Local Hour: The U Is Back (pt. 5)

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The Mariners, huh?

Home game?

Hadn't won a home playoff game since 2001.

That's our wheelhouse.

That's Griffey.

That's Big Unit.

That's A-Rod.

Mike, you got wrapped up in the Seattle Mariners last year.

Were you paying attention to them at all this year?

Have you checked in on them even during the playoffs?

So I'm in a Mariners group chat with Mina and some other sports media luminaries.

So that's how I've been able to follow them.

I haven't watched a single game, but they're all over my algo.

Big dumper guy.

I'll check back in this week now that the football weekend is over.

I have to be careful on this one because I'm not 100%

sure.

Why were we acting like Julio Rodriguez is dying?

Like, I was super confused about, like, all of the honors and everything that we were doing for Julio Rodriguez.

Like, he got a hit in an RBI, good.

But we were acting.

He's not retiring.

He's like 32 or something.

What?

Seattle badly wants a superstar.

He is part of.

They have one, Big Dumper.

He's going to be the MVP of the league potentially.

Yeah, but him,

he's now the old guy.

He's now whatever Ken Griffey Jr.

was when A-Rod was coming up.

He could never.

He could never.

He's 24.

Didn't you have a jersey?

I do have a Rodriguez jersey.

That's the Rodriguez?

He's 24.

Why are we acting like this is the end for him?

He's one of the old-timey mariners.

He's been there suffering for years.

He's 24.

Older than CJ Stroud.

Man, they're making high school players who are dominating FSU who are 17.

Like,

I don't even understand.

How it is a 17-year-old can run a college football sport on the road with perfect passes.

He's 17.

You guys do know the U is back, right?

To work.

This is the Don Levatar Show with the Stu Gats Podcast.

I meant to get to the Panthers fighting the lightning

when we were talking earlier because the delight on Roy's face as the two-time champions returned to work by just creating a riot that if it happened in any other sport,

a riot of such intensity, we would ban the teams forever in organizations and say you cannot behave that way.

That was supposed to be a professional hockey game.

You cannot have 7,000 penalties and a guy getting an assist who'd been ejected.

Well, I can tell you that the Panthers didn't create that riot.

It was the lightning, and that was in response to Thursday's game when A.J.

Greer.

It's in response to the last 10 years, Roy.

Okay.

It's in response to the last 10 years of the fight for hockey has been in this state, which is funny at Canada's expense.

And they're fighting the lightning because bleep you, lightning, we took what was yours.

That's why they're fighting the lightning.

You're going to go to the micro on that.

Yeah.

These are organizations that hate each other because the Panthers took what the lightning got because the lightning taught them how to take it.

Well, I mean, the Panthers kind of taught themselves with what they did with Vegas and losing that series.

But yes, yes, you're exactly right.

The Panthers had a goal removed that they scored in that preseason game because Mikola assisted it after he was ejected.

Think about that for a second.

I got some stats for you here.

There were 20 roughing minors.

There were four majors that weren't fights.

There were five fights, two match penalties, six 10-minute misconducts, 12 game misconducts, 65 total penalties.

They didn't play a hockey game.

It was all right.

You know how I'm watching football, and every once in a while, soccer breaks out with the kickers and rugby breaks out with the tush-push.

push and it's another or punching boxing breaks out we're like don't put this with my sports this was a full-fledged riot 322 that was not a hockey game that was the panthers and the lightning have been fighting over the state for the last 10 years and in college football the three teams have been fighting for the state for the last 50 years and i am not going to be a prisoner of the moment on this So I'm going to offer you some qualifiers.

And I'm going to say that I understand that the University of Miami is fully capable of losing a football game to Duke or Georgia Tech.

But the team that I saw do that in Tallahassee to that Florida State team, that was 2-10 last year.

and confused us all with what happened at Alabama.

The University of Miami can beat you more ways than any team in college football.

They are the best team in college football.

Maybe Ohio State could beat them in a game because whatever, but the talent they have, they have more ways to beat you than any team in the sport.

It's obvious.

What Texas just had happen to them at Florida, these are not one-game samples.

Over a month, the best athletes are always in Florida and Miami has ransacked them.

I saw USF.

USF is a good football team.

USF has a ton of talent.

And look at what happens when Texas goes into the swamp.

An offense that was incompetent with the Gators suddenly makes what's supposed to be the cream of the SEC and the guy with the quarterback chromosome, oh no, Texas, you're not even going to make the playoff.

You're Penn State.

Frauds, bogus.

Florida takes the sport back.

So now it's Florida and Ohio State because what you saw from Miami in doing that to a physical FSU team that did that to Alabama

is, oh, you can't play with them.

They can beat you with big plays now.

They can beat you with defense.

They're not going to do all of the dumb things.

They'll take a touchdown off the board because of an illegal procedure.

Fine.

The kid turned 18, had three touchdowns, one of them taken away.

The one that was taken away was more, was prettier than the others, and one of those was a pro throw.

So Florida State got ransacked.

Do not let the score fool you.

Maybe Miami loses a game because whatever, the stuff that's been at the end where they go conservative in the second half,

maybe they lose a game, but they're better than anybody else in the first half because when they take the field, they're extraordinary.

Like they are the balanced thing that doesn't exist in a sport that's gone true parody.

FSU did a really good job against Miami's run.

They kind of sold out for that.

Miami was prepared for that game plan, knew that they could take some shots on some corners, that gamble.

Entering the game for his career, Carson Beck was three of 15 on balls that traveled over 40 yards in the air.

In the first half, he had two of such passes.

The third bounce off of Malachi Tony's hands was an absolute dot from Carson Beck.

I think maybe we should apply the context of it raining down here for a month straight when we have conversations about Carson Beck.

He was dynamite.

And I heard,

I did a lot of listening to FSU podcasts, both before and after the game.

And a pretty good analogy was made by one of the FSU podcasts is Miami's that power hitter that pitcher decides, if you want to beat us, you're going to beat us.

We're going to throw low and away, and you're going to have to find a way to beat us.

Okay, we'll go Apo.

Like, okay, that's what you're going to give us.

We'll beat you whichever way you want us to.

Miami is a very deep, very balanced team.

Why are your hands tied?

Your hands have been tied.

This program's hands have been tied for 20 years.

Why are your hands presently tied?

That looks like a good, tight...

I cannot tie the kind of knot that is required, a fisherman's knot, to get Mike Ryan so that he is not able to move his hands.

What's happened here?

This was my second loss at the Dentech bucket.

I thought I was definitely going to have another loss this last week.

Shout out to Mac Jones, who saw a dead body before the game.

Appreciate that.

One of the more improbable straight-up victories.

So thankfully,

this settles my account at the

Dentech bucket debt.

Does someone look cooler than they ever would?

Like, the coolest anyone ever looks is roping a boat.

When someone gets on the dock and they do that thing where they can just, by flinging the rope, you think that's the Billy Wayne?

What is the peace?

What are you looking at?

It's a bad thing.

I'm just listening.

I'm here.

Give me something cooler.

Beat it.

The guy hops off the boat.

Everyone else is still on the boat and he's tying that thing down without even having to use a second hand.

How about pushing off?

When you're untying it, you're pushing off the dock.

No, the untie is not as cool as the tie.

No, you don't know what you're talking about.

The untie.

It's cool.

You can kick off the dock, and then you get back on the boat with one leg.

Cool.

That is cool.

That is cool.

You're on basically both.

You're on the dock and the boat untying.

Hey, we're off back here.

Boom, I kick off.

And we're on.

Love a boater's not.

Chris, are you saying that you could apply yourself and then feel cool if you were coming in off the boat and every, all the part, what you're saying is the part that you've got covered, you're basically saying a crew member.

is able to do something

with such dexterity.

Well, it doesn't have to be a captain.

It can just be somebody from the crew.

Have you guys ever gone out with someone that's like one?

It's not, I don't have a yacht, okay?

You get like a captain that he's the only guy on the boat.

He ends up doing it all.

You got to help him in that spot.

Yeah.

You got to help.

I'm just telling you.

I've been on a boat where the captain does it all.

Fine, Chris.

These are details that are not produced.

No, they wanted to jump down my third.

Oh, the captain.

Yeah, the captain.

Well, because you're saying it's the coolest thing.

The captain would ever do that when they always do that.

It depends.

It depends the size of the boat.

You don't accurately.

You're yourself a man of the people by being on a smaller boat where the captain does all of the work.

A man of the people ties the knots themselves and drives the boat.

They don't have a captain.

Chris is like upper middle class trying to rely on the boat.

We hired some board to drive us.

Every three years, I rent a boat for the day, and we have a captain.

Once every three years, though, don't get crazy.

I'm saving up for this.

Chris has got it right for him

because he likes the idea of a captain who's in control of the seas down here where where it is difficult any one of us would try to tie up that boat and we would do real damage to that boat banging against the side because it takes the dexterity and the winds do not cooperate and neither do the waves i've i've seen hanover beach swallow all these amateurs who don't understand the inlets around tonies over here captain tony's

hold on why am i being i'm the one that says i'm defensive right now thank you one and two i'm just what no none i'm saying so the first mate what i what i usually am on the boat that my my father-in-law has call yourself that i'm the guy no no because he's the captain the captain can't drive the boat against the dock and then jump out tie the boat and then come back and then tie the other chris is saying he's had a one-man crew who's an amazing one-man band you guys just sit there and watch him because he's i'm hammered he's doing middle-class that's why it looks cool this is what's happening middle class drinking and he just gets on a boat your captain takes care of him

he'll bring out some pigs he'll bring out some pigs and a blanket that he got at Publix and Chris is riding the high seas on a Sunday like a baller because he's got a captain but it's a one-man show unless he brings his son on Sunday.

Just shut up and sit down.

All right, thank you.

And maybe you

think the captain's cool.

It's not the act of it.

You just like the captain.

The act of that riding.

No,

the thing I'm saying that Chris has right is that captain can get off a boat and he'll lasso the entirety of the seas.

And

it's impressive that he can do it without any help because our winds are strong.

And so is our local college football team.

The University of Miami, because it now has, and look, health matters and all the qualifiers, okay?

In a one-game sample, anybody can lose.

But what Ruben Bain does to get that 15-yard penalty, he's physically more menacing than everyone who is out there on the defensive line.

He's a clear top 10 pick, and you will not throw against them consistently because they will keep plays in front of them, even if it's Castellanos.

And Castellanos is good, but he felt a little bit like he was out there by himself.

It's like, I'm as good an athlete as some of these other guys, but my front lines aren't as good as their front lines.

And it's on both sides because you say Carson Beck in the rain.

No, not Carson Beck in the rain.

Carson Beck, with no one around him playing a different sport, because it's not loop-de-loops.

It's because those defensive linemen are not going to be able to get past those offensive linemen.

And so that's an easy game.

Carson Beck can play that game for any team in the land if you're going to protect him like that.

He'll get receivers open at Ken State that way because that's Castellanos was not allowed to play that football game.

Castellanos.

No.

Hold on.

Why is it Castellanos?

Because

he's saying it wrong.

You, Tony, they keep telling me that I can't change his name because his mama called him that.

And I'm like, his mama doesn't call him that.

His mama called him Castellanos.

Yeah, Janos.

He can't change it.

He's not allowed.

I think that's usually how it works.

No, it doesn't work that way.

Really?

That's all right.

Ruben Bain had 11 pressures.

This duo of Mezador, there was a great moment.

And

if you were there, you could notice it.

Castellanos is doing his thing in the backfield, very slippery.

He runs into Ruben Bain, who has his arms outstretched.

I can't display it because my hands are tied, but he's like, you're going to run into my arms.

Casalanos puts a foot in the ground and decides, I'll just run into Mezador's arms instead, please.

Thank you very much.

11 pressures.

The sack numbers aren't there for Ruben Bain, but if you're watching these games, Ruben Bain and Mezador are absolutely

recognized.

So here's, having watched, like, this has got some history behind it, okay, when I'm talking about what championship teams look like at Miami, just physically, what they look like, how you can't get side to side on them.

And even if you're a 6'6 wide receiver, you can't get past their secondary either because

we've had down here some champions and we had down here that before Burrow and Jamar Chase was the single best college football team I'd ever seen, it was Butch Davis learning what needed to be learned so that all of the athletes out there, you were like, oh.

Oh, I see now in the pros why it is Ohio State's been good for 10 years.

Look at all those receivers that came out of Ohio State.

Of course, that's how it happened.

Miami has never had this as an edge rush.

Like, never had it.

Like, I'll go back to Daniel Stubbets and Bill Hawkins, but they've always gotten the pressure up the middle.

It's never been two beasts on the side that you can't get outside of either because they're too big and strong.

Yeah, two guys at the same time.

Like, again, try not to be hyperbolic, but this season goes away that it's a look.

And you can talk about Mezador and Bain as potentially the greatest edge rush duo in the history of Miami.

You mentioned Ohio State.

Miami, I know nationally, everyone just is going to make the assumption, well, it's NIL.

They're going after all these blue chippers.

And yeah, there are some blue chippers here.

But let's look at the guys making the impact in this game.

There was a sequence there, and this was highlighted by Gabby

Uritia

of Through the Smoke.

There was a two-play sequence in which Miami got 80 yards from true freshmen.

Bryce Fitzgerald, a four-star true freshman, gets an interception, runs it back, and then Malachi Tony, who was a three-star, gets a huge bomb.

And

Miami wins a game there.

Ruben Bain, four-star, should have been a five-star, led the state in Saks, was a four-star.

Jacoby Thomas, who was absolutely flying all over the field.

This was a rotational guy for Tennessee that Miami gets in the portal.

Miami is also doing some really good talent evaluation.

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Don Lebatard.

To us, residents.

Oh, wow.

That's pretty much it.

You think I haven't been practicing?

Stugats.

Oh,

I didn't realize we had a substitute complicated legacy choice.

441 Powerline Road.

Second down in nine.

This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

The way Alabama lost when it went to that stadium, and that's Alabama, and we erased how quickly all of Alabama's last 15 years in saying, ah, Alabama's done and Florida State's back.

No, Florida State has really good athletes, but they're not the best in the state.

The best in the state has ransacked the state and the best in the state has a football team that I haven't seen down here.

This was not Rick's football team that got in the top five.

I doubted that team all season long.

I never thought that team had the best players.

But this thing steps on the field.

And what I'm telling you, haven't seen what USF actually is.

To drag them physically is to look at what happened with Texas when they went into Florida.

They're like, no, they're playing Florida football down here now.

SEC, all that shit's been erased.

Like whatever, whatever the gerrymandering is in the jurisdictions, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You get all the Florida kids and you can win the state.

Everyone in the country knows you can fight with Ohio and Alabama and Georgia and anything else that you want to put out there because physically what Miami is doing is CJ Daniels is in Doe Campbell Stadium and I can hear him on the microphone in in the end zone doing the war chant at 28 to 3 because it's gone that dead after Jimbo Fisher who knows what champions look like is weeping during the pregame because they're doing the war chant but no not yet FSU like not yet because the state has been taken it's fixed it's like have no question that when Castellanos is being pressured 31 times and Zeck is being pressured six it's fixed like whatever you had on on you thought their defense could not be trusted no Castellanos is a tremendous athlete.

He did that to Alabama in that stadium.

He was fighting at the end.

It was impressive to watch him.

Lanos.

Lanos.

What's fixed?

Everything at UM is fixed.

Yeah, but Beck's gone next year, so you have to start again.

Cameron Ward was gone last year.

Okay, I'm just saying.

You can't just say Billy's family.

No, but no, but they can get hurt.

I think they're going to get AL in the way things work now.

I think Mario Crisobal has shown over the last three years, if there's a problem, he'll solve it.

Check out the hook while his DJ revolves it.

Wow.

Beck can get hurt, Billy, and it can render moot some of what I'm saying.

Health can

render moot much of what I'm saying.

The playoffs, also, by the way, with so many rounds, I mean, they'll probably get a buy, right?

But you have to win multiple rounds to get to the national championship and then win it.

It's not just.

That's insight we only get here.

Well, I'm just saying, it's not just, hey, finish in the top four and you have to win one game and you're in the championship anymore.

I think we're aware of what the standard is.

Okay.

But, Billy,

yes, they can turn the ball over four times times in a game and lose I I've seen my Miami lost to Penn State in a championship that made Penn State because they had a team that was that good and then had six turnovers and they lost what I'm saying is that what I'm watching physically it's as good as anything it's obvious it's obvious to the eye with like they could turn the ball over five times and lose a game it wouldn't change my opinion on they just dragged monster athletes through Florida through USF and through FSU dragged all of them which is going to be the scary one on the schedule come on there's a couple coming up here which one's it gonna be Mike yeah

look, looking at the landscape of college football, if you ask yourself honestly, is there a team in this country that can run the table perfectly?

I think Nick Saban, who, by the way, is unbelievable on TV and has found a way to be really good and insightful on TV without being overly charismatic.

Honestly, Tom Brady should borrow a page from what Nick Saban is doing because the audience is rooting for Tom Brady.

Lean on your insight.

Tell me your knowledge of the game.

Give me a little sneak peek into that brain of yours.

Nick Sabin does that routinely.

And Nick Sabin was tremendous on College Game Day this last week.

And he made the point, you know, we had a lot of great teams.

I've won seven national titles.

You know how many of those teams went undefeated?

One.

Teams have adversity.

Miami is going to face adversity in these games.

They face adversity.

I think they're really well positioned.

Miami looks like they can beat anyone in the nation.

I do think that there's this upper tier in the nation, like Oregon, Ohio State, certainly.

Texas Tech.

Well, Texas Tech, we'll see.

You know, Texas Tech's defense, no doubt, looks like they're formidable.

I'm not ready to write off Texas,

but I'm really shocked at what Texas's offensive line looked like against Florida.

Florida's still missing guys on defense.

They got one guy back on offense, Dallas Wilson, seemed to make a difference, although them running the ball seemed to be the key thing there.

I was stunned.

This is a program that famously had an NIO program where every offensive lineman got a million dollars, got a seven-figure deal, and Texas got dominated at the line of scrimmage.

Arch Manning had no shot in that game.

The thing that I am saying, Billy, and I understand anybody, I have not done this before with the University of Miami, and I'm telling you, I didn't do it when they were 10-0 for Mark Richt

because that was an inferior team physically.

I haven't seen what Malachi Tony is here since like Santana Moss and Kevin Williams, where they have a little jitterbug who's faster than everybody out there.

And

you can put him back on punt returns, and he just knows how to do what Devin Hester does, and you can't teach it.

It is funny.

Devin Hester is actually a good one.

Like, if you clocked his speed, straight line speed, Devin Hester, like what you remember of Devin Hester doesn't exactly compute there.

And Malachitoni does look fast on the field.

He is not this speedster guy.

He's doing it by putting a foot in the ground and going, being decisive, having incredible vision.

It's the stiff arm that he had on the one that got called back.

Like, this kid is an unbelievable natural at the game.

It's a Restrepo with deep threat capabilities that are larger than and more obvious than Restrepos.

Like, it Again, any of these guys can get hurt, but the way that he's trending is not something I've ever seen in the history of the school from someone who just turned 18, where it's like he can go into any swamp in America and beat your football team with 60-yard plays.

That's not something that's very common at even Miami, who has had

plenty of big play players.

He was forced to play a lot of quarterback last year because he was at a school in which our best player is going to touch the ball every time.

So that's another reason why he came in as a three-star.

Malaki.

So if I can here, because

when I look at

the entire history of what it is that Florida and FSU have been, Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders right now are playing out their last act on television, figuring out how to dominate the media landscape for the last 30 years like they've dominated it.

And Deion just got passed, and he's in bad health, and he's saying he's in pain during the press conference and he's got blood clots.

And I'm guessing that Deion doesn't need or want to do that that much longer.

He did what he wanted to do with his son.

And I guess that physically he's beaten up in a way that makes all of that very hard.

But he conquered, got to college football, grabbed one grass, one last grift here.

And I'd assume that Dion will look for an exit ramp here.

And I'm not accusing him of quitting in any way.

I just, if you're in, in

harm and in pain and your health is bad and it's hard for him to walk and he's in and out of hospitals and your son no longer plays there and you got Travis Hunter and your son to the big day, like I maybe you think he's got a greater commitment to Colorado than I do.

I think he's a mercenary who's always been about Dion

and

got, you know, got a big bag of money and will probably get out soon.

I would have thought that too, and I think it's unfair considering he's there right now.

He had every reason.

All the reasons that you just outlined were probably even more serious when he felt like his life was in grave danger and he decided to tough it out.

Maybe he's decided, maybe it wasn't worth it, but I think he's earned a lot because of what you outlined.

I've admired these two men, flaws and all, Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders, because they taught me how to love this thing that felt like it had returned on Saturday, where Miami's going to FSU.

FSU's priding itself on being the scary place with the culturally appropriated war chant that makes Jimbo Fisher cry because he'll never feel as good, even as the highest paid coach in America, that he did when he had Jameis Winston and he was able to do what Bobby Bowden had such a hard time doing.

His teacher, his mentor, Jimbo got to highest paid salary, won with the greatest quarterback that there's ever been as a freshman in the state.

cries with the war chant.

Miami goes in there and throttles him.

And FSU's been at the top.

They go from 13-1 to 2-10 to you know they're good enough to beat Alabama by two touchdowns at home.

Whatever else they are, you know they're good enough to do that, and that means something still, no matter the state of Alabama.

To see Michael Irvin attach himself now because he realizes, no, that looks like the championship things, and I am still the guy who used to call my old dorm number from the Champion Cowboys just to make sure that those University of Miami kids were doing the right things.

He has now become the new mascot for the University of Miami at 50.

He's reinventing himself.

Television jobs are drying up.

They're hard to get.

Like he's on first take with Cam Newton, but there aren't a lot of spaces right now for Michael Irvin.

So, what's he doing?

He had one until he cost himself the job.

Seems to be taking a belt to the side of the bank.

BTA, Dano, BTA.

That is correct.

He's on media hard times, but he's officially allowed to be the University of Miami's mascot.

Who?

Can you guys find this for me, Lewis, in the back room?

It used to be that the mascot, the Ibis, the Ibis has had two legendary scandals.

One, he was handcuffed on the field at Doe Campbell.

There's a photo of that somewhere.

The Ibis mascot was handcuffed on the field.

The other illegality was an Orange Bowl game that wasn't supposed to be a home game.

The Hurricanes weren't allowed to come through the smoke, and he still brought out a fire extinguisher anyway.

Those are the two great scandals of the greatest mascot there's ever been in South Florida.

Michael Irvin's better.

Michael Irvin should forever be the mascot for the University of Miami football team.

He could be Yama Yama.

He could could be Dolphin Denny.

He could be the greatest mascot there has ever been for the University of Miami football team.

Does anyone here not endorse that?

Will you guys all notarize that if I allow that for the rest of time?

Did you see him get bowled over during the game?

He and Holly Row.

Holly Row, tough, tough as nails.

Went to the ground twice during that game.

Put it on the poll.

Holly Rowe, tough as nails.

Yes or no?

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Hey, Mike.

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I don't think in 2021 I can get away with my Michael Irvin radio show impression.

No, probably not.

Stoogats!

Pop pop!

Give.

Kiv!

I think that's so okay.

I think you do.

This is the Dalebatar Show with the Stukats.

The University of Miami, people are going to see it as an overreaction, I think.

Billy,

you want to pull the other side of this today and say...

That's the thing is the best team we've ever seen.

It's not, but it's the most complete one I've seen since the 2001 one.

Just complete, more ways to beat you.

Yeah, I think everyone understands that this team is

got to prove it.

And like I said, there's a lot of, man, parody is so great.

I think this was the first time since 1996 that teams this far under 500, UCLA, who I believe was winless in a

one victory Florida, that teams that were that bad in win-loss records on the same weekend upended two top 10 teams.

NIL has leveled the playing field.

Parody is fun.

I think it actually makes sense to have an expanded playoff field, although people have their feelings because what teams are right now, they're not going to be come December, come January.

Chris, why are you laughing?

I could watch Michael Irvin all day.

I keep put it up on all the televisions here.

Just put him up.

Look, I just want him everyone.

on the wall.

That's not even the best one, Dan.

The best one is him doing push-ups in the locker room when everybody's walking in.

I go belt.

Who's got a better mascot than Michael Irvin as the University of Miami's mascot?

Flaws and all.

Flaws and all.

All of it.

I mean, he's literally in a couple of these standing right next to the mascot and just outshining him.

The mascot's like, yeah, go ahead, man.

He was all around town, just like in

overalls, just talking to FSU fans, getting into the banter game.

He's about this Miami football life.

Don't you think it's funny, though, that he was from afar envying what Theon was getting in Colorado?

Because Michael can't do the things Dion can to become a coach and leader that way.

Nobody would ever entrust him with anything except this.

I'll give him this and I'll give him a lifetime.

Where does he find the energy, Dan?

Push-ups in the locker room, Dan.

That's all you got to know.

Limitless energy right here.

What is this?

like i feel like i got to do push-ups the mascot is hyping him up this guy's tank is always on f

How does he do it?

He's an older man.

Danny Cannell was on satellite radio interviewing Joe Zagati last week, and I got out of the car, but was legitimately interested in what Joe's answer was to this because he was asked, what's the best of the games you've ever seen with the Seminoles and the Hurricanes?

Which is the one that you remember the most?

The one I remember is the one that Michael Irvin in the fourth quarter, down 19 to 3, came back and stole their championship, running down the sideline.

And Tony's faster than Michael is.

Like, Michael wasn't even one of the faster guys, but that's what those champions look like.

And this

team looks like that.

This team has Jason Taylor coaching the defensive ends.

Like, do you guys realize that how Jason Taylor is going to get into this game trying to be a head coach by having to do what he's done with those defensive ends?

They are learning from the best person to ever rush a passer in the state, in this region.

Like, Jason Taylor's working as an assistant coach, a Hall of Fame assistant coach coaching these defensive ends because they know it's championship good.

They know they have the bodies and the money to compete with anybody.

When I say it's fixed, you're right, Billy.

They'll have to buy another quarterback next year.

But those recruits saw what they did to Florida.

Like, this is Miami taking the state back.

They haven't been able to do that for a while.

It's been a minute.

I I mean, but that's not what they hired Mario Kristoff to do is to win the state.

Yes, it was.

That's correct.

Yes, it was.

No, it was.

It begins down here.

That's you win the recruiting battles down here, and you feel like if you win the recruiting battles down here, you have the guys to develop and give your team a chance.

They are nationally relevant.

He's done it inside of four years, and he knows the job's not finished.

He is back here to win a national championship for Miami.

Whether that's this year or down the line, it now feels like we are on that path.

and it hasn't felt like that in a very long time in terms of being sustainable, in terms of being real.

Yes, Billy is absolutely right.

He was brought here to win national championships.

You know who said that?

Mario Cristobal.

You know who says that privately?

Mario Cristobal.

You can't get there without having these benchmarks along the way.

Winning the state, back-to-back state champs, dominating at the line of scrimmage, looking like the best team in America at times.

Yeah, they're on their way.

Does it feel like the tide has turned a little bit on Mario?

The tide.

Is it early to say or is it

when Mario Cristobal knows more about analytics than people in the NFL right now?

Because I, for the life of me, if you think making a two-score game, a two-score game with a field goal is the right move, don't talk to me.

Don't talk to me.

You go to kill that game.

And he made the right call there.

The execution was bad.

They probably should have called the timeout because it was rushed.

Malachi, by the way, had a touchdown if he doesn't run into his offensive lineman.

Malaki.

Billy, I see your face.

Now, I want to go down a couple of paths here, Chris.

Help me do it because Mike just threw in a privately there that seems like it's bigger than Happen to Know and needs imaging.

Like that Mario has said something privately suggests that he's talking to Mario or listening, eavesdropping on Mario in private conversations.

So when Mike says he's been saying it privately, okay, I want imaging for that because that seems to be a higher standard of journalism than even Happen to Know.

Don't you agree?

Like what the sh what was that?

He said it privately.

He knows what the standard is here.

He knows what the standard is here better than I do, better than you do, better than Billy does.

He knows what it means.

So to that, for a second, for a second, knows what the standard is.

Yes, this is a very emotional story from Mario Cristobal, who can tell you the exile story and what it meant to coach both FIU and Miami.

And he's a lunatic, okay?

Just overzealous beyond all measure, indefatigable.

I guess if Jason Taylor were sitting here right now and I I asked him, are you scared of Mario?

I'd probably say yes.

I think.

Just the intensity is not sane.

It's, I've got to be better than my brother.

It's, I got to be better than all the other Cubans.

It's, I got to be better than them at Miami with the Columbus crew behind me.

I've got to represent Miami.

I've got to represent Miami for people Tony's age because

his dad knows what I am as an offensive lineman.

who shouldn't have been playing 100 pounds heavier than I was because I was willing to get, you know, ravage my body in the name of what you do to win this game.

I guarantee you, Rice.

I guarantee you, it's more like title good.

Yeah, but this ring now.

This person is infected with I'm going to win at We're Tougher Than You up front.

And he's got his lifelong friend next to him who doesn't come up to his knee, who's the offensive line coach.

And what I'm watching that I'm telling you is championship good is no, they'll devour you up front, too.

Like it's not what it was last year with Cam Ward.

The secondary will beat you.

You want to do it with the linebackers?

Like,

if that team stays healthy, it's just very clear that

there hasn't been this balanced a team here in Miami in 20 years.

You can't say this feels like the Stephen Morris University of Miami, Billy.

Can you?

Do you feel like this is all hyperventilation and absurdity and that we're all on Michael Irvin's stuff?

No, I'm just saying.

You brought in Mario Crystal Ball when there was a four-team playoff.

He did not make the 14 playoff.

It was expanded to a 12-team playoff.

He did not make the 12-team playoff with the number one pick in the draft.

The team looks good now, but you didn't bring him in to simply say we beat FSU and UF every year.

All correct.

So, like, you still need to make it.

And we've seen good teams that make it to the playoffs that don't end up winning.

So, when the standards are the national championship, you can't be going around saying 5-0, everything's fixed.

I think you can say the major problems facing this program are fixed.

You can't get back into that conversation being national title good without the guys getting picked at the top of the draft.

Miami just hasn't been doing that.

They had this unbelievable streak of getting first rounders drafted, and now we're looking at a roster that potentially has four top 20 guys on it right now.

It is,

to get there, you need the horses to get there.

He's getting there.

So let me just ask you this.

But recruiting has never been his problem.

Coaching is his problem.

That is correct.

So like saying that the team is well-rounded and you have all the recruits, that's fine.

What they need to overcome is him.

Is this not a well-coached team?

It's five games into the season.

All right, and they've had the hardest, they've had the hardest schedule, I think, in the nation.

And I think that I hear you.

No one's debating whether or not Miami needs to win a title to get absolutely back.

There's times for Mario Kristobal's criticisms.

There's been plenty of ample opportunities for you to criticize Mario Kristobal.

I'm not criticizing him.

He's just not throwing a championship parade.

I don't think it's a good thing.

He's criticizing the they're officially back statement.

I mean,

they're back and being in the conversation.

They were in the conversation last year.

Can I give you some of the history, though, when I tell you in all of the last 20 years, you've never heard me say it.

I don't do that.

I haven't.

And so maybe it's my arrogance saying, no, I know what looks championship good down here.

I've seen it six times.

I'm saying, oh, no, I'm looking.

It's not just that.

It's what happened to Texas in Florida.

And it's doing like, oh, the SEC is not actually out in front of anybody.

It's all just Mirage now.

Saban took all that with him.

Miami is so good this season that they're changing people's minds about team after

they play them.

I guess Notre Dame must not be that good.

USF, they were ranked.

We forget everything that we were saying about them being able to go into the swamp and beat Florida, but they must not be good because Miami throttled them.

Look at Florida.

They're broken.

What happens their very next game?

They beat Texas.

And not just beat Texas, dominate them in the way that Miami dominated Florida two weeks earlier.

Miami's a good team.

This was, I'm not going to allow people to reverse, to change the narrative around FSU's offense, too.

Look at those numbers.

They've been moving the ball.

This is crazy.

This is what I'm telling you.

It's not just the ego of arrogance and what I feel like is expertise.

It's because I watch that Miami team and I'm like, no, I trust that all that I'm seeing there is so, that all of that is durable, sustainable, solid, because those are all all athletes.

Because when I'm watching the USF game against Charlotte and they're getting up 23-0, and I know it's Charlotte, but six U.S., I've never seen this before.

First quarter, six dropped passes right in the chest of USF players because they haven't learned how to play football, but they're unbelievable athletes.

They have to go to USF because they can't get into the other three schools.

The other three that are taking the players are UF, FSU, and Miami.

And what Miami did to USF to me is more impressive than what they just did to Florida State.

Because in the USF game, they finished it.

There were no questions.

Like, this one will be 28-22, and people will wonder because they didn't watch the entirety of the game.

They're like, ah, Miami's playing close games late.

They're going conservative.

But I'm watching what is clearly a team of better athletes, top to bottom, front to top, like all of the positions in a way that's obvious.

Stephen Morris's team didn't feel like this going in top five to pitt.

Like it wasn't.

You did not trust them.

I trust them despite their coach.

I feel like their coach might botch one of these late.

I've seen him do it a number of times.

Dan, what other team in the nation is putting belt to ass on a brick wall?

Okay, what team, Dan?

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