Hour 2: D-R-A-M-A (feat. Jessica Smetana)

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This is the Don Labatar Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

We have a lot of show to get through here, to stuff into the next hour.

Greg Cody Show featuring Greg Cody has a great guest this week, one of the best he's ever had.

Do you remember what Stugatz's ranking was in the top 100 guests of all time of the Greg Cody Show featuring Greg Cody?

He was a top 10 guest, was he not?

Did he not finish in the top 10?

Stop looking at your son as if it's his podcast instead of yours.

He's the bookkeeper.

Like, he knows the top 100 better than I do.

Off the top of my head, I just know it.

Do you have a ranking of guests?

Yeah,

what was it for our 250th episode?

We have our top 100 guests of all time.

Awesome.

I like that.

And I think Stu Goss did rank number eight or something.

I think Tony Kornheiser was number one.

Yes.

Tony the K.

Finally got him.

Dan, you were in the top 10 too.

Don't worry.

No, he wasn't.

He was 11th.

Oh, we did that.

That was it.

Yeah, he was 11th.

I'm sorry, dan but uh yeah sugats is on this week uh he's always great i love stugats reviewing dolphins jets what do you say The uh number, if you want to give the Boost Mobile hot take line a little bit better of a hot take than it presently has, it has the name GOTS in it, the number, 305-486-GATS, 305-486-4689.

Are these calls any better than the recent calls?

Because you guys keep defending this thing, and I've been disappointed recently after you raised expectations on it.

Let's see what we have here this week.

It's the Boost Mobile boldest take presented by Boost Mobile, the newest 5G network in the country.

My boldest take is touchdowns with Guardian caps should count as two.

It's dinner, not supper.

We had the last supper.

Good for you, Da Vinci.

All right, it's done now.

Supper's lame.

It's dinner.

Just want to let you guys know that if you have a longer name than your nickname, you're doing it wrong.

Games, you can't be Jimmy.

George, you can't be Geo.

That's more syllables than the original name.

Long snappers are the unsung heroes of football teams.

I mean, you see kickers, missed kicks all the time, but how often do you actually see a bad snap?

Pay the long snappers.

Just wonder if anyone ever named their dog after an athlete that had changed the name, like OJ or Fav.

It's a term pop-blowing.

Is it a verb, an adverb, or adjective?

It's Hashan calling from inside my car to hide for my kids.

If you are a college, a ranked college team whose fans storm the field more than once during the season, it should count against your college football ranking.

Dan is an elitist.

I think that only one and four o'clock games should end in ties.

If it is a primetime game, they play till it ends like old baseball games.

Play until the next day for all I care.

The quad box is the most overrated thing in sports television.

I bought a 60-inch TV.

I don't want four 15-inch TVs.

Screw you, Scott Hansen.

305-486 GOTS is the number.

Not a good batch, Zaszlo.

I couldn't agree more, though, with the quad box take.

Like, you can't tell me that you're watching the quad box and you're actually able to focus on anything that's happening.

You're getting snippets of four different games, which means you don't know anything that's happening in any game.

We're currently on a quad box right now, if you're looking at us, but I actually disagree.

I don't, I like the quad box because at least I'm getting four games.

The double box, they don't make it bigger.

It's like still the size of the quad box.

So I'm getting two games smaller.

Like at least, at least the four box, I feel like I'm watching a lot.

The two box, there's so much empty space on my TV.

Why can't we make these fit on my screen fully?

It's annoying.

Give me one show on my TV, please.

My wife is the red zone queen.

We got to watch red zone around her and it's just like it's mind-numbing.

There's just too much going on at once.

No, red zone's fine because it's just one thing that's happened.

Then they take you to another thing.

They're not all on your screen.

Sometimes there's multiple things on the screen.

They're talking about plays that I don't care about.

Who cares about a touchdown on a game I'm not betting on?

I don't have any fantasy players in it.

You predict every game.

I know I do, but I'll find out the score eventually.

How are you doing this year, by the way?

On my predictions?

Yeah.

You know,

it's been a little bit of a slow start.

Yeah?

Yeah.

A little bit of a slow start.

Thank you.

PFPI?

PFPI, I had a good week.

I was 11 and 5 last week.

We vaulted up.

We passed Tatiana's llamas.

I think it's just Tati's llamas.

You're right, it is Tati's Llamas.

So we're moving on up like the Jefferson, and we're getting there.

Got a bigger issue with red zone.

Resolution sucks.

It's 2025, and we're doing this thing in 480p it looks bad it doesn't look good you know five years ago in europe every soccer game's in 4k no every like you tune in you got your 4k packages you get like two games a weekend that's 4k it's ridiculous i don't know what any of that stuff means yeah i think emerson from draft kings is hated because everyone was like god i'm gonna hate the commercials and then we were like waiting to see what the commercials are and then all of a sudden emerson pops up on the screen like hey draft kings use this code hey go Knights, though.

Emerson, UCF Knight.

Yeah, sure.

You want me to go?

I'll go again.

Minor penalty, two minutes, asshole.

He didn't sleep yesterday.

How would you put two, Chris?

Would you have them like be broadcast sideways so that it's make it work, TV?

Look, that's not for me to figure out.

Because the games are what you know what TV is wider than it is tall.

They need to make space.

The boxes fit to every TV.

There.

We will get to Jessica in just a second.

We're also going to get to the useless sound montage before the end of the show.

It's loaded this week.

Before we get to Jessica, though, we've got an active revolt in the WNBA, and it is unusual for a player of the caliber of the excellence of Nafisa Collier to just scorch management this way in a way that is super eloquent.

And we've talked before about the general officiating problem throughout sport.

We've talked specifically of the officiating problem in the WNBA.

But to go after leadership this way, it is really rare.

And she is speaking.

There are a whole lot of players who have spoken up right behind her saying, man, this is just a mess at the top of the WNBA.

I want to be clear, this conversation is not about winning or losing.

It's about something much bigger.

The real threat to our league isn't money.

It isn't ratings or even missed calls, or even physical play.

It's the lack of accountability from the league office.

Since I've been in the league, you've heard the constant concerns about officiating and it has now reached levels of inconsistency that plague our sport and undermine the integrity in which it operates.

Whether the league cares about the health of the players is one thing, but to also not care about the product we put on the floor is truly self-sabotage.

The league has a buzzword that they've rolled out as talking points for the CBA as to why they can't pay the players what we're worth.

That word is sustainability.

But what's truly unsustainable is keeping a good product on the floor while allowing officials to lose control of games.

Fans see it every night.

Coaches, both winning and losing, point it out every night in pregame and post-game media.

Yet leadership just issues fines and looks the other way.

They ignore the issues that everyone inside the game is begging to be fixed.

That is negligence.

At Unrival this past February, I sat across from Kathy and asked how she planned to address the officiating issues in our league.

Her response was, well, only the losers complain about the refs.

I also asked how she planned to fix the fact that players like Caitlin, Angel, and Paige, who are clearly driving massive revenue for the league, are making so little for their first four years.

Her response was, Caitlin should be grateful she makes $60 million off the court because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn't make anything.

And in that same conversation, she told me, Players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.

That's a mentality driving our league from the top.

The league believes it succeeds despite its players, not because of them.

There's more to that.

She said more.

You can hear her a little breathy, a little nervous.

This has to be something that is nerve-wracking.

She was on South Beach sessions and was excellent, far more relaxed than this, but she's doing something here to Kathy Engelbert, who a lot of people have a complaint about, the commissioner of the league.

And you can hear the nerves in her voice a little bit.

I have the privilege of watching my husband run a league where he has to balance a hundred different things at once.

I won't pretend the job is easy, but even with all of that on on his plate, he always takes the time to reach out to players when he sees an injury, whether it's unrivaled or even during the WNBA season.

That is what leadership looks like.

It's the human element.

It's basic integrity, and it's the bare minimum any leader should embody.

This year alone, I've gotten calls, texts, and well wishes from so many players across the league.

But do you know who I haven't heard from?

Kathy.

Not one call, not one text.

Instead, the only outreach has come from her number two telling my agent that she doesn't believe physical play is contributing to injuries.

That is infuriating.

And it's the perfect example of the tone-deaf, dismissive approach that our leaders always seem to take.

I've finally grown tired.

For too long, I have tried to have these conversations in private, but it's clear there is no intention of accepting there's a problem.

The league has made it clear it isn't about innovation, it isn't about collaboration, it's about control and power.

I've earned this platform, and I've paid the price to get here, and now I have a responsibility to speak on behalf of the fans and everyone in this league that deserves better.

Our leadership's answer to being held accountable is to suppress everyone's voices by handing out fines.

I'm not concerned about a fine.

I'm concerned about the future of our sport.

At some point, everyone deserves to hear the truth from someone who I hope has earned the benefit of the doubt to fight for what is right and fair for our athletes and our fans.

We have the best players in the world.

We have the best fans in the world.

But right now, we have the worst leadership in the world.

If I didn't know exactly what the job entailed, maybe I wouldn't feel this way.

But unfortunately for them, I do.

We serve a league that has shown they think championship coaches and Hall of Fame players are dispensable, and that's fine.

It's professional sports.

But I will not stand quietly by and allow different standards to be applied at the league level.

Wow, that's monumental to me.

I mean,

she is leading, with the support of the players, she is leading a mutiny against the commissioner of a major league, and she's doing it at a time when the league is on its biggest stage in the playoffs, about to go into the finals.

This would be the equivalent of Patrick Mahomes openly leading a mutiny against Roger Goodell.

This cannot be understated how important it is.

Okay, so first of all, this league is wild.

All right.

In general, it is a wild league.

I don't know any other league in professional sports in North America.

It's non-stop drama with this league.

It's pretty crazy.

And we've never, at least I don't think we've ever seen something like this where a player, certainly as high profile as Nafisa Collier, is calling essentially for the removal of the commissioner.

Now, I do think it's important to point out they're in the middle of a labor dispute, and you know, essentially the players here are saying, we don't want to deal with her anymore, you know, who is the negotiating head of the owners here.

But some of the quotes that she put out, or some of the things that she says there that Kathy Engelbert told her one time, are pretty nuts.

Like, the idea that Caitlin Clark should be grateful for the WMBA because otherwise she wouldn't be able to make all of the money elsewhere Sounds like a really terrible thing for Kathy Engelbert to go around saying to people.

I don't want to hear that it's she was having a private conversation.

Kathy Engelbert's not friends with the players.

Like she's the commissioner.

So anytime she's speaking to a player, you're speaking as a representative of the WMBA and as commissioner.

So I don't care about that part.

It's not like she's out there snitching on Kathy Engelbert.

Okay.

I do want to point out, though, she mentions, you know, she knows what it's like to run a league because my husband runs a league and and I see all this.

Her husband runs unrivaled.

All right.

Like, I think it's important to point that out as well, which is, hey, you know, she's a terrible leader, but my husband, who runs the league that, you know, we're doing over here, I do think it's important to point out the possible conflict of interest when it comes to that.

But man, like, that was...

That was a hit she put out on Kathy Engelbert.

I've never heard anything like that.

Yeah, I think the drama in the NBA is good.

I think Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark having this big rivalry is great for the league.

But it's all up, and they can, the officiating is

what's current right now, but the underpinning.

I think it's been the biggest story in the league this year.

Yes, but the underpinning of the whole thing continues to be the salaries and the disparity.

And it's what got Brittany Griner arrested in Russia a few years ago.

And the disparity continues.

Even though the wages are going up, it's still terrible.

And the NBA, which is involved financially in the WNBA, needs to do appreciably more, appreciably more than it than it is doing.

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Don Lebatard.

I don't think I ever got that many roses in my whole life.

Stugats.

Certainly not from your lovely grandfather, God.

May I soul rest in peace?

This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

I do think we're going to bring in Jess here.

She hosts the Echoes podcast with Mike Golick, and this week they have Jeremiah Love on because

this is not, not, not an Echo Champion.

They celebrate all things Notre Dame football.

One of the reasons that the officiating is the big story is because it's easy for us to talk about the officiating and not necessarily Aces Fever Game 5 or Phoenix Mercury.

I know Zaz is watching the WNBA very closely.

You and I, Greg, are not.

It's easier for us to talk about macro topics.

But Jessica, what did you make of what it is that Nafisa Collier did and said there?

I thought that it was, obviously, like the officiating angle is what has been a big part of the conversation this season, but I really think that was only a way, an entry point for her because of what happened at the end of the Lynx game on Sunday night.

I think that obviously the bigger takeaway here is that the players in the league are in this labor dispute and they feel like Kathy Engelbert has been a truly terrible leader at a time in which, like Greg mentioned, the WNBA is on its biggest stage, has the most viewers in history, and needs a leader who's able to actually work with the players and get them the things that they need.

And instead, Kathy Engelbert has done a lot of things that the players feel like have been wrong by them.

So, I mean, all the examples that you heard that she gave, but there's also just been like these silly faux pas that she's made, like last year wearing the New York skyline dress to the end, the finals game, where the Liberty won in another controversial end of game officiating situation and pronouncing names wrong of coaches that she's giving awards to, things like that.

So I really think that this is a bigger thing.

And to talk about Unrivaled for a second, like, yes, she's saying her husband, he's, I believe, the president of Unrivaled.

Obviously, she's biased towards that, but Nafisa Collier is one of the founders of Unrivaled.

So she herself knows how to run a league she's been in meetings with brands and with television networks and she knows that when you want to get things done if you actually want to get something done

it's a little bit easier than maybe the WMBA leadership has led on to like I think private jets is a is a great example of that apparently there are these huge setbacks huge hurdles to flying charter flights to games until all of a sudden there wasn't because eventually the WNBA decided that was something they actually wanted to do.

I'm sure that there's other examples of that too, right?

But Nafisa Collier in her experience has found that actually the, you know, some of these things when you actually want to get them done and do them for the players are a little bit easier than they may be letting on to.

And of course, the uniqueness of all of this is because of the ownership structure in the WNBA.

I mean Kathy Engelbert is appointed by Adam Silver.

I believe she is sort of a scapegoat here.

I don't think she's doing anything that the NBA doesn't want her to do.

So I do believe that this is a problem that's bigger than she is.

But as this ongoing labor negotiation is going to stretch on and the players believe that they are a very far ways away from having any sort of agreement with management, I think that this is a very calculated move to

especially to get all of the fans on board together

against management, against a common opponent, and to explain that, hey, we want to give you guys high-level basketball.

We want an entertaining product.

We want all of the fans to understand that this isn't because the players are stuck in their ways.

This is because there's a lot of forces against us right now trying to prevent those things from happening.

Jess, is it slightly bad form, though, for the timing of this statement from her?

Because I'm sure the league and what's best for the league would be all eyes on.

We now have a matchup in the WNBA finals, but the biggest story by far is what Nafista Collier said yesterday.

No, I don't think so, because I think that, if anything, I think this will get people interested in the WNBA in general because this is such a, I mean, I think this could legitimately be like a paradigm shifting moment in the WNBA, especially there was reporting that came out last night in Sports Business Journal that Kathy Engelbert was not going to proceed after the negotiation and she was going to step down anyway.

So, I mean, for there to be a leadership change at this point, I think is a pretty big story, but I don't think that this takes away from, I'm curious, I'm sure the ratings were huge because the Fever have gotten huge ratings all

season long, even without Caitlin Clark, But I'm sure the Aces Fever game probably still had a ton of viewers, even though it was on too late.

And I might have dozed off a little bit because it ended after midnight.

It went into overtime.

But it was still really exciting, games, as, and now the finals go to seven games if you know, if needed.

So I don't think that this really takes away from that.

If anything, I think it's getting people, especially fans, like really interested, invested in what is going to come here.

What did you take away from Aces Fever game five, and just in general, the weird route that the Aces took back to the finals?

It was a lot, Dan.

I mean, and also another game where a lot of people are going to talk about the officiating because Aaliyah Boston fouled out.

And some people thought that it was a little ticky-tack.

It was a little ticky-tack considering what, you know, the physicality level has been in some of these other series.

So, especially even in that series.

So, yeah, it was...

Awesome.

I thought to see the Fever make it that far because they've had so many injuries this season, like player after player after player season ending injury.

I thought they fought really hard and the fact that they took it to overtime was crazy.

It would have been really cool to see them make it to a final given the just insanity of the season that they've had.

I'm sure their fans are exhausted right now.

But it was just a really exciting game.

I mean, high-level play from Jackie Young and Asia Wilson, who's obviously the MVP of the league.

She just is so good and just awesome.

And the Aces, despite not having a front court that can really score a lot and contribute a lot, has somehow made it back to the finals after a season in which they lost in a historic blowout fashion midway through the summer.

Like, every, I saw, like, Asia Wilson, I think, said last night that people counted us out.

And a lot of people rolled their eyes at that and were like, no one counted you out.

You're the Aces.

I counted them out.

I didn't think they were going to be back in the finals.

I thought that this season, like, nothing was going their way.

So, yeah, they were able to dig deep and pull it off there.

And, you know, it's going to be an exciting finals between them and the Mercury.

They're kind of two completely different teams, but it's going to be, I think it's going to be good basketball.

I want to talk some college football here with Jess.

I want, Greg, did you have any opinions on what happened with Colorado and Deion Sanders and just

the general crassness that we're seeing from crowds that range from the Ryder Cup to the Colorado Stadium crowd?

Yeah, I mean, Colorado has been fined $50,000 because a number of their fans were chanting F the Mormons when they played BYU.

And

it's just, it's crude, it's crass, it's embarrassing.

And what happened at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage in New York was worse.

They were chanting the F-word directly at Rory McElroy.

And it seems to be, I don't know whether it's political climate or what, I don't want to get too macro on this, but there's just a degradation of civility and sportsmanship at sports events.

And I really, really think it's sad.

And I like that they're finding teams because their fans chant all this, and there have been repercussions from what happened at the Ryder Cup.

But it really needs to stop.

It's just so crude and rude.

Let's hear Deion Sanders apologizing for the behavior of Colorado students.

Let me mention this, and Rick might not want me to mention it, I know it was an incident at the conclusion of the game or whatsoever.

On behalf of CU, on behalf of our athletic department, we would like to apologize to

our opponents from a week ago for whatever derogatory statements were made by our fans.

That's not indicative of who we are.

Our student body, our kids are phenomenal.

So don't indict us

just based on a group of young kids that probably was intoxicated and hired simultaneously.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that as well.

But the truth will make you free.

But BYU, we love you.

We appreciate you.

And we support you.

I mean, Colorado, they probably, Colorado, you can smoke as much as you want, wherever you want.

The truth will make you free.

I've heard him talk about it like every second quarter.

I don't know what's going on in the stadium.

Jessica, what were your thoughts of Dion and everything that happened there?

You know, my thoughts are that the best apologies are honest ones, and maybe he was slightly too honest, but it, you know, it sounded sincere.

So I think he did a good job there.

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Don Lebatard.

I don't like smarty either.

Stugats.

Women stay home in the kitchen where they belong.

This is the Don Lebatard show with the Stugats.

Speaking of crassness, what about the Pitt players jumping the Louisville ball boy?

What's going on?

Dude, that was so bad.

Yeah, it was crazy.

I don't know if you saw the video, Dan, but yeah, the Pitt players were trying to get, well, so this is the Louisville ball person.

I don't know.

Do we call them ball boys when they're adults?

Probably ball men.

But he was trying to recover the football because in college football, and David Ubben wrote a story about this for the athletics.

So you are responsible for the footballs that your offense uses throughout a game.

And when you're away, you want to make sure you get all your footballs back.

So he was trying to make sure he got his football back after a pit interception there.

And the pit player was trying to like do like a crossover thing with it.

And I don't know what he was going to do it, maybe try to keep it or something.

So the ball person was doing his job there trying to make sure he got his football back and there's been other instances in the past where ball people have tried to get their footballs back while the offense or whoever you know the away team is trying to get it back from them but this this one got particularly uh spicy dan so i i encourage people to look to read that article because it was very interesting and this guy from louisville i think his name's zephyan wade he takes his job very seriously and i i have to commend him for this effort here i have i don't like what they did to him No, it was bad.

No, me neither.

That was a bad scene, and everybody was like wondering what was going on there.

Jess, you're familiar with the market, and I am a veteran of a lot of bad crowds at a pro football stadium for an ACC football game.

That crowd for Pitt versus Louisville was as bad as I've ever seen for an ACC conference game.

I don't know if it's a bright yellow seat, but that was pitiful.

What's going on over there?

I don't know.

I'm going to a game at Pitt later this year, and I am scared.

One of the probably worst experience, that wasn't my phone, by the way, one of the worst experiences I've had as a college football fan was leaving Heinzfield, now Ackershore Stadium, after Notre Dame lost to Pitt in, I believe, 2013.

And it was just a terrible and humiliating experience, Dan.

And it was made worse by the fact that all of the people heckling me were also Steelers fans.

And I was going back to Heinzfield the next day for a Steelers game.

And I was trying to be like, hey guys, I'm on your team, sort of.

Like, be nice.

I'm a Steelers fan, but everyone was very angry, and it was very upsetting.

I don't know what's going on.

I mean, people have general theories about fans being worse now post-COVID and people not knowing how to behave in public and things like that.

I think that more, maybe we just shouldn't have sporting events in Long Island.

There's a lot of things contributing.

I was talking in terms of attendance.

That crowd was real thin.

I know Pitt, you know, that's it's never great when you're playing in a pro stadium for a college football program, but that was bad.

Yeah, I mean, they should have never torn down Pitt Stadium, Mike.

What can I say?

Actually, speaking of Pittsburgh, I have a little Forbes Field, another

forgotten stadium up in the corner of my bedroom right there.

So

put it on the poll, please, at Lebatar Show.

Should we stop having sporting events in Long Island?

I watched your Fighting Irish, your beloved Fighting Irish against Arkansas.

They toyed with them.

Double reverses with a pass off of a punt from their own 20-yard line, just fooling around because because Arkansas is terrible, so terrible that they're thinking about bringing Bobby Petrino back, which seems truly insane.

Put up the pictures there.

I want to know who it is that Jessica thought won this particular contest between the Petrino outfits of me and Lucy Rodine here, where we impersonated Bobby Petrino after he wrecked his motorcycle.

Her red face seems a little bit better.

Hers was scarier.

Someone after the show actually texted me and was like, is Lucy okay?

I saw she got in an accident.

So I'm going to have to go with Lucy there.

Yeah, so Bobby Petrino was hired as the offensive coordinator a couple, or last year, I want to say, and now he's the interim head coach because Sam Pittman was fired after the Notre Dame game.

Some people were saying, Dan, that maybe Bobby Petrino was sabotaging Arkansas's offense during the game, knowing that he would be named interim if Sam Pittman was fired.

I don't think that was the case.

I think Notre Dame just played better on defense than they have all season.

But I do think it's crazy because this is like one of the first sports, like college football scandals that I really remember.

Like it was at

an age where I could actually process how bad of a situation this was.

Like there was lying involved.

There was obfuscation involved.

There was just cheating involved.

Like it was so nasty.

And the fact that they even brought him back as a coordinator was pretty shocking to me.

But I was like, okay, I mean, I guess, you know, second chances question mark.

It just felt like it was so embarrassing for the university that I'm just still sort of surprised that this all happened.

But I guess, you know, maybe I shouldn't be.

It's 2025.

No one has shame anymore.

I hate when obfuscation happens.

Yeah, me too.

Are you someone who feels like she knows what Alabama is?

I think we'll find out against Vanderbilt, Dan.

I think if we watch them defensively hold up against the type of offense Vanderbilt runs, I think that that will bode well for Alabama as a team.

I will also say, I was listening to your conversation about quad boxes.

The

Oregon-Penn State game in one box and the Alabama, Georgia game in the other box, first time in a while, I've been like, I feel like I'm missing a lot from this Alabama, Georgia game.

And I feel like I should have gone full screen with that one, at least in the first half, because that first half of that

Oregon-Penn State game was so freaking boring.

Actually was watching with Taylor.

We watched the first half at a bar.

Didn't really miss much, but we were watching the Alabama, Georgia game on our phone.

And yeah, it felt like

that would have been the first half to watch full stream.

How did that poll come back asking earlier this week, has Penn State 17-3 deficit felt insurmountable since 1986?

Because once they got,

it really was surprising to me that Penn State got back into that game.

Not that they lost it, obviously, but that they even tied it.

It was how they got back, too.

Like that very quick drive, a couple nice passes, like it was very surprising to me too, Dan.

And it kind of makes you wonder, like, was the game plan too conservative from the jump?

And is, is that, I mean, I guess that is sort of the criticism of James Franklin is that, like, he is just too conservative sometimes, even when his team is good and it doesn't put them in a position to win these games, especially when you're going against a very aggressive head coach like Dan Lanning.

I wish I sent you guys the video of Dan Lanning that I posted over the weekend because he was unhinged.

It was a video from an Oregon beat reporter who ran onto the field after the game ended.

And Dan Lanning is screaming like into the sky, and it is terrifying.

But yes, Dan, it was not just that they came back, it was the way they came back I thought was impressive.

And then overtime happened.

Man.

Diego Pavia was your September Heisman winner.

What's your Heisman

looking like right now?

Who's your?

I mean, this is obviously huge for Diego Pavio.

Why wouldn't it still be DM?

No, no, no.

But

who's getting the invite to New York as of right now in your rankings?

Okay, first of all, it's like 11 a.m.

on October 1st.

So you've given me 11 hours and there hasn't even been a game yet.

By the way, wearing my first sweater of fall.

Happy fall, y'all.

It's soup season, Mike.

Second of all,

I don't, I really like JKS if we're going the quarterback route.

Cal's quarterback.

He had an electric fourth quarter performance against Boston College last week.

There's been a lot of talk and chatter about how the first round hopeful quarterbacks in college football this year have been disappointing.

Drew Allar, Garrett Nussmeyer, Arch Manning.

Kate Klubnick.

Kate Klebnick, yes, that's who I was forgetting.

Now, do I think that that...

There's any correlation between the four of them.

I'm not sure.

I think they all have been bad for different reasons, possibly.

In Drew Allar's case, I don't think he's ever ever been that great in big games.

In Arch Manning's case, maybe he's just not the guy.

I mean, you know, he's how old?

21 now?

He's waited a couple of years to play.

It's not like he's a true freshman or anything like that.

Garrett Nussmeyer also could be injured.

So like

I'm willing to wait on that one.

Kay Klebnick, I feel like there's too much going wrong with Clemson's offense that I can't diagnose it.

He doesn't seem like he can read a defense.

They don't seem like they're putting him in a good position.

It's just been a terrible season for Clemson.

But have fun at that game, Zaz.

Now, my larger point is, as disappointing as I think those four quarterbacks have been, there have been so many surprises, Ty Simpson being one of them this past weekend.

CJ Carr, of course, I'm a Notre Dame fan, so I have to mention him, has been way better and way better than anyone expected, frankly.

Really good player.

And of course, the Cal freshman has been great.

Dante Moore, who's not a young player, but has now gotten a second chance playing with some experience under his belt, I thought was really good in that Penn State game, too.

So

I would not let that the big name disappointment sort of cloud your judgment of what the quarterback situation is currently like in college football.

I think there's a lot of players that are really exciting.

And so that being said,

October Heisman field is wide open right now.

Don't think she mentioned Trinidad Chambliss.

Yes, Trinidad Chambliss.

My father pronounces Ole Miss Ole Miss when he reads it.

I love that.

Who is better, Ole Miss or Texas Tech?

Oh, of

give the edge to Ole Miss right now, but I traded out Chambliss.

Another player, Dan, didn't, where did he come from?

Ferris State?

He was not on my radar before the season started.

Him, between him, Dante Moore, CJ Carr, Bryce Underwood, something's going on in Michigan.

These Michigan quarterbacks, they have over, perhaps not overperformed, but they have met expectations this year.

Do you have any bad news for Mike Ryan, UM FSU, FSU, this weekend?

No, but Ruben Bain could be on the on the Heisman, October Heisman watch list, Mike.

I know you were 100% right about Virginia and Florida State.

That was a

massive upset on Friday night, and it had monster Friday night ratings.

Unfortunately, the Thursday and Friday night slate this week, it's not...

It's not what you want, Dan.

It's underwhelming, but there is baseball and there is basketball and there is NFL football, of course.

But I don't think we're going to see any crazy Friday night upsets, unfortunately.

We got to get Bain in your Heisman category just for you to dust off your impression.

Impression.

There hasn't been a more dominant player in college football, but that's not what the award goes out to usually.

And it also doesn't go to anyone other than quarterbacks, like ever.

Aiden Hutchinson's probably the best comp.

Like, he finished second, and Miami needs to have that kind of season that Michigan had for Ruben Bain to make it.

And the women in the WNBA are very dramatic.

Unlike the NBA, which has an entire meme called This League dedicated to it.

It's only the W that's dramatic.

She hosts the Echoes podcast.

I knew when you said dramatic.

We were all feeling it.

We are like a finger up.

There it is.

As soon as you said it, they also love money.

And they love money.

Oh, this league loves

drama.

She hosts the Echoes podcast, and Jeremiah Love.

He's pretty good.

He needs to stop jumping over people.

He's going to hurt himself.

Dan, if you're watching that Arkansas game you saw, he's hitting the spin move now.

All right.

Whatever the button that is on the controller, he's not hitting jump.

He's hitting spin now.

He needs to do spin.

Jumping up and down is going to get him really hurt, and I like to watch him run.

Thank you, Jessica.

Nice seeing you.

Greg Cody.

Happy fall.

Happy fall.

It is a lovely sweater.

Greg Cody, one more time.

You want to tell people the Greg Cody show featuring Greg Cody, why should they listen when it's a preview of the Jets Dolphins game?

Why should they listen to the Greg Cody show featuring Greg Cody

when they're you're previewing dolphins jets?

Well, you act as if that's the only thing on the episode.

This is the new

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