Hour 1: Lucy Rohden vs. Working Here (feat. Lucy Rohden)

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Or just like anything to say about, you know, obviously last game today.

I just love all the different headpieces. It's the best.
And that's actually the main reason why I wanted to come down here and support the Buckeye shoot. Did you hit your vape? What?

Did you hit your vape in the middle of this interview? No.

Must have been the win.

I am just as shocked as you all are.

I still work here. Who knew?

I did it, but I'm back on the road again. Not only do I still work here, they're letting me do this for a third year.

And to kick it off, we are here in Columbus, Ohio for the biggest opening game ever. Texas, Ohio State.

We got denied for credentials.

We need some ping pong balls.

Like,

we can't get that excited because we don't have ping pong balls. I'm just gonna start off by asking you the tough question.
I'm gonna put you in a bad mood. Did Michigan get away with it?

Absolutely, they got away with it. $20 million is not even close to a significant amount of money for them.
You take all the competitives out of the game and it's a rivalry game.

Like that's just that's just

Michigan. Michigan.
That's what I come to. Always.

All the time. What should the punishment have been? Like what would have been fair? Vacate all the wins in the national championship and the three wins against us.
What about the death penalty?

Kind of a gray area. I'm not sure about the death penalty.
Actually the actual death penalty for Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh should get punished in the NFL for

just run away from your scandal. It's exactly what he did after being like, we do not cheat.

We do things the right way. Exactly.
They say, Michigan man, Michigan man, Michigan man. Give me something to me, man.
F ⁇ you. Is Arch Manning, is he properly hyped, overly hyped, underhyped?

Properly hyped. Respect there.

I do love Arch Manning. I mean,

he's a humble guy. He's got the stuff.
He's going to be so good. Raise your hand.
Overrated.

Okay.

Okay, so everyone's got their hand up. Hell yeah.
He's proved nothing so far except for his name. Personally.

Personally, he's a very great player, but you're not gonna come out into the shoe, big noon, biggest game of the year, and not be rattled. We love draft kicks.
So do I. What time is it?

It's game time. Download the game time app and use code Lucy for $20 off your first purchase.
Terms apply. Ryan Day has very actively denied dyeing his hair and dying his beard.

Do you think that he's telling the truth? Um, it's natural, unless he loses to Texas. Do you know what a Buckeye is? Like the animal?

Not an animal.

Chocolate with peanut butter. Not quite.
A buckeye is a nut. Oh.

I'm from Miami, Florida.

Jesus Christ. We're a Miami show.
Yes, yes. My dad helps me back home.
Yeah, no, if you tell your dad you were on the Dan Levatart show, I think he'll flip. I'm f ⁇ ing die.
Bobby, I'm on TV.

So my favorite part of off-roading is getting to be a part of like what I think makes college football so special and it's these like little communities and these little moments.

So we were invited to this tailgate called Jack and Day Olds where they've been tailgating for 30 years and they do an initiation ceremony. And now we dip it in our

and then we take a bite of our donut, a small bite of our donut

and we savor

and we dunk it.

We then finish that off with a toast of each other, the friendship, friendship, a toast of fellowship, fellowship, and then we take a sip

and you're initiated into the group. Woohoo! I'm one of us.
Do we get like t-shirts or something? All right, we need t-shirts.

So we had a bit of a like just a mess up here on the off-roading team, and it was Rose's fault. And we did this like beautiful initiation ceremony where Rose accidentally forgot to press record.

It happens. I forgive her.
However, there are natural punishments to your actions. And so, because I had to eat two soggy donuts, Rose has to drink the soggy donut water.
Look at this, it has fish.

I'm not gonna mess up again. Do you guys guys have a favorite Lee Corso memory? Or obviously, he put on the Buckeye head so many times.
He's been the Iron Man for so long. He loves the game.

I don't think there's a parallel to him other than, oh, what's the Dick Vitale? It's probably the Dick Vitale of football, right? Well, maybe me, right? Probably you. Or Dick Vitale.

I love him to death, but he's so old. Like,

he looks like a Roomba moving around.

Bad news. I'm a little rusty.
I'm losing my voice. Rose is gonna have to sub in.
That's Ryan's Day. Um,

dice is beer. Look, it doesn't matter what I say because Mike Ryan is gonna come back and guarantee that he does it.
So, what if he does? Who cares? Do you want to say anything to Dan?

I'm very proud of myself. This is a self-brag.
I was Suey nominated this week. Friends in low places for Rafe LaFrance.
Go vote for it by Tuesday. Longtime listener, lover of the show.

Love everything you guys do. Do you guys feel confident about the game today? No.

Let's go.

Let's hook them.

It was so great to be back on the road. Even better to still have a job because what that was up in the, I didn't know.
I really didn't know, but thank God.

And next week, Fox One is choosing where we're going and we are going to Dremel.

Ames, Iowa. Yeah, we're going to Ames.
Not my choice, their choice. Their choice.
So we will be in Ames for Iowa, Iowa State, and big noon kickoff.

And don't forget to stream that game and all live sports sports on the Fox One app. We live for live.
Stream now.

We are going to announce all the SUI winners later. I don't want to spoil any surprises, except to say that guy didn't win anything.
He didn't win shit.

That guy didn't win anything for his Rafla friends. I won't give you any more information on that.

It was a good song.

It got a SUI. It got a SUI nomination.
That's always an honor. Lucy, we are thrilled to see you again.
It means that college football has returned.

There are a lot of things to talk about in college football that are very exciting. I legitimately, look at that.
Look at all the applause back there.

She's bringing in, she's bringing in, she's bringing back tailgates. She still works here.
Yes, she works.

She is bringing back enthusiasm for sports.

So if I said to you the one story that you'd be talking about after the weekend, and I'm throwing Belichick into the mix to give you the offer, but the one story from the weekend, the one that you thought was most interesting was what?

Because I saw a lot of people on that report saying Arch Manning was special and no one had seen Arch Manning play.

It has to be Alabama. Like, Arch Manning having a bad game against one of the best defenses in college football on the road of the defending national champions.
Like, oh, that's so surprising.

Like, I don't think that's a big deal. I think that's something that in two months, we're all going to look back and be like, yeah, that just makes a ton of sense given the circumstances.

Alabama losing the way they did is far and away the most interesting storyline of this weekend. And for me, when I look at week one, I understand it's like a one-week sample size.

So I try not to take too much out of it, except for that Alabama game. The way they were absolutely out-physicaled, out-coached, just I have not seen them lose like that.

Well, since their last game against Michigan and since their game against Oklahoma before that and Vanderbilt, but still. Very, very big deal.
Pretty hard what Saban did there, huh?

Hard to do when Clemson and George and Ohio State all want your players.

It's like, I think it's what I expected when Kalen DeBoer took the job was for there was obviously going to be a step back because Nick Saman is the greatest of all time.

I think what's been so shocking about the step back is everyone assumed, okay, now Alabama might lose to Georgia a little bit more. They might lose to Tennessee a little bit more.

We were not expecting losing to this Florida State team, which by the way, not the two in 10 Florida State team of last year.

Completely different coaches, completely different players, but still, it was an embarrassing loss.

And it was the way that Alabama is losing that it's like my entire TikTok feed right now are Alabama fans with making sad edits of like, I miss you so much, Jalen Milro and Nick Sabin.

And I think it's really funny. Lucy, how do you balance, though, Alabama's performance compared to Florida State?

Well, I think what I would say for like Alabama is I don't want to take anything away from Florida State. I thought that was a super

impressive victory. Tommy Castellanos was amazing.
Like you can't take what they did away because they were dominant that whole game.

I think where I take the conclusions from Alabama is because this isn't a one-size-like sample where they played like this against Michigan. They played like this against Oklahoma.

They played like this against Vanderbilt. And Alabama has never played like that ever.

Like we have never seen that type of consistent losing, that kind of consistent, like just frankly getting your ass beat, but that's not something we've seen.

Luce, it's so strange to see some of these numbers, right? They've lost three of their last four in the last 17 years. Nick Saban lost three times in a season, twice.

And he got out at exactly the right time because he overachieved with that bad team at the end. He got very close.
It's just like, I'll see you later. I can see what's coming here.

These other teams are getting players. So

did Nick Saban see what was coming where he wasn't going to be able to keep winning that way? Or are we going to assume forever that Nick Saban would have figured it out in the very next year?

He'd never look like this. I don't think he would ever look like this.
I think that he did sort of see the writing on the wall with this, like NIL was going to open up some of the competition.

Like players that might typically go to Alabama or Georgia, they might be going to Texas Tech now. Like things are a little bit different there.

But like Nick Saban has always had very well coached, very well disciplined teams.

I heard this crazy stat that since Kalen DeBoer has took over at Alabama, they have never had a game where Alabama was the less penalized team.

Where so every time that Alabama is playing, they have more penalties than their opponent. That's not stuff that Nick Saban does.

And you can sort of see that like Kalen DeBoer, he's definitely stressing. He's definitely sort of like not being able to figure it out.

Like this week at his press conference, someone tried to ask him a question just about like preparation and he just didn't know what they were talking about.

It was, we have the video if we want to play it, but it was about their Florida State prep and he was lost. You mentioned the great week before the game.

Just how much do you self-scout the preparation before games? And are there times as a coach where maybe you notice during the week that things might not be going the way that you want them to?

You said, what do you mean great week? A great week. You said a great week of preparation.
For this week, you're saying? Or are you referring to last week? Going up to

Florida State before that game.

I said that. You said that, yeah, before.
Oh, just somebody. Oh, yeah.
Okay. All right.

Jeez. Wolf.
Wow. Yeah, he doesn't know what's going on.
Wow. Vacant at least.
Well, ESPN, all over ESPN, people are calling for DeBoer's firing. And I'm like, good God, that happened quick to Alabama.

In fact, I'm trying to remember a time where you had the juiciness of Belichick and Alabama, and everyone in sports is just hate celebrating. Does anyone know how much Kalen DeBoer's buyout is?

I'll let you guess. It's over 60, isn't it? I think it's 77.
It's 90% of whatever remains, I think, right? So right now it's around $70 million.

Wow.

What was that? I love it.

Is that all of college football laughing under its breath at Alabama just tired of getting its ass kicked by Alabama for 17 years? Am I the only one that feels bad for DeBoer?

I feel bad for him, like a little bit. I don't feel bad for Alabama.
Like, welcome to the real world. This is how we've all been living for the last 20 years.
Yeah, I don't feel bad for their fans.

Yeah. Like, welcome, one of us now.
It's not that fun. But for DeBoer, I do feel bad because I didn't think it was a bad hire at the time.

And like, but also at the same time, you take that Alabama job, you understand that

the expectations are so much higher and there's no wiggle room. Like you have to succeed and you have to succeed right away.

It's just like crazy because anyone who hires a new head coach, you get nine wins in your first year. You probably feel pretty good.
But like, the vibes there are really, really awful. They're bad.

I don't think they're going to fire him because $70 million is a lot lot of money, but the whole thing is just like, it's crazy. That is not an Alabama football team.
It doesn't look like it.

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I just texted my best friend Hannah and asked her who she thinks is going to win tonight. And she has never watched a hockey game this entire season.

She's picking the Rangers and she's an astrophysicist. She's real smart.
I'll text Joey. Dan, you know what I found out about Hannah today? An anagram.
Stugats. You said Anna or Hannah? Hannah.

Okay, I don't know. Anna too, depending on how you spell it.
Fail me. Even though if there's two N's, it's also an anagram.
Same with one and Anna. Anagrams are fun.
Hanagram.

A Hanagram. This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

Well, you say they're not going to fire him because $70 million is a lot of money, and it is, obviously.

But when you've bloated that fan base on the success of the last 17 years, they're not going to sit there and take this very long.

Like, I would assume that they would be more cutthroat about that than any program in the nation, given how spoiled that fan base is.

And keep in mind, they also saved so much money on not firing their head coach because all the other coaches were chasing Nick Sabin. They've got 20 years of never having to have that conversation.

This is nuts what's happening in Alabama when you consider what Lane Tiffin told us, which is every time I stepped on the field, I knew we had the bigger, better players.

Every single time I'm looking at the other sideline, they're not as big and strong and fast as us. And so, of course, we're going to win most of the games.
If you eliminate that, and now

all of a sudden, you've got an as well undisciplined football team that's getting manhandled.

It was an interesting, gleeful thing, but I thought that last night and what happened to Belichick was even more gleeful because we've seen Alabama doing some losing in recent years,

And we haven't seen a coach going into this offseason coming in and getting embarrassed by a point total he'd never allowed at any level. So, Lucy, you explain to me what it is that's happening there.

Why are so many people delighting in the downfall of Bill Belichick and presuming that this is what's going to be so?

But, Dan, did you see the first drive? Did you see that? That was great.

Skip Bayless. What did Skip Bayless say about the first drive? At 8:16 p.m., Skip Bayless tweeted, wow, Belichick has a national championship offense.
Heels just shredded frogs defense.

Oh, that's so great.

I think, like, I think Bill Belichick is sort of in that same sort of Alabama Sabin realm where we as sports fans are so used to him winning all the time and doing it in a way that you're like, everyone else is suffering because nothing is fun and you've taken all the good things and you've hoarded them.

Well, now you're at a different sport. You're at a school that's like just kind of a weird fit.
You're in the ACC.

Like, to see him go out and just completely just like have a dud of a game, which I don't think is going to be like the exception. I don't think this is just like TCU is really good.

Although I do think TCU is a good football team. Like, you have 70 new players.
You are playing in a different sport that plays a different style of football.

You are the oldest coach in all of college football trying to relate to 18-year-olds. Like, the whole vibe of it was just like, this isn't going to work.

And I think it's so important to acknowledge that the ACC has changed how they give out their tv revenue where it was just like equally spread out across the schools but they've changed the format in the system so it's based off of tv ratings now which makes this higher still probably a good thing for carolina because i think they're going to make a lot of money off this because people are going to tune in especially they're going to tune in to see bill belichick be really terrible at his job I don't understand why the reaction that people are having to Belichick losing the way he did last night is surprising anyone.

Like he's been nasty for years.

Like, even earlier, you know, that it's a petty reaction from people like me, because I love what I watched last night. Why is it petty? He's been a nasty man for a really long time.
Right.

I'm glad that they're terrible, and I'm glad that he's losing. I know, but the one thing I would say is, let's stop with the tarnish his legacy stuff.

He could go three and nine this season and quit, and he's still got all the rings, all the Super Bowl rings. His legacy is

set, period.

I don't know about that. Like he made the choice to take this job and to go to college football and to be in the ACC and you're not going to be able to succeed at this level.

Like your competition is Dave Doran now and you don't think that you're going to be able to like be the best. I feel like this move was what we all expected it to be.

It was so clearly, hey, I just need something to do until the NFL calls me again. Unfortunately, I think he thought he would win a little bit more in the process.
It not looked so bad.

So he might have hurt his own chances. But like, this is how he's choosing to end his career, then, like, fine, take the consequences of that.

I mean, to make this choice, per optistats, TCU is the only FBS team in the last 20 seasons to have two 25-plus-yard rushing touchdowns, a 25-plus-yard passing touchdown, a 25-plus-yard interception return for a touchdown, and a 25-plus-yard fumble return for a touchdown, all in the same game.

Belichick had never allowed all of that over an entire season as a head coach. His team was a joke last night.

And I do think there's a lot more that can be said for his legacy based on what happens with North Carolina.

Because, look, if we thought that the discussion was done as far as Brady Belichick, when Brady left the Patriots and then won a Super Bowl with someone else, what's it going to look like now when Belichick finally left New England and, oh, he's also terrible over here while Brady won a Super Bowl over there.

Like, I still think there's a lot of this story to be written potentially. Yeah, but Zaz, you're a journalist.
In the broad view, finally. In the broad view,

the lead paragraph of his obituary is six-time Super Bowl winner. Yes.
And North Carolina is maybe lower in the story. Yes, but Brady winning elsewhere was like, up, see, Brady, he's the guy.

You don't think now Belichick going elsewhere exacerbates that whole opinion? It's somewhat. Just somewhat.
I don't think. Maybe right.
I don't think anything overshadows those Super Bowls.

It's just that. Well, but if this can't tarnish Legacy, then Legacy cannot be tarnished.
Not this game, but I'm just talking about an ending unlike any that we have ever seen.

The stats of him with Tom Brady and apart from Tom Brady are jarring. I will read them to you in a moment.

But I do wonder how that docuseries of their life is going to feel when we're watching a relationship that's being featured for the defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt or Wake Forest, because that's Belichick's next stop on this particular tour, is being defensive coordinator somewhere.

And I'm sure love will follow him wherever he goes.

A snort. Did you just snort? What happened? It was a snort.
What just happened?

What? What did you say? That was funny to me. That was a snort.

Who snorts anymore? Lucy, thank you for being on the show.

Welcome back. We are thrilled to have you back this year.
Thank you. You're going to kill it all season.
Bye, guys. Have fun.
Make good choices. I don't know if we're going to do that around here.

I do want to talk a little bit

more about Belichick, but we also have our SUI winners to get to because this is an interesting delight to see happening because this guy ruled 20 years of football in a way that we've never seen.

I love it. I think Zazzlo,

it wasn't said loud enough. Last night was embarrassing.
It was a joke. It was a joke.
You went through an entire fall camp of evaluation and you rolled out this offense with Freddy Kitchens.

Stupid documentaries and sit-downs with the girlfriend and then that

with all those dignitaries who were in the same. That's what you put out there? It was a joke.

This is the quarterback you landed on? You really think that you're that much smarter than everybody else? You can win with Freddie Kitchens and this quarterback and do your style.

Like your team looked so in over its head.

And keep in mind, UNC, understand they had a bad year last year six and seven this this wasn't a program in tatters right this is a program that from a football perspective has been in the mix in that conference they've won six games or more i think six consecutive wait wait i i got let me just stop you for just a second because what i watched that north carolina football team after it lost to james madison in a game where james madison had 50 at the half and i'm like how how is this possible james madison's been good the past couple weeks no but but billy to on the road to have 52 points at the half against North Carolina and be up something like 52-21 didn't make sense.

I understand, but you can't have that couch your entire view. Like, let's take a treetop view here on North Carolina and say this isn't the disaster.

No, my point is their defense was really bad last year, and my point is that what he had to come in and fix when his standard is

professional football players who are champions look like this.

Can I go find a defense that makes me smarter than everyone else? And for a half,

he's losing 20 to 7 or whatever it was 21 7 he goes in at halftime and now america is expectant now the genius will make the adjustments that hell i saw marcus freeman make adjustments i know christoball helped him but i saw marcus freeman make adjustments that altered a team that was outmatched physically so that the second half didn't feel like that and what happens out of the locker room kickoff return for a touchdown 75 yards because he doesn't actually have a good team.

That much can be obvious stated off of game one.

We don't need any more evidence, but he's placed the bar in a place where, if he is actually what many of us had believed him to be, he's just lowered the expectation so much that by doing the opposite of what Dion did at Colorado against TCU, he's lowered the expectation so much in one game that now no one expects anything.

Like they've, you've gone from where the expectations were, which were inflating the point spread on a team that wasn't ready, to agree with me on this, so much room for improvement that he can actually improve it because this has to be the worst that it looks, correct?

In a month they have Clemson, they're going to get murdered.

Man, before the season, I was kind of there with you when they announced this. I'm like, you said, quote, this beast is coming to college football.
And we were all laughing.

Like, what does Mario Cristobal have for Bill Belichick? This guy's going to stroll into a joke conference and totally outmatch these head coaches there in terms of.

There's this narrative that, oh, you know, look what he did to NFL head coaches. College coaches stand no chance against him.
Dude is washed.

And I was there with you initially, and then I saw his whole approach to talent acquisition, and he genuinely approached this with an arrogance as if he were smart. No, I'll develop these guys.

I don't need to play the same game everybody else is. And then you realize, oh, late in that transfer portal window, dude went to the portal heavy, but it was a little too late.

Like, this guy has to learn not just the game, an entire culture. There is a business model that you have to establish in order to compete.

And he just thought with Bill Belichick and the whole gravitas, he can just stroll in there. And he got embarrassed.
Embarrassed by a solid team?

A team that was in the national championship a couple years ago. Well, this wasn't the team that Colorado beat a couple years ago coming off of the national championship game.
No, no.

Like, if he's doing that. out the gates, you're right.
There's some guys on that schedule that are going to push those dudes around. Everything you guys are saying is true.

It can't be overstated how embarrassing and humiliating his college debut was, but this is true, too. It's one effing game.

And when I say don't bring legacy into this, the analogy I would use is Michael Jordan. Nobody cares that he was a lousy owner because he was Michael Jordan.

Nobody's going to care that Bill Belichick, in the winter of his career, had one or two bad seasons in college. He's still.

You're saying no one's going to care, but they're going to care while it's happening. They're going to care in North Carolina.

You know, those are different things, like not caring about Michael Jordan's legacy. He wasn't playing for the Bobcats.
Like he was the owner. Belichick is still coaching.
Right, I get that.

It'd be like if Jordan was still playing and then he was terrible.

No, that, like, Belichick is still doing the thing that he's supposed to be really great at, except his resume tells us when he doesn't have Brady, he's actually terrible.

Do you think if Belichick knew how the rest of the game was going to play out, he would have enjoyed that first touchdown more? Everyone was like, oh, look at him. He's not smiling.

He's all business. I feel like if he knew he was going to get blown out after that, he would have given a few high fives, maybe a smirk.

Did you see the Belichick move that he pulled before the the game where they released the depth chart oh someone took a picture let's see this there this is what i'm talking about man there's the depth chart if you can if you can zoom in it's just the name of every position and there are zero players listed under any position he's gonna trick them he's gonna no depth chart he's gonna so so that he can trick them because he wants to give them no information well you didn't want tc to know what was coming do you think they know they can go on espn.com they can probably find the depth chart do you think they know This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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Don Lebatard. He seems like a not-nice guy, and he's always been a not-nice guy.
I don't care for him, and I hope he has the day he deserves. Oh!

Stugats. I hope

he has the he deserves. That's how I get people when they're really mean to me.
I'm not like, go F yourself. I'm like, I hope you have the day you deserve.
It's a great sign.

It's a great kind of

yes.

It's beautiful.

It's leaving it to the cosmos to sort it out. That's a less southern, bless your heart.
This is the Don Lebatar show with the Stugats.

Well, a lot of coaches do that. Mario Cristobal says, or somebody, or somebody on about half of the possessions.
Yeah, they're secretive lunatics.

Many of them don't have functioning normal relationships in their life because of how lopsided having to compete against Mario Cristobal, who's a crazy person, because he's going to try and out

Mario Cristobal. We saw in that Miami game, we saw how Miami will win and we saw how Miami will lose.

We saw a team that was disciplined on defense the hardest way, which is to be physical and disciplined. Those teams of Mario Cristobal have not been that.

And what you saw at the end of the first half, where they have 18 seconds left, they score a touchdown, but it's all the two touchdown passes required great throws from the quarterback, a great catch from a wide receiver.

Could have been disaster plays under other circumstances. circumstances.

But I thought watching the game between Miami and Notre Dame, I thought it was two things, and both of these things can be true.

Miami should be happy that it wins that game no matter what, because Miami often loses that game for a lot of reasons.

And Miami fans being upset with Mario Cristobal because he did all the things in that game that will lose you a game when you have the physical advantages against the team.

When you have physical advantages, offensive and defensive line, and another team gives you two turnovers, that game should not be close.

And a lot of people are complaining in the Miami, a lot of people are complaining that Mario Cristobal went very conservative. They're not wrong.

They should be happy that he trusted a defense that was among the worst we've ever seen just a couple of months ago.

It took him a couple of months to go into a game against Notre Dame and say, you know what, I'm going to let my defense win this game.

They wasted the greatest offense this program has ever had and they could not stop. Anybody, pedestrian offenses would run at will.

And he leaned on the defense to win a game against the national runner-up. And he almost blew this game.
It's a two-score game. That game turned into a rock fight at times.

And to your point about the composure and the culture and the discipline, Dan, there was one play that I saw.

I didn't notice it during the game, but JoJo Trader got picked up by his face mask by a Notre Dame player, dragged about 10 yards.

This all happened right in front of the officials who weren't great on the day. Jojo Trader did nothing in retaliation.
No flag was thrown. The retaliation would have certainly drawn a flag.

You remember how Miami season ended last year at Syracuse? Jacoby George, who we're always worried about losing his mind and backing Miami up. I went through fall camp.

I'm like, who's the guy that we're worried about? If this dude can put it all together, then we're good. But

no,

it took several years to finally weed that stuff out of the locker room. But these dudes have discipline now and they've bought into a culture.
They're all thinking the same way. They had one bust.

They had one play. You can't have it when they had it.
One bad play. You can't play it.

You cannot have it when they had it because there were no big plays in that game. And I think the Notre Dame offense is capable of a great many big plays.

And so I was surprised to see Miami's defense that improved. I was surprised to see him that physical and disciplined because crystal ball teams do get penalized a lot.

That was a shocking stat Lucy just gave us that every damn game DeBoer plays in, he's got more penalties than the other team.

That's not what good football team is. Well, but certainly not what Alabama is used to because when do you get penalties often? It's not just discipline.

It's, oh, these guys are too big, strong, and fast, so I have the Chiefs to stop them. Like, that's how a lot of people are playing against Alabama.
Jeremiah Love is a great player.

And Ruben Bain knew Jeremiah Love from that film study because one of his notes, as we saw earlier, were bleep Jeremiah Love.

But

we were talking about this on Monday, and it did feel like they should have gotten him involved in the game a little bit more. Too many quarterback keepers on those RPOs.

And then I looked at the stats. Everybody was upset that Jeremiah Love just got 10 carries in that game.
Jeremiah Love last year got 11 carries a game.

They fed him the same amount. The problem was the 3.3 yards per carry.
And if Jeremiah Love played Miami's defense in the CFP last year, he would have gone for 300 yards on the ground. Right.

That was the thing that stood out to me the most about the game where, you know, last year when Keynes fans are complaining about they should have been allowed in the playoff, you know, it's like, and what?

so they could just get their shit kicked in at some big 10 team in the first round of the playoffs that team that i watched on sunday night that team would have played with anyone like it was it was a major difference what we were watching sunday that that team there plays with anyone the game was essentially one

scoring right before half and then taking the ball yeah and holding it for seven and a half minutes it was so impressive that first round there were 14 points scored in like a 12 and a half minute span where that's what it has to look like Yes, I know we get all super excited where Cam Ward is having to chase the game and put up as many possible points as possible because

you can't keep any teams under 40 points, but that's how you choke a game away, and that's how it's going to have to look in November.

Kanes fans are cool with that first drive in the third quarter because everyone's freaking out about Mario's offense in the second. Everything after that.

So let me just stop everyone for a second when I say

on display there,

a future Monday show, if you had to bet on it, are we going to be saying in a future Monday show, oh, they had that one, but all the Crystal Ball thing happened, things happened where you don't understand how they lost.

If they'd lost that game because they missed a 47-yard field goal, that game would have been over, and I'd be really confused as to how they lost that game with a two-turnover advantage and advantages on the offensive and defensive line.

And I'd be in here saying, good God, they weren't stopped by Notre Dame running the ball. They just kept running between the tackles because they're not doing anything creative on the corners.

And everyone knows statistically. What's the caveman Crystal Ball going to do?

He's going to punch you in the face because he wants to run it down the middle of the field empirically, numerically, more than anyone.

He wants to have, man, he was the one recruiting out for Alabama when they got that big.

What he wants is, we will punch you in the face and run right down the middle of the field when we wish to because we're bigger and stronger than you, but they're not yet.

Everyone was saying that was a conservative play call. Yeah, but what's conservative about six yards a clip?

Notre Dame got a stop there and then scored right afterwards, and that's what happens with a two-score game. The conservative part that I had an issue with was on the last drive.

All right, we're tied at 24, and it came down to, yeah, you know what? Like, this isn't the NFL. These kickers can miss any kick in college.

And Christopa was seemingly totally good with a 47-yard field goal. That is, in the NFL.
As if he still had Carlos Huerta or Borgalis or any of these guys. That's a gimmick in the NFL.

In college, these kickers miss from everywhere. I would have rather not kick a 47-yard.
That kick also would have been good from 65.

I get it. He bombed it.
But if he missed it, Mike, we're having it. If he missed it.
I was terrified before the kicker. We would have no explanation for how that game was lost.

We'd be like on quarterback draws. And we would have joined Penn State in that.
Like, how did Notre Dame come into this stadium yet again?

The other team controlled the game, and yet Notre Dame is victorious at the end. That team is a resilient, tough team.
And I'm not going to apologize for winning. What?

Because a double-digit lead ended up being a three-point spread? Get out of here. They just beat Notre Dame, who's going to be good and get better as the season goes on.

And by the way, when you describe Mario Crisobal as a guy who just wants

to play big and to run the ball up your throat, that certainly wasn't the case last year when Cam Ward was throwing the ball all over the field and setting... No, it was.

Statistically, they ran between the tackles more than any team but Baylor.

And they also set passing records that it's understood, but I'm just telling you that philosophically, what the man does was on display there.

If you had to bet and be right or wrong and win money, we will be doing a Monday show this season where we're talking about how the Miami Hurricanes lost a game inexplicably because of what their coach did.

When they lost to Syracuse and they were up 21-0, no one was saying that offense got conservative.

I was saying they should have ran it more because they were running at seven yards per carry in that game, but they didn't. And they blew a 21-0 lead.
You couldn't trust the defense.

Cam Ward was not being conservative in that game. They blew it because of their approach to it.
That is not how you win in college football at the highest level.

Right, and the defense is appreciably better this year. But you're talking as if they did lose.

No, but I'm just saying some of the fan base is saying this. It's not even what I'm saying, but you have to bet and be right.
Answer my question. And to the fan base, I would say, get real.

You just beat the number six team in the country. You were an underdog.
You beat them. Why are you parsing the victory? Because they weren't looking big.
They almost lost.

They were looking at the picture. I don't care that they almost lost.

They did blow a 10-point lead. Who cares? So it's a 10-point lead.

Who cares? They won. We're not talking about a 20 point.
20-point lead. You also last week were saying they were going to win by three points.
I thought they were going to rip their heads off.

And for a while, there, it looked like... They looked like it was.
They should have, is my point. They should have.
Credit to the opponent.

You can't say they should.

Credit to the opponent. Look,

I'm going to do this again because four straight possessions without a first down.

I understand they had the number one offense in the sport last year, but that offense, I think, only went three possessions without a first down a couple of times.

It's not because the offense was stopped, stopped by defensive players who were running all over the field defending against creative offense.

It was because they were running it straight into the middle of the line and they got the ball taken away from them. And then all of a sudden, what's coming back down to the field on you is

quarterback draws and an inexperienced quarterback getting confidence because of how you played the game offensively the rest of the way after that majestic drive that should be the drive that you put.

That he's got that right there, that drive is the best drive that Mario Cristobal's team has had against a good team since he's been here.

I think that they're capable of getting those drives when they need it. That game called for something different in that run where they went four drives without a first down.

They did get a field goal. Why? Because the defense made a point.

If you want to go at Mario Cristobal for being conservative and trusting a defense to win a game, then give him credit for having that defense that was atrocious last year win the game.

When you or a Keynes fan tell me Mario Cristobal in the second half was playing not to lose, I'm saying good for him because guess what? He didn't lose.

And what are you saying if that field goal is missed or blocked in return for a touchdown? Then you're so

47 yards out. I don't know if you're not.
I'm saying I wish we weren't settling for a 47 yards. Well then Notre Dame also would have had to go back and score.
That's the thing.

It was tight at the time. You miss me with assuming that Notre Dame comes back and Randy was controlling that.
That two-minute drill looks disastrous.

And you can play the what-if game on 90% of results in all of sports.

After the pick, Notre Dame scored on three of its last four possessions after not doing anything all game because they were with a quarterback that shouldn't be winning that game in that position, has no reason to be winning that game in that position.

And he didn't.

I know, but I know, but the lead was given away, and there was a tie game.

And what you're telling me, which is reasonable criticism, wow, the way they played the end of the game, I would have really liked them to just hold the ball the rest of the game, okay?

Especially after getting that third and short conversion as momentum the way you did. Would have liked them to not give the ball back with a minute left.

But settling for a 40-yard field goal with a guy who kicked four field goals successfully at FAU, hmm, okay, he did make it. But if he misses it and

Notre Dame comes back and scores, you guys would be so confused about how Miami lost that football. I understand the 47-yard field goal for what it's worth.

And you could certainly have concerns about the accuracy of the kicker. It's four for 11 from that distance.
I understand.

The staff, when he was in fall camp, said this is the strongest leg we've ever seen. And that field goal would have been good from 57 yards.

If that had hit the upright, like the show he's doing today, the show didn't. Don't do the show then.
You're doing the show. Stop doing that show.
They won.

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