realignment. Uh,

The UConn Huskies seems like they're trying to get into the Big 12. And their big pitch is that they'll spend more money on football particularly. And that Big 12 is very bullish on basketball, and they want more basketball to be a little bit higher of an income for them. They tried to go after Gonzaga a couple years ago. That did not work out. So now they're trying to go after Hurley and the Huskies and trying to bring in some basketball players.

eliteness to that conference. Max, what do you think about the idea of UConn switching conferences? You would love it. Hate it. Absolutely hate it. Alright, so this would suck because I do love the Big East as it's currently set as a basketball conference. And Curly's talked to us before about Northeast, the Italian League, all that stuff. It would suck. It also would make the Big 12 the greatest college basketball conference of all time.

And I like it just would because it would now you'd have Kansas. You'd have UConn. You'd have Arizona like Cincinnati. It'd be just crazy college basketball every single year. Baylor. So I don't want it to happen.

Because I want UConn to stay in the Big East, but I also realize that the Big 12 would just be so fucking good with basketball. But I don't want it to happen. No, I don't want it to happen either. I don't want it to happen because you have these thoughts in your head of things that are just known to be true all the time and will never, ever change. And that's UConn is a Big East school. And that will never change. It's never changed. Even though they were in the East. It's never changed in the past. And it'll never be any different than that. But no, I don't want that to happen. UConn should be in the Big East. They're home right now. Let's leave them home. Yeah.

I did look at the get-in price at Fog Allen for when UNC comes to town. First time UNC's ever played at the Fog. Do you know how much it costs to go to that game?

$700. I think it's like $1,800 or like $2,000 just to get in the door of that game. We got to go to Fog Allen this year. We've been talking to our friend Eric Chenoweth. He's going to take us there. It seems like an awesome place. Actually, you know what would be great is we could take a road trip in Vanny. Yeah, we could. To the fog? So we'll be ready by the winter? Yeah. Really? Winter of what year? We'll circle back, but yeah. Have we got the timeline up here? I got faith.

That's subject to change. Is Faith a mechanic? Faith fixed a car, a van that hasn't driven. Summer's over. Wheels are in motion. Summer's not over, Hank. No, the wheels literally are not in motion. The wheels have not been in motion for five years. Hank, you're the one who always says, hold on to summer. Oh, wow. Locked in. Labor Day. Summer's over, so I better not see you golfing. That's not... I mean, fall golf is the best golf. What about winter golf? In Arizona. Summer's not over. Week after Super Bowl.

Don't do this to us. Oh, man. Yeah, I don't want this to happen either. It would suck. I also feel like Danny Hurley should just get all his money and be out of his contract if this happens. It should be in his contract that UConn stays in the Big East. Yeah, yeah. And it was just so perfect that...

It was right before college football started. We're like, all right, new normal, new conferences, no PAC 12, 12 team playoff. Oh yeah. Here's another one. We're not done yet. That's why it's been my take from the beginning. Just get us to the finish line. Tell us when we're done with this stuff. Uh, okay. Let's get to our interviews. We have Marcus Freeman, head coach of Notre Dame fighting Irish, and then Andy Staples call talking college football. Uh,

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Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Marcus Freeman. They have a new series out called Here Come the Irish. It will be out August 29th on Peacock. Let's start with that coach. So...

Basically hard knocks, right? For a college team. When you were approached with that, were you like a little bit nervous about like, hey, do we really want to do all access or what was your thought process behind having you guys do this show?

Yeah, I think it's something we've talked about probably for about a year now. And the first thing I think of is a little bit, you're protective of your team. And hold on, I don't want episodes coming out throughout the season and our guys wondering why they're not in a certain episode or looking for characters and stories. But, you know, then we started talking more in depth about it. And, you know, they're going to capture stuff from all year long, but they're going to put them out at different times that really won't interfere with our season. And so, yeah,

I was 100% good with that, but I've seen a glimpse in pieces of the first two episodes and I think it's awesome. They've done a really good job of

not only just showing the football side of things, but telling the stories of our players, showing some of the things that the fans and some of those guys that aren't fans would like to know. It's pretty entertaining. Give me one guy that's either on the team or on your staff that's going to be a breakout star of this. Because every year in Hard Knocks, we always get one guy that we fall in love with, we didn't know about, but it's like, oh my God, this guy's hilarious. I love that. Who's that person on Notre Dame?

Who's hilarious? I don't know who's hilarious. Not who we hope. And he better be the breakout star. It better be the quarterback, you know, and if he's the breakout star, then you know what? Things are going to go really, really well for us. Yeah. How's his hair? Is his hair as good as Sam's?

No, he doesn't have the long hair. He's pretty clean cut. But he's got a listen. He is a he's got a unique personality, ultra competitive. But, you know, I think him and Sam are two completely different individuals. Yeah. How long would Sam take getting, you know, ready after a game in the shower? All the product was he was he always the last one out?

Uh, you know what? I know that he was never out before me. Um, and, uh, I take a while cause I have to do media and some other things after a game and I always beat him out of the locker room. Yeah. So yeah, you're, you're, you're quarterback Riley Leonard, uh, who last year he went through, you know, the injuries and everything. Was that part of it? Like seeing how, cause he's a gritty guy and he fought through a lot of stuff and he's kind of one of those perfect, like

He's a gamer. When you were deciding transfer portal, you're like, this is a guy we've played him, we know him, and we know that he can fight through stuff. Was that part of the process? Absolutely. That was part of the thought process when we ended up going after him. We played him, obviously, in season. You study him for weeks leading up to that game and in that game, and he's a tough competitor. He ended up getting hurt.

At the very last play of that game, and then I hear about two weeks later, he bounces back, and he was healthy, but he is an ultra competitor, and that's a huge part of what we're looking for. Yeah, I know you obviously, we're fans. We can gamble on games. That game was awesome because Audrick Estimé ran that touchdown at the end.

Yeah, I think the analytics would tell him to take a knee. Yeah. But maybe you guys are rooting for him to score that touchdown. Yeah, I mean, listen, if you had a chance to score a touchdown, I understand the right move to do is to take a knee there. Do you tell the guys? Because it's like you're scoring a touchdown in a big-time college football game. It's hard to turn that off. Are you able to tell them before, like, hey, if you break this, go down?

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

Seconds on the clock. And so that's that's just where the analytics plays out. And as a head coach, you got to make a decision. But we did not tell him to go down. Yeah, I forgot you guys were down one. So it would have been. Yeah, you're right. That would have been a weird situation. Obviously, you can end the game with a field goal, but you never want to take that risk.

No, no doubt. No doubt. So much can go wrong with any type of field goal extra point. I can't take points off the board. Yeah, and we're very happy that he didn't go down at the one. Yeah. So shout out to him. His points are good. That should be your motto for the team. Points are always good. No one will ever complain about points. I saw that you were in camp. You were wearing a shirt that caught my eye. You were wearing a shirt that just said grit on it, which we appreciate.

We love grit on this podcast. We do a grit tour every year for the last eight years. And I'm curious to know what grit means to you at Notre Dame football. Some of the haters out there might say Notre Dame football, not gritty. What would you say to the haters? You know what? We have to be gritty. Yeah.

You know, I don't know what some of those people would say about the past, but that's something we believe in. It's really the motto of our offense for this year. And matter of fact, I think I might have the T-shirt on right now. I don't know if you can see it. I think I got it on. Oh, there we go. Yeah, grit. Grit. Love it. But, yeah, it's the motto of our offense. You know, Coach –

Denbrock, we just hired him this year to be our offensive coordinator. He brought that when he came, and I love it, man. It's a way for me to show our offense a little bit of support, but I'm a firm believer in if we want to have success, we better have grit, and that's something that every person in this program needs to have. So what does grit mean for your offense? If it's an emphasis on your offensive mentality this year, are we talking fullbacks? Are we talking like old school stuff? Yeah.

No, it's a mentality. It's a mentality. It isn't. I don't know if you're going to see us in old school two back isos and running the ball every play three yards in a cloud of dust. But you know what? Again, it's a mentality. We talk about the GB and having gratitude for the opportunity that you have. But but at the same point of it, like it's a mentality that I don't care if we're throwing the ball, running ball, we're zone read, we're do that.

Whatever you're doing offensively, if you don't have grit and that mentality, you're not going to have success. Yeah. So you're, you know, the head coach of Notre Dame football. You're under 40 years old. Incredible success. Does your dad still think you're not that big of a deal? Yeah.

it was funny. I was just talking to him today and I was telling somebody like, I still think, you know, my dad thinks I'm a little kid, you know, and, and that's just, my dad's 80. But I have a 17, me and my wife have a 17 year old son that just took an official visit. And I remember telling somebody else, like, I still view him as a little kid. So I don't know if it's something as parents or as fathers that we never just see

see our young children as adults and these grown men, but he definitely still sees me as a young Marcus for sure. Yeah, because the famous story when you guys were playing the Fiesta Bowl, there was a sideline report that your dad, even though you've had all the success in the world, doesn't think you're that big of a deal. Is that something like if you win a national title, will he be like, hey...

you're a big deal now? Are you waiting for that? I sure as hell hope so, man. You know, that would be an awesome opportunity to celebrate with him. But he's got a unique way of keeping you humble, right? And he never lets you get too big. He reminds you...

you know, where you've come from. But I mean, that's the relationship we have. You know, my dad was in the military for 26 years. He was, I think, 43 when I was born. So we have obviously a little bit of an age gap between us, but I don't know if he'll ever change, man. That's just who he is until he's done on this earth. Yeah, that's, I mean, it's good. It keeps you humble. Yeah, it's good to have somebody like that. Even if you're at the highest of highs professionally, your dad's like, you know what? Like you could have done a lot better.

I feel like we need to look at the mistakes more than we looked at the successes there. You have another hater, by the way. I don't know if you're familiar with the trash talk that James Laurinaitis has been putting your way recently about college football. First of all, have you played college football 25? Absolutely. We have four boys at the house and two girls. So all four boys play college football. And so I've played it a few times with the kids for sure. Do you always play as Notre Dame?

Most of the time, funny story, last night I was telling somebody that I get home late, the kids are playing, one of them's using Notre Dame. He was like, "Dad, you wanna play?" And I'm like, "Sure."

And he was like, "Okay, I'm Notre Dame. You can't use Notre Dame." So I'm like, "All right." So I ended up getting Texas A&M. And I'm like, after I'm playing with them, like, you know what? This is a good way to scout your opponent. I want to see who the stars are and all those different things and how they work. So I don't know if I'll continue to do that, but most of the time I'm Notre Dame, but maybe during the week we play a new opponent, I'll start using them on college football. - Yeah, I like that. Yeah, 'cause Lorne, I just said that you weren't very good at playing video games. You said that he used to beat you like every time that you guys played.

Back in college, you said some very mean things about your video gaming ability, actually. You know what? Listen, man, like I don't think it was as bad as he tried to portray. But I know he won probably more than than I did for sure. But my point is, like, you need to spend more time preparing, studying, getting ready for whatever we're getting ready for and less time playing that game. Yeah, fair point. But I do like the angle of taking your next opponent and just playing just college football 25 with them every single week just to get ready like you're scouting before the scouting.

That's right. Exactly right. I'm like, this is genius, man. You can play a game, play with your kids, but also be able to say, okay, we're scouting our opponent. Yeah. I mean, the stadium pulse for, was it Kyle Field? That's going to be an intense environment. Have you thought about that? I mean, they have the 12th man, but Notre Dame has the real 12th man, Jesus, on their side. That's going to be a tough environment to go into. Yeah.

Yeah, it's going to be loud. You know, we've played in some tough environments, but the thing about it, you have to prepare for it. And so we have obviously a pretty loud speaker system here that you have to be able to plan, prepare. You know, something unique this year is that we have the coach-to-player communication, and you have to be able to prepare to be able to hear that maybe with the crowd noise, but also there's times you might not be able to hear it. So we have to prepare for both of those things. But I

At the end of the day, if we execute, it won't be as loud as we think it's going to be. Yeah. I got a tough question, but you're such a compelling speaker, and every time you post a video of you recruiting or talking to the guys, I'm like, man, I want to run through. I don't like Notre Dame, I'll just tell you that, but I want to run through a brick wall. But your career was cut short because you have an enlarged heart. How long...

Did it take to kind of mentally get over that that was like taken from you? Cause that's gotta, it's gotta be really difficult to be like my body. I feel fine. I could play the game, but I can't anymore because the doctors found something. Was that how long did that take for you to, to, to get over that?

You know, I think at that time I was wrestling back and forth. It was like, man, how long am I going to be able to play? And if I had a couple of knee injuries, I would have been on a couple of teams. And I was kind of going back and forth. And then when the Colts called and said, hey, we want to sign you. I remember talking to my college coach. He's like, look, play as long as you can. And when they found the enlarged heart valve, like it's.

obviously something you don't want to hear and you're not expecting to hear, but as long as like, man, this is a sign from God, like, Hey, enough is enough, you know, move on. You're not good enough to, to play in the NFL. And, and let's, let's start this next chapter. So I remember driving home from Indianapolis and calling my coach and saying, listen, coach Tress, I'm a,

I can't play anymore. I'm ready to be a graduate assistant. And he said, okay, show up first thing tomorrow morning at 630 and we're going to get started on this journey. That's, I mean, that's the perfect next step. So do you, do you use it as a positive in recruiting ever where you're like, Hey, I can love you more than any coach, like literally.

No, I try to use that maybe with my wife and maybe sometimes the kids, but definitely not using that in recruiting for sure. So we were lucky enough to interview Jim Trestle like seven or eight years ago. Has he instilled the love of punting into you at all?

He is definitely a guy that values field position. Yes. There's at times that I remember those things and remember that motto, but there's also times I'm a little bit more aggressive. You know, he was an offensive guy. He comes from the offensive side.

You know, I come from the defensive side of the ball, but I'm a little bit more aggressive than Coach was. So I know there's times I go for it maybe on fourth that he's probably shaking his head and says punt the football. But there's also times I remember that little birdie saying, hey, punt the ball, win the battlefield position. Yeah, he's obsessed with it. We rattled off different situations. He's just like, oh, yeah, that was an incredible punt by us. Like we pinned him deep. It was like the Sean McVay clips where he's like talking about a great play he drew up, and it's just –

Jim Trestle talking about punts. He said it was the most beautiful play in sports because the possession switches on a punt. Both teams get possession of the ball and he was just obsessed with it.

He was the first person ever, and I still use it to this day, that told me the punt is the most important play in football. And that was something I heard for years and years. The most important play, the most important play. And now as a head coach, I still use it just because it's the one play you can guarantee at least around 40 yards of field position. And there are some, obviously some,

really positive signs of having an elite punter and a really good punt unit. But there's a times on fourth down coach. I got to go for it. Yeah. Speaking of coach Trestle, have you had a conversation with him about today's college football and being like, man, this is different because this is, he's kind of the poster boy for like, can you believe this is what the NCAA did?

And now we're at a point where players are getting paid, which we're all in support of. But have you had that conversation with him? Like, man, this is, it's nuts where we've ended up. Yeah, we've had many conversations and I think he's obviously accepted what's going on with the NCAA and how the game has changed and players getting paid. We don't really discuss, you know, obviously his situation and where we're at now. But, you know, coach is such a,

an outside thinker, right? Old school where he, I remember his advice to me was now with guys getting paid transfer portal, you have to double down on relationships and brotherhood because you know what? You got guys from all over, you know, some are transfers for one year, some, some from for two years. He's like, you have to double down on your brotherhood and getting these guys to commit to Notre Dame and each other. And so that's the most Jim Trestle response to NIL and transfer portal. But, uh,

Yeah, it's crazy how times have changed. It's wild to look back on that and think to yourself, like there was a six month news cycle where people were pretending to get upset because college players got tattoos. It led off every show and people had to pretend to be mad about it. And we're sitting at home like, what is the big deal about this? Why are people so upset about it? Did you get any free tattoos?

No, no, I didn't get any free tattoos. And I'll make sure I put that on the record right now. You kind of look to your left arm there. Yeah. I got long sleeves on. Right? Yeah. Yeah. You had a viral moment. It might have been last year, the year before where you were able to flip it on a reporter.

who is your son's coach. Is that not? Yeah. So how good did that feel? That must've been like, it's, it's ain't no fun when the rabbit got the gun, you, you finally had your moment, but did he change any of his coaching after you, you questioned him in the press conference? Yeah.

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

I had it written down. I was ready to go after him a little bit, but it was all in good faith and good nature. Good dude. It just shows you a little bit of how small town, you know, South Bend is, is that, you know, you got a guy that can ask you questions in a press conference. And next thing you know, he's coaching one of your kids in a flag football league, but that's what makes it different around here. Yeah. It was a great moment. It was, I mean, I feel like every coach probably watched that was like, man, I wish I had that moment because you're

The worst thing about it is he did the ultimate no-no and he started blaming his other coach. It happened. I'm like, hold on now. If I start blaming our coach, you guys are going to write about me for days. So it was great to turn the table on. If that ever happens again, I'll offer our publication, Barstool Sports, if you'd like to write a blog about his coaching decision. Yeah, you should start just your own newspaper.

And then you start calling for his job. That's what we'll do. I won't waste time in a press conference. I'm just going to write a blog about it for sure. A lot of people are calling for this guy's job, say he doesn't have what it takes, melting down in crucial moments. You go over every fourth down decision he makes. Yeah. It would be good for you because then you get to think about it from the standpoint of a reporter too. And then you get to understand their point of view when they're questioning you later on.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Work both ways. What's the key to recruiting? Because you are a great recruit. You've had great recruiting classes in your short time at Notre Dame. Like I said, when I watch videos, I'm not a Notre Dame fan, but I'm a Marcus Freeman fan. So what is it that you think that you do better than other guys or you found has worked more?

I think, you know, the thing I always believe in is you have to have something good to sell. You have to believe in what you're selling. But at the end of day, it's going to come down to relationships. And that is more important than anything. Can you get this young person and his family to trust you and your football program to lead their son for four years? And I'm actually going through it right now with my oldest son.

and he's gone on a couple official visits for wrestling. And I remember him coming home last night. He got home from a visit last night, and he was like, man, I really liked it. This was a great school. And I'm like, what about the official visit you took two weeks ago? He was like, yeah, that was good too. But at the end of the day, I was like,

Young people can be persuaded in a moment, but who's going to continue to develop relationships and pour into you after the visit? And that's what I was like, you know what? It's still about relationships because you can try to sell as much as you want on a visit and say, let's get them to commit right now.

But not many guys are just going to do it on that moment. And so can you continue to double down, continue to develop relationships with that kid? So at the end of the day, they're like, you know what? This is where I want to be. And even after they commit, you have to keep doing it because everybody else is still recruiting. Everybody else is trying to get that kid to come visit their place. And so you have to continuously recruit and develop relationships with that person until he gets here on campus. Yeah. Has the de-recruiting, has that...

Has that been affected at all with the rule changes? We've always heard in the past that once you get a guy to come to school, then they show up, they get in camp, and then all of a sudden you have to check his ego a little bit because in the past you've gassed him up, we need you here, you're going to start here, you're going to do great here. Then they get into practice, and then now they have to be coached hard just like everybody else. Have you had to change that at all with the new rules about the transfer portal and all that?

No, I haven't. I don't – listen, I don't intentionally try to de-recruit you, but I am –

And if there's times you need to be corrected or coached hard, we're going to do that. Like that's a part of trying to get the best out of you. And what I'm hoping is that the relationships we build in recruiting, the relationships we'll continuously build here helps you understand that, you know, a coach cares about me. So he's getting on me. That's why we're doing it. When you just get on people and yell and scream and you don't have relationship with them and you don't tell them why. Yeah. They're going to say, man, this dude is nuts. I don't want to play for him. I'm ready to move on somewhere else. But if you can continue to,

tell them why have a relationship with them, but be authentic and coach them hard and coach them and coach others around them hard. I think they'll truly respect that. And, and that's the way this program does it. Yeah, that's fair. So big cat, as he said, he's not a Notre Dame fan. He, you could say he's a Notre Dame hater. I go back and forth. I like you. I don't really feel that strongly one way or the other about Notre Dame. Let's just say that big cat and I are, we're,

we're brothers and we're in high school. We're 17 years old and we're five-star recruits. How do you pitch us to come play football at Notre Dame? That's a great, great question. Great question. It's going to start with, with explaining to you that every goal you have as a football player, you can achieve at Notre Dame, right? You can achieve. I want to win my conference. Yeah.

Well, then that's not a great – you want to rather win a national championship or a conference? That's what I would – One at a time. I don't want to go to class. Well, then you're not – you are definitely not coming to Notre Dame. That's a part of it, right, is that we got to figure out what guys would fit here too. And that's the one thing, like if you talk to a guy or you look at his transcript and say, okay –

He doesn't enjoy going to class. He's not going to go to class. You have to move on. Like instead of trying to fight the university to get this person into school, you got to move on because they're not going to succeed here anyway, you know? And so that's probably the most important thing is say, okay, everybody wants the great players. Every school in the country wants this pool of players. Okay. How do we figure out which one of these guys in this pool will fit at Notre Dame? And then you just go after them as hard as everybody else. But again,

Everybody wants that kid. Yeah. Right. And so we have to figure out which ones want...

that and fit here and then just go after him. And one, like I said earlier, like I don't want to teach in football. I want you to believe that you can achieve every goal you have in football here. But hold on, let me also show you to what else this place provides you. Like, cause at some point it's going to be over. As long as we all dream of playing, like as long as Tom Brady, but there's one Tom Brady and you have to understand like a place like this can truly set you up for life after football. So.

Okay, so we got off on the wrong foot as recruits. Let's say, okay, hey, coach, my goals in life are to play a little bit of college football, then be hired as like a financial analyst in Chicago by an alum from Notre Dame. Do you think this is a place I should go? There's a no-brainer. I would love it.

I would list every single one that has done that, that we have in this network. I would get you on the phone with them. Okay, nice. It would be over. Nice. Sick. Maybe try my hand at doing like some college football analysis on like, I don't know, NBC for a couple seasons. And then switch over. You guys are giving me layups now. You're giving me layups. You guys will leave campus. I said, they're done.

They're coming to Notre Dame. Let's get somebody. I just want to meet the Gullicks. I want to pet the Gullicks pugs and make that happen. That's done. They'll be here on your visit. That's what we'll take. On your visit, you get a chance to meet them. I got a dumb question, and it's something I just never thought about. You just named your captains. You got five captains this year. How is that process –

Is it difficult for you to have to whittle it down to be like, hey, here's our five captains? Are there guys that you feel... Can you name... If I were the coach, I'd be like, everyone's a captain. Why not? But can you name as many captains as you want, or is there a rule you've got to stick it to five? No. Four can walk out for the coin toss, but...

I just believe that, you know, the, the number of captains will be based off the voting and, um, you'll, I'm trying to, I'm not trying to give away one of the episodes of our, uh, here come the Irish, but that's going to be on there, how we did it. And basically to me, I described what I believe a captain is, what I believe a leader is. And, and it's not always what you think it is. And I was, I was saying, okay, if you want this responsibility, you really want to do this stand up. And, and,

it was interesting to see who really stood up and who wanted to, to be an opportunity to be named a captain. Now, you know, not many people did it as you would think, not as many people as you would think did it. And then what I got to do after that is when you vote, I got to say, okay, right. What's,

the right number. Okay. You got a clump here. You got a clump here. You got a couple guys here. Like what's the right number to truly lead this football team. And, and that's how I came up with five last year. It was four. I think my first year was three. And so I also don't want to be a coach that has 10 captains. Like I want to say what's really a captain who fits this mold in a, we'll name him from there. This is why I'd be a bad coach. Cause I would just take my best player who's eyeing the transfer portal and just slap that C on him. Be like, can't leave now, dude.

You're the captain. Oh, my gosh. You would lose all credit of what a captain is. Yeah, but I'd keep that player. I'd keep that player. He can't leave. That's right. Every player would threaten to transfer. Like every week. Coach, I'm thinking about going too. They'd come in my office and be like, yeah, I'm thinking about going to Alabama. And I'd just pull out the C from underneath my desk and be like, what about this? There you go. Is that C containing a little NIL money or not? Maybe, maybe, yeah. It's like a pinata. It's a giant C that you hit. Yeah.

Coach, this is probably a dumb question for me too, because again, I don't know that much about Notre Dame football. But when people say wake up the echoes, are we wait? Are they awake this year? Are we going to wake them up? What does wake up the echoes mean?

They're up. They better be up. I think really it's just a credit to the past, right? Wake up the Echoes, those that have been here, those that believe in this place. Listen, I didn't come up with the slogan. I've embraced it all in, you know, but I don't know where the slogan originally came from, you know. So the Echoes were asleep, but then you got to wake up the Echoes.

Am I getting that right? Like they were asleep at some point and then it's your job to wake up the echoes on a weekly basis? Yeah, that sounds good to me. I really have never asked what the heck that slogan means. You might hear me say it every once in a while, but listen, that description sounds really, really good. Okay. Yeah. You just got to be loud. That's what I'm hearing. The echoes are getting loud. No, here, the part of it, it's a part of our fight song.

You know, it's a part of the song. And so that's probably where they got it from. They took the slogan. But the meaning behind it, that sounds pretty good. Do you ever, like, on a fall day, like, you catch the wind and you're like, wait, was that an echo? Or was that – no, that wasn't an echo. No. Okay. Yeah, because everyone – Notre Dame is one of those –

I don't like Notre Dame, but I've said it three times now. I do like when Notre Dame's in the mix. It's fun when Notre Dame is in the mix. It's good for college football. There's something about the gold helmets. It is college football, and I guess that would be waking up the Echoes. Yeah, I guess we'll wake them up. Yeah, I wouldn't mind having the Echoes. I want to then put them back to sleep, but we'll wake them up. Yeah, they should be awake. Coach, do you have special access to old Notre Dame game film? How far back does that go?

Uh, yeah, you can black and white and I'm you could find any Notre Dame game film. I don't sit here and watch a lot. No, I don't go way back that far. But you have access to anything you want around here. Have you gone back to see if Rudy was offsides?

No, I just – listen, whatever the movie shows is what I believe. Okay, that's fair. Not everybody is going to believe that, right? I've heard some – many people say he was offside, but the movie doesn't say that, so I'm going to go with what the movie says. I think that's smart. Yeah. So I went to Wisconsin. I'm a Badger. You obviously coached with Luke Fickle at Cincinnati. He's a psycho. What –

What would you say his best attribute is and maybe the most psycho thing he does? Because I obviously love him and I hope he has tremendous success, but what is it like being around him? He's demanding, but he does care about young people. He's tough. One of the toughest dudes I know, obviously a wrestler, played nose guard at Ohio State.

Very demanding of those around him. But the same demands that he puts on those around him, he puts on himself. But he will continue to make sure that program is truly reaching its full potential. He's going to get everything out of those guys and the coaching staff there. So he actually coached me as a player at Ohio State when I was a lot younger.

there. And so our relationship goes back many, many years and I wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for the things he taught me in our years together. So, um, I have a lot of respect for him and look forward to see what he does in, in, in Wisconsin. Did he ever challenge you to a wrestling match? I'm not stupid now. There's, there's a lot of stories I've heard about him as a wrestler. And, uh, that's just one of those opportunities that I'll pass out for sure. Who do you think would win in a fight? Luke fickle or Mike Vrabel?

Ooh, I plead the fifth. I really do. But I would pay a lot of money to watch that. Yeah, Vrabel, we had him on a month ago. He said he could whoop him. I don't think so. Yeah, Vrabel is very confident about his ability to be a fickle ass. Yeah, I don't think that's... I bet you both, those two, would both say they're going to whoop each other. Yeah. And that's only...

Listen, the only way to figure out who wins that one is they got to go after it, man. They're going to start fighting, and then they'll be like, I really enjoy fighting you, and then they'll just stop the fight and be best friends again. I feel like that's how it's going to work between the two of them. As a defensive guy yourself, I feel like a lot of coaches go through this if they come up on the defensive side of the ball, former player, they get elevated to a head coaching position, and they feel like, okay, I can't be the full-blown defensive psycho anymore.

that I used to be in the past because now I'm in charge of the entire team at that point do you hire somebody on your defense to fill that role of being just the crazy guy that's going to be able to to dial up that intensity a little bit or are you staying the same person going from defense to being the head coach

Yeah, I think the intensity you coach with doesn't change if you're the coordinator head coach, right? You're going to if you're an intense person, you're going to coach with intensity. You're going to have the energy and emotions. But at the end of the day, you're going to hire somebody as your defense coordinator that can get the job done. And we've done that here. We got a great defensive coordinator in Al Golden.

but I'm not looking for somebody to just be a rah-rah guy. I want somebody that's really good, and we got one here. Yeah. All right, Coach, I know you got to run in a second. Last question for me, rowback question, r-h-o-b-a-c-k.com, promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase, Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com. Quick analytics question for you. You're down 14-1.

and it's the fourth quarter, and you score with three and a half minutes left. Are you going for two, or are you kicking the extra point? Kicking the extra point. Oh, no. That's wrong, just so you know. It's a math thing. That's what your analytics book will tell you? Yeah, it's a math thing. I should have said, do you not trust your two-point play?

No, I just don't know if I, you know, if I want to use it at that moment. Yeah, you do want to use it that moment to remember this conversation. This will happen. I know what the book would tell you. I know what the book would tell you. The book would tell you to go for two. So if you don't get it, you have more time to try to do it. No,

No, no, no. It's not onside kick. It's a two-point conversion. If you have a good two-point conversion, it's probably over 50% success. You go for two. If you get it the first time, then you can win the game with an extra point. If you don't get it, the analytics say you're going to get it the second time statistically.

Yeah, or you can say, hey, listen, man, we make two extra points. We'll go to overtime. Oh, no, coach. That's a good exact reason. That's why there's a lot of great things out of that book, but there's also some head coach decisions that I got to make that definitely I can't always go by the book. All right, so promise me this. Whenever this situation comes up and you kick the extra point and you lose in overtime, you have to come back on part of my take just so we can be like, see?

And then if we win, then what do I get out of it? Lucky. You got lucky. Yeah, you got lucky. That's how we do. You'll come to a game. You'll wear a Notre Dame jersey and be on a sideline. Fine. If you win that way, I'll do that. I like your train of thought, though, which is like if we get to overtime, there's more football. We're a better football team. We'll probably win in overtime.

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

Yeah. I mean, listen, there are analytical studies and opinions out there and when you should go for it on fourth, when you should go for two-point conversions. But there's also a human element to it, you know? And I have to, at the end of the day, use my best judgment on what I believe is right for that right situation. And then, again, there's situations where I totally 100% agree with the book, right? I've used the book. But there's also times where

You know what? I got to make sure that I can make a decision that I believe is best for the team in that game. And that's actually on me, Coach, because obviously you're synonymous with Notre Dame now. You're the head football coach. I forgot you didn't go to Notre Dame. You have an Ohio State education. So those type of numbers, you'd have to take off your shoes and your socks to count to 14.

I hear you, man. I know that Wisconsin degree did you really well, brother. Oh, look at me now. I got one last, last question for you. It's another analytics question. Okay, so you're in the fourth quarter in this scenario, and you're losing 31 to 23. You have the ball. There's two minutes, nine seconds left to play.

It's fourth down and goal. And you're on what? The eight yard line. You're on the eight yard line. Fourth and goal. You're already lost. Okay. Say this one more time. Down eight. And it's fourth. It's, it's fourth and eight, eight yard, fourth and goal on the eight yard line. And there's two minutes, nine seconds left in the game.

Fourth down. Do you kick a field goal to bring the margin from eight to five? A one-score game to a one-score game. With two minutes, nine seconds left. Or do you go for a touchdown and then you could maybe get a two-point conversion and tie the game?

I'm going for it. And the reason is, even if you kick the field at some point, you've got to stop them. Yep. Right? If we don't get the first down, well, guess what? We've got to stop them. I forgot to mention, too, in this scenario, Tom Brady is the quarterback of the opposing team. Yeah. He's the best quarterback to ever play, hypothetically. Hypothetically. So it would probably be tough to stop him. You're right. So I think you made the right call. Yeah, you made the right call. You could be an NFL head coach. Right.

Yeah, you got it. What does the book say? Go for it. Yeah, go for it. The book says go for it. Yeah, do the opposite of what Matt LaFleur did. Okay, so, Coach, thank you so much. Everyone tune in. It's going to be great. They basically have their own hard knocks. It's going to be awesome on Peacock, August 29th.

Really appreciate you coming on, and I will stand to it. If you win a game in the scenario that I laid out, I will go to a Notre Dame game with a Notre Dame hat on and everything and cheer and wake up the echoes. But if you lose in that situation, you've got to come back on and answer to us.

No doubt about it, man. At least we might be in your head now if that situation comes up. That's all we care about. Man, I might have to go for two now. Yep. All right. Thanks so much, Coach. Appreciate your time. Awesome, man. It's been fun, man. Good to see you guys. All right. See you, man. Good luck. Marcus Freeman was brought to you by our great friends at GameTime. I have huge news about the GameTime app. They've got something brand new. It's called GameTime Picks.

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Marcus Freeman was also brought to you by the farmer's dog. I love the farmer's dog. Blake loves the farmer's dog. He's a farmer's dog dog. He's so excited for breakfast, so excited for dinner. Never have to worry about redirecting him back to his bowl. He doesn't leave anything for later. He sits down, he eats his farmer's dog breakfast and dinner every day, and he absolutely loves it. I know Stella's a farmer's dog dog as well. It's great food. The days are warmer, the walks are longer, and one easy way to help your dog shine this season is to eat a lot of food.

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Okay, we now welcome on our good friend Andy Staples for a little college football preview. Andy Staples from the On3 Network. You can listen to his podcast. It is college football season, Andy. We're very excited. Let's start big picture. This is our first year with the 12-team playoff. So how do you think that's going to affect football?

The regular season, I've heard it. There's two camps. Regular season doesn't matter as much. I'm in the camp of we're now going to get games that are elimination games in November that never would have had a shot to be that. A two-loss team versus a two-loss team. Maybe even a three-loss team versus a two-loss team kind of things where we get more games that mean more towards the end of the season. Yeah, both camps are correct, Big Cat, but it's not –

It's not going to be the regular season doesn't matter anymore. Like that camp is wrong ultimately, but they're right in the fact that you don't have the nuclear impact of say the kick six or the

Michigan, Ohio State last year would be a good example of that, where they're just like, OK, you're out. That's it. Right. But what you're going to have is a lot more elimination type games like the Big 12. Any game that affects who gets into the Big 12 championship game is a playoff elimination game. Yeah. And that's that could be, you know, four games a week in November. Right.

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm excited for the Big 12. The Big 12 feels like it's, with all the realignment, which is a bummer, and losing the Pac-12, which is a bummer, I'm happy that the Big 12, at least on paper, feels like it's still going to be the chaotic...

conference that's just going to be week to week. You have no idea. Some high scoring games. I need the Big 12 to keep that MO for college football. Yeah. Yeah. And guys like you guys are going to love that because you just love watching good games. Like it doesn't have to be big name brands. And that's why I keep trying to tell people about the Big 12 because

everybody's so even. I can make a case for 10 of the 16 Big 12 teams to win the championship this year and go to the college football playoff. And I can argue it pretty convincingly for all 10. And that's going to be great once we get down into October and November. And then I think people will fall in love with that as we go on. So the new Big 12 is fun. I think the new SEC is just

out of its mind, like insane, what these games are going to be. I mean, you think about Georgia, Texas, and you got Georgia going to Alabama. You've got Texas and Texas A&M playing again. You've got Oklahoma playing LSU. Like these, these matchups that are going to become,

regular season matchups just are mind-blowing me right now. Yeah, it's going to be great once we get into it. I mean, conference realignment, it's bad for a whole lot of reasons. It's confusing. I think it loses some of the stuff that makes college football great, that we love about college football. But when it comes down to it on Saturdays, when we sit down on our couches, we're going to see these two teams like Georgia and Texas playing each other in conference, in Austin, and we're going to be like,

Okay, this is fun. I can at least acknowledge that. So I guess we can start with the SEC. Let's talk SEC. There's a lot of good teams. I think that the Longhorns have a chance. Their hardest game is Georgia at home. They do have to travel to Michigan, obviously, and they lost their big boys up front on defense. But who do you like in the SEC right now? Who's your top team?

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

three in talent in the whole country. I think it's them, Ohio state and Georgia in some order. And so I think they could be very good. And their schedule is not, you know, like Georgia's schedule where they have to go to Tuscaloosa to Ole Miss to Texas. I think they got a worse draw than Alabama did. So I think Alabama could be very good. Could be an sec championship, um,

game type team texas can definitely make the sec championship game which remember no more east and west this is like top two they just came out with its high breakers last week and uh yeah there's a random draw at the end which i just i want to do a coin flip at a truck stop if they get to that but it will be pretty crazy at the top of the sec because you have all those teams and then like

In the SEC and the Big Ten, schedules matter so much more. What did you draw? Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss...

Texas and Ole Miss probably got the best draws of those two. Missouri and Tennessee got pretty good draws. Oklahoma got screwed. LSU got screwed. And Florida, they just basically backed over with a bulldozer. Yeah. Well, Florida and Florida is probably not going to be very good. They're not going to be as good as those teams I mentioned, but it doesn't matter with that schedule. I,

I like the Alabama take because I was thinking about it. Obviously, it's going to be very bizarre not seeing Nick Saban on the sideline, but is there a chance that with Kalen DeBoer taking the job who's had success everywhere he's gone –

Jalen Milrow is actually going to be a lot better because he struggled last year at times. I was at that Texas game when he couldn't complete a pass. But Kaelin DeBoer, he's going to throw it deep. That's what his offenses do. Jalen Milrow is probably the best deep passer in the...

college football his problem is throwing it 10 yards over the middle uh like I think Alabama's offense is going to be like insanely explosive and something like you saw maybe five years ago when they had that wide receiver room that was probably the best wide receiver room in the history of college football now they don't have the wide receiver room right now though they they like some of their young guys there's a freshman named Caleb Odom that they love but I I

I think they could have a very good offense. I think Jalen Milrow is going to be better this year, no matter what happened. Because think about what happened last year, guys. Tommy Reese is the new offensive coordinator. He comes in. They're not really sure who their guy is. They're like, OK, we guess it's Jalen Milrow. And they go with him for the first couple games. They lose the Texas game. And I'm still not convinced they didn't go, you know what? We're tired of hearing you guys yell at us about the quarterback.

We're going to start one of the other guys and you'll see what we've been seeing. And so they start Tyler Buckner against USF. They play him and Ty Simpson and it's like, see, no row was the best option. Yes, yes. And I just, yeah, I think Alabama people, because of the Saban part, maybe they're a little underrated for the first time in a long time where I still think they're going to be a really, really tough team and that offense is going to be explosive. What about Tennessee? Because Tennessee's got

They've got some big boys. It feels like they're finally kind of putting it all. They've got the quarterback they want. Do you think this is the Tennessee fans being like, hey, it feels like 98. Can we actually have it feel like 98?

I think they're feeling pretty good right now in Tennessee. This is, you know, James Pierce Jr. is their best player. He's an edge rusher, probably a top 10 draft pick next year. Deepest defensive line they've had since I was a baby beat writer covering Tennessee and they had John Henderson and Albert Hainsworth and Will Overstreet. Like it's been a long time since Tennessee has been that stacked on the D line. And then offensively, Nico Iamaliaba takes over a quarterback. And this is like a

great test case because Nico's like the first big NIL deal the first guy who went to a place or maybe you didn't expect him to go because he got a big NIL deal and I actually think their offense is going to be quite a bit better than it was last year because basically they had to give up the middle of the field because Joe Milton couldn't do a lot of the things that they needed him to do to run the full offense Joe Milton didn't have a real good instincts on the on the read option mesh and

He didn't do a lot. You couldn't do a lot of RPO stuff. Nico can do that. Nico also has much better improvisational skills, which that was what made Hendon Hooker so good in this offense is if some stuff broke down, he could find you five or six yards instead of it being an incomplete pass, an interception or a five yard loss. Like he could just find a little bit of a positive gain. Nico is going to be able to do that too. And I think that helps Tennessee. I also think Tennessee schedule helps like,

I didn't see state week two. That's pretty tough, but if they can go two in one, and this is not an easy stretch by any occasion, but if they go two in one against Alabama, Georgia, and Oklahoma, they're going to the playoff. Yeah. Like they're going to be 11 and one or 10 and two, and they're going to the playoff. But yeah,

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

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

And you still have guys that are driving very, very fast in the hundreds, which I get it. College students do that, especially when you have NIL money or you have a deal with a dealership that gets you a Hemi that can go 150 miles an hour. I get it. But at a certain point, when the coach is like, just knock it off, maybe you do. And I'm actually questioning Kirby Smart's pull,

in the city of Athens and Clark County, the state of Georgia, because I would assume that Kirby Smart having won two of the last three national titles could have probably gotten a mass transit system built in Athens by now. Yeah. I'm a little worried about his level of juice. Yeah. Or just build a road that only Georgia football players can use. It's like the Audubon, but just for Georgia football players. You can get on it. It's a straight line. Go as fast as you want.

They actually have a bypass in Athens, and if you've ever driven around Athens, there's not really a lot of traffic or people. They could just repurpose that circular bypass for that purpose. Yeah. I want to talk real quick about the ACC. I love this conference this year just because it feels like every quarterback has transferred into this conference to the point where Kyle McCord, who was Ohio State's starting quarterback last year, is now Syracuse. But Cam Ward...

is electric from Washington State at Miami. Grayson McCall, who we all know, is now at NC State. What's the team that you look at here? And is ACC a multi-team in the playoff type of league this year?

That's a good question. That's really up to the likes of Miami and Florida State and NC State and Louisville. Can there be a second team that is really good? To make that happen, you need a championship game that's essentially like an 11-1 team against a 10-2 team, and the 10-2 team wins. Right, yeah. You've got to have that. Miami has the roster and the schedule for that. Cam Ward, everybody's excited about. I know everybody's excited about him.

I realize he was the top right quarterback in the portal. I will tell you from watching Cam Ward through the years, it's a little feast or famine there. Yeah. So we're going to find out like Cam Ward's first game is at Florida. It's going to be very loud. They probably have the better roster, but yeah,

We're going to see how he deals with that. And if he can, then I'm very confident about them against this schedule. I mean, you look at it, they should not go worse than 10 and two against this schedule. And then if let's say they lose to Florida state, Florida state is again, the best team in the ACC, which is possible. Then again,

You could have them rematch in the ACC championship game, both with really good records, and maybe both get in. But NC State's in there. We'll see what happens with Clemson because Clemson's going to have a really good defense, but they're going to need one of those freshman receivers to be really good. Cade Klubnick at quarterback's going to have to get better. They're playing Georgia right out of the chute. I'm wondering what the takes are going to be after that Georgia game because Clemson is one of –

four teams in the FBS that did not take a single transfer out of the transfer portal. The other three are all service Academy. So Clemson is the only one that doesn't require a Congress person to help you get in. That didn't take anybody. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited for that Florida state Clemson game. The, the DJ and go lay, lay, uh, revenge game. Uh,

That will be fun because it does, like, you look up and down the entire ACC and it's just guys you know who are somewhere else. Obviously, Cade Klubnick is still at Clemson, but it's going to be a fun league because on paper, it looks like they have some good quarterbacks who played big-time football who kind of like, it was kind of like the Pac-12 last year where it was just like you look up and down the Pac-12 and everyone's got a quarterback they feel good about who's been in these big spots. Yeah.

And watch Virginia Tech. Yeah. Their quarterback is Kyron Drones, who transferred from Baylor before last season. And it sort of took them about half a year to get it kind of figured out how it worked with him. But they've got him. And then they brought in Colin Schley, who was Sean Lewis's quarterback at Kent State a couple of years ago. He was at UCLA last year. But if you look at the 2022 season, what quarterback played the best at Georgia? That was Colin Schley. So he's their backup. So

So they should be a little bit confident to be able to run drones, which he's a very good athlete. And I just remember I was at the ACC spring meetings last,

This past May and whether it was coaches or 80s or people who just really cover the league thoroughly, every one of them was like, watch out for Virginia Tech this year. Yeah, he's got he's got a big arm to write drones. Kyron Jones absolutely has big arm. And, you know, we'll just say that Brent Pry sort of has gotten his legs as a head coach. It was a little shaky at first.

Like you weren't sure this was going to work out. And then kind of halfway through last season, it seemed like he figured some stuff out. Tyler Bowen, their offensive coordinator, who had not been an offensive coordinator before this job,

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

They're going to be tricky. They're going to be tricky because I don't think Mike Elko leaves and they just fall off. And I also think Manny Diaz, I'm glad he's got another shot at head coach because I think Mario Cristobal's first two years at Miami show you Manny was doing a pretty good job at Miami. And then he goes and does a great job as the Penn State defensive coordinator. So this is a good chance for him to show, hey, look,

I can do this head coaching thing. Yeah, you were talking about the spring meetings. It got me thinking about just media days in general for coaches and amongst the different leagues. I personally love SEC media day. I think that's one of my favorite days of the year. You always get some coach that goes out there that has like a point to prove, and they've got like a quote that they're ready to unleash. And sometimes the quote doesn't even match up with the question that they're asked. They're just like, I know I got to get this out. Can you describe to us the different vibes of the different conference media days?

Yes. Yeah. So I have been to all of them at this point. I some of them I haven't been to as recently as the others, but I was at SEC and Big Ten this year. Big 12 is the most chill like Big 12 is the one where you might just run into a coach in a back hallway and he's like, hey, what's up? What'd you eat last night? And you're going to get that at the Big 12.

The SEC is very stage managed. Like we've got to get this guy here. We've got to get this guy here. This guy has three minutes and 32 seconds with you. And then he's got to go over here for four minutes and 34 seconds. And basically they're just running them around and then running them through these various ESPN rooms and,

Big 10 is in Lucas Oil Stadium and it's fairly stage managed, but like Brett Bielema is just going to be hanging at some point. They just sit down next to Brett Bielema. What's up? How's it going? Man of the people. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Or PFT, your guy, Kurt Cignetti, former JMU coach, current Indiana coach. He hypnotized me at Big 10 media days this year. Hypnotized me. Like I'm talking to him and I'm like, oh crap.

Indiana is going to be good, aren't they? They're basically they took like half a JMU team from last year. And I'm looking at their schedule. I'm like, so these lower tier Big Ten teams, like could they have beaten JMU last year? I don't know if they could have. No. So I want to say their totals five and a half. Like, I think I'm all in on Indiana making a bowl game and cashing that over ticket.

I like that. I'm going to count every single Indiana win this year as a JMU win in the Big Ten. You should. For sure. And Signetti, I think he's as close to a Nick Saban clone in his mannerisms and how he manages a football team as you can possibly get. I'm not saying he is Nick Saban or that level of coach. More public bravado than Nick Saban, though. When someone asks about him, he's like,

I just win everywhere. Google it. Like Nick Simon would never say that, but Kirk Cignetti will say that also he's 62. It looks like he's like 47. Yeah. I don't know. There's like maybe a Dorian gray thing going on here. I'm not sure. But when you're in his presence, you're like, Oh man,

this guy's going to win more than he's supposed to. He did poke the bear, though, and he was like, yeah, we're going to beat Ohio State, we're going to beat Michigan. That was a tough entrance that he made at Indiana. I believe they played them back-to-back. They're not going to beat Ohio State. They're going to lose by 40. I got a question about Ohio State, though. Ohio State's the best team in the Big Ten on paper. Oregon would have an argument. It does feel like it's Ohio State and Oregon, and then Penn State and Michigan should both have a chance, maybe even USC. But

Are we sure Will Howard is good enough to win a national title at Ohio State? Because that's – I mean, Ryan Day this year, he has to beat Michigan. We know he has to beat Michigan. If he doesn't beat Michigan, they're going to be like – who knows how the season goes. Let me push back on that big catch. Does he have to beat Michigan the first time? Yeah, true. Well, it might not be Michigan the second time, though, because it might be Oregon, right? But if you win the national title, do we care? No, that's true. Let me ask you this, guys. If that kick –

that rung in the new year in 2023 in the Peach Bowl, if that kick goes in, and obviously Ohio State would have crushed TCU in the championship game.

Do we feel differently about Ryan day? Even if last year's Michigan game is the same thing. Yes. Yeah. You, you definitely would feel differently. And, and I think Ryan day is a good coach, but I think the pressure for them this year with Michigan is that Michigan is no longer like they have definitely taken a step back. And that's not, there's no excuse. If you lose this Michigan, they should be at Ohio state team. Yeah. There should be a 10 point favorite, maybe even more depending on how the season goes. Uh,

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

when you get to that final four level and you're playing a Georgia or you're playing a Texas or you're playing an Alabama, like you need a guy who can hit those deep shots consistently and he's not really that guy as of yet.

But who did he have at Kansas State? True, true. It's a good point. Other than Deuce Vaughn two years ago, who was helping him with that? Now, I'm back into this question. I'm going to turn it into a Kansas State question just because I want to talk about Avery Johnson. But we'll stick with Will Howard at Ohio State right now. Will Howard's never been surrounded by this kind of talent. You got Emeka Buka. You got Colonel Tate. The recruitniks...

know who J.J. Smith is. Everybody else is going to know who J.J. Smith is once the season starts. Jeremiah Smith, number one recruit in the nation for the class of 2024. You're not really going to miss Marv. I realize that sounds hyperbolic, but...

This is one of the best, most ready-made receivers that has come into college football in a long, long, long time. He is unbelievable. Like the best DBs at Ohio State are saying, I got to go against him at practice because he's the best receiver they have already. So be ready for that. Plus they have Travion Henderson and Quinshaw Juggins. Yeah, their run game should be awesome. Yeah. So like all of that is going to make Will Howard better.

So Will Howard is not going to have to be Superman. Now, the thing Will Howard does give you is a 6'4", 235-pound guy who, when you need him to get some yards, he's going to get you some yards. The question for him is, is he going to be able to take care of the ball enough so that they're scoring and then they let that defense do its thing? Because the defense is the other thing for Ohio State. Where Ohio State looks a lot like Michigan last year is on defense, where you have all these guys who –

could have gone to the NFL and not as like free agent guys. These would have been third, fourth round draft picks. And they decided to stay for one more year. Right. They then add Caleb Downs, who was, like I said, was the best player in the transfer portal. He was, he's a safety who allows you to change everything about your defense. He allows you to move Sonny Stiles to linebacker, which is where he should have been playing all along.

They have a very deep defensive line. JT Tuomalau coming off the edge. Ty Lake Williams inside. They have everything.

Which again goes back to your original point, the there's no excuse. And there really is no excuse. No. Not only should they win the Big Ten, they should win the national title. There's no excuse. Right. It is national title or bust. Right. I think they're going to be – I'm nitpicking here because that's what you have to do before the season starts. They're going to be a dominant, dominant team. And that expectation is there now that this is the team that should take them over the hump. Yeah.

I'm excited for the Big Ten. I think it's going to be kind of crazy. Oh, I got to tell everybody about Avery Johnson first. Yes, yes. If you played the video game, you already know about Avery Johnson. Yes. But Avery Johnson is the reason Will Howard is Ohio State's quarterback. Yeah. There's this weird thing that has happened with the transfer portal and with NIL where basically if you pay up in NIL for a big-time, highly-ranked quarterback recruit –

By year two, you better be starting him. So Avery Johnson is a sophomore at Kansas State this year. He's the reason they let Will Howard go. Jackson Arnold, five-star guy at Oklahoma. He's the reason that Oklahoma let Dylan Gabriel go to Oregon. But Avery Johnson, I'm telling you right now, we've not seen a quarterback this fast probably since Kyler Murray. I don't know how good of a thrower he is yet. We saw a little bit last year where maybe you could see, oh, the arm's pretty good. If the arm's good...

They're going to be so much fun to watch. And he's a Wichita kid. He's from Kansas, which a talent like that in Kansas doesn't happen very often. It is going to be fun. And Kansas State's one of those programs that they somehow got the guy behind...

when, what's his name, left, Bill Snyder left, they finally got someone basically the same. They just keep running. Well, they got Chris Kleiman who's just winning every FCS national title at Dakota State. It's great, though, because they're consistently like, oh, yeah, Kansas State, yeah, okay, they might not win 10 games. They're going to be tough no matter what week they play, who they play. That team is just going to be good and sound at football. Yeah, it's going to be fun to watch. Now, I don't know if he's got the skill talent around him

to be like a Heisman trophy guy, but I am so excited to see what he can do because again, we, we just haven't seen a QB that fast in a while. Yeah. And that it adds another, another layer to it. I got to take for you, Andy, I want you to judge it. Um, somehow, some way. And you know, I've always wanted Notre Dame to just join the big 10 and just like stop this shit and just join the big 10. You're a big 10 school. It would make, it would be awesome if you were playing Michigan every year. Uh,

But somehow, someway, Notre Dame, with the way the college football playoff is set up, and it's the top four highest ranked conference champions, so they can never get a top four bye. Right. But somehow, someway, Notre Dame is going to – We probably should explain the rules later. Yeah, yeah. Well, we can do it right now. Yeah, so it's the top four teams, the top four conference champions –

get a buy, and then it's five through 12. The first round is going to be home games for the higher seed. And then they go and then they play where they play neutral and then they play in the bowl games. So the top five conference champions get into the playoff automatically, but the top four get the buy and get the top four seeds. And so we've been doing all this on three. We're trying to help retrain everybody's brain. So we've been doing all these projected playoff things and,

And invariably we'll put out the graphic on social media and I'll have like Utah or Kansas state at the four seat as the big 12 champion. Right. And, and,

people just lose their shit they're like how can they be the four seed like that's the rule yeah like the acc champ or the big 12 champ they will probably be the three and four seeds right most likely so so that leads me to my point that i want you to grade somehow some way notre dame has actually ended up in the best position in all of this because if they are good they

They are going to get the five seed. And what that means that the five seed is they get a home game against probably a group of five team at the 12th seed. And then their next game will be against the four seed, which might be the number 13 team in the country. It will almost always assuredly be an ACC or a Big 12 team. So they will essentially always avoid the Big 10 and SEC until the Final Four season.

And so somehow Notre Dame has worked out the best possible way. Well, there were four people who designed this system. Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner, Craig Thompson, the Mountain West commissioner, Bob Bowlesby, who was the big 12 commissioner at the time, and Jack Swarbrick, the Notre Dame athletic director. This system and Jack, Jack's a smart guy. So he's retired now, but this was the gift he left Notre Dame with because he

Not only does it make it where they never have to join a conference, because if they're 10-2, or, well, with this schedule, maybe they have to be 11-1 to get in. But usually most years with their schedule, if they're 10-2, they're going to get in. And yeah, they never have to play in a conference championship game. So...

They're not playing that extra game, so it's kind of only fair that they would have to play the first round. But you'd probably get the first round at home if you're that good. So, yeah, you get the number 12 seed, which is going to be the Mountain West champ or the American Athletic Conference champ that might be ranked 23rd in the actual poll. And then if you win that, you get the four seed.

Which is potentially like the number 15 team. Who knows? It'll be the fourth lowest ranked conference champ. So, yeah, the number five seed is the best one if you don't have to play in a conference championship game. Right. If you do, it's a little bit different. Like, if you're... Let's say you're Alabama and you lost to Georgia in the SEC championship game, you're not really getting that big of an advantage because you had to play against Georgia and get beat up for an hour. Right. But...

If you're Notre Dame and you didn't, or let's say you're Ole Miss and you just missed the SEC championship game, and for whatever reason the committee decides the team that lost the SEC championship game is going to be ranked below you, you're in a catbird seat. That five spot is nice. That's true. So that's the one way that Notre Dame's whole plan could be foiled, is just have a really good team intentionally lose in their conference championship game. But if Notre Dame loses one game, they will almost always be the five seed.

I don't know about this year, but yeah, a lot of years. A lot of years they will. Yeah, they'll end up because they'll just be like, okay, Notre Dame. They're the fifth best team. We'll put them right there. It's crazy to me when I was looking at it. I was like, God damn it, they did it again. We've wanted them to get into a conference, and they figured it out.

They have outsmarted the sport for about 100 years. Really, blame the Michigan people. It's Fielding Yost's fault. He blackballed them from the Big Ten. He got mad at Notre Dame. Notre Dame's like, okay, fine. We'll just go on the road. We'll go play Army. We'll go play USC. And then they become this big national brand. Yeah. Disgusting. It's nuts. Back to the Big Ten real quick. I want to talk about Iowa and Nebraska. So Iowa lost their entire offense with their punter.

And he's, he's Bobby Taylor. He's hitting Chicago bear bombs in, in training camp right now. And then their coach was suspended for maybe the funniest recruiting violation. I guess trying to recruit a quarterback that really worked out for him. It's so hard to get caught tampering. Yeah. Like you have to be really, really bad at this to get caught tampering. And they got caught tampering. And of course, like the receivers coach also gets suspended. John Budmeier, former, former Badger quarterback, big cat, uh,

He got suspended too, which led to a bunch of people asking me on my show, Iowa has a receivers coach? What does he do all day? Yeah, easiest job in the world. But this is such an interesting one because Iowa, like look at Iowa's schedule and think about if their offense is slightly better.

If it's slightly better. We've had the same conversation for like the last 10 years. Like if they're just competent on offense. But they did, but they fired Brian Ferentz and they brought in Tim Lester. So they do have a new offensive coordinator. So let's imagine Cade McNamara is good or he doesn't get hurt or maybe it's Brendan Sullivan. The Northwestern transfer comes in, but Cade McNamara is a starter and they are semi-functional as an offense. They're still going to be great on defense. You could have a Nebraska Iowa game on Black Friday where

that could potentially affect the college football playoff. Yeah. Yeah. Do that high in Nebraska. Cause we just had Will Compton on and he, I heard, what'd he say? They're going to start seven and oh, and then we'll see what happens. They got to beat Colorado and they got to get past your guy, Kurt Cignetti, but six and one or seven and oh, going to the Ohio state game is not out of the realm of possibility.

I want it so bad because they'll have that little number next to their name and it will just be – and I think it might be a rude awakening when they go to Columbus. So Nebraska's quarterback – But the thing is like what – I mean they just got to – like they haven't been to a bowl game since 2016. Like if they just make a bowl game, that's enough. But if they can be better than that – and by the way, like if Dylan Riola is the guy as a true freshman quarterback –

He's going to get so many tractor NIL deals. Like he's going to be the tractor magnate of Nebraska. And he's not going to really have to go to the NFL. He's just going to be taken care of for the rest of his life. Yeah. So how good is he? That's a great question. We don't know. We don't know. You watch him play in the spring game. You're like, ooh, look at all his arm slots. Very Mahomes-esque. But you also go four high schools in four years.

Flip from Ohio State. Flip from Georgia. So there's all that, too. I need to see it. I need to see it. And we're going to get a good chance to see it because they play Colorado in week two. And for all of the talk about Colorado, whether it's Dion saying this or that, or the now-resigned assistant who is trying to get the sweet, sweet Saudi money for the NIL. That's a wild story. I know. It's incredible. But they have a pretty good D-line that they have imported through the portal.

If Dylan Riola can handle that, he can handle most of what's on the schedule. Yeah. So with Colorado, I feel like Dion's been especially spicy this year. What are his latest things that he said? Like, I know he wouldn't take a question from a CBS guy because he doesn't like the CBS national brand or whatever. And this guy's like CBS Colorado. Didn't they rank him 15th out of 16? Yeah.

Big 12 coaches? That's probably Fernelli. We can play... Tom Fernelli is now getting media... Fernelli definitely voted in that one, yes. Yeah. So he's mad at that reporter. He's mad at another local reporter that's written some bad things about him. And then he's just like... The way he's been talking to the media has not given me confidence in Dion's team this year. Like, when he... That press conference, I did a lot of reading between the lines on that press conference because I thought it was... He was telegraphing some stuff there. So...

The one where he's sparring back and forth with the columnist who clearly doesn't like him, I'm fine with that. In fact, just have that discussion out in the open, and I'll watch it. It'll be very entertaining for me. But that press conference, every time he got asked about his D-line, he talked about how much he loved his D-line. He got asked about his secondary, he talked about how much he loved his D-line. He got asked about his offensive line, he would not talk about anything relating to his offensive line. That's a giant red flag. Yeah.

Like this is a team that gave up 56 sacks last year. They have to be better than that. And if they're not going to be better than that, then it might be the same season. I think they're going to be a little bit better. I think they'll improve enough to make a bowl game. But,

But I don't know that they're going to be good enough to compete in the Big 12. Yeah, yeah. All right, Andy, I got one last question for you. You'll obviously be on again this fall. We're so excited for college football to be back. Rowback question, RHOBACK.com. Andy's wearing it right now. He's looking thin and in shape and looking great.

partially because Roback is great fitting shirts. Roback.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, Roback.com. All right, so last question. Give us the four buys. Give us right now who is going to be the highest-ranked conference champions. I feel like Ohio State and Georgia you can kind of pencil in, but the other two are tough.

I do have Ohio State and Georgia. I'm very basic when it comes to that. I think both of those are the best teams in their leagues. I have Alabama at number five because they're my number three in my poll. But I have Florida State winning the ACC.

We're recording this after the Dublin game, so I may look incredibly stupid. Georgia Tech's won that game. That'd be brutal. Oh, boy. Well, I bet on Florida State, so it'd be brutal for me, too. We're about to Thursday night games with Utah and all those guys. Well, you know, I thought they were playing last Thursday, PFT. I was just as disappointed as you. I just can't wait. I can't wait for...

for football. I didn't realize until after when we started the show and PFT said football is back, that's what he was referring to. I heard him say Lindenwood and I'm like, wait a second. Was there like an SCS Revision 2 game starting a week earlier that I didn't know about? I should be fired. So what happened was I pulled out my phone because I knew the week zero schedule. I know what's happening this Saturday. And then for whatever reason, I scrolled down on the app and the first games that it showed me were...

where I thought week zero and I saw Lindenwood. I was like, yeah, Lindenwood's probably playing week zero. That wouldn't shock me if Lindenwood had a Thursday night game. That would track. Absolutely. But yeah, that was a mistake hand up. Misread the schedule. I just want college football to be back. So my number four seed is my Big 12 champ. I am going with Kansas State, though I will say...

Because I've been driving the Avery Johnson bandwagon. I'm going to keep driving it. I might drive it off a cliff, though. I got some information last week, and I'm a little worried. So my friend Jim Nagy, who runs the Senior Bowl, they put out a watch list of all the guys they think might have a chance to make the Senior Bowl. But it's also basically...

draft eligible guys they think will be in a camp. They'll either get drafted, they'll make a team, they'll be in a camp. And so I just compiled who has the most of all these. Naturally, it's a bunch of SEC teams that have the most. Like Ole Miss has 21. Georgia and Texas A&M have 20. So I was looking for the big 12, like who has the most. Utah has 13. They're always like that, yeah. I may have made a mistake here.

I'm just saying it now. In terms of coaches, he's probably one of the most underrated. He's probably one of the best coaches no one really says in that top three. And Kyle Whittingham will kick your ass. I finally figured out, because Kyle grew his hair out a few years ago, I finally figured out after they beat USC in the Pac-12 championship game a couple years ago who he looks like. If you watch anything Stallone does now, like the reality show with the daughters or the Tulsa King show,

Kyle Whittingham looks like Stallone looks now. And he's got that swagger. And Kyle Whittingham will beat your ass. I'm telling you right now. He hasn't missed a workout in like,

He has a Lou Gehrig workout streak going, but he'll beat your ass. Yeah. He looks wiry. Wiry but strong. Like, very lean man. All right, so I'll give you that one. Kansas State slash Utah. That's fair. Oh, I'll take it. Yeah. Thank you. We didn't talk about USC at all. What are the expectations of USC here? Because their defense, they can't be worse. I heard that they're tackling in practice sometimes now. Would be nice. Yeah. This has been my frustration with Lincoln Riley because he's a smart person.

Clearly a very great, very good offensive coach, great evaluator and teacher of quarterbacks. But why don't you just send somebody to a Georgia practice in November and say, hey, how do you guys do this?

And then just do that. Yeah. Because they're showing you how it works. And clearly, you know, USC through the years in Oklahoma when he was there, they're not tackling as the season goes on. Like they're tackling, it's worse and worse and worse. So DeAnson Lynn, the new defensive coordinator, I imagine he came in and said, look, we got to tackle a little bit. He already did. He did with the bowl game, the bowl game. He wasn't technically coaching, but he was there helping out. And they like missed significantly less tackles than they did during the regular season.

So they cannot be worse on defense. You know who else can't be worse on defense? LSU, who they play in the season opener. LSU's defense was awful last year. So they went out and hired Blake Baker from Missouri as their D.C.,

LSU is kind of the same players with new coaches. USC, they changed a lot of the players out too. Danton Lynn went and got some guys that fit what he wants. Part of the deal with Alex Grinch, the old USC defensive coordinator, I firmly believe that Alex Grinch's mind was poisoned when he was the defensive coordinator at Washington State. And he had this defensive tackle named Hercules Mata'afa, who was 225 pounds tall.

but was awesome like this is a dude who could do like back flips off a 30-foot cliff and at home in hawaii and he was amazing and so alex trench for the rest of his career like he went to ohio state he went to oklahoma he went to usc he's like i don't need 310 pound defensive tackles hurt could do it yeah and he always would play these two small guys for their positions and

And so USC is going to have the right size guys in those positions. Now I'm still not convinced though. I know you've got, you've got Miller Moss is your Heisman guy, big cat. Yeah. Yeah. I love, I love that. He stuck it out. You know, he came in the same recruiting classes, Jackson dart, who's been Ole Miss's starter for three years now. So, but I, I do wonder about them because if their defense doesn't get significantly better,

They might struggle. And I want to point out a game involving your Badgers. Yeah. So USC plays LSU. They might lose that game. They open Big Ten play against Michigan. They might lose that game. The Badgers come to the Coliseum for USC's fourth game. Yeah. We might see USC in a can't-lose-and-or-must-win situation against the Badgers. Because if they're 1-2 going into the Wisconsin game,

And their defense has shown any signs of leakiness. Phil Longo is going to be licking his chops to unleash Tyler Van Dyke on USC's defense. And it would be an Alex Grinch revenge game. He's the safeties coach at the Badgers because I know people are giving me shit. They're like, you have Alex Grinch now. He's not allowed to decide how big of a deal I'm in on. Yeah, right. I was like, he's not the defensive coordinator. He cannot fuck it up that bad. Like, yes, he could fuck it up. The safeties could be bad. But we're limiting the issues here.

Yes. Andy, you're the best. We'll talk to you later in the season. College football's back. Thank you so much. Everyone listen to Andy. He's putting out pods every single week, multiple times a week on 3 Network, and there's no better time of year. Andy Staples is brought to you by Cars.com. They have sponsored the employee parking spot here at Barstool Sports, the Cars.com parking spot here.

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Okay, Mount Rushmore time and we have a very special guest. It is Hank's father back on the show for Mount Rushmore. Now remind me, the last time you did a Mount Rushmore, what was it for?

Water. Water? That was a good one. We had already done it before and didn't realize it until after. So, and how did you do? I can't remember. Not well. It was the old studio. So, Hank's basically bringing in a ringer here. He's done... What was my third one? Oh, it was your third? Yeah. What was the other one? Sounds you don't like to hear. Okay. Did you have Hank's yawn on that? That's my yawn. Oh, no. Oh, that's right. Yeah, it's hereditary. He caught it from you. So, Hank's bringing in a ringer. His dad...

I thought that's nice. Yeah. That's nice. Listen, Hank and I are pretty much neck and neck, and it's nice to be able to have a dad that you can bring in from Mount Rushmore. Yeah, Hank. So, Hank, I'm glad that you did that. It feels like you're rubbing it in a little bit, but that's okay. Maybe I'll bring my ass in and something you don't have. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. So I've clinched. I've officially clinched. Congrats. Thank you. So it is now a two-man race between Hank and PFT. Before we do, so we're going to do the Mount Rushmore business jargon.

which was selected by Hank and PFT. Max and I are just...

We're basically just playing out. We're sitting the starters. Well, there was an idea to have Hank and I go mano a mano. Yeah, but then it would screw up the score. And that's a different style. That's a different format of Mount Rushmore. We've never done that before. Yeah, so what are the standings? How far back is Hank? How many points are you back? I think three. Three points. I hope three. So it basically comes down to can Hank steal a win and have PFT go last in one of these? Yes. So Max has 70. I have 59 clinched.

PFT with 52, Hank with 49. So three back. I think it's fair for Hank to use his dad in this draft because I have been in the business corporate world. Hank's corporate experience is just working at Barstool. Yeah. So you have a blind spot there. Yeah. So before we start that, though, I would like some thoughts on the summer of Hank.

Summer of Hankvin, unbelievable. Yeah. What would you rank? Was it Missoula's duck boat or was it being the, what was it? The keeper of the light. The ringer of the bell of the lighthouse. I think the duck boat parade, I don't see how that could ever be topped.

Yeah, but he did, I mean, the lighthouse. Yeah, he did keep the lighthouse. It was an epic fan reaction to the lighthouse. Yes, yes. Did you have an epic reaction to when Hank went down to Dallas this year and accidentally slipped and put a hole in the wall? That was funny. Yeah. Content. Yeah. Content machine. Tiffany Gomez. Is she invited to Thanksgiving this year? No. Okay. How do you feel about Hank and his prospects of dunking?

There's a possibility. Now, is that how do you feel about Hank's prospects of doing steroids to dunk? Not a fan of the steroids. Okay. You raised it better than that, Hank.

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

I would like to know. He's been going to the gym. We've seen videos. He sent examples of his workouts. Okay. Okay. I mean, that's an improvement from nothing. Yeah. It is. It is. We were at summer camp last week, and we had them lower the hoop down to eight feet. I don't know if you felt the same way, Hank, but I got a gnarly bruise on my forearm. Oh, wow. I got dunkers on right now. Yeah. So I don't know if you've been able to reach a point where you're able to even get a bruise on your hand yet. No, I'm still just...

reach it for the rim. I can touch the rim, but I can't get above it. Did you listen to Friday's show? Yeah. Did you, what'd you think about Hank's fart in our face? Just air, you know? Yeah. That's, that's not uncommon in our family. We should have, we should have said to enhance defense because our good friend, Keith Yandel texted me, uh,

After listening to Friday's show, he's like, what the fuck is Hank's problem? Hank was violently hungover. So we were taping at 9 a.m. We should have prefaced that. That was one of those moments where we should have set the stage a little bit better for Hank in his defense. We were entertaining coworkers. Yes, we were. How much corporate experience do you have when it comes to the business jargon? Do you have a significant amount?

I have a lot. I mean, you know, that was part of the Taco Bell ecosystem was a lot of corporate speak and, you know, marketing presentations are just chock full of that stuff. Yeah. Has it changed? I feel like it's gotten more annoying though in the last 10 years than it was maybe 20 years ago. It was always hilarious. Like we would, we as franchisees would sit in these meetings and they would just go off and we'd be like, what are they talking? Yeah. Right. None of this makes sense. Uh, okay. So do I have first pick?

Yeah. Yep. I have first pick. Tough one. Max, how are you playing these? I don't know. I don't really care. Okay. Because I don't really care. I'm resting the starters. I could get last in every one going forward because I'm putting very little effort into these right now. Not even for the listeners? That's kind of mean. Well, I don't want to take first place and then you guys just can't have those points. Right. No, you got to play it out. Yeah, I don't think you should think like that. But yeah, you should. After all, this is a podcast.

There are people who are listening to your thoughts, Max. Yeah. Okay. So I have one, one. Hmm. Okay. I guess I'll just go with, I have a list and I somehow wrote one thing down twice. So I think that's subliminally telling me that I should pick that as one, one. I'll go circle back. It's the most annoying. Yeah. You circled back on circle back. Yeah, I did. I have it twice. It's just when someone says, let's circle back on this.

Just shut the fuck up. I don't know why you're saying it like that. Just say, hey, I'll hit you later. They don't want to come to a conclusion, but they want the meeting to end. Right. And circling back, yeah, I don't even understand it. I'm just going to circle around and back to it? Yeah, that's a great pick. I had that as my 1-1. Just leaves it open. They can hit you back up at any point. Yeah. Right. And then say, oh, I'm circling back. How many of these do you use now, Hank, that you're corporate? Not as, I mean, a decent amount. Do you circle back?

I don't think I've ever used circle back. I've thrown it out there because I've been in situations where I don't want to give a definitive, like, let's meet tomorrow because I don't want to meet tomorrow. I'll just be like, it's a good way to end a meeting. Like, all right, yeah, we'll circle back on this stuff. Like, you just told me a bunch of stuff that I don't really want to deal with right now. Yeah. We'll circle back. Circle back. Okay. Let's talk about it later. Yeah. Yeah. All right. When? Who knows? Team Lockwood.

I think we're going to go with the logical next thing, which is put a pin in it. Yeah. Okay. We're putting pins in it. Okay. We're going to circle back. Yeah. Let's put a pin in it. That one makes me want to punch someone in the face. What's the difference between putting a pin in it and circling back? I don't know. They're all a little more definitive. Yeah. They all don't mean shit. Is that just a reminder to circle back?

It means we're not going to get rid of it. It's going to be up there on the board, and we're going to put a pin in it. And then we'll circle back. At the end of the day, yeah, like every single one that we pick means absolutely nothing. I do have like five. Now that I'm looking at my list, I've got five that translate directly to circle back. Yeah. Yeah. It's like Hank said. It's just trying to find a way to finish a meeting without an actual conclusion. Yep. Max, meatball. Okay.

Meatball. Hey, should we get some meatballs? I'm kind of going to do another one that also kind of sounds like circling back. Let's table this conversation. Tabling it. Tabling it. Okay. Add that too. Yeah. Tabling it sucks. Tabling it sucks. All right, PFT, you got two picks. I got two. Okay, so I'm going to go with touch base. Yep. Touching base to start out.

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

The pre-meeting is the most like, hey, let's figure out when we're going to meet. No, just dude, you already got me. You already texted me. You already emailed me. Just do the meeting right now. Tell me what I need to know right now. Yeah, you know what's beautiful about this list is I don't think any of this language exists in football.

Once you step inside a football building You don't circle back or anything You circle forward And also none of this really exists in our lives We've somehow found a job that we've eliminated All of this stuff thank god I think if somebody told me to touch base on something I would leave Yeah Okay your second pick It's something that you do Right after you touch base Okay You get on the same page Let's get on the same page on this

I like that pick. Do I have time to change it? Nope. Damn it, because I feel like I've... No, I like that pick. All right. Same page. Get on the same page. Get on the same page. I'm second guessing it now. No, that's okay. I'm not on the same page with myself. No, you're good. Don't... Okay. All right. All right. There's a lot of... Yeah, there's... Oh, it wasn't? Oh, wow. Oh.

Talk a little shit. Talk a little shit over there. Now that I'm looking, it's not on my list. Not on mine. Although I don't know any of this. This lingo. Like, I haven't done a second. It's not on Max's list. You've never had, like, an office job before, though. No. People are always getting on the same page. Yeah. I'm going to go. There's a lot of moving parts. Oh, yeah.

There is a lot of moving parts. That's just saying I don't want to do this. Yeah. I don't know. No, that's saying it's confusing. It's not my fault. Yeah. There's a lot of moving parts. Yeah. Like, we're trying to get it done, but there's a lot of moving parts. Yeah. Yeah. It's basically just corporate excuses. Yeah, it is. It's an entire thing of corporate excuses. It's just a blame game. Yeah. I did have that on my list. A lot of moving parts is good. Yep. Okay.

That's Team Lockwood. So I think, keeping with making excuses, it's above my pay grade. Oh, okay. Yeah.

For Hank, nothing's above his pay grade. That's facts. He's the top. Well, me and Big Cat have kind of played tennis sometimes where we'll be like, you got to talk to Big Cat. Oh, yeah. Way more Big Cat to me where people come up to me like, Big Cat said I had to talk to you. I'm like, what? It's the two people at Barstool who get the most I just don't feel like answering is Gaz and Hank. Yeah. If anyone ever asks for a job from outside of these walls, I'm just like, Gaz, here's Gaz's email.

That's just it. Yeah, and then if someone asks for something that involves money or anything, I'm just like, Hank can answer. Yeah, it's great to have somebody like that around. Or like a hard answer, like you don't want to actually answer. No, yeah, yeah. Talk to Hank first. Yeah, yeah. Am I doing a good job? I don't know. Ask Hank. I think a lot of people do that with the board, and the board might not even ever exist, but you get asked a tough question. Well, I have to run by the board real quick, and I'll get back to you. Yeah. Okay, I got two that are...

Kind of related and they drive me fucking insane. One, I'll even say right now, like my brother-in-law says it to me all the time and I fucking want to kill him when he says it. Ping you. I'm going to ping you. Yeah. What the fuck does that mean? Yeah.

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

What does that mean you're out of pocket? Yeah, automated emails. Yeah. You can answer a text. You're out of pocket? Drives me nuts. Wait, does out of pocket mean like you're only using what's in your pocket? Correct. But your pocket is your whole work. Yeah. It makes no sense anymore. That excuse is done. Right. I would understand it if we were in like 1975 and you left work and there was no way for anyone to reach you. But-

What do you mean you're out of your pocket? It's right here. Yeah, people have automated emails, and I'm like, when you get one kicked back, I think that means I can't.

get this question answered. Right. Oh, yeah. I don't think I've ever done the email kickback. No. You have? Imagine. I did it once. You did? Yep. The worst is text. Have you guys ever gotten it on text? No. Have you texted someone? I didn't know that was possible. Hank actually made fun of me for a week when I did it. Because I was out of the country. But you were still looking at your phone. And I just said, if you have any questions, ask memes.

That's basically what I said. And I've never done it again because Hank...

ruined me when he sent me an email and he got it back. Was it professional, though? Were you like, in lieu of contacting me, please reach out to Connor Philbert? I think I was just like, I'm out of the country this week. If you have any questions, here's memes as email. I mean, that would have been a great way to do it is to use memes actual name and everybody would be like, who the fuck is that? I think I probably did. I was like, go to memes as email. I almost just said it. That person doesn't exist. Yeah, especially in our job.

I don't know what would one be urgent enough that like we need to get a hold of Max. Yeah, there's I mean, and two really that urgent where they like if you don't more so like ad stuff that like an ad will reach out and be like, hey, they need this right now. Can you please switch this? But is someone even that I'll just still be like, hey, can hey, pug? Hey, memes. Can you switch this? Someone else on the email. So yeah, out of pocket and ping you.

Ping me. Ping you, ping me. Anything ping fucking drives me nuts. I'll ping you. I'll hit you in the head with a golf club. You say ping? No, not a pinger. Thank God. I have the same reaction to ping me. What does that mean? Especially when they text you, I'll ping you. It's like you're doing it right now. Again, it's just back to like when someone contacts you.

And they're setting something up. It's like we're talking right now. Even the word ping in the context of it doesn't make sense. It makes no sense. It makes no sense. In theory, I think a lot of people want to sound more professional than they actually are. So saying like, oh, I'm going to text you later for some reason. They don't like the sound of that. But saying I'll ping you. It's like, oh, that's businessy. Yeah. I should be getting paid for using words like that. Ping.

Okay. So this is a positive one. I think it's helpful in business jargon. It's when you have a meeting and someone says, hey, I got a hard stop, 930, or whatever the time is. Give me that hard stop. Hard stop. Then I know meeting's over. You are a lockwood. How do we feel about that pick? Good. That was a bad pick. You could have put a pick above it. No, but it's a perfect lockwood pick because it's saying like, oh, I can't do any work after this moment. Yeah. Yeah.

I like hard out better than hard stop. Ooh. Hard out, hard stop. I got a hard stop. Oh, no. They're looking. They're this. Oh, no. I pointed to the bottom one. Oh, no. Oh, no. We got a Taco Bell situation on our hands. We'll get it back. You guys got to get on the same page. That was on the list. That was on the list. Hard stop. We got to get back on the same page. Damn. Yeah. My favorite Hank one is...

If you need me for the yak, I'll be around, which is just him saying I'm about to go golf. Oh, I said, do you need me for the yak? Oh, do you need me for the yak? Yeah, yeah. I'm about to go golf. All right, Max. Don't have the bandwidth for that. Yep. Okay, that's a good one. Yep. This is basically saying you're an idiot. I'm lazy. It's saying I'm lazy. Yeah. I can't do that.

But it's also literally saying you're an idiot. You don't have the bandwidth. You're a rudimentary computer. My brain doesn't connect at those speeds. Dial up. Talk to somebody smarter. Yeah. Don't have the bandwidth. All right. So I got two now. And I like these two. Yeah? Let me loop you in. Okay. Looping in. I had that. Looping in. And then for my last one, I'm going to go with a classic, tried and true.

Per my last email. Nice. Yeah, which is a nice passive aggressive way of subtle way. It's saying fuck you. Yeah. Per my last email. You dumbass. Yeah. Yeah. Saying there. Yeah, you've you've or or you're just not responding to my emails. Yep. Yeah. This one is kind of normal conversation, but it's how I start probably 90% of my emails that I've ever sent before in my life. And it's just thanks for reaching out.

You do thanks for reaching out. Oh, yeah. Every time. You start every email. If it's someone that isn't within Barsch. I guess I just don't. We've never emailed.

No, I mean, I'm not the biggest emailer, but when I do, it's like and it's someone I don't know. I'm like, oh, thanks for reaching out. Oh, that's actually makes sense. So yeah, so it's usually when I send people to you because I'm sending I'll have a conversation with someone like here. Just just email our producer and then you'll be like, thanks for reaching out for reaching out. And then I just be like, yeah, thanks for reaching out.

uh but i don't think i don't think this is gonna happen that's very professional of us yeah i'm thinking of like one specific example in the last couple of months where someone asked me for something i was like just please reach out to our producer max he can handle and then you just wrote thanks for reaching out and that was it that's it yep i was like thanks for reaching out max it was a way of me getting out of something do you have the autocomplete that starts up like on your gmail when you respond to stuff

Probably. I wonder how much it's learned about you. It's probably learned a lot of thanks for reaching out. Yeah. Okay. The Lockwoods have to get back on the same page for this last one. We are on the same page, but we will probably be doing this afterwards. Let's take this offline. Okay. Taking something offline. Something offline. Offline. Yeah. Okay. My last pick. It's not. Again, I just did straight pet peeves. I cannot stand.

when anyone refers to anyone as a rock star. I had that on my list too, yeah. It fucking drives me nuts. Calling somebody a rock star. You're not a rock star. You're working in accounting. You're not a rock star. That's literally not a rock star. I would also include Ninja in that. They do Ninja a lot too. But yeah, any of those things, it's just... Oh, she's such a rock star. She's a rock star. Oh, he's such a rock star. No, no. Actually, no, he's not a rock star. Talk to Greg. He's a rock star at...

If he was a rock star, he would not be talking to us. Yeah, I wonder if... He'd be a rock star doing drugs and living the best life ever. What professions do you think are the furthest away from being an actual rock star? Yeah, something like... In the CIA? Yeah. Director of the CIA? He might be a rock star. Reach out to Leon Panetta. He's a rock star. If you're assassinating heads of state, that's kind of rock star.

Maybe an actual name with an Excel spreadsheet as far away from being a rock star. Someone who works at the IRS. Yeah. There's definitely been someone who's been referred to as the IRS, Hank, is by the way where you pay taxes. I know you don't do that. Reach out to the head auditor over there. He's a rock star. He's a rock star.

All right, what did we miss? Net-net. Net-net's a good one. That might be personal to us. Yeah, that's very personal to us. We had one coworker that would say net-net. I had along the same lines of Rockstar, kind of somebody who says that I'm passionate about and then something that absolutely nobody is passionate about. Yeah. Like someone's like, I'm passionate about real estate. Yeah, no one's passionate about it. Picnic.

Picnic. You guys know picnic? No, it's picnic. When someone screws up and they can't get their computer to work and you end up – you realize it's the person. So you say that's a picnic issue. Problem in chair, not in computer. Oh, I like that. That's good. I like that. One I use personally, probably the only one on this list is –

is when I will send an email and be like, I'm CCing this person. And it's essentially saying, I'm not, I'm no longer responsible for this email. Like, this is not my issue. I'm giving you the person. Um,

Synergy. Synergy. That's like a classic one. Yeah, that's a classic. That's an old school one. Think outside the box. Think outside the box. Yeah. On your radar. Want to put something on your radar. That one drives me nuts because it's like, what am I supposed to do? They're not really telling you to do anything. They're just putting it on your radar. Yep. What about using the word effort as a verb? We're going to effort this.

Yeah, we're going to effort this. There's a lot that I don't know here. The other ones, my dad had a big list that I never even heard of. Picking up Jell-O. Oh, I like that. It's kind of like boiling the ocean. We need our next Baja blast. Herding cats.

Herding cats. Yeah. Getting a 30,000 foot view of something. Yeah. Herding cats would be hard, right? Difficult. Yeah. It's like similar to picking up Jell-O. Yeah. Yeah. I like picking up Jell-O. I just had fiscal year on mine. I don't know.

I don't think that's really jargon, but you know, every time I never really understand it, but it's a thing. I know it's a thing. The cues. Hank, when it really is an entire Mount Rushmore of us just like flexing that we don't have to do any of these things. Hank, what cue are we in right now? We are in Q3. Q3. Okay. Are you sure?

It's Q3. Yeah, it's definitely Q3. Well, I thought everybody... Where do you go with the Qs? Do we in the heart of Q3? But it depends on the fiscal year. Yeah, that's true, Max. Don't some companies measure fiscal years? In February? Yeah, ours should be after the Super Bowl. Yeah. Yeah.

It's the fiscal year. You don't know what Q it is. Our Q should only be the football season. Yeah. Q1 hasn't even started. Yeah, we're in pre-Q. We should do the fiscal year as only the football season and then everything else is just off-season. Yeah, I like that. So like weeks one through four is Q1. Lovie Smith used to do that where he'd be like, yeah, one through four would be quarter one. We got to go three and one in the first quarter. That's how you want to start. Best practices. Yeah.

Wear many hats. Yeah, wearing many hats is good. It means that person just isn't good at anything. Being a thought leader. That's such a funny term. Yeah, I'm a thought leader in the accounting space. Low-hanging fruit. We did bandwidth. Low-hanging fruit. Back burner. Move the needle. Move the needle. Yeah. That's usually done by a rock star. Or a drug dealer. Yeah. I'll give you seven minutes of your day back.

Oh, yeah. And in the meeting early. Yeah. Okay. I'm in some meetings now where that's like... Because I still kind of like... I don't really deal with it that much, but I'll be in some meetings where that's like a big like...

All right, everyone gets 10 minutes of their day back, and it's like, oh, my God, I can't exit this call. To get ready for your next meeting. Yeah. What about telling somebody that you need to sharpen your pencil on this? Because that is like saying you need to do a better job at doing your job. Yeah. Or if they're not going to be able to make a meeting, they say, I'm going to be out of pocket. Yeah. Out of pocket. Yeah, that one drives me nuts every time. Every time. So you can get into any meeting anywhere, anytime. What about calling slideshows decks?

Is that just what they're called? I got a deck. Take a look at my deck. Look at my deck. Send me a picture of your deck. We got to manage expectations. I'm going to tee this up. That means that whatever you're about to do is going to suck. Yeah. Over-promise, under-deliver. No, that's the wrong way to do it. Under-promise, over-deliver. Oh, man. If I had to deal with these words. 1,000%.

100 100 went to a thousand percent though yeah yeah it's been the pen ever since pen has been like we've been just back to barcelona i've dealt with probably like 80 less of it yeah yeah yeah the people that believe these words it is hilarious yeah it's just passionate it's crazy people that know people there it is like an art form like seeing someone in a setting where they can just

say nothing right but make you believe something is actually impressive because i can't do it but like i've been in meetings where i'm like this person that isn't saying anything yeah there's i mean there's some jobs yeah there's some jobs where it's just all your entire job is just to meet and that's it you just go from meeting to meeting i'm passionate about new strategies and e-tail

I had a guy tell me that one time. He's like, no, you're not pat. You just want people to think that you like your job. That's all that means. Of course, to buy something. Yeah. I'm very curious to know what Huey's picks for this would have been because, Huey, do you have any corporate experience at all? I didn't have a pick. Behind Chef? Yeah, Quid Pro Quo. Quid Pro Quo. Okay, okay. That was the only thing I was thinking of. Yeah, these are all over my head, literally. That's a good one. They're above his pay grade. They are above your pay grade. Beams, did you have any?

Memes probably wants to kill anyone who says any of these. You guys nailed all of them. Good afternoon. That's a good one. What? When you start off an email? That's just normal life. Just like, fuck your afternoon. I love how memes, that's just like normal human interaction. Memes like, fuck that business jargon. You don't care about my afternoon.

That's just real life. That has nothing to do with... If you see someone in the street, you say, good afternoon. Someone asked Memes how his weekend was. He's like, you motherfucker. It's like, you don't give a shit. No, I like that, Memes, because when someone says good afternoon to you, you know that whatever follows that is going to ruin your afternoon. There's not enough time left in the day to make my afternoon good now. Yeah, you just made it significantly worse. Okay. Memes is so miserable. Oh, no, yeah. You taught me that one, Memes. That was a good one. Oh, man. All right, well...

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

It was on our list. What did you point to? It's a good pick. It's at the bottom of the list, I think. Yeah, what did you point to? It was another one that got chosen later and after that. Oh, which one was it? By PFT. Oh, no. So I took the pick. Oh, no.

Was it Lupien? Per my last email. Oh, I swiped per my last email and you guys went hard stop. We were on the same page. Yeah, you got to be on the same page. We misread the pointing. Yeah, that happens. You get lost in the snake. Big Cat got lost in the snake, I think, after the first pick. Yeah. Yeah. Big time. All right, let's finish with numbers. If you get this, Max has never gotten the lottery ball.

He has got the number, though. Yes. Yes, I have. Yes, I have. Mickey Mouse. He's never gotten the lottery ball. That's Mickey Mouse. PFT hasn't gotten either. Not on this machine. Five. Seven. Eight. 20. 56. 42. Three. I'm giving 99 back to Pug. Those boys know we're doing it? It was Pug. Pug's not here today. Probably would have gotten it. Shane always gets 21, but it won't be 21. Oh, my God. Is that 20? Yep. That's it.

You piece of shit. Now you got nothing. You got absolutely nothing. I've gotten it. Nope. Why are you so upset? I've gotten it. You're so upset. This is the best PFT European.

You're a piece of shit. Yeah, he is. You're never going to get this. I really need you to get it before him. I'm a piece of shit. I need you to get it before him. I made a promise. I fucked up. I pulled out all the stops. I went for 99 when Pogue abandoned it. I did everything I could. Oh, you pieces of shit. This is the best. I'm the best. Lottery ball king. Number king. We've all. He cut his mic. I've gotten it. Have I gotten it twice? I might have gotten it twice.

Yeah, listen. So, I mean, congrats. You got it once. Now, PFT. Uh-oh. It's all on me. I'll take accountability. It's now firmly entered the phase of being a thing. Memes, you've never gotten it, though, right?

Memes has never gotten it, period. Not in the old machine, not in the new machine, not on the road. Congrats, Max. Good job. I think I did guarantee that PFT would get it before you let me down. You let me down big time. So PFT's never gotten it. Not on this machine.

Memes, have you ever gotten it? It's tough. It's not so fun when the rabbit's got the gun. Oh, no. I'm going to have to prepare for people just yelling random numbers at me now. Don't do that. Don't do that. If you see PFT at Pub Punk or anywhere out and about, walk in Blake. DC Friday, Philly Saturday. Or if you're in Philly Saturday, don't yell numbers at him. If it's in between songs, there's a little lull. I'm just mad because I usually said 20 before he could, and I didn't this time.

Yeah, that's true. That's actually so true. I'll wear it. All right. See everyone on Wednesday. Love you guys. God damn it, Max.

Today is another day to find you. Shine away. I'll be coming for your love, okay? Shine away. I'll be coming for your love, okay? Needless to say, I'm all sentence. But I'll be stumbling away. Slowly learning that life is okay. Say up to me.

I