Bruce Pearl, Falcons HC Arthur Smith, Carson Wentz To DC And March Madness

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And weather whatever in Ariat Work Gear. Now in the street there is violence And then a lot of work to be done No place to hang out or wash in And then I can't blame all on the sun Oh no We're gonna rock down to electric avenue And then we'll take it higher Oh we're rock down to electric it's part of my take presented by martial sports welcome to part of my take presented by chevy today is friday march 11th and carson wentz is a washington commander pFT, the floor is yours.
In the last 24 hours, I've gone through what some may call mental gymnastics. I started out despondent, to say the least.
I didn't know how to react in the moment. I said a lot of things in the past about Carson Wentz.
I think we both have. And this was the universe just proving to me that karma is real.
And that if you say something mean enough about somebody enough times, eventually you'll have to trick yourself into rooting for that person. I've given myself some time to think about it.
A lot of things get said in the heat of battle, in the fog of war. But now I'm coming up for air.
I've had some time to think it through logically. And I've reached this point in my bargaining stage where I think I'm the biggest Carson Wentz super fan in the world right now.
Yep. And I did.
So what I was doing yesterday, I'm a big, like, logic over emotions guy. Facts don't care about your feelings, right? Yes.
I was feeling like I wanted to throw muriatic acid in my eyes yesterday. I was feeling like I wanted to go get all of my hair cut off, which I almost did.
Big Cat talked me out of it. You got a great haircut, by the way.
Just as a side note, if you're watching on the YouTube, go subscribe to our YouTube channel. The Great PMTV episode was out on Wednesday.
Your haircut is phenomenal. Thank you.
You know what I always appreciate about whenever I get a haircut? Hank always gasses me up. Hank's a hype man.
He's always like, you should do the Jon Snow. Hank loves it when I do the Jon Snow.
Well, yeah. Not stark, but same thing.
You look good. Same fam.
First, you were going to get it all cut off. I was like, please don't do that.
This is your brand. I was Britney Spears.
Yeah, and then you were like, I'm going to get a mullet. And I was like, please don't do that, because then you would just be the beer guy who is an 18-year-old, 29-year-old.
Kind of like me. Documentarian.
Yeah. He's just a 10-year-younger version of myself.
And then you went third option, which is just an awesome haircut. Well, I needed to trim the split ends off anyways.
But the bottom line is I went through a nervous breakdown yesterday. I was in shock.
My face went pale. Didn't know what to do.
Adam Schefter started high-stepping on my grave, which looking back on it, he fucking knew when we interviewed Schefter. he kept bringing it up and called it back that yeah i was laughing about it thinking about it he you guys were talking and then he brought it back he's like what about carson wentz in washington yeah yeah so so i i was feeling bad yesterday but there are some good facts about carson wentz that i can bring up and where i'm at right now i'm just i'm fully invested in thinking about his ceiling.
He's a big ceiling guy. Yes.
His ceiling is better than any quarterback in that division. Now, all we have to do is to get him to play at his ceiling on an average basis.
Make his ceiling his average and then I'm happy. The ceiling is the roof.
The ceiling, yeah, we need to raise the roof a little bit. To the ceiling.
All the way up to the ceiling. And I think that as long as we draft a quarterback, because we only gave up two third-round picks, essentially.
Nothing. Big Cat, he was drafted second overall.
Dude. So when it happened, I knew you were going through a crisis.
I think the thing that I tried to calm you down on, which probably didn't help, was I was like, dude, you're going to sell yourself on this. I sold myself on Mike Glennon, which probably is not a great analogy there.
But I did. So I was thinking about it.
It's like I could have done better as a friend. So as a friend, I asked, who I've shouted out before, Stat Hole Sports, who does a great job.
Go follow him on Twitter. He's our wonky stat guy.
I asked him to do a report for me to present to you on Carson Wentz to spin it towards a good thing. Okay, I've got a couple things that I'll bring up and then I'll let you get to the report.
Blind resume season, okay? Which quarterback would you rather have? A guy that has gotten two MVP votes or a guy that has gotten zero MVP votes? Definitely the two. There we go.
Okay, so now I'll unveil it. Carson Wentz was the guy that has received MVP votes.
Russell Wilson was the guy that hasn't. Carson Wentz has as many MVP votes as sprained ankles that he had at the same time last year.
That actually dovetails into another thing. He was injured last year when he played.
We're getting a healthy Carson Wentz. Double sprained ankles.
That has had, by the time training camp kicks off, he'll have had probably seven, eight months to recover from both sprained ankles. Which I still...
I don't know which one was worse. Yeah, did he play a football game or was he in a car crash? Yeah, no, I think he's the only person to ever have sprained...
That's a hilarious injury. That's like an elevator or car crash injury.
Yeah. Double sprained ankles.
Also, six times in Washington history has a quarterback thrown 27 or more TDs. Wentz has done it three times in six seasons.
Love it. In the history of the franchise, we've only had it six times.
Also, Carson Wentz has never played with a receiver as good as Terry McLaurin. That's a fact.
He's got a weapon now. That's a fact.
I just think that there's a big ceiling for the guy. He doesn't throw interceptions.
He only threw seven last year? He threw seven interceptions. That's three less than everybody's poster child for great NFC beast quarterback, Stack Prescott.
So, again. You mean Black Kirk Cousins? Black Kirk Cousins.
Is that a real thing? I don't think so. There was a rumor that Amari Cooper told Dak Prescott after the loss in the playoffs that he was Black Kirk Cousins.
Why can't Kirk Cousins be Black Kirk Cousins? It's just a very funny rumor to start. Get into a race thing, but I've never seen a black man grill with aluminum foil underneath the meat.
That's true. I don't think that that happens.
That's true. Are you ready for my report? Yes, please.
Okay. All right.
So, again, StatHoleSports, shout him out. He's great on Twitter.
He has a great whole breakdown of Josh Allen and how incredible Josh Allen is. So go read that.
All right. Carson Wentz.
In the last 20 years, Carson Wentz is actually the best quarterback the Washington football team franchise will have. So if you do minimum three games, Carson Wentz has 1.63 TDs per game.
The second one on that list is Shane Matthews with 1.57 TDs per game. I'm pretty sure Shane Matthews started like six games too.
But even still, Kirk Cousins was 1.56. Robert Griffin III was 1.11.
Carson Wentz blowing the competition out of the water with 1.63 TDs per game. This is a list of all of the Washington football team quarterbacks.
Tim Hasselbeck was 0.71 per game. He comes in dead last.
That's a big one. That was a ricochet shot on Tim Hasselbeck.
Well, I'm just reading the stats. Stats don't lie.
Jeff George .88. He was in the middle of the pack.
Anyway, next up, Carson Wentz. You don't want to domesticate Carson Wentz.
He's a wildcat. He needs to be out there.
Alright right? So Carson Wentz in the wild versus in captivity in a dome. Carson Wentz inside, 214 yards per game, 1.67 passing TDs, 0.78 interceptions, and 11 yards rushing.
Outside, he's 244 passing yards, 30 yards more, about the same TDs, less interceptions, better rush yards. Guess where Washington football team plays? Outdoors.
Well, we play in a death trap of a stadium. That doesn't matter.
It's outdoors. That's all that matters.
Does Carson Wentz have any history of knee injuries? No. Okay, good.
Move on. All right.
Okay, so that one, good. He's outside.
We've established that he's outside. Guess what happens outside? You have weather.
You have different degrees of weather. You have different months and everything.
So here we go. The average temperature last September in Washington, D.C.
was 73 degrees. No quarterback has performed better from a yards per attempt standpoint in exactly 73 degree weather than Carson Wentz.
Let's go. Top 50 quarterbacks.
That's good because he's going to be healthy in September. Yeah, top 50 quarterbacks, yards per attempt, in exactly 73-degree weather.
He is No. 1, 9.71 yards per attempt.
His ceiling is so high that he can't even perform indoors. There's no ceiling for Carson Wentz.
And let me just throw out a couple for you there. Your guy, Elite Joe Flacco, he's an entire three yards per attempt less at exactly 73 degree weather.
I'm in. I'm in.
It's incredible. So there were moments last year where we went back and forth.
I don't think that we were ever on the same page with Carson Wentz, but it would go back and forth across this very table when I would be like, Carson Wentz, I think, is back. I think he again.
Yeah. And I'd be like, no, he stinks.
And then you'd be like, no, he's good again. I just need him to be good again, again.
Yes. All the time.
Exactly. All right.
So we got September done. How about November and December? In Washington, D.C., the average temperature is 48 degrees in both November and December last year.
Carson Wentz, career yards per attempt at this exact temperature.

48 degrees. Trails only

three guys.

Jamarcus Russell,

Baker Mayfield, and Jared Goff. That's it.

The only three guys that are better than Carson

Wentz at exactly 48 degrees.

Elite company to be in.

We now have September,

November, December. Wait, who are those three

quarterbacks you listed? Jamarcus Russell, Baker Mayfield, and Jared Goff.

All number one overall draft picks.

All number one overall draft picks.

Okay, I'm in.

Yes.

And then, so we have September, November, and December.

What about October?

Well, I was wondering about October.

I was like, October must be a disaster.

Carson Wentz is one of only 11 quarterbacks to throw 14 touchdowns in any given month of a season. He did this in October of 2017.
That was his MVP year. And the list of guys on the 14 or more TDs in any month is literally just Hall of Famers.
It's Tom Brady, it's Peyton Manning, it's Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, it's Kurt Warner, and it's Carson Wentz back in, there's more guys on the list, but it's Carson Wentz back in October of 2017. So, shout out StatHoleSports.
I think that we just proved that if you just break it down month by month, degree by degree, Carson Wentz playing outdoors in exactly 73 degrees or 48 degrees or the month of October, he's a Hall of Fame quarterback. I need some weather gods.
I need some weather luck next year. Jim Cantore, if you're out there, please give me a hand on that one.
I'm kind of selling myself on it slowly. I'm accepting it.
I'm gradually accepting the fact that Carson Wentz will be the quarterback. And again, I do want them to draft a quarterback in the first round.
If we draft a quarterback still in the first round, I will be very happy with the situation that we're in. You know what? It's upside Carson It's upside city It's value that we got Two third round picks for Carson Wentz I'm starting to believe in it If we go ahead and also get another quarterback In the first round So there we go And so it's funny because I was looking at Who out there can I hitch my wagon to? Who is also in my circle defending Carson oh yeah I know and I've got two of the sharpest football minds in the world Dan Orlovsky and then our favorite analyst on the show recently famous genius yeah I've always said that this is a guy that is smart that understands the world that understands football that might have me blocked blocked.
Emmanuel Acho. So me and Emmanuel Acho like this, that's my guy.
If you ever watch him break anything down, dude spits logic. He spits facts.
A lot of people can't handle facts. They get triggered by it, and they end up going back and forth with him about stuff.
But the bottom line is Emmanuel Acho is a football genius. So now it's me, the guy who can't be in a room with a woman because he'll fuck her or in a hotel room with himself because he'll fuck himself.
And then Emanuel Ocho, a guy that doesn't think she'd carry Richardson, should have a sharp stick because she smokes pot. Correct.
So that's a who's who of quarterbacks. Yeah, Emanuel Ocho, so logical, he has a book named Illogical.
Yeah, exactly. That's how logical the guy is.
Listen. Which is pin tweet of him reading the audio book is quite something.
Again, I'm blocked, so whatever. I don't think that I could have hoped for a bigger three to be out there defending Carson Wentz.
It's huge. It's enormous.
Oh, breaking moves. We see the cow walking in.
The cow's walking in the studio.

Uh-oh.

That was funny.

Breaking.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached a tentative agreement

on a new labor deal, sources tell, a website.

While it still needs to be ratified by both parties, that is expected to be a formality,

and when it is, baseball is back.

All right. We did it, guys.
All we needed was Jeff Passing to get hacked and start tweeting about NFTs for this to happen. How mad is he? He's the biggest loser in all this.
Unless it was a Galaxy 4D play, and he actually has the NFTs. Oh, and he got his Twitter account back, so he was able to tweet it.
Yeah. So there you go.
That would be actually very funny, Hank, if he took this day.

He knew the deal was coming, and he's like, this is my chance to really.

Passing probably knew that as far as notifications go, push notifications for people on his tweets,

he's probably at an all-time high right now.

This would be the best.

He probably got a bag today.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

I haven't ruled that out yet.

All right.

Good job, baseball.

I'm waiting for all the facts to come out about this, but I'm really hoping that they got giant bases out of the deal. That was what the owners were hoping for.
Are they big bases? How big are the bases to us? I don't know anything about the bases, but we do have. Sorry.
Yeah, we'd like to know about them. Nine inning doubleheaders.
I love it. Okay.
Wait. No, no, I don't love that.
I like the seven inning doublening doubleheaders. Those are ruled.
I'm okay with it. Man on second.
Extra innings. Out.
Yes. That's good.
Yes. That's good.
That's what I got so far. Oh, okay.
That's it. All right.
So they just basically took the two rules that everyone hated. All right.
That's progress. Yeah.
Good job. What about the shift? That's the old Goodell.
I want to know about the shift. Yeah.
Or the DH. Working on it.
Make a rule and then take it away. How many DHs? It'd be funny if they had first base normal size, second base like slightly bigger, third base giant, just a big fucking base.
That would be sick. That would be very sick.
I didn't even know where that came from, but out of nowhere, they were like, yeah, the owners need the bases to be 33% bigger. Why not? More steals.
Steals actually would make the game more exciting. More space for ad revenue.
Yeah, that's true. Make those those bases bigger they still have a make good that they have to do for advertising spider-man 2 on the bases and free tacos in the world series yep shout out taco bell um all right so shout out good job baseball you are back uh let's do we have we have billy's bracket and then we'll talk a little march madness and we'll get to our to our interviews.
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Ready, let's do it. The bracket that we've all been waiting for.
We alluded to it on Wednesday. A teaser as they say in the business.
Billy is here with his... Let's start with you know what? Let's start with fuckable spirals because then it will be interesting how it relates to your actual grades.
Okay, so I looked at a lot of tape. It's going to be in a blog on BarstoolSports Dot com will be posted tomorrow morning I have a lot Of video that backs up these claims Fuckable spirals So there's a ranking not a bracket Right this is just guys Who have it and guys who don't okay okay So binary there's a lot of guys who Have a fuckable spiral Energy but don't have fuckable Spirals I see what you're saying so there's guys like dustin crumb sam howell and kenny pickett all have fuckable spiral energy we just saw kenny pickett he came in and said hello i know i know but don't worry don't worry it's just it's just about the spiral look i'm gonna say dustin crumb and sam howell have a little bit of weird mechanics that make the ball look a little weird they it comes down like sideways it doesn't look like a straight projectile the axis is wobbly the axis is wobbly yeah yeah that's the big it's like you know the ball points down it's a little weird you'll see what i'm saying in the blog i i'm a little nervous by the way because how many how many deep how many quarterbacks did on? I watched, like, everyone from the 2022 draft.
Okay. So is there a certain – my favorite quarterback, is he in there? He might be.
Western Kentucky? So we talk about him. Okay, all right, good.
Yeah. Because he is the best.
Bailey Zappi. I mean, he's got the best name.
He has the best name. His name is Bailey Zappi.
Yeah. So really with Kenny Pickett, it's his glove.
Seeing the ball come off a gloved hand messes with my brain. Yeah, that's fair.
So I don't even, I can't, but trust me, it will make up for later. If you're talking about a fuckable spiral, like using a glove is like taking a shower with a raincoat on.
That's a, that's a, that's a Kenny, not you. Like that's a you problem, not a Kenny problem.
Kenny's just throwing out there. It's nothing against him.
It's just our brains can't handle it. Exactly.
Yep, fair. So these are guys with super fuckable spirals.
Okay. Number one, Malik Willis.
Yep, yeah. Goddamn bomb.
And the thing is, I love how the ball turns over on his long balls. So it just goes up and it points up when it's going

up. And when it's going down, it points

down and it looks like an absolute

cruise missile. Just zoom.

I've always wondered about that with quarterbacks

and punters. What makes the ball turn

over as opposed to

it staying up? I'm not a physics guy.

I don't know, but this guy moon bombs.

And then he also, if you look at his shorter

passes, tight darts

in and out, jumps off his hand.

That's just, like when Aaron Rodgers

just I don't know, but this guy moon bombs. And then he also, if you look at his shorter passes, tight darts in and out, jumps off his hand.

That's just, like when Aaron Rodgers threw that pass to the guys on the yacht at that golf tournament,

when you see that jumping off the hand type velocity

where it's like his motion looks this fast,

but then the ball looks faster than his motion,

that's that extra fuckable. That's Malik moon bombsombs.
So that's one. Carson Strong.
Yep. Nevada.
Very, very fuckable spiral. Yep.
Great, great quarterback name too. Carson Strong throws a long ball.
Good long ball. But some of his intermediate throws, very fuckable spiral.
Just slips in and out. I don't know how he does it.

Looks like a wizard with it. Love it.
Last, this guy I think has the most fuckable spiral, Jack Cohn. Ooh.
Jack Cohn, super fuckable spiral. Five star from Long Island.
New York guy. Shout out Boomer.
Little bias. But this guy, he threw 55 miles per hour in the speed throw.
He was the only guy to hit the exact target on the speed throw when throwing it out of the five guys. Sam Howell had the fastest at like 58, 59, but he didn't even hit anywhere close to the target.
I'm going to hold that against him later. Put that, like translate that into something that is applicable in my real world experience in this office.
55 miles an hour with a football, how fast would that be with a high noon can? Enough to kill you. Okay.
So you could kill somebody with a football. Let's do it another way.
So 55 miles an hour, if you were... Wow, that's pretty fast.
Say it was going 35 miles an hour. It was a car and you were running in Queens.

Queens?

Bronx.

Bronx.

Could break your ankle.

Break your ankle.

Okay. All right.

Got it.

Got it.

Just putting into real world so people understand the real world issues here.

Also, it's just Jack Cohen has a high release point, which I'm a sucker for.

Yep.

Okay.

We all are.

So now we're going to go to-

I agree with that.

High release point and funky release points.

I don't like them in the middle release points.

Thank you. Yep.
So when it comes out. We all are.
So now we're going to go to high release point and funky release points. I don't like them in the middle release points.
I like if they can get all over the place like Patrick Mahomes or a nice high release point. Well, Mahomes has a high release point when he's just straight up, which I like.
If you're straight up high release point, that's sexy. One thing about college quarterbacks as opposed to the NFL when it comes to the fuckable spirals, college quarterbacks who are left-handed usually have fuckable spirals to me.
The second they put on an NFL uniform and you take the stripes off the ball, I would not touch that spiral with a 10-foot zone. It's uncatchable.
All right. Is this the bracket? This is the bracket.
But first, I have to explain the top eight that I chose. Okay.
Because it's not everyone's typical top eight. All right.
So number eight, like, well, no particular order. I have the top four is basically the same as everybody.
Kenny Pickett, Sam Howell, Malik Willis, Matt Corral, in no particular order. And then my bottom four are a little, is a little different to everybody else's.
I put EJ Perry on there for reasons I'll explain. For Brown because he picked up the trash? No, no, no.
There's other reasons. Oh, okay.
We got Jack Cohen on there, Carson Strong, Desmond Ritter. No Bailey Zappi.
No Bailey Zappi, unfortunately. That's unfortunate.
He's electric. Wait, you said we were going to get to Bailey Zappi.
I think we just did. We just did.
By me saying no Bailey Zappi. No Bailey Zappi.
Billy, you know that people heard you talk earlier on this podcast and you said there's something else coming up. I was hoping you guys forget about it.
It's going to be later on in the bracket and then Big Cat's going to say hey where's Bailey Zappa. I hope you guys are going to forget about it.
I didn't want to let people down. Can we just say Bailey Zappa lost the play-in game? He lost the play-in to EJ Perry for reasons I'll explain.
Matchup number one. We got Kenny Pickett versus EJ Perry.
This is the number one seed versus the eighth seed. Okay.
EJ Perry is only on here because he was the most athletic quarterback if you combine his scores. There was a certain NFL draft score by next-gen stats that put EJ Perry is the most athletic quarterback in the draft.
How is he more athletic than Malik Willis, though? Well, it's the scores. Because he didn't run at the combine, probably.
Well, it's the next-gen scores. The next-gen stats.
The next-gen, he ran a 4-6. And also, EJ Perry picked up the trash.
Malik Willis gave it to the homeless people, so that evens itself out. Yeah, exactly.
So he got on there for the athleticism and picking up the trash. Oh, so he did.
Okay. And, uh, exactly.
So that's why he's on the list. Exactly.
You know... Listen to this podcast using the the 15 second rewind button must be an absolute mindfuck when you hear Billy talk exactly exactly can be used it's like aloha means different things Inuits have like 40 different words for snow Billy's using exactly like confirming that he's wrong, confirming that he's right, kind of just trying to move on from whatever we're talking about.

There's many exact ones.

The closest that he'll ever get to admitting that he was lying about something or wrong

is just when he takes a pause and he goes, anyways.

Yeah.

So anyways.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So this isn't going to be an Ellinger, Trevor Lawrence situation. Kenny Pickett blows him out of the water.
Matchup number two. We got Malik Willis versus Carson Strong.
Malik Willis is number two. Carson Strong is number seven.
Carson Strong, big arm. He was in the running.
He's one of the fuckable spiral guys, but Malik Willis has been said to be my opinion combination of lamar jackson and josh allen this is what the people are saying so the best quarterback of all time exactly so you know if you look at uh malik's throws from the combine insane absolutely crazy type stuff so i did the exact calculation on how far he threw that ball uh if you do the pythagorean theorem it it comes out to 75 on a line, which is insane. And it was fuckable, too.
Very fuckable. He has the fuckable spiral.
Turned over moon bomb. Moon bomb.
It went high. It was a high bomb, too.
Okay, so now we have Kenny Pickett and Malik Willis in the final four. Right, exactly.
Also, he gave the homeless guy clothes. Yep.
Huge. Matchup number three, Sam Howell versus Jack Cohen.
You know, they faced off, but this is the first upset of the bracket. Oh! I have Jack Cohen beating out Sam Howell.
No bias because he's from New York. No, that was absolutely biased.
Yep. Exactly.
I also think that Billy learned from Jake's mistakes and is putting a Wisconsin guy, like advancing him. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, smart man.

The whole ideology behind this is Sam Howell through 59,

but he didn't hit the target on the speed pitch.

And the thing is with quarterbacks, guys should always be trying to hit the target.

You always should have a pinpoint on a jersey you're aiming for.

He didn't hit it.

Jack Cohen hit it right on the center with his 55-mile-per-hour,

so that's really why I chose Jack Cohen Also we'll get to it later New York guy Sam Howell also We'll get to that later I haven't discussed it yet I kind of want to do the We should get to the Final Four And then we should save the Final Four for Monday Okay perfect Because it's like everyone's like And the anticipation is going to kill everyone Right? Exactly We'll do it at the end of the Monday. Also, Sam Howell didn't cover a couple times and upset me during the season, but we're

moving on.

I completely agree with that.

Also, let down in the Heisman race.

Sam Howell, I'm sure you're a great guy.

I'd love to meet you.

Sam Howell wins the Jake Fromm Award, where if he could have come out last year, it probably

would have been better for him.

Right.

So this is matchup number four.

Okay.

So we have three of our four Final Fours.

Final Four will be Monday.

Number four, Matt Corral, Ole Miss.

Versus number five, Desmond Ritter.

see you next time. probably would have been better for him.
Right. So this is matchup number four.
Okay. So we have three of our four Final Fours.
Final Four will be Monday. Number four, Matt Corral, Ole Miss.
Verse number five, Desmond Ritter, Cincinnati. So let me preface this by saying that I live next to Ben Mintz.
Matt Corral has been a topic of a discussion for the whole season. Yep.
We've been debating, is he a systems quarterback? Are his 10 wins in the SEC with the SEC schedule? Now, when you say systems, that means he can play in multiple systems. System.
Okay. Got it.
He also shares a birthday with Jackie Robinson. Wow.
And me. Wow.
Desmond Ritter from Cincinnati also had a great season, made it to the college football playoff. So how am I going to compare these two quarterbacks? I looked at their stats versus Bama.
Because they both played Bama. I think that's fair.
That's totally fair. Because the talent around them is exactly the same.
That defense is basically an NFL defense. Correct.
So we just got to look at that. Matt Corral performed better against Bama, but it's not too different.
So Desmond Ritter got sacked six times against Bama. Again, yep.
No touchdowns, 144 yards. Yep.
Matt Corral got sacked twice against Bama. Oh, wow.
213 yards in a touchdown. I think Desmond Ritter is more sackable, even though he's very athletic.
Based on these numbers. Yes, he's much more sackable.
Also, Mincy has totally brainwashed me into him being a tough, savvy quarterback who throws bombs. So Mincy has totally corrupted my mind on Matt Corral because we watched the games and this is what we were just talking about.
I love it. Okay, so I like Matt Corral a lot.
I agree with your analysis of him in terms of his sackability. My concern about him is that Matt Corral, if I'm not mistaken, he's a forearm tattoo guy.
I like that actually. That plays into next Final Four.
Does it? Because I don't know if I've ever seen a great quarterback with a forearm tattoo. Well, we'll get to Monday.
Taylor Heineke is one. Wait, but I blog the whole thing so people are going to know if I blog it.
Sorry, not blog it? I'll blog it. Yeah, don't blog the final.
Keep out the final four. Right.
Yeah, and then we'll do final four Monday. I like the anticipation of who's going to fucking get your brackets.
I want to see people send us filled out brackets of what you think the final four will play, how it will play out. So this is what the final four is.
Kenny Pickett plays Malik Willis. Yep.
Jack Cohen plays Matt Corral. Okay.
And that's a... And then we'll see who wins.
Yeah, so fill out your brackets and tweet us that. Where are the games being played? Oh, they're being played in my mind.
Okay, neutral site. Neutral site in my mind.
So no drugs in your mind. No drugs, no beer.
No drugs, no beer. Neutral site.
On Monday. What about...
Yeah, yeah, right. You can't be under the influence because then that's not neutral site.
When I wrote it it was a neutral site Has Jack Cohen ever played against Alabama? No You gotta find another common opponent Well that's not the factor It's already played out I like the fact that we're gonna put out another bracket On Sunday or Monday Like this bracket season This will be the most important bracket we discuss on Monday. I will click on anything online with a bracket.
If homeboy's got a bracket, he's going to get it. Bracket of catch-up.
Stay tuned. Alright, great job Billy.
That was great. So yeah, tune in Monday.
The completion of Billy's quarterback football bracket. Reminder, Sam Ellinger won last year's bracket.
Which he's now the quarterback.

Right now, he is the starter for the Colts.

Presumed starter.

He is going to be the man.

Hashtag Billy was right.

Jim Irsay, I think, loves the kid.

Yeah.

And he's going to ball out.

Obviously.

I like how you said that.

Loves the kid.

Size 10, 10-inch hands.

He's the next Drew Brees.

Yes.

Taller than Drew Brees, too.

All right, we should do a little college basketball.

Then we got Bruce Pearl. Then we got Arthur Smith.
So, Duke almost lost and then they had the refs come in. Well, they had the refs come in beforehand, right Hank? Because they got Buddy Boeheim suspended, which was nice.
I did like that Jim Boeheim was... Well, if you want to get into that, Hank, how many people have died besides Houdini from getting hit in the stomach?

Probably a lot.

No, probably not.

How many people have died from drunk driving accidents?

Yeah.

More.

Right. Yeah, so it's just interesting to me that the punishments were similar.

It's true.

That's fair.

It's like, right now I'm doing a real life, well, Buddy Boeheim only got 50% of the suspension

that Ray Rice got. Right.
And like, Boeheim's never killed a guy. Correct.
All right, so the refs did just show up at the end to help you out. It was an ugly game for Duke.
I said it out loud. I was like, there's a chance that Coach K has won his last game already.
Yeah, you tweeted that. Yeah.
Including next week. Yeah.
Yeah, I was saying, like, he's going to lose his last regular season game, first ACC tournament game, first NCAA tournament game. It'd be wild.
But thankfully the refs stepped in. That first half, I struggle to remember a time when I've seen two teams with a greater disparity in terms of shooting the ball.
Duke couldn't hit anything. It was awesome to watch how hot

Syracuse was. Yeah, Syracuse is super hot.

Jimmy was hot. Jimmy came out, what was he

Jake, 5 for 6 from 3?

I think he was 6 for 7. He ended up 6 for 9.

It was awesome to watch. They were doing it for Buddy.

It was Buddy innocent.

I did like that Jim Boeheim

was like, you know, the other kid

was kind of knocking him around a little bit

and he inadvertently punched him in the gut. I don't think he should have been suspended.
I really don't. And I wanted to see Buddy play.
If they reviewed it in the game, they probably would have given him maybe a flagrant too and ejected the rest of that game. They were blowing out FSU and then he would have been in today.
So I like watching Buddy play. He's fun to play because he gets hot.
It was really his brother did his best interpretation of Buddy getting hot. Yeah, they were doing it for Buddy.
And when Jay Billis was talking about it yesterday, he was saying that Buddy should not have been suspended for it because of the letter of the law and how the ACC judges things. But I guess the ACC used their sportsmanship clause or something like that.
They do have a bylaw, which is like when Roger Goodell goes God mode and gets to put somebody on the commissioner's list. The ACC has like this weaselly little rule where they say that, okay, if you do something unsporting, they can go in and do it.
But yeah, by the way that they've done everything else all year, they should not have suspended him for that game. Yeah.
Just a shame. This is how his career ended.
And for the first time in 46 seasons, Jim Bah Baham's team finished under .500. Is Bob Huggins okay?

I think he just got kicked out of the game.

I think it's fine.

Oh, I thought he just needed a nap.

No, I think he got tossed.

I think he got the old tosserino because they're shooting free throws right now.

So that would make sense.

Yeah, he was very upset.

He just looked like a man when the bartender was like, I think you've had enough, sir.

Get out of here.

Yeah, no, Coach K definitely called the ACC and was like, hey, we can't let this stand. Theo John tackled a man against UNC, but we can't let this stand.
So Duke advances. I don't think Coach K smiled at all the entire game, just screaming at his players like they were in the student section.
It was sad to see, but Duke advances. Or a student newspaper.
I do think that Coach K is going to get the guys together And they're going to make a run in the tournament though This tournament or next week's tournament? Next week's tournament The real tournament Put a pin in that one I think Duke's going on I think we're off to a 15 seed, oh my god What do we have for Michigan? So that was the other big story today Michigan blows an all-time blown lead against Indiana Shout Shout out Juwan Howard, too. Great sorry not sorry by him yesterday.
He said, talking about the Greg Gard incident, because this was his first game back, he said, I could come with a thousand excuses, but I'm not. I take full ownership for my actions.
That's what he said. Oh, wait, no, no.
He went on to say, I could talk about the timeout. We could discuss the pull on the arm.
We could talk about the words exchanged with coaches. So he's not talking about those.
He's not. He's not.
We could, but he's not. But yeah, that was a bad loss for Michigan.
They were up by 17 with 11 minutes left. Yikes.
They should still be in. But they are on the bubble.
Might have to go to Dayton. They're on the bubble.
I'd still be surprised if they're out, but Indiana now. I had both these teams in the Final Four.
Did you? Yeah. Now they both might make it.
Yeah, that's true. You're still alive.
Wait, you didn't say you're not still alive because Wisconsin is going to be in the tournament. Your perfect bracket's not still alive.
True. But no, Jake, it could be the NIT.
You were just doing the NIT bracket. That too.
I just mislabeled it at the beginning of the season. That would be very funny if you have.
I also have Gonzaga and and Villanova. There is, though, like this time of year, it's incredible, Conference Attorney Week, like the meltdowns.
Arizona State yesterday, they were up like 14 with four minutes left and they lost in regulation. Shit just, crazy shit happens.
Another one for the buzzer beater list, Virginia Tech last night. Virginia Tech, Texas A&M basically had a buzzer beater.
It was .1. I know you guys are big Rick Pitino guys.
We like Rick Pitino on this podcast, but they lost to Ryder in the MAAC quarterfinals. They are not going dancing.
Well, we are Ryder's. He finished early.
Yeah. I tweeted that, and I got like five or six of the same.
But you meant it in the literal sense. Oh, of course.
Yes. His seed was eliminated.
Yes. Early.
His seed got ejected very early. They're going to the NIT.
Quickly. Confirmed? Yeah, so if you're a mid-major regular season champion and you get bounced in your conference tournament, you're a one seed, automatic auto bid to the NIT.
Love that. I do think that the NCAA is fucking over some schools with their rules, though.
Bellarmine? Oh, Bellarmine. Yeah, Bellarmine is bullshit.
Let the kids play. Yep, let them play.
A team going to that loss in the semifinals, Jacksonville State. Yeah, because they won the regular season.
They lost to the team that finished second. It was so funny looking at their seating in the conference room.
They were both two seats. Yeah, they did a divisions thing.
So stupid. Is it like Illinois and Wisconsin? Are they both two seats or are they both one seats? Football does that, right? Your quarterback's Carson Wentz.
Football does big time divisions. Basketball doesn't.
Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't.
Talk to me in October. Yeah.
September's going to be his month, though. 73 degrees.
Best quarterback of all time. Wait.
What was Mitch's special degrees? 64. It was that one game we went to against the Bucs where he had six touchdowns.
Yeah. It was literally one game.
Alright, before we get to Bruce Pearl and Arthur Smith, I just want to say I fucked up really bad. Last week I told everyone that it was Daylight Savings.
It's actually next week, so that's my fault. Next week we're changing our clocks, so hand up.
I fucked that up again. Next week, next Saturday.
It's actually perfect. It's on St.
Patrick's Day or the day after. Yeah, so it's going to give you an extra hour to sleep in and be hungover, right? Yes.
Oh, no, wait, wait. Spring forward.
Spring forward. So, yeah.
It's going to give you an extra hour at the bar. Yes.
On St. Patrick's Day.
Extra hour at the bar, extra hour of college basketball next Saturday during the tournament. Get excited.
That's going to be sick. That would be awesome if that's how they did it and if there was a sports game going on at that time, they just extended the entire game by an hour.
Yeah. Just play another extra half.
I fucking love it. All right.
Let's do our interviews, though. We got Bruce Pearl.
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Download the GameTime app to the account tab to create a login redeem code pmt for 20 bucks off your first purchase now here is bruce pearl okay we now welcome on a very special guest it is auburn head coach bruce pearl presumptive uh team with a one seed we're going to run this this a week from today, so you'll be in the middle of the SEC conference tournament. So let's start here.
Thanks for coming on. March, it's the best.
I mean, when the clock turns to March, does something switch in your brain where you're like, this is it, this is my time? Well, I know, Big Cat. First of all, by the time we get to March, we've been working every day since like sometime in October.
So we're kind of exhausted. But there is a different energy, right? Because, man, to the victor go the spoils.
And there's just so much glory to be had in March. We work really hard to put ourselves in position to make a run.
We'll see what happens. How does that work going into the SEC tournament when you've obviously put together a good body of evidence, making a case for yourself being a high seed already in the NCAA tournament, but you've got the SEC tournament, you've got a bunch of great coaches in that league, guys that you want to go out there and beat, you you want to compete against how much do you put into preparing for this tournament as opposed to making sure that you're in the right place you know physically as a team for uh for the NCAA tournament man yeah I just think you take it one day at a time I mean I know it sounds like coach talk but it's just true you just focus on the next opponent uh you know it for us it'll take three games three wins to win an SEC tournament championship and so we'll just take them the next opponent.
You know, for us, it'll take three games, three wins to win an SEC tournament championship. And so we'll just take them one at a time and we'll prepare.
But I've never believed in doing anything at your conference tournament to get ready for the NCAA tournament other than try to win. I mean, you know, and try to play better.
And the teams that improve throughout the season, the teams that continue to grow and get better are the teams that are playing their best at the end, and that's what it takes to win it all. Now, do you think your guys are playing their best right now? Because you've had a – you know, the start to the season was incredible.
I remember that game against UConn because I had wagered on it and I watched all the overtimes. I was in a playground with my son with my phone out watching the end of it.
I did have UConn. No offense.
Did we cover? Did we cover? No. You did not.
I had UConn. My apologies.
No, no, no. Good.
I had UConn. No apologies necessary.
But, you know, you guys start whatever it was, 20-1 or something like that. And, you know, the last couple weeks have been a little bit back and forth, a lot of tough places to play in the SEC.
So has there been like a counter punch or a counter coaching move to correct this last few weeks where it hasn't been as good as it was to start the season? You know, Big Ed, I don't – we're not playing our best right now. But I think it more has to do with the fact that, look, we at arkansas and and had the ball with a chance to win it regulation we lost at florida had the ball to win it at the end at regulation and we lost to tennessee we're down three with with a minute to go i mean so those have been right and then we just beat mississippi state who had only lost one game at home in conference and that was to tennessee so you know even in some of those defeats we had our chances what do you got to do to be playing your best at the end you got to defend and rebound that always travels but you got to get hot you got to you got to make shots i mean that's at the end of the day uh that's what really is is the great separate we're always going to guard um but the question is can we start shooting a little better and uh and that's what that's what we're trying to get done.
Yeah. Now, in terms of, like, the tournament setting, both the SEC tournament and then the actual March Madness tournament, how do you manage that in terms of, like, legs? I know they're young guys, but playing back-to-back days or playing, you know, a new opponent two days after you play in the first round of the NCAA tournament, how do you manage that in terms of legs, in terms of shooting? Like, how does that all work? Well, you know, for us, it's about the sum of our parts.
And I think you see in sport, when you get into postseason, you see coaches shorten their benches. And it exists in every team sport.
I don't believe in that. I'm not going to shorten my bench at all.
And the hardest game for a team like us to win will be the first game because we're going to play nine or ten guys. But in game two, we have an advantage because I'm not playing Jabari Smith 35 minutes in game one.
He's going to get his 30, 32, and he's going to have legs to be able to play in that second game. And I think that's one of the things that's made us a good program in march is that we're not exhausted at the end of the year because i i believe in playing nine or ten guys now some coaches look i got five guys better than the bench i understand that but i think the way to win at the end is keep them fresh yeah that's a great question and How do you keep them loose going into the tournament in those back-to-back

games? Do you do anything differently?

Are you the kind of coach that breaks

out more of the motivational stuff

going into the tournament?

Are you dialing yourself back to

make sure that you've got enough energy to

make it through? I'm the same.

Look, when you're not very talented, you've got to make up

for it with some passion and some energy.

I am the same for a Division II exhibition game as I am for a Final Four game. The kids see no difference.
Inside, I'm going batshit crazy, okay? Inside, I am. But I'm the same crazy all year long.
And so, you know, the kids don't see any difference. And I don't want them to – because to because i want them to prepare you know and i want them to take every opponent seriously and uh so no we don't we don't dial it back we just if it's if it's if it's not broke don't fix it yeah and so it's been working so i think consistency is is an important thing to show the kids as you get later in the season now specifically what about your voice and what about know, your wardrobe? Like, these things are important.
You yell a lot. You have a hoarse voice right now.
If you're playing three games in a row in the SEC tournament or you're going in March Madness, and then, like, your wardrobe, you're sweating through everything. What is the Bruce Pearl? Like, do you have a coach for your – like, you need a coach for you and how to manage all your stuff.
You have no idea how my staff takes such great care of me. Now that I'm 61, I'll be 62 in a week or so.
They're giving me all kinds of vitamins and I get memory pills and I get, you know, my, my, my, my trainer wants me to make sure I work out. They do that word about me getting my rest and, you know, taking, taking care of me.
So. But the voice, I can tell you that on the second or third day, look, the kids don't listen to me anyways.
Okay, so what's going to be the difference? They don't listen at this time, this time of the season, so they can't hear me. It might actually be a blessing.
Have you ever had a game where you sweat so much so early, you're like, this is going to suck? Like, this is not going to be good. Hey, hey, hey, Big Cat, get the tape of my first year at Tennessee when I went down to Florida and we played Billy Donovan in a year he won the national championship.
I wore a light green suit and I had a little fever that day. Plus, I also sat out in the sun because I love the sun.
And I went into that gym. I sweat through the entire suit.
I mean, not just like the pits and not just the back or underneath the boobs, the whole thing, like trousers, like, like, you know, right down here, right? Hard to explain. Not a good look.
Yeah, I feel like that happens to college basketball coaches more than anybody else in the world. I think, I don't know if you're necessarily sweatier than other professions, but it's something about being in that gym under those lights in certain environments.
Something about being in the gym. It's hot.
You know, there's a swimming pool right a swimming pool right next to the Florida gym. So you can sort of smell the chlorine and it's, it's warm.
And then here's the deal. I'm, I'm no longer coaching in a suit.
Okay. But who decided that was a good idea? Like, let's go ahead and put a hundred percent cotton shirt on.
Let's button it up to the top. Then let's throw a noose around your neck.
On top of that, let's throw a winter coat and then go out there and coach. now i do think that jay right that's a good idea jay right should continue to wear the suits he's the one guy that he looks like he should always be in a suit yeah but he's gq i mean he's he's a sexy man i mean most of us don't have that jay right game yeah like i want to go to i want to go to games like big cat goes to the games at wisconsin you know kind of like you you know, you weren't very heavily clothed on that game.
No, I was not. I'm looking at the picture of you in that Florida game.
You did sweat all the way through it. You also have a tie that went way past your belt buckle.
I don't know what you were thinking there. I've always thought basketball coaches.
Yeah, you guys should wear uniforms like baseball coaches. You know what they say about guys that have short ties, don't you? No.
They don't have very big hands. So a guy with a short tie can't be a quarterback.
Yeah, you got big hands. Gotcha.
What about wearing an actual basketball jersey? That'd be kind of cool if it was like MLB. I don't think I could make that look very good.
I just think sometimes those suckers taper, and I'm not sure how it looked down at the bottom. Unless I could keep it untucked, and then the referee is going to go by, hey, you got to tuck your shirt in.
They were already on me all the time. I don't need any more advice about how I'm going to dress.
Well, I know you're a big chest paint guy. We're big chest painter guys.
We were, I had the Wisconsin Badger on my chest. Big Cat had the basketball boobs.
It was a great time. It was our first time chest painting, but you used to do it back in Tennessee.
I would, I think you could just like paint a suit on yourself on the sidelines. No, no.
Look, when I did that Tennessee deal for Pat's summit, you know, they called me the incredible bulk. Okay.
And, and, and, and,

and then and then when I was at the Georgia football game, you know, for our football team and I was just we were hanging out with our players. My wife said, listen, that that's enough.
OK, America's seen quite enough of that body. It's you need to put that thing away.
So I'm done. I'm not we're not going to get exposed anymore.
Well, it's a bad combination if you're going to be sweating to have the body paint because then it just all runs down and it's just a – you've got a puddle underneath yourself. Also an empty stomach.
Yeah. You obviously are very animated on the sidelines.
How does it work with the referees in terms of game flow? Like the start of game before the game starts are you going up to the refs and you know saying how your kids and how like you know maybe talking to them and then is it slowly build up yeah we used to but now because of covid you know we we're not allowed to touch each other we're not allowed to get you know we can't get that close contact so i can't i can't schmooze with them with them at all. But seriously, again, I guess going back to being the same, I will take my players on during the course of the game and holler at them.
And so, therefore, what I'm hollering – the referees see me hollering at the kids way more than I'm hollering at them. And so if occasionally I holler at the referees with sort of the same tone,

you know, they're used to it because they've heard me berating my players.

So what I give them is far less than what I'm telling my players.

So for the most part, they tolerate.

That's interesting.

So they're hearing it and they're getting almost like, okay,

this is his baseline.

So when he yells at us with his baseline, it's no different's not like he's extra angry that's right i don't know for real for real that's smart that's very smart and how do you feel about the uh the handshake line post game we're big fans of the handshake line just as we're watching on tv um just because it's just something else for us to watch after the game's over um but from your perspective you guys are just watching waiting to see if there's going to be a fight. That's the only reason why you guys are wondering what's going to happen.
Right. Look, listen, the thing I like about it is if you look at the players, all right, the players who are actually the ones out there having the contact, it's like after a boxing match.
I've always wondered, after two dudes are beating each other's brains in, right, how they embrace and really hug one another. And it's almost like gladiators going back in the day.
You know, it's sort of an honorable thing to compete against an honorable opponent, somebody that's trained really hard, somebody that's been in this fight. But when the bell rings or the buzzer sounds, that contest is over.
And I think that, you know, that there should be a handshake line. And I think you should win or lose.
Congratulate your opponent in victory and defeat. And there's no way we should give up on that.
That would be a bad look. What message are we sending to the young people? Bad message.
Now, when you were at the Horizon League and, you know, Jimmy Collins, people know Coach Pearl, there's been a few things in the past, the Iowa-Illinois thing. You did not shake hands with Jimmy Collins for, I think it was four or five years that you guys were in the Horizon League together.
Was there ever a time when one of you almost shook the other person's hand or was it just mutually agreed upon? I hate you. You hate me.
This isn't happening. Well, first of all, Jimmy Jimmy has passed.
So in honor of that, you know, I just think we need to recognize that Jimmy Collins was a terrific coach and he was he was a great competitor our teams at UIC and Milwaukee we got after each other and yes there was absolutely something personal and yes there was uh uh times when we went through the handshake line and didn't shake each other hand I always put my hand out um and and it was coach Collins that chose not to that was that was his decision. But I'm telling you, our teams competed, and our teams played for championships.
So, yeah, that wasn't a great look. I'm not proud of it.
Yeah. Did you guys ever have a chance to speak and kind of squash things, and was it an apology from you, or how did it work out? Look, both sides, both sides erred.
And it was part of a kind of a messy process. But we had a very, very positive conversation.
And like Deion Thomas, the young man that was most negatively affected by it, that's what I felt bad about, that he kind of got caught in the middle on both sides doing things that shouldn't have been done. And Deion Thomas is about as good a player and as good a person, as good a coach and a leader as there is.
And Deion and I have absolutely buried the hatchet. Could you feel after that incident happened, like, you know, obviously people said Bruce Pearl got kind of blackballed for a while.
You were coaching two won a national title division two could you feel that could you feel that you were on the outside for a while there I I did a little bit you know but God's got a plan right I mean I truly believe that and and I have been so blessed you know I've been coaching I've been in college basketball since I was 18 years old at Boston College I don't know how many years I've been a head coach, but it's been a long time now. I've been so blessed.
You know, I've been coaching. I've been in college basketball since I was 18 years old at Boston College.
I don't know how many years I've been a head coach, but it's been a long time now. I mean, I didn't get my first shot until I was 32 in Division II, and I had to go the D2 route probably because of what happened with Illinois.
But you know what? Things have worked out, man. I cut my teeth.
I learned how to coach. I worried about what I could control.
And at stops at Southern Indiana, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Tennessee, and Auburn, they've all been great stops for myself and my family. So whatever, we may not have understood at the time, but you got to make the best of what you got in a moment.
And look, that's what you guys have done. And that's, that's what I've tried to do every place I place I've been.
Yeah. And like I said earlier, the SEC has some real personalities at coach.
They've got some of the great ones in college basketball at the time. If you were to say going through those new handshake lines that you have to do now in the SEC, which coaches give you the best handshakes and which ones give you the blow-bys? This is an important question.
That is a very important question. I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus.
You know, you've got a few guys that will look you in the eye and you've got a few guys that will give you the drive-bys. I'll just say this.
The best handshake is Rick Barnes. I would say he was the the best handshake the guy that I thought was the best in our business as a coach was Billy Donovan I thought Billy Donovan was the best coach in our business in our league for years and you're right about our league I mean our our league right now is scary good and I'm not going to tell you guys how to bet but I'm saying this.
Look at some of the teams that finished in the middle of our league right now. Some of the teams that are going to be seeded, I don't know, anywhere from five to nine or 10 maybe.
I'm just telling you, you do not want to play so those teams in the NCAA tournament. I'm just saying.
Yeah, no. You weren't here right now.
Yeah. We should have

said it at the start, but we are must-bust guys.

We are loyal to must.

We're also loyal to Tom Green. Why?

Well, he's a good guy. I know a couple guys

on his staff. He's

electric. Arkansas is

fun. So that's just

I have my allegiance there. I want to let you

know beforehand. I appreciate that up front,

but I mean, I lived four years in Milwaukee.

We had the best run, and you

guys get a little of that Midwestern Wisconsin

Thank you. know i i have my allegiance there i want to let you know beforehand i appreciate that up front but i mean i lived four years in milwaukee we had the best run and you know and you guys get a little that midwestern wisconsin base right yeah i love i love the horizon league i think the horizon league is always like exceptional basketball in terms of people sleep on it and then you watch it and they're always playing at a high level you're right but then the universe of wisconsin milwaukee went into that horizon league right and we and we we kind of i don't want to say we dominated but we made the tournament you know two out of four years we got to the sweet 16 i hope you know and you know back in the day you were nobody from nowhere back then i hope you i hope you were proud of the panthers i mean they were good your teams were very good you're a great coach you're a fantastic coach you're not going to sell me though i'm not going to change away from the must i understand that but you You got to stand up.
You got to say, I'm old. You're a great coach.
You're a fantastic coach. You're not going to sell me, though.
I'm not going to change away from the muscle. I understand that.
But you got to say, I'm old. You're young.
My kids, my players, my son Steven, who's, you know, on my staff, like they can't believe that I'm on with you guys. Like there's no way.
Like there's no way, Dad, you're on with these guys. So, you know, it does hurt my feelings that one of my rivals, but I respect your loyalty.
I just hope I can earn, you know, from this point forward. You know, maybe I can be one of your guys.
That'd be awesome. We could talk about it.
We could find mutual agreement in that Nate Oates is a terrible coach. No, I put you in a bad spot there.
All right, so you mentioned mentioned your age do you know about auburn twitter do you know how passionate auburn fans are on twitter they are auburn basketball fans are the craziest fans in a good way on twitter they mean people to death they uh like we if we say one offhand comment about Auburn basketball, it's like World War III in our mentions. You have the most passionate, crazy fan base that always has your back.
Have you seen some of these memes like Goose Pearl? You just got beat by Goose Pearl. And there's like all these different things that are very, very funny.
I've seen some of them. I don't spend a lot of time on it, but I have seen some of them.
But you just made my day. Listen, I can be down the list as one of your favorite coaches, but when you tell me that we've got the most crazy, insane, passionate, wild fan base, those memes and those, you know, the guys on the Twitter bombs, man, look, we good.
Yeah, we're good. No, I think it's great because it does bring everybody into the conversation.
And one of the things that's been fun has been the fact that our fans have traveled, the fact they're going to have a great following in Tampa. Hopefully we can stay for a few days by winning some games.
And, you know, in this wacky world that we're living in right now with so much, you know, so many real, real, real challenges, the war over there in Ukraine and everything that's going on. It's not, you know, these are not the best of times.
I mean, it's great that at least we, you can provide, you know, this opportunity to enjoy the game and enjoy the game more than just on the court and the field, but off it as well, which I think is a lot of fun. It's very true because it's all in good fun.
And I got turned on to it in January, I think, when you played Alabama. Alabama refused to post the final score.
And so I've become a de facto guy that everyone goes to when a team doesn't post the final score. So I trying to pressure him to post it and I was watching his Alabama or Auburn fans were going into like every tweet that they had and memeing them just constantly and I was like I was like literally lying in bed like laughing my ass off thinking it was the funniest thing ever so it's you have a very very strong crazy rabid supporting uh group of fans online for you.
Well, we appreciate that. Look, I want the kids to have fun.
I do. And I've added sometimes to the rivalry.
You know, when Alabama came in here in football and wound up winning the last minute and a half of that game after Auburn had won the entire game. And we got beat.
Our students, my basketball player sits right there in the end zone. And so the Alabama football team kind of got up there and they did the crane.
And I didn't remember that. So when we beat Alabama at Alabama, we had three or four guys, you know, just all of a sudden did the crane because Alabama football started it.
Yeah. And I kind of liked it because I thought it just sort of added to the rivalry.
Yes. I didn't look at it as tremendously.
Sports been like, I told my guys, I said, look, the next time Alabama beats us, okay, they're going to do the same thing to us. So if you're going to dish it out, you better be able to take it.
So after we beat Alabama for the second time, you know, I got the broom out.

I swept the court.

I know that may not serve me well the next time we play Alabama,

but that's what it's all about.

We've got to have some fun.

We've got to let the kids dance and have fun.

No, I like that.

I think most fans of the game like that too, unless you're an Alabama fan.

But in a way, that's good for them too because it lights a fire you know it gets the fan base more passionate next time you guys play it means more tickets are going to sell faster more people are going to watch it on TV it's just good for the sport in general to to have people be able to show their personality out there I was I was actually curious what you thought of some of the comments recently from certain sports journalists. Don't want to name any names, but there have been people that have been, like, idiots that are totally critical of how Jabari Smith is being used late in games.
That have said some really pointed things about, and doubted his ability to really succeed in the tournament when a lot of these games do come down to the final possession. Can he create off the dribble on his own? I'm curious what you would say to those fucking morons out there.
Who are big basketball guys, some of the top analysts in our game. Yeah.
You know, I'm actually looking – I'm just looking at something here. I don't have it right in front of me.
But the last four games, as we're coming down the stretch, Jabari's playing better and better and better as the season progresses. Guys, he's 18 years old.
He's 18. And every night he's the best player on the floor.
And I think the last four or five games he's averaged like 27. But he's shot a great percentage.
He's not a pig. All right.
And he's a great teammate. If he was my point guard, it would be easier to make sure he got the last shot because the ball would be in his hands.
He's not. I've got a point guard that either that I completely trust to be able to either take that last shot or get him that shot.
And so it's worked out a few times. It's not worked out a few times.
Put it on me. Don't, do not put it on Jabari.
He wants the ball. He's not afraid of the moment.
And I believe that if he had that shot, he'd make it. Look, he's made big shots down the stretch to put us in position to have the last shot.
So that is not Jabari Smith's fault. Go ahead and doubt him.
Go ahead and doubt him. Good luck taking anybody else number one.
I'm just telling you, do not doubt that kid. He is one of the greatest competitors that I've ever, ever coached.
He's the best jump shooter I've ever coached, and that's actually at any position. And I coached the two best three-point shooters in the history of the SEC Chris Lofton at Tennessee and Bryce Brown at Auburn and and and I'm just telling you so uh yeah I again I don't pay attention to that so if they're criticizing Jabari they shouldn't they should be criticizing me for not getting my team a better shot the haters are on notice yeah I'll let them know what um a question, like a nerdy question.
What's your favorite play when executed correctly? I think probably a middle ball screen where I've got the ball in my point guard's hand. I've got Walker Kessler rolling to the rim for a dunk, and I've got Jabari Smith opening one of the corners.
To be able to protect the rim and the corner is one of the hardest thing to do defensively in basketball and that's probably what I trust the most okay I like that answer I also love just like watching you guys play I like any team that that that runs clear backdoor cuts like in their offense because I don't there's something about a perfectly executed backdoor cut that gets someone you know caught looking and looking and it's, it's, it's just beautiful to watch. Well, Pete Carrell would love, love to hear you say that.
Yeah. Obviously that is one of the things that does, you know, does can different, different, you know, you take advantage of what I've overplay.
And that is something that we all it's only two points, but somehow a backdoor two points seems to be worth more yeah it really it really is like a perfect pick and roll perfect backdoor cut there's just something about it where it's like oh that's that's just great team basketball yep and and and oftentimes what a great coach for getting them back door when the reality was it was defense over playing it it was the passer making a break crass and the cutter setting it up so and having the backside cleared out with other actions so it takes a lot to get that back door they're not easy to get but when they do it does work it is it's special how many how many out of bounds plays do you have we have one set it's always one four flat and what i believe in play calling is you make every play look exactly like the other plays and they're all counters to one another and you sort of build off them. So we don't have a line of four.
We don't have a box. We don't have a triangle.
We don't have an offset box. We have a line of four all the time.
So that I think that's harder to scout and harder to guard. And there's a lot of variations off of what we do there.
Yeah. Yeah.
I think it's also a very dangerous place to have the ball because even though it's a dead ball set and the guy out of bounds with the ball can't dribble it and he can't shoot it, he can only pass it. I still think it's a great place to have the ball to get some inside out offense.
And so it's very much like when the ball goes into the post, what can you do to get a good look with the exception of a post shot? Yeah. And so we try to score on our OB and we try to prevent you from scoring on yours.
Yeah. On defense, on an out of balance play, what are your thoughts on guarding the inbounder? We put size on the ball.
We've done this for 25, 30 years. Not a lot of teams do it, but we'll press you when you have the ball underneath your own basket, even though it's a very dangerous place and you're one pass away from a great shot.
We actually will try to press you and not let you get it in. You mentioned, obviously, the the Tuesday night game that we were at, Wisconsin playing Purdue.
What did you think about Greg Gard's decision at

the end of the game to not call a timeout with eight seconds left? Do you lean more towards that

or let the guys play, let your playmakers get down there without the defense being able to get set

and hope for the best? Yeah, I'm for that. I'm for that in the sense that the hardest thing to guard

I don for that. I'm for that in the sense that the hardest thing to guard is transition offense.
In other words, you've just gotten down, and both teams are changing ends of the floor. You don't always have the best matchups.
You can't build a wall. No, I'd rather get that ball, get guys down the floor, get some spacing, and get a shot.
And there's a chance, you've got a chance to get to the rim or get a shot better than if we call timeout and set something else up, give them a chance to defend it. And more often than not, that's worked out well for us.
So I'm a believer in not calling timeout. Yeah, we were talking about this last week on the show about how effective the press is in college basketball uh usually because there are only you know a couple guys on the team that are really outstanding ball handlers that's changed a little bit in the last 10-15 years where some of the bigger guys too are able to handle the ball but we're just having a debate how come no nba team has used a press effectively at least in recent memory yeah it's because i i would think couple things, just incredible size at the rim, the ability to, again, length and size, throw over the top of the press.
And it's all you can do in the NBA to get bodies between bodies. And so again, think about the size of those men.
It's the same size of a court and the same playing field. You know, when your little kids are playing Little League, they're playing on these really tiny fields.
And as they get older, then all of a sudden when they get to the high school, they're like, oh, my God, I can't believe how huge this high school baseball diamond is. Well, the same size of a high school baseball diamond, the same size of a major league diamond.
Same thing. The basketball court's 84.
The college court's 94. It's hard to get to the rim with all those men in the lane.
And so why take all those bodies out away from putting five bodies at that three-point line? Right. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it is fun when we've been talking about it like you know nolan richardson 40 minutes from hell that kind of that kind of basketball you know patino used to do it uh it's it it seems like it's it's harder to to do that now just with like you said you know you don't want to spread it out too much guys can shoot threes better guys can handle better all those things well i think the things have been – the biggest thing is rule changes.
The number one thing is it's virtually impossible to trap nowadays by virtue of that cone. In other words, it's like dirty dancing.
You're in my space. I'm in your space.
We're not allowed to get in each other's space. Well, back when I came from a pressing coach, Dr.
Tom Davis and Gary Williams, we pressed all the time. And a trap, you'd trap, you'd press up, you'd get in somebody else's space, and they'd turn the ball over.
That's not a foul on the defense. So actually the last several years, they have virtually legislated against full-court pressure and trapping.
And if you can't trap, it's really no advantage, not much of an advantage to extend your defense. Yeah.
It's always interesting watching the press though in March Madness, because there'll be some times when I feel like a coach has identified that the moment might be too big for the other team's point guard or one particular guy that's struggling. And since they're younger kids that might not have as much experience, it's just like, like okay let's turn the pressure up to 15 and see if this guy can handle in prime time um that's that's what i like watching about the press i i hope that you know it it continues this year but uh yeah it will and let me tell you something one reason why the press could even be more effective right now is nobody's pressing so therefore you get in the game against a team that presses you not seen that pressure all year long.
We've seen everything else there is to see by this time of the year. And so that's why no lead is safe.
And all of a sudden, team can turn up the press. The opponent, not just not rising to the moment, they've not played it all year long.
And do you attack it? Don't you attack it? You know, you're trying to run clock. Man, it's – hey, look, Gary Williams always told me, I don't know what teams would do if they were down, if they didn't have a pressure package in.
Right. And so we don't press a lot, but we press, but we have a pressure package in for when we need it.
Who do you think screams more, you or Gary Williams? Who spits more? Screams. Screams.
Who's louder? Well, I'm not – I don't know, but I can't imagine Gary screams more than I do. Is there any coach that screams more than you? Buzz Williams will holler a little bit.
He'll shout and holler a little bit. Yeah.
And Buzz will probably – he probably could be the 11th man out there because he's not afraid to get out there and he gets down the stance. He's a big dude.
He's probably the best screen setter they got out there at Texas A&M. No, man, we all out there barking.
And I'm not a whistler. See, the problem is I'm not a whistler.
And guys that can whistle, they can get the guy's attention really quickly. I'm more of a screamer and a foot stomper.
I would say Danny Hurley probably has you beat. That game you guys played earlier this year, I mean, those are two titans in the screaming, boisterous coaching game.
Yeah, titans, absolutely. He learned it from the best.
He learned it from his dad. That whole Hurley crowd, they'll get after you now.
Those are tough guys. Jersey guys, guys.
Tough guys. All right.
So, you know, we touched a little bit on your past. And, you know, we hate the NCAA.
So we're usually on the coach's side. I had one thing, though, that it must suck because, you know, you've had some things in your past that people bring up.
But one thing you didn't do but you were there for, you mentioned you were a grad assistant on the Boston College basketball team. It also was when the point shaving thing happened.
You had nothing to do with it. Does that suck, though, that people are like, wait, that's weird.
Bruce Pearl was there? No, no. Man, there's so much.
Again, worry about what you can control. I was a freshman manager on that team.
And, i knew those guys and you know when you look back on it some of the stuff that went on now made sense but just no way you could have known right what was going on you know rip kuhn had actually broken his nose and he wore a mask for part of that season but part of the reason why he might have wore a mask was because he didn't want to see people see his facial expressions as they were doing whatever it was that they were doing uh man it was tragic and the fact that it was connected to organized crime it was dangerous and um you know i i uh uh you know that was a very very uh you know it's a very difficult time it was heartbreaking time right for the players and the coaches that kind of went through that to have a couple of those guys. And don't forget, they were kids.
Adults pressured those kids. I know those guys look like men when they're out there on the floor.
They're still student-athletes, guys. You've got to remember, they're 18, 19 years old.
They're impressionable, and a lot of times, they're just doing what the adults will have them do. So don't lose sight of that they're just kids yeah i mean it's just it's one of those things you had nothing to do with you're like you're like the forrest gump of ncaa sanctions where it's like just show up in the back like what the hell this happened you were there yeah so i just i saw it and i was like that's gotta suck for you because you know it's like you had nothing to do with it.
Man, if you just – again, you just made my day again. You compared me to Forrest Gump.
Like, Forrest Gump's like my favorite. All of NCAA sanctions, though, that's probably not the best one.
Well, I mean, but still you still – wait, wait, you can't take it back. You can't take it back.
You just compared me to Forrest Gump. I got you.
You got you. I like the yelling.
You're right. You're right.
I have some pots of chocolates. You're a positive pitcher.
You got to get what you take. You can force gum i got you you got you i like to yelling you're right you're right you have some pots of chocolates you're a positive you gotta get what you take you can't take that back you told me force gum you're now i'm listen i'm not i know what love is muscle i know what love is yes muscleman's gonna listen to this so i'm not saying that you're getting closer to be one of my guys but you're you're getting closer to being one of my first date yeah i'm not expecting to be of your guys.
I mean, this is our first date. I just hope you ask me back.
I just hope. Yes.
And I love your positivity because I said Forrest Gump of NCAA sanctions and you took away from it. You compared me to Forrest Gump.
Absolutely. That's awesome.
Let me ask you a question. Why did Jenny leave the second time? That bothers me to this day right now.
She didn't want to break his heart. I love Jenny.
She didn't want them to get too close. It is my favorite movie of all time.
When he cries, when he's talking to his mom's grave, I cry every time. Me too.
We should make it. We should remake it with Bruce Pearl.
That would be incredible. But counterpoint, he went...
No, you know what?? You're right. No, you're right.
I'm nowhere near Forrest Gump. Man, Forrest Gump had a heart of gold.
I'm not. I'm not worthy of that.
You gotta take that back. No, I'm not taking it back.
I refuse to take it back. I refuse.
Take it back. I refuse.
Okay. Coach, I read a story that when you, I think it was that same stop at Boston College where the school mascot got sick and couldn't make it to a game.
And you raised your hand and you said, I'll do this one, Coach. I didn't raise my hand.
But when the mascot got sick, our head coach, Dr. Tom Davis, said, send the suit with the cheerleaders.
I got somebody on the end of my bench that I know can wear it. And so Coach Davis came to me and he said, look, Eddie the Eagle got sick.
Can you do this mascot thing? I mean, I had no mascot training, but I guess really my whole life I've been a mascot. So I guess it's been a lifetime of training.
And so I put the suit on. And seriously, it was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, first round NCAA tournament, Boston College Ball State.
And we beat Wake Forest. And anyways, listen, back in the day, they used to wire mic the baskets so that you could hear some of the chatter.
You could hear the sneakers squeak. You could hear the ball right when it hit the rim.
I get a ladder out of a closet, and I climb up the ladder behind the basket when Ray McCallum from Ball State shooting a free throw, and I'm flapping my wings. Only problem is I'm hitting the microphone.
Bam, bam, bam. The next day, there's a huge meeting with the ncaa that i'm almost going to lose the ability to be the mascot like seriously so if you think my first run-in with the ncaa was a barbecue you're wrong it was when i was a mascot and by the way right here on pardon my take that's the first time that's ever come out that's breaking news that is oh i love it i love it you almost got a lifetime suspension before your coaching career even started i almost did yeah almost that wasn't god's plan that wasn't his plan it's like you almost got a lifetime suspension before all the other times you almost got a lifetime suspension for a lifetime yeah for a lifetime um all right so i have one that's what now i got a lifetime contract yes so see it's all about it's all about a lifetime and you're a recurring guest on this show so that means you have to come on whenever we ask so that's a lifetime as well yeah my kids my kids and the auburn by the way the auburn twitter mob right now they're going batshit crazy right now because you invited me yes you You invited me back.
Yes. Oh, yeah, no, you're coming back.
No, I'm excited for it. All right, so I have one last question.
It's the Roback question. Put in promo code TAKEROWBACK.com for 20% off your first purchase.
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All right. The game that you guys won, I think it was against Alabama.
Afterwards, you said Auburn's now an everything school. Have you truly been able to feel like, okay, you know, football's king in the South.
We all know this. But have you really felt like the shift has started where basketball is really getting a spot at the table here in terms of the sec well that's a great question one of the things that takes place is we don't know who's on the schedule we don't know who the opponent is we don't know our enemies it happens in in the united states of america right now we can't tell our allies from our enemies.
And it's sickening. In corporations, in companies, we fight from within.
We kill our own instead of understanding who the competition is. I know my competition.
My competition is not the women's basketball team or the baseball team or the football team. And so what I say, I really mean we're in everything school.
If football is great, that's not going to take away any shine from basketball. Basketball is great.
And so we need to stop being jealous of another man's success. We need to know who our friends and our family are, and we need to stay together.
And we need to know, we need to keep our eye. Clint Eastwood sentiment, you know, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
I like it, though. It's a great, like, bigger lesson of, you know, always looking over your shoulder or what the other person is doing in your same corporation, like you said.
It's a really bad negative characteristic to have. And it just sucks your own energy.
It sucks your own energy. And then the other thing, too, is by saying that and let's say you're believing in it i'm talking to the school of engineering i'm talking to our accounting majors i'm talking to school of nursing you can come to auburn to be anything you want because we've got we've got because we are an everything school suny lee is is competing you know you know the she's the she's the world's greatest gymnast right she's here as a freshman at auburn competing to be another win a gold medal again next year and be the world's greatest gymnast jabari smith is it could be the best player in college basketball he's at auburn you know competing you know tank bigs me's our running back you know it's it's uh auburn's a great place and we are and everything's cool.
Yeah. I love it.
I love it.

My last question was just about if you have a holdback coach on the

sidelines,

is there a guy whose specific job it is to make sure you don't stray too

far out onto the court or too close to the ref? Who's that?

Well, I have three.

You think one guy could get this job done? No, I have three assistants.

You know, I got Wes Flanagan, my son, Steven, you know,

Thank you. You think one guy can get this job done? No, I have three assistants.
You know, I got Wes Flanagan, my son Steven, you know, Chad Pruitt, and the guy at the anchor is Mike Burgomaster. And Mike's about – he's about 6'7".
He'll go north of three. Okay, he's a big boy.
And so he gets to tug on that last rope. But now that I'm no longer wearing a jacket, it's a challenge.

You know, he's not exactly, he doesn't have anything.

So he'll grab my waist and hold onto me there. Yeah, do you have rules where it's like, okay, if I go out this far, it's time to pull me back.

And, you know, I'm sure there are times where you try to get them off you

because you want to go out and continue giving a piece of your mind.

Is there a rule or a word that you can say?

It's like your safe word.

When I say this, I mean, really get off me.

No, I don't.

I don't go for that.

Hold me back stuff.

If I want to go, I got to go.

A lot of guys want to act like they want to get in a fight and throw a punch.

You know, I'll hold me back.

Hold me back.

Yeah.

Oh, I would have gotten you if you'd help me back.

No, if I go that far, then I'm either going to get hit first or I'm going to hit.

I'm going to hit somebody.

You can just say Juwan Howard when you say that, when people want to be held back and then throw a punch.

That's what we were all thinking.

The finger in the face.

Coach, thank you so

much. We appreciate it.
You are a recurring

guest now, so we'll absolutely have you

back on and maybe come down and

visit you. We love going on the

road and seeing different facilities and stuff. Yeah, well, I'm great.
Just don't bring those guys in a rain jacket. It's okay.
We're tired of those rain jacket guys showing up, trying to storm all of our courts. I just I love it.
I love it. And I appreciate what you guys are doing.
And the fact that there are a lot of really positive messages in what you're saying but uh the entertainment of the young people guys you guys have a voice you guys have a really voice and so keep entertaining us but keep giving those young people that are listening to you those subtle messages about uh what a great country live in and what an opportunity we all have to be great in this country and so much much blessing the two of you i love it and you did you were scared of the the chasers. You saw them in Mississippi State.
You saw them in Starkville. You're like, uh-oh.
Oh, I saw them. I saw them walk in.
You know, but actually, one good thing is, they didn't get to storm the court, did they? I know. Close.
It was very close. They made all that effort to go to Starkville, Mississippi.
You gotta want to go to Starkville to go to Starkville. Right've got to really want to get there.
And they got there, and they went home.

It was close over time.

Yeah, it was very close.

No soup for you.

No soup for you.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Coach.

All right, guys.

Bruce Pearl is...

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See AHS.com slash contracts for coverage details, limitations, and exclusions. And it's head coach, Arthur Smith.
And now for something completely different. Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest.
It is head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, Arthur Smith.

Coach, should we do coach or Arthur?

Art?

Art, either one.

I mean, I'm from a huge family.

I get called all kinds of things.

Well, actually, we can just start there.

You have nine siblings.

That's right.

Can you name them all?

Yeah.

Let me start.

It's my oldest sister.

My dad had two daughters from a previous marriage.

My mom had one.

So there was Wendy.

Unfortunately, she passed away in 2005. And then Laurie and then stacy who's my mom's daughter and then they're married they got married still married there's seven of us richard kathleen molly myself rachel sam and then canon you're pretty much sean mcveigh yeah that was incredible i don't know about that i don't have the photographic memory sean's got better than antonio cromie.
That was good. Know them all.
Know what I really wanted to start with. We got to do it.
We got to break the ice. Yeah.
The beard looks good. Well, here, I kind of copied you.
Okay. Here's the thing.
As a guy that's like a thick alpha male like yourself, it's a good look. So I stole it from you.
Two alphas? Yeah, no doubt. No offense.
but it's okay i honestly can't grow facial hair at all yeah so i i have no room to talk about it yeah i i do like it's almost like the uh the faux mutton chop look it is yeah and like the longer it grows the better like when i was in london like i was kind of the vibe i was trying to throw um and i think it worked but we'll see but but it was a good idea, and so, yeah. And you credited your wife with the idea.
I did, yeah. Does your wife credit us with the idea? She does.
Okay, because we did. It didn't happen directly after we roasted you because you had a fat neck.
Yeah, the gobbler was looking big. As a guy who has a fat neck, it sucks it happens and if you get a bad angle right it's all bad lights out here yeah lights out okay bad angle bad angles over but uh that's a good part about being a big family like even if i don't like pay attention to something it's gonna get blasted my way okay so that's your way of saying you don't listen but someone else does no i like that that was no no it's not like the hey i'm it.
But, like, the good stuff, it gets past them. Yeah, you got the alpha back with that move.
Yeah. They're like, I don't actually listen to you guys.
Someone clips it up and sends it. And so we got put on this group text by Will Compton, who used to play for you in Tennessee, and he just kind of alerted you to – I think he probably alerted you to some of what we were saying, but he was trying to connect us, get on the right foot, and it kind of worked because we started rooting for your beard.
Yes. That's good.
I need to grow it out more. I've kind of kept it trim, like no pun there, because in London the chops were going.
So I've kind of kept it. I'm thinking maybe if we get hot, I'm going to switch to the stash.
Yeah, and I think we told you maybe hold the play card closer to your face, things like that.

There's different ways that you can distract.

Maybe start wearing Hawaiian shirts.

That's usually my move.

It distracts people with all kinds of, like, looks and everything.

Maybe, like, a chin strap.

Like, just a chin strap, not a helmet.

Kind of like yours.

Just a chin strap.

Yeah, exactly.

Or just mask up.

I'm going to say this.

LaFleur took your style.

He did a little bit, yeah.

I mean, I don't know.

We're both very handsome.

No, that's not a shot at Matt.

Matt, don't get sensitive there, Matt.

Oh, he will.

Oh, I know.

I mean, he kind of dabbled in your look.

He dabbled a little bit.

I remember the first time that we came to the Combine as a group.

I think it was actually Sean McVay's first year as a coach, and I was roasting his facial hair because it's too finely manicured. The lines are perfect.
He gets on there with a straight razor and probably uses some sort of cutout. It's a fine line that you've got to walk between having a nice beard but also not looking like you put too much time into your beard.
Yeah, it's hard for me to get up in front of the team and say,

hey, we're going to be physical and all that stuff.

And I'm like, you got like this little manicured beard.

It wouldn't work for me.

Yeah.

Well, that guy did win a Super Bowl.

No, it worked.

Like I said, no, that's not, again, no shot.

No shot at Sean McVay.

But Sean McVay didn't come up to us.

Yeah, I mean, it worked for him.

Clearly, he's doing something right.

But for me, I don't think it would work.

This is the nitty-gritty people want to hear.

It's just head coach's beards.

It's kind of going around.

Kyle had one in their playoff run.

There was a lot of them going around.

Cliff Kingsbury.

Yep, in their playoff run.

I think Sala grew one.

He may have copied me.

Robert, he may have copied me.

I think he did.

He did.

I think he did.

How has the last year been? Was that weird to walk in the first day and be like, okay, this is my team? Yeah, it was a little strange. But, I mean, I think you've got to keep perspective.
I think the problem is a lot of guys, longer than in this business, they get jaded. And you've got to take a step back.
People would kill to be in our spot. And they're all good problems to have.
I mean, that's of the job but it's uh that's awesome glad to be here going to year two it's good to actually be back in indy i'm always fascinated to hear what coaches do when they take over a team like trying to change the culture like i think bill parcells said change the carpet that's the first thing that you do some guys are like i'm taking the ping pong table out right of the locker room some guys put the ping pong table back in. You were a lap guy, right? You had, you had them run laps at one point.
At one point. And that was just because like too many false starts.
So just went, just went old school, something. What else did you do? Like right from the get go, we were like, okay, this is, we're going to change new, turn the page, new chapter.
Well, there was a ton of change. I mean, just overall staff turnover.
The one thing I didn't want to do is I'm very conscientious I've been held over for, and obviously it's part of the profession. But, like, I didn't want to come in there because there have been good coaches and players in there before.
And I think the easy thing to do is I got a lot of respect for Dan Quinn. I think he's a hell of a football coach.
And I never wanted to look like I was taking a shot at Dan. Like, at some to end for us all.
Here's how we want to build it. Terry and I kind of had a shared vision.
You just kind of slowly implement your culture. I have no idea what's going on outside.
They're cheering out in the lobby. I think it's a pep rally for the Rutgers women's basketball.
I saw a video of the 10-10 is here. I saw a video of you today.
Yeah, yeah, I had my shirt off. It was okay.
That's actually a little tip for you. If you take your shirt off, just paint your breasts as basketballs or footballs.
Yeah, I didn't see the paint on you. Okay, yeah, yeah, it came off at the end.
You did do one thing when you got hired. You gave an incredibly impassioned speech on social media.
I'm going to play it for you real quick. Hey, Falcon fans, I'm so excited to be your new head coach.
We're so excited my family and I are going to move to Atlanta and get this thing going. Rise up.
Wow. I want to run through a brick wall.
Let me play one more time. Hey, Falcon fans, I'm so excited to be your new head coach.
Yeah. Here's the thing about that.
We're so excited my family and I are going to move to Atlanta. I think, I always joke, I think they thought, like, hey, we're going to hire, like Terry and I always joke, they're going to hire these younger, like, they'll be on it.
If that wasn't day one, I never would have done that. Yeah.
So they tried to get us a lot of selfies, and I was like, oh, my God, it's terrible. Yeah.
That's just not me. Maybe they hired the wrong guy to be, like, this cool, like, young, hip, yeah.
It was like the late Dripping Hostage video when he was like, come to FAU, please. No way.
I bet you'd look good though. If they did one of those like ready to get to work videos, like they started to do this year.
I think Brian Dable had one of those where you just drive up in a car and then you step out of the car in slow motion and walk into the office. That's, that's a huge one.
Yeah, no, I know. I'll change it up.
Maybe I'll start doing selfies

after we win. Yes.

Dumb question, but little

kernel of truth.

Arthur Smith hires you.

How much of that is because he's just

like, I found another Arthur? Arthur Blank.

Or Arthur Blank hires Arthur Smith because

he's like, oh shit, another

Arthur? We don't have, like, there's

the aardvark and that's it. Yeah, I don't know.

They probably put into it. It had to be a little bit,

right? I think it probably helped me.

Does he call you Coach Arthur?

Do you call him Art? No, I go

Mr. Blank.
Mr. Blank, that's smart.
Mr. Blank, that

is smart. Is your antenna

up at all with him for, like,

in, you know, not to bring up

bad memories, but the Cowboys game this year

or a game like that, actually that might have been in Dallas, but he's a big fan of coming down onto the sidelines sometimes and just, like, walking behind. Are you, like, are you ever looking over your shoulder, like, oh, is my boss down here? No, that didn't bother me.
Yeah. Ever? No.
I mean, like, when we were in London, I saw him over there, and we launched one to Pitts, and I saw him. I think I gave him a fist pump on the sideline.
You've got to embrace it. It's his team.
Stuff like that doesn't bother me. Yeah.
All right, so we're at the Combine. Can we ask for you to tell us what your crazy Combine question is that you ask people? No.
It's become like, just get right to football. Nothing? No.
I mean, all the background work's done. Sam Howell said that he had to shoot on a mini hoop for the Eagles.
Yeah, man. Anything about that? Yeah, I didn't.
I don't know. Okay.
It must be Nick's thing, yeah. I don't know.
Yeah, Nick likes a little of the sticky stuff. What about the cat or dog question? Did you do that one? No.
Just like, let's talk ball. Yeah, you just get right to football.

What about how many ping pong balls in a 747?

No.

Who asked that one?

I actually don't.

I don't know if anyone said that.

I think that's like a job interview question.

It's a job interview question.

Do you guys ask that?

Yeah, yeah.

We're asking right now.

Sadly, I should probably know that, like a random fact, but I don't.

Guess.

40,000. Wrong.
How many? 40,001. Yeah, 70 million.
No one. Yeah, see, no one knows the answer to that question.
Did you ask Hank that? Yeah, Hank doesn't know the answer. What do you think, Hank? He's wrong.
You can already see it on his 5,000 ping pong balls to fill a 747? See, that's bad. I think Hank knows what a 747 is.
Yeah. Do you? No.
Big ass playing. He's going to find the answer for us.
I got a football question for you. Yes.
So do you plan on having Kyle Pitts be a part of your team next year? Yeah, it's an easy one. Okay.
All right. Next question.
I know where you're going. Because I saw you said earlier today we're not going to comment on whether or not current players will be part of the team next season.

Well, you just said about Kyle Pitts, so I got you.

No, that's where your fake news.

What I said was, like, you can take an educated guess who's going to be on the team,

but if somebody gives you an offer you can't refuse, like, never say never.

Like a horse head in your bed?

Maybe.

Yeah, maybe. Okay, okay.
Here's a hypothetical offer you can't refuse, like, never say never. Like a horse head in your bed? Maybe.
Yeah, maybe. Okay, okay.
Here's a hypothetical offer you can't refuse. How about Montez Sweat? Who else? Who else do you want to give up for Matt Ryan? Let's say Chase Young.
See, I can't talk about that. Two first-round picks for Matt Ryan.
That would be an offer you can't refuse. And Taylor Heineke.
See, I'm just going to punt this to Terry. Just put Terry on the spot.
Terry's got to do it. Yeah, it's easy for me.
I just say, hey, Terry, that's a good question for him. I did like, so obviously people are asking about Matt Ryan.
We don't. We're not going to ask about Matt Ryan.
But you did have a quote that you said that's just absolute nonsense. Absolute 100% nonsense.
It'll'll never happen is what you said, right? About what? About Matt Ryan and like maybe leaving. Maybe I added the it'll never happen.
I don't remember. Either way.
Give me the context when that was. It was someone, someone was asking you about Matt.
Oh, no, there were Chris Mortensen was reporting or someone was reporting. I've never talked to Chris Mortensen.
Okay. So when you say absolute nonsense, can you maybe throw in a rubbish in a garbage and it's not true? Because I liked how strong you were.
It was strong conviction. No, but I think that was in reference to some rumor.
I can't remember the context. Again, I don't have the photographic memory.
I'm not a context guy. Yeah.
Let's just pretend. Yeah, it was after a game, I believe.
Okay. And I don't even remember who asked it, but I don't even remember the context of it.
It was more some kind of, like, made-up rumor. I think the context was, someone asked, is Matt Ryan going to retire Falcon? You said that's just absolute nonsense.
I don't think that was it. Hank, fact check him.
All right, I have a football question. Looking at your career, start as defensive quality control, then move to offense.
You don't see that very often. A lot of times guys stay on one side of the ball throughout their entire career.
Why did that happen? Obviously, I would imagine it's helped a lot. It's helped a lot.
Actually, I started as an offensive GA at UNC, and so I was a scouting intern with your Washington Commanders.

Oh, nice.

There's another head coach that we can add to the list.

Yeah.

Everybody.

So I was there, and in spring I was doing – like I was at the combine here in 07,

just kind of running, grabbing players for interviews and doing all that.

And I thought I wanted to get into scouting.

And then Joe Gibbs called me in on a Friday before Memorial Day.

And he's like, hey, look, I had to make a change on the staff I've got an opening you know how to break games down you're legit I was like yes sir he said well um we got an opening a defensive quality control we just need a guy to break it down and and we'll see where it goes and so I wasn't gonna tell him no uh when Joe asked me that so I said yes, yes, sir. And then I was going down to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600,

and I was like, what did I just get myself into?

Right.

And because it had been a miserable experience as a GA.

We were terrible.

Just it was like the worst side of it.

We got fired with like four games to go.

And I was like, oh, I'll get into scouting.

And then I was on that defensive staff in that 07 season

that we made the playoffs.

It was Joe's last year. And I just stayed on defense and I was happy being on defense.
And then Mike Munchak switched me over. Really? And so were you, were you mad that you got, had to switch back over to offense? Were you happy? No, I was happy.
I had spent four years, four different coordinators. And it worked out and Munch is awesome.
So he was like, Hey, I, you know, I'd like to get you back over to the offensive side. I said, well, I want to coordinate.
coordinate and i love the o-line that's what i played but but more times than not you're not gonna be a coordinator as an o-line guy and so the other question i had about your career which is interesting is that you survived three different head coaches with the titans that's rare i feel like guys don't you know usually they bring in their own staff. How did that happen?

Like, how were you able to stick around through three different head coaching changes?

Well, a little bit was kind of timing and luck.

Like, you know, when you're a quality control guy, if you're under contract for another year,

if like, and I did the same thing in Atlanta.

I kept a guy, Danny Breyer, same thing.

He was under contract.

He was good.

You know, sometimes it's like, hey, you can still do the job.

Like, you're not in the, like, if you're in one of those positions, like quarterback coach, or you're the coordinator, like you're probably gone. Right.
It just kind of goes with the territory. So I was in those QC roles and I was cheap and I was under contract.
So I felt like that probably helped me during the wizard hunt transition. And then I was Mike Malarkey's assistant.
So like that was just like a natural. And then Fraves,ves, that one was like, all right, I'm probably – this is probably in the road for me here.
And I met him down at the Senior Bowl. And he kind of kept me around.
And then – so, thankful for that. Yeah, I mean, you obviously have something about you.
Yeah, I don't know. Because it is true.
Like, it's – the ability to, like, adapt to different head coaches on your way up is important, I'd imagine. It is.
Yeah, it is. And it teaches you a lot because you've been in a lot of different systems.
You've seen how people do things and certainly helped me. Yeah.
Back to 2007, that defense, that was Greg Williams, right? It was. Dr.
Heat wrote of the show. We love Dr.
Heat. Well, we were a lot of cover, too, that year.
Oh, yeah? We had Sean Taylor. We had Le'Ron Landry back there.
We were loaded on defense. You were running a lot of – it was like the angel defense.
You dropped Sean back way into coverage. I remember that game against Brett Favre.
It's like, keep throwing the ball. Yeah, he broke the interception record.
Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, we love Greg Williams on the show.
I just saw Greg. We love his intensity.
He was in the lobby of the Conrad. How drunk? No.
Oh, okay. No, but I saw him.
Sorry, sorry, sorry. We just love how he always dials stuff up, except for that year, I guess.
Yeah, we played like Sean and Leron like 30 yards deep. Yeah.
Sean would still come up and make a tackle like one yard. No, that's a very cool way to start.
Then, so obviously you go to the Titans. Mike Vrabel comes in.
Yeah. We love Mike.
We love Vrabel. He's our guy.
He's our guy. So right off the bat, is he just trying to jump into practice with a team? Because I feel at that point he was still like he's got a lot to prove physically.
He wants everybody to know, and he values mass on a team. I feel like he collects big people and keeps them around.
It could be the offensive line. It could be a running back.
It could be whoever. He just likes big people.
Was he still working out with a team? I don't remember working out with the team, but he's going to do drills with them. Like, that's his favorite thing.
When I was coaching the tight ends, he'd come over an individual and, like, he's going to get in the mix. That's, like, his favorite thing to do.
Yeah. And, yeah, he does – it feels like he does value, like, tough guys.
Like, you know. Yeah, he values guys like him.
Yeah, right, exactly. Kind of grind it out.
Yeah, so is it kind of shocking that Taylor Luana's stuck around for for so long where is taylor i thought he said he was i like to just give him shit yeah yeah like how did your feud end with it taylor oh it's still going it's still going yeah i don't even know why we started a feud because i actually every time i've hung out with taylor i've had a good time but i just decided i think it was something michigan wisconsin that we're just like we're're feuding now. And now Will is my in-between with them.

Yeah.

I didn't know if it was like a fake feud.

Yeah, it's kind of fake.

To get Bussin going.

Oh, that?

Oh, no.

They copied us.

Yeah.

To kind of get Bussin.

So they copied us.

They basically swagger jacked us, stole everything we've done.

Never heard that one.

Yeah.

And then they were like, what?

Us?

We didn't do that.

So yeah, that did happen.

Yeah.

But Will cops to all of that.

And Will, I mean, let's be honest. The football thing's not really working out so he needs the podcast yeah you know yeah no yes i noticed i noticed that he didn't reach out to you he would like publicly lobby uh vrabel always go at people from like the uh the raiders but i i never saw him reach out to you yeah you know what pissed me off about what Will did? And I don't care if it was on air or not.

He didn't put me on his Mount Rushmore.

I'm like, Will, Will, only like one of the few repeat guests on the bus.

Oh, they do Mount Rushmore?

Yeah.

Oh, really?

They do that?

Of course they do.

So I don't know who's in Mount Rushmore first.

We invented the concept of doing Mount Rushmore's

and being two funny guys in a car that drank coffee. Yes.
That's our property that we invented. Yeah.
Well, they stole it. Who's on the Mount Rushmore of their guests? I don't remember.
Let me pull it up. That's crazy.
That's fucked up. You called your dad on it.
I remember that episode. Try to help him out.
Yeah, you did the gambling story where your dad, what? He won, what, $27,000 off a $5,000 loan to save the company, to save the world, actually, is what I heard. I don't know if he'd save the world.
He saved the world in shipping forever. That's what I heard.
I'm going to pull this up. I'm going to see what's on there.
You ever feel the- Is this bad podcast? No, it's fine. Go ahead.
Is this bad etiquette? Absolutely not. 27 million ping pong balls in a 747.
God, that was wrong. You said 40,000.
I would never draft you. Yeah, don't.
Yeah. Shit for brains.
Wait, are you a dog or are you a cat? What's that? Are you a dog or a cat? You know, whatever. Good answer.
Okay. No, that's a good answer.
It's a dumb question. Cat dog.
Yeah. Dumb combine question.
All right. Yeah, you're pulling it up.
Let's see the Mount Rushmore. Who's this around Mount Rushmore? It's got to be, if I had to guess, it's Vrabel because they're sucking up.
Of course, yeah. Yep, of course.
They don't actually – listen, what Taylor and Will – I mean, they've got like 40 – how do you keep calling that Mount Rushmore? Oh, that's so many – and you're not on that one? Yeah. That's a joke.
Also, what Taylor and Will have told me privately about Vrabel, like he shouldn't be on their Mount Rushmore because they've bashed him a lot. This is all made up.
That's breaking news.

Breaking news.

So I assume that you and Vrabel probably still have a pretty good relationship.

Yeah.

Because you just sent him Julio Jones.

Yeah.

You're just like, here, take, yeah, whatever you need, coach.

No, that's not really how it went down.

That was my theory at the time.

I was like, I think.

There was a lot of conspiracy theories.

I think Vrabel got him installed, and now you're a secret agent for the Titans or the Falcons. That's why I love how dumb the internet is sometimes.
Yep, hand up. Like, hey, they sent me to Atlanta.
We are the internet. Staring at the internet, at the dumb internet.
Well, you guys are one of the few people that have found ways to monetize the dumb internet. Most people can't figure it out.
That's true. That's true.
That's a huge credit to you guys. What does make Coach Vrabel a great coach? Because he's now getting, obviously, the credit.
He won Coach of the Year. He went and bought a horse.
He bought a horse? He bought a horse. Named it, I think, Coy.
Don't be Coy. It shouldn't be Don't Be Coy because that means don't be Coach of the Year.
Right. Exactly.
I actually think they should just give you a horse if you win Coach of the Year. That's the trophy.
That would be sick. Here's your horse.
Yes. But what what what does make him like what is different about him than other guys you've worked with uh they're all different but the one thing most good coaches have been around and this is what i've tried to do like just because you become a head coach don't try to emulate somebody else like he's one of the most authentic people you guys know him same guy every day that's all you care if somebody if somebody's a jerk i'd be a jerk every day if somebody you know you just don't want the up and down guy I don't know if there's anybody like this on in your podcast I don't know if you deal with anybody like that at Barstool but he's consistent um he's gonna tell you whatever's on his mind and you appreciate that about him he's smart as hell uh I really enjoyed working with him and he's one of those things like he's not going to compromise his standard.
Right.

And he's funny as hell.

It must have been fun coaching on that Titans team because you had Derrick Henry.

So you could just – did you ever just want to give Derrick Henry the ball every play on one drive

and just be like, this is your drive, Derrick?

Yeah, we did that a few times.

That was what was comical during the interview process.

Like, you know, people come up with these, like, think they're going to get you these really hard-hitting,

like, gotcha questions and send an interview. It's like hey like their director of analytics whatever some souped up title is like you know you ran the ball 67 on first down i'm like hey you know we had derrick henry yeah right right wasn't that hard like hand the ball to derrick and right uh a few times he stiff-armed seven people and went 99 yards so pretty easy play call yeah and now you got great player, Cordero Patterson.
We love him. We love guys like that where it's like him and Debo, what they're able to do because you have to be so in lockstep with everything that's going on on the team.
You have to know everything about multiple positions. And he clearly loves playing football too.
So you've got – what do you call him? What's your name for him? Does he have a special like position designation? No, we't have anything. That's the problem.
I'm not like a guru like some of these other guys in Dresden. I mean, he played multiple spots for us, so that's hard.
I mean, we did have a flash package to let him know whether he was going to a certain position or not. That was his self-imposed nickname.
Like, CP, he's on a big self-promotion, which I don't blame him, but he's in a big self-promotion mode. He is actually the only guest we've ever had on the show that the chains that he was wearing were so loud that you could hear them on the interview.
Really? Yeah, he had so many. I think they were hitting the microphone.
The jewelry he had. It was a while ago.
Yeah, it was our old office in New York. I remember, I think Big Cat asked him about this because Ty Montgomery was just starting to get carries for the Packers.
He was like, do you think that you should start getting the ball more, like, handoffs on offense? And he was like, yes. And then eventually that's exactly what happened.
I think Debo calls himself a wide back, which is a cool term for him. That's pretty cool.
Yeah, I know. I mean, that with the 747 question, this isn't going very well.
No, it's going great. It's not very impressive.
Has he asked you if he can play defense? Like, just put him at every position? We did. Really? He played free safety.
He was a jump ball guy in the Hail Mary play. Damn, he can do everything.
Yeah. He can do everything.
What was the hardest thing, year one, transition, being a head coach, that you didn't see coming? Like, the one thing you're like, ah, I really thought this was going to be a little different. No, it's just your time during the day.
Like, you try to, like, you get in a rhythm in a rhythm obviously in the week and you're just trying to let these five minute talks become 30 minutes because there's puts and then also you look down at 10 o'clock and there's a lot of things you need to get done that he just for people listening right now arthur just pointed to his watch when he said that part did i i like your quote that you said about i think it was about jalen may. It was before he was going to get matched up against Fletcher Cox this year.

And you said, everybody has to get baptized at some point.

Ooh, yeah.

That's a good one.

That's a good football guy quote.

Have you been baptized yet?

Metaphorically.

Sure.

Like, in what sense?

Football?

Yeah, yeah.

What was your football baptization?

Probably my freshman year.

When I got to North Carolina, we had Julius Peppers and a guy named Ryan Sims. So they were the second six pick of the draft.
One of the first guys I saw was Pep, and I'm looking there, and I'm like, I tried to gain a bunch of weight because I'm coming out of high school, and I'm like, oh, I've got to get big. Didn't put on good weight.
I was like 290. And I look at this guy, I'm like, he's 290, he looks nothing like me.
I'm like like holy crap like we're not in the same stratosphere yeah and um and then ryan sims i think the first time i passed that like you know i'm sitting here like high school harry grabbed both my hands and just dumps me i'm like holy i better i better have my stuff together yeah baptized so that was probably that as a player um as a coach i I mean, there's a million things you're going through.

I think the best thing is some of the jobs that you do.

I'll give Greg credit.

He made me call personnel in on defense.

That got me ready to be a play caller because that's an underrated job in the NFL

when you have to call the offense personnel in for the D coordinator

to know if you're going to match or what the situation is.

So that would be the other one. um so your dad uh created FedEx is it annoying like people probably bring it up a lot it's probably annoying to have to deal with questions or people judging you we're not going to do that I just had a question about something unrelated to your dad creating FedEx what is your thoughts what are your thoughts on the estate tax too, too low? I don't have an opinion on it.
We ask every guest this question. It's literally the first thing we ask.
Yeah, I know. No, I appreciate the question.
I love doing that. Like, I appreciate the question.
Oh, that's a good one. I appreciate the question for that.
Yeah, great question. There's a lot of good fillers right there.
Yeah, I don't have an opinion. It does probably have to suck a little bit, like to the people think that you – I've seen – you know, you've talked about it.
Like, people think, like, oh, he just got his job because his dad's like, you can't be in the NFL for a decade plus. And everyone will be like, oh, his dad owns FedEx.
Let's just keep giving him new jobs. Sure.
Yeah, like, yeah. I think a couple things.
My favorite thing is when people are like, hey, you play golf, right? And I'm like, no, I don't play golf. Why do you think I play golf? That was my favorite.
You get these asinine questions thinking you summered someplace. I'm like, no.
My dad was an old Marine. He kind of pushed my brothers to play football, so we weren't coddled, soft-spoiled kids.
Kind of how he is. He's the same guy.
He's the most basic. He has three suits.
He has a Navy suit, a dark gray suit, and he wears the same guy. He's like the most, like, basic.
He has, like, three suits. He has, like, a navy suit, a dark gray suit,

and he wears the same stuff, like, over, over in rotation.

Like, it's about as simple as I get and goes to work every day.

That's who he is.

Right.

It's comical.

So you've never had, like, the itch to join the family business of logistics?

Well, I wouldn't really call it a family business anymore.

That's a little bit big.

It's a former mom-and-pop shop. Yeah, I don't know.
Yeah, just like I said. Football is way more fun.
Yeah, absolutely. So in your family, who's Shiv and who's like Roman and who's Connor? Just to say for your siblings.
Yeah, that's a good thing. I probably have grown up in Memphis that we weren't one of those like – there's no douchebags in my family.
Right. But if he had to do, like, a role.
Yeah. Let me throw a couple of my brother-in-laws under the bus.
Those are easy targets. They've been eyeing for it? Yeah.
Let's throw a couple of my brother-in-law. I won't name them.
Yeah. But you know who you are.
Yeah, you know who you are. Yeah, you know who you are.
You're listening. You know who you are.
Yeah. When you – I mean, you probably didn't expect that question that was that was actually a very good deflection yeah like you're keeping the close people close yes you've identified the ones that are expendable correct absolutely if you had to yeah correct front walls are easily the in-laws are easily yeah have you um did did you have to work like when you were becoming a head coach did you sit down and say okay how I answer these ridiculous, stupid questions? Did you train yourself on that? Or is that just experience? I think it helps just watching sports my whole life.
You just see some of the dumb things people do over and over again. And I'm like, all right, when I get in that spot, you're not going to get in trouble for what you don't say.
So that's – I'm going to call rapes out on one because before the first i went on that the amateur bussing with the boys podcast yep no offense taylor amateur boys i love you know doing that no offense but no offense offense okay offense and they asked me the same question as raves but hey would i would i cut your dick yeah yeah and i and i just don't answer but raves gave me a big talk like hey make sure you don't say anything stupid like blah blah blah like cutting your dick. Yeah.
Yeah. And I just don't answer.
But Braves gave me a big talk, like, hey, make sure you don't say anything stupid, like blah, blah, blah. Like cutting your dick off.
And then ironically, he goes on two weeks after. Now, he's going to probably say it's intentional, but.
Oh, no. He was, he definitely.
Did you ask him about that? No, he cucked you. He basically was like, I'm going to go on later and I'm going to give a better interview because I got the dick cutting off measure thing I'm going to do.
That's why I told you to chill out. He basically was like, don't say anything.
He may have. That's bullshit.
No, I think it's better. I think it's better.
Let him have that one. Let's set it straight.
You would cut your dick off for a Super Bowl? I'm not going to answer that. Would you cut Mike Vrabel's dick off for a Super Bowl? I'm not going to answer that.
I would. That's your opinion.
Easy. Yeah.
I would definitely. For a bear at Super Bowl, I'd cut his dick off.
I feel like that's like a fast track to becoming coach of the year is just say, hey, I would cut my dick off. Yeah.
Everybody's got their own ways of doing things. Here's another question that you're definitely not going to answer.
When you're on the sidelines, it's a beautiful stadium, Mercedes-Benz. Yeah.
I love it. Do you ever look up at the roof and be like, that looks like a butthole?

Good question.

Thank you.

Ken, everybody's got different opinions.

Yep.

I respect everybody.

You're really good at this.

Damn it.

You're really good at this.

I got to ask you a story about your early days.

Yeah.

You're going to hang out at the Mac schools.

Okay.

Is that really how you got your grassroots?

Wait, what?

At the Mac schools?

Did you hang out at the Mac schools?

Yeah, like going to Mac games, Mac champions. Oh, Mac schools shapey mac school i thought this was like a d's nuts joke no i was like what the fuck i'm just trying to hit it down the fair we didn't sleep at all last night like i was like i'm about to get these nuts uh yeah i i love i mean i'm a gambler i love tuesday night wednesday night maction the best go to some games like they i mean there's no one in the crowd.
A lot of the schools, like Northern Illinois, you can tailgate and then go into the game and then at halftime go back and tailgate and then go back into the game. That's awesome.
Yeah. And, I mean, listen, good quarterbacks, good coaches, they all come out of the MAC.
That's how I heard about y'all's podcast. We had a tight end named Tim Simich, a big, tall, tall dude, tight end.
He had Northern Illinois, and he came in. It had to have been 16 or whatever.
Yeah. And he had one of those Mac-tion search.
I'm like, where'd you get that? The lights, camera, Mac-tion. Yeah.
Holy shit. And that's how I started listening to the podcast.
Got me through a lot of long nights, like breaking film down or going through stuff. That's awesome.
Yeah. But he told me he used to come out there and hang out the bars yep yeah hand out shirts we go to detroit for the mac championship game there's a very famous gif of me yelling figure it out which is i think maybe his northern illinois team they lost in the championship game um bowling green i want to say they were big time it was jordan lynch's team they're big time favorites i lost night, and I was very upset.
And actually, thankfully, Hank was under 21 at that time, so he couldn't go to the blackjack tables with me after. Did you take Hank to the bars? No, he said no.
He never committed a crime, ever. Okay.
Guys, unless it's going to jail for Tom Brady, which he did do. That's hilarious, though.
Yeah. That's awesome.
So that's how I heard about you guys. The Mac has- Your grassroots campaign.
And then you told Will and Taylor, and then they copied us. That's what it seems like.
Yeah. Jesus Christ.
I imagine, yeah. Lights, camera, Mac-tion.
Actually, I'm going to say Dennis Kelly told him about it. Okay.
Have you guys ever had Dennis on the show? No, we have not. Yeah.
Dennis was another guy. Okay.
We've got to figure out who the first listener of part of my take was. And then they spread it.
Yeah, like the coronavirus. Yeah, our coaching tree.
I got a little bit of coaching advice for you. You can check it and leave it.
Have you considered incorporating more downfield laterals? Like design downfield laterals? Because I think that there's a big opportunity for head coaches. Everyone's scared of turnovers, and I get it.
Turnovers can cost you. But if you can figure out a way to do a good design lateral downfield, I feel like – To fake the fumble.
Well, it's like the hook and ladder, but you use it in different parts of the game, different parts of the field where it's not just – We tried to hook and ladder this year. It might have been one of my worst play calls.
Really? Really? Yeah, it was at the end of the game. Okay.
But it was like, it was bad. Do you ever find yourself, do you ever get too cute with it? Sometimes, yeah.
You can feel that way. When was like one of those times? Because that's one of our favorite, like the Chiefs, when they get too cute with it on the goal line.
It's like, just play football. Don't do all the misdirection and stuff.
They got too cute with it in the afc championship game i'm not gonna criticize myself you get plenty of play calls you can criticize me for but um you know sometimes it works like that's when you know like you feel like you're on a heater like going back to that 19 season like you know we had the jump pass derrick i mean that was third down i mean you're you're an idiot if that doesn't work but again we thought we'd play enough house enough house money. That's what I loved about Vrabes.
He and I would talk about everything and we'd go through it and it was refreshing because a lot of coaches, they get really conservative and they're like, whatever. Speaking of Dennis Kelly, he caught a touchdown in the AFC Championship game.
I mean, you look like a moron if those things don't work. Yeah.
Do you ever feel like you're in the zone play calling? Like everything I'm doing

is work.

It's like when I'm at the craps table.

Yeah. Yeah.
That's got to be an unbelievable feeling.

You play craps?

Yes. I'm more of a blackjack guy.

More of a blackjack.

Yeah. Yeah.

You play craps?

I've learned how to play craps probably five times, but it's always when I'm drunk. And

then I wake up the next day and I don't remember how to play craps anymore. So I have the memory somewhere.
I'm waiting for Elon Musk to figure out that whole brain chip thing. But it looks like a lot of fun.
Yeah, I wouldn't. I mean, sometimes as a play caller, though, you do feel like you're in rhythm.
Yeah, right. Like it just feels like, oh, everything you touch is just working.
Yeah, and then when it doesn't, you're just like. That's going to suck.
Yeah. That's going to suck.
about uh setting up your coaching staff i've always wondered about uh coaches if they have a guy whose only job is to be really good at watching football on tv to tell them what plays to challenge and what not to everybody's got a guy now like that goes up there and some of them become obvious that you know that like it's not worth challenging but yeah i think every that's pretty standard now. That's the one thing about the NFL is, like, once somebody has a good idea, everybody copies it.
Yeah. That's the only thing you're fighting in the NFL is groupthink.
Like, somebody has a good idea, you know, it works for some team, and they think, oh, that's the secret ingredient. It's like an organ in football.
Everybody's like, oh, I want to be the organ of the south. I'll be the organ of the east.
It's like, well, you better get good players and recruit well and have a good program, and your 10 helmets aren't going to be the difference. What about punting? Has your stance on punting evolved over the years? Have you found yourself to be more in favor of going forward or more conservative? I look at it kind of what happened in baseball, and I'll steal this from Theo Epstein.
Like in that book, he talked about this in that book,

they talk about the Cubs way.

I don't know if you read that.

Do you read books?

Don't look like a guy.

We had Theo Epstein on the show, though.

I've listened to several.

Great.

Was he?

Great.

He didn't get it, though.

We did.

Well, we'll do it with you.

Okay, we'll do it with you.

But go ahead.

Keep saying.

But he basically said, like,

everybody was hiring the same guys at MIT or whatever,

Harvard, Yale, wherever, where everybody kind of became, like, flat, the analytics. So a little bit like it became – I think even Mike Tomlin said this.
At some point it became obvious, like, your team that just get ready to play fourth and two or fourth and one. Right.
So there's no, like – it's not like, hey, you really risked it there. It's like if you don't go for them fourth and one, it's like that's what everybody's doing.
Right. Get it.
So it's not like – to me, those aren't the hard decisions anymore. It's become like the norm.
Right, right. It could be like – and you see it all over the league.
Yeah. So we had Theo on, and I love Theo, but we did do – we used to do – We're going to get right back to the show.
All right, back to part of my take.

For 20% off your first purchase, r-h-o-b-a-c-k dot com code take.

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It's great gear. my last question is how many

uh

people

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do do do do do do do code take they make q zips hoodies for golf guys like yourself uh it's great gear uh my last question is how many uh uh light posts are there in the island of manhattan street lights yeah i don't care this is a good this is gonna be whether we draft you or not it's like a pink yeah no it is so think? Well, like if you're going to rely on the light post question around Manhattan,

you just want me to throw a number out there?

Yeah.

Let me ask you this.

How many ones are like energy efficient?

You're a big environmental guy, right?

I am a huge, huge environmental guy.

So are you breaking down how many are energy efficient or the one just overall?

Overall.

And on the island of Manhattan.

On the island of Manhattan.

Look it up, Hank.

Look it up.

I didn't get to guess.

He was going to guess 300,000.

He literally was about to say 300,000.

I was buying time to think of like.

300,000.

Yeah.

You were counting up in your head, 300,000.

What about this other standard interview question? What would you say is your biggest weakness ooh I always love those questions mmhmm yeah I'm just gonna like steal that just I'll do with Kenny Powers like tireless work ethic yeah you just yeah your biggest weakness is you think that no I'm actually you know what I'm not gonna say what I was about to say I was gonna say and I'm not going to say it. It wouldn't matter.
I'll write it down, and then you can read it and react. All right.
Okay? You have to ask one last question. Okay.
Are you happy that Sean Payton's gone? I like Sean. So I don't think you're happy.
I mean, their defense is still going to be a pain. But Sean's a great coach.
So I don't know. It's like when they ask me, like, I got that question like 500 times yesterday.
Sorry. In the division.
So it's a tough division. It's always going to be.
It's a subjective opinion. Like, do I really think Will and Taylor stole your concept? That credit to me.
Because I like you and you're a listener, so I didn't do that. No, I appreciate it.
Yeah, that was nice of me. I mean, I understand your angst towards those guys.
I'd be pissed too. He's making it up.
Now I'm going to say it. No.
Yeah, exactly. I appreciate that.
Taylor Heineke and Terry McLaurin for Matt Ryan. Again, I can't talk about other players.
I got a legit question. So how do you guys think you guys – how do you keep it fresh? You've been doing it six years.
Yeah. So I would say the number one thing is sports.
It's a great story. Sports are the greatest reality show on earth.
So if we didn't have sports to talk about and new sports and new storylines, it would be very hard. I don't know how people keep it fresh when they, like, they just, like, riff off nothing.
You know what I mean? Like, comedians who are exceptional. I think sports is what, like, every night is something different.
You ever get tired if you go out and people bother you and, like, they expect you to be funny? No, I wouldn't say that. We were just talking to Duncan Robinson a couple days ago from The Heat, and he kind of asked us about that.
And I think the reality is it's a good problem to have if somebody's coming up to you and wanting to shake your hand or say hey and take a picture because what we're doing is somehow resonating with their life in a way. Either they're using us as a quick escape or they feel a connection to us like they're part of the show.
And so I just always remind myself, like, this is much better than nobody caring at all. Yeah.
It's like, that's the thing in sports. Like you get like people, like they get so upset.
It's like, dude, like you're lucky people care. Yeah.
You wouldn't make the money you make. Like, yeah, it's insane.
When when people act like a victim like dude you know what you signed up for if you don't want that go coach high school ball yeah yeah so when you're when you're coaching a player um is it true like i've always heard it's when they stop yelling at you that you've got a problem it's like anything when you don't want anybody become apathetic like yeah that's the thing i think most people would fear, like, whether you're in the entertainment or sports world, you don't want the people to speak. Eh, whatever.
Which sibling of yours do you think your dad's become apathetic towards? Let me see. Who can I get? Problem.
Yeah. The problem is, like, somebody will hear it one day.
Yeah, and then it'll start a whole thing, media storm, and then what? Somebody's going to get butt hurt. Yeah, right, exactly.
Yeah, it's a good point. Not going to answer that.
Are you going to be in any more movies? Maybe. I've always wanted to be an extra in, like, a bar fight scene.
Oh, that'd be sick. Okay.
Like, actually throwing punches or getting punched? Like, just like a roadhouse. Yeah.
You ever seen Roadhouse? Greatest movie ever. Yeah.
All time. All time.
American. Pain don't hurt, right? Yeah.
Or, yeah. There's so many good one-liners.
Where did Dalton get his degree from and what was the degree? Great question. How the fuck do I know that? NYU philosophy.
My favorite is a medical thing. When I read his medical report.
Yeah. Like seven gunshot wounds, like 55 staples.
Yeah. my favorite is a medical thing when I read his medical report.
Seven gunshot wounds,

55 staples.

My favorite is the guy

when he gets in the fight and the guy grabs

him from behind and he says, I fuck

guys like you in prison. I was like, I don't know

what that...

What is that? What would you say if you got in a fight and somebody said it to you?

I'd probably say... I would probably be like,

oh yeah, try me. And then I'd bend over.

I got thrown on the page. Just say, I don't think you're man enough.
Yeah, yeah. No, you can't handle this.
All right, Arthur Smith, thank you so much. We appreciate it, man.
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Get 20% off all polos, q-zips, and hoodies with promo code TAKE. Alright, let's finish up.
We've got FireFest of the Week then we'll send you on our way. Brackets on Monday.
Not just Billy's, the real bracket. John Rothstein in studio.
We're going to try to get him to taste either some wine or coffee because he loves to talk about how he's never had either this is March this is March Hank this is bad this is a bad one so as you guys know we documented it it was a PMTV episode you guys were stars of it my. My project, my passion project, Two Man Tuesdays.
Took nine years to make, produce, film, edit, premiere. Put it out on Twitter.
Everyone loved it. Pinned it because I was so proud of it.
And I think I had like 800,000 views. No big deal.
No big deal, yeah. Just casual.
Just doing your job. Yeah, it felt good.
You know, you work on something that hard over that long of a period and to see, you know, the results pay off. It's like the Sistine Chapel.
Exactly. So the other night I was super lazy and I'm sure you guys do this sometimes where you're just on your phone but you're trying to do everything with one hand.
Like you're trying to, you know, tweet, type, whatever two or three days ago that's how one uses a phone and i know but no usually if if i'm actually actively doing it i use both hands right but if you're i was lying

on my couch there's a difference between one hand is casual two hands is like you know you're getting

it's like lazy like i do it i'm like i should be using two hands but i'm just like lazy yes

and i was on my couch looking up and i went went to my Twitter profile, and I was like, oh, this tweet is still pinned. It's March.
I'm just going to unpin it. For whatever reason, when you click the unpin, there's three dots.
You click unpin, and the first thing right under it is delete. And before I could even think about it, I clicked delete accidentally.

Jesus Christ, Hank.

And then I was sitting there.

My heart dropped.

I was just sitting there like, I can't undo this.

How?

How did you do this, Hank?

You had to confirm that you deleted it, too.

No.

No.

It just deletes it.

It just deletes it.

So now we have to wait for February 22nd, 2,222. Yeah.
Okay. Well, wait, I'm going to check.
Can you put that in your calendar, please? Thank you. 22, 22, 22, 22, 22.
Yes. Okay.
February 22nd, 2,222. If I'm not around.
No, put it in your calendar. Don't say that, Jay.
Don't say that. You don't know.
Future, anything could happen. You're the healthiest of all of us.
Can't you tweet deck that? Schedule it. You can schedule the tweet.
Schedule it to tweet on 222. Oh, yeah, you should.
Yeah. And just, I mean.
Yes, Hank. Just put it in your will.
Yeah. Yeah.
That can help my family for years to come. Right.
We always have this banana stand There's money in the two man tweet It's a Friday Oh okay Fuck That sucks Yeah that's too bad So what about Oh you know what hopefully Damn it I don't know if it's ever going to be Yeah it's brutal I was Again I was being lazy I was kind of tired And then all of a sudden I was wide awake Sitting up like Oh my god

What about

I thought about contacting Twitter

But I don't know

That that would help

Okay so what if it's

February 22nd

You're trying to

You're trying to make compromises

For something

That's like you can't

No that's not the same

If the Sistine Chapel

Burned down

PFT to your point earlier

If the Sistine Chapel

Burned down

Yeah

You could rebuild it

However you wanted to

Just don't make jokes

While it's on fire

But it wouldn't be

Twitter will get mad at you

It wouldn't be the Sistine Chapel burned down, PFT, to your point earlier, if the Sistine Chapel burned down, you could rebuild it however you wanted to.

Just don't make jokes while it's on fire.

Twitter will get mad at you.

It wouldn't be the Sistine Chapel.

Damn, Hank, I'm sorry.

That's actually brutal.

I know.

In a way, it's kind of beautiful.

I've thought about spin zoning like that, but it's really not.

No, it's tragic.

No, it's tragic.

I think it's beautiful.

Now everybody, you can't just spread it around now. It's a moment in time that we were all a part of.
And those that know will know. Those that don't, they don't get it.
Tragic. Yeah, it's tough.
And yeah, if you work at Twitter, and maybe you can help me out. Hit me out.
I'm not giving up hope yet. Yeah, okay.
The two-man video was very Christ-like in a way. Yeah.
And as its father, you sacrificed it. Well, the two-man's dead.
We killed the two-man. But this might be...
How do people know if he's dead? The video doesn't exist. Well, no, it's literally dead because you killed it.
But where? Prove it. You just said it on this podcast.
It's now in everyone's ear. But if you don't have video proof, what do you have? Well, we actually have it on YouTube as well.
So we have you said it on YouTube as well. True.
We have video proof. I guess.
Wait, what day did you, was this yesterday? It was like two or three days ago. Tuesday? The two man's revenge.
Was it a Tuesday? Yeah. The two man came back.
Clap back. He got your ass.
That's amazing. Now that is perfect.
I'm sorry'm sorry That's perfect It's haunting me Yeah Alright well I don't know how we follow that fire fest PFT I mean what I'm going to say pales in comparison to that My landlord jacked up my rent By like 1500 bucks a month So now I got to look for a new place Yeah welcome to New York I like you've had some brutal living experiences in New York. No, no, because every time I talk about, I never talk about my apartment unless it's a fire fest, basically.
Yeah. And so.
But there's been a lot. There have been a few.
And the elevator was an issue. Water falling through your ceiling.
The mouse. Oh.
And I brought what? There's an apartment open. No, I'm not moving in with you'm sane.
Beautiful. Send me some pictures of it.
I might be looking for a new spot soon I would not move. I'm considering just paying the increase because moving is such a pain in the dick.
You know what you gotta do is you gotta do like a back of the napkin calculation of like well if you pay movers and also you buy new stuff and you got to do the first month's deposit and all that stuff. Yep.
You can definitely twist the logic around. It's very similar to when appropriate for right now, like when March comes around and you get cold in March Madness and you're like, well, I didn't go out and I bought new shoes recently.
You can just figure out a way to mentally get around it. Yeah, like we're going to be watching all these games at bars on Barstool's dime.
Yeah, right. So we're saving money on food.
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, we're already there.
Yeah, already there. You're going to be flying there back and forth.
Yeah, Ubers. I'm already up.
Yeah, we'll come in and eat like Billy. Last Sunday when we recorded at 3 o'clock and Billy texted the group and was like, yo, anyone trying to eat? I think he said, anybody want to get down on a big order? Yeah.
It's like, well, we're literally doing it in between lunch and dinner. I don't know.
Part of me is like the principle of it because I like a good deal. Yeah.
I've got that deal streak in me. So I hit him back and I was like, hey, let's do the pr prorated thing like you did last time you tried to jack up the rent on me and they they just bent over for me let me have my way so i figured they'd be a pushover again and i listed i was like well i've got a mouse that i tried to kill with marijuana that keeps showing up i've got a ceiling that leaks all the time and then i've got an elevator that my dead dog couldn't even use when it was trying to go outside to use the bathroom really tugged on their heart strings and they were like nope the pandemic's over is what they told me so the price is what they pulled the COVID card on me just try to get like a hundred bucks off yeah that would do it I'll be like hey can I just get any discount that you want or no you should just be like let me get a hundred bucks off the monthly rent and I'll pay a one-time deposit of $1,200.
Yeah. Because it is true.
Mentally, you just want to be able to be like, all right, I walked away from this feeling okay. It's just on principle that I would like to win this negotiation somehow.
But I might move. I might not.
I don't know. You're probably right.
I've been pushing for not moving because I do like my apartment a lot. It's pretty nice despite all the issues.
Moving is just trash. Yeah.
My fire fest is a pre-fire fest. I'm running hot and gambling right now, and it's scary because I know it's coming down.
I'm going to fall on my face very soon. Also, my son is now into Mickey Mouse, and that fucking thing, watching Mickey Mouse every night is tough.
I didn didn't even know that they were doing mickey mouse cartoons anymore oh yeah and there's just so many episodes it's m-i-c-k-e-y-m-o-u-s-e it's anything with a song that's repetitive will just drive you insane yeah we had like a one week stretch where we watched moana and that movie is awesome i don't know if anyone's seen moana with the rock it's a legitimately incredible movie now point. Good music, too.
Yeah. Now I'm at the point where it's like every night, it's like, what do you want to watch? Like, you know, we watch a little something before we go up to bed.
And he's just like, I'm like, how about Moana? And he's like, nah, Mickey Mouse. I'm like, fuck, man.
Seriously? So that sucks. Can you try to get him into Trolls? The Trolls soundtrack is a banger.
No, I don't really is yeah I need I need to get I need a respite from Mickey Mouse It's it's killing me slowly land before time land before time's good think those will hold up No, it's dinosaur propaganda also like I'm finding out very quickly that like try to think of what I watched when Oh, no. Life for me is just spending money on my kids for them to change their interests a week later.

I have, conservatively speaking, bought him...

He has like 60 different cars from the Cars franchise.

Doesn't care about it anymore.

So, my fucking house is a parking lot.

Billy.

So, I like to run with my dog. And I've trained my dog.'s your dog's name yd so i trained my dog it's like whitey ford it's like oh i thought it was whitey like like the white white power no like the white kirk cousins yeah anyway so we're running and uh billy's the white kirk cousins yeah you are you are the white kirkins.
So we were running, and in the beginning of the run, it's more warm-up stuff, like high knees, butt kicks, while he sniffs everything, just get the stretches going. And then it's a two-mile run, and then we hit a stride, and we get going.
And we're pretty cool about it, keep a good pace. Leash or no leash? Leash wrapped.
There's a leash around the body to keep him leashed, but he's got a little length on it, so it's like we're basically running without a leash. So then when we hit the last quarter, half mile of the run.
The last half of quarter of the half mile? Yeah, half to quarter of the mile. He just starts going hard as fuck because he knows he's going home soon.
And that's like a literal quarter mile sprint. And I just straight up, you can't stop because he's running so fast.
And you can't pull up on him. So you're just huffing, huffing.
It's like getting on one of those super fast treadmills to test your high speed. And yeah, so then I got to the house and just started projectile vomiting because I was so gassed.
And my favorite neighborhood homeless guy was there to once again say, yo, dude, you cool? So he thinks you're just really fucked up. Yeah, exactly.
For many different reasons. He's just always there whenever something bad is.
At your worst. I really wish that somebody had a video of you just projectile puking on your run.
Yeah. Why did you take your phone out? Because I was puking.
Rats. That's a good fire fest, though.
I mean, credit you for running with your dog. It's cutting season.
Yes. Yeah, it is cutting season.
Jake, finish this up. Yeah, so in a few weeks, we'll be down in New Orleans for the Final Four, and what I did was I went to a website to try to apply for media credentials, and I missed the deadline.
Oh, Jake! So I emailed the guy saying, I'm a real journalist. Please, is there any way we can make this happen? Waiting to hear back on the green light.

But I'm nervous.

I was going to say, if you were a real journalist, you would have applied earlier.

I didn't know the deadline.

Who's giving it?

NCAA?

All right, we've never said anything bad about the NCAA.

I just said the Bellarmine thing is a bad decision.

That's the only thing I've ever said bad about them.

There's got to be...

That's pretty significant.

That is pretty significant.

There's got to be an AWL that's listening right now who works with the NCAA who can help us. Get all the boys' credentials.
Come on. The thing about media credentials is you have to apply like two months ahead of the event.
It's crazy. I remember when I used to go to the Super Bowl in a former life and when I'd do that, I would have to apply in like November and I would miss it every single time, so I just have to sneak in.
Yeah, but it's smart because it's essentially like, can we just get all the fake journalists out of the way by just missing this deadline? But I'm real and I deserve to be there. You are real.
You made a mistake. Hank, don't wave your hand like Jake's real.
We're real too, so let us all in. We'll give you great coverage.
And Jake agrees. If we can't get credentialed, you're not going to get credentialed? What if they hear about the stunt you pulled at the NFL one? Oh, no.
That was Billy's fault. I also think that it was legal because on Friday, there were fans there.
So I don't know if I needed to go around the curtain. Sounds illegal to me.
Wait, but you went through a curtain and you snuck in. I don't know if I've actually snuck in.
I pushed him through the curtain. Okay, so then you were forced through.
Now, should we do some sort of hostage situation? Should we threaten them if they don't credential our darling Jake at least? Yeah. I just would love to cover my first ever Final Four.
Oh, okay. You know what? That's a great...
Let's not... Yeah.
Let's make that happen. Someone listening right now...
I've been credentialed on every round except the Final Four before. Someone listening right now, let's make a boy's dream come true.
Let's get this guy some fucking credentials. Please.
Please, NCAA. I'm a good person.
We're begging you. I apologize for being late.
Give me a chance. You know Jake.
Jake has been credentialed at things, and we've tried to get him to ask questions that are very, very bad, and he will not do it. Right, because I want to keep things you gotta tug on their heart straight like it's almost a make a wish thing like we have we have our darling Jake is currently in recovery from nose spray addiction he's been cold turkey off the Afrin for how many months Jake? it's been about a year or no what happened a few months ago the relapse now you're good You've been off Afrin for two months And we want to reward him He's our special boy I would love to be credentialed in New Orleans next month And if you don't get it he's going to die So just give him the credentials Just threaten him Jake Be like you're going to get back on the nose spray If you don't get in from all the stress Please allow me to do this on.
Please allow me to do this. It'll be awesome.
Make a wish. Bubba, you got one? Yeah, I do.
No, this might be worse. Oh, no.
It's going to be worse than the two man. It could be.
Our friend John Rushstein, this is going to be one for him too, kind of relates to the tourney, my favorite watch it barco still is closing what yeah i got intel about it oh my god does he know is this breaking news i don't know if he knows is this breaking news i i have some sources about it i don't know information though i'm not sure how much more time do we have out can we believe this out and break it to him on sunday Yeah. Yeah, we can just cut it and then tell him on Sunday.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be better.
Okay. I feel like there's a chance he doesn't know.
He's still locked in all these games. He doesn't know.
This will be... Yeah.
I want to watch him crumble. Okay.
It is on Twitter. Oh, but...
All right, let's keep it in. Fuck it.
All right. We'll watch him crumble still.
You know what we can just tell him? Because he keeps asking us to go to different events with him at Bar Coastal. Let's just tell him September, opening weekend of NFL.
We're in. It's a date.
We're going to go to Bar Coastal. John, we're in.
It's going to be incredible. That's tragic.
I've got to go one time. They've got good wings there.
It's closing like this week. I'm pretty sure.
I won't go. I never went.
He never had a cup of coffee. I never went to Bar Coastal.
It's fair. All right, numbers.
Two. 16.
22. 17.
25. No, no, 71.
Bar Coastal closing. 76 and 54 are out.
The epitome of brutality. Don't get up, don't get up.
11. Second time.
Grapefruit-sized spiders are going to be invading the east coast flying in parachutes.

They're called Joro spiders.

And if you look it up on YouTube, there's a bunch of really funny rednecks shooting them with guns.

And it's very funny.

Coley, please post my blog about the Georgians shooting those spiders.

Love you guys.

Do it, Coley. We'll be coming for your love of cake Shine away, I'll be coming for your love of cake Take on me Take me on I'll be gone And I'll tell you I'll tell you But I'll be somewhere Let it wait Starting to learn And the life is okay Say after me At least we're better To be safe than sorry Say after me At least we're better to be safe than somebody

say after me

at least we're better

to be safe than somebody

take on me

take me on

I'll be gone

in a day of tea

Thank you. I'll be gone In a day of tea All the things that you say Is it all I've lost Or just to play my worries away You're all the things I've got to remember Are you shying away? Are you shying away? Or I'll be coming for you anyway Are you shying away? Are you shying away? away.
I'm coming for you anyway. Take on me.
Take on me. Take me.
Take on me. I'll become energy.

Take a beat.

Take a beat.

Take me up.

Take a beat.

Take a beat Take a beat