PMS 2.0 1465 - NFL Week 14 Preview/Picks, TNF Recap, Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Henry Jr. Makes His College Commitment, Nick Saban, Stanford Steve, & AJ Hawk

Here we go. Welcome to the Pat McAfee Show.
I'm AJ Hawk sitting in at Pat's desk. He's down to Atlanta for a big game, boys.
There was a big game last night. Lions beat the Cowboys.

Football!

It happened last night. Obviously, one of the best ever on the call, obviously up there, and Peter makes an appearance.

Pat, I know you're down at the beautiful Mercedes-Benz Dome right there in Atlanta, Georgia, for the SEC Championship. Who do you got with you? There you got a couple guests.

Yeah, obviously Living Legend Peter is here.

Peter Herbstreet, an absolute stallion, and then Kirk Herbstreet, fresh off the call last night up in Detroit.

Shake his hand, Kirk.

What the hell was going on? What just happened? Thank you, James. Because he had that Polymandel fit.
That was unbelievable.

I thought he was doing, I thought you were doing Kirk Herbstreet.

Yeah, I didn't know you were.

I thought knife hand. Okay, I respect that.
I understand that. Peter's here, obviously, but Kirk, obviously, fresh off a flight from Detroit down here to Atlanta for the SEC Championship.

It just means more, doesn't it? That's kind of the big selling point is it just means more down here. That's what they say.
Alabama versus Georgia. It's obviously storied in tradition and a rivalry.

Seemingly as long as ball has been ball, two great teams trying to take home the SEC championship. Yeah, yeah, I think it's going to be a great, it's always a great scene.

You know, we do all these games from the beginning to the end, all the way to the national championship.

And I always say, and people would say, these conference championships, they don't matter the way they used to.

Show up here Saturday at 4 o'clock and feel the vibe and the energy that'll be in this dome. It's still a championship on the line.
It's not what it used to be.

You win this, you advance in the old days, you lose, you're out. But this is still going to be as good a scene I think college football has to offer.

Now, there's some championship games where if they lose, they're obviously out of the conversation. If they win, they might be out of the college football playoff conversation.

And certainly, chaos could happen throughout championship Saturday. The Big Ten obviously has number one versus number two.
And AJ, I talk to you.

Thank you for traveling over to Indianapolis to the Thunderdome on this glorious Dookie feel good Friday

on that note Ohio State very used to the Big Ten championship games very used to the massive moments very used to it all Indiana under Signetti here already in a Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis Seat Geek sending us stats the Hoosiers I think are about to fill up the loudhouse in the Lucas Oil Stadium they're not just going to fill up the stadium at night I think the entire city all day

well how do people in Columbus feel about this you you beat the cute Indiana Hoosiers last year right That's kind of maybe the thought. Or do you have respect for their team this year?

Or how do you think Ohio State fans feel about the championship as a whole?

No, I think the people that I have been around, the people I talk to, they have a ton of respect for Signetti and what Indiana has done. I mean, Indiana is legit.

You can't, I don't think you can doubt them anymore. He comes back after the great year last year, and they put on another unbelievable performance.

So I think it's a great, like, you know, what do you call it, like measuring tool or a measuring thing to say, hey,

measuring. stick, litmus test, all those old cliches you want to talk about.
But I believe, Kirk, you would know even better than I.

I believe ryan day said nobody on this team currently has won the big ten championships this is a big deal for these guys they want to win you know what still would say if they're keeping score we want to win the game even though it is a little different now with the college football playoff in the future Yeah, AG, you know, anytime, if you're a player, you're playing for a championship and you're playing a team, let's face it, talking about, do you respect Indiana?

How can you not respect Indiana?

You know, based on what they did last year, but to me, what they've done this year, they're a very different team this second year with Signetti because of the line of scrimmage.

They're tough to run the football on. They established their run game.

Mendoza gets a lot of the recognition and the credit, which he should, but guys, I've been more impressed with they go to Eugene, Oregon win.

They go into Iowa City in a tough environment and find a way to win without their fastball.

They've just overcome the play against Penn State at the end of the game. They've got some moxie about them.
They've got some belief. I just don't think if this were last year, it'd be like...

What'd you say? Cute story.

That's kind of what last year. This isn't that way this year.
I think it's a different Indiana team, and I think the atmosphere in there is going to be electric. It'll be awesome.

Yeah, it's going to be spectacular. And you talk about maybe this year being different than last year.
I think Signetti can feel it too.

Signetti, AJ, said, I don't have to be the person that's just like causing headline after headline after headline every single week with everything I'm saying about how great our team is and how terrible every other team is.

I think he even says, like, I think we're at a different spot now than we were before. I think that's true.

They've been tested this year. They were not really tested last year.
They've been tested and they've found ways to to win.

And I think that gives you a very different team getting into a matchup like this. Let's go to one half of the hammer.
Done.

Nailed it. Yeah, I'm in there.
AP Tone. Tone, their defense, too, has a little bit of maturity, too, right, at all three levels on the Indiana side.

I think a lot of people, obviously, last year, did Conada's little brother certainly tearing it up a rourke on the offensive side, surprising a lot of people.

They wondered about the defense matching up against the big bodies of the big schools. This year, they got some continuity, and they had some people return at big places.

Indiana is ready for this, right? Or is anybody ready for Ohio State with the way they look? Real quick before the guys respond to that, I think that's... That's what we don't know.

We keep saying about Ohio State, how good are they? Well, they went to Michigan in a really tough rivalry game in a tough environment.

And I think all of us walked away from that like, yep, they are that team.

This team could be somehow better than they were last year because of the way they're getting Julian Sands planned, the maturity on the outside with Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith and Ennis.

They can run the ball now with Bo Jackson. The offensive line looks better.
And I think this defense, they are dominant. But with all that being said, again, this is good against good.

And what's great is it's not subjective analysis. We're going to see 60 minutes of these teams kicking each other's asses, which I think that's what we want to see.
Who's the better team?

A lot of subjective analysis coming on this particular program today. The athletic director of Notre Dame, Pete Papa, will be joining us at 12.40 Eastern Time.

But Tone, I think the defensive side of Indiana, they are definitely and should be much more confident this year than maybe last year. Does anybody have anything to hold up against Ohio State?

And I think Indiana can really do this thing, especially with what Lucas Oil is going to be like. Agreed.

And the All Big Ten team came out yesterday, I believe, and 13 of the 22 positions were either Ohio State or Indiana. for first team all big 10.
So this is obviously a one versus two.

But what you're talking about,

Indiana had three all Big Ten defenders last year. Mikael Kamara, Aiden Fisher, and then D'Angelo Pons.
That was D-tackle, linebacker, and corner. They all came back.
They're all all big 10.

Again, Kamara leads the country in pressures from the interior. Aiden Fisher obviously is the leader at the linebacker position.
And then Ponds is first team all Big Ten again at Corner.

So they have guys at every single level. To be like Ohio State, Indiana, these are the two best teams that they're going to face all season long.

Yeah, IU played Oregon, which was a really, really good test. But But is Oregon Ohio State? Probably not.
We saw that last year.

And then coming in this year, Ohio State has only gotten better on both sides of the ball.

So, no, this is going to be the best test for both teams, and two of the best teams in the country facing each other on Saturday nights going to be awesome.

Yeah, we're very excited for championship weekend. And obviously, Peter is getting his workout in Arande Stadium, a place that he frequents.
He knows this place very, very well.

But let's talk about last night with another place that Peter was at and you were at. How about them Detroit Lions? Foxy, I haven't even really got a chance to chit-chat with you about this

because he, you know, the game ran late. But Foxy, huge win for the Lions.
Are we all the way back?

I know we got a couple injuries, obviously, that are going to continue to maybe haunt this Detroit Lions team for whatever, I guess.

Are they always going to catch an injury bug, which is just, as Peter, you know, doing his thing,

that was awesome. Peter, he dropped the ball under the stage.
So now we got

under the stage. He was trying to create a crack on the stage where the cameras are with the stage that we're standing on.
Now he's under the stage.

Peter is a dog i i mean in every single sense of the word there but the lions look great things go their way and then on the flip side the dallas cowboys cd might go for a thousand yards in one game he gets concussed off the ground george pickens looks a lot like what pittsburgh steelers george pickens look like and the lions get a dominant win are the cowboys fouguz are the lions all the way back foxy is a lions fan what are your thoughts on the game like yeah all day yesterday i woke up and i had a little pep in my step because this was a playoff game.

Cowboys versus Lions, all the analytics said, whoever loses this game, you're out. And whoever wins, you got a chance still.

And the Lions, they, honestly, the big-time players for the Lions made big time plays when we needed it. Goff was absolutely perfect.
St. Brown was money.
Gibbs, all over the place.

J-Mo, all over the place. Jack Campbell on defense is an absolute monster.
And then on the flip side, like you guys mentioned, like George Pickens just didn't make the plays.

They're big-time players didn't make the plays.

And that's what this game game came down to and I just love that we still have a chance it's a it's a long chance but the lions are looking good and the offense is gonna have to take over for this team

well I had I was Foxy I was thinking about you during the the game and being in Detroit and I was with you the analytics showed that this was going to be a must-win I mean there's still I guess Mathematically, you're still in it, but yeah, yeah, but this was a must-win.

Don't forget, this was 27-9.

I think you've got to to give Dallas a lot of credit for they got it to a seven-point game. And how about Tom Kennedy? Huge return.
I think people maybe forget about that late in that game.

He had a huge return almost to midfield to set Goff up. And Dan Campbell, you know, when conventional wisdom says, hey, let's run the ball.
Let's work the clock.

He goes play action on second down and hits St. Brown, who, by the way, once again, just shows you the dog that he is, the alpha that he is by playing through the ankle pain.

He's got 10 days now to recover to get ready for their next matchup next Sunday night against the Chargers. But Goff played well.

I think leaving that game, I think it's really about the Detroit defense.

As Foxy, I'm sure, has talked about, they were just not able to affect the quarterback as Jordan loved last week, really the last four or five games. And they look like a totally different team.

They played with desperation. They played with an attitude.
And when they needed to make the plays right there, Jack Campbell, the Iowa Hawkeye making plays all night.

They made the plays they had to do. Give them all the credit.
Great atmosphere. I love doing games in that stadium.
And

not just the team, but the fans sensed this is a must-win. And I think they were a big factor in the game as well.
Some bad officiating games. Yeah, a lot of bad official

all across the board.

We can't have that be down the stretch. Yeah, thank you.
Thank you. Very kind of you to send me the text that you sent me, too.

Just thinking in the middle of your world and thinking about him is very cool. Same with everybody else.
Let's wrap up the conversation about this game.

But Ty Schmidt over at the Toxic Table and at Boston Connor. Brandon Aubrey Aubrey is the greatest kicker of all time.
This guy's unbelievable. They're calling him butter.

And then on that note, are the Lions all the way back in the NFC North, Ty? Is that kind of how you view what happened last night after watching Aubrey do something absolutely historic?

Yeah, I mean,

it's tough to say they're all the way back because I think we were kind of, you know, like talking about their demise like they were dead when they weren't.

But they're in a position now, now it's kind of all eyes on, you know, they don't have their destiny in their own hands.

They got to rely a lot on either the Packers or the Bears to go go on a major schneide here. But I think we saw it last night.
Like, when their offense is clicking, they can beat anybody in the NFL.

It's just, you know, do they want to get into these track meets, these shootouts? Because we know their defense, they had a couple, you know, opportune moments last night where they forced a turnover.

And, you know, that obviously goes a long way. But Jameer Gibbs, it's kind of at this point, obviously getting Amon Ross St.
Brown back was massive.

But when this guy is going and they can get him 20 to 25 to 30 touches a game, I think you're hard pressed to find a better offense in the NFL. So obviously,

we'll see what they can do down the stretch. But boy, I mean, all eyes now go to Sunday at Lambeau between the Bears and the Packers.

And then that's kind of whoever loses that one, that's who the Lions are going to be looking at and maybe trying to nip on their heels a little bit.

And Ty, I think we got to give Dan Campbell, I know we all get excited about just who he is as a coach and his quotes and his, man, you know, like all that stuff is awesome. Guys calling the plays.

Second time in his career.

And you know, you lose Ben Johnson, they go with John Morton, doesn't work out, they make the switch about four or five games ago, and I thought he called a masterful game last week.

Having Goff there in his fifth year in Detroit, fourth year in the system obviously helps, but without Laporta, bringing Skipper in,

they come up with different wrinkles, and just can't say enough about him.

They played like they needed to win and they did. Amon Ra, questionable, goes crazy.

Montgomery, not really a topic of the conversation because Jameer Gibbs, he goes crazy. Jameer Gibbs, he goes crazy.
It's like Dan Campbell was in his bag. You know, he was in his bag.

Now, let's talk about being in a bag. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the incredible opportunity and honor to be a part of a massive day for a future COAT in my eyes.
Now, I have

I've had a chance to understand who this man is for a long time because obviously he is the son of not only West Virginia legend, but football legend Chris Henry.

I've had had a chance to meet his family. His mom got ooze in the family.
She is spectacular.

And this kid, not only is he six foot six, six foot seven, 200 and whatever pounds, he's physical, he's tough, and he loves ball.

Some of us might have been trying to tell Pac-Man Jones to tell him, hey, he's been able to dunk from the foul line since like freshman year of high school. Let's put him in there.

Instead, all he wants to be is a football dog.

Ladies and gentlemen, to make his official commitment on where he will be continuing his football career, please welcome, and we're lucky to say this, Chris Henry Jr.

Chris, how you doing, buddy? We appreciate you joining us, man. Aloha, aloha over there.
Aloha. Aloha.

All right, family. Chris,

whenever I got a chance to kind of learn about your story, your family's story, the only thing that's really come through is just that you're a workhorse, a good person, humble, but an absolute dog on the football field.

We know that you had been committed to Ohio State for a long time. And then obviously Brian Hartline accepting a job at USF.

You've had the opportunity, I think everybody has understood it, to kind of just reweigh all your options.

First of all, if you'd like to chit-chat about your entire recruitment process and if you would like to let us know where you're playing, you kind of do whatever the hell you want to do right now, Luce.

Your world, congrats on all of it. Yeah, so

first of all, I just want to thank God for just putting me in this position right now to be able to make this decision.

And I want to thank all my family for just being here to support me throughout this

time. And, you know, ultimately, I've been committed to the Buckeyes for a long time.
And, you know, with Coach Harlan leaving, you know, it really impacted my recruitment heavily. And,

you know, I really just had to take time to step back and really reevaluate everything. But, you know, just sitting with my family and taking time to think about it,

you know, ultimately I'll be committed and staying committed to the Ohio State University. You know, I just feel like they just, they're the right fit for me.

And, you know, I made my decision, you know, a couple of years ago and it was for the right choice. And, you know, it was my time, you know, just taking time to think about it and just step back.

You know, even though Hardline did leave, you know, know how state is you know always been in my heart since i committed so you know i'll be staying home at the all state congratulations

to you and your family yeah and we know it's not okay ooze okay

ohio got the thursday

Okay,

obviously, a large portion of your life, you grew up in the state of Ohio. Then you go over to Matter Day.
How excited it seems everybody is to head back over to the state of Ohio.

I can't wait to watch you over there. Congrats on this decision and tell everybody we say what's up and congrats over there.
Will you please?

Appreciate it.

Man, ladies and gentlemen. Can I

just want to congratulate you? I know this was not an easy decision for you.

When Brian Hartline left, and there are a lot of people who are probably recruiting against Ohio State that are thinking now, hey, they lost Brian Hartline.

They're not going to be able to recruit the same receivers as they've done in the past without him. What's your message to that?

And why Ryan Day and Ohio State, why is it the right spot for you when you think about your development and growth of these next three to four years?

Yeah, for me, it was just really just... you know, being at a place where I feel comfortable at, you know,

it was never really about the money. You know, I was getting, you know, tons of offers

like other places like the Old Times, Ohio. But you know, ultimately, it was just, for me, it was just a place where I feel comfortable at, you know, being developed and

ultimately reaching my goals, which is to be a first-round draft pick. So, you know, that's what it was for me.
And you got a great quarterback, obviously, to work with.

We're seeing Julian San and what he's doing throughout his development as a young guy and maybe make him a run this year to another championship.

So just want to say congratulations to you and your family, man. That's a big decision, and I know weight off your head.

Hell yeah, congratulations to you and your family and to everybody over there and to

OH World, Ohio State.

And on that note, a man who is a Ohio State Hall of Famer, AJ Hawk, would like to say some words and maybe even ask a question to the newest, greatest of all time wide receiver room that the Ohio State Buckeyes have pieced together.

Go ahead, AJ. Absolutely, Chris.
I played Ohio State a long, long time ago, actually with Brian Hortline. I was a couple years older than him, but I wanted to say,

welcome to the family. It's an awesome situation.
I think everyone there obviously already loves you, and they're going to love you even more once you're on campus full-time.

Welcome to your family as well. But I guess

what ultimately led you to this decision, obviously, choosing and staying with Ohio State.

No, it's

gay. I just.

Oh,

all right. Hey, we love you, Chris.
Congratulations.

Great decision. Great decision.
We love you.

Oh.

Oh. There we go.
Oh.

Congrats to your Buckeyes. That was big.

I didn't really follow, you know, since Brian Hartline left.

I didn't really know if he was going to go to... Who else was in play there? Oregon? USC, Oregon, West Virginia, obviously.
You know that. That's a fact.

I love that. I love that.
I love that. Don't you do what you just did.
What you don't think that's real, Kirk? You don't think they're in the running, Kirk?

I don't like what he just did right there. West Virginia was in the running, and that is because of who his father is, right? His dad legend of West Virginia.

So him and Pac-Man, obviously best friends

at West Virginia. Yes, and then Pac- on the other side.
I mean, they were menaces, obviously, on the football field. Maybe the most talent we've ever had on a football field.

And that's what West Virginia is going back to. Yeah, we're trying to.

We're trying to, at least.

So there's a chance, like, Chris Henry Jr. wants to come back, you know, to West Virginia.

But I think everybody that knows his family understands what the business opportunities were here because of who he is.

They were floating some numbers out there on what was being offered to Chris Henry Jr. from some of these schools.
And it's like he's got the work ethic. He's got the lineage.
He's got the drive.

He's got the mentality. And he obviously has the physical traits.
His catch radius is like seven foot something.

Chase played him when he was a sophomore, and he was still in Cincinnati, and he was a sophomore.

You could already see that this guy is just kind of scratching the surface of where he's going to go. And then he ends up going out to modern Day and Southern California and Orange County.

And obviously he just continued to get better and better. Not just big.
You can see the speed that he has to be able to pull away. And then you're going into a system.

You know, this is going to be the new thing with Ohio State losing Brian Hartline. This is a big message, I feel like, for Ryan Day, to his staff, for what they've been able to do.

When you land Chris Henry Jr.

like this, I think it sends a very loud message to future receivers and future recruits that Ohio State's going to continue, because that room has gotten different under Brian Hartline's guidance.

And it looks like with this, it's going to continue even though he's off to Tampa at USF.

AJ, such a fascinating thing there because to Herbie's point about the statement being made, like I think everybody understood whenever Chris Henry Jr.

was like, well, if Hartline's not there, literally that is the wide receiver room.

So I think even people in Ohio, you would know more than me, I'm just kind of checking the temperature on the internet. I think everybody was like, well, he is, I mean, this guy's the guy.

So if he wants to kind of reevaluate everything, I think everybody was kind of cool with it. I know there were some other schools that thought they really had a shot.

Like they were very excited, but they had no idea.

So whenever I get the text message this morning, because I guess it was floating around last night that he was going to want to come on today's show or whatever, I had not heard that.

Okay, so like I had people asking me, and I'm the person that books the show alongside a couple of people. So I had not heard anybody reach out to me about Chris Henry Jr.
coming on.

Now, does Chris Henry Jr. know that he is a green light to come on this show whenever the hell he wants? Yes.
Okay. Because obviously I've known him for a long time and the West Virginia family.

It just feels like that is the right thing to do, and especially with how much respect I have for this dude, he is a workhorse. And not only does he have the size and everything, he is a workhorse.

So I would have green lighted anytime, but I had no conversation with anybody last night about him coming on. This morning, I get a text message.

Hey, would it be cool if Chris comes on and announces where he wants to go today? Yes. So then I make, I tweet out that, hey, he is coming on.

So I get some questions from some people at different places that, you know, have some wonderings.

And I don't think anybody knew. I don't think anybody

i'm getting text too right there pat i'm getting plenty of text too people not not sure exactly what's going to happen so that was the i mean the family obviously they were prepared

AJ, I think, you know, you know a lot of Ohio State fans. I think that the noise on the internet made everybody just assume now he's going to announce on Pat's show.

He's probably going to go to Oregon or he's going to go maybe to the highest bidder. But man, how about his comments about this wasn't about money? This is about how I feel when I fit in Ohio State.

And even though Brian Hartline's not going to be there, I still feel strongly about that. I think that says a lot about Ryan Day.
And like I said, I think this isn't just about Chris Henry, AJ.

I think this is about a message being sent to other receivers and other recruits down the line about what that room can still be despite not having Hartline there.

That was obviously such a big part of it.

Conman, we saw that, Conman, I'm sorry, AJ, anything you want to say about an Ohio State Buckeye, you should definitely say it, so I apologize for stepping on you.

But Conman, what I said in the intro there was very real. You know, we know Pac very well, and we know Pac-Man took on the onus of basically raising family whenever Slim passes away.

So we've seen this kind of for a long time now. This dude, they thought he was going to grow too much to not be able to play football anymore.

They were like, he's going to be forced into playing basketball. If he gets a six foot eight, like he's going to have to go play basketball.
That's a shit six's five. Six, six, six, seven.

So he's like Plax Burris. Yeah, and he's a dog.
Like he views himself as a dog. Like basketball, guaranteed money.
You got to have the right size. He's going to have it.

You got to be able to be athletic. He has it.
Got to be able to shoot. He was able to do it.

We, I feel like kind of a rude person, but I was telling Pac and telling him anytime I was talking to him, like, bro, we need to work on that. Yeah.
Let's go ahead and get that. You're six.

You're going to be 6'7, bro. No, like, go ahead and do that.
Instead, dude loves ball, Connor. Absolutely loves ball and chooses to go Big 10 football in the cold.

Not that Oregon or USC would be anything different. It is Big Ten football.
West Virginia, Big 12 football. He didn't want any pieces of that.

I can tell you that. But I think this is a big statement also about who Chris Henry Jr.
is as a whole.

I'm a big fan of this dude, and I'm very happy for him today. Yeah, very, very cool.
And also just watching those highlights. Like you said, he's 6'7.
You're really not sure how fast he is.

Seeing him pull away is asinine. I can't believe that's a real thing.
And then you just think about what they're going to be next year. You know, all those other schools are great.

The best player across the board, everyone has said, in college football, himself is Jeremiah Smith. So now he's going to be on the other side as Jeremiah Smith.

He's got probably the runner-up to Mendoza this year in the Heisman voting with Julian Saiyan throwing him the ball. Like when you're thinking about the setup, it's incredible.

And also, you know, where he's from. He did grow up in Ohio.

I know he finished his high school football in Matter Day in California, but what Herbie just said, you know, sophomore year of high school, that's not so far away. And that's where he was.

He was in Ohio, a large contingent. of his families in Ohio.
And when you talk about competing for national championships, yes, all those other schools are in it, kind of.

None of them are in it like Ohio State every single year. Ohio State consistently will be in either the Big Ten championship, and if not, they'll be in the playoff.

And if they're in the playoff, they're going to make a run. Like, I can't wait for this weekend, you know, just to see the entire game.
But seeing Chris Henry Jr.

with Jeremiah Smith next year and Julian Sam will be great.

Yeah, and on that note, let's talk about big news in the Big Ten as Peter just took out an entire suite section over here to to our left, cameras right.

Penn State, Ty, there's a lot of people claiming around the internet that they called this and they said this.

But literally yesterday or maybe two days ago, Ty, you go, what Penn State's going to end up doing is they're going to hire Matt Campbell. And there's going to be...
Ty said that?

Ty said that, but I think a lot of people have said it.

So I don't want to, Ty doesn't want to grandstand as if he's the only human that has said it because in this world, we know that other people have said it.

But Ty, you did kind of get to a point where it was like, Matt Campbell feels like a winner. He feels like a winning hire for Penn State, Ty.
Is that not kind of your thought about it all?

Yeah, and I think a lot of people, you know, just assume that I was saying that because I'm an Iowa guy and it's like, oh, hey, I want Iowa State.

You know, he's such a good coach, get him out of there.

And while he is a great coach, I think it gets to a point now where you look at everyone else that's available or who they've went after and who said no and who's signed extensions elsewhere.

This isn't a shot at Iowa State. I think Matt Campbell would maybe, you know, when he's by himself admit, like, I think he's taken Iowa State to the zenith of like what they can be.

He's already made that, you know, they are more successful now than they have been in the last 100 years.

He's an unbelievable coach, and I'd be very interested to see what he could do going to a place like Penn State where he has unbelievable resources and the ability to build a roster that he just simply is not going to be able to build at Iowa State.

Now, part of it, you know, if he stays in Ames, he is already their most successful coach of all time. He's a god there.
They'll build a statue.

But at a certain point, it's like, hey, I know how good of a coach I am. I think I've kind of taken this program to new heights.
A new challenge might be on the horizon.

And, you know, obviously he's super competitive. He probably feels like he could be the guy to go into Penn State and turn this thing around and get them going back to where they want to be.

Ty, I was under the assumption. that he was on almost untouchable at this point.

And I know Penn State can pay whatever that is they need to pay if this ends up happening.

But I kind of thought maybe five years ago when he built Iowa State up, I thought that maybe somebody's going to come in and swoop him up.

I thought Iowa State's done a pretty good job of making pretty clear, hey, the buyout is ridiculous. No one can come in here and take, he's our guy.
So

if this happens, that would be a major effort by Penn State

to make this happen. Well, that goes to the next point.
AJ, obviously we've been covering the Penn State coaching hiring story.

They're the first coach to be let go, first job that was kind of opened up or whatever. And then still the last job to have a hired coach.
Signing day has come and went.

Chris Henry has committed to a place, rethought, and then recommitted to a place. None of them being Penn State.
Also, a lot of places saying,

why would you ever go to Penn State? They don't even have a coach. So they've missed quite an important period here in this entirety.

But it feels like they've taken a swing on a lot of different coaches. And then now we got leaked audio coming out from there.

It's like all hell has broken loose in this entire Penn State coaching cycle.

Matt Campbell, I think, just like I think Dayball would be able to get a positive pop from the donors that you would have to get. Oh, yeah.
I think Matt Campbell could be a positive pop.

And also his recruits, right, could hop into Transfer Portal before they even go there. We saw it with Song of Polo Telly.
Such a different

type of recruit. They don't have any recruits.

But yeah, I mean, if you can get a few from, but obviously he's going to go from in this have and have-not world, he's done so much at Ames, Iowa, where he's had to kind of like develop, get this guy who's a, he's a tight end, we're going to turn him into a tackle, you know, just like Iowa does, and now you're going to Penn State where

here's our NIL.

Very competitive. Our goal is Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, Georgia,

Oregon. We're shooting for the stars.
So he goes from being like, we're going to be tougher than them, we're going to be gritty, and now he's going to have ridiculous talent. I'm with Ty.

It's going to be fun to see. Again, I don't know if he's going to take it.
What other options, though, Kurt? Sorry.

What other options do they have other than Dable and like who else are they looking at?

I have no idea. I have no idea.
Kurt Darmstreet. Yeah, Kurt, you can do it.

Yeah, I mean, there are...

You'd be my defensive coordinator. Let's go down.
Okay, I'm in. Yeah.
You get the gig. I'm in.

Oh, yeah, I got to do it from Ohio, though. I'm not leaving.
But yeah. No, you're Zoom.
You're a Zoom. I'm going to have to zoom in.
Yeah, the boys have to really pay attention close.

COVID.

He's got his young family there. He can't leave them.
Yeah, but all those, his kids could easily become Penn State people and not be Ohio State people. There's nothing easy.

No chance. What do you mean? I have a lot of respect for them, but no, we're not flipping.

We know who we are. You see the double.
I got double gear on today.

Yeah, he had to, big time. Is that Roosters? Is that a Rooster? Oh, yeah, it's Roosters.
Roosters, Ohio State situation. We know it.

I love Roosters, man. Who doesn't? Who doesn't love Roosters?

roosters have been very good to us i would like to say that roosters has been very good to us so we are very very grateful for roosters and if you're ever in the ohio area or anywhere else those rooster franchises are why don't you stop by and try their meat they got delightful fried chicken and they got delightful sausages there at roosters now on that note people are going to be eating them with sorrow after the indiana hoosiers beat down

tomorrow

i can't wait for that game i'm excited for it uh that building should be absolutely insane Let's talk about some NFL news.

Obviously, not only championship weekend here for college football, which is going to be electrifying.

We have a huge week 14 NFL slate that already started last night with the Lions beating the Dallas Cowboys. Justin Herbert taking snaps.
It's a big deal. Guy got surgery on Monday.

Has a game on Monday night. Had a fracture in his left hand.
He was seen taking snaps in practice.

Herb Street, we love everything that Herbert is about, but also I think with a hardball coach team, you're going to have to be tough.

And I think Herbert enjoys the opportunity to showcase that he is a dog in yet another situation. Yeah, he is a tough guy.
And I think that's a big part of his game.

And I think that's why his teammates respect him so much. And start to look at the standings and not just the division, but in the wild card.

Chargers have some really big-time opponents coming up, and they need him healthy to have any chance, obviously. So if you're a Chargers fan, huge news that he's going to be able to try to gut it out.

And again, look at that plate, few screws put into his hand, whatever. Let's go play football.
I mean, that's a different brand.

AJ, that goes back to the story that we heard from whenever we did game day all the way in Yule June two years ago when Herbert's dad was there.

And I asked Herbert's dad about why he can punt so good. Because Herbert can punt really well.

Like if he wanted to, I think if he was to focus full-time for like a year or so, I think he'd be able to become an NFL punter, Justin Herbert, with how athletic he is and he down the form.

And then also he kicks field goals so good.

Like his field goal kicking is just like outrageous every training camp they show it and I asked his dad about it I was like my first question and he was like they love ball we used to have to tape uprights in our living room on the wall and move all the furniture out all they wanted to do was play football all the time like he is a ball lover hardball wants ball lovers on the squad are they able to go AJ that Chargers team there's always like so much hope in my mind

and how about the game AJ that they have this week against a Eagles team kind of like the Lions last night talking about a desperate football team with everything going on after the loss last week to the Bears.

AJ, that's going to be not just,

that's big for both teams, obviously. It is, I would say, but the Chargers, there's always like hope that they can be great.

I feel like we all think that, AJ.

Is it going back, though? Are you going back to the Phil Rivers era when they were just getting to the AFC championship? They were just good enough to not make the Super Bowl, it feels like.

I feel like they're over that hope. Now, this is a huge test, though.
Like Kirk said, Philly.

If you can beat Philly on Monday, yeah, I think it's like we said, what, litmus test situation like we talked about earlier. It's also not their only huge test.
Kirk mentioned it.

And we've talked about the Colts upcoming schedule, but the Chargers have obviously the Eagles, and then they're at KC, at Dallas, which is really, really hard to play at, against the Texans, and then at the Broncos.

They're 8-4 right now. Every one of those games is a lock.
I mean,

I'm not mind. Every one of those games.
Okay, and let's go to the other side. You talk about desperate football teams.
Coach Tyriani, Philadelphia Eagles, are you guys okay over there?

It feels like there's a lot of drama. Have people lost hope in your squad, Coach?

We don't concern ourselves with the opinions of people outside the building. We actually did a fun team exercise just the other day.

We kind of got everybody on the same page.

I don't know if you saw in the media, unfortunately, Coach Petullo did get his house egged quite a bit, and he was sitting in his foyer like Herman Boone when that person threw the brick through and he had the shotgun ready when Coach Yo Dar was there as well.

We sat Kevin Petullo down at the 50-yard line in the indoor facility, and we threw eggs at him for about an hour and a half.

We really didn't even practice much, but I just say, hey, listen, I know you guys are frustrated. I know you guys can't really stand.

I can't publicly say this guy sucks at his job, so we're going to get everything out in the open. We're going to egg him.
Afterwards, we'll probably beat the shit out of him a little bit.

We'll put some batteries and some socks and smack him around a little bit. And then, guess what?

Guess what? We go in the locker room and everything's peaceful. Everybody's dapping up.
Everybody's hugging. Everybody appears as if they are hungry dogs.

So I would say, you know, look out for a Philadelphia Eagles. We kind of, we handle business in-house and I think business has been handled.

Now, obviously, if we lose on Monday night in, you know, in LA, things are going to get pretty loud.

And I'm going to have to come up with some new, you know, Syrianiism to kind of get through the guys. But, you know, they said on hard knocks, hey, coach, you hear the sky's falling?

I say, yeah, sky's falling every day. So

what difference does that make? We're still, you know, in the playoffs right now. And

don't let the dogs get into the dance. Don't let the hungry dogs get into the dance, baby.
That's why I've been preaching to the team. So we'll see.

And obviously, it'd be nice if Saquon Barkley could run for more than 40 yards this weekend. That would be massive.
Sounds like that's on you, coach. You know, maybe you and Patool.

I'm not calling the plays.

I'm not calling the plays, Pat. You got to remember, I'm not calling the plays.
So it's kind of not. Not even like recommendations or anything? You're not even.

Yeah. So last week, I think I want to say I recommended the two plays when AJ Brown scored both his touchdowns.
Outside that, I kind of just said, hey, Kevin, you do your thing. So, you know,

it sounds like you're throwing people under the bus, man. That's what it sounds like you're doing.
Yeah. It sounds like you're throwing your coach under the bus right there.

Well, he's getting paid very well, Pat. You know, he's getting paid very well.
And I don't know. I mean, then that just creates another big thing.

If I do the Dan Campbell thing and I start calling the plays this week and we win 42-0,

does that make things any better? I don't know if it does. Then they're going to be saying I'm a dipshit because I wasn't calling the plays all year.
So it's kind of a lose-lose situation.

It's meaningful football time. You've been saying it for weeks now.
So we need the hungry dogs to show up. And it's bring your own kibble season, okay? No one's bringing it for you.

All right, everybody's trying to take your guys' kibbles with pot shots. You talk about a no-win situation.
Let's talk about the Patriots.

So they got Kraft up for the Hall of Fame and Bill Belichick up for the Hall of Fame. There's a chance they both go in at the same time.

Conman, your thoughts on the potential outcomes here with these two going into a football eternity, if you will? Yeah, I think the only outcomes they both go in.

Now, the possible outcomes is knuckle sandwiches, I'd say. I worry about them standing next to each other.

I don't think there will be any outward scene animosity, but I do worry, you know, behind the scenes is Bill kind of, you know, cup checking Bob Kraft. Is Bob Kraft kind of sending it right back?

Couple credit cards, couple scoops. I don't know, but I do think it will be cool for them both to get their flowers.
Bill released his statement. I'm sure everybody who read it definitely believed it.

I can say I kind of did, but they are happy for each other, allegedly. But I do think they both will end up in there.
They both will have a very cool kind of look back at all they did.

I personally hope that there's an apology from Robert Kraft with everything that happens in that documentary. And there is a Bill Belichick, hey, you know what?

Your scouts can come down here, even though they probably won't take any players, but they can come down here and at least look, look at people.

See, I'm getting emotional even thinking about it, just because it will be kind of a nice little reunion with both of them on that stage.

Yeah, they've been on a stage before, you know, at the Tom Brady Roast.

They were in a similar area. Nobody was allowed to talk about anything.
If the Hall of Fame lets the bygones be bygones, that'll be great news.

Speaking of bygones being bygones, it seems like we're in the time of year for the college football world where people hold on to grudges forever.

Because there's big decisions that are going to be made. You know, you start at 12, you count down to one.
That's how you crown a CFP national champion. Has that been back out?

But we've been pushing it new bars. We've been pushing it.

ESPN, who made it, has not been pushing it nearly as much as we've been pushing it. And I don't know if they think we like it or we hate it.
It's both, and it's catchy.

But on that note, who's getting into those tournaments? Who are going to be a part of the 12? Well, there's a couple teams that have been lobbying. Feels like.

There's been a couple teams that have been talking. Let's go to Gumpy real quick.
Gumpy is a die-hard

University of Miami fan. Gumpsh, the Miami Hurricanes fans have been very loud and I'd say aggressive with the conversation about whether or not they warrant one of the 12 spots.

Yeah, it just goes back to the head-to-head for Miami fans. I think Notre Dame's a great football team.
I wish Notre Dame and Miami could get in. I get it.
I agree.

But the whole time we've been told if it gets to this cluster where they're together, head-to-head matters. And that's all any Miami fans are going off of.
Okay, so Tone, one half of the hammer.

Cowboys. The situation is basically there's one spot, three teams.

EYU could be one of the teams, depending upon the outcome of the Big 12 championship in which they play Texas Tech, who already has their spot solidified.

And then it comes down to Notre Dame and Miami, basically, getting one spot. out of those three.
Tone, what is the conversation in the narrative?

It has been publicly, seemingly, Notre Dame, Miami, right? Is what everybody's been comparing?

Yes, everyone's been comparing Notre Dame and Miami because BYU is in a conference title game and has a chance to win in that.

But as I see it, when you look at the bracket here, one through eight, I believe, are locked for the playoffs based on what they've done in the season.

Whether they're playing in a conference championship this weekend or they are off, they have done enough. That is from one, Ohio State to number eight, Oklahoma.
Then Bama sits at number nine.

I don't see a situation where the committee punishes Bama for a loss in the SEC championship against a Georgia team. I don't think they want to set the precedent where

if you make the SEC championship game and you can lose and then be out of tournament. So I think those nine are in there.

Then you'll probably have, if Virginia wins, you'll have the ACC champion and then you'll have the group of five champion probably coming out of the American, which then is that's 11 teams.

So then you have the one spot for Notre Dame, Miami, BYU. Obviously, if BYU loses to Texas Tech, they're going to drop below Miami.
So then Miami and Notre Dame are right next to each other.

And that's where the committee is going to have to decide and look at all the metrics and the head-to-head.

And every other situation that they've done in the rankings, normally the head-to-head is above the other team.

So I think it's a tough situation for Notre Dame, but we will see come Sunday night when all the chips are out on the table, how they decide.

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, friend of the program. He was once in charge of

a network, a television network, a couple of them actually before he became the man at Notre Dame ladies and gentlemen the athletic director for the fighting Irish Pete Bavakwa

hey Pat

good great to see you too Pat we were we were listening to your song this morning it's great song we like it

Hey Dookie, I appreciate that. You are not Dookie.
And I will say that from the very beginning. And I'm going to release some more songs, Pete.

And I'm going to call some suits some negative things in these songs very clever way to do it just know that you're not one of those suits we like you pete we don't want to boycott i don't want to speak out of line we like pete

he can spin it oh yeah he can spin it He was in a suit in the Thunderdome, and he spun a football, I mean,

fired pigskin from stage to a basketball hoop, and then shot a hoop as well. We appreciate you, Pete.
We think you're a great man, and we appreciate your time today. No, thank you, Pat.

Thanks for having me on.

Okay, so let's dive into it. You just heard University of Miami Hurricane fan Gumpy talk about how the conversation is head-to-head matchups.

Obviously, Miami says, and Miami did beat you guys first week of the year in the head-to-head matchup. Now you guys are clustered together.

What is your kind of takeaway on the entire conversation right now about Notre Dame? And what is like kind of your guys's perspective on why or how it should turn out? Yeah, no, I appreciate it.

And for, you know, I start, and Kirk, you'll appreciate this more than anybody being an Ohio State grad, grad, you know, hats off to Ohio State and Indiana.

To have undefeated seasons like they've had this year and 2025 is such an accomplishment. But I think with the exception of those two teams who are undefeated, we're the hottest team in the country.

I don't think anybody's playing better than Notre Dame. You think about this 10-game streak of dominance we've had at some of the best football.
I have ever seen here.

And I've been a huge Notre Dame fan literally since the day I was born, Notre Dame grad. I think we're we're firing on all cylinders, Pat.

And, you know,

for us, when you hear the committee and you hear Hunter talk, the comparison has always been between Notre Dame and Alabama. I mean, he even said that as recently as Tuesday.

We've been clustered with Alabama. Who deserves to be hired, Notre Dame or Alabama? So that's really what we've been focused on.
In my opinion,

the committee has really spoken about the Notre Dame-Miami issue as I see it. Hey, it was the first game of the season.

Miami is a really good team, but quite frankly, you know, as I said to somebody here today, nobody wins the race at the starting line.

And I really think right now there's not a team in the country playing better football than the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Yeah, and you mentioned, obviously, Indiana and Ohio State. I think a lot of people will find out about this Georgia team, how they've been playing.
Texas Tech obviously been playing great.

Those top four, I think, are in the conversation.

But to your point about how you guys have performed since the loss to Miami and to Texas A ⁇ M, who's still obviously who they are in the entire story of it all.

How you guys have played since then has certainly been dominant. It certainly has been.

But whenever you start stacking up like how you're playing now versus how the head-to-head ones, it's going to get ugly, Kirk. I guess that's just kind of every year for college football.

Is that kind of what it always revolves? Yeah, I mean, it's always, whether it's 4 or 12, or eventually if it goes to 16, whatever it is, there's always going to be debates.

But Pat, I just want to say congratulations to what you guys are doing it and how you're doing it.

And you have to meet, if not the best coach in the country, you certainly have one of the best out there as far as the way he goes about his business, the way he carries himself in representing your university.

It's been fun to watch him. Of course, he's from Southwest Ohio, Wayne Warrior, and up to Ohio State, but he is just hitting on all cylinders himself as a coach.
So congrats on that.

I just wanted to ask you, when you're with Greg and Tony and all the conference commissioners, are we ever going to get to a place where we have a system where Notre Dame and Miami aren't sitting here sweating it, trying to, you know, it'd be great they're both in it.

You know, like, do you ever see us getting to an expansion that everybody can agree on, especially Tony and Greg, to try to make some sense out of the future of college football in the postseason?

Yeah, it's a great question, Kirk, and I have the privilege of being in that room due to my role here at Notre Dame.

And I think there's almost unanimity in that room that we should be at 16 teams with five automatic qualifiers and 11 at large.

And I think if we were at 16 teams right now, I think it would be perfect, right? It would be absolutely perfect.

These conversations are great. They're interesting.
But you think about a Notre Dame team, you know, again, I'm biased, right? But I think we have absolutely the best player in the country.

And Jeremiah Love, I haven't seen somebody this electrifying. I go back to Reggie Bush and before that, the Rocket here at Notre Dame.
And,

but yeah, 16 is the answer, five automatics, 11 at large. And I hope we get there sooner than later.

And I think, Pete, fans of the sport, I don't think they want politics on the selection of the teams. They just want to see the bet,

whatever system we use to evaluate, you have the five, and then the next best 11, wherever their affiliation is, just let's give us the fans and the players the next best 11.

Because I think right now we're in a position where it's just, it seems like we're trying to make everybody happy so what kirk doesn't want to say here is the group of five champion is what he's trying to bring up no no no it's sometimes when ben rothelsberger was at miami ohio they run a run

if they're at a certain ranking you know put them in it's nothing against the group of five it's more about let's just stack up after the five best teams that's all we want to say

when you think about it you think about the conference championships and hey that's you know we know our role we're an independent but you know even think about the conference championships this year i mean you think about miami We're talking about Miami.

You know, they had two tough losses deep into the season, but

Miami should be playing in their conference championship, right, for a chance to win that conference with as talented as a team they are. So

I think corrections can be made. But as it relates to the CFP, I think 16 teams is the answer.

And I think, you know, I don't want to speak on anybody's behalf, but being in that room, I think there's an overwhelming momentum to try to get that done.

And you have an extension, right, to try to come to an agreement by next season it didn't that get pushed back it got pushed back you know with with your with your company espn will we get there for next year i'm not sure you know i think a lot of people in the room are certainly fighting for that but hopefully if it's not next year it'll be the the the remaining years after that because to me that's the right answer kurt keep fighting the fight we appreciate yeah we do appreciate that now on that note speaking of fighting fights what do people say what would be the contradictory to you saying you want 16 as an independent notre dame as opposed to being a conference school.

I assume you have to hear a lot of arguments against you guys being independent and an independent potentially taking up a college football playoff spot versus teams that have to play a conference schedule.

What do you kind of say about that? And what do they say to you that you think like is fair or not fair whenever it comes to you guys being independent?

Well, you think about it, Pat, the regular season is more important for us than anybody because we don't have the opportunity to play in a conference championship.

We can't play in the SEC championship or the Big 12 or the Big Ten or the ACC championship. And like you said

in the lead into this conversation, there's teams that are playing in these conference championships, particularly in the SEC and the Big Ten, that regardless of the outcome, they're both going to get a spot in the CFP.

There's comfort in that. And a lot of people talked about last year

that magical run we had to the national championship, and they talked about the CFP economics and the money that Notre Dame earns through that.

But they didn't talk about the other side of the coin, whereas if we don't make it in, we don't get any money. We kind of eat what we kill.

And so we're kind of out there dangling on our own and trying to schedule the best teams we can.

You know, when you look at our future schedules, we have Texas and Alabama and hoping to get something done here with USC and

an annual series with Clemson. So we feel really bullish about our independence.
It's something that's part of the DNA of Notre Dame.

And, you know, when you have alignment like we do at this university, when you have a coach like Coach Freeman, and I joke with people, like if we went into a laboratory and had to create the perfect coach for Notre Dame, you'd walk out with Marcus Freeman.

And he's not just our football coach. He has become such a part of the fabric of this university.

You go to a women's basketball game, a hockey game, you walk around campus, you see Marcus with his wife, Joanna, you see him with his kids. We're blessed to have him here in Notre Dame.

And he's a big part why we can stay independent because you got to be relevant when you're independent. If you're not winning, you become irrelevant in a second.

And we've got to keep winning and we've got to keep

these seasons going like they have here the last few years.

Yeah, nobody talks about UConn being independent, you know, until their coach goes to Colorado State. AJ has a last question for you here, Pete.

Yeah, Pete, you mentioned some of those big games you guys have on the schedule.

You know, when you look into the future, like, how do you balance that, especially with Marcus Freeman on, okay, like we want to have these big games and play in these giant primetime games against top 10 teams, but also like it doesn't ultimately you know you lose again one or two of those it doesn't help you when it comes to the cfp how do you balance that with marcus

you know we we don't make a scheduling decision without talking to marcus and bringing him into the conversation and you know marcus is wired in a way where he's not looking for the easy way out he's like come one come all let's prove it on the field you know he's wired that way it makes the team wired that way and you know aj one of the blessings we have here at notre dame is you know when we go on the road, you know, think about that pit game this year, right?

We went on the road to Pitt, the place was sold out. Game day was there.
I bumped into Pat there, the retired Aaron Donalds jersey. I mean, that was like a Super Bowl for the University of Pittsburgh.

So every game we play in, we're fortunate. And that's not because of me.
It's because of a hundred-year-plus year history at Notre Dame.

So we're used to big games and we want to play the best teams in the country each and every year.

Hey, Pete, I just want to ask you one last question. Just to leave this, For Notre Dame fans watching this weekend's games,

what are you watching? What are you personally watching based on knowing the committee and how they've ranked these teams?

I'm a little nervous for Notre Dame with the move of Miami.

If BYU were to maybe get beat again by Texas Tech, you wonder if they would go underneath Miami and then Miami and Notre Dame are side by side. Could the head-to-head then give Miami the nod?

What are you watching? What are you most concerned about? What are you most excited about? Yeah, I would say, Kirk, again, I come back to Alabama.

Certainly, we're interested in watching the Georgia-Alabama game, two great games, you know, SEC, great conference. I think everybody in the Notre Dame nation is a Texas Tech fan this week.

I have great admiration for Texas Tech and DYU. But no secret, we want Texas Tech to win that game.
And then, you know, we've been ninth. We think we should still be ninth, quite frankly.

We've made that known to the committee.

But, you know,

we got to watch these games with great interest for sure. And I just think, you know, we went from nine to ten having not snapped the football.

I don't see any way where we can drop two spots and Miami can go up two spots. Neither of us have played a game over the course of these two weeks.
The committee has always had us ahead of them.

The committee has admitted that it's always been a conversation, a fierce conversation, if you listen to Hunter, between who deserves to be ahead of each other, Notre Dame, Alabama.

Our feeling, our hope is if Texas Tech can beat BYU,

we're in. Question is, are we going to be 10th or 9th? That's what we're going with.
And again, I come back to the fact, hats off to Indiana and Ohio State, amazing seasons.

Other than that, I would go toe-to-toe with anybody in saying that we are the hottest team in the country right now.

And that's the athletic director for Notre Dame right there. Ladies and gentlemen, the athletic director for Notre Dame, legend Pete Pavakwa.
We appreciate you. Thank you guys.

Good luck this weekend. Good luck, Pete.
Yeah, good luck watching the games. Good luck watching the games.
So he was,

yeah, he and I were, we negotiated. He was representing Peacock NBC.
He once was the president of the golf channel, I think, at one point, and then he moved into being the head of NBC Sports, I think.

And then now he's the AD for Notre Dame. Doing a great job.
He's a good suit. He's a good suit.
Right, right? Boys, we don't hate it. We don't think he's a bad guy.
He's a great suit. No, not at all.

He's a good suit. So there are good suits? Yeah, yeah.
Oh,

you know him. There's only a few.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
I just didn't know him. No, no, there's more.
There's more than a few. I mean, Fawcett's a suit, technically.

Fawcett? I've never seen him wear one. SVP.
He's an SVP.

He's injured a lot. He's injured a lot.
This guy's got an ankle brace on right now. What's he doing? Living a life? I don't know.
I have no idea what happened. That's soccer.
He's in sweats a lot.

He's a suit, though. Yeah, he signed the next generation a suit.

He has an ankle brace on right now. I saw it in the tough and alley.
Him and St. Brown.
Yeah,

Mom Law, St. Foss, right here.
I mean,

that is a wonderful thing. I appreciate him joining us, but he's always been good.
Like, that's why he's the average treasure. And he loves Notre Dame.

And I appreciate the fact that he's like, Miami's a good team. It's not about us in Miami.
What are we even talking about? Well, everybody's saying it's about you and Miami. Yeah, yeah.
Bama.

We're talking about Bama.

I feel like they should both be in, like, Notre Dame and Miami. Big news coming out of the Big Ten.
Matt Campbell and Penn State are working toward a deal for him to be the next head coach.

There's multiple steps need to finalize. Pete Dammo says there's a lot of shit to get figured out here, but including agreeing to terms and formal approval of cops.

So they have, okay, so Campbell and Penn State are going to get a deal done. Yes.
Have you agreed to terms? Absolutely not. Do you know how long it's going to be? Nope.

Do you know what type of setup it's going to have? Absolutely not. But we're going to do this.
Yes, we're going to do this. Congrats to Penn State.
And congrats. It's a bad hat.
It's a good hire.

Nothing against Iowa State, but

I'd love to see Matt Campbell at State College. Only hire that I think would have been great.
I think it's a great hire for Penn State at this stage of the game. Legitimately.

If we close the deal on that, that would be as good a hire in this very volatile coaching carousel. That would be as good a hire that I think's been made.

I wish I was a microphone in a room with Pat Kraft if he gets this dude done.

On that note, we appreciate the hell out of you, Herbie. We'll be back on the other side.
Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change your life.
Listen to Dookie. See you, boys.

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Football! Football! It's what happened last night, right, Pat? What's happening all weekend? We got a beautiful slate of games, obviously college and NFL coming up.

Thanks to Kirk and Peter, right, for joining us that first hour. Yeah, Kirk and Peter.
Obviously, Peter's always got the juice.

And the dogs are going to try to win a big one here tomorrow against Alabama. Championship weekend will be spectacular for college ball.
Game day, 9 a.m.

tomorrow on ESPN and live on X throughout the entirety of this entire college football playoff.

Should be quite a scene and a vibe as we're down here in Atlanta live from the convention center, the SEC Fan Fest.

At the beginning of the show, not normally that packed, and then as the show continues, it kind of fills up with a bunch of SEC faithful.

They are to celebrate this championship game, which obviously two legends will be competing. And then across across the slate up there in Indianapolis, Indiana is going to be the big one.

One versus two.

Indiana Hoosiers looking to do something that they've never done before.

And then the Ohio State Buckeyes looking to maintain their dominance as they're the reigning national champions, favorites to win the national championship yet again.

And nobody really speaks about them because all they've done is kick everybody's ass.

Will they be able to do that to Fernando Mendoza in an Indiana Hoosers offense that can spin it in a defense that's great? We shall see 8 p.m. Boots on the ground there at Lucas Oil.

Let's go to the toxic table at Boston Connor. I see you wearing that Mendoza shirt, brother.
You feel good about the weekend for the Hoosiers? Yeah, I feel fantastic.

Look, Ohio State circles two things on their calendar, and they have two goals every single year: beating Ohio State, or excuse me, beating Michigan and winning the national championship.

They don't care about the Big Ten championship. Let's be real here.
Okay, they already earned a buy. They don't give a shit about this trophy or banner.
IU does, all right?

They haven't won this thing since 1967. I believe in these Hoosiers.
I'm excited. I mean, I've been a lifelong fan.
I've never really heard you talk about this. We've waited till today.

No, we've waited a long time.

My whole life.

He graduated.

Yeah, up in Massachusetts. You know what Massachusetts is? It's a pro sports town, and it's a Hoosier town, baby.
They all.

Don't you spell it? M-A-S-S-A-C-H-O-O-S-E-T-T-S. Isn't that how you, isn't it, Massa? Hoos.
It's that what you guys call it up there because of the Hoosiers? You nailed it.

Not to mention, I do believe actually Sig was conceived in Massachusetts. So throw that into the loop as well.
And Sig's name.

I mean, as soon as Signetti became a big-time coach, I believe Massachusetts thought like, oh, we'll be JMU fans.

And then as soon as he went to IU, it was, oh, thank goodness we can go back to the school we've always rooted for, the Hoosiers. I'm very excited for this.

I think it is going to be not just the conference championship game of the weekend, but looking back over the past five, 10 years, I think it's going to be the best Big Ten championship they've had in a long, long time.

And that's coming off of Penn State, Oregon, which was a great game, but I can't wait for this one. I think it's going to be a great day of ball.

And Texas Tech, BYU, to kick it off at noon, I think is going to be another banger as well.

Yeah, I'm very pumped for the college slate. I'm very pumped for the NFL slate.
It's going to be a spectacular weekend. Let's go to one half of the hammer.

Gone.

Cowboys, AP Tone, 78% of the money, 76% of the bets, 80% of the money all lost last night. Is that what I was watching while saying to myself, of course, of course, of course?

That's all I kept saying throughout the entire game about the Lions being the favorites, even though they didn't look the best the week before.

And the line moving to three and a half from three when all the money was going the other way. It felt like the sports books were kind of in their bag.

Is that what we just need to understand, Tone, going forward? Yeah, that was when we were doing the show, it was 78%, 77% of the money was on the Cowboys.

Or sorry, I should say 77%, 78% of the bets were on the Cowboys. 80% of the money was on the Cowboys.
And then it closed 72%

of the bets on the Cowboys and 65% of the money on the Cowboys. So some money came in on the Lions late.

We talked about yesterday how the line got better for the Cowboys as the day went on, even though all the money was on them.

And they call that reverse line movement in the world which is you know sometimes an indicator that you might be on the wrong side if you're on the same side as all of the money um but foxe talked about it yesterday the lions 14 straight wins after a loss 13 and one against the spread after a loss they've been average they were averaging 35 points per game after a loss they eclipsed that total last night they have just been an absolute wagon after a loss and at home um that's that's just what dan campbell football is these they do not lose two in a row they always bounce back that was a great win for the lions last night

in plus territory last night the lions had 29 plays for 216 yards averaging seven point yards a clip four for five in the red zone the cowboys 40 plays 142 yards at 42 yards at 42 yards at 42 yards at 42 yards at 42 yards

remix we got a glitch going on

we had a little glitch going on 42 42 yep you kept saying 42 yards over and over and over again i don't know if you can hear us now or

oh yeah i guess pat we're going to reconnect with you buddy I think it was a situation. We kept remixing.
That was a good snap. Oh my gosh.
That was cool. It was a good thing.

And grab that into the next song maybe on an album. Like,

40k yards. How do you feel about tomorrow? Like, do you think Ohio State cares as much as

really? I think they absolutely care because, I mean, Indiana is like the number one two team, number two team in the country. I think Ohio State wants to prove that they're number one team.
Yeah.

Hey, that makes sense. Now, this is, yeah, I agree.
They are good. They do have a lot of respect for Indiana and Sick.

What they have done. Sorry, mine just glitched as well.

But even just thinking about like nobody talking about Ohio State all year, like, is that something too is where it's like, hey, now is our time.

Now is where if we dominate, people will actually talk about us just because it has been one of those situations like when Georgia went back to back.

Like, hey, we don't have to talk about Georgia all year because they're going to win it in the end. Like, do you think Ohio State has that same type of mindset? Yeah, I think they all feel that.

I think they feel like, hey, now our season has begun. Like, this is...
This is what we came to do.

When we started out long ago in winter workouts, like in winter workouts, they were talking about this season and where, hey, when we get to, well, first off, let's go beat Michigan.

That's what we want to do. Let's beat them.
And then we're going to go, and that's when our season truly starts after that. And I think this is part of it.
This is where I wish

that not only the quarterfinals was home games on campuses. Meet, yeah.

Because that would make this game so much more important if it was also the semifinal round at home or whatever.

Because then you're looking at this game would be like for a home field advantage or whatever, one versus. So you think they'll change that? They'll tweak that in the future, Kim.

I don't know because I think there's so much money for those semi-finals.

Would that help if you might

you get to play at home in the second round? Yeah, it might, but I think like, because there's so much money

for the semifinal game.

You lose a home game if you get a buy. Yes, yes.
You do. And like, I think, like, we've asked Saban before, do you wish the next round, the buy round, was also home field advantage too?

And he said, yes, that would make sense. But like

the Rose Bull,

the Fiesta Bowl, all those bulls

so much so much money in those bulls that i i don't know if it's ever going to happen but it would be cool if it did well and i know they'll never do it because we're already in the time where like hey we need to have this playoff ranking show for like the four weeks leading up to this but could you imagine like it would make the conference championship still matter if the if the first ranking show was on sunday it was the final one because then it's like guess what indiana and oh and you know ohio state like this game does still matter a bunch and i don't know i mean like we've been to Ohio State's facility.

Like, programs like that, like, you know, your most important trophy is the next one. Like, they want to add a Big Ten championship to that.

But on the flip side, like, for Indiana, like, this really is, like, this would be, you know, the biggest deal for Indiana athletics, like, since Bobby Knight was there and they won a national championship, you know, it was a long time.

And to Ty's point, there has been, I've seen some push on the internet for it only being one selection show the Sunday after all these games, just like

just like college basketball does it because then it also doesn't like the committee put out their rankings four or five weeks ago, however, whenever it started or whatever, and then they're kind of pigeonholed

into those initial rankings. Oh, yeah.
Like they can't, like they can't have someone

at two one week and then drop them all the way to 11 or something like that because they put them at like it pigeonholes them into these initial rankings where if they only did the one, it's more free-flowing.

They have all the information. They just put one in at the end.
And then there's not as much like bitch. Can you haul in?

You can't contradict yourself with a team like Notre Dame, where a couple weeks ago it seemed pretty evident, like, hey, if they beat Stanford in their last game, they're going to get in.

And that's going to be whatever. Exactly.

And then so they don't play. And now

they have to come up with these new formulas. Well, well, this is the reason we had to move them down.

And that is where all the conjecture comes in, where people are like, these guys are full of shit. They're just making this up as they go.
They have no idea how to do this. But obviously, you know,

you need the programming. So Notre Dame happened.
The Notre Dame argument, like, so when I first came, like, I've been to the, okay, hey, head-to-head, who won? Obviously, they lost to Miami, right?

So Miami gets in. But then when I hear Pete Bavakwa and I think about it, I'm like, hey, your team from week one until the last game of the season, you grow so much.
You are a different team.

Most teams are much, much better. Some teams get worse due to injury and whatever things happen.
But Notre Dame is definitely much better than they were week one. So I understand the argument.

for sure. Yeah, no doubt about it.
And then even their loss, like I get the head-to-head for Miami, but let's look at their other other loss.

Like Miami's other loss isn't as good as Notre Dame barely losing to Texas A ⁇ M. Like that's a very, very tough team.

Texas A ⁇ M basically was a top three team the entire year until they lose in a rivalry game at Texas. So it is such a tough situation.
When are they going to get rid of the automatic bids?

Is that also a conversation just because it does feel like

Kirk wants that out? Yeah, the conference championship thing just feels stupid because you know that whoever wins the Big Ten is one of the best teams in the country.

Whoever wins the SEC, one of the best teams in the country.

And then typically like in Indiana or like Obama, there will be a situation where whoever they're playing isn't the best, one of the best teams in the country.

But if you if you listen to what Pete just said, and a lot of people love the five plus 11 model, which will be the five conference champions

and then the 11 at-larges. So it doesn't feel like those are going to go away anytime soon if they're talking about going to the 16 team.
Kirk said they signed an extension of the ESPN center.

Yeah, so there was a deadline, I think it was a week or so ago, for them for ESPN and the college football playoff or whatever to decide if they were going to 16 or not.

And that just kind of got pushed back. They just gave an extension to make that decision.
Okay, good. I think we got things figured out.
Pat, what's going on over there, buddy? We got you guys back.

Oh, here we go. Hey, I always appreciate whenever people have to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge their way through some technology and make some good decisions.

Shout out to Bruce and Barcode, the entire squad here, getting us back connected. And not just connected, we're at the greatest of all time.
a man who has no history in this building

yeah coach

thank you how you doing coach okay coach so the big question is uh obviously there's a lot of football fans where i live and where aj lives that go uh game day should be at the big ten championship this year because ohio state and indiana is about to be insane obviously could have definitely done that in our eyes it would have been spectacular but i think what people don't understand whenever they come down here is there is an aura around the sec championship it's like every year it does feel like it is the super Bowl of the South.

And what do you kind of think about whenever you get down here, just from your own personal experiences? Well, I think having played in this game a few times,

it's one of the best competitive venues that...

I've ever been a part of because the passion that people have in this conference and the support that this game has had, Atlanta is sort of a great place to have it.

So this building is a great place to play it.

And there's usually two really good, highly ranked teams playing in the game. So there is a lot of history to it.

And I don't want to minimize the Big Ten Championship because obviously I coached in that league and that was really significant if you can win the Big Ten.

And to have the number one and number two teams playing for the Big Ten Championship, I think that's the only time two undefeated teams, one and two, have ever played in that game.

That's pretty significant, too.

Got great blows.

I think championship weekend is going to live up to the hype.

No doubt. It's a tough decision for game day every week, you would hope.
And the fact that we're a part of of a show that people want us to be at their game is an honor.

Like that is a, you don't just fall to that point. Obviously, what Game Day has done for all these years is made it a special treat every time we go anywhere.

But obviously being and living in Indianapolis would have loved to be, they would have shut the city down. But this place does shut down for the SEC.
Let's talk about these two teams.

Obviously, you know Alabama very well. You're in the building still.
You're around Kaylin DeBoard and the squad that they have.

Feels like what they've become through Ty Simpson's arm is a team that could certainly go on a run during a playoff.

This George team, though, since losing, you know, to Alabama, have become one of the dominant teams in all of football. Obviously, people talk about Indiana and Ohio State.

We just had Pete Bavaco, the athletic director at Notre Dame. And he said, outside of them,

who's really been as hot as Notre Dame has? I guess Georgia would be the team that you could potentially say that. What are your thoughts on the two teams and how they're playing at this exact moment?

Yeah, I think Georgia is playing really, really well.

I think, you know, since the Bama game, they've made significant improvements on both sides of the ball, but especially on defense. And in the last three games,

something that was a little bit of an Achilles heel for them is getting off the field on third down. They've been doing that better.

And to me, in the first game, Alabama went 9 for 9 in the first half and got ahead by 14 points by going 9 for 9 on third down, which was a huge difference in the game. So

I think that's going to be important.

You know, at this time of the year, lots of teams are beat up.

Who can manage and handle, from a depth standpoint as well as a mental toughness standpoint overcoming adversity at this time of the year playing in a championship game this is always a great game and I'm sure it'll be a great game Ty Simpson has done a great job you know all year long and

you know one of the things that

I think is important is you know Ty has been leaving the home position to change plays

platform

And the other team is changing the defense.

So that doesn't create any advantage for you by checking a play on offense. So hopefully he'll do a little better job of that this week and that won't be a problem for Alabama's offense.

Sounds like that was a coaching point that you had, certainly for Ty Simpson.

I don't know if you let it be heard in the building or if right now you're kind of letting it fly and saying, hey, Ty, why don't we fucking lose it? You know,

this is the first place we released that kind of information.

Ty, you need to listen before the SEC championship. Last question for me is just about these championship games as a whole.
I mean, we were just in the game day production meeting.

Obviously, it came up. Last week, it came up.
In the offseason, it came up. Our championship game is going to lose its luster.
Is it going to lose its luster?

Kirby and Kalin aren't telling their teams that the SEC championship hasn't lost its luster, right? Like that conversation never happens for the actual teams that are involved.

It's just kind of the conjecture around it. Is that accurate?

Well, I think there's so much emphasis on the playoffs that bowl games have

become a lot more insignificant, which they used to be really significant.

And I I think these championship games, because of

the, in a way, unfair ramifications that they can have, you've got some teams sitting at home not playing in a game that may benefit from a team losing that is playing in a game, which doesn't seem quite exactly right, but it does could happen, will happen probably,

because we'll probably reshuffle the deck a little bit after these championship games. But I do think that

it has lost its luster, but let me just say this about this game. Winning the SEC is a really significant accomplishment.
It always was to me. It always was to our team.

And I don't think that part of it for these two teams has changed at all. Yeah, and they're fans, right? I mean, that's the...
Oh, absolutely.

Because Roll Ty Willie wants to be able to say that he won the SEC Championship. That's right.
I mean, there's people all around Georgia that say them dogs won the SEC, so I don't want to hear it.

That's a big deal. No, it's a big deal.
It's a big deal to walk around the SEC in full strut and so you won the SEC. You guys do that ever? Do you ever go full strut peacock on him a little bit?

Is that just your entire career? You know, that's not me.

Yeah. AJ, any questions for Coach Sabin, AJ? Yeah, I do, Coach, to pivot quickly.
I know Matt Campbell, I guess Pete Thamel is saying that they're in...

Yeah, you know, they're in talks. And most likely, he's going to be the next Penn State coach.
Final stage. Final stages.
If you want to figure all these, all the minutiae out. Listen to this, though.

Hold on, though, AJ. Hold on, AJ.

I would like to tell uh uh coach stabin this this is what was reported uh they're working towards a deal there's multiple steps that haven't been finalized yet like the terms or the compensation or anything like that never read anything like this before but basically just he's gonna be the head coach sorry aj just so you know where we're at right now they don't know the money they have no idea the terms but they both have kind of said to each other we're gonna do this right go ahead aj i'm sorry brother yeah coach you know i'm glad we give coach the context of it like what would you say as a coach going from a team like Iowa State, obviously, where you win eight, nine, ten games a year, people are happy.

But Penn State, it's like, okay, how quick is he going to win a national championship or how he needs to get there in the first couple of years? What's it like as a coach, I guess,

when you finally take that step to where you're at a place like that to where, hey, we have to win every game?

Well, but I think that creating that expectation is actually

not favorable to being able to do it because every time you have a misstep, everybody gets negative on where the program is and what the program can accomplish.

And I think the most important thing is to have your administration, your fan base, and everybody stay positive in what you're trying to accomplish and what your goal is.

Alright, so these places that have, to me,

a little bit of unrealistic expectations that we're going to win the national championship, only one team wins a national championship, and there's a lot of competition out there.

There's only 12 teams that get into playoffs, and really only 10 of them because two of them may not even be ranked high enough to deserve to get in, but in the system they get in. Okay, yeah.

So anyway,

you've stayed in the city. So there's the top 10 teams that get into playoffs.

And then you've got to win into playoffs against really good teams, and you've got to stay healthy, and you've got to have a quarterback, and you can't lose the wrong guys at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I mean, there's all kinds of factors that go into whether you can finish the season the way you want. So to make that sort of the goal, which is an outcome,

we've got to win the championship or we're going to get rid of the coach, to me is totally wrong, and they'll have a hard time doing it if that's the approach that they take.

Look, Matt Campbell did a great job at Iowa State because he won more there than most. So that tells you what the potential of the place is and what he was able to accomplish.

I'm sure he'll be able to do the same thing at Penn State. But how many times has Penn State won the national championship since we had playoffs and since we had BCS games and all that?

I mean, refresh my memory on that.

So why is that their standard of excellence?

Well, because they have a lot of money. Good question.
And And they won back in the day. They won back in the day.

So let's go back to that statement about everything's not been decided. It's not just how much compensation the coach is getting.
It's how much money they got to pay the players.

Which is what Lane Kiffen actually said in his presser, which I think this would be a good time to bring this up for you, actually, because your name has also been a part of this entire conversation as a mentor for Lane Kiffin, especially alongside Coach Carroll after his dad passed away.

OGs in the coaching game have looked out for him, which is a very cool thing.

But he said in his press conference, and a lot of people said he was lying, he said, I don't even know what I was getting paid. I think everybody was going to pay me the same.

So I think Lane knew, had a gauge like he was going to get paid a lot of money, and everybody was going to pay him the exact same.

He said his big question was, how much money do we have for the players? And what he said was LSU clearly had the better setup for what the future is. That's the reality of current college football.

Penn State, allegedly, from everything we've been told and what we have seen, they have all of that. And they're just, they haven't been able to get a coach signed.

And there's been a lot of panic, I think, amongst their people. Having somebody like Matt Campbell, they win this.
I think they win the headline here.

Don't you think with Matt Campbell, don't you think they can, at least with their donors and everything that kind of matters? I think absolutely.

I think they're getting a great coach who's proven on a consistent basis. You know, he didn't just win one time.

He's won consistently at a place that's not a place that people would recognize as someplace you should win all the time. Yeah, they've been horseshit forever, coach.
Volumes of the job he does.

Oh, that's an Iowa fan. That's Ty from Iowa saying Iowa State is horseshit.

And they were before he got it.

I think that is why people are so impressed by Matt Campbell is because his culture is one of success.

And it's at a place that I don't think, you know, especially in the modern world, none of us are saying Iowa State's name whenever it comes to NIL conversations. 72 and 55, which is damn near 57%.

Previous 10 seasons. 41, 82.
Jesus. Okay, before that, before he gets there.
So, yeah, they were kind of shite. And then Matt Campbell gets there and they're good.

And for Penn State, I think we all thought there was a chance they weren't even going to have a coach next year. You know, they already missed signing day.

and allegedly the big deluxe was keeping people away, which

I think the big deluxe said, okay, if a car breaks down on Side Road somewhere, blame me. Why am I always the guy that's getting blamed for everything?

Well, it's because he's involved with everything, as are you, okay, in this college football conversation. Have you seen your coaching tree yet? Have you seen it's the most updated, most recent one?

Somebody put a tweet up that basically has all your coaches and where they're at right now. It's starting at 12, counting down to one is pretty much what it is.

Nick Sabins, FBS head coaching tree as of November 30th.

You got Kirby Smart at Georgia here, Sarka, Texas, Lane Kiffin at LSU, Sig in Indiana, Lanning, obviously Chris the Ball, Brent Key, Beth Golding, O'Brien, and you name it.

Even all the way down to Butch Jones, I see a gif of him losing his mind all the time.

It is truly a beautiful thing. But like you're obviously a part of a lot of different conversations and a lot of different storylines and a part of a lot of different people's lives.

Lane Kiffin situation, did you think that was pretty chaotic, even in the scheme of like what chaotic situations can be in college football?

I don't think I expected it to get as loud and as nasty as it all got at the end, but then after we get through it, I found myself thinking to myself, well, I'm so naive.

It was going to get like that regardless. Is that kind of the thought whenever you're talking about like, hey, this, people are going to hate you regardless because it's SEC football?

Is that a part of the combo with Lane or any of these guys that have to make these massive decisions? Well, I don't think you can go from one SEC school to another

without a whole bunch of people getting pissed off. I mean, that's just a fact of the matter.
I mean, because you've got these passionate fan bases on both sides of the fence, so

and anybody that is viewed as somebody who sort of promoted one thing or any of the other is probably going to get criticized too.

You know, I have a lot of people calling me asking me for advice based on, I guess, my experience.

And as a human being, I don't care if you're a player, a coach, or an administrator, whoever it is, for the love of the game, I'm always going to try to give them the best information that I can.

I never tell them what to do. I always just say, what do you want to do? Where can you do it the best? Can you accomplish your goals the best? Where do you have the best opportunity to be successful?

What's best for your family? So

I don't make anybody's decisions for them. I just try to offer the best advice that I can relative to them being able to accomplish what they want to do.

Well, why don't you tell them to go call somebody else and kick rocks? You know,

why don't you just stay the hell out of it, Coach Saban? Okay, we don't need you telling Lane Kiffin to go down to Louisiana.

We got a team here in fucking Alabama we're trying to win, and now you're sending Lane Kiffin down to LSU. Why don't you just hang up on him and not give them any advice at all?

There's people that think that.

Well,

if I did that, though, I mean...

I wouldn't feel good about myself not helping people who were colleagues of mine who helped us be successful and created value in what we were able to accomplish. And, you know, you appreciate that.

And you're loyal to those people who were loyal to you, who helped you. So I would have a hard time dealing with that personally.

And I think there's a lot of people out there that say, well, what kind of person would be that way that he wouldn't help his colleagues make choices and decisions that are, you know, hopefully going to help them accomplish the goals that they have,

which is up to them, not up to fans or anybody else. Or me.
me. You say colleagues, nobody's really your colleague, bro.
Okay?

We've all worked in your world. You're breathing different air, which is why everybody would like to hear what you think in this entirety.

And the fact that you give back and listen to everybody is good quality, not a bad one. And I think that situation was insane with the calendar.
Obviously, we can get into it all.

Also, how close he was to a national championship with Ole Miss. Don't you think you want to stick it out? What's available at LSU? We'll talk to Lane Kiffin tomorrow.
I cannot wait for that.

And I'm excited for everybody's, the internet, especially all the old Miss fans. They're like, wow, this is just going to be a fourth piece for Lane Kiffen.

It's like, okay, I mean, we're certainly going to... Better ask some hard questions.

Yeah, well, I've heard how it's starting.

I think there's some real questions. There's some real journalism happening tomorrow, from our understanding, from the meeting we just got out of.

But also, I think Lane knows some answers on some stuff, too, which I think he knows. And then obviously he'll be able to talk about the decision and what he's expecting out of LSU.

Which, if you talk to anybody that's been around ball a long time, they're like, LSU,

you got a good thing set up over there. He got a good setup down there, which he will certainly hit on and talk about as well.

I think more explanation will be good, but also a good conversation at the SEC Championship.

But, you know, this is a, based on the calendar and the circumstances and in football, it's always difficult when you're a coach.

And I've been in this situation before, and I absolutely hated it and couldn't sleep at night over it.

Where you have an opportunity to go someplace that's maybe better than where you are, maybe not, maybe you view it as better, maybe not.

And you want to be loyal to the team that you have because of what they've done to create the success that has helped you get the opportunity.

So you get caught in the rock in a hard place as to how do you make a decision. Because if Lane would have stayed and hired his coach, LSU would have hired somebody else.

So he knows he's given up the opportunity if he makes that decision, which is really what he'd love to do because of the loyalty loyalty he has to his team. But you can't have both.

So, and you're going to get criticized probably either way. Yeah, not probably, definitely.

Just because then he was stringing along LSU. Then the LSU people would be mad because he was stringing them along if he didn't pick together.

I mean, it's a college football is insane, which is why it's awesome. You know, but it is an insane situation.

And the more I learn about it and the more situations I go through, it's like, there was no winning, I think, for this one, but I still would like to restate, I was publicly and privately telling Lane that he should stay at home, Miss, me personally, just because I knew that there was potential a lot of heat coming on the other side of it just by reading the tea leaves of the internet, but also having the opportunity to be a, I don't want to say

a trailblazer, but like somebody that builds a place and builds a town. You obviously know a lot about this, Alabama, not you, but obviously Bear Bryant was there.

But from where they were whenever you got there to what it became, it's like that's a cool legacy as well. But granted, the way he talked about it, LSU was a one-of-one job.

Can't wait to catch up with him tomorrow. Let's paper go ahead.

You know, one thing about this that I think people probably don't see from maybe the perspective, I think sometimes as a coach, you think of, you said it, you build something. You build a program.

All right, so you take over a program that's not so good, whether it's Michigan State, LSU, wherever I basically went, Alabama, and you build it. Well, once you build it and you have success, what...

What's the next challenge? So that was the hard thing for me. You know, I went at Michigan State, I left and went to LSU.
I went at LSU, I went to the Miami Dolphins. Then I went back to Alabama.

So then when you went in Alabama, when do you get to the place in your life where it's enough?

And you can just say, okay, every year is like a new job. I'm going to try to sustain this success here, which is much more difficult than building it to start with.
Yeah, chasing is something.

Building the mountain is always much more fun than once you get to the top of it. Once you get to the top, because now the expectation goes up, like what we've talked about before at Penn State.

The expectation goes up, and then all of a sudden, you become more anxious about being able to sustain that level of success.

So sometimes it's easier to just say, I'll just go build something someplace else. AJ, what did Mac Brown tell us that we've remembered since then, basically, what it got whenever he was at Texas?

Right, he was more of a relief than like joy after a win. Yeah, and losses were completely devastating.

Yeah, a win was relief, you know, because you're supposed to win. And then a loss was just devastation.
There was never any happiness.

So if you're not able to kind of figure out what it is that makes you happy at a place and wait, keep you going, it's like, I guess we can just consider a lot of you college football coaches.

You got gypsy souls, man. Got a lot of gypsy souls as you kind of try to move around.

And then also, anytime you see an opportunity and then you're given like what the max could be, if you're a builder and a creator and things, it's like, oh, I could go do that.

And then sometimes you're looking right in front of you and it's like, we're really close right here, though. You know, like, did we actually complete our goals?

That's tough man that's a tough thing to do yeah but to Mac Brown's point how do you enjoy accomplishing something when the expectation is you were supposed to accomplish it and dominate it before you ever did it so how does it not become relief just to win a game and the only joy is when you accomplish the goal of winning the championship or whatever which is the expectation yeah and then that's for what 20 minutes exactly and then what we gotta recruit we gotta do this again next year.

And then it's on. That is why you having the dog mentality of always wanting to better and get better at the same place is very rare, which is why everybody's asking for your opinions.

But when you give opinions, people aren't going to like to hear that you're maybe sending somebody to LSU. Now, let's talk about college ball a little bit.
You know, the C, you're a bad guy.

Scott, terrible guy. Scott did nothing for Alabama.
Scott did nothing for Alabama. I'm joking.
That's right. I did see you.
You were taking some heat on the internet, which I don't like because

you're fucking Nick Saban.

You're the guy that we would all pick to put in as president of the United States if you would ever let us.

You are some guy. But I did not make a decision for you.
Yeah, right. I did not.
Yeah, I did not. All right, so

you think I wouldn't have been catching hell on the internet if I'd have said to say it old miss? Yeah, you're right. I mean, there's no.

Fans are going to get on your ass for saying that. Me? Yeah.
No, they like me because I go, hey,

you remember the channel? Oh, yeah, now you're in the music business, huh?

How about that shit?

Now we are doing it. All right, let's move on.
Let's get back to the college football business. Ty Schmidt has a question for you, Coach.

Yeah, coach, we talked about this a little bit with you last year, and I understand coaches don't think like this, and neither do players.

But with the current model and the way it's set up, do you think any coach is maybe thinking like, hey, that five seed is kind of where we want to be. I understand.
We want to go undefeated.

You want to be the number one seed.

But you look at last year, Oregon, you know, they get the buy and then they get the doors blown off of them by Ohio State, whereas this year they're sitting at five and there's a very good chance that, you know, if they play a two-lane or a North Texas, no disrespect to either one of them, but Oregon's going to be like a four-touchdown favorite in that game, and it maybe gives them the opportunity to kind of get hot at the right time.

So if you're coaching a team, like, would you almost do you think the buy is almost a detriment in this current model that we're in? Or is is that still the end-all-be-all?

You know, I think last year the buy was a detriment because most of the teams that had buys didn't perform very well. But I think the real key is, you know, where is your team right now?

If your team's playing really well and you got momentum, which you've created by playing well, because you earned your own momentum, then do you really want to buy or not?

Would you rather keep playing and build on that momentum?

If your team's all beat up and you got a bunch of guys hurt up at this time of the year and some time off would be beneficial, then I think having a bye week is probably a good thing.

So I think the circumstance determines whether it's a good or

bad thing based on where your team is. But I think that most,

a lot of coaches

have to really examine how do we get ready for a game when we have all this time off. A lot of time.

I think, you know, that's one of the things, I mean, you can look at my record. When I was at Michigan State, we went to, what, four bowl games?

We got the line and kicked out of our ass and every one of them. Because I tried to practice from the season to the bowl game.

And by the time we got there, the players are so tired of practicing, I mean, psychologically, they just wanted to get it over with. And then I started making it when I went to LSU.

This is a one-game season. So we're not practicing maybe for two or three weeks.
Players just work out, lift weights, have seven-on-seven on their own every now and then. Coaches aren't around them.

And then we're going to practice 11, 12 times before the game and that's it and then we started winning because everybody was looking forward to it and all that so how you manage that time off you know sometimes less is more but as coaches you think the more you practice the better you're going to get Sometimes it doesn't work, not at this time of year.

It's such a crazy philosophy, especially for the GOAT to say. It's like, actually, whenever we were practicing more, we got worse.

So we need to stop practicing, almost make them think they have like a little mini mini offseason, right?

They're going to, and then they'll be excited to get the pads back on and kind of get back into work. That was what you said psychologically you saw from your team.
That's right.

And we won when we did that and we lost when we did it the other way. Did you ever win here? Did you ever win these games?

I remember the one we lost here in 2008 to Tebow when we had a young team second year at Alabama, but a bunch of dogs on that team.

They just ball freshmen. You talk about Mac Brown saying if you win, it's a relief.
If you lose, it's devastating. I don't know how many you've won here.
I assume eight or nine or something like that.

And then you go, yeah, I remember the one we lost, Tim Tebow, asshole, that guy. I'll never forget it.
Like, that's your first memory, which is why you are who you are.

Speaking of you are who you are, you've created billions of dollars in NFL revenue for your player. There's a guy up in Detroit who has changed and transformed the way their team plays.

Go ahead, Conman. Yeah, coach, you recruited Jameer Gibbs, got him to transfer from Georgia Tech, I believe in the 2022 season.
What was it like coaching a player like that?

Was he, you know, as electric as some of the other dudes that you've had? I mean, you've had Heisman winners, but Gibbs himself right now is taking over the NFL.

He actually just became the quickest or most touchdowns before or in his first three seasons. Yeah, there he is, before turning 24.

He also, I believe, passed Randy Moss for the most touchdowns in the first few seasons of his career as well as another stat.

But what was it like having Jameer Gibbs and

what do we not know about him as a player or the person that you kind of got to experience that season?

Right. Well, you know, I was surprised that when we looked at Jameer Gibbs when he was at Georgia Tech, I saw this guy that had this great ability to make you miss.
And probably one of the most

important facets of being a great running back is to make a cut and get to full speed. How fast can you get to full speed out of a lateral cut? This guy can do it as well as anybody.

I know they compare him to Barry Sanders and he made a lot of guys miss and I played against him and he made a lot of our guys miss. But that's what Jameer Gibbs can do.
He's tough.

He's a great person. He's a great receiver.
And this guy can just do it all. And he's making people miss.
He runs behind his pads even though he's not a great big guy.

But he's hard to tackle and he's got great acceleration and burst and speed out of a cut, which I think makes him unique in terms of his skill set, what he can do as a complete player in this offense.

And you got to give the Lions credit because they use the guy the right way. They get him the ball the right way.
Yeah, they get him the ball a lot.

And also, they have another running back, Monty, who had a big night, but Jameer Gibbs clearly becoming a separator on offense. So fast, so explosive, so dynamic, so cool.
Do you like the number zero?

You like the number zero on him or no?

You know, I'm not big on what number they wear when they can score touchdowns like he does. So it doesn't matter to me.
I mean, he can have no number.

Ah, coach, you're the absolute greatest. We appreciate you, man.
Thank you for welcoming us here to your SEC championship. It's an honor to be down here.

Well, it is an honor, and there's a lot of memories that go into this place, and you know.

One of them was when I first came to the SEC in 2000, Roy Kramer was the

conference commissioner, and he had been a very successful coach at Central Michigan of all places, you know, in Michigan, in the Mid-American Conference, and even before when they weren't in the Mid-American Conference, and he was very, very successful, but

this guy is a legend in terms of being an old-fashioned football guy. I mean, he watched high school games right up until he's 96 years old.
He's still watching high school games.

You know, he's still going

and very involved in the game. And,

you know, I always say they don't make them like they used to. I don't think they make very many of them like Roy Kramer.
Well, rest in peace to Roy Kramer.

Thank you for your services to football and to life. He was the creator of the BCS.

Roy Kramer created the BCS. He was a commissioner for 11 years, obviously ball coach elsewhere.
And I believe today he was announced, passed away recently. Right.
Today. Yeah, so rest in peace.

Sorry about that. Hey, sorry about that.
Appreciate you, man. We are very thankful that you join us every single week.

And tomorrow should be electrifying as you pick georgia to beat your alabama team right you're gonna call the dogs you're gonna wow and say

to hell with alabama just like i sent lane kiffin down to lsu i was sick of alabama having fruits is that what you're gonna do what do they call it when they take toilet paper and throw it all over your trees at your house teepee

teepee yeah yeah is that what you're trying to get no no no no no no i would never want that i would never want that uh or eggs like they did to petulo allegedly up there in uh new jersey and Philadelphia for the Eagles.

But we appreciate the hell out of you, Coach. Hell of a year out of you.
You've crushed it this year, you know that. Hell yeah, coach.

I enjoy it, and being alongside of you is brings out the best in me, I got to say that. I do wonder what's going through your head sometimes.

Like the shout up there in Eugene, you getting up and dancing, getting down low. A lot of people say, Wow, good knees on Saba.
He got down there low for the shout, then you turned it back up.

I appreciate you riding in there. You do, you ride in there, and I appreciate that.
But see, I wouldn't do that with anybody else, but you.

Miss Terry.

Yeah, Miss Terry.

Miss Terry's here, by the way. Happy Thanksgiving, Miss Terry.
Happy holidays. She gave us a gift.
He's playing an accordion.

Oh. Accordion on the Christmas card.
Looks awesome. You look like a real music.

What was that about, Coach? What was that about? What was that? I rolled, Coach. I guarantee you.

I guarantee you that I did not approve that Christmas card.

The first time I saw it was today.

There's no way that shit's gone public. I will make sure I get it.
Do you play the accordion?

You played the accordion? I would make sure I did. Oh, wow.
My grandma Sabin made us all learn how to play accordion when we were kids.

One of the reasons that I started playing ball when I was nine years old was to get out of going to according lessons.

Okay, so now the fact that you know the accordion, I might need you on the next song. I might need you on, uh, I might need you on another song in this entire thing.

Hold on, I think we got it here, actually. Let's go ahead and zoom in on that down there.

And

oh, yes. Yep, so that is the

yes.

I don't have

focused on the trend.

Keep it coming.

How many dogs do you have?

That's him on the accordion. That's unbelievable work out of you.
And look at Miss Terry absolutely crushing it as we should have expected.

How many different photos were taken here, and how long did it take to piece together here? What were you playing on? I had nothing to do with it. What? Don't lie.
Nothing. Don't lie, Coach.

What are you talking about? Merry Christmas, jolly old Saint Nick. I thought that was the attack.

Oh, Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everybody, but you don't need to see me playing an accordion to enjoy yourself. I need you on accordion on my next song.
I need you on my next song.

Is that possible? Let's see that. Absolutely.
You see one.

What's the sound? Wow, wow, wow, wow. That's a sound, right? That's it.
I need that on the next song. Because, man, ladies and gentlemen, Coach Nick Sanders.

Coach.

Hey, George. I can see him playing the harmonica, too.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Maybe he gets the one that has like the... Like the Bob Dylan one so he can hold the accordion too.
He's playing the accordion and then everyone's like him bop down and play that harmonica.

Have you seen the video of him playing the sax with the Blues Brothers shades and hat on? Nick Saban? Yeah. It's unbelievable.
I actually have not.

Is that a real thing or are you just being tone, right? I thought I saw that somewhere. Are you thinking of when Bill Clinton went on Arsenio Hall? Played the saxophone like in 1993?

Maybe I am. I think you will.
Maybe I am. With that being said, Fox, we pop up the playoff predictions, I guess, of the Ramys for the NFL games on the slate here.

So, okay, Carl, explain what this exactly is, right? So the number on the left for the teams is if they win, if the Colts win, they got an 86% chance to make the playoffs across the board.

You see how that works. On the other side, is if they lose, if the Jags lose, they still have a pretty good chance because they have tiebreakers with a lot of the other wildcard teams.

But the other real games that matter here, if you look at it, Steelers and Chiefs. Both of them need to win.
If they lose, it is pretty detrimental to them making a run at the Big Dan.

So I know Tony is not shaking in his boots because he's pretty confident in Rodgers this weekend, but definitely a must-win for Pittsburgh. Tony, honestly, you've cut a flip-walk.

You were down the dumps, you know. Yeah, I took my time.
You know, on Suicide Watch for a couple of days, but then you came around. It feels like you're back on board with the Steelers.

Yeah, you know,

I came and I chose to be positive.

You know, I was tired of the negativity surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers and the cloud that was hanging over my head. So I thought about it.

And, you know, we're playing for first place on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens who also haven't looked good.

And, you know, if if we win, we got the keys to the driver's seat to win the AFC North. Okay, yeah, fair enough.
Pat,

how about Coach Saban with the accordion? You're definitely getting him on at least one song.

The slate is packed for the NFL there with a lot of Ramys and Coach Saban on the accordion for the next song, which is oops, is coming out, I think, in like a week or so.

And then there's like five other ones that are coming. I mean, we got, this is just the tip.
That's awesome. I don't want to get into it, but this is just the tip of the dookie here, you know.

And I think as we kind of settle in it's certainly going to become an enjoyable experience and we appreciate everybody playing it but uh talking to coach saban there on the way out he was like hey you were trying to get the number on how many i won here uh we're 18 and one in this building he said i won 17 straight here 17 straight here

And you said, well, you probably ate eight or nine of them, didn't you? You know how pissed he probably was in his head, but he's like, I'm too humble to say that. He said

10 championships, thanks. 18 and 1 in this building.
On the way out here, he said that. He said, you were trying to pull the number at this building, 18 and 1 here.
I said, who?

And he goes, our teams we're very 17 straight here tim tebo is the only one tip tebo is the only guy that got

literally the first thing he thought about there and he's got 11 total

11 total sec championships yeah so one of them just wasn't in that building

uh lsu probably right oh i'm not sure probably because the the stadium wasn't built right Yeah, he was national champion there.

I assume they won the SEC championship as well there because nobody talks about the SEC championship from LSU. They only talk about the national championship from LSU.

And also, I guess conversation is he loved his time down at LSU.

Hey, let's go ahead and put some of our, let's make our Sunday slate picks here, AJ, shall we, as we wrap up this glorious feel-good dookie Friday, December 5th, 2025, Dookie available on all streaming platforms.

It's an outrageous thing to even say that.

Indianapolis Colts, favored by one and a half down there in Duval. Listen, the Jacksville Jaguars are a boogeyman, if you would, to the Indianapolis Colts, especially down there.

When their team is ass, they beat us down there. When their team is good, they beat us down there.

So the thought of them ruining this season and continuing our loss with them is certainly feasible and possible. But I like the Indianapolis Colts.

I like what Danny Dimes is going to be doing second week with a fractured fibula playing. He's going to be a little bit more understanding of the situation.

Give me the Indianapolis Colts favored by one and a half down there. Oh, boy.
Yeah, hey, I love the Indianapolis Colts as well. I love what they're doing.

I'm in their city right now, but I'm going jags on this one. I do not like Danny Dimes having to limp around.
The dude's a warrior, and then Adam Schefter's acting like it's a hairline fracture.

It's nothing. Oh, everybody would play through this.
No, he's a monster. He's playing through something, but give me the jags.
You get him at plus two. Yeah, that's incredibly painful, I do believe.

What can we get?

You can get him at what? You can get the jags at plus two. I'll take that.

Jeez. Can I get...

All right, minus one and a half. Yeah.
There's a.

Are they practicing the chest pass, Dr. Pepper? Yeah, no, I think they're doing the Coke Zero chest pass right now.

Oh, it's still... We thought maybe Coke Zero was coming in, but it is still the Dr.
Pepper tuition chest pass.

Are they telling you got to throw it one-handed at least? No.

Why? It's the chest pass competition.

No, it's not. Yeah, but remember, the reason why the chest pass started is because somebody couldn't throw it and then they ended up winning.
Now they're like a doctor or something.

I forget what it is. Obviously, this is part of it.
And if they're going to be walking through the whole thing, that is awesome for us to have to deal with here.

There's a lot of people that is going to... Hey, it's different down here.
It's just different down here. Bengals traveling to take on the Buffalo Bills.
Interesting story coming out of Buffalo.

New stadium is basically going to be sold out every single week just from season ticket sales or season licensing sales in the entirety.

The Buffalo Bills, faithful, are excited for their new stadium, and the Buffalo Bills fan base is obviously spectacular.

Would that be enough for them to win by at least six as they host the Buffalo, or Cincinnati Bengals team that had a massive prime time Thanksgiving win over the Baltimore Ravens.

Who do you think, AJ? How do you like it? Man, Bills at home.

That was initially lean in Bills, but man, watching Joe Burrow, you know, breathe some life back into this team, I'm going to take the Bengals on this. T.
Higgins is back as well by the menu.

Okay, can their defense stop Josh Allen and them? I guess they did great against the Baltimore Ravens.

Can we get them at plus six or no? You could get the Bengals plus six or Bills minus five and a half.

I'll get the

Bills minus five and a half. New Orleans Saints take it on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Bucs, favored by eight and a half at home.

New Orleans Saints, obviously a team that has been playing better than we thought, even though they're still not good. We thought they were going to be completely ass.

Bucs favored by eight and a half at home. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? And Tone, do we have any other line? Eight and a half across the board.
Okay.

I like Tampa Bay Bucks at home. Give me Bake and the crew, too.
Eight and a half feels like a lot, but I think they figured it out.

Me too. Let's go to the Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North rivalry of all rivalries.
The Baltimore Ravens used to be the Cleveland Browns.

Pittsburgh Steelers hated them in Cleveland. Then they go to Baltimore.
They hate them there. This year, both fan bases are waiting to bury their respective teams upon a loss this weekend.

Neither team...

Neither team's fan base, I would say, believe that their team can win a Super Bowl. And that's what we're in this whole thing for.

Tone Diggs, how do you feel here, just a couple days removed from the massive rivalry of the Steelers and Ravens taking place?

Yeah, I think I should let everyone know first that the dog in this matchup, when it's Tomlin versus Harbaugh, is 26, 6, and 3 against the spread.

So normally the dog, it's always a close game, so normally the dog covers in this one.

But the last two, the Ravens have covered 7.5 and 9.5 because they've been able to run it down the Steelers' throats. I don't see anything different on Sunday.
I think the Ravens will win easily.

Okay, so you're trying to reverse jinx this thing, it feels like. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? So I heard Lamar got stepped on, missed a practice Wednesday, but he's back.
He's back. Yep.

Doing fine. That could be very painful.

Give me the Steelers here, man. I think they find a way to keep it close.

All right, I'll take the Ravens. I'll bite.
It doesn't feel like that should be the case at all, especially with how they played. Favored by five and a half.

That feels like a lot of points in this particular rivalry. Everything kind of stinks a little bit.
Yeah, a little dinky, I tell you.

So I'll take the Ravens, just like last night. Seahawks, Falcons, Seahawks, good on the road.
Road Warriors, actually.

Favored by seven, heading down into this beautiful stadium, which will play host as the Falcons are at home. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it?

I like Seattle, man. I like Sam Darnold in Seattle, and what they are doing.
Their defense, I think, is sneaky good as well. So give me the Seahawks.
It's actually a six and a half.

I believe I'm frozen on your side. Am I frozen? You guys are completely frozen on my screen, so

you're good, everybody.

Okay, good, good, good, good, good. It's great to be here, boys.
It's great to be here, boys. I like the Seattle Seahawks with whatever one we can get.

Miami Dolphins, favored by two and a half, going in and take on the New York Football Jets. I like everything I'm seeing from Aaron Glenn, even through his challenge flag in a cool way.

NFL Films released a little footage of him dropping that thing with a little pizzazz and then talking a little bit of shit. Maybe they're finding their culture over there.

Is there any other lines we need to know about this one, Tone? You can get the Jets at plus three or the Dolphins minus two and a half.

Okay, AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I've gone back and forth on this one, but I like what Aaron Glenn's got going on. Give me the Jets plus three here.

AJ's been great at picking games. I have not been, so the fact that I'm just seeing so many differently than him does alarm me.

But give me the Miami Dolphins, even though it's going to be cold in New York. Give me the Jets.

I will take the Jets. This is a something's got to give game.
Their stats are coming out. Tua undefeated against the Jets.
Tua in under 40-degree weather hasn't won a game. So it is

something's going to happen where a team will win a game that they haven't ever.

I'll take the Jets plus three.

I completely forgot about the Miami Dolphins team whenever they travel north of the Mason-Dixon line in the winter. Tennessee Titans traveling into Cleveland.

I like the Cleveland Browns no matter what they're favored by, especially at home. Yep, I like the Browns as well.
Myles Garrett going to try to set the sack record, get four or five, three now.

Washington Commanders taking on, we can get that at three and a half, you said? Yep.

We will certainly do that. Washington Commanders taking on the Minnesota Vikings.
What's the health status, boys, of the Washington Commanders and the Minnesota Vikings? Jaden Daniels is a go.

Yep, it just got announced that he will start Sunday versus the Vikings. And I also believe J.J.
McCarthy passed concussion protocol. Not sure if that's good or bad, but

I guess he is going to just go out there and spin that thing is what he said. And Coach O'Connell and Josh McCowan basically told him, like, hey, don't worry about

playing to a T perfectly. Just go out and spin it.

I'll take Jaden over nine. AJ, how about you? Yep, same as you, Commanders.

Denver Broncos, seven and a half. Is there any other lines, Tone?

They are. Sorry, I'm scrolling down.
Broncos, you can get them seven.

You can actually get them at seven if you want.

Okay, AJ, you want them at minus seven? Yep, I love the Broncos here at minus seven.

Me too. Bears, Packers, Ty Shaw.
I'm taking the Packers before you ask me. I'm taking a pack here at home.

Wow. Okay, AJ said, I don't care what the number is.
Give me the Green Bay Packers. Micah Parsons coming out and saying they got no respect.
I don't respect them either. I hate them.

I like that it's a real rivalry. The Bears have a real team this year.
So do the Packers. Ty Schmidt, you like being favored by six and a half or no?

That seems a little high to me just with how well the Bears are playing. I do still think the Packers are going to win.

They're hoping to get a couple guys back who have been out the last couple weeks. I think playing at Lambeau is a massive advantage.
I just, I could see this being a field goal game.

I don't know if it is going to be six and a half. But yeah, as you see there, it is going to be frigid at Lambeau on Sunday.

How's Ben Johnson done against LaFleur?

Pretty good. Like the Lions over the last few years.
They don't love each other. Yeah, they don't.

But the Lions over the last few years have really kind of taken it to the Packers.

Give me Daw Bears. Okay, now how many points am I getting? Six and a half.
Six and a half.

No more? No. Nope.

nowhere? That's way too many anyway. Come on.
The Bears should feel disrespected. Seven point five against Eagles.

All right, let's go to the Rams and the Cardinals. I like the Rams.
Minus eight and a half, minus eight, whatever we can get as they travel out to beautiful Phoenix. We absolutely love them.

The public is also on the Rams, no matter what the spread would be against the Cardinals. And I'll wake up the next day feeling good taking the Rams.
How do you feel, AJ, in this one?

I think the Rams are still one of the best football teams in the NFL. So give me the Rams here.

Coming off a loss, too, you know, to the Panthers. Maybe Matthew Stafford, Sean McVay have their thing.
And then the Houston Texans. That's a good football team.
C.J. Stroud knocking off the rust.

The defense, the Houston sack station's a problem. The Chiefs in the middle of a dynasty.
Are they going to be able to find it? They're favored by three and a half at home. AJ, who do you like?

How do you like it? Honestly, I like the Houston Texans here. I know they're underdogs in Kansas City.
I like C.J. Stroud, what he's doing.
And obviously, the Houston D will continue to play well.

I like the Kansas City Chiefs a lot. This is Travis Kelsey's flannel.
I've worn it a couple times because it's kept me very very comfortable in like the 30 to 50 degree weather range. He is a beast.

I appreciate the hell out of him and Mahomes and Jones. Give me the Houston Texans.
That's a good football team representing the AFC South getting three and a half points. We'll continue digitally.

Stanford Steve will stop by to wrap up some of the college football conversation.

We'll hit all the other storylines and then we'll go into a greatest weekend of college football and NFL football that we've had all season.

Be a friend, tell a friend something nice that might change your life. Play Dookie.
Goodbye.

I think I got it in it. I think I got it in.
Oh, yeah.

All right, I'm going to go to the bathroom real quick. They might be done with this.
I'm kind of feeling it. And then Stanford Steve will be up here.

And boys, let's enjoy the hell out of what we're about to do. This is a great weekend of ball right now.
Hell yeah. I mean,

the closer we get to it, the more excited I'm getting for it all. And don't feel obligated to play Dookie, but kind of though.
And also get creative. Get creative creative with Dookie.

Get creative out there. I can't wait to see what you do.
Obviously, we'll be doing giveaways and fun shit for everything. And yeah, let's take a break, Stanford, see if we'll be on the other side.

AJ, I appreciate you so much for driving over to Indy, brother. Of course, easy.
I enjoy it. I enjoy coming in here, seeing the Thunderdome.
And yeah, it's always fun, man.

Have you heard that since the last time you've been there and then the time before that and the time before that, Foxy and I still have yet to lose? Are you guys still winning like that?

We're on quite the run.

Really?

Bruce not only?

Bruce was a clutch shooter when I played a couple weeks ago. Downtown Bruce Brown.
Bruce?

Yeah, downtown Bruce Brown. He is our

lefty.

Yeah, not only that, but he also changed to a right push shot in the middle of the game if the lefty one's not falling, which he ended up doing to us yesterday, which is obviously a sign you're not going to win the game.

And him and Connor kind of had that. But Bruce is the only insider in the game who also participates in the league in which he is the insider.

So we appreciate what Bruce does for journalism, for U-ball, and also for the game. But Foxy hit our first walk-off the other day because normally we shoot first.

So we're always on defense to end the game. So D.Butsch and Bone,

who was it? Godman. D-Buts and Connor.
D-Buts and Connor. First time together.
Very tough.

Very tough team. They beat us.
Then now we go to championship game, right? They can shoot first, so we're shooting last. It gets to 11-10.
Foxy, last shot. So they win.
They have 11 points already.

Foxy shooting with 10. Our first ever time ever, really doing this.
Foxy steps up.

banks it home, sends it home. Not banks at home, hits off the back of the rim, sends it home, and full bang.

Boom. Oh,

I lost my shit. What a moment.
Connor, Connor was not exactly thrilled. Neither was, but, but it has been getting very intense, and I'm going to be honest.

I don't know how long the game's going to last, but it feels good winning. Foxy, way to go, brother.
I'm very proud of what you've been doing.

I would say that was by far and away our best day of U-ball as an office, as a whole. Those two games, Debo in the first game when they beat us, that was also a walk-off.
So yeah, it was incredible.

We're just on, we're on quite the run.

Bruce, what is the insider business saying about U-ball right now?

We played a fun game. Debo and I were looking like the Cincinnati Bengals on the defensive end, so got to clean that up.

But yeah, you know, just looking to grow the game, keep the integrity of the game intact as much as possible.

Okay, and Connor, what are your thoughts as we sit here when you were just one jumper from Foxy Foxy away from being the champion of U-ball and getting that bedazzled little ball that's been sitting over there on my desk for the last couple months moved over to the toxic table?

I mean, it was a good debut for D-Bud and I, I thought it. First game we've ever played together.
We took you guys to the ropes, but the champs are the chance for a reason.

You got to bury him when you got the chance. You can't just kind of pitter-patter to the end.
You know, we didn't play great on defense, didn't make enough shots.

And maybe next week, me and D-Bud will have another chance. Connor and Butts,

good team. That's a good, that's a good U-ball team.
That's a good U-ball team. There's some teams that really scare you, AJ, and

especially guys that can play on offense and defensive side and also know strategy a little bit. It's,

yeah, there's some good teams out there, and we're going to stay focused. We're 18-1

in that building. And we're going to try to continue that, AJ.
And are you playing today? Have you played?

I don't know if I'll play today, but I believe me and Bruce, Bruce hit a walk-off against you in Foxy like a month ago when I played. No, it was Friday, so it wasn't against them.
Oh, yeah.

It wasn't against me right now.

But we are undefeated. Either way, Bruce had a walk-off.
Just know that ain't nothing. No, no, I was wearing a wig.
You had a walk-off on Halloween. It was against you and Foxy.
Yes.

Yeah, obviously, I understand.

If Bruce hits a walk-off, it gets shoved under the rug. But Bruce did it.
Good job, Bruce. He's the insider.
He's supposed to be the insider. He should have recorded.
You're right.

You got to put that out, Bruce. That's on you.
Yeah. I mean, how am I supposed to know what could happen against me if he doesn't put it out? You're right.
I mean, what do we even

do? Just like Satan telling you 15-1.

Hey, yeah, by the way, fucking never lost one time. So that's it.
My own team. So go ahead and tell him whatever you talk about.
10 championships in this fucking thing.

I mean, think about him walking on here. Just God, welcome to my fucking stadium.
Is how he should feel. And we'll go ahead and celebrate that tomorrow.

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Welcome in hour two of the Pat McAfee Show. I am A.J.
Hawks sitting in for Pat here in Indianapolis. He's in Atlanta.
Big SEC championship game tomorrow. Boys, we had a big first hour.

Football. Football.

It's what happened last night, right, Pat? What's happening all weekend? We got a beautiful slate of games, obviously, college and NFL coming up.

Thanks to Kirk and Peter, right, for joining us that first hour. Yeah, Kirk and Peter.
Obviously, Peter's always got the juice.

And the dogs are going to try to win a big one here tomorrow against Alabama. Championship weekend will be spectacular for college ball game day.
9 a.m.

tomorrow on ESPN and live on X throughout the entirety of this entire college football playoff.

Should be quite a scene and a vibe as we're down here in Atlanta live from the convention center, the SEC Fan Fest. At the beginning of the show, not normally that packed.

And then as the show continues, it kind of fills up with a bunch of SEC faithful there to celebrate this championship. game, which obviously two legends will be competing in.

And then across the slate up there in Indianapolis, Indiana Indiana is going to be the big one. One versus two.

Indiana Hoosiers looking to do something that they've never done before.

And then the Ohio State Buckeyes looking to maintain their dominance as they're the reigning national champions, favorites to win the national championship yet again.

And nobody really speaks about them because all they've done is kick everybody's ass. Will they be able to do that?

To Fernando Mendoza in an Indiana Hoosiers offense that can spin it in a defense that's great. We shall see 8 p.m.
Boots on the ground there at Lucas Oyo. Let's go to the toxic table at Boston Connor.

I see you wearing that Mendoza shirt, brother. You feel good about the weekend for the Hoosiers? Yeah, I feel fantastic.

Look, Ohio State circles two things on their calendar, and they have two goals every single year: beating Ohio State, or excuse me, beating Michigan and winning the national championship.

They don't care about the Big Ten championship. Let's be real here.
Okay, they already earned a buy. They don't give a shit about this trophy or banner.
IU does, all right?

They haven't won this thing since 1967. I believe in these Hoosiers.
I'm excited. I mean, I've been a lifelong fan.
I've never really heard you talk about it. We've waited till today.

No, we've waited a long time.

My whole life.

He graduated from the moment.

Yeah, up in Massachusetts. You know what Massachusetts is? It's a pro sports town, and it's a Hoosier town, baby.
They all. Yeah, actually, don't you, hey, don't you spell it?

M-A-S-S-A-C-H-O-O-S-E-T-T-S. Isn't that how you, isn't it, Massa? Hoos.
It's

what you guys call it up there because of of the Hoosiers? You nailed it. Not to mention, I do believe actually Sig was conceived in Massachusetts.
So throw that into the loop as well. And Sig's name.

I mean, as soon as Sig Nettie became a big-time coach, I believe Massachusetts thought like, oh, we'll be JMU fans.

And then as soon as he went to IU, it was, oh, thank goodness we can go back to the school we've always rooted for, the Hoosiers. I'm very excited for this.

I think it is going to be not just the conference championship game of the weekend, but looking back over the past five, 10 10 years, I think it's going to be the best Big Ten championship they've had in a long, long time.

And that's coming off of Penn State, Oregon, which was a great game. But I can't wait for this one.
I think it's going to be a great day of ball.

And Texas Tech, BYU, to kick it off at noon, I think is going to be another banger as well.

Yeah, I'm very pumped for the college slate. I'm very pumped for the NFL slate.
It's going to be a spectacular weekend. Let's go to one half of the hammer.

Gone.

Cowboys, AP Tone, 78% of the money, 76% of the bets, 80% of the money all lost last night. Is that what I was watching? While saying to myself, Of course, of course, of course.

That's all I kept saying throughout the entire game about the Lions being the favorites, even though they didn't look the best the week before.

And the line moving to three and a half from three when all the money was going the other way. Felt like the sports books were kind of in their bag.

Is that what we just need to understand, Tone, going forward?

Yeah, that was when we were doing the show, it was 78, 77% of the money was was on the cowboys or sorry i should say 77 78 percent of the bets were on the cowboys 80 percent of the money was on the cowboys and then it closed 72 percent uh of the bets on the cowboys and 65 percent of the money on the cowboys so some money came in on the lions late uh we talked about yesterday how the line got better for the cowboys as the day went on even though all the money was on them uh and they call that reverse line movement in the world which is you know sometimes an indicator that you might be on the wrong side if you're on the same side as all of the money.

But Foxy talked about it yesterday. The Lions, 14 straight wins after a loss, 13 and one against the spread after a loss.

They were averaging 35 points per game after a loss. They eclipsed that total last night.
They have just been an absolute wagon after a loss and at home.

That's just what Dan Campbell football is. They do not lose two in a row.
They always bounce back. That was a great win for the Lions last night.

In plus territory last night, the Lions had 29 plays for 216 yards, averaging 7-point yards a clip, 4 for 5 in the red zone.

The Cowboys, 40 plays, 142 yards, 42 yards, 42 yards, 42 yards, 42 yards, 42 yards, 42 yards. Remix, we got a glitch going on.

We had a little glitch going on. 42, 40.

You kept saying 42 yards over and over and over again. I don't know if you can hear us now.

Oh, yeah. I guess, Pat, we're going to reconnect with you, buddy.
I think it was a situation. We kept remixing.
That was a good fact. Oh, no, that's cool.
It was a good thing.

Grab that into the next song maybe on an album.

How do you feel about tomorrow? Like, do you think Ohio State cares as much as

really? I think they absolutely care because, I mean, Indiana is like the

number two team in the country. I think Ohio State wants to prove that they're a number one team.
Yeah. Hey.
Now, this is, yeah, I agree. They are good.
They do have a lot of respect for Indiana and

what they have done. Sorry, mine just glitched as well.

But even just thinking about like nobody talking about Ohio State all year, like, is that something too is where it's like, hey, now is our time.

Now is where if we dominate, people will actually talk about us just because it has been one of those situations like when Georgia went back to back.

Like, hey, we don't have to talk about Georgia all year because they're going to win it in the end. Like, do you think Ohio State has that same type of mindset? Yeah, I think they all feel that way.

I think they feel like, hey, now our season has begun. Like,

this is what we came to do. We started out long ago in winter workouts.

Like, in winter workouts, they were talking about this season and where, hey, when we get to, well, first off, let's go beat Michigan. That's what we're going to do.
Let's beat them.

And then we're going to go. And that's when our season truly starts after that.
And I think this is part of it. This is where I wish

that not only the quarterfinals was home games on campuses. Meet, yep.

Because that would make this game so much more important if it was also the semifinal round at home or whatever.

Because then you're looking at this game would be like for a home field advantage or whatever, one versus. Do you think they'll change that? They'll tweak that in the future, Kim.

I don't know, know, because

I think there's so much money for those semi-final games. And 16 teams, would that help if you're on buying? It might.
You get to play at home in the second round?

Yeah, it might, but I think, because there's so much money

for the semi-final game.

You lose a home game if you get a buy. Yes,

you do. And I think we've asked Saban before, do you wish the next round, the buy round, was also home field advantage too? And he said, yes, that would make sense.
But like,

the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, all those bulls are still

so much money in those Bulls that I don't know if it's ever going to happen, but it would be cool if it did.

Well, and I know they'll never do it because we're already in the time where like, hey, we need to have this playoff ranking show for like the four weeks leading up to this.

But could you imagine like it would make the conference championship still matter if the first ranking show was on Sunday, it was the final one? Because then it's like, guess what? Indiana and,

you know, Ohio State, like this game does still matter a bunch. And I don't know.
I mean, like, we've been to Ohio State's facility.

Like, Like, programs like that, like, you know, your most important trophy is the next one. Like, they want to add a Big Ten championship to that.

But on the flip side, like, for Indiana, like, this really is, like, this would be, you know, the biggest deal for Indiana athletics, like, since Bobby Knight was there and they won a national championship.

You know, it was a long time. And to Ty's point, there has been, I've seen some push on the internet for it only being one selection show the Sunday after all these games.
Like they should do.

Just like college basketball does it. Because then it also doesn't

like the committee put out their rankings four or five weeks ago, however, whenever it started or whatever, and then they're kind of pigeonholed

into those initial rankings. Oh, like they can't, like, they can't have just someone

at two one week and then drop them all the way to 11 or something like that because they put them at like it pigeonholes them into these initial rankings where if they only did the one, it's more free-flowing.

They have all the information. They just put one on at the end, and then there's not as much like bitch.

You can't contradict yourself with a team like Notre Dame, where a couple weeks ago it seemed pretty evident, like, hey, if they beat Stanford in their last game, they're going to get in, and that's going to be

exactly.

And then, so they don't play, and now, like, they have to come up with these new formulas. Well, well, this is the reason we had to move them down.

And, like, that is where all the conjecture comes in, where people are like, these guys are full of shit. They're just making this up as they go.
They have no idea how to do this.

But obviously, you know,

you need the programming. So it happened.
The Notre Dame Dame argument, like, so when I first came, like, I've been to the, okay, hey, head-to-head, who won? Obviously, they lost to Miami, right?

So, Miami gets in. But then, when I hear Pete Bavakwa and I think about him, okay, your team from week one until the last game of the season, you grow so much.
You are a different team.

Most teams are much, much better. Some teams get worse due to injury and whatever things happen, but Notre Dame is definitely much better than they were week one.

So, I understand the argument for sure. Yeah, no doubt about it.
And then, even their loss, I get the head-to-head for Miami, but let's look at their other loss.

Like, Miami's other loss isn't as good as Notre Dame barely losing to Texas AM. Like, that's a very, very tough team.

Texas A ⁇ M basically was a top three team the entire year until they lose in a rivalry game at Texas. So it is such a tough situation.
When are they going to get rid of the automatic bids?

Is that also a conversation just because it does feel as though Turk wants that out?

Yeah, the conference championship thing just feels stupid because you know that whoever wins the Big Ten is one of the best teams in the country.

Whoever wins the SEC, one of the best teams in the country.

And then typically, like in Indiana or like Obama, there will be a situation where whoever they're playing isn't the best, one of the best teams in the country.

But if you if you listen to what Pete just said, and a lot of people love the five plus eleven model, which will be the five conference champions

and then the 11 at-larges. So it doesn't feel like those are going to go away anytime soon if they're talking about going to the 16 team.
Kirk said they signed an extension, ESPN signed.

Yeah, so there was a deadline, I think it was a a week or so ago, for them, for ESPN and the college football playoff or whatever, to decide if they were going to 16 or not.

And that just kind of got pushed back. They just gave an extension to make that decision.
Okay, good. I think we got things figured out.
Pat, what's going on over there, buddy? We got you guys back.

Oh, here we go. Hey, I always appreciate whenever people have to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge their way through some technology and make some good decisions.

Shout out to Bruce and Barcode, the entire squad here, getting us back connected. And not just connected, we're at the greatest of all time.
A man who has no history in this building. that's Jim Saban

how you doing coach okay coach so the big question is obviously there's a lot of football fans where I live and where AJ lives that go game day should be at the Big Ten championship this year because Ohio State and Indiana is about to be insane obviously could have definitely done that in our eyes would have been spectacular but I think what people don't understand whenever they come down here is there is an aura around the SEC championship.

It's like every year it does feel like it is the Super Bowl of the South. And what do you kind of think about whenever you get down here, just from your own personal experiences?

Well, I think having played in this game a few times, it's

one of the best competitive venues that I've ever been a part of because the passion that people have in this conference and the support that this game has had, Atlanta is sort of a great place to have it.

So this building is a great place to play it.

And there's usually two really good, highly ranked teams playing in the game. So there is a lot of history to it.

And I don't want to minimize the Big Ten championship because obviously I coach in that league and that was you know really significant if you can win the Big Ten and to have the number one and number two teams playing for the Big Ten championship I think that's the only time two undefeated teams one and two have ever played in that game that's pretty significant too so

got great points

I think championship weekend is going to live up to the hype no doubt no doubt tough decision for game day every week you would hope and the fact that we're a part of a show that people want us to be at their game is an honor.

Like that is a, you don't just fall to that point. And obviously what game day has done for all these years has made it a special treat every time we go anywhere.

But obviously being and living in Indianapolis would have loved to be, they would have shut the city down. But this place does shut down for the SEC.
Let's talk about these two teams.

Obviously, you know Alabama very well. You're in the building still.
You're around Kaylin DeBoard and the squad that they have.

Feels like what they've become through Ty Simpson's arm is a team that could certainly go on a run during a playoff.

This George team, though, since losing, you know, to Alabama, have become one of the dominant teams in all of football. Obviously, people talk about Indiana and Ohio State.

We just had Pete Vivaco, the athletic director at Notre Dame. And he said, outside of them,

who's really been as hot as Notre Dame has? I guess Georgia would be the team that you could potentially say that. What are your thoughts on the two teams and how they're playing at this exact moment?

Yeah, I think Georgia's playing really, really well.

I think, you know, since the Bama game, they've made significant improvements on both sides of the ball, but especially on defense.

And in the last three games, something that was a little bit of an Achilles heel for them is getting off the field on third down.

They've been doing that better and to me in the first game Alabama went nine for nine in the first half and got ahead by 14 points by going nine for nine on third down which was a huge difference in the game.

So

I think that's going to be important.

You know at this time of the year you know lots of teams are beat up.

Who can manage and handle from a depth standpoint as well as a mental toughness standpoint, overcoming adversity at this time of the year, playing in a championship game.

This is always a great game, and I'm sure it'll be a great game. Ty Simpson has done a great job, you know, all year long.
And,

you know, one of the things that

I think is important is, you know, Ty has been leaving the home position to change plays,

platform.

And the other team is changing the defense.

So that doesn't create any advantage for you by checking a play on offense. So hopefully hopefully he'll do a little better job of that this week and that won't be a problem for Alabama's offense.

Sounds like that was a coaching point that you had, certainly for Ty Simpson.

I don't know if you let it be heard in the building or if right now you're kind of letting it fly and saying, hey, Ty, why don't we fucking lose it? You know,

this is the first place we released that kind of information.

Ty, need to listen before the SEC championship. Last question for me is just about these championship games as a whole.
I mean, we were just in the game day production meeting. Obviously, it came up.

Last week, it came up. In the offseason, it came up.
Our championship game is going to lose its luster. Is it going to lose its luster?

Kirby and Kalin aren't telling their teams that the SEC championship hasn't lost its luster, right? Like, that conversation never happens for the actual teams that are involved.

It's just kind of the conjecture around it. Is that accurate? Well, I think there's so much emphasis on the playoffs that, you know, bowl games have been...

become a lot more insignificant, which they used to be really significant.

And I think these championship games, because of

the, in a way, unfair ramifications that they can have, you've got some teams sitting at home not playing in a game that may benefit from a team losing that is playing in a game, which doesn't seem quite exactly right, but it does could happen, will happen probably,

because we'll probably reshuffle the deck a little bit after these championship games. But I do think that

it has lost its luster. But let me just say this about this game.
Winning the SEC is a really significant accomplishment. It always was to me.
It always was to our team.

And I don't think that part of it for these two teams has changed at all. Yeah, and they're fans, right? I mean, that's the...
Oh, absolutely.

Because World Type Willie wants to be able to say that he won the SEC Championship. That's right.
I mean, there's people all around Georgia that say them dogs won the SEC, so I don't want to hear it.

That's a big deal. No, it's a big deal.
It's a big deal to walk around the SEC in full strut and so you won the SEC. You guys do that ever? Do you ever go full strut peacock on him a little bit?

Is that just your entire career? You know, that's not me. Just go on.

AJ, any questions for Coach Saban, AJ? Yeah, I do, Coach, to pivot quickly. I know Matt Campbell, I guess Pete Thamel is saying that they're in

talks. It most likely he's going to be the next Penn State coach.

Final stages, if you will. If you figure all of these, all the minutiae out.

Listen to this, though. Hold on, though, AJ, hold on, AJ.
I would like to tell Coach Saban this. This is what was reported.

They're working towards a deal. There's multiple steps that haven't been finalized yet.
Like

the terms or the compensation or anything like that. Never read anything like this before.
Basically, just he's going to be the head coach. Sorry, AJ, just so you know where we're at right now.

They don't know the money. They have no idea the terms, but they both have kind of said to each other, we're going to do this.
Go ahead, AJ. I'm sorry, brother.
Yeah, Coach,

I'm glad we give Coach the context of it. Like, what would you say as a coach going from a team like Iowa State, obviously, where you win eight, eight, nine, ten games a year, people are happy.

But Penn State, it's like, okay, how quick is he going to win a national championship or how he needs to get there in the first couple years? What's it like as a coach, I guess,

when you finally take that step to where you're at a place like that to where, hey, we have to win every game?

Well, but I think that creating that expectation is actually

not favorable to being able to do it because every time you have a misstep, everybody gets negative on where the program is and what the program can accomplish.

And I think the most important thing is to have your administration, your fan base, and everybody stay positive in what you're trying to accomplish and what your goal is.

Alright, so these places that have, to me,

a little bit of unrealistic expectations that we're going to win the national championship. Only one team wins a national championship and there's a lot of competition out there.

There's only 12 teams that get into playoffs and really only 10 of them because two of them may not even be ranked high enough to deserve to get in, but in the system they get in. Okay, yeah.

So anyway, you've stayed in the city. So there's the top 10 teams that get into playoffs.

And then you've got to win in the playoffs against really good teams, and you've got to stay healthy, and you've got to have a quarterback, and you can't lose the wrong guys at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I mean, there's all kinds of factors that go into whether you can finish the season the way you want. So to make that sort of the goal, which is an outcome,

We got to win the championship or we're going to get rid of the coach, to me is totally wrong, and they'll have a hard time doing it if that's the approach that they take.

Look, Matt Campbell did a great job at Iowa State because he won more there than most. So that tells you what the potential of the place is and what he was able to accomplish.

I'm sure he'll be able to do the same thing at Penn State. But how many times has Penn State won the national championship since we had playoffs and since we had BCS games and all that?

I mean, refresh my memory on that.

So why is that their standard of excellence?

Well, because they have a lot of money. Good question.
And they won back in the day. They won back in the day.

So let's go back to that statement about everything's not been decided. It's not just how much compensation the coach is getting.
It's how much money they got to pay the players.

Which is what Lane Kiffen actually said in his presser, which I think this would be a good time to bring this up for you, actually, because your name has also been a part of this entire conversation as a mentor for Lane Kiffin, especially alongside Coach Carroll after his dad passed away.

OGs in the coaching game have looked out for him, which is a very cool thing.

But he said in his press conference, and a lot of people said he was lying, he said, I didn't even know what I was getting getting paid. I think everybody was going to pay me the same.

So I think Lane knew, had a gauge, like he was going to get paid a lot of money, and everybody was going to pay him the exact same.

He said his big question was, how much money do we have for the players? And what he said was LSU clearly had the better setup for what the future is. That's the reality of current college football.

Penn State, allegedly, from everything we've been told and what we have seen, they have all of that. And they're just, they haven't been able to get a coach signed.

And there's been a lot of panic, I think, amongst their people. Having somebody like Matt Campbell, they win this.
I I think they win the headline here.

Don't you think with Matt Campbell, don't you think they can, at least with their donors and everything that kind of matters? I think absolutely.

I think they're getting a great coach who's proven on a consistent basis. You know, he didn't just win one time.

He's won consistently at a place that's not a place that people would recognize as someplace you should win all the time. Yeah, they've been horse shit forever, coach.
Volumes of the job he does.

Oh, that's an Iowa fan. That's Ty from Iowa saying Iowa State is horseshit.

They were before he got there.

I think that is why people are so impressed by Matt Campbell, is because, like, his culture is one of success.

And it's at a place that I don't think, you know, especially in the modern world, none of us are saying Iowa State's name whenever it comes to NIL conversations.

72 and 55, which is damn near 57%, previous 10 seasons, 41, 82. Jesus.
Okay, before that, before he gets there. So, yeah, they were kind of shite.
And then Matt Campbell gets there and they're good.

And for Penn State, I think we all thought there was a chance they weren't even going to have a coach next year. You know, they already missed signing day.

And allegedly, the big deluxe is keeping people away, which

I think the big deluxe said, okay, if a car breaks down on Side Road somewhere, blame me. Why am I always the guy that's getting blamed for everything?

Well, it's because he's involved with everything, as are you, okay, in this college football conversation. Have you seen your coaching tree yet? Have you seen that the most updated, most recent one?

Somebody put a tweet out that basically has all your coaches and where they're at right now. It's starting at 12, counting down to one is pretty much what it is.

Nick Sabans, FBS head coaching tree, as of November 30th.

You got Kirby Smart of Georgia here, Sarka, Texas, Lane Kiffin at LSU, Sig in Indiana, Lanning, obviously Chris the Ball, Brent Key, Bet Golding, O'Brien, and you name it.

Even all the way down to Butch Jones, I see a gif of him losing his mind all the time. It is truly a beautiful thing.

But like you're obviously a part of a lot of different conversations and a lot of different storylines and a part of a lot of different people's lives.

Lane Kiffin situation, did you think that was pretty chaotic, even in the scheme of like what chaotic situations can be in college football?

I don't think I expected it to get as loud and as nasty as it all got at the end. But then after we get through it, I found myself thinking to myself, well, I'm so naive.

It was going to get like that regardless. Is that kind of the thought whenever you're talking about like, hey, this, people are going to hate you regardless because it's SEC football?

Is that a part of the combo with Lane or any of these guys that have to make these massive decisions? Well, I don't think you can go from one SEC school to another

without a whole bunch of people getting pissed off. I mean, that's just a fact of the the matter.
I mean, because you've got these passionate fan bases on both sides of the fence. So,

and anybody that is viewed as somebody who sort of promoted one thing or any of the other is probably going to get criticized, too.

You know, I have a lot of people calling me, asking me for advice based on, I guess, my experience.

And as a human being, I don't care if you're a player, a coach, or an administrator, whoever it is, for the love of the game, I'm always going to try to give them the best information that I can.

I never tell them what to do. I always just say, what do you want to do? Where can you do it the best? Can you accomplish your goals the best? Where do you have the best opportunity to be successful?

What's best for your family? So

I don't make anybody's decisions for them. I just try to offer the best advice that I can relative to them being able to accomplish what they want to work on.

Why don't you tell them to go call somebody else and kick rocks? You know,

why don't you stay the hell out of it, Coach Saban? Okay, we don't need you telling Lane Kiffin to go down to Louisiana.

We got a team here in fucking Alabama we're trying to win, and now you're sending Lane Kiffin down to LSU. Why don't you just hang up on him and not give him any advice at all?

There's people that think that.

Well,

if I did that, though, I mean,

I wouldn't feel good about myself not helping people who were colleagues of mine who helped us be successful and created value in what we were able to accomplish. And you appreciate that.

And you're loyal to those people who were loyal to you, who helped you. So I would have a hard time dealing with that personally.

And I think there's a lot of people out there that say, well, what kind of person would be that way that he wouldn't help his colleagues make choices and decisions that are, you know, hopefully going to help them accomplish the goals that they have,

which is up to them, not up to fans or anybody else. Or me.
You say colleagues, nobody's really your colleague, bro. Okay?

We've all worked in your world. You're breathing different air, which is why everybody would like to hear what you think in this entirety.

And the fact that you give back and listen to everybody is a good quality, not a bad one. And I think that situation was insane with the calendar.
Obviously, we can get into it all.

Also, how close he was to a national championship with Ole Mist. Don't you think you want to stick it out? What's available to LSU? We'll talk to Lane Kiffen tomorrow.
I cannot wait for that.

And I'm excited for everybody's the internet, especially all the old Miss fans. They're like, wow, this is just going to be a fluff piece for Lane Kiffen.

It's like, okay, I mean, we're certainly going to be able to get a lot of people. You're going to ask some hard questions.

Yeah, well, I've heard how it's starting.

I think there's some real questions. There's some real journalism happening tomorrow, from our understanding, from the meeting we just got out of.

But also, I think Lane knows some answers on some stuff, too, which I think he knows.

And then obviously he'll be able to talk about the decision and what he's expecting out of LSU, which if you talk to anybody that's been around ball a long time, they're like, LSU,

you got a good thing set up over there. You got a good setup down there, which he will certainly hit on and talk about as well.

I think more explanation will be good, but also good conversation at the SEC Championship.

But, you know, this is a, based on the calendar and the circumstances and in football, it's always difficult when you're a coach.

And I've been in this situation before and I absolutely hated it and couldn't sleep at night over it. Where you have an opportunity to go someplace that's maybe better than where you are, maybe not.

Maybe you view it as better, maybe not.

And you want to be loyal to the team that you have because of what they've done to create the success that has helped you get the opportunity.

So you get caught in the rock in a hard place as to how do you make a decision. Because if Lane would have stayed and hired his coach, LSU would have hired somebody else.

So he knows he's given up the opportunity if he makes that decision, which is really what he'd love to do because of the loyalty he has to his team. But you can't have both.

And you're going to get criticized probably either way. Yeah, not probably, definitely.
Just because then he was stringing along LSU.

Then the LSU people would be mad because he was stringing him along if he didn't pick to go. I mean, it's a college football is insane, which is why it's awesome.

You know, but it is an insane situation. And the more I learn about it and the more situations I go through, it's like, there was no winning, I think, for this one.

But I still would like to restate, I was publicly and privately telling Lane that he should stay at home this, me, personally, just because I knew that there was potential a lot of heat coming on the other side of it just by reading the tea leaves of the internet, but also having the opportunity to be a, I don't want to say

a trailblazer, but like somebody that builds a place and builds a town. You obviously know a lot about this, Alabama, not you, but obviously Bear Bryant was there.

But from where they were whenever you got there to what it became, it's like that's a cool legacy as well. But granted, the way he talked about it, LSU was a one-of-one job.

Can't wait to catch up with him tomorrow. Let's pivot.
Go ahead.

You know, one thing about this that I think people probably don't see from maybe the perspective, I think sometimes as a coach, you think of, you said it, you build something, you build a program.

All right, so you take over a program that's not so good, whether it's Michigan State, LSU, wherever I basically went, Alabama, and you build it. Well, once you build it and you have success,

what's the next challenge? So that was the hard thing for me. You know, I went at Michigan State, I left and went to LSU.
I went at LSU, I went to the Miami Dolphins. and I went back to Alabama.

So then, when you went at Alabama, when do you get to the place in your life where it's enough? Yeah.

And you can just say, okay, every year is like a new job. I'm going to try to sustain this success here, which is much more difficult than building it to start with.
Yeah, chasing is something.

Building the mountain is always much more fun than once you get to the top of it. Once you get to the top,

because now the expectation goes up, like what we've talked about before at Penn State.

The expectation goes up and then all of a sudden you become more anxious about being able to sustain that level of success.

So sometimes it's easier to just say, I'll just go build something someplace else. AJ, what did Mac Brown tell us that we've remembered since then basically what it got whenever he was at Texas?

Right, he was more of a relief than like joy after a win. Yeah, and losses were completely devastating.

Yeah, a win was relief, you know, because you're supposed to win. And then a loss was just devastation.
There was never any happiness.

So, if you're not able to kind of figure out what it is that makes you happy at a place and wait, keep you going, it's like I guess we can just consider a lot of you college football coaches, you got gypsy souls, man, got a lot of gypsy souls as you kind of try to move around.

And then, also, anytime you see an opportunity and then you're given like what the max could be, if you're a builder and a creator and things, it's like, oh, I could go do that.

And then sometimes you're looking right in front of you and it's like, we're really close right here, though. You know, like, did we actually complete our goals? That's tough, man.

That's a tough thing to do.

Yeah, but to to Mac Brown's point how do you enjoy accomplishing something when the expectation is you were supposed to accomplish it and dominate it before you ever did it so how does it not become relief just to win a game and the only joy is when you accomplish the goal of winning the championship or whatever which is the expectation and then that's for what 20 minutes Exactly.

And then what? We got to recruit. We got to do this to get next to you.
And then it's on.

That is why you, having the dog mentality of always wanting to better and get better at the same place, is very rare, which is why everybody's asking for your opinions.

But when you give opinions, people aren't going to like to hear that you're maybe sending somebody to LSU. Now, let's talk about college ball a little bit.
You know,

you're a bad guy. Scott, terrible guy.
Scott did nothing for Alabama. Scott did nothing for Alabama.
I'm joking.

I did see you. You were taking some heat on the internet, which I don't like because

you're fucking Nick Satan.

You're the guy that we would all pick to put in as president of the United States if you would ever let us.

You are some guy. But I did not make a decision for you.
Yeah, right. I did not.
Yeah, I did not.

All right, so,

but so you think I wouldn't have been catching hell on the internet if I'd have said to stay at Old Miss? Yeah, you're right. I mean, there's no.

You fans are going to get on your ass for saying that. Me? Yeah.
No, they like me because I go, hey,

you remember the channel? Oh, yeah, now you're in the music business, huh?

How about that shit?

Hell yeah, do it. All right, let's move on.
Let's get back to the college football business. Ty Schmidt has a question for you, coach.

Yeah, coach, we talked about this a little bit with you last year, and I understand coaches don't think like this, and neither do players.

But with the current model and the way it's set up, do you think any coach is maybe thinking like, hey, that five seed is kind of where we want to be? I understand we want to go undefeated.

You want to be the number one seed. But you look at last year, Oregon, you know, they get the buy and then they get the doors blown off of them by Ohio State.

Whereas this year, they're sitting at five and there's a very good chance that, you know, if they play a two-lane or in North Texas, no disrespect to either one of them, but Oregon's going to be like a four-touchdown favorite in that game, and it maybe gives them the opportunity to kind of get hot at the right time.

So if you're coaching a team, like, would you almost, do you think the buy is almost a detriment?

in this current model that we're in or is that still the end-all-be-all?

No, I think last year the buy was a detriment because most of the teams that had buys didn't perform very well. But I think the real key is, you know, where is your team right now?

If your team's playing really well and you got momentum,

which you've created by playing well, because you earned your own momentum, then do you really want to buy or not? Would you rather keep playing and build on that momentum?

If your team's all beat up and you got a bunch of guys hurt up at this time of the year and some time off would be beneficial, then I think having a bye week is probably a good thing.

So I think the circumstance determines whether it's a good or

bad thing based on where your team is. But I think that most,

a lot of coaches

have to really examine how do we get ready for a game when we have all this time off. A lot of time.

I think, you know, that's one of the things, I mean, you can look at my record. When I was at Michigan State, we went to, what, four bowl games?

We got the lining kicked out of our ass and every one of them. Because I tried to practice from the season to the bowl game.

And by the time we got there, the players are so tired of practicing, I mean, psychologically, they just wanted to get it over with. And then I started making it when I went to LSU.

This is a one-game season. So we're not practicing maybe for two or three weeks.
Players just work out, lift weights, have seven on seven on their own every now and then. Coaches aren't around them.

And then we're going to practice 11, 12 times before the game, and that's it and then we started winning because everybody was looking forward to it and all that so how you manage that time off you know sometimes less is more but as coaches you think the more you practice the better you're going to get Sometimes it doesn't work, not at this time of year.

It's such a crazy philosophy, especially for the GOAT to say. It's like, actually, whenever we were practicing more, we got worse.

So we need to stop practicing, almost make them think they have like a little mini off season, right?

And then they'll be excited to get the pads back on and kind of get back into work. That was what you said psychologically you saw from your team.
That's right.

And we won when we did that and we lost when we did it the other way. Did you ever win here? Did you ever win these games?

I remember the one we lost here in 2008 to Tebow when we had a young team second year at Alabama, but a bunch of dogs on that team.

They just ball freshmen. You talk about Mac Brown saying if you win, it's a relief.
If you lose, it's devastating.

I don't know how many you've won here I assume eight or nine or something like that and then you go yeah I remember the one we lost Tim Tebow asshole that guy I'll never forget it like that's your first memory which is why you are who you are speaking of you are who you are you've created billions of dollars in NFL revenue for your player there's a guy up in Detroit who has changed and transformed the way their team plays go ahead con man yeah coach you uh recruited Jameer Gibbs, got him to transfer from Georgia Tech, I believe in the 2022 season.

What was it like coaching a player like that? Was he, you know, as electric as some of the other dudes that you've had?

I mean, you've had Heisman winners, but Gibbs himself right now is taking over the NFL. He actually just became the quickest or most touchdowns before or in his first three seasons.

Yeah, there he is, before turning 24. He also, I believe, passed Randy Moss for the most touchdowns in the first few seasons.
of his career as well as another stat.

But what was it like having Jameer Gibbs? And

what do we not know about him as a player or the person that you kind of got to experience that season?

Right. Well, you know, I was surprised that when we looked at Jameer Gibbs when he was at Georgia Tech, I saw this guy that had this great ability to make you miss.
And probably one of the most

important facets of being a great running back is to make a cut and get to full speed. How fast can you get to full speed out of a lateral cut? This guy can do it as well as anybody.

I know they compare him to Barry Sanders and he made a lot of guys miss and I played against him and he made a lot of our guys miss. But that's what Jameer Gibbs can do.
He's tough.

He's a great person. He's a great receiver.
And this guy can just do it all. And he's making people miss.
He runs behind his pads even though he's not a great big guy.

But he's hard to tackle and he's got great acceleration and burst and speed out of a cut, which I think makes him unique in terms of his skill skill set, what he can do as a complete player in this offense.

And you've got to give the Lions credit because they use the guy the right way. They get him the ball the right way.
Yeah, they get him the ball a lot.

And also they have another running back, Monty, who had a big night, but Jameer Gibbs clearly becoming a separator on offense. So fast, so explosive, so dynamic, so cool.
You like the number zero?

You like the number zero on him or no?

You know, I'm not big on what number they wear when they can score touchdowns like he does. So it doesn't matter to me.
I mean, he can have no number.

Ah, coach, you're the absolute greatest. We appreciate you, man.
Thank you for welcoming us here to your SEC championship. It's an honor to be down here.

Well, it is an honor, and there's a lot of memories that go into this place, and you know

one of them was when I first came to the SEC in 2000, Roy Kramer was the

conference commissioner, and he had been a very successful coach at Central Michigan of all places, you know, in Michigan, in the Mid-American Conference, and even before when they weren't in the Mid-American Conference.

And he was very, very successful. But

this guy is a legend in terms of being an old-fashioned football guy. I mean, he watched high school games right up until he's 96 years old.
He's still watching high school games.

You know, he's still going

and very involved in the game. And,

you know, I always say they don't make them like they used to. I don't think they make very many of them like Roy Kramer.
Well rest in peace to Roy Kramer.

Thank you for your services to football and to life. He was the creator of the BCS.

Roy Kramer created the BCS. He was a commissioner for 11 years, obviously ball coach elsewhere.
And I believe today he was announced, passed away recently. Yeah, today.
Yeah, so rest in peace.

Sorry about that. Hey, sorry about that.
Honestly,

we are very thankful that you join us every single week. And tomorrow should be electrifying as you pick Georgia to beat your Alabama team, right? You're going to call the dogs.
You're going to

say

to hell with Alabama, just like I sent Lane Kiffin down to LSU. I was sick of Alabama having a friend.

Is that what you're going to do? What do they call it when they take toilet paper and throw it all over your trees at your house? TPing. TPing.
TPing, yeah. Yeah.
Is that what you're trying to get?

No, no, no, no, no, no. I would never want that.
I would never want that. Or eggs like they did to Petulo, allegedly, up there in New Jersey and Philadelphia for the Eagles.

But we appreciate the hell out of you, Coach. Hell of a year out of you.
You've crushed it this year. You know that.
Hell yeah, Coach. It's fun.
I enjoy it.

And being alongside of you brings out the best in me. I got to say that.
I do wonder what's going through your head sometimes.

Like the shout up there in Eugene, you getting up and dancing, getting down low. A lot of people say, wow, good knees on saving.
He got down there low for the shout. Then you turned it back up.

I appreciate you riding in there. You do.
You ride in there. And I appreciate that.
But see, I wouldn't do that with anybody else but you.

Miss Terry.

Man, Miss Terry. Miss Terry.
Miss Terry's here, by the way. Happy Thanksgiving, Miss Terry.
Happy holidays. She gave us a gift.
He's playing an accordion. Oh.
Accordion on the Christmas card.

Looks awesome. Wait, it looks like a real musician.

What is that about, Coach? What was that about? What was that eye roll, Coach? I guarantee you.

I guarantee you that I did not approve that Christmas card.

The first time I saw it was today.

There's no way that shit's gone public. I will make sure I get it.
Did you play the accordion?

You play the accordion?

I did. Oh, wow.
My grandma Saban made us all learn how to play accordion when we were kids.

One of the reasons that I started playing ball when I was nine years old was to get out of going to according lessons.

Okay, so now the fact that you know the accordion, I might need you on the next song. I might need you on, uh, I might need you on another song in this entire thing.

Hold on, I think we got it here, actually. Let's go ahead and zoom in on that down there.
And

oh, yes. Yep, so that is the uh

yes.

Yeah,

I don't know if he's focused. Keep it coming.
Keep it coming.

How many dogs do you have?

That's him on the accordion. That's unbelievable work out of you.
And look at Miss Terry absolutely crushing it as we should have expected.

How many different photos were taken here, and how long does it take to piece together here? What were you playing on? I had nothing to do with it. What? Don't lie.
Nothing. Don't lie, coach.

What are you talking about? Merry Christmas, jolly old Saint Nick. I thought that was the entire.

Oh, Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everybody, but you don't need to see me playing an accordion to enjoy yourself i need you on an accordion on my next song i need you on my next song is that possible let's do that absolutely

what's the sound

wah wah wah wah that's a sound right that's it i need that on the next song because man ladies and gentlemen coach nick says

coach

i can see him playing the harmonica too oh yeah yeah the one maybe he gets the one that has like the uh like the bob dylan one yeah he can hold the accordion too he's playing the accordion and then everyone's when he bop down and play that harmonica have you seen the video of him playing the sax with the blues brothers uh shades and hat on nick saban yeah it's unbelievable i actually have not is that a real thing or are you just being tone right i thought i saw that somewhere are you thinking of when bill clinton went on arsenio hall played the saxophone like in 1993 maybe maybe i am i think maybe i am with that being said fox we pop up the playoff predictions i guess here the rammies for the nfl games on the slate here so okay

explain what this exactly is right now so the number on the left for the teams is if they win, if the Colts win, they got an 86% chance to make the playoffs across the board. You see how that works.

On the other side is if they lose. If the Jags lose, they still have a pretty good chance because they have tiebreakers with a lot of the other wild card teams.

But the other real games that matter here, if you look at it, Steelers and Chiefs. Both of them need to win.
If they lose, it is pretty detrimental to them making a run at the big dance.

So I know Tony is not shaking in his boots because he's pretty confident in Rodgers this weekend, but definitely a must-win for Pittsburgh. Tony, honestly, you've kind of flip-whopped.

You were down the dumps.

Yeah, I took my time. You know, on Suicide Watch for a couple of days, but then you came around.
It feels like you're back on board with the Steelers.

Yeah, you know, this, I came and I chose to be positive.

You know, I was tired of the negativity surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers and the cloud that was hanging over my head.

So I thought about it, and, you know, we're playing for first place on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens, who also haven't looked good.

And, you know, if we win, we got the keys to the driver's seat to win the afc north so okay yeah fair enough pat how about uh how about coach saban with the accordion you're definitely getting him on at least one song

The slate is packed for the NFL there with a lot of Ramys and Coach Saban on the accordion for the next song, which is oops is coming out, I think, in like a week or so.

And then there's like five other ones that are coming. I mean, we got, this is just the tip.
Awesome. I don't want to get into it, but it's just the tip of the dookie here, you know.

And I think as we kind of settle in, it's certainly going to become an enjoyable experience. and we appreciate everybody playing it.

But talking to Coach Saban there on the way out, he was like, hey, you were trying to get the number on how many I won here. We're 18 and one in this building.
He said, I won 17 straight here.

17 straight here. 10 championships.
And you said, well, you probably ate eight or nine of them, didn't you? You know how pissed he probably was in his head, but he's like, I'm too humble to sit here.

He said

10 championships, thanks. 18 and one in this building.
On the way out here, he said that. He said, you were trying to pull the number.
At this building, 18 and one here. I said, who?

And he goes, our teams. We're 17 straight here.
Tim Tebow is the only one. Tim Tebow is the only guy that got it.
And that was literally the first thing he thought about there. And he's got 11 total.

11 total SEC championship? Yeah, so one of them just wasn't in that building.

LSU, probably, right?

I'm not sure. Probably, because the stadium wasn't built, right?

Yeah, he was national champion there. I assume they won the SEC championship as well there because nobody talks about the SEC championship from LSU.

They only talk about the national championship from LSU. And also, I guess, conversation is he loved his time down at LSU.

Hey, let's go ahead and put some of our, let's make our Sunday slate picks here, AJ, shall we, as we wrap up this glorious Feel-Good Dookie Friday, December 5th, 2025.

Dookie available on all streaming platforms. It's an outrageous thing to even say that.

Indianapolis Colts, favored by one and a half down there in Duval. Listen, the Jacksonville Jaguars are a boogeyman, if you would, to the Indianapolis Colts, especially down there.

When their team is ass, they beat us down there. When their team is good, they beat us down there.

So the thought of them ruining this season and continuing our loss with them is certainly feasible and possible. But I like the Indianapolis Colts.

I like what Danny Dimes is going to be doing second week with a fractured fibula playing. He's going to be a little bit more understanding of the situation.

Give me the Indianapolis Colts favored by one and a half down there. Oh, boy.
Yeah, I love the Indianapolis Colts as well. I love what they're doing.

I'm in their city right now, but I'm going jags on this one. I do not like Danny Dimes having to limp around.
The dude's a warrior, and then Adam Schepter's acting like it's a hairline fracture.

It's nothing. Oh, everybody would play through this.
No, he's a monster. He's playing through something, but give me the jags.
You get him at plus two. Yeah, that's incredibly painful, I do believe.

What can we get?

You can get him at what? You can get the jags at plus two. I'll take that.

Jeez. Can I get

all right, minus one and a half? Yeah. There's a.

Are they practicing the chest pass, Dr. Pepper? Yeah, no, I think they're doing the Coke Zero chest pass right now.

Oh, it's still. We thought maybe Coke Zero was coming in, but it still the Dr.
Pepper tuition chess play.

Did they tell them you got to throw it one-handed at least? No.

Why? It's the chess pass competition.

No, it's not. Yeah, but remember, the reason why the chess pass started is because somebody couldn't throw it and then they had to win it and now they're like a doctor or something.

I forget what it is. Obviously, this is part of it.
And if they're going to be walking through the whole thing, that is awesome for us to have to deal with here.

There's a lot of people that is going to, hey, it's different down here. It's just different down here.
Bengals traveling to take on the Buffalo Bills. Interesting story coming out of Buffalo.

New stadium is basically going to be sold out every single week just from season ticket sales or season licensing sales in the entirety.

The Buffalo Bills, faithful, are excited for their new stadium, and the Buffalo Bills fan base is obviously spectacular.

Would that be enough for them to win by at least six as they host the Buffalo, or Cincinnati Bengals team that had a massive prime time Thanksgiving win over the Baltimore Ravens.

Who do you think, AJ? How do you like it? Man, Bill's at home.

That was initially lean in Bills, but man, watching Joe Burrow, you know, breathe some life back into this team, I'm going to take the Bengals on this. T.
Higgins is back as well. Give me the Bengals.

Okay, can their defense stop Josh Allen and them? I guess they did great against the Baltimore Ravens. Give me, can we get them at plus six or no?

You could get the Bengals plus six or Bills minus five and a half.

I'll get the

Bills minus five and a half. New Orleans Saints take it on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Bucs, favored by eight and a half at home.

New Orleans Saints, obviously a team that has been playing better than we thought, even though they're still not good, we thought they were going to be completely ass.

Bucs favored by eight and a half at home. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? And Tone, do we have any other line? Eight and a half across the board.
Okay.

I like Tampa Bay Bucks at home. Give me bake in the crew to eight and a half feels like a lot, but I think they figured it out.

Me too. Let's go to the Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North rivalry of all rivalries.
The Baltimore Ravens used to to be the Cleveland Browns.

Pittsburgh Steelers hated them in Cleveland. Then they go to Baltimore.
They hate them there. This year, both fan bases are waiting to bury their respective teams upon a loss this weekend.

Neither team...

Neither team's fan base, I would say, believe that their team can win a Super Bowl. And that's what we're in this whole thing for.

Tone Diggs, how do you feel here, just a couple days removed from the massive rivalry of the Steelers and Ravens taking place?

Yeah, I think I should let everyone know first that the dog in this matchup, when it's Tomlin versus Harbaugh is 26-6 and 3 against the spread.

So normally the dog, it's always a close game, so normally the dog covers in this one.

But the last two, the Ravens have covered 7.5 and 9.5 because they've been able to run it down the Steelers' throats. I don't see anything different on Sunday.
I think the Ravens will win easily.

Okay, so you're trying to reverse jinx this thing, it feels like. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? So I heard Lamar got stepped on, missed a practice Wednesday, but he's back.
He's back. Yep.

Doing fine. That could be very painful.

Give me the Steelers here, man. I think they find a way to keep it close.

All right, I'll take the Ravens. I'll bite.
It doesn't feel like that should be the case at all, especially with how they played.

Favored by five and a half, that feels like a lot of points in this particular rivalry. Everything kind of stinks a little bit.
Yeah, hello, Dickie. I tell you.

So I'll take the Ravens, just like last night. Seahawks, Falcons, Seahawks, good on the road.
Road Warriors, actually.

Favored by seven, heading down into this beautiful stadium, which will play host as the Falcons are at home. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it?

I like Seattle, man. I like Sam Darnold in Seattle and what they are doing.
Their defense, I think, is sneaky good as well. So give me the Seahawks.
There's actually a six and a half.

I believe I'm frozen on your side. Am I frozen? You guys are completely frozen on my screen.
So

you're good. You're good.
Okay.

Okay, good, good, good, good, good. It's great to be here, boys.
It's great to be here, boys. I like the Seattle Seahawks with whatever one we can get.

Miami Dolphins, favored by two and a half, going in and take on the New York Football Jets. I like everything I'm seeing from Aaron Glenn, even through his challenge flag in a cool way.

NFL Films released a little footage of him dropping that thing with a little pizzazz and then talking a little bit of shit. Maybe they're fine in their culture over there.

Is there any other lines we need to know about this one, Tone? You can get the Jets at plus three or the Dolphins minus two and a half.

Okay, AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I've gone back and forth on this one, but I like what Aaron Glenn's got going on. Give me the Jets plus three here.

AJ's been great at picking games. I have not been.
So the fact that I'm just seeing so many differently than him does alarm me. But give me the Miami Dolphins.

Even though it's going to be cold in New York, give me the Jets.

I will take the Jets. This is a something's got to give game.
Their stats are coming out. Tua undefeated against the Jets.
Tua in under 40-degree weather hasn't won a game. So it is

something's going to happen where a team will win a game that they haven't ever.

I'll take the Jets plus three.

I completely forgot about the Miami Dolphins team whenever they travel north of the Mason-Dixon line in the winter. Tennessee Titans traveling into Cleveland.

I like the Cleveland Browns no matter what they're favored by, especially at home. Yep, I like the Browns as well.

Miles Garrett going to try to set the sack record, get four or five, three and a half.

Washington Commanders taking on, we can get that at three and a half, you said? Yep.

We will certainly do that. Washington Commanders taking on the Minnesota Vikings.
What's the health status, boys, of the Washington Commanders and the Minnesota Vikings? Jaden Daniels is a go.

Yep, it just got announced that he will start Sunday versus the Vikings. And I also believe J.J.
McCarthy

passed concussion protocol. Not sure if that's good or bad, but

I guess he is going to just go out there and spin that thing is what he said. And Coach O'Connell and Josh McCowan basically told him, like, hey, don't worry about

playing to a T perfectly. Just go out and spin it.

I'll take Jaden over nine. AJ, how about you? Yep, same as you, Commanders.

Denver Broncos, seven and a half. Is there any other lines, tone?

They are. Sorry, I'm scrolling down.
Broncos, you can get them seven. You can actually get them at seven if you want.

Okay, AJ, you want him at minus seven? Yep, I love the Broncos here at minus seven.

Me too. Bears, Packers, Ty Shaw.
I'm taking the Packers before you ask me. I'm taking a pack here at home.

Wow. Okay, AJ said, I don't care what the number is.
Give me the Green Bay Packers. Micah Parsons coming out and saying they got no respect.
I don't respect them either. I hate them.

I like that it's a real rivalry. The Bears have a real team this year.
So do the Packers. Ty Schmidt, you like being favored by six and a half or no?

That seems a little high to me just with how well the Bears are playing. I do still think the Packers are going to win.

They're hoping to get a couple guys back who have been out the last couple weeks. I think playing at Lambeau is a massive advantage.

I could see this being a field goal game. I don't know if it is going to be six and a half.
But yeah, as you see there, it is going to be be frigid at Lambeau on Sunday.

How's Ben Johnson done against LaFleur?

Pretty good. Like the Lions over the last few years.
They don't love each other. Yeah, they don't.

But the Lions over the last few years have really kind of taken it to the Packers.

Give me Daw Bears. Okay, now how many points am I getting? Six and a half.
Six and a half.

No more? No. Nope.

No wears? That's way too many anyway. Come on, the Bears should feel disrespected.
Seven-point dogs against Eagles.

All right, let's go to the Rams and the Cardinals. I like the Rams.
Minus eight and a half, minus eight, whatever we can get as they travel out to beautiful Phoenix. We absolutely love them.

The public is also on the Rams, no matter what the spread would be against the Cardinals. And I'll wake up the next day feeling good taking the Rams.
How do you feel, AJ, in this one?

I think the Rams are still one of the best football teams in the NFL. So give me the Rams here.

Coming off a loss, too, you know, know, to the Panthers. Maybe Matthew Stafford, Sean McVay have their thing.
And then the Houston Texans. That's a good football team.
CJ Stroud knocking off the rust.

The defense, the Houston sack station's a problem. The Chiefs in the middle of a dynasty.
Are they going to be able to find it? They're favored by three and a half at home. AJ, who do you like?

How do you like it? Honestly, I like the Houston Texans here. I know they're underdogs in Kansas City.
I like C.J. Stroud, what he's doing.
And obviously, the Houston D will continue to play well.

I like the Kansas City Chiefs a lot. This is Travis Kelsey's flannel.
I've worn it a couple times because it's kept me very, very comfortable in like the 30 to 50 degree weather range. He is a beast.

I appreciate the hell out of him and Mahomes and Jones. Give me the Houston Texans.
That's a good football team representing the AFC South, getting three and a half points. We'll continue digitally.

Stanford Steve will stop by to wrap up some of the college football conversation.

We'll hit all the other storylines and then we'll go into a greatest weekend of college football and NFL football that we've had all season.

Be a friend, tell a friend something nice that might change your life. Play Dookie.
Goodbye.

I think I got it in there.

All right, I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick. They might be done with this.
I'm kind of feeling it. And then Stanford Steve will be up here.

And boys, let's enjoy the hell out of what we're about to do. This is a great weekend of ball right now.
Hell yeah. I mean,

the closer we get to it, the more excited I'm getting for it all. And don't feel obligated to play Dookie, but kind of though.
And also get creative. Get creative with Dookie.
Get creative out there.

I can't wait to see what you do. Obviously, we'll be doing giveaways and fun shit for everything.
And, yeah, let's take a break, Stanford, see if we'll be on the other side.

AJ, I appreciate you so much for driving over to Indy, brother. Of course.
Easy. I enjoy it.
I enjoy coming in here, seeing the Thunderdome. And, yeah, it's always fun, man.

Have you heard that since the last time you've been there and then the time before that and the time before that, Foxy and I still have yet to lose? Are you guys still winning like that?

We're on quite the run.

Really? Does Bruce not playing? Bruce was a clutch shooter when I played a couple weeks ago. Downtown Bruce Brown.
Bruce?

Yeah, downtown Bruce Brown. He's our

lefty partner.

Yeah, not only that, but he also changed to a right push shot in the middle of the game if the lefty one's not falling, which he ended up doing to us yesterday, which is obviously a sign you're not going to win the game.

And him and Connor kind of had that. But Bruce is the only insider in the game who also participates in the league in which he is the insider.

So we appreciate what Bruce does for journalism, for you ball, and also for the game.

But Foxy hit our first walk-off the other day because normally we shoot first so we're always on defense to end the game so dbuts and bone well who was it

debuts and connor debuts and connor first time together

very tough team they beat us then now we go to championship game right they can shoot first so we're shooting last it gets to 11 10 foxy last shot so they win they have 11 points already foxy shooting with 10 our first ever time ever really doing this foxy steps up

banks at home sends it home not banks at home hits off the back of the rim sends it home and full bang

oh

i lost my what a moment connor connor was not exactly thrilled neither was butt but it has been getting very intense and uh i'm gonna be honest I don't know how long the game is going to last, but it feels good winning.

Foxy, way to go, brother. You're very proud of what you've been doing.
I would say that was by far and away our best day of U-ball as an office, as a whole.

Those two games, Debo in the first game, when they beat us, that was also a walk-off. So yeah, it was incredible.
We're just on, we're on quite the run.

Bruce, what is the insider business saying about U-ball right now?

We played a fun game. Debo and I were looking like the Cincinnati Bengals on the defensive end.
So got to clean that up.

But yeah, you know, just looking to grow the game, keep the integrity of the game intact as much as possible.

Okay, and Connor, what are your thoughts as we sit here when you were just one jumper from Foxy away from being the champion of U-ball and getting that bedazzled little ball that's been sitting over there on my desk for the last couple months moved over to the toxic table.

I mean, it was a good debut for D-Bud and I, I thought it was first game we've ever played together. We took you guys to the ropes, but the champs are the champs for a reason.

You got to bury him when you got the chance. You can't just kind of pitter-patter to the end.
You know, he didn't play great on defense, didn't make enough shots.

And maybe next week, me and D-Bud will have another chance. Connor and Butts,

good team. That's a good, that's a good U-ball team.
That's a good U-ball team. There's some teams that really scare you, AJ.

And especially guys that can play on offense and defensive side and also know strategy a little bit. It's,

yeah, there's some good teams out there, and we're going to stay focused.

We're 18-1

in that building. And we're going to try to continue that, AJ.
And are you playing today? Have you played?

I don't know if I'll play today, but I believe me and Bruce, Bruce hit a walk-off against you in Foxy like a month ago when I played. No, it was Friday, so it wasn't against them.
Oh, yeah.

It it wasn't against me, Brother.

But we are undefeated. Either way, Bruce had a walk-off.

Just know that ain't no way to go. No, no, I was wearing the wing.
You had a walk-off on Halloween. It was against you and Foxy.
Yes.

Yeah, obviously, I understand. Everything gets, if Bruce hits a walk-off, it gets shoved under the rug.
But Bruce did it. Good job, Bruce.
He's the insider. He's supposed to be.

He should have recorded. You're right.
You got to put that out, Bruce. That's on you.
Yeah. I mean, how am I supposed to know what could happen against me if he doesn't put it out? You're right.

I mean, what do we even

do? Just like Samanthoni, 18-1.

Hey, yeah, by the way, fucking never lost one time. So that's it.
I own it.

So go ahead and tell him whatever you talk about. 10 championships in this fucking thing.

I mean, think about him walking on here, just dog. Welcome to my fucking

is how he should feel. And we'll go ahead and celebrate that tomorrow.
All right. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice might change your life.
Take fai.

Feel good, Friday, December 5th. This is the Pat McAfee Show.

I'm AJ Hawkinson here for Pat. He's in Atlanta.
SEC Championship Boys. Big game.

Football.

What's up?

Oh, I see old Stanford Steve with the old miss Q-Zip.

Stanford, how you doing, buddy?

I'm good. AJ, it's really good to hear.

There's no way. Yeah, it sounds off.

Is your mic not on?

Is your mic picking him up, Pat? Speaking there again? Check one, two, three, four, five.

Can you hear him? Yeah, he sounds good. You got me? Yeah.
Okay, okay, perfect. I just noticed a little extra juice in AJ after last Saturday's outcome in Ann Arbor.
You're talking about Ohio State.

I want to congratulate AJ. I know what I know that's got that's there's something about your alma mater when you're watching.
You can't do anything, but you're rooting your ass off for them.

And then that's been a long road. They got the national championship, but I could see it.
I could feel it, and it's awesome. I'm happy for you guys.
How many days was it? 2,100, 91. Days.

Wow, AJ, congrats, you, AJ.

I mean, yeah, of course, there's a COVID year in there. It wasn't just strictly, it wasn't strictly like a normal situation.
There was a year they didn't play and all that.

But, yeah, it's good to get a win. It's bored on the board.
Yeah. Yeah.

But, I mean, you guys needed it because if that would have been another 365 days on top of the 2,191, boy, that would have been...

I mean, you needed it. We did need it.
I agree. We did need it.
We did.

Let's talk about Ohio State now playing Indiana Big Ten Championship. We've talked about it a lot.
Obviously, the city of Indianapolis is shutting down for it.

I mean, they've got a Hoosiers basketball game at 3.30.

Then, obviously, the Hoosiers are in the Big Ten Championship for football, which wasn't even a pipe dream just three years ago for any Hoosier fan, which a lot of them live in Indianapolis.

It's going to be ape shit there for the Big Ten Championship. Your thoughts on these games? Because obviously this Hoosiers team is different than the Hoosiers team last year.
That kind of

they dookied the bet almost against an Ohio State team last year. What do you guys think the crowd's going to be? Do you think 60-40?

See Geek has actually some stats on the amount of purchases from Indiana and then the purchases from Ohio. Now this is just from SeatGeek.
Big Ten Champions.

39% of the buyers have come from Indiana, 23% have come from Ohio. Last year's game between Oregon and Penn State had 25% buyers from Indiana, 25% buyers from Ohio.

So, in general, this game draws a lot of local demand, but Indiana is making up for a disproportionate amount of fans this year. It's going to be very, very Hoosier-heavy.

Yeah, it's going to be very Hoosier-heavy because the worry is Ohio State does this all the time.

Indiana has a chance to do something they've never done before, and I think the city and the state are jacked up about it.

But you also, this is what makes Ohio State great is how crazy and large that army is of a fan base. Like they look at it as a challenge now.

Like you're going to get people that were like before the Michigan game were like, yeah, maybe we'll go. All right, yeah, we're going.
They said Indiana is going to have a home field. We're going.

That's how awesome that fan base is. So we've been waiting all year for the matchup, Pat.

tend to think it's going to be a lower scoring game. I like the personnel on both defenses, and we've talked before.

You know, Ohio State, the biggest difference in this team from last year, they don't have the difference makers on the defensive line, but as a team and as a whole,

they swarm you. And with Indiana, being at that game in Eugene, I was really impressed with how they lived on the other side of the line of scrimmage.

They pride themselves on chaos, disruptiveness, getting in your backfield, and making quarterbacks make tough decisions. So it's a fascinating matchup.

I wonder about

what they're going to do with Ponds. Will he track Jeremiah Smith on that side? So you've got some chess matches there.

But Indiana has all the goods you want to go against this. Indiana cannot let the ball go over their head.
That's another thing that they keep everything in front of them, which is good.

And this offensive line for Indiana, she put up or shut up. They're in a conversation, and that's what Ohio State has also.
So no matter where you look at it, the matchup is great.

I mean, we didn't even talk about the quarterbacks. Yeah, I mean, two quarterbacks potentially battling literally for the Heisman.
and Fernando and Julian Sane.

Julian Sane, I guess, has been in a couple big games this year, but Mendoza, he obviously has been, but for the team as a whole, Indiana, we've talked about this a couple different times, and I mentioned it about them maybe being stuck in the lights last year, not really believing who they are and what they are and why they are.

This year, AJ, it feels like Indiana very much believes in who they are. And to Steve's point, both quarterbacks are good.
Both sets of wide receivers are good.

Both defenses, I mean, obviously, Ohio State has a potential historic defense. Indiana's defense, I think, they're top 10 defense as well.

What are your thoughts on kind of the mentality that Indiana Indiana has this year?

And does Ohio State just have that because they're Ohio State and they have to have that, even though a lot of their players potentially have never been in this situation?

Yeah, I mean, I think Ohio State players, they definitely, I think they have a ton of confidence, but they also like understand the deal, and they understand that Indiana is absolutely legit.

They're not taking them for granted. I would promise you that.
But I think Indiana believes, like, I think Indiana believes, like, what are you talking about? We deserve to be here.

Yeah, we are the number two ranked team in the country, and they believe they could be number one. So, yeah, I think that's what sets up to be an awesome game.

And with Stanford Steve saying that, like, you might be right, especially what there's these stats showing up, too, that Hembo saying how much zone coverage Indiana plays.

I'm sure they're going to want Julian Sane to take a few chances, you know, instead of just taking your medicine, you know, dinking and dunking your way through.

That's what teams would try to do to Aaron Rodgers when I was in Green Bay, get in zone, let him complete balls in front, and we're going to go up and make a tackle, and hopefully he tries to take a chance over top, and that's when we pick it off or you have a mistake.

That's what I would imagine Indiana's defense wants to do, but Ohio State, they're going to want to run the the ball. You saw what happened against Michigan.
They ran the ball the whole second half.

So I would imagine they want to keep that going.

Lamar Bo Jackson, unbelievable, how fast and quick and his name, just incredibly awesome. He's certainly a stud for Ohio State.

So you're saying Indiana, this is going to be a bend-but-don't break style defense. So maybe they will get yards, but it's going to get stingy down in the red zone.

Is what you're saying, AJ, if you're Indiana defense, that's what you're trying to do.

If I had to predict or I had to try to play defense against this Ohio State offense, yeah, like, hey, let's get him into third and medium, third and long if we can.

Hopefully, try to get some pressure on him and try to get Julian Sane rattled, which we haven't really seen Julian Sane rattle. So,

that's your own. Isn't that crazy? Yeah.
I saw him with his cool hair after that Michigan game, and I'm like, this guy's never lost to Michigan. He has no idea.

This 2,191 days thing, like Julian Sane's walking out of Ann Arbor. Hair looks unbelievable, flawless, just did his thing.
Favorite to win the Heisman, first-year starter.

Nobody's really talking about him. He's like, losing to Michigan, never heard of it.
And then he just kind of moves.

Feels like he's been the most ready for the moment out of anybody almost and that's what i was really happy with being did you stay for the tunnel to see the teams last week come out like michigan was hooting and hollering ohio state the door open you heard the music in the locker room and it was just a deadpan down the tunnel then they get the ball first play double move to tate gets broken up but you're like okay ohio state's coming out here throwing haymakers and they always have that in their bag you know you saw the one to jeremiah smith and they open it up with the one to tate the offensive line has given them the ability.

I don't want to take anything away from saying,

but his offensive line has kept him protected. Oh, this is a way to get the ball.

This guy's not good because everybody else is good around him. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Not at all. I'm just saying they have done a great job of protecting him.

How about not only protecting him, also, a Julian Sane? We're going to be back next year. We got Chris Henry Jr.
on the way.

Jeremiah Smith's on the other side. We got this Lamar Beau Jackson guy who's going to be here.
I mean, it's just unbelievable. Max Clare, does he have have any years left? He's gone.
He's gone.

Okay, so he's tight end. I'm sure they'll find another one.

I'm pretty sure that who doesn't want to go play in that offensive tight end?

I mean, good lord. Who doesn't want to play for Ohio State? AJ, that is a real thing.

Like, Chris Henry was legitimately torn, I think, on whether or not will Ohio State still be Ohio State because Brian Hartline, who's the wide receiver coach, offens coordinator, who has had that wide receiver pipeline for so damn long.

Incredible what he's done. Good luck to him at USF.
But Chris Henry Jr.

saying, I'm going to stay and go to Ohio State and Ryan Day just operating in a manner as if they are in the middle of a dynasty.

It feels like a cool thing to do, to have the honor to go to Ohio State at this point. Get to practice every day with Jeremiah Smith.
I mean,

that's...

When everybody talks about Heartline and the legacy of that wide receiver room, that's what's made it is the younger guys come in and there's always an older guy that's showing them the reins and it's just a way about going things in that offense and you learn responsibility, playmaking ability, accountability.

All that stuff is in that that room because every guy is better than the next. It's amazing how it's worked out.
And then he's got Dons on the other side.

They're playing defense against in every single practice. I mean, AJ, it's a good time to be an Ohio State Puckey, brother, unless Fernando Mendoza says that's us now.

Down there in Indianapolis at the Loudhouse at the Big Ten Championship. Let's pivot away from that.
Let's talk about this Big 12 championship game. Obviously, Texas.

Tech is a team that we have fallen in love with just because the way they've done it. Their money people are actual football people.
So it's ball money people that are running it.

They build up the trenches. They got a great D-line, got a great offensive line.

Obviously, when Baron Morton's playing, they look different than whenever they had their backup playing for a couple of weeks. Texas Tech is stacked.

Texas Tech seemingly for the long haul going to be great. That's good for Lubbock.
BYU, Baird Bachmeier, his worst game was against Texas Tech. He's a freshman.
Is he able to bounce back?

And what happens here, implication-wise, there's one spot kind of looming. If BYU is to win this game, obviously that changes a lot.

BYU loses this game, there's going to be chaos to get into that college football player. Oh, man.
And it's, what is it, three teams for one spot? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I look at BYU. I like the position they're in, having already played Texas Tech.
You talked about how they're stacked on the lines of scrimmage.

I think it's a huge advantage to have known what you're getting up against and going to their place. Now you're going to a neutral site.
It's sold out. Jerry World, 90 plus thousand.

And what I've watched with BYU since that loss is they've taken the reins off Bear Bachmeyer. They come out against TCU the following week.
He throws for over 200 yards.

He does it with his legs on the road at a tough game at Cincinnati. They come back down 14-0 against UCF team, who really disrupted him and sacked him four times last week.

So I like, and LJ Martin's healthy. LJ Martin is a NFL running back, and now you have him full go.

Texas Tech's going to get BYU's best shot. You've got to figure this is backs against the wall.
Every quarterback run is going to be in the playbook.

Every trick play you got with LJ and Bear Bachmeier running the football is in there. And they have the receivers to make plays too.
So I like

the spot that BYU is in. You know, you have to earn it.
You've got to win the game to get in the playoff. And I think they're going to give Texas Tech all they can handle tomorrow.

12 and a half point spread is not good news for BYU, says the stats from Hembo. You know, double-digit underdogs are 10 and 48 all-time in conference championship games straight up.

And then double-digit underdogs from traditional Power 5 conferences are 4 and 34 all-time straight up in conference championship games.

So what we're saying is certainly have an opportunity, but whenever the sports books view it as a dominating game for one side in the championship games, it has tended to gone that way.

On that note, Texas Tech beat the hell out of PYU the last year. I mean, in Texas Tech, I think they're very comfortable against anybody.
You talk about Satake resigns, Joey Maguire resigns.

So obviously these are two teams that are going to be the way that they are for the foreseeable future in the Big 12. But Texas Tech is a real deal.

And because they're in the Big 12, nobody's really talking about it, AJ. I think if they were an SEC team or a Big Ten team, I think they'd get a lot more chatter.

But Texas Tech is built the right way if you want to go in a college football playoff national championship run, Age. No, they absolutely are.
They're hot right now.

I wanted to ask Stanford Teve, like, okay, 12 and a half point in line. Is there a chance that Texas Tech just blows them out of the water here and we have a blowout? Yes.
Absolutely.

I mean, that's the other thing. BYU did not play well in Lubbock, AJ.
When you go back and look at the muff punt, they missed the field goal. goal.
They shanked the punt.

Like, everything that could go wrong went wrong. Rodriguez had a pick and a force fumble, which he seems to do every single week.
And the field position was tilted the whole game.

Now, I will say, seven red zone possessions, five field goals, two touchdowns. You know, so there was some positive, and they did get after, you know, Morton with pressures in that game.

And that's the one thing about Texas Tech that I need to see again. I want to see that offensive line.

That's what you have to rely on. When you go out and play these championship games, road games, neutral site, whatever, your offensive line, your defense have to travel and play well.

Texas Tech is up against it tomorrow with all the pressure on them. I'm really interested to see how

they block BYU knowing that they are playing with their hair on fire and nothing to lose. Congrats about those team.
Big 12's tough, tough conference. The hard edge has been found, too.

And Texas Tech won by 49. Okay, in their last game against a really difficult team in a really difficult place.
place.

They can certainly turn it on if they want to. And then you're wearing the old missed quarter zip here, just kind of sending a little message to people down in Oxford saying, Hey, we still love you.

We still think about you in this entirety. And then also, obviously, old Miss looking to get into the SEC championship in the future with old Pete, maybe trying to win national championship.

Alabama and Georgia here playing at the SEC Championship. What do you think is the storyline of this game? And why are you wearing and repping for the old Miss folks? Even the polo underneath.

I mean, it's a full thing. We got the deal.
I'm thinking old Miss, man. Like, it's a rough spot to be in.
You got the whole deal. Trying.
The whole deal. Whole deal.

Ken Crane, shout out you got the outer deal you got the new deal you got this deal you got that deal but the old miss people had been through it yeah they had been through yeah and they they have an opportunity imagine if we go there for a home playoff game that would be insane uh but oh man it'd be insane for some people it'd be a little bit worse i think than others

you know i think i think the old miss people think some of the people up there on a game day set were certainly doing their absolute best to make sure that lane was going to go elsewhere i don't think that's the case i think i don't think so either i think like a lot of the people now now granted, that's us just knowing him.

And then obviously you can put together a lot of theories. But I think like in theory is where like Herbie was talking.
Like in theory, he should be a lot of coaches' team. Like he loves his team.

He puts his team together. Six years he's been there.
He should be able to do that. The current reality, that was never going to be able to work, I think.
So that's certainly the counterpoint to it.

But it's just a passionate bunch, passionate conference, and almost this close, I mean, to going on a run right now. So it's a wild, wild scene down there.
But I appreciate you doing that.

Let's talk about this SEC championship game, though, Georgia, Alabama.

Georgia might be one one of the most dominant teams in the country right now yeah and then it's i think it's one of the hardest things we have to do when we're doing this on a weekly basis pat is forgetting what a team looked like the week previous georgia did not look good against georgia tech they lose bobo their center and after they lose him all communication is off uh georgia tech played some zone stockton had trouble with that and georgia just didn't look like themselves without their front guy making all the calls up front.

And then I go back to the time they played Alabama. They played that game without their two starting tackles.

so they have to get the run game going you see the play action that they get going throwing the balls to the tight end that gets everything going they like the up tempo gunner likes things fast and hectic but last week they got slowed down and they did not look good and on the other side

People want to just want to talk about how Alabama can't run the football. I think they got a pretty darn good defense.

Now, they're not going to have Overton up front, but that secondary, I think, a lot like Ohio State where they help out in the run game, where they don't have to line up in the box.

They're that athletic and fast where they can help out on the run. So Georgia has to run the ball to keep those guys down, I think, with the playmakers.

And I still like Alabama on the perimeter with Ty throwing the football. My question is, is this the Ryan Williams game? Like, where has he been? He needs to.

They have a huge advantage with their NFL receivers against that. secondary, Georgia.
Georgia's not as bad as they were early in the year.

They've got experience, but I still like the NFL players that Ty has to throw with, and I think that's the difference in the game, and I lean towards Bama. Ty Simpson, special arm talent.

Obviously, whenever you have weapons, you have weapons. Georgia's defense, to your point, has, though, kind of found their way a little bit.

Being able to get to the quarterback, being able to stop the run. This Georgia team has been very good, as obviously they're in the SEC championship, kind of clearly states.

Kaylin DeBoer is an underdog. against big-time coaches.
Some good stats coming out.

As an underdog, he's three and overs Dan Lanning, two and over Steve Sarkeesian, two and over as is kirby smart sorry he was underdog in six to seven yeah of those games so deboor i think kind of relishes in the underdog nobody thinks we're going to be able to win uh kind of atmosphere with his team maybe they're able to get it done here and uh the chaos of college football playoff doesn't seem to really have an effect on this particular game but who knows who knows whenever you talk about it all and then uh let's talk about the real chaos Notre Dame, Miami.

We had Pete Pavakwa on earlier today.

I think he did a good job. I think Pete Pavakwa did a good job.
Now, Gumpy is a Miami fan.

He goes, well, there are some things he certainly omitted from his case as he was speaking up here, and that's kind of the world we're in right now.

What do you think is going to be the biggest argument after this weekend whenever we talk about starting with 12 counting down to one?

Nice, nice, nice job, though. Heck, it's almost time.
I was going to say, when are you guys going to get going? Oh,

we've been going. Fire guys.
Come on.

What the hell is that? Oh, sleepy. Oh, we got an Indiana jersey on.
Sleepy Sleepy Steve. Oh, we got an old Miss Tarpon.

Don't do that.

Sleepy Steve sleeping on the fucking countdown, Jake.

I can't believe him. Sleepy Steve.
Get it cranked up. Come on.
Sleepy Steve. I think we should play every show.
Been cranking that. Yes.

And we have been cranking that. Yeah.
That's good calls, I thank you. We cranked that right now.
Not enough, though. We know it.
Not enough.

Thank you. Don't be siding with that.
No, we should start and end every show with it. And we need to learn the utter lines.

Yeah, you got to lose the utter line. Remix.
No, there is already a remix. So what we heard,

there was a radio cut, I guess, where there's an extended version with a third verse. that we have never heard until last week.

We are running the video and then where we thought it stopped, it continued. There was a whole nother surprise for us at the end.
So it might be a newer song in our eyes.

Once again, not enough people respected it for what it was last year, which is a banger. You got to keep it fresh.
Yeah, well, you're starting with 12. Counting down to one.

And on that note, who do you think is going to be a part of the big chatter about 12 to 1, the CFP national champion?

Well, here's the deal. I thought it started this past Tuesday with Miami not jumping Notre Dame.

Because now you have two teams that aren't playing this week, and I just don't see how a committee is going to jump a team with either team playing this weekend so i think it's basically set i am on the argument for miami when teams are that even resume record what else do we have oh they played who won give me that team that's the way i feel about it but i know i'm not gonna that it's not gonna play out like that that's kind of what bavacqua said bavacqua said they've already decided notre dame and miami so i understand what everybody's saying we're a different team now than we were then which is certainly a valid argument and the reason why college football will never be able to get 100 right is because there's an argument for every team.

If I'm Miami, I'm certainly not happy about it either in its entirety. But Bavak was saying it's already been decided.
His worry is Alabama. Like he's saying that you need to lump us with Alabama.

Both had tough starts, tough losses. Obviously, Florida State vastly different than Miami and Texas AM.

But that is who I think Pete and Notre Dame people are saying we need to be having a convo with as opposed to Miami, even though that's not the reality.

Yeah, but if Alabama wins this game, it's no argument to me. Their resume supersedes anything Notre Dame brings to the table when you talk about that.
What if they lose this game? What if they lose?

I could see Notre Dame, you know, jumping Alabama. And then people would be like, well, what's the purpose of playing a conference? Correct.

Understood. Everybody, I mean, you're a part of the problem, Steve.
No, not me. Sleep.
Not me.

Not me. Sleepy Steve.
Part of the problem. Stumble.

All right, I can't wait to see you tomorrow morning, brother. We appreciate the hell out of you.
You ready? Are you ready? I can't wait. What are you asking Lane Kiffin? I know.
I'm not on that desk.

What would you ask him, though? What do you want to ask him?

I want to ask him if he studied coach sabin or he's been around him so much that his hand gestures are identical the press conference was like i was like oh my god it's coach talking in the meeting oh you like the same hand gestures all the time he even did it with marty on the on the tarmac or the trail wherever the hell they were the hand gestures are identical okay so i thought he won that press conference by the way Yeah.

The room laughing.

Showed some empathy. He was trying to get choked up, Ty.
Is that what our takeaway was? Yeah, for sure.

Yep, didn't quite get there, but he made a pretty convincing, compelling argument that, wow, this guy really cares about this.

And Connor doesn't believe it, obviously. That's a hell of a face right there, but I think what he was trying to send was like, hey, this was a hard decision.

Like, he tried to say that a couple different times while also complimenting LSU and telling him they're the number one job in the country, which is what he has to say as the coach of the team.

But I think there's going to be a lot of information coming out of his confo tomorrow. I'm excited for that.
I'm excited for the fucking championship Saturday. And we love you, Steve.

We appreciate the hell out of you, man. I appreciate you guys.
Have a great weekend. Lane's Jammy.
She's

not an otter guy.

Or the Otter guy.

Or the Otter Otter guy. It's Stanford Steve.

Steve!

Steve.

What do you think, Conman?

You don't believe that Lane Kiffen was getting choked up? Absolutely not. I don't even really want to go into it just because of my true feelings.

I don't know. I don't remember seeing or like I don't remember watching and thinking like, like, oh, he's trying to, trying to get a motion.

It was what he was talking about when he first pulled up and he finally saw the stadium.

Wow. I think called Coach O is.
I felt the power of this place.

Called Coach O and said, Coach O, I feel like I got to start talking like you right now because I'm down here is kind of what he said, which kind of goes back to Brian Kelly saying my fighting league.

As soon as he got there,

you know, so that's certainly something. All right, boys.
What a day. What a Friday.
Hey, listen to Dookie, AJ, on your way back to Ohio. I'll do it again.
Believe me, I will. It's good.

It's It's got to be done.

No sound. Just run the clip.
Just run the song. Oh, that's it.
Okay, I can do that too. Yeah, that's easy.
I had my iPad last night and my phone just running it all night.

The goal here is to let the algos know on these

music platforms because we're starting at zero here again, which is cool. That's actually kind of a fun thing.
New profession, new brand, new ideas, new canvas, everything like that.

So it's like letting people, letting the algorithm in the platforms know that it exists is a big deal. And

yeah, I'm enjoying the hell out of it, man. It's been a very emotional kind of dive through the notes section.
Dookie, not so much. Dookie was a freestyle that we decided to make into a song.

But like all the other songs that are coming, it's like, there's some, you know, there's some history and there's some stories and some mindsets and some messages I hope my daughter hears.

So like, I'm very pumped and thankful for the opportunity from the folks, Ernest and Seth and Big Louden to fill records and jelly roll piecing this whole thing together it's like this has been really cool last night was a lot of fun and uh i'm very very very very very very very very very fucking thankful to be living a life in which i can try to do these things that i'm such a fan of and uh it's crazy aj it's crazy life it's the dumbest life of all time i'm trying to enjoy it that's awesome man and you got to be around like it sounds like all the people that you have collabed with that helped you with this like are all like the top of their game and the best of the best yeah so i go to the nfl i have adam vinetari in the same you know kind of world we go into the internet space i get a chance to kind of watch portnoy as the barstool brand is literally putting rocket ships on with investment from private equity and go from barstool from what it was with one floor in new york two floors in new york to this conglomerate media company worth billions or whatever the case is i got a chance to watch that so it's like everything that i Greeny was the first one to really put me on TV, so I get to watch him kind of do his shit.

It's like I get very, very, very lucky lucky that I get a chance to watch people who are very good do something. Bob Kavoyan too.
I try to Bob Kavoyan from Bob and Tom. Yes, exactly.

Still coming through the office. It's great to see him.

It's like, I've been very fucking lucky that I get a chance to watch goats kind of do their shit and then try to either, you know, see what I could take from it or see what we can learn from it and try to give it a go.

And in the music space, it's like, yeah, Ernest is a fucking hit maker. That's what he makes hits.
He makes good songs. Like the perfect person to help me out with it all.

And then Seth being a co-founder of a record label, Big Loud, which the people on Big Loud are like the people in music right now, like actually.

So like for this guy to take time out of his life to be like, no, man, let's do this. Let's try to make it something.
It's like, it's been really fucking cool, man. It's been really cool.

And then the music community reaching out to me saying like

that they're pumped that I'm doing this and like welcome and all this stuff has been vastly different than basically any other profession that we have kind of dabbled into.

So I'm very, very thankful for the music community and very thankful for the opportunity. And I would just, if you want to listen to it, certainly give it a go.
There's more coming.

And get creative with this thing.

Get creative. If I want to see it, we can't wait to see it.
AJ, I love you, man. I appreciate you, boys.
Great work this week, boys. Great work this week.
You do it, bro. Congratulations.
Yep. Yes.

It's awesome. Behind the glass, good work, boys.
Good work. Foxy, great editing.
Really good stuff.

Like Kirk said, great job, Foxy, for the Lions win. Thank you.

Congrats.

Herbie, I love that man. I love that man.

Just kind of bouncing around. Was Peter really trying to dig underneath the the stage?

Yeah, so the ball fell in there, and then so he knocked the one stage that was connected to this stage back so he could get down.

Turns out that would have been enough room because there's a wall back there. So he kind of almost got stuck as the camera.

He's awesome.

I would like to say, I think Peter's an awesome dog. Oh, yeah.
I think anybody that's ever met him is like, Peter's an awesome dog. Peter's an awesome dog.
He is a dog, though. Like, he's a dog dog.

Big dog, strong dog. Fast balls.
Loves getting a ball. Yeah.
Loves getting a ball. He sees a

ball. Check ball, check, ball, check, ball, check, ball.
You know, at all times. So I love him.
But yeah, he was going to rearrange his whole fucking stadium.

That is this.

That's Peter football there. To D-Bone, talk, and the graphic design, boys, appreciate all your hard work this week, boys.
Appreciate it.

Zeke, Mitt, Bill, squad, appreciate you guys. Gumpy, really good stuff out of you this week.

Gump went that over last night. That first half was obviously a little bit scary.
It's nice to go into the weekend with a couple dubs on Gump. Yep, more points.
And how about the United States soccer?

We got a good draw for the World Cup, don't we? Unbelievable draw. Australia, Paraguay, and then the winner of a four-team playoff between Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, and Kosovo.

So what does that mean? U.S. should be topping that group the way I see it.

Okay, so Kosovo.

Slovakia. Slovakia, I think, is what he meant to say, but obviously Canada could pronounce it a little bit differently.
We're not 100% sure. They're hockey titles.
Australia, how are they?

They're big athletic people. Are they good at the soccer or no? They're decent at the World Cup, but it shouldn't be a problem as I see it.
Is it Ray Gun?

No, I don't know if Ray Gun's playing.

That was the dancer, right?

Yeah.

There we go. Here it is.
So United States, Australia, Paraguay, and then the European playoff there. We should make it through here, right? Yeah, it's a great draw.
Great draw. Uh-oh.

How many teams are there? We got Berlhalter and the boys? We know. 32.
Go ahead. No, go ahead, AJ.
So there's 32 teams start. 40.
Or how many, gump? 48 this time. 48.
Okay.

So if we get through this stage, what's it down to?

How many get out of this stage, I guess? 16, right? To a pop? No. Does one team get out of this? 32?

So now, so two teams come out of it. So it did go, it used to be round of 16, but now it's round of 32, then round of 16, obviously.
Wow.

So the elimination round just adds a whole nother game, basically. So in the past, if we made it to the elimination round, it was a huge ordeal.

This one, we need to make to an elimination round and win an elimination game, I think, for us to consider this a success, especially with how we feel about this team, Gumpy.

Yeah, I'd say win too because of the added teams as well. I think with this squad, the way they're playing coming into this, I think quarterfinals should be a good thing.

Aren't we trying to win? We're talking elite eight. We're American.
We want to win the tournament, don't we? What do we win?

Yeah, you obviously want to win, but yeah, I'm just saying if you got to the quarterfinal, I think that would be good. Okay.
Now, I obviously don't believe that.

We're trying to win the super duper cup here.

Okay, Gumpy's trying to say what realistic expectations should be for this particular squad versus maybe the rest of the world who's had their coach for longer than three months like we've had with our guy coming into hosting a World Cup cycle.

But what Paunch has done is try to find a different group of Americans to play on the soccer team, a more dog-like squad. Yes.

So I think we actually do have the players that could win in those elimination games as opposed to getting scared in those elimination games.

It seems like the personality trait that Paunch is looking for in the team is like fighters, dogs, and in those big games will play their best Connor. Is that what you're thinking as well?

Yeah, like to be honest, winning, of course, the whole thing would be great. As long as we don't look like a bunch of bitches, I'm good with it.

You know, if we go out there and we make it through our group, even if we don't make it through our group, if we're, you know, basically snapping necks and taking names, I'm okay with that.

If Australia,

Paraguay in the country of European play off sea, ends up just

limping away from the group, that's how I'll feel good about the entire team.

Agreed.

I think you lost your ball. You muted again.
Someone mute mute you? Did Gump step on it? Or Peter chew on it?

Is that one working, Gump? We're still working on it. No, we can hear the stadium noises, but not your mic.
Yeah, that's weird.

We can still hear the stadium situation, but not you guys. Gump, sing a little bit.

No.

That's a weird situation. That is interesting.
Nothing. Nope, nothing.
Oh,

we got none of that audio, but we have stadium audio. It feels like, right? Yeah.
Yeah, I got stadium audio. We're hearing like the

other moment.

Oh, yeah, Gump. It might be on your other mic.
We're picking it up. Sounds like.
At your table.

See if that's the one.

Peter must have just been gnawing on those dollars. Did Gump ever do any mime work in Canada? He did actually on Saturday.

He's in a box. He's in a box.
He's in a box. Are you in a box? Where are you? Oh, now can you get out of the box? Oh, someone's knocking.
How do you get out of the box? Get out of there.

Answer the door. Yeah, answer door.

Get out of there, Gobs. He seems kind of like a one-trick pony.
Oh, he's a robot. You're a left-handed door opener? I know.
Door handles on the left side. Tight fit.
Oh, there

you guys in a European phone booth.

This is amazing. No, we still can't.
We still can't get it. It's pretty amazing.
All right. Yep.

Team