Hour 2: College Football Is BACK (feat. Jessica Smetana)

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Speaker 3 Chris Cody, you're with me here.

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Speaker 8 Smirnoff!

Speaker 7 Not your favorite game day drink.

Speaker 9 What's your favorite game day food? Smirnoff!

Speaker 2 All right, here's the deal: game day is everything: the noise, the rituals, the passion, the dip, the wings, the dip again. Spirit off.

Speaker 3 Smirnoff off belongs in that mix because if you're tailgating or hosting or just sitting there checking your fantasy lineup every 30 seconds, you need Smirnoff!

Speaker 2 Otherwise, it's not a real game day.

Speaker 3 They've been doing it since 1864, which is, I don't even want to do the math.

Speaker 8 It's a long time.

Speaker 7 It's like when Greg Cody was born.

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Speaker 7 They make cocktails super easy and they're all about bringing fans together.

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Speaker 1 That's their thing.

Speaker 6 And if you're over 21, you should too.

Speaker 12 Why, Chris? Smearing off.

Speaker 6 Grab a bottle of Smearinoff at your local retailer and head to Smearinoff.com to find recipes of delicious cocktails perfect for game day.

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Speaker 3 Please drink responsibly. Smearing off.

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Speaker 7 Please do not share with anyone under legal drinking age. Smearing off.

Speaker 14 Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right?

Speaker 13 Don't place parlays on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit hit triple zero.

Speaker 16 Always drink your Jaegermeister ice cold. That's the rule.

Speaker 17 Everything else is merely a suggestion.

Speaker 18 Everything else?

Speaker 4 Everything else.

Speaker 19 Wearing clean underwear every day.

Speaker 12 Well, that's just a personal decision.

Speaker 20 Brushing your teeth.

Speaker 16 Obviously smart, but not a rule.

Speaker 18 Never pee-pee on an electric fence.

Speaker 17 Okay, maybe there are two rules, but the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Jaegermeister must be drank ice cold.

Speaker 11 Or don't drink it at all.

Speaker 13 Damn, that's cold.

Speaker 17 Exactly. You're finally starting to get it.

Speaker 21 Drink responsibly.

Speaker 23 Jaegermeister Liqueur 35% Alcohol by Volume Imported by Mass Jaegermeiser US, White Plains, New York.

Speaker 26 I am so excited for this spa day.

Speaker 4 Candles lit.

Speaker 26 Music on.

Speaker 27 Hot tub warm and ready.

Speaker 26 And then my chronic hives come back. Again, in the middle of my spa day.

Speaker 28 What a wet blanket.

Speaker 26 Looks like another spell of itchy red skin. If you have chronic spontaneous urticaria or CSU, there is a different treatment option.
Hives during my next spa day? Not if I can help it.

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Speaker 29 This is the Dan Labatar Show with the Stew Gats podcast.

Speaker 16 The Sueys are back, and they're presented by Miller Light.

Speaker 31 The 2025 Sueys kick off Monday, August 25th, the only awards show where chaos reigns and nonsense wins. Only on the Dan Labatar show with Stugats.

Speaker 33 That's a lot of production value we put into that, including the fake Star Wars music, fanfare music. Royalty-free.
Oh, my God.

Speaker 28 Easy with a fake.

Speaker 33 Oh, royalty-free. Yes, you're right.
I should use those terms. Welcome in, Jessica Smetana.
She's got the podcast, The Echoes, with Mike Gola Jr.

Speaker 33 Is it The Echoes or just Echoes?

Speaker 26 Echoes, Echoes, Echoes. It's The Echoes.
Okay, all right. Echoes, Echoes.
Oh, you were doing Echo. Oh, I was doing Chris's bit.

Speaker 33 Yeah. There you go.

Speaker 26 Hey,

Speaker 26 I mean, I heard you wanted to talk about popcorn.

Speaker 33 Yes, I do. I want to start right there because

Speaker 33 Greg discovered today that Eddie Curry has a podcast.

Speaker 33 What's it called? Cheddar and caramel? Caramel and cheddar. Caramel and cheddar that he

Speaker 4 hopes with his girlfriend.

Speaker 33 Eddie Curry's from Chicago. And I said, Chicago people are very, very proud of their popcorn.
How did that start?

Speaker 26 I have no idea, but the cheddar caramel combo is a Garrett's popcorn thing that people come from all over the place and get in those big, you know, tins of popcorn. And it's a delicious combo.

Speaker 26 You wouldn't expect it. But I mean, it's been around as long as I've been around, so must go back quite a bit.

Speaker 33 I remember working, I can't remember whether it was in New York or in Phoenix, we had like a big ass tin of Garrett's,

Speaker 33 and I was like, what's the big deal?

Speaker 33 Literally daily, I'm

Speaker 32 just shoveling it into my face.

Speaker 33 It's hard to explain because I've always been like, no, I want fresh popcorn. I I want hot buttered popcorn.

Speaker 28 Amin El Hassan, I know that this is Jessica's fault, but how dare you?

Speaker 33 How dare I what?

Speaker 20 What? It's week zero.

Speaker 28 We got bands in the stands.

Speaker 20 We got football bands.

Speaker 37 I don't think they're calling it week zero anymore, though.

Speaker 18 They're trying to get away from it, but what is it?

Speaker 26 It extends week one.

Speaker 37 Yeah, it's like a long week one.

Speaker 33 Why was it ever called week zero?

Speaker 4 Week zero's got branding, pal.

Speaker 26 And it's week zero.

Speaker 26 Who's trying to get away from week zero?

Speaker 13 It has been downplayed.

Speaker 4 I've noticed that. But where?

Speaker 26 I I haven't seen that. I mean, I know on like the ESPN schedule on the website, it'll say week one, but

Speaker 26 that's always been the case on their

Speaker 28 marketing, Jess.

Speaker 13 Like, we're not hearing so much week zero.

Speaker 37 Yeah, in the past, if you would watch on Sports Center or whatever, they would refer to it as week zero, and they're not shut up about it.

Speaker 26 But do you watch Sports Center daily?

Speaker 13 Did you watch last night with Rich Eisen?

Speaker 4 I saw the intro.

Speaker 26 I did not, but I saw the Cincinnati Bengals Commanders game that was on before, and I saw that they were advertising it.

Speaker 26 What a game, by the way. Has preseason football always been this bad? I'm sorry.
I'm taking us on a journey here, but I mean, it's been bad this year. Jess, let me tell you.

Speaker 4 Old school intro with the saxophones and everything, old school graphic package.

Speaker 38 Did they do that?

Speaker 13 Rich Eyes in monologue, and then he takes the reins, and it's a modern, it's a modern set behind him.

Speaker 28 He's there, solo, the soothing voice of Rich Eyes in the lower thirds, the old sports center.

Speaker 21 They start

Speaker 33 four by three and grainy, and then expand.

Speaker 26 Save this topic,

Speaker 26 save this topic for Dan. Dan's going to do a whole bit about they're trying to distract you from NFL being, you know, owning ESPN, whatever, yada, yada.
Save this for Dan. This is a Dan topic.

Speaker 4 I mean, all that stuff, I saw Ian Rappaport was hosting McAfee.

Speaker 13 It seemed like yesterday was kind of like the launch of

Speaker 4 right.

Speaker 15 I guess let me ask you a journalism question because you and Greg have the journalism bona fides here. We'll begin with you, Jess.

Speaker 15 Naturally, people are going to be very critical of any of ESPN's coverage on the NFL, given the NFL's ownership stake on this.

Speaker 28 Now, I've heard interviews from Mina Kimes Kimes on Football America saying she's never been told what to say.

Speaker 13 We know from our time over at ESPN, sometimes you're not directly told, but you are certainly given opinions and know which kind of direction they want to steer you in.

Speaker 28 How do you think ESPN talent's going to navigate this?

Speaker 26 I mean, it's a great question. And I wonder if there's even, you know, you don't have to be told, but there's just pressure that you know it's a partner situation.

Speaker 26 Like, and that's something that I think we even deal with on the Levitard show, right?

Speaker 26 Like, we know we have certain things that you don't tell us we can't say, but like, we know maybe we should be careful around. So

Speaker 26 I mean that's just what happens in a corporate journalism world no matter where you work or what you do.

Speaker 26 And that is why you know I think a lot of people think the concept of for-profit journalism just it's not something that goes together.

Speaker 33 Greg?

Speaker 39 Well, I have a journalism question for Jess, but it's sort of off track of that a little bit. Jess, I'm wondering why can't Notre Dame pick a starting quarterback? And how

Speaker 22 you want no part of the journalism?

Speaker 4 That's all right. No, no.
No, no, let him cook.

Speaker 39 And how is that going over in South Bend? Because it seems to me that if you can't pick a starting quarterback, it means neither one of them is that outstanding.

Speaker 4 Echoes, Echo.

Speaker 26 Yeah, Greg, I think a lot of people are like, what's the holdup here?

Speaker 26 But I personally, like, I think as long as they name it by the end of this week, I don't think it's that big of a deal because from all accounts, both quarterbacks are getting a ton of reps in practice.

Speaker 26 So they're going to be ready to go no matter who it is.

Speaker 26 I think it's at least better than Auburn's situation, which is that they have three quarterbacks. And Hugh Freeze has said, Greg, all three could end up playing in their opening game against Baylor.

Speaker 26 That is a sneaky, good, powerful game because Baylor went from being, is Dave Aranda on the hot seat last season to they figured out a little bit of NAL and recruiting stuff that they didn't have figured out before.

Speaker 26 They had a really solid end of their season last year. Auburn, on the other hand, they're like, we have three quarterbacks.
We have three play callers.

Speaker 26 They've said their offensive coordinator is going to call first down. Hugh Freeze is going to call second down.
And then their quarterbacks coach is going to call third down.

Speaker 26 But Hugh Freeze is like, I can overrule any of it at any time. So there's like three play callers, three quarterbacks.

Speaker 26 I mean, I think that's nine different combinations if I'm doing the math correctly.

Speaker 26 And on top of that, they're like, by the way, we're also going to claim all these extra national championships that we weren't claiming before because we were only claiming the AP voted national championships.

Speaker 26 And Greg, I'm sure you remember back in the day when the national championship was something that people voted on pre-BCS era and can explain that a little bit.

Speaker 26 But very weird offseason, and that's called a transition.

Speaker 26 That's how I transitioned from your question about Notre Dame to something that I said I wanted to talk about on my little topic sheet today, which I am only allowed to reference when Dan's not here.

Speaker 40 How did Auburn just wake up today and say, you know what, we have nine national championships now? Thank you, everybody. Moving on.

Speaker 26 It's a great question, Billy. So I think previously they had, according to On3, they had recognized two national championships in their stadium, and then they had three in their media guide.

Speaker 26 So the two in the stadium were the 1957 one and the 2010 one, which were the AP national titles. And then they had three more that were in their football media guide.

Speaker 26 And then today they were like, there's also going to be four more. And now they're adding 1910, 1914, 1958, and 2004.

Speaker 37 That was a good year.

Speaker 32 That's the weird one.

Speaker 4 Like the 1910s and the 1913s, like, okay, whatever. Like, what do I know?

Speaker 12 2004, like, I was alive.

Speaker 42 I know you didn't win the national championship.

Speaker 26 Yeah. Well, that's my question.
So, like, does it, I mean, I personally have no problem with schools claiming whatever national championships they want to claim, like Jeremy's alma mater.

Speaker 26 I don't give a shit if you want to claim that UCF. Like, that's fine.
Good for you guys. You can use it for marketing purposes and, like, reunion purposes.
Like, are you okay with that?

Speaker 42 You can't claim a national championship.

Speaker 26 You literally can in college football. At least you used to be able to.

Speaker 4 It's harder now.

Speaker 44 UCF stuff, though.

Speaker 40 Like, if you're Auburn, you should be above just deciding, you know what, I woke up today and I have now more national championships.

Speaker 33 A little more dignity.

Speaker 26 Billy, I think some people would definitely agree with that. But I think that, you know, the national championship has always been something that's been up for debate over the years.

Speaker 26 There was voting pre-bowl game, there was voting post-bowl game, there was split votes at points in history. So there are claimed national titles and there are unclaimed national titles.

Speaker 26 And I guess if you want to do it, like I have no problem with it, but people are probably going to make fun of you, especially if you are Auburn. And I think that that's okay.

Speaker 26 I mean, if you weigh out the pros and cons of are we going to get clowned on the internet versus are we now saying we have like nine national championships or whatever it is?

Speaker 26 Like, I guess you do the math in your head and you're like, cool, I think it's worth it.

Speaker 33 What's the upside in claiming a national championship in a year that everyone remembers?

Speaker 26 I don't remember 2004 for the record.

Speaker 26 I think that they can get away with that.

Speaker 4 In 10 years also, everyone will forget. So at some point, yeah, you just see it says like 2004 national championship and you're going to look it up.
You're going to have to double who they beat.

Speaker 20 Jason Campbell and them boys.

Speaker 28 I remember that, but that was in the BCS era where they specifically installed the formula to avoid circumstances like that where you had multiple people claiming a national title.

Speaker 6 Yeah, an undefeated team that didn't get an invite to the championship.

Speaker 9 And so ultimately they go undefeated and they say, hey, we probably should have been there and thus national champions.

Speaker 3 Makes sense to me.

Speaker 4 Right.

Speaker 26 I mean, yeah, they went undefeated. They won the Sugar Bowl and the SEC and they were like, we finished second in the AP in the coaches poll, but we were 13-0.

Speaker 26 We should have, we can claim this one because we won all our games. I guess Florida State, the question is now, have they tried to claim 2023, Mike?

Speaker 26 Because it feels like something maybe, although they lost their bowl game.

Speaker 30 They lost by 70 points.

Speaker 4 They can't lose the bowl game.

Speaker 13 They lost by 70 points.

Speaker 15 This weekend, Slate, Week Zero, informally, I guess maybe possibly FKA week zero does have a bunch of coaching debuts. Frank Reich, maybe surprising many in the audience, he's at Stanford now.

Speaker 35 The one I want to talk about is Dan Mullen because it seems like UNLV finally, they had a very messy NIL year last year. Their quarterback leaves, but they have dialed in NIL.

Speaker 13 And believe it or not, Dan Mullen in his first season at UNLV has better odds to make it to the CFP than Florida State University has.

Speaker 20 What Sicko's delight are you locked into this weekend?

Speaker 26 I mean, all of the games are very tantalizing to me. I think we'll start with Pharmageddon.
I mean, what was your question?

Speaker 26 Because I saw that you wanted to get in here briefly before we start with Pharmageddon.

Speaker 33 I found the quote from the athletic director from Auburn, and it says, quote, for too long, Auburn has chosen a humble approach to our program's storied history.

Speaker 33 That's how it's, and then he goes on to explain why they're going to do it, but just that's his explanation. It's like, we've been too humble.

Speaker 45 He learned from the best.

Speaker 6 I mean, when a team beats you and ultimately wins a national championship doing it and claiming that national championship, you just got to follow suit with one of the Blue Blood programs.

Speaker 26 Anyways, we'll go back to not UCF talk. Thank you, Jeremy.
I miss you too. I know I brought it up, but anyways, okay.
So, yes, I mean,

Speaker 26 they were like, we were humble. Now we're not humble anymore.
We're one of the blue bloods, baby. And I think that that's, that's great for them.

Speaker 26 So this weekend is the first ever ranked versus ranked matchup in Ireland at the Erlingus College Football Classic.

Speaker 26 Now, you may all remember, I attended this game two years ago with Lehman, and it was, I just had the time of my life. It was spectacular.

Speaker 26 However, that game was Notre Dame and Navy and Notre Dame was like two touchdown plus favorite or something. So this time around, I mean, this is a big matchup.

Speaker 26 Last year it was also a big matchup, but it was because it was an upset. It was because Georgia Tech beat Florida State and it was the first game of the season.

Speaker 26 We were all like dialed in at Florida State and we're like,

Speaker 26 either Georgia Tech's really good or Florida State is not very good. And it turns out both of those things were true.

Speaker 26 Georgia Tech should have beaten Georgia. I mean, and I will hold that against them for a long time.

Speaker 26 However, this week, this weekend, Kansas State and Iowa State, both of these teams coming off of pretty solid seasons. Last year was Iowa State's first ever 11-win season.

Speaker 26 Their head coach, Matt Campbell, has done a really good job of raising the floor at Iowa State, but he's still like knocking against the season, you know, or the ceiling, I guess, with, you know, 10-win season, 11-win season.

Speaker 26 So, are they going to make it to a Big 12 championship? Well, it would help if they won this weekend. So, this game actually has pretty big conference implications.

Speaker 26 And both teams have returning quarterbacks that are going to be starting in this game that are coming back. Rocco Becht is playing for Iowa State, and Avery Johnson is playing for Kansas State.

Speaker 26 Avery Johnson's a really fun quarterback to watch because he's kind kind of crazy. He's like all over the place.

Speaker 26 He's an explosive runner and like really great at play action passing, but he's not super accurate as a passer. So I am very excited to see how that works out.
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Speaker 36 Folks, the leaves are turning.

Speaker 13 The weather's getting a little chillier.

Speaker 41 That means the football games are more important.

Speaker 4 That means football time.

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Speaker 12 Don Lebatard.

Speaker 12 I don't like snutty either. Stugats.

Speaker 36 Women stay home in the kitchen where they belong.

Speaker 12 This is the Don Lebatard show with the Stugats.

Speaker 33 Clear out because

Speaker 33 I fear we're having another Bryce Harper-Ron Harper situation. Is Avery Johnson related to the Avery Johnson?

Speaker 4 Not remotely. Okay.

Speaker 33 Is he white? Yeah. It's the same.
Same thing with Ron Harper.

Speaker 4 The white Ron Harper.

Speaker 33 If you're Avery Johnson and you're not Avery Johnson, you got to have a different name.

Speaker 30 He could be a sneaky Heisman candidate.

Speaker 28 One of these Big 12 teams is going to make a run. I saw that Texas Tech has spent a lot of money.

Speaker 23 They just lost their USC running back.

Speaker 28 And I want to focus a little bit on USC because USC, I don't know if you noticed this, Jess, but they have 32 commitments for the class of 2026.

Speaker 28 The reason for this is they operate in a state, California. There are some other states, too, where you can actually pay NIL to high schoolers

Speaker 15 before they before you actually have to present that to the clearinghouse.

Speaker 13 So far, I know Miami has attempted to submit NIL deals.

Speaker 35 I haven't heard of a single school that has had an NIL deal approved yet by Deloitte, who is overseeing the NIL clearinghouse.

Speaker 15 It seems as though they're kicking the can down the road.

Speaker 28 What do you make of USC kind of exploiting these rules and paying high schoolers directly?

Speaker 20 We're talking about juniors.

Speaker 28 We're talking about 16, 17 year olds to get their commitment and get their NIL funded that way so they're not subject to this new screwy way.

Speaker 26 I did see a story maybe a month ago that the clearinghouse was rejecting some deals, but I don't know if there's been a follow-up, if that was just because of like the stalemate between the collectives and the,

Speaker 26 you know, the clearinghouse. Yeah, they reverse course settlement.
And now they're like, yeah, collectives are a legitimate business operation. So we're cool with that.

Speaker 26 But yeah, Mike, to answer your question, I mean, I think the bigger, that is certainly a part of it, but I think the bigger thing for USC was that they were losing a lot of the recruiting battles around their region because

Speaker 26 reportedly like Lincoln Riley was just not have, he didn't have great relationships around there and just was not really focused on it. And so he was under a lot of scrutiny last season for that.

Speaker 26 And that's why they hired Notre Dame's, you know, personnel GM guy, Chad Bowden, to come in and help with recruiting there. And they have definitely improved in that aspect.

Speaker 26 And I think that, if nothing else he's gonna really help with the Southern California recruiting because that was like what Pete Carroll you know excelled at and why they were such a powerhouse was because they got all of those five-star guys around Southern California and they weren't leaving to go to southeast schools or Notre Dame or Texas schools.

Speaker 26 So I mean I really think it's like USC just needs to take advantage of their regional, like you said, I mean the laws certainly contribute to that, but I think they need to take advantage of their regional advantage there and just like focus on what made them great, you know, 20 years ago with sprinkling in portal stuff and just having a better defense generally don't you hate when that happens when you're trying to say something and use the same word twice taking advantage of their regional advantage like yes

Speaker 26 i wish there was a better way to say that but i just think i feel like i feel like austin powers every single time allow me to allow myself what do you know about or where

Speaker 26 about

Speaker 33 allow myself to introduce myself

Speaker 44 do you mean like saying if you're avery johnson and you're not avery johnson you need a different name?

Speaker 32 You absolutely need a different name.

Speaker 39 Yeah, I can't have a famous name. Jess, this is in the same realm as Mike's line of thought, I think.

Speaker 39 With schools now wanting more and more revenue sources to pay for players, to buy transfers, Oklahoma is now selling fan access to post-game news conferences.

Speaker 39 I'm just wondering what you think of that.

Speaker 26 I hadn't seen that story. To selling fan access to like a press conference?

Speaker 37 Yeah, it's like 500 bucks or something. You get to sit in the back and you don't get to ask questions, but you just

Speaker 26 boring.

Speaker 26 Yes, I remember when I was a young reporter, Greg, I was covering Notre Dame men's basketball and Duke was in town and I had to go to Mike Schzzewski's press conference and I had grown up watching men's basketball and was a huge basketball fan.

Speaker 26 And I was like, this is so cool. I'm going to see Coach K in person at a press conference.
and maybe even ask him a question.

Speaker 26 So I rolled up, I sat in the press conference, I listened to him talk for like 15 minutes, and I was like, wow, these are really, really boring.

Speaker 26 The game is so much more exciting than this. I mean, if I were a fan, I would probably want to just pay extra to have closer seats.
But I guess any advantage you can get in selling access.

Speaker 37 I think people are going to buy the access. I think people are going to be doing it.

Speaker 19 I think the losers are going to do it.

Speaker 39 No, no, the first game has sold out.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Like the fans.

Speaker 35 The opener. And

Speaker 39 it's a weird amount. It's like $679 or something like that.

Speaker 31 I'll just watch it on YouTube.

Speaker 33 Yeah, like there's absolutely no advantage to being in that room. It's usually hot in there.

Speaker 4 A disadvantage, honestly.

Speaker 12 Yeah, it's super crowded.

Speaker 26 Also, if you lose, it's like really depressing. Like, you rarely get to see a Brian Kelly fist slam on the table.

Speaker 26 Like, you rarely get a moment in a press conference where you're like, wow, that was pretty

Speaker 26 intense.

Speaker 33 Jessica,

Speaker 33 your first press conference, I'm imagining you wore a beret and you had like a folder and stuff and it was with those color-coded color-coded tabs and you were there

Speaker 33 ready to take like furious notes and everyone else is looking at you like you're crazy. It reminds me of I was when during the playoffs I went to Pacers Knicks and Greg Doyle

Speaker 33 was there and he was asking like very kind of pointed questions at Pascal Siakam about why didn't you guys bring it today or whatever. How it's the playoffs, how couldn't you not?

Speaker 33 And I shit you not every time he asked a question and then Pascal Siakam would start answering, Greg Doyle would start feverishly typing on his laptop that was from like 2007 and it sounded exactly like this.

Speaker 33 It was so loud I could not hear what Pascal was saying. I was just like, what's happening here?

Speaker 33 There's no way he's actually transcribing what's being said.

Speaker 39 Yeah, that's super annoying. That goes on today.
You know, you're at Eric Spols for a post-game press conference.

Speaker 4 You hear Ira clacking away. Yes, always.

Speaker 4 Always. Am I right? Ira is a big offender of this.
Yes.

Speaker 39 I wasn't going to mention him, but you know.

Speaker 32 But once the name got brought up.

Speaker 16 Yeah.

Speaker 33 It dared said in my ear.

Speaker 26 I can't think of like a more boring.

Speaker 26 I guess if you're just like a regular fan and you don't have a lot of access to the football program, like being in the same room as like Brent Venables maybe is something you can brag about to people or think is cool.

Speaker 26 But I just find press conferences to be very, a very dry venue. I mean, literally a dry venue.
They don't sell alcohol there.

Speaker 4 But I think to Jess's point, I think everybody who buys this ticket will learn that very quickly. You know, we're just being brats because we've done that.

Speaker 17 But no, no, but I think even a fan will sit in one of those and be like,

Speaker 3 and just be like, I don't need to do it again, though.

Speaker 31 Like, it wasn't that fun.

Speaker 16 Like, it was maybe cool, but like, okay, I got it. Like, it's a,

Speaker 33 you do it and you realize that, like you said, the Denny Green or the

Speaker 32 Brian Kelly.

Speaker 4 It's so rare.

Speaker 32 Like, it's so rare.

Speaker 4 Come after me. I'm 40.

Speaker 33 Yeah, that one, like, that one. That's the only reason why I know Mike Gundy's name.

Speaker 26 Right. And now he's over 50.
So that happened so long ago. Wow.

Speaker 40 I like the the idea of thinking even though it's not going to be that because they can't ask questions of it turning into like a ufc like conor mcgregor press conference where fans just grab the micro

Speaker 40 and then they're insulting the other people and they're like ah and then they all break out in song yeah hey just can i ask you a question not on the things that you want to talk about greg mentioned this earlier greg thinks there should be a weight limit in the call in the little league world series we got to get to that yeah oh like

Speaker 26 no fatty instead of going by age they go by like heavyweights middleweights You got to do both.

Speaker 26 You got to do both.

Speaker 35 Both.

Speaker 39 Yeah, because if the pitcher meets the age requirement, but he's like, you know, 6'1 ⁇ ,

Speaker 39 210 pounds, I don't care how old he is. He shouldn't be pitching to a little kid who looks like a little kid.
You know what I mean? So

Speaker 17 a little Pedro Martinez is fine. Like a kid that's small but just throws gas.

Speaker 16 Like you're cool with that.

Speaker 39 You got to go by age and size, in my opinion.

Speaker 15 You like the idea of kids cutting weight the day before the big game?

Speaker 4 Yeah, you do what you got to do.

Speaker 26 Do you like the idea of like a kid who's like bigger that maybe gets made fun of a lot in school being told he can't play because he's too big?

Speaker 33 Well, he can play. He can play in his own weight class.
Right, yeah.

Speaker 26 It's like boxing. So he has to play up

Speaker 4 with bigger kids. Think of it as boxing.
Get rocked.

Speaker 26 I mean, I feel like

Speaker 26 if kids are that big and dominant in their age group, can't they play with older kids sometimes?

Speaker 26 Like when I played youth soccer, there were like some girls that were just like, you know, way better than like most of the kids our age that would play with the older girls.

Speaker 26 but they didn't do it in like a mean way like oh you're too fat like well I would never call a kid

Speaker 40 I would never call a kid fat yeah what would you call like what would you name I guess the different divisions they'd be like the little ones are always like the mighty mites or something like that right yeah and then like the larger ones like you get like a middle and then like baby like porkies something like that no no hefty hefty would be that's a nice neutral word okay

Speaker 26 hefty kids neutral hefty hefty hefty I think we should protect children's feelings sometimes.

Speaker 26 And this feels maybe a little, but I'm not a parent, so I don't know. So someone else can probably tell me.

Speaker 33 Jess is the last person we should ask about this.

Speaker 21 She hates kids.

Speaker 39 But yeah, and I'm also protecting the little kids.

Speaker 26 And you'd think I'd be the one who'd be like, yeah, tell that kid he's got to go. That kid sucks.
This kid's hefty. Baby of the year.
Screw you, Bart Harley Jarvis. I'm going to kill you.

Speaker 26 Reality switch up. Somebody knows what I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 I do.

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Speaker 14 Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right?

Speaker 13 Don't place parlays on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is won when it hasn't hit triple zero.

Speaker 16 Always drink your Jaegermeister ice cold. That's the rule.

Speaker 17 Everything else is merely a suggestion.

Speaker 18 Everything else?

Speaker 4 Everything else.

Speaker 19 Wearing clean underwear every day?

Speaker 12 Well, that's just a personal decision.

Speaker 20 Brushing your teeth.

Speaker 16 Obviously smart, but not a rule.

Speaker 18 Never pee-pee on an electric fence.

Speaker 17 Okay, maybe there are two rules, but the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Jaegermeister must be drank ice cold.

Speaker 11 Or don't drink it at all.

Speaker 13 Damn, that's cold.

Speaker 17 Exactly. You're finally starting to get it.

Speaker 21 Drink responsibly.

Speaker 23 Jaegermeister Liqueur, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mass Jaegermeister U.S., White Plains, New York.

Speaker 12 Don Lebatard.

Speaker 4 Mr. Mr.

Speaker 26 Schirr, if I may say for a second, Miami, they were simulating the snap count the entire game and they were clapping at the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 26 And the only thing I want to see clapping are them cheeks on Mrs. Met in my face, Mike Schir.

Speaker 4 All right, so that's one thing.

Speaker 12 Stugats.

Speaker 15 They're a bunch of cheaters, Dan.

Speaker 26 And you know who should be cheating?

Speaker 4 Mrs. Mett on Mr.
Mett.

Speaker 26 And he can watch if he wants.

Speaker 12 This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

Speaker 20 Jess, is Indiana going to do it again?

Speaker 28 Last season, they found a way to have a pretty

Speaker 23 winnable schedule, even though they're in the Big Ten, which obviously added teams and is difficult.

Speaker 28 And now you alerted me to their non-conference schedule, which is an absolute joke, which should absolutely be held against them.

Speaker 43 It seems as though Signetti is trying to fool folks in here and just leverage and siphon off of the Big Ten's reputation.

Speaker 28 He can lose two games inside of that conference, not play anybody outside a conference and end up right back where he was last year.

Speaker 26 Let me start from the beginning where you said the Big Ten has added teams. Yes.

Speaker 26 And I think that people think that that means it's like automatically your schedule is difficult, which is not necessarily true because there's so many teams that your schedule could be vastly different than one of your conference peers because there's so many freaking teams now.

Speaker 26 So the balance of the schedules are going to be very uneven going forward.

Speaker 26 And some of this is just why having conversations about like schedule, like strength of schedule and stuff like that is sort of a crapshoot because a team could schedule a game against another team 10 years down the road, which is often what the lead time is on some of these home and home series.

Speaker 26 And that team could have fired their coach the year before and you would have no way of knowing. So you can't necessarily ding them for that.
However, in Indiana's case, Kurt Signetti has

Speaker 26 not even trying to like fool anyone.

Speaker 26 He has blatantly been like, We're going to do a quote-unquote SEC model of scheduling and schedule FCS teams every year because he, you know, he's claiming, and all the other Big Ten coaches claimed at Media Days, that the SEC only plays eight conference games, the Big Ten plays nine, so they shouldn't have to play any of these tough non-conference games because it's, you know, woe is them, it's so unfair, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 26 So he actually canceled a series with Virginia, which is like one of the bottom ACC teams. So if you can't even keep your game against Virginia, like what are we doing here?

Speaker 26 But over the next five seasons, Mike, did you look at what their non-conference schedule is?

Speaker 26 Because next year, or this year, it's Old Dominion, Kennesaw State, who just moved up to FBS, Indiana State, FCS. Next year, it's Colorado State, Howard.
western Kentucky.

Speaker 26 The year after that, Kennesaw State, Indiana State, UMass.

Speaker 26 And then 2028, Austin P, Eastern Michigan, Miami of Ohio. And then in 2029, they have Ball State, Eastern Illinois, and Western Kentucky.
That's bad.

Speaker 26 So no power for teams, barely a group of six thrown in there, like an elite group of six thrown in there.

Speaker 26 I mean, you know, Western Kentucky and Colorado State have been decent over the last few years, but like these are all games that Indiana, I mean, I don't even want to say Indiana should win because historically they wouldn't automatically win these games.

Speaker 26 It's just in the last year that the opinion of them has sort of changed a little bit with Signeti being able to just recruit talent at a higher level.

Speaker 26 But anywho, it is sort of an abomination because I think in their minds, like, A, he wants to keep his job. I get that.

Speaker 26 But in their minds, yeah, it's like you drop a game to Ohio State or Michigan in the regular season or Penn State or Illinois, but you still have these three wins under your belt going into conference play.

Speaker 26 You don't need to do too much to get that, you know, that

Speaker 26 at-large bid into the playoff, especially if your conference commissioner is now saying, what if we expanded to 24 or 28 teams in the playoffs?

Speaker 26 What if we had seven auto bids for the college football playoff for the Big Ten? Like, it's just, it just is really, really lame, I think, and not fun to watch.

Speaker 33 Jessica, Jeremy wasn't in yesterday, so he had a bunch of observations about yesterday's show that he want to go through. I want you to audit yesterday's show alongside him, if you will.

Speaker 4 I will.

Speaker 10 So it's in the form of a top five.

Speaker 8 OLI, Chris's transition to the jackpocket line read yesterday was fabulous.

Speaker 44 Incredible.

Speaker 33 Once I learned what jackpocket was, I'm all in.

Speaker 32 Number five.

Speaker 40 I think you were in before you knew what it was. Just based on the name.

Speaker 2 Perhaps.

Speaker 6 Tony's crash out might be the moment of the year on this show.

Speaker 33 And that's number five from yesterday?

Speaker 45 That's number five because we got into it.

Speaker 10 It's an observation.

Speaker 2 I don't know how much deeper we need to.

Speaker 13 Got you.

Speaker 9 But it was incredible.

Speaker 4 An amazing moment.

Speaker 33 Jess, did you see the crash out by by Tony?

Speaker 26 I did watch the first 40 minutes of yesterday's show, and I had no idea. I had no idea what was going on.
I don't know anything about MMA, but it was funny to watch Tony crash out.

Speaker 26 So I will say Lil Havana.

Speaker 8 Two-time cancer survivor calling that the worst night of his life was truly remarkable.

Speaker 4 Thanks, Mark.

Speaker 3 Number four, we had that whole Dylan Gabriel conversation without any context being applied to his quote.

Speaker 12 Dylan.

Speaker 26 CBCF Defender coming in. Oh, look, I'm not.
Although, I agree with you because I did see that. As he said,

Speaker 4 he claims it. Is there proof?

Speaker 8 I don't know about that, but I did send you yesterday during that conversation, Chris, the actual question that was asked of him.

Speaker 6 And the reporter asked, you gave us some fabulous wisdom on how you tune out the noise and don't let it infiltrate yourself.

Speaker 3 Will you share that with everybody at home?

Speaker 46 So clearly, he had just shared that line earlier in the week with the reporter, who then specifically asked him for it.

Speaker 3 And when it was clipped for the internet nobody put the question that was there nobody provided the context and then neither did we multiple days later so i just felt like we we left the kid it hung out to dry and i'm not a huge dylan gabriel guy but that's i will that's a lot you are a huge dylan gabriel guy

Speaker 8 i was i was in 2019.

Speaker 33 also i will refer you back to my top five lists from earlier things people pretend to care about when someone on this show says something funny that might also have a factual error

Speaker 50 yeah i'm the one guy that cares which is why nobody likes me here.

Speaker 49 Number three,

Speaker 3 the way we talked about the streaming wars was

Speaker 9 pretty privileged.

Speaker 50 That's why people also don't like me.

Speaker 11 We just talked about it like, well, I can afford it.

Speaker 46 I have all of them. It's just annoying.

Speaker 3 How about all of the people who just want access to their sports but can't afford to have all of these different streaming services?

Speaker 33 But then this is where I'll push back on you. So you're back to where life was like 15 years ago? That would have been great.

Speaker 33 But I'm just saying, like, all that's happening now is, yes, there are haves and have-nots.

Speaker 33 The have-nots don't have as many streaming options, but they're still going to get some of the games because they have some of these options.

Speaker 50 You'd like to think that the advancement of technology would actually be a benefit for society, but it's the ability of the billionaire.

Speaker 38 Where do you live? We have Robot Olympics now.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 6 How about that?

Speaker 43 Number two.

Speaker 26 Yeah, I mean, Jeremy, I think to butt in for a second, it's like...

Speaker 26 Things were never free before,

Speaker 26 but you also couldn't watch every single out-of-market game. So I kind of get why I have to pay extra for that now.

Speaker 26 Like, if I want to watch Steelers games, but I live in Florida, I get why they charge me for that.

Speaker 26 I agree that it sucks as a consumer, but you know, when have big, when has big business ever cared about consumer output?

Speaker 9 All right, good conversation.

Speaker 3 We brought up the consumers.

Speaker 8 I'm just happy that we did that, not just through our own lens.

Speaker 49 Number two, we talked about

Speaker 13 this through the prism of consumers that are spending too much.

Speaker 38 I don't understand. Congratulations on fighting for the smaller guy

Speaker 38 as opposed to the medium guy.

Speaker 33 Awesome, but we're always doing this through our own lens. You talk about Dylan Gabriel in a positive way.
Like, what other lens are you using right there?

Speaker 44 Journalism. Number two.

Speaker 26 This is making me have to go to the bathroom.

Speaker 50 Chris, please.

Speaker 4 Thank you.

Speaker 39 That was so annoying.

Speaker 4 Midstream?

Speaker 33 You ever stop midstream? You gotta do the

Speaker 26 awesome. Good for your pelvis.

Speaker 44 I thought he was talking about me speaking.

Speaker 3 Number two, you guys talked about basketball nicknames yesterday and the oh man, that is very distracting.

Speaker 10 And the fact that there aren't very many good ones, so I have a mini top five within the top five.

Speaker 22 Top five, baseball

Speaker 33 inception. No, I like this.

Speaker 49 Give it to me.

Speaker 32 Number five, the dark knight for Matt Harvey.

Speaker 11 Number four, El Mago for Javier Baez.

Speaker 7 That's cool. Number three

Speaker 10 for Vinny Pascatino, the Pasquatch.

Speaker 34 I don't like that one.

Speaker 46 Number two

Speaker 4 for

Speaker 45 Jostinson, and I forget his last name, a minor league player, but Jostin Son is spelt with like 8,000 letters.

Speaker 29 It's the password.

Speaker 16 And number one, Cal Raleigh, the big dumper.

Speaker 33 Where's Dick Mountain on that list?

Speaker 29 And then number one, we talked about posters. Another mini top five, top five posters that I had on my

Speaker 3 childhood bedroom.

Speaker 2 OLI, the Abbey Road album.

Speaker 4 All right.

Speaker 7 OLI, the Sergeant Pepper's album.

Speaker 4 Wow, look at that.

Speaker 7 OLI, the Yellow Submarine album.

Speaker 7 Number five, a poster of all the Beatles albums.

Speaker 7 Number four, John Lennon Imagine.

Speaker 33 Oh my God.

Speaker 3 Number three, a poster that I purchased that was a picture of myself playing in my first 10 and under

Speaker 8 travel baseball tournament at Walt Disney World.

Speaker 14 How much did you win for your wife older sports?

Speaker 33 Tell me you didn't have a roommate.

Speaker 4 This is childhood.

Speaker 14 Number two, the 1998 home run chase chase where Mark McGuire was the center cut of it and then Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr.

Speaker 9 were in the corners.

Speaker 34 Cheaters!

Speaker 6 And number one,

Speaker 2 The Joker.

Speaker 14 Why so serious?

Speaker 50 Because The Dark Knight is far superior to The Dark Knight Rises. No, it's not.

Speaker 33 Just you're with me, right? Dark Knight Rises is a better movie.

Speaker 32 As I warded it.

Speaker 4 As I warded.

Speaker 26 I mean, I think that if you took out the entire middle hour of the Dark Knight Rises where he's just like

Speaker 26 trying and failing repeatedly to get out of that hole in the desert, it wouldn't, the movie would still be okay.

Speaker 26 Character development. It's just a long sequence.
But, anyways, yes, I mean, they're both fantastic. And Dark Knight filmed in Chicago.
Dark Knight Rises in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 26 It's like if Christopher Nolan took my brain and was like, what do we do? Let's make these movies weird. Maybe

Speaker 33 exception to him.

Speaker 26 Exactly. That's true.
Do you guys want to talk about Hawaii and Stanford? before

Speaker 26 I leave? Yes,

Speaker 23 Timmy Chang and them boys.

Speaker 33 Jason, that's the Hawaii.

Speaker 4 name frank reich versus

Speaker 26 it's up to that 730.

Speaker 26 hold on is it the frank reich or is it just another situation where it's a guy named the same name let me explain let me explain amin do you know what happened at stanford this offseason to their football program no what happened their head coach was

Speaker 26 he um he resigned in the spring slash was told to resign because a story came out in the spn that he was bullying and belittling to his female colleagues

Speaker 26 And just in general, not

Speaker 26 great, not up to the standard. So random coaching search had to happen in like April this year.
Oh, wow. Who the GM of the Stanford Cardinal football program is?

Speaker 33 I'm going to guess it's someone who wishes people a happy June.

Speaker 26 It is Andrew Luck.

Speaker 26 He brought in Frank Reich to be the interim head coach for this season. And so interim coach in college football, is that a thing that happens very often for a full season?

Speaker 26 No, because how do you recruit players to come play for your program if you're like, I'm, by the way, I'm not going to be here and I have no idea who is.

Speaker 26 So they're already sort of starting

Speaker 26 on their back foot, I guess, for this season because that was a thing that I don't think anyone expected to happen in the offseason.

Speaker 26 So Frank Reich is the interim head coach.

Speaker 26 Their quarterback from last year transferred to Auburn. He's one of the three Auburn quarterbacks that might play in the opener.
And so it's not looking good for Stanford this year.

Speaker 26 I mean, they were very bad last year. They've been three and nine like the last like four seasons.

Speaker 26 They've not been able to compete really in the portal NAL era yet. And so Hawaii is actually a two and a half point favorite.

Speaker 36 Folks, the leaves are turning.

Speaker 13 The weather's getting a little chillier.

Speaker 41 That means the football games are more important.

Speaker 4 That means football time should be Miller time.

Speaker 19 Game day hits different with a Miller light in your hand.

Speaker 13 From jaw-dropping touchdowns to fantasy heartbreaks, my fantasy season's over already, but you know what makes that better?

Speaker 38 Miller time!

Speaker 21 It's the beer that's been there for every moment. 50 years of great taste, simple ingredients, and then iconic golden color you can spot from across the room.
And here's the kicker.

Speaker 23 It's just 96 calories, 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Speaker 25 The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different five decades later.

Speaker 21 So whatever your game day looks like, remember Miller time is always a good time.

Speaker 42 Miller Light, great taste, 96 calories.

Speaker 13 Go to millerlight.com/slash stan to find delivery options near you.

Speaker 19 Or you can pick up Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

Speaker 21 It's Miller Time.

Speaker 23 Celebrate responsibly.

Speaker 38 Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.