PMS 2.0 1280 - LIVE from the CFP National Championship, Divisional Round Recap, Adam Schefter, Nick Saban, Shane Gillis

Speaker 1 Hello beautiful people and welcome to Atlanta, Georgia, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the home of tonight's national championship. We're live on this massive Monday.

Speaker 1 It's wonderful and we're lucky to be celebrating it for numerous hours live here at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Speaker 1 Obviously, the home of tonight's national championship as Notre Dame looks to become a national champion for the first time since 1988.

Speaker 1 And the Ohio State Buckeyes are looking to get to the top of the mountain once again.

Speaker 1 A team that had to watch Michigan do it just a year ago and then lose to Michigan this season, lose to Oregon, now has an opportunity to potentially call themselves world champions, national champions, the best team to take the field this season.

Speaker 1 The road to this game tonight has certainly been an awesome one. I've been incredibly lucky to be a part of it every single Saturday.
with College Game Day. We went through Texas.

Speaker 1 We're up in Oregon, obviously across the north and the southeastern part part of this beautiful country. And tonight we crown one champion that'll get rings and banners and stories told about them.

Speaker 1 Forever will be Captain Jack Sawyer, Will Howard, JTT and that Ohio State Buckeye team or will be Riley Leonard, Jeremiah Love, Xavier Watts, Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Speaker 1 We got a heavyweight fight here in Atlanta and we're incredibly lucky. to be on the sideline for that game for our field pass on ESPN2.

Speaker 1 I'm obviously not alone here and there's a lot more than just a college football national championship happening on this particular Monday. Obviously it's Martin Luther King Jr.
Day.

Speaker 1 Hope you take a moment to celebrate that and everything about what our world and our country can be and is hopefully heading towards. It's Inauguration Day up there in Washington, D.C.

Speaker 1 A new era is beginning in our country. There's a national champion tonight and the NFL's divisional round is coming off a record-breaker

Speaker 1 weekend. Man, there's so much happening.
We're so incredibly lucky to be a part of all of it. Thank you so much for watching and allowing us to do this for a living.

Speaker 1 It's not just me, the talks at tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer, die.
Cowboys A.P. Tone is here.

Speaker 1 Obviously, the living legend, a man who, whenever he walks around these parts, especially with the Ohio State and the National Championship, he is revered as if some god is walking amongst mere mortals for the Ohio State Buckeye fans.

Speaker 1 A.J. Hawkley's.
Chicken.

Speaker 1 Ohio State back at the top. It's got to feel good for you and everybody that is from that glorious state of Ohio.

Speaker 2 Yeah, this stadium, obviously, we were here a couple years ago. We saw the Bucks lose to a great Georgia team.
So I think Ohio State people are hoping for some redemption tonight, hopefully.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there was a commissioner potentially that was reminding, you know, us potentially about all the horrors that have happened. Not hoovers, horrors that have happened down here.
H-O-R-R-O-R.

Speaker 1 Two R's, yeah, and then one at the end and an H at the front. Yeah.
No dub, save the dub.

Speaker 1 But the horrors of Ohio State in this particular building, a nine-year NFL event, one of the the smartest minds in all football, Darius J. Baller.
Hey, Debunch. De-Bunch.

Speaker 1 DeBunch, it's great to see you. And it is an honor to tell you that football is the greatest sport that has ever existed.
Divisional round weekend had record-breaking numbers.

Speaker 1 The ESPN has just reported that the Chiefs-Texans game had 32.7 million viewers. That is the most watched NFL game on ESPN in the history of the network.

Speaker 1 And the reason why people were tuned in is because the Chiefs are still the Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes.
Travis Kelsey is still Travis Kelsey.

Speaker 1 Andy Reed, especially with a bye week, is still Andy Reed coming off a bye week, let alone Spaggs and Tob, the special teams coordinator.

Speaker 1 But in a massive moment, Travis Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes are going to make plays. Travis Kelsey has cemented himself in postseason folklore.
He is now a leader in receiving yards.

Speaker 1 He's going to become a leader in everything if he continues to play after this season, which all signs are indicating he will. He had his best game by far the season, up over 100 yards receiving.

Speaker 1 Obviously, he had a touchdown where Patrick Mahomes did something absolutely filthy, falling forward, diving, hitting Travis right in between the eight and the seven, which will be a massive part of the conversation today after the divisional round.

Speaker 1 And then with the fireworks going off behind Travis Kelsey, with his lady in attendance sitting next to Caitlin Clark, it was a magical day for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 1 But the conversation of this particular game,

Speaker 1 everywhere,

Speaker 1 everybody is seemingly saying that at the beginning of those games over there, when they sing the national anthem, what they should be saying is, the home

Speaker 1 of the

Speaker 1 cheats.

Speaker 1 They're calling them cheaters. Yeah, they are.
They're saying the reps are working in Patrick Mahomes' favor.

Speaker 1 They're saying that all the bullcrop calls that we hate about football seemingly always go in the championship's favor. How come Patrick Mahomes always getting these calls everybody else isn't gay?

Speaker 1 Lamar Jackson, who we will certainly talk talk about later, he got hip-drop tackled on his sideline super late. No call at all.

Speaker 1 This comes right after a game where Patrick Mahomes was seen flopping on the sideline, which everybody says you can't do that.

Speaker 1 If you're going to be the face of football, you can't be flopping around like that. You can't be taking advantage of the situation that you are, Patrick Mahomes.
Houston Texans, hell of a season.

Speaker 1 Thank you for representing the AFC South. You're right.

Speaker 1 But Houston Texans, I think Joe Mixon and many others, even Coach D'Amico Ryan, said, you know what it's going to be when you're playing Chiefs, okay? You know what's going to be.

Speaker 1 Now, what does that mean?

Speaker 1 We all just have come to understand that the refs are going to help the Kansas City Chiefs that is seemingly the narrative that everybody's bought into if you're a Chiefs fan you say hey sorry ball bounces our way if you're the rest of the NFL you're certainly gonna be finding reasons to hate the team that's gone back-to-back at Super Bowl champs and looking to do something which is win three straight but it has got loud and Troy Aikman was basically I'm done with it awesome this is bullshit all of it I don't like any of this stuff the calls are crop they're trash I don't like the way they're calling this game I don't like the way Patrick Bullam's trying to take advantage of it and And I think as that continues to happen, maybe the refs will have a little better eye on it all.

Speaker 1 Maybe they'll be able to stay focused. But this is what happens when you're at the top of the mountain.
This is literally how it goes. Now, the Chiefs obviously move into the AFC Championship.

Speaker 1 Congrats to them. That is absolutely awesome.

Speaker 1 One half of the hammer down.

Speaker 1 Cowboys, who are they going to be playing over there? Another dream matchup in the AFC Championship. Yeah, another dream matchup.

Speaker 4 They were playing the Buffalo Bills, and everyone expects me to absolutely destroy the Baltimore Ravens. I am not going to do that today.
Really?

Speaker 4 No, because if I were to do that, if I were to blame Lamar Jackson, or if I were to blame Mark Andrews, I would be a loser, according to Dan Orlofsky.

Speaker 1 I saw that. Dan Orlovsky said, if you watch that game and you want to blame Lamar Jackson for the loss, respectfully, you're a loser.

Speaker 1 If you want to watch that game and you want to blame Mark Andrews, respectfully,

Speaker 1 you're a loser. So, Tony, you don't want to be a loser in Dan Orlovsky's eyes because if you're a loser in a loser's eye, I I mean, that's...
Bingo. I didn't try to say it, but it doesn't lose.

Speaker 1 Don't think Orlovsky's a loser. Wow.
I didn't mean that.

Speaker 1 That came out wrong. I didn't know that.
But that is the sports media world. Somebody's going to get blamed, and that is kind of how it immediately works.

Speaker 1 We knew this was going to happen with this Bills-Ravens game. The loser was going to get some terrible things said about him, even though both of them have had an absolutely wonderful season.

Speaker 1 The Buffalo Bills, though, I think I forgot as somebody that picked the Baltimore Ravens. I forgot that all they need to do is just win this game.
It's not about like, can they win every game?

Speaker 1 It's not like who's more dominant, who's more spectacular. Him dropping off to the tight end in the middle of the field.
Okay, you got it. Shakir making some big catches.
Then they go empty backfield.

Speaker 1 Who's tackling a six-foot-six, 240-pound guy who's used to the snow? All they had to do was prepare for one team in one situation.

Speaker 1 I think the snow helped them, even though Baltimore is no stranger to the cold weather. And in the third quarter, the Baltimore Ravens, they come out, they do AFC Noor football.

Speaker 1 Pound, pound, pound, pound. And it works.
Yes, it did. First half, I think they had like 21 yards rushing with Derrick Henry.
Then in the third quarter, I think they had 70 yards in one drive alone.

Speaker 1 Derrick Henry, Patrick Ricard, the offensive line, just pounded. That Buffalo Bills team that only plays nickel.
They're too small. They're not going to be able to handle it.

Speaker 1 Then they have a two-point conversion. What do they do? They throw it.
They throw the ball.

Speaker 1 And there's a couple different times where there's been five, I guess, two-point conversion attempts this season for the Baltimore Ravens.

Speaker 1 Derrick Henry's got the ball, and none of them, not a single one of them has Derrick Henry got the rock. Now, that is going to be judged.
That is going to be picked apart.

Speaker 1 But this Buffalo Bills team, wagon. And I think a a lot of us forgot about that.

Speaker 4 Yeah, the Bills team is a wagon. Obviously, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, was the battle of the MVPs.
The Guardian Cat boys were awesome. Last night, Taylor Rapp had an interception.

Speaker 4 Then DeMar Hamlin kind of, he was the one who got Lamar's leg on

Speaker 4 the fumble where Von Miller took it back. But no, this has kind of been like the story of the Ravens in the playoffs.
They haven't been able to get it done.

Speaker 4 And if you go back to last year, Zay Flowers, you know, he fumbles on the goal line. If he goes in there, the Ravens win that one.
Then you start this year.

Speaker 4 The first game of the season, Isaiah Likely, toe out of bounds by half an inch to start this season. Another game this year where it was 18-10.
They score against the Steelers to make it 18-16.

Speaker 4 They got to go for two. They don't get the two-point conversion there.

Speaker 4 And then obviously in this one, you know, Lamar leads an incredible drive down,

Speaker 4 gets a chance to get the two-point conversion. Doesn't work out.
You know, everyone is killing Mark Andrews for that situation.

Speaker 4 But it's just another situation where the Ravens didn't come up as they should have in a big spot.

Speaker 1 Debut, your thoughts on this game and your thoughts on how we should be viewing this? Obviously, Mark Andrews is going to feel terrible. He was on the sideline, getting busted up.

Speaker 1 He lives and works for this moment here. Now, granted, 133 left on the clock.
Buffalo Bills still have two timeouts.

Speaker 1 Nobody's seemingly saying, like, Josh Allen could potentially Chiefs, you know, what the Chiefs did to him in overtime when they had to change the rule to this Baltimore Ravens team.

Speaker 1 All he has to do is get in field goal range. No offense.
I know it's just all you got to do, especially against a great Baltimore Ravens defense, wherever the case is.

Speaker 1 I tend to believe on this particular season, in this particular game, Josh Allen probably 133. He might score too fast, AJ.

Speaker 1 Lamar might get a chance to come back and tie it again on the other side with the way he'd been playing. What are your thoughts on how that game ended up, DJ?

Speaker 5 You know, it's come down to ball security. And you can point at Mark Andrews.
You can point at Lamar and AJ kind of talking about it earlier before the show.

Speaker 5 Like, you know, this is one of those games on good teams, at least everybody kind of looks at themselves and say, hey, what could I have done better?

Speaker 5 I think the Ravens defense, they play well, especially with all things considered, you know, given those turnovers, but you can't beat a good ball club like that in their house, turning the ball over like that.

Speaker 5 So, the fumble strip sack from DeMarla Hamlin, he'll get credited for that. And then the interception that he threw late, and then obviously for Mark Andrews, gonna be a long, long offseason.

Speaker 5 That sucks, but it was two great quarterbacks, two great teams.

Speaker 5 You can't point the finger or blame it on one guy, but Buffalo got it done.

Speaker 1 Chiefs, Bills, yet again, more teams get a shot to shine, but they don't

Speaker 1 go down in the same two on the AFC side. Now, let's go to the NFC.

Speaker 1 More teams get a shot to shine. Holy shit.
Rookie Rookie sensation. Starting to crack into territory that nobody's ever been.
Anytime they start saying, it's the first rookie to do this since.

Speaker 1 There's only been three rookies that have done this. More wins than these rookie.

Speaker 1 I mean, what Jaden Daniels is doing in the moments that he's doing them, the way they go about doing their shit is bananas.

Speaker 1 The amount of pressure that has been on this guy's shoulder, fourth down, we're going for it. It does not matter.
He seemingly picks up every single time.

Speaker 1 I believe in the playoffs thus far, Jaden Daniels and the commanders have scored seven touchdowns.

Speaker 1 On five of those touchdowns they have either gone for it on fourth down and that was the touchdown or during the drive they gone for it on fourth down this is kind of Dan Quinn's MO everybody talks about MC DC being his MO this commanders team which a lot of people are calling the

Speaker 1 The, I think I'm kind of the shade, but I'm not going to say

Speaker 1 a lot of people are talking about that, you know? But this commanders team, AJ, there's a chance that they could shine. I'm a believer.

Speaker 1 And you know, this game, this national championship, I think a lot of people are like, does Notre Dame have have enough talent to keep up with the Hall of State with what they've been able to do?

Speaker 1 I just saw the Commanders beat the Lions. I don't think anybody expected that in Detroit.
Hell on. But this Commanders team's a real deal.

Speaker 1 They might win the fucking Super Bowl this Washington Commanders team. Yeah, they might.

Speaker 2 And everyone's talking about, like, we know Jaden Daniels and all the praise that he is getting, but I think you almost can't say enough about this dude.

Speaker 1 I think what I...

Speaker 2 I think about when I think about that game, Detroit came back and they got it within three points towards the end of the third quarter. Detroit makes it a game.
Here we go within three on the road.

Speaker 2 Detroit has some momentum. What does Jaden do? He leads him on a 15-play, 75-yard drive that ends in a touchdown to Brian Robinson on a one-yard run.
Like this guy just, he's unflappable.

Speaker 2 And we say that a lot about other quarterbacks, I think. But Jaden's on, like you said, there's levels to this.

Speaker 2 Like, Jaden, the way, like, it's unbelievable, like Terry McLaurin right here as we're watching. But I think when a quarterback has that moxie, when he has that cool, calm demeanor,

Speaker 2 I've said it a million times on here, it trickles down to everybody on the roster, every player and every single team, or every single coach, I should say, like Cliff Kingsbury has to feel feel so confident whenever he's calling into Jaden Daniels, like he knows, like, this guy, he's going to protect me, he's going to protect the team, and he's going to protect the ball.

Speaker 1 And that's what that's what they're doing. That was a fadeaway, yeah, like bad footwork, not what you're supposed to do, right?

Speaker 1 And then Zach Ertz, obviously, what he has become for this particular team, he and Cliff Kingsbury have a great relationship, but it was like Buzzsaw, Juggernaut, the over, obviously, we all thought was going to happen, but I thought the Lions were going to be able to just joust with anybody because they've had to do that all year.

Speaker 1 But what this commander's defense

Speaker 1 taking the ball

Speaker 1 when they have to. Now, obviously, Jared Goff throws for three interceptions.
Jameson Williams throws one interception. Then there's a fumble in there.
Five turnovers by the Detroit Lions.

Speaker 1 Abnormal game for them. People are saying it was a Jared Goof football con, man.
I didn't like that at all. Yeah, well, guess what?

Speaker 3 Fairy tale is over, Detroit.

Speaker 1 You guys are a dump again. What? It stinks for you, but I hope you had fun these last two years because it's done.

Speaker 3 MCCB, I mean, he's one of my favorite coaches. I love the emotion from him, but he is now the Motor City crybaby.

Speaker 3 And it stinks because, you know, if I were to be the head coach of Jared Goff, I'd probably be crying too because that was embarrassing.

Speaker 1 Now, for the record, he did get concussed in the second quarter when they had their pick six because he got

Speaker 1 absolutely obliterated.

Speaker 3 And if you have to bring in a high school coach to pay quarterback for a couple plays, that's never good.

Speaker 3 Jameson Williams, kind of with the sweet little return, and then having sex with the ground, only to turn around and throw a terrible interception is brutal. But I'll tell you what, it stinks.

Speaker 3 I feel bad for MCCB. And, you know, they're losing both their coordinators, Ben Johnson.
He's out of there. He doesn't want to.

Speaker 1 Allegedly, I just love it.

Speaker 3 No, according to, in his words, Black Adam Schefter, Adam Pac-Man, Jones, Ben Johnson, he's the head coach of the Raiders. His words, not mine, and I trust him.

Speaker 3 Kelly Moe heading to the Cowboys as well. We'll see what happens there, though.
But it stinks. for Detroit.
I genuinely feel bad. It's hard to win Super Bowls.

Speaker 3 And I told Foxy this morning, I said, hey, Foxy, story's over, brother. I hope you enjoyed these last two years.
You guys are going back to the dump.

Speaker 3 You're paying Goof $215 million for the next four years.

Speaker 1 That's all, Fox.

Speaker 1 Absolutely.

Speaker 3 In his biggest game in the Super Bowl with the Rams, he scored three points. But that's not, again, we don't have to bring that up.

Speaker 1 Who is that against? Who is that against?

Speaker 2 Against the Patriots in this building.

Speaker 1 That's Bel Belichick, brother. That's what Sean McVay has so much respect for.

Speaker 3 Absolutely, and I do too. And Sean McVay's won a Super Bowl without Goof now.
But again, look, it just sucks. I feel bad for Detroit.
I feel bad for the people of Detroit. I feel bad for Eminem.

Speaker 3 People are saying L'Angelo Ball might have tweaked his way into a curse.

Speaker 1 I saw Cameron talk about that.

Speaker 1 That's kind of legit. There was a lot of different opportunities performed.
It's a big game in Detroit. Biggest it's been in a long time.
You go with, oh,

Speaker 1 I mean... A little bit of a hook, obviously.

Speaker 1 Decisions were made out there. Obviously, that's going to happen.
So stay in the NFC. The commanders beat the lines.
And Foxy, I don't think it's over. I think MCDC's culture is cemented in there.

Speaker 1 I think you're going to win. NFC North's going to be tough.
Tough. Going forward, having to rebuild and reclimb and reinvigorate, reignite, remotivate, renegotiate.

Speaker 1 I mean, there's a lot that has re-signed offense and defense coordinator. We'll find out here in a second.

Speaker 1 There's a lot that the Lions are going to have to do, but I think MCDC's got to figure it out, right? Or are you heartbreaking?

Speaker 1 I'm heartbroken. I'm heartbroken, but I trust MCDC.
But everything you just said is why I am so heartbroken. It's going to be so...
so hard to have that season again.

Speaker 1 It's going to be so hard to have this team go in and try to win a Super Bowl expectations have never been this high and we played our worst ball at the most important time of the season

Speaker 1 golf wasn't good coaches weren't great defense got exposed it was I mean as a fan of a team that has gone 0-16 that wasn't heartbreak that was just embarrassing but this one

Speaker 1 was so heartbreaking. Worse than the NFC championship game last year.
And to have to redo it all again, be the ones, it's just going to be so hard.

Speaker 1 Oh, no. And I'm bummed out

Speaker 1 you should be bummed out we're all bummed out for the entire city of detroit and uh

Speaker 1 you know

Speaker 1 didn't even win a playoff game you know foxy's big dream there for a long time was nine and seven win a playoff game ten and six win a playoff game that's what he wished for his entire life they didn't even win a playoff game 15 and two no playoff game had a home field advantage could have thrown out the entire millions

Speaker 1 of more dollars coming to the city for another game instead they lose mcdc is going to motivate well We don't need to take shots at the city. They're going through it.

Speaker 1 MCDC is going to remotivate and get Skrugo. And then who are they going to be taking on in the NFC Championship? The Washington Commanders will be traveling to where? The nation's first capital debut.

Speaker 1 This Philadelphia Eagles team is an absolute wagon. In that weather yesterday, it was obviously Matthew Stafford's Matthew Stafford.
Yeah. Mad respect.
Big ooze, Puka Nakula has an incredible catch.

Speaker 1 Matthew Stafford has a couple no-lookers. The snow seemingly didn't affect him except for the turnover when he was going to go try to hand the ball off or whatever the case.

Speaker 1 But that Philadelphia Philadelphia Eagles offense, that Philadelphia Eagles team, and that snow, that weather, feels like it was set up for them to go. And Saik, Saquon, Saik, gone.

Speaker 1 Anytime he gets the Rockers, an opportunity.

Speaker 5 And now it goes through Philly. So you talked about those elements.
Who knows what the elements will be next week. Obviously, a familiar opponent with the commanders coming in there.

Speaker 5 It's been their third time facing off. But all the things that AJ talked about with Jayton, as far as the confidence you have, it's the same thing with 26.

Speaker 5 Like Jalen Hurts, he comes out and throws for 130 yards. And you got a guy like this who you can hand the ball off to.

Speaker 5 And you know, as a defense, he went for over 250 against the Rams back in week 12. So as a defense, you're keying in on 26 all throughout the game.

Speaker 5 First quarter, breaks a 62-yarder to get him out in front. And then in the fourth quarter, he breaks a 70-something yarder to make him go up two scores.

Speaker 5 So you know 26 is going to get the ball outside those tackles. Once he hits a gap, once he breaks a tackle in that second or third level, he is out the gate to take it home.

Speaker 5 So when you have to deal with this run game on offense and then obviously Philly, what they have on defense, Monsters all up and down that roster.

Speaker 5 I mean Harry Roseman he's done an incredible job putting this roster together but this Saquon Barkley offseason move may have been the best offseason move of the offseason.

Speaker 1 And Mara's watching it all you know and as Saquon is running down the field hitting himself in the helmet I think that's like him saying like we knew like he knew you know he always knew he was supposed to be in these moments and what he was going to be able to do.

Speaker 1 The Philadelphia Eagles offensive line A.Q. Shipley said can't win.
Yeah, he did. Even though you have the greatest offensive line in football, they showcase that you certainly can.

Speaker 1 Here's some stats I got from Hembo as you read some others on the screen here.

Speaker 1 Saquon Barkley in the fourth quarter this season, 108 rushes in the fourth quarter, 719 rush yards, which is an average of 6.7 yards per

Speaker 1 seven rush touchdowns, which is an average of 43.7 yards each one. And in two games this postseason, Saquon has run it 20 times for 141 yards in the fourth quarter.
He's a closer. Verse is also a dog.

Speaker 1 I'm excited to watch that Rams team, but congrats to the Philadelphia Eagles and all the Johns over there. Maybe Sirianni isn't a big dumb dip shit, Ty.
Oh, maybe.

Speaker 6 You know, maybe this guy just wins. And again, we can pull up the graphic of him being the, you know, youngest, winningest coaches, quickest to whatever number since he's been in the league.

Speaker 6 There it is. Most wins in the first four seasons.
There's been a lot of pretty good head coaches in the NFL. Listen, I know this guy sometimes puts his foot in his mouth in his press conference.

Speaker 1 Okay. Okay, it happens.

Speaker 6 I know sometimes he gets to the game and he's got some John in the crowd calling him a big dumb dip shit to his face.

Speaker 1 And he can't help himself.

Speaker 8 He can't help himself. He's a Philly guy at heart.

Speaker 6 So, you know, he's going to turn around and say, oh, yeah, watch this watch this and then boom Saquon's taken off for 70 yards so I mean obviously the Eagles are unbelievable can't wait for that game next week excited for our guy coop as well because I know you know oh coop shout out coop

Speaker 1 exactly tell me something coop

Speaker 1 he he's real poked he is he should be as he should I mean go burn seems real deal AJ you think they got a chance go what do you what do you think age you like the eagles next week I do love I love the eagles I love Saquon I think the commanders have a good chance to go in there and and get a win.

Speaker 1 Oh, sorry, Coop. Oh.
Wow. No offense to Coop.
I love Coop. Everything that he has done.
Kick his ass, Coop. Unbelievable resume.

Speaker 1 His IDB page is pretty legit, but I think we're going to be in for a barn burner. Joining us now, I think championship games are going to be awesome.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And shout out to Jaden Daniels, just dropping himself right into the spotlight. There's going to be four teams left at the end of the season.
We're going to be one of them.

Speaker 1 Jaden, Cliff, Dan Quinn, new ownership. Crazy.
Congrats to Washington.

Speaker 1 That should be incredibly pumped. Joining us now, senior NFL Insider at ESPN, friend of the program, Michigan Man.
Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter.

Speaker 1 Shefty, how you doing, bro? What's going on? Hey, happy national championship Monday. Obviously, Michigan was the reigning national champs until tonight when we crowned somebody new.

Speaker 1 So congrats to you. This is it for you guys.
And hopefully you're back next year. Now, let's talk NFL a little bit here, shall we?

Speaker 1 We chit-chatted about the Detroit Lions, and Foxy said he was bummed out. Foxy said he was bummed out.

Speaker 1 Here's a clip from today's press conference of Motor City Dan Campbell chit-chatting about his offensive coordinator and his defensive coordinator. MCDC looks incredibly stropped, incredibly jocked.

Speaker 1 He's in a hoodie, and he says, I'm preparing as if I'm losing both of my coordinators. I'm preparing as if both guys are going to be gone.
It's not 100% sure, but he's preparing.

Speaker 1 Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, how quickly should we see a team make a move in hiring them as a head coach, or is there still a full process in this thing, Shefty?

Speaker 9 They're going to fly here because once the Lions were eliminated, it accelerated the hiring cycle that much more. So you're going to see Ben Johnson get a job.

Speaker 9 You're going to see Aaron Glenn get a job. I would imagine that both those guys have jobs no later than the middle of this week.
Both of them. And the Lions will lose both their coordinators.

Speaker 9 We've talked about that before. It's obvious right now.
These are the top two guys out there right now. in no particular order.
Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, Aaron Glenn, Ben Johnson.

Speaker 9 They're going to get jobs. They're going to have multiple opportunities.
It's just a question of where they want to go right now.

Speaker 9 So that's what they're sifting through.

Speaker 1 So, Shefty, at the Combine, agents talk to general managers about players. Have all the back channels already been chatted about for Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson?

Speaker 1 Now it's just whether or not it's a good fit between those two and whatever team they're going to.

Speaker 1 Have agents already kind of figured out what the pay would be, who's all interested, who's meeting where? Or does that literally start today because they're focused on ball up until a loss?

Speaker 10 Well, Pat.

Speaker 9 As the coaches are involved in the games, let's just say last week,

Speaker 9 Ben Johnson's getting ready for the commanders, Aaron Glenn's getting ready for the commanders. They have agents.

Speaker 9 Agents are allowed to talk over and over and do their business and gather as much intel and put together their boards and figure out all the answers to the equations here.

Speaker 9 So that if and when these guys are available, which many people thought it would be after the Super Bowl, they're ready now.

Speaker 9 Essentially, they're handed dossiers of information on organizations and where they would want to go. And then they sit down.

Speaker 9 And again, the process is accelerated to where they have to just make the decision about where they want to go. Do they want to visit somewhere first? Do they want to close on the deal?

Speaker 9 What's going on behind you there? Where do we got going on?

Speaker 1 I think they're testing some shots here.

Speaker 1 This guy's also got a great beard. A lot of good beards down here in Georgia.
I'm not 100% sure.

Speaker 1 But okay, so they're going to read the pamphlets, get introduced, and then obviously do some face-to-face time, you would assume.

Speaker 9 And to your point, they visit or however they want to do it. However they want to do it.
But my point is,

Speaker 9 I don't think these guys will be on the market much later than the middle of this week, if that.

Speaker 9 It's going to move. It's going to move.
Everything got accelerated.

Speaker 1 Okay, and it's a bummer for Detroit that that is the case because obviously what the offense and defense has been able to do, defense with so many injuries, offense just being more creative than everybody they play.

Speaker 1 We assume Ben and Aaron are going to be great head coaches in place. Good luck, Detroit.
Good luck. Good luck.
You guys are going to find backups. Don't worry.

Speaker 1 You guys are going to be able to find replacements. No, it's not.
It's over.

Speaker 1 Thanks for a great regular season, boys. Let's talk about a team.
Let's talk about a team that is still going, but certainly something that should be monitored. Ty has a question for you, Chef D.

Speaker 6 Yeah, Chefty, is there any kind of update on Jalen Hurts' knee? Obviously, yesterday when he got kind of twisted up there, he went into the medical tent.

Speaker 6 Kenny Pickett was warming up, but he came back in, but it limited him quite a bit. There was the safety.
And then now just looking ahead,

Speaker 6 do we have any kind of update? on on what the Eagles can expect with Jalen Hurts going into the NFC Championship.

Speaker 9 Well, Ty, I think the first thing that we operate under is he came back in and he finished the game.

Speaker 9 So it's hard to imagine that he came back in, finished the game, and he wouldn't be out there this next week short of testing, finding something that's

Speaker 9 which we haven't heard to be the case just yet. So barring anything unexpected, I expect that Jalen Hurts would be out there next week.

Speaker 9 Now, he's taken a beating here in the last month or so between the concussion, between that injury yesterday.

Speaker 9 I don't know that he's going to be operating at full strength for Sunday's NFC Championship game, but I think at this point,

Speaker 9 with the exception of more news coming in, it would be an upset if he's not out there.

Speaker 1 Okay, so let's stay in the NFC, shall we? Tone has a question for you.

Speaker 4 Yeah, Chef D. I thought I saw a report where Cliff Kingsbury, OC of the commanders, said he was not going to interview with teams until after their run was over.

Speaker 4 Does that have anything to do with, I believe the Cardinals are paying him his head coach salary through 2026. Is that the full head coach salary?

Speaker 4 And do you think he is actually going to interview for jobs or is that going to be past, you know, their run is going to be too long to be considered for any of these jobs?

Speaker 9 Well, I think by the time the commander is ready to interview, most of the jobs may be filled. So that's number one.
Number two, I think Cliff Kingsbury is very happy in Washington.

Speaker 9 He's got an incredible quarterback, a transcendent quarterback.

Speaker 9 And so, yeah, between making money in Arizona, having the head coaching experience that he did, he's not rushing to become a head coach again. Would he like to be one day? I'm sure.

Speaker 9 But it's not something that he has to rush to go do. And if the right opportunity comes along at the right time, I'm sure he would be open and amenable to that.
But he's not going to force that.

Speaker 9 And I think he's more focused right now on the NFC championship game Sunday than anything else.

Speaker 1 That moment between Dan Quinn and Cliff, I think last week after their win, where he comes up and he says, like, stick around, kid. Or like, we want you here.
We love you here, kid.

Speaker 1 Such a cool moment. Cliff not having to be a head coach, but still getting a head coach's salary with Jaden Daniels, who's doing awesome things.
Sounds like a good life.

Speaker 1 We'll be excited to see what Cliff does. He's made quite a name for himself.
Let's go over the AFC side now. Baltimore obviously loses to the Bills.

Speaker 1 There's no conversation about Harbaugh or anything like that, right? Ever. I mean, he's been there a long time.
Long, long time.

Speaker 1 There's no...

Speaker 9 Listen, again,

Speaker 9 in this league, Pat, I never want to rule out anything because anything's always, but I have not heard any of that.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 9 he's one of the great coaches in the game. He's one of the great coaches in the game.
Not going anywhere in my mind, but

Speaker 9 that's up to them.

Speaker 1 Yeah, interesting. I didn't know because everybody was talking about how hot it would get for Lamar and Josh Allen.

Speaker 1 It's like, what about, I mean, anytime you lose, everything gets readjusted and re-torted. I think of John Harbaugh when I think of Baltimore Ravens, but also haven't won a long time.

Speaker 1 They got the MVP. He by far has not played his best.
Their team has not played best in the biggest moments. Certainly worthy of a combo.
I love what Lamar said after that game.

Speaker 1 I love the way he operated. I would love it if Lamar was my quarterback, but man, it has to be heartbreaking loss after heartbreaking loss after heartbreaking.
loss for the Ravens.

Speaker 1 I don't know how they deal with it. Now, let's talk about some of the coaching searches, shall we? D-Butt has a question for you.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Shefty, we heard earlier this week from the black Adam Schefter at a Pac-Man Jones. He said Kellen Moore would obviously be the next coach in Dallas.

Speaker 5 But I saw a tweet from Florio saying that Brian

Speaker 5 Schottenheimer, I'm sorry, was now the favorite in Dallas. What the hell is going on in Dallas with their head coach of searching? Who is the favorite, in your opinion?

Speaker 9 I think the one guy who knows is Jerry Jones. And Jerry Jones is certainly apt to change his mind from day to day.

Speaker 10 And

Speaker 9 again, I think the candidates have been out there so far. I think Brian Schenheimer is the favorite in Las Vegas here.

Speaker 9 Now, that doesn't mean that Brian Schottenheimer isn't going to be the head coach at some point in time.

Speaker 9 Again, we never rule out anything, but to the best of my knowledge, he hadn't even interviewed for the job and Dallas hadn't approached him about being the head coach.

Speaker 9 I think the Cowboys absolutely love and respect Brian Schottenheimer and they want him there, but I don't know that that's as the head coach right now.

Speaker 9 Now, again, the process will unfold and we'll see what twists and turns it takes and maybe it leads them back to Brian Schottenheimer as a head coaching candidate.

Speaker 9 At one point in time, Brian Schottenheimer was like the hot guy out there roughly, I don't know, what was it, a decade ago, a decade plus ago when he was the offensive coordinator of the Jets and he turned down some jobs.

Speaker 9 And I think there's a lesson there in that when you're a coordinator and these jobs come along, when you're a GM candidate and these jobs come along,

Speaker 1 you can't wait too long.

Speaker 9 You have to strike when you have the opportunity. And it would be great if Brian Schottenheimer were to get another opportunity.
I haven't heard that that's happening yet.

Speaker 9 Maybe it does happen down the line, but to my knowledge, right now, that's not the case.

Speaker 1 Okay, Shoddy obviously comes from football family, been around a long time. We'll be interested to see what Jerry Jones decides to do.
We have two quick ones for you, Shefty, on this glorious day.

Speaker 1 AJ has a question for you.

Speaker 2 Shefty, any update on Mike McCarthy and what he may be doing if he doesn't get a head coaching gig, do you see him coaching somewhere else this year? Like, what's the deal with McCarthy?

Speaker 9 Well, you know, Asia, I haven't gotten that far down the line to know what he would do if he doesn't get one of these jobs. I think he's in play in New Orleans.
I think he's been in play in Chicago.

Speaker 9 I think he's a legitimate candidate in both places. So I don't know that he's gotten there yet, that he's thinking, okay, I didn't get either one of these.
And now what do I do?

Speaker 9 That's... Two steps ahead of me right now.
I think people are more interested to see if he finds a way to get one of these head coaching jobs, which I think is possible right now.

Speaker 1 Okay, excited for Big Mike. Obviously, he got in the coaching cycle a little bit late.
Last question here for you, Schefter. We appreciate you.
Go ahead, Con Man. Yeah, Shefty's sticking with Chicago.

Speaker 3 Eddie George, he's interviewing there. Is that a real opportunity? And then also, you reported that the Bears reached out to the Steelers for a possible trade for Mike Tomlin with other teams.

Speaker 3 What were the other teams involved? And what was kind of that conversation like?

Speaker 9 Well, it was a pretty short conversation because they reached out to the Steelers and the Steelers have no interest in moving moving on for Mike Tomlin.

Speaker 9 And Mike Tomlin's got a no trade clause in his contract.

Speaker 9 And as he himself said last week, to any teams that would approach the Steelers about a potential trade, exploring a trade, he said, and I use his words, save your time.

Speaker 9 But again, I think it's smart for teams to at least make the call. If it's a five-minute call and they say, no, thank you, fine.
But who knows if they ever would have any...

Speaker 9 indecision there or second thoughts and maybe they would be open to that conversation. They weren't.
They're not. He's staying.
He's not going anywhere. So the Bears got shut down.

Speaker 9 Good for them for trying. Another team just kind of checked into it peripherally to see what the situation was.
And they were told that he's got a no-trade clause that he doesn't want to move on from.

Speaker 9 That was the end of that conversation. And Eddie George, listen, he's one of the 16 or so candidates that the Bears have had in.

Speaker 9 He's obviously had a legendary career.

Speaker 1 He's such an actor. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 9 Yeah, great character. So

Speaker 9 you're bringing everybody. Like, you want to hear what everybody has to say.

Speaker 1 Sounds like the 33rd team's doing some consulting for a lot of teams. We'll interview everybody.
That's just the best way. No stone unturned.

Speaker 1 Any of these jobs, you said Aaron Glenn, Ben Johnson, probably by middle of the week. Is that when we should be expecting probably next big news break in the coaching cycle world?

Speaker 9 Well, it could come today. It could come tomorrow.

Speaker 9 It could be any moment, like with any of these guys. That's how it is with Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn.

Speaker 9 And

Speaker 9 again, like I said, the loss on Saturday changed changed everything.

Speaker 9 So as opposed to all these teams waiting, everybody's been waiting for these two dominoes to fall before we can place the rest of the board and

Speaker 9 figure out who's hiring who. Because again, with Ben Johnson, Vegas, Jacksonville, Chicago, all want them.
With Aaron Glenn, the Jets, the Saints, Jaguars,

Speaker 9 Raiders, all interested in Aaron Glenn. So where's Ben Johnson going? Oh, he's going there?

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 9 Where's Aaron Glenn going? And then, who does that league behind is the other three openings? And I put Dallas

Speaker 1 in a little

Speaker 1 category.

Speaker 9 So, I think everybody's waiting to get answers here from Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn before the rest of the coaching board falls.

Speaker 9 But I think, again, once they go, which I think will be relatively quick, then the rest of the board then falls into place.

Speaker 1 All right, we appreciate the hell out of you, Shefty and Man. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter.

Speaker 1 All right, we go from one legend to a college football hall of famer. Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest coach of all time, a man who has won how many of these?

Speaker 1 Seven?

Speaker 1 Seven? Seven of these things?

Speaker 10 I only remember the three we lost.

Speaker 1 Okay. Could have won 10.
Ladies and gentlemen, Nick Saban. Hey, Coach.
Coach, how you doing, boss?

Speaker 10 Doing great, man. How are you?

Speaker 1 So you said you lost three. So you've won seven, lost three.
You've been in 10 of these.

Speaker 1 I talked to Marcus Freeman and Ryan Day. Yesterday, I believe.
Was that yesterday morning? Yes. Yeah.
Both very comfortable. Felt like they were both very, very comfortable, both very loose.

Speaker 1 What do you think they're trying to kind of say to their teams at this moment? Is it, hey, everything's the same?

Speaker 1 Or how do you think the coaches are kind of feeling in this moment here, just hours away from the natty?

Speaker 10 Well, I think one of the things that I always tried to do was: how do you get the team to manage the disruptions of a game like this?

Speaker 10 Because players get exposed to things they are not used to being exposed to, more press conference, more media, more attention.

Speaker 1 Peter Herbstree turnaround.

Speaker 10 And then the second thing is:

Speaker 10 both teams just came off of big wins. So how do you sustain that and

Speaker 10 not have the players feel a little relief syndrome like I'm entitled to having a little time off here?

Speaker 10 Let's take it easy because you've got to restart it and you've got to get ready to play the next game.

Speaker 10 And I always told the players, look, when you're playing a national championship game, you've got to assume.

Speaker 10 when you start preparation that you're playing against the best player you ever played against and that's how you got to get ready to prepare for this game so you can play your best to dominate your box.

Speaker 10 And it's still keeping it simple. You know, keeping it simple.
I have these coaches call me and say, how'd you get your team ready to play a national championship game?

Speaker 10 Well, you just played a big game last week.

Speaker 10 How'd you get your team ready to play that game?

Speaker 10 Because if there was a better way to do it, you'd have done it last week.

Speaker 1 We should be doing this all season, not just one game.

Speaker 10 You know, players like routine. You know, you guys played.
I mean, you like routine. You like to know when you come in on Monday, this is what's going to happen.

Speaker 10 When you come in on Wednesday, this is what's going to happen. So if you change that routine,

Speaker 10 you're just acting and making the players think that they don't have confidence in the way they did it before.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and I believe that was a big report yesterday.

Speaker 1 I don't know if it was Molly or Holly I saw in Sports Center that basically said there's only one voice talking to the Notre Dame fighting Irish team and it's Marcus Freeman because a lot of people maybe assume outside like hey let's bring in somebody to come speak to the team it's a big game Marcus Freeman to your point is like this is just hey how do you feel about this particular year and how it's gone You got to win four big games to win the national championship.

Speaker 1 You just talked about it. The Ohio State team are Cotton Bowl champs, Rose Bowl champs, and they beat the hell out of the SEC.
They're Civil War champs. That's just in this one playoff.

Speaker 1 And then Marcus Freeman has won more bowl games at Notre Dame than Brian Kelly did in his entire career at Notre Dame just this year. You talk about the massive games.

Speaker 1 Are we going to inevitably get the right team? Because these teams have to show up in these massive games time after time?

Speaker 1 This is a lot to ask a team, I think, show up four straight times against the best in the the country.

Speaker 10 Yeah, well, I think it's a lot like the NFL playoffs. You know, the best team doesn't always win the game.
You got circumstances around it. You've got turnovers.
You've got people getting hurt.

Speaker 10 Like Notre Dame's probably not at full strength for this game. You know, they'll wore down, beat up, got some guys out.

Speaker 10 So it's not always going to turn out that way, but that's why you play a tournament. You've got to win the tournament.
It's not about just the best team winning. You've got to win the tournament.

Speaker 10 So who has the most resiliency

Speaker 10 to do that?

Speaker 1 I had resiliency there because I just dumped water all over myself.

Speaker 1 That was a very embarrassing game.

Speaker 10 You covered it up nicely.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Thank you.
I appreciate that. I think people saw me probably just drool all over myself.
But yeah, you got to show up. You've got to get your team ready to go.

Speaker 1 AJ has a question for you, Coach.

Speaker 2 Coach, you mentioned you, I don't want to bring up any bad memories, but you said you lost three of these national championship games.

Speaker 2 When you went and you self-scouted those losses, were you able to pinpoint anything that you would have changed going back if you could do that, or say the next year if you got back, that you realize, okay, this is a speed bump that we don't need to, we've got to figure out to not do that again?

Speaker 10 Well, I think each of them were different. I think only one of those games did we really get beat in.
You know, when we played out in San Jose against Clemson, we just got beat.

Speaker 10 But we had bad circumstances in the game. You know, we had to play Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.
We had an eight-day turnaround to get to California. A lot of travel, a lot of disruption in practice.

Speaker 10 And, you know, we got out there, it was raining, there was no place to practice indoors. So, and we didn't handle those games.

Speaker 1 How impressive for you? You were impressed about this whole thing?

Speaker 1 No indoor facility?

Speaker 10 No, that's why I think that these games should always be played at bowl sites.

Speaker 10 You know, because bull sites have the facilities because they're used to accommodating teams. We played in San Jose, they weren't used to accommodating a team.
No disrespect to Indianapolis.

Speaker 10 When we played Georgia in Indianapolis, they weren't used to accommodating teams. Pretty disrespectful.

Speaker 1 Oh, pretty disrespectful. It was cold as shit.

Speaker 1 It was cold as hell.

Speaker 10 And we had to go practice in your Indianapolis Colts facility, which may be

Speaker 10 I don't know what it's like now, but it wasn't really very nice.

Speaker 1 Oh, no. I'm sorry.
We like Greg.

Speaker 1 Great football. It was shite.

Speaker 10 No, but to answer your question, AJ, yeah, there were always things that we didn't do well in the game. And in some of the games, I mean, like we lost to Clemson on the last play of the game,

Speaker 10 I think in 2015 or 16. I mean, it was two great teams.
I mean, we covered them and they caught it anyway, and they scored. I mean, it was just a great game, and we played a really good game.

Speaker 10 We just lost.

Speaker 1 That happens in football. Could potentially happen tonight.

Speaker 1 I think tonight's game could go anyway. Do you agree with that? I think there could be a buzzsaw.
I think it could come down to the last second. I think there could be a massive upset.

Speaker 1 I have no clue how tonight's going to go, strictly because these teams have had to show up in massive games already three times, and they both proven it.

Speaker 1 What is your kind of judge on how tonight goes? Anyway, I think it,

Speaker 10 who can play their game?

Speaker 10 Which team allows the other team to play their game? You know, if Notre Dame's going to win the game, they're going to have to play ugly. You know,

Speaker 10 they can't get in a three-point shootout if it's a basketball game, you know, with Ohio State to make explosive plays to win the game because Ohio State has too many weapons.

Speaker 10 But if they can make the game ugly, kind of like Michigan did, you know, they ran the ball, they kept it away from Ohio State, they made the plays they needed to make.

Speaker 10 They got, you know, get some turnovers, play good defense, don't let them get explosive plays.

Speaker 10 I think anybody can win the game, but I think the team that's going to win is going to be able to play their game. Their identity.
Their identity.

Speaker 1 Which has been proven here already. Both of their identities have been proven.
You think about Ohio State, you talk about explosives.

Speaker 1 That has become like the stat of this football season, both in college and in the NFL. Who can stop explosives and who can make explosives?

Speaker 1 This Ohio State team makes explosives on offense and on defense, and they stop them. And then Notre Dame has been able to keep everybody in a phone booth.
I'm very, very pumped.

Speaker 1 I asked Marcus Freeman yesterday, I said,

Speaker 1 for you guys to win, what needs to happen? And he just, he immediately said, we need to run the ball. We need to stop the run.
I mean, that is what we need to do. Was not scared to say it at all.

Speaker 1 That is who we are. That is how we're going to win.
And I think Ryan Day knew exactly who they were, too. Two teams that know who they are coming in here.
Very excited about it.

Speaker 1 D-Bud has a question for you, Coach.

Speaker 5 Yeah, coach, you've been in so many of these huge games, and I'm sure most people would assume you don't have nerves coming into it. What were your nerves like coming into these huge games?

Speaker 5 And I know as a player, like that first hit or first coverage rep may be a target, then it kind of settles down and turns into just football. How are your nerves coming into big games like this? And

Speaker 5 what settled you once the game kind of got going?

Speaker 10 Yeah, well, I think I had nerves going into every game.

Speaker 10 And sometimes I was more nervous about the games that we were supposed to win.

Speaker 10 You know, like when you're a big favorite, but you're playing a pretty good team and you know your team's probably not looking at the game like you need to. But I think

Speaker 10 to ignore anxiety, I think all players and all coaches have anxiety when you win the games like this.

Speaker 10 And I always thought as a coach, the most important thing I needed to do was manage that anxiety because that anxiety was not going to help you perform well. And to keep things simple.

Speaker 10 Play in, play out, do your job, dominate your box, don't worry about the scoreboard, all those kinds of things kind of minimize anxiety. Because everybody wants to win.

Speaker 10 And can we focus on doing the things that we need to do to win?

Speaker 10 That was what I always tried to promote to the players. And I didn't want to make them think that I was anxious because if they saw me nervous and anxious, then that means I don't believe in them.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Everybody notices and can feel it.
Even your assistant coaches. Your assistant coaches can't be nervous either because then they think, oh, we don't have enough.
We can't get the job done.

Speaker 1 You listen to music before the game? What you do? Do you listen to music?

Speaker 10 I never listen to music. I kind of just thought things through.
I did a little stretching.

Speaker 1 Oh, really? Yoga? You're a yoga? You're stretching out. No, I yoga.

Speaker 4 I tried to keep busy.

Speaker 10 But I always had like I made notes like of what I was going to say to the team relative to what I'd said to them the day before,

Speaker 10 what I was going to say to them in halftime. I always had notes on what do I say if we win, what do I say if we lose.

Speaker 10 I mean I was anticipating what was going to happen so that we didn't have to respond in spur of the moment type things.

Speaker 1 You ever break any headsets at national championship games? It feels like a perfect setting to go ahead and put one of those through the ground.

Speaker 10 Well, you know, I broke so many, I can't remember the specifics of when they happened.

Speaker 1 Had to. Tone has a question for you.

Speaker 4 Coach, nobody runs more man-to-man than this Notre Dame defense, and Al Golden's been asked a ton about it this week.

Speaker 4 If they are going to continue to do that against these, you know, Ohio State wide receivers that are very, very good.

Speaker 4 Would you, in that situation, like, would you do, would you go out doing what you do the whole season, do what you do best, or would you play more zone because of how these wide receivers are gifted athletically and just who they are?

Speaker 10 Well, I think that, yeah, you want to be who you are, but you also want to look at what the other team does technically, you know, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and what can we do to take that away.

Speaker 10 And I think one of the things that, like, the thing that we played a lot, and people think as soon as you say man-to-man, that means you got a middle-of-the-field safety and everybody's kind of locked up outside.

Speaker 10 But we actually played a lot of split safety man-to-man,

Speaker 10 which is what Texas did, you know, last week, you know, in the game.

Speaker 1 A taff or whatever his name was.

Speaker 10 Yeah, where you got two deep safeties, but they're not playing half-field coverage. They're still involved in the run to

Speaker 10 some degree, but you can take and say, all right, we're going to double number four, or we're going to double the guy in the slot, but you still got too high.

Speaker 10 You're not always playing middle-of-the-field coverage.

Speaker 10 I think when you play middle-of-the-field coverage and you got great wideouts out here, your cats better be better than their cats because you're going to give up, you know, that's the toughest thing in ball for the defensive back to be able to play all those balls and play man-to-man short and deep and not give up explosive plays, which is exactly what we've been talking about.

Speaker 10 But, you know, to that point,

Speaker 10 People always think about turnovers. And we did a thing last week on turnovers and the number one statistic and outcomes of games.

Speaker 10 But the second most compelling statistic and outcomes of games is your turnover ratio and your turnover margin, not when it comes to turnovers, but but your ratio in explosive plays.

Speaker 10 How many did you make and how many did you give up?

Speaker 1 It's the stat of the year. Yes.
Especially with how college ball and the NFL. It's like cyclical.
Came back to like power football. If you were able to open a team up, you were going to win the game.

Speaker 1 Last question about what's happening tonight before Connor pivots away and into the NFL conversation. Jeremiah Smith, this guy's special, man.

Speaker 1 He didn't get to rock a lot in the semifinal against Texas because I think of what you were talking about with the shade.

Speaker 1 And then they just basically said, all right, we'll take Take, Buka, Henderson, Judkins, also G. Scott Jr.
and great name tight end from Ohio State. Kazmerick.
Kazmerick, great name.

Speaker 1 He said, we'll just use all the chip and was like, cool. You want to take him out? We'll play 11 on or 10 on 9, basically, is what we'll do because of what you're doing.

Speaker 1 In the modern world that we're in, he's going to have to get the ball, right? I was thinking about this because, Jeremiah, I know who your cousin is, Geno Smith, West Virginia legend.

Speaker 1 They don't want to get you the ball there. Oh,

Speaker 1 what's that? What are you doing? You're lobbying? Let's see where you go.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no. Come on, Gino.

Speaker 1 Let's not even say West Virginia, but let's just say the amount of people in college ball that immediately afterwards will be like, they don't want to give you the ball there.

Speaker 1 That's the world we're in right now. And Jeremiah's the best football player in the country.
I mean, that is by far. And he still has to play two more years of college ball.

Speaker 1 It's like, is that something that plays into Chip Kelly's mindset? Like, we got to feed this guy just to keep him happy? Or how do you feel that gets treated?

Speaker 1 And is Jeremiah Smith going to get his plays anyways, regardless of that?

Speaker 10 Well, I don't think there's any question if you're the offensive coordinator, and I think Chip Kelly's one of the best play callers.

Speaker 10 But you're going to have plays designed, especially early in the game, to get the ball in his hands, whether they've got to motion him over to the slot, throw him a screen pass, a slide or boot, whatever it is, to get the ball in his hands.

Speaker 10 It doesn't have to be something that has to be down the field, because if it's down the field and the defense has, you know, two guys, one short, one deep over the top, that read's not there for him.

Speaker 10 So the quarterback's going to throw the ball someplace else. So you you can design ways for guys to get the ball, which this guy needs to get the ball because he's a great player.

Speaker 10 But the defense can also determine where the quarterback throws the ball by how they're playing.

Speaker 10 So you got to take both those things in consideration, and the quarterback can't force it there because then

Speaker 10 you're subject to turnovers in bad plays.

Speaker 1 He dropped that one early that we saw where he normally goes up and gets it. And then that was basically all we saw.
One for three area.

Speaker 2 Bill Howard did a good job of not actually forcing the ball to Jerry Smith, I feel like. He took what the defense was giving him.

Speaker 1 And what I'm saying right now, I like what they did. They played nowhere near their A-game mostly because Jeremiah Smith didn't go crazy.
But the modern college world that we're in, it is what it is.

Speaker 1 What is Michigan? Michigan has Larry Ellison right in their back pocket.

Speaker 1 He's worth how many? $200 billion or something? Yeah, about that. Probably more, actually, today.
That would be a heartbreak. I'm not going to say it's going to happen.

Speaker 1 I think he's going to take you over there.

Speaker 5 That's why we're seeing you.

Speaker 1 Way how they've been producing. And we know Brian Hart lately.
Okay, I agree. But I'm just saying, this is the modern world that we're in.
Like, Ohio State has to think about that.

Speaker 1 That is a real deal. Back in the day, you never had to think about that.
Jeremiah Smith, what he has been able to accomplish this season, nothing short of spectacular. Cannot wait to watch it.

Speaker 1 Will Howard also. Nobody really gives him much credit.
You talked about his decision-making and not forcing it anywhere. What have you seen from Will thus far?

Speaker 1 Obviously, at Kansas State, he was great. I think he was the Big 12 player of the year last year.
Texas was the champion of the Big 12. They make it to the Cotton Bowl this year in the SEC.

Speaker 1 It's like, Will Howard's a player. So is Riley, though.
Riley's like a hooper. It looks like he's like a hooper at quarterback.
And his throwing's been getting better.

Speaker 1 How do you feel about the quarterbacks in this game? And how big of a role do you think they have in the outcome of it all?

Speaker 10 Yeah, well, I think Will Howard has done a good job of taking what the defense gives. They got a lot of weapons now.
They got two really good runners. They got three really good receivers.

Speaker 10 They got a good tight end. So he just got to take what the defense gives, and they're going to be able to do a good job.

Speaker 10 I think Riley Leonard, on the other hand, you know, it's more about him being able to be a runner, having more diversity as a quarterback, which he's done a really good job of.

Speaker 10 He's a really good athlete. He's a great competitor.
And his throwing has gotten better, especially the short throws where they can keep, you know, the sticks moving.

Speaker 10 They haven't made a lot of explosive plays, but that's okay if you're playing keepaway.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they've stayed on schedule, they say. All right, let's get to the NFL now.
Connor has a question for you.

Speaker 3 Yeah, Coach, Jalen Hurts. Obviously, there's a lot of conversation about him.

Speaker 3 He kind of gets killed on the internet for his passing, but you know, he had a 44-yard touchdown yesterday running the ball. People kind of ignore that when it comes to him being a quarterback.

Speaker 3 What do you think about his performance so far, and how do you kind of think he gets better almost as they head to the NFC championship next week?

Speaker 10 Yeah, well, I think he's doing the things they need to do to win. I mean, they're a running football team.
I mean, that's what the Philadelphia Eagles are. They got Saquon Barkley.
They run it.

Speaker 10 Jalen can run it, which he had a big play last night as a runner. So you've got to make people defend that, and then you've got to throw the ball effectively enough in play-action game.

Speaker 10 And I think Jalen is a good enough passer to do all those things.

Speaker 10 I think the one thing, and this is any athletic quarterback and every one of them, and when Jalen was with us, we would have team and seven on seven. And I would say, you cannot run.

Speaker 10 You cannot scramble. You cannot, you have to throw the ball on time.
And because these guys are so athletic, they see the rush coming and they think they can scramble and get out of it.

Speaker 10 And a couple of those sacks that he took last night, he took them because in normal circumstances, no snow, no bad knee, all that, he probably would have been able to escape and get away and make a play.

Speaker 10 And he's done that so much in his career, it's hard to tell a guy, hey, don't do that.

Speaker 10 But I was trying to train him to become a better on-time passer, you know, by not allowing him to do it in practice.

Speaker 10 And I think he improved in that regard, but he's still a great athlete, and those guys are going to make plays, and you can't take that away from them.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about a great athlete who has done something that not a lot of rookie quarterbacks have done. Jaden Dano's, obviously, when he's at LSU, you have to play against him.

Speaker 1 He transfers in there from Arizona State. Everything that happened over there at the end of his run, those dudes got to feel like the dumbest of all time in that locker room.
He goes to LSU.

Speaker 1 You have to play against him a few times. Kirk Herbstreet sat on this particular program when we were at Army, Navy last year, and he said,

Speaker 1 you know, throughout all these draft classes, this is a good draft class for quarterbacks, and it has been. I mean, Drake May seemingly going to be a guy.

Speaker 1 Pennix, we think, is going to be able to be a guy. We think Caleb has an opportunity.
Who knows in Chicago if they get it right? Bo Nicks is a guy.

Speaker 1 And Kirk kind of laid out all those answers. And then he said, Jaden Daniels is the guy, though.

Speaker 1 Whenever people meet him, when they talk to him, whenever they understand his football knowledge, but also just his sense of calm that he has.

Speaker 1 And then the moxie and confidence in which he plays with Kirk was like, he's the guy. This was last year, Army, Navy coming out.

Speaker 1 I don't think he was the only one, but what do you know from him when watching him at LSU? Obviously, very closely. And could you have ever expected this from him coming into the NFL?

Speaker 10 Since Joe Burrow, which whatever year that was when they beat us, this was the most dominating player that we played against at Alabama for four or five years.

Speaker 10 And I said it last year in the draft, you know, all these pro people call and ask your opinion on people you played against. I said, this guy is the best player we played against for five years.
And

Speaker 10 no disrespect to anybody else. You guys got to look at all the quarterbacks, but I think this guy is a great passer.
He's fast as hell, and he can scramble and run and make plays. He's smart.

Speaker 10 He makes good decisions. I don't see how you can go wrong with this guy.

Speaker 10 And I actually thought he was the best guy in the draft last year because of the production that he had in college, and he did it for two years.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but what do you know?

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 10 You're right about that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what do you know? You don't know all on this entire thing. What's that?

Speaker 5 There's so much confidence in him, like all the going forward on fourth downs.

Speaker 5 And as a defensive-minded coach, how much does that change, I guess, game plan-wise, planning against a team like Philly or a team like Buff?

Speaker 5 It seemed like the NFL is just kind of like fourth down revolution as a whole. How do you feel that changes out for defensive game planning?

Speaker 10 Well,

Speaker 10 that's analytics.

Speaker 10 And I think one of the big things you have to do as a defensive coach, which we started to do a couple years ago, because all of Miss would go for it on fourth down, lane and go for it on fourth down all the time, is defensive players automatically think, all right, we stopped them on third and five, we're off the field.

Speaker 1 We're out of the field. Here we go.
All right, looking for the,

Speaker 10 and they're going for it, and your mindset changed.

Speaker 10 I mean, you have another third down to play. So we actually started

Speaker 10 scripting and practice. All right, it's third and five, incomplete.
It's fourth and five.

Speaker 10 You got to play. You got to go play.
You got to go play.

Speaker 10 In one game, you know, we actually went five for five on making stops on fourth down, which typically was not the case because you never practiced it.

Speaker 10 And even the defensive coordinators over there got marbles in his mouth, doesn't know what to call because he thinks the punt team's going out there, the punt return team.

Speaker 10 All right, so all these things kind of work against you because it's not your mindset. But analytics changed all this.

Speaker 10 You know, these analytic guys say, if you go for it on fourth and three on your own 40-yard line, you got a 56% chance to make it.

Speaker 10 Well, my question was, when my coaches used to bring all that stuff to me, was I'd say, well, what happens the 46%

Speaker 1 of the time? They never ask about that, that.

Speaker 1 They never answer that part. Yeah, the analytics.
I like how you do this with the analytics. Feels like we can make a stat out of anything, is what you just did there with the analytics.

Speaker 1 Going for it on fourth down has been fun. And I don't think we've ever seen a graphic, maybe once, that has said, don't go.
The ESPN stats, the NBC stats, the Amazon Prime stats, we say go for it.

Speaker 1 Does that mean it's more than 51%?

Speaker 1 Or what is because that's a lot out of 100 times,

Speaker 1 42 times not getting it, even though 58 sounds good that is a lot of not getting it on fourth down you stop you talked about stopping it uh five times in one game i assume you won that game yeah we did yeah that feels like a lot of turnovers there all right coach i can't wait uh for college game day starting at five o'clock i do believe eastern will be right here then the national championship this evening you've been awesome to watch on tv this year hell hell of a debut into a television career that you had this year you need to know that well it's because of you all right you have made and taught me how to be able to operate without having anxiety.

Speaker 10 Because I had anxiety in the beginning.

Speaker 1 Why?

Speaker 1 You're Nick Saban. No, but not

Speaker 10 based on doing this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you are. No.

Speaker 10 Yeah. Can I say one thing?

Speaker 1 We got 30 seconds. You better say it quick if you're not this.

Speaker 10 But you brought this up about Jeremiah Smith going to Michigan or...

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no. Well, I got to say that.
And I'm going to start. All right.

Speaker 1 You created that. No.
He did. You're right.

Speaker 10 But all as I'm saying, the people out there need to know this model is unsustainable. It's not good for players.

Speaker 10 I mean, people in Congress, I don't care who has to get off their butt and do something. Players need to get compensated, no doubt.
But it has to be done in a way where we,

Speaker 10 you know, some kind of way

Speaker 10 have competitive balance. Yes, go ahead.
You know, that every school has the same thing. One school can't spend $30 million for players while another school is spending $3 million.

Speaker 1 Ah great, you're the one that's going to have to fix it. Hour one wrapping up here from the national championship.
We're live.

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Speaker 13 Football!

Speaker 1 It is wonderful. We're so lucky to be here.
We were just joined by the great coach Saban, who's won seven of these, but he has lost three of these, which he says are the only ones he thinks about.

Speaker 1 That's a shame. I hope he has a little bit of happiness.
He's been fantastic on TV, and we told him as such, because whenever you have something like that, you need to let those people know.

Speaker 1 And speaking of people that I need to let... Something know about, talk to Tibby.
You guys have had a great year at Boston Connor, at Ty Schmidt, Conman, another national championship.

Speaker 1 We shouldn't be here. What a moment.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's incredible. And what a matchup for it.
A seven versus an eight in the first 12 team playoffs. You know, we started with 12, we're counting down to one.

Speaker 3 It felt like, you know, it was always meant to be here. But I'm just happy that it's here.
And it's a bummer because, of course, it's the last college football game for a little while here.

Speaker 3 So it is kind of almost nostalgic looking back at the season.

Speaker 1 Ty, it feels like Iowa Hawkeyes haven't played football in like two years, but we're wrapping up a season here. And, you know, new schools get a shot to shine.
It's Ohio State and and Notre Dame.

Speaker 1 Notre Dame's back. I know you're a Catholic school boy.
Obviously, grew up watching the fighting Irish. Big night tonight, potentially, for that team up there in South Bend, Indiana.

Speaker 3 Yeah, without a doubt.

Speaker 6 More teams getting a shot to shine. Or, you know, we'll get two of the five winningest programs of all time, getting another shot to shine who haven't had a shot to shine in quite some time.
Bart.

Speaker 6 So, I mean, it's one of those things where at the end of the day, yeah, am I broken up inside because the Hawks stopped playing what seems like three months ago? Sure.

Speaker 6 But at the same time, it's a Big Ten country, baby.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 6 Notre Dame, yes, they're independent, but they are a de facto Big Ten team. Everybody knows that.
They play basketball in the ACC. That's bullshit.

Speaker 1 That doesn't matter. I was about to say, I think everybody de facto ACC team is what they say.
They're not, though.

Speaker 6 They're right in the middle of the country, not too far from us. So they're a Big Ten team as well.

Speaker 6 And, you know, next time we do a conference realignment, might have to throw, you know, 500 million at them to get him out of that NBC deal.

Speaker 1 You're talking about Petiti over there at the Big Ten?

Speaker 6 Tony Petiti is an absolute dog. Everybody knows that.
We may have talked to Tony Petiti a little bit this morning.

Speaker 6 Let's just say he's happy there's a chance that the national championships coming back home where it belongs in the Big Ten.

Speaker 1 This would be back-to-back, Big Ten national championships if Ohio State was to win, which hasn't happened, I think, since 1965 or 1966 when Michigan State won back-to-back.

Speaker 1 So the Big Ten could potentially be national chomps for two straight years for the first time, long time, especially in this new time where there's a lot of wondering of who runs this house.

Speaker 1 Petiti's walking around, caulk of the walk.

Speaker 1 Sankey's here as well. It's like you crazy.
It's great to see him. One half of the hammer.

Speaker 1 Cowboys AP tone. This weekend, I saw that I went one and three and I picked all the favorites.
So obviously it was good for the dogs this weekend.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it was, so you went one and three because the Chiefs line moved a bit there, but closing line, because the Chiefs were nine and a half, I believe closing line, all the dogs went 4-0 on closing lines this weekend.

Speaker 4 Obviously, a lot of people weren't happy with the Chiefs one because of the safety late, but no, it was a great weekend for the dogs.

Speaker 4 And, you know, not normally a good weekend for the public when all the dogs covered.

Speaker 1 Big lines, we thought, going in there. How about tonight? What's the spread this evening? Has the line moved at all? What are we learning from what the sports books are saying? It's eight and a half.

Speaker 4 There's been some between eight, eight and a half, nine. There was a nine and a half for a second out there this in this last 10 days or whatever, whatever it's been.

Speaker 4 But no, it's been kind of hung around there.

Speaker 4 Money's a bit on Ohio State. It's like 55, 56%.
So

Speaker 4 not what I thought it would have been. I thought it would have been a lot more Ohio State.
A lot of people think it's going to be a lot closer.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but the Catholics, thou hath bet on games. Bingo, they hath bet on games.
They hath bet on games, which we appreciate.

Speaker 1 So, you know, the Irish potentially showing up. They understand their team's got a lot of fight.
Let's go to an Ohio State legend, A.J. Hawk here.

Speaker 1 And you like being favored by more than a touchdown, more than a touchdown and two-point conversion in the national championship? Or how do you think Ryan Day handles this?

Speaker 2 Now, see, as a fan, I do not like it.

Speaker 2 As a fan, I feel like Nick Saban when he said, like, it was tough to get your team ready when you are such a favorite because it's easy to kind of relax a little bit.

Speaker 2 But as a player, I don't think you care. I know it's a different time now, but as a player, as coaches, you don't care.

Speaker 2 Like, you just see the enemy across the lines and who you've been studying on film.

Speaker 2 But as a fan, yeah, I do not like that. As a fan, when I don't have any control of the game, I don't like being the favorite.
I like being the underdog, chip on your shoulder kind of guy.

Speaker 1 I've seen a lot of different maps about who each state is pulling for. Nobody's really pulling for a high state in this thing.

Speaker 2 Well, thank you, Marcus Freeman. Marcus Freeman has made Notre Dame very even more of a, we know it's been an institution.

Speaker 1 Everyone, the people who like Notre Dame love Notre Dame.

Speaker 2 But usually it's like you're Notre Dame or you're not. Now it's like everybody loves Notre Dame.

Speaker 1 And I think if you talk about the likability of the Notre Dame team, they do say Marcus Freeman. And obviously there's a lot of Catholics out there.
We know that is true.

Speaker 1 A lot of things being said about Brian Kelly. Yeah, people had not

Speaker 1 liked him. Just kind of passively and actually.
People don't love LSU right now either. Yeah, and Jaden Daniels, what he's able to do, and what he's doing.
He's a tiger back on the sideline.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's Governor Jeff Leandry.

Speaker 1 And I don't know how Jeff Leandry is doing right now.

Speaker 1 There's a lot, obviously, but Brian Kelly's taking a lot of shots with this successful Notre Dame team because he said Notre Dame can't win a national championship up there. And here's Marcus Freeman.

Speaker 1 Now, he mentioned Marcus Freeman, obviously. He's about our age, Ohio State legend.
What do you like about him? I like that he goes at the refs. I do.
I like that he goes.

Speaker 1 He's always himself, it feels like. And he's always professional, always cool.
The boys love him, Debo.

Speaker 5 I like how he connects with his team.

Speaker 5 And you saw it from the moment he was introduced as the head coach in that weight room and it's just materialized and gotten better and better uh year after year and for him to be at this point you know after obviously brian kelly leaving but we see like notre dame is putting out these clips these videos of kind of behind the scenes maybe some of these halftime talks and even that game we were at orange bowl with penn state like everything was going away from them the calls they didn't get any calls and it was just so what now what his team responds we always talk about teams taking on the identity of head coach and I think that's what we're seeing right now with the fighting Irish and Marcus Freeman.

Speaker 1 Excited for tonight. The Ohio State Buckeyes have a lot of talent.
So is Notre Dame. The Ohio State Buckeyes spent a lot of money on their roster.
So Notre Dame.

Speaker 1 The Ohio State Buckeyes have won a lot of massive games here in the college football playoff run. So is Notre Dame.
It's awesome. Tonight is, I think divisional round obviously stole a lot of hype.

Speaker 1 Lamar Josh, the commanders beating the Lions. Everybody's going crazy.
Taylor Swift, Caitlin Clark at the Chiefs Texans game. They had a single shot on both of them.

Speaker 1 And obviously, I have not done a research, so somebody's probably probably going to correct me which always seemingly happens are those the two biggest needle movers in the history of women

Speaker 1 taylor swift maybe mother teresa kayton park

Speaker 1 i bet i doubt mother nature technology

Speaker 1 mother nature watches the weather channel i guess is this these are the two biggest needle movers in the history of women i think yeah people will only argue uh rihanna and beyonce madonna they'd probably throw her in as well

Speaker 1 okay so so then you those people would all be competing against taylor

Speaker 1 and i think Taylor would be... I think the Swifties.
Taylor's one. I think Swifty's would be very comfortable going to bat against Beyonce, Rihanna, Madonna, the whole thing.
No doubt.

Speaker 1 I think they'd be very comfortable. So then you think about Caitlin Clark.
She's the biggest needle mover in the history of Serena. Yeah, Serena.
Serena, maybe? She's up there. Sidney Sweeney.

Speaker 3 Yeah, she's not in sports.

Speaker 1 No, in sports. But I understand what she's doing.

Speaker 6 She's a needle mover.

Speaker 1 She's doing some commercials. Yeah, Dr.
Squash. I saw that.
Great commercials. I saw that.
She's a genie. I saw the whole thing.

Speaker 1 So, I mean,

Speaker 1 you got Taylor and Caitlin sitting next to each other. Then you got what, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelsey on the field.
And then you got a Texans team that was balling.

Speaker 1 I mean, they had not played well, you know, at the end of the year. Then they kind of found something, got rolling in there.
And then obviously the refs.

Speaker 4 Are those videos of the refs and Mahomes and Andy, are those real?

Speaker 1 Those photos? I saw some on the internet. I think they were AI.
Andy Reid?

Speaker 1 I don't know if Andy Reid fell like that. They were saying he fell.
On the field right there, too.

Speaker 2 It seems like a weird spot to be.

Speaker 1 I don't know if he prays like that. I thought he was praying on the field right in front of the refs.

Speaker 5 I saw smooching.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's real.

Speaker 1 I don't think it was real. I do appreciate the fact that we're at the point where technology is so easy to kind of utilize.

Speaker 1 I think there is a little bit of a drawback where you can just go down into one of these, either Grok or anybody else and just say, I want to see Patrick Mahomes suck in face with Ed Hawkely.

Speaker 1 And then Grok says, Let me get 22 seconds real quick. Oh, so that was AI.

Speaker 4 We ran that through an AI checker back here. There was no AI detector.

Speaker 1 What about the Andy Reid one? The Andy Reid one had to be fake. That's what we were talking about.
I don't know. That one cleared.
No way, because I did not see him fall in front of the refs.

Speaker 1 The internet certainly got it, I guess, a screen grab. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 The one of Mahomes and the refs can't be real.

Speaker 1 Smooching? Yeah. Arm around each other?

Speaker 1 Little tongue in there.

Speaker 3 That wasn't even the worst one I saw on the internet yesterday.

Speaker 1 It's going to make the internet difficult. It's going to make the internet difficult.

Speaker 1 You can't believe anything.

Speaker 2 You either believe everything or you believe nothing.

Speaker 3 You sent sent me one that was crazy.

Speaker 1 I don't think that was. Which one are you talking about?

Speaker 3 It was just an absurd one. I had never even thought that it could do something like that.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. It's crazy.
It's crazy how they can work like that. People that aren't good editors can really do some damage right now on the internet.

Speaker 1 You put that power in the hands of a very clever internet person, which we have done now. Sure.
It's going to be tough to kind of see.

Speaker 1 I don't remember Andy Reid falling to his knees. No.

Speaker 1 But you look at a screen grab a couple times. It's like, well, who would have...
Hold on. It could be Grok or Mr.
GPT or Mrs. GPT.
Yeah. I do apologize.
Stepped in a hole. Too much access.

Speaker 1 32.7 million viewers in that Chiefs Texans game. That's huge numbers.
And I was watching that game with my wife. She was hoping Travis would score.
So, you know,

Speaker 1 Sue Taylor's doing. Of course.
Then Kaylin Clark pops up and it's like,

Speaker 2 there it is. I think Brooke Shields was in this back row, too.
Great actor in her time.

Speaker 1 Really? Brooke Shields was in there? Yeah, of course. Wow.

Speaker 2 So I'm saying Brooke Shields taking a back seat to all of them. That's how big they are.

Speaker 3 So many stars.

Speaker 2 So many. I think a couple more, actually.

Speaker 4 I can't believe you didn't mention her when they were talking about the biggest of all time.

Speaker 1 Needle Moore. You're talking about Brooks Shields? Yeah.
Yeah, legit. I mean, the game, though, was awesome.

Speaker 1 If you can get past the ref stuff, which a lot of people aren't going to be able to, and guess what?

Speaker 1 Next game, you're going to be able to find something that the refs do for the Kansas City Chiefs that you're going to say that the refs are on their side.

Speaker 1 This is what the New England Patriots had to deal with for a long time. I don't like Patrick Mahomes flopping around on the sideline, but let's also remember, Patrick Mahomes just had newborn.

Speaker 1 Okay, the guy's probably not sleeping. He's making decisions he wouldn't normally make.

Speaker 1 Patrick Mahomes understands he's a dog, understands he's a face of football, understands he can do plays like that on a team that's about to do something that's rather historic, and he can't be flopping around on the sideline.

Speaker 1 He's had newborn. Yeah.
He can't be doing that. Can't be looking like you're an NBA guy.
That was tough. Can't have it.

Speaker 1 Obviously, Troy Aikman wasn't happy, but Patrick Mahomes running on about 35 minutes of sleep. What do you think this guy's doing? That's why a little bit early, he was a little bit off his game.

Speaker 1 Missed a couple, missed a couple. He was like, oh, I'm playing football again.
He snapped right back into it.

Speaker 1 People were saying the refs were helping him snap back into it, though, weren't they, Connor?

Speaker 3 Yeah, big time. And some of the calls you could argue for sure.

Speaker 3 I mean, the Will Anderson one to start was egregious, especially because it was a third down and they ended up going on to score on that drive.

Speaker 3 And then there was another one later on where it was a 15-yard penalty. I think that is the biggest thing.
But that wasn't the only game, too.

Speaker 3 People were bitching about the Bills' Keon Coleman pass interference for the Ravens yesterday because Keon Coleman in the corner were hand fighting.

Speaker 3 It actually looked like Keon Coleman Coleman pushed the corner. Tony Romo said, you know, that looks like a good call to me.

Speaker 3 And Gene Sarator immediately came in and said, no, Tony, that was a terrible call. But again, that happens in every game.
It's just the Chiefs that gets ample.

Speaker 1 Well, the consistency, too, is the thing. Like, that game, that's all getting called.
Then we watch Bills Ray. There's nothing getting called.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Literally, nothing get called. Free for it.
There was like four late hits, very clear late hits. And Ref's like, up, hup.
Hup. Hup.
Up we go, boys. We're going to keep it rolling.

Speaker 1 Speaking of keeping it rolling, I don't know if you've been watching football this weekend.

Speaker 1 Under Armour launched a banger of a commercial involving Jesus Christ in a comedian that wasn't allowed on Saturday Night Live.

Speaker 1 Hey, God.

Speaker 2 It's been Shane.

Speaker 1 I haven't been here in a while, but I have a pretty big prayer for you. No Davies in the National Championship on Monday.

Speaker 1 I know you know. Because you've been with us the whole time.

Speaker 1 A couple weeks ago, that field goal.

Speaker 1 I know you had a lot going on, so that was pretty chill you took time to help us with that. I should also say I

Speaker 1 have not bet on any of these games.

Speaker 1 All right, I have. I have bet,

Speaker 1 but going forward, if Nodame wins, thou

Speaker 1 will not

Speaker 1 bet on games for a month. Couple weeks.
We'll probably bet on something. Come on, God, I know you can help us.
Trucking dudes. Pick sixes everywhere.
A couple fucking barooskies.

Speaker 1 Just please let Nodame win a national championship. Yo.

Speaker 1 Pray for Notre Dame. What are you praying for? Same.
Notre Dame. Hi, cool.
Shh. Shh.

Speaker 1 What? Did you go to Notre Dame?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I went to Notre Dame. Oh.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry that was a lie ago. No, I didn't go to Notre Dame.
Did you? No, my uncle did. Oh, it's awesome.
Yeah. All right.
Shh. Shh.

Speaker 1 Shh.

Speaker 1 Go Irish. Go Irish.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, the man who knows the Bible inside and out. Shango.

Speaker 1 Hey, thank you for joining us, man. I love that the whole world has just accepted you as a Notre Dame mouthpiece at this point.

Speaker 1 Commercial was awesome. How much of the Bible knowledge played into work there? Because when you dropped the half, sounded good.
Thou also sounded good. It's just Bible talk, man.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's just good Catholic Bible talk. You think Jesus was listening up there? I think so.
I hope so. Was that guy Italian that was up on the? Yeah, it was an Italian, man.
Yeah, Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 I think I've seen him. Yeah, I see him.
Yeah, he works down the road, right? Yeah, yeah, the other shop.

Speaker 1 Okay, how do you feel? National Championship Day, real deal. Notre Dame's back in it.
Let's go, Shane. I don't know, man.
It's, you know, scary.

Speaker 1 I thought, I don't know. I was hoping to be a little sharper today, but last night, last night got away from me.
Oh, runaway? Yeah,

Speaker 1 we thought, I was like, all right, we're going to get in. We're going to take it easy.
Sunday night. What?

Speaker 1 Didn't happen. You shut down Atlanta last night? A little rusty.
Magic City.

Speaker 1 No Magic City. Damn.

Speaker 1 Really? Lemon Pepper. My girlfriend's here.

Speaker 1 No, no. Lemon Pepper Lee.
Lemon State City.

Speaker 1 Obviously, the conversation is they're favored by eight and a half, depending upon some sports books. They think they have too much talent, too much skill, too much power.
What do you think?

Speaker 1 It feels like you are actually a part of this Notre Dame team in the locker room, in the commercials. How do you feel about the boys?

Speaker 1 I mean, I love the team. I feel weird that that's, you know, it's uncomfortable.
But... Why? You're a part of the team, dude.
You've earned it. I don't know.
I didn't.

Speaker 1 I didn't earn it at all. Yes, you did.

Speaker 1 If you're some nobody, they're not just going to let you talk for not a game, brother. You've earned it.
I feel good. I feel good about the game.

Speaker 1 It'll be, you know, they've been, apparently, the other team has had more talent every week, and they keep winning. So we'll see.
You and I talked at the beginning of the season about Riley Leonard.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because you didn't put not a dame in the playoffs. Yeah, I couldn't.
Just because at the time, the only Riley Leonard I had known was a guy who can't throw.

Speaker 1 Like at Duke, I don't know if it was potentially the weapons he had, didn't have weapons, or the offense they were running.

Speaker 1 But like when we watched a film for Duke UNC, we went and did game day down there. It was like, oh, this guy, he's great athlete, hooper, like actual hooper, but he can't throw.

Speaker 1 I think you're going to, he's been making those throws. It feels like Riley's only gotten better and his arm has gotten better, which I think is a big deal.
He's gotten a lot better.

Speaker 1 If you watch like, I mean, week two, Northern Illinois, it was like.

Speaker 1 He's got to go.

Speaker 1 And then he just kept getting better. And he's, you know, I mean, he got us to the title.
So.

Speaker 1 Do you, after the Northern Illinois game, I think all of us, just like after Michigan for Ohio State, needed that loss for this team to get to where they are? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 You said Riley Leonard got to go. He wrote that basically in his Players Tribune was like, I felt like I let down all of Notre Dame.

Speaker 1 What week did you know this team could go? Was there a time?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 After Northern Illinois, I had lost faith. Totally.

Speaker 1 Admittedly. My dad had a heart attack from that.
Oh, no. No, he's back.
He's back. He's worked his way back to health.
He's here. He made it all the way back to Atlanta.
No, shit.

Speaker 1 He had an actual heart attack after Northern Illinois? Yeah. Because of the game? And probably...
Yeah, he's back. Wow.

Speaker 1 Holy shit. Yeah, he's back.
Jeez.

Speaker 1 How come that was it? How come that was it? God? I don't know if you're up there. Did Marcus pumped his chest?

Speaker 2 I feel like Marcus could have pumped his chest and helped him. Like, Marcus is that good of a guy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Marcus revived him. What do you think about Marcus?

Speaker 1 What do you think about Marcus? Marcus is the man. He's awesome.
He's the nicest, coolest guy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Brian Kelly said he couldn't win national championship there.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, he went to LSU and he's going to ruin that program.

Speaker 1 Connor has a question for you.

Speaker 3 So when it comes to the actual game tonight, like, how do you see it playing out? Do you think they can kind of go down the field, score 30 points, hang with Ohio State?

Speaker 3 Or are you thinking, like, hey, let's make this thing gritty? Let's make this.

Speaker 1 I mean, you got to hope it's gritty. You got to hope.
I mean, you got to hope it's

Speaker 1 Michigan, Ohio State again. Okay.
It can't be Oregon, Ohio State. You know?

Speaker 1 Hopefully that Rose Bowl team doesn't show up. Well, they can't against anybody.

Speaker 1 They played their bad game against Texas, too, so now the conversation is like, will they get back to being who they are?

Speaker 1 But you guys make everybody play worse than what they're supposed to be, which is, I've picked against them every single time. Yeah, you're going to pick against again.
I know you're one of the guys.

Speaker 1 Good. A lot of Notre Dame people tell me.
Don't even consider. You're going to have to do it now.
Yeah, it happened with Michigan last year.

Speaker 1 So it might be an homage, me thinking I'm that important, also awesome. You know, that's a little bit of a ridiculous thing.

Speaker 1 But I think a lot of people, Tone said there was only 55% of the money was on Ohio State. I think we all thought it'd be a little bit more.
But Val hath bet on these games if you're an Irish Catholic.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, I didn't bet on this. I lost all my money on Georgia.
I put all my money on Georgia versus Notre Dame. Just

Speaker 1 in a drunk moment of weakness. Win-win.
Win-win.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I like it. Let's talk about the Eagles.
I have no more money on this. Let's talk about the Eagles.
Go Birds. How about that? How about it? Saquon.
God damn it. Saquon's a mutant.

Speaker 1 He's a real guy. Yeah, that's awesome.
Detroit loses too, so you have home field now for the NFC Championship with the Commanders coming in. in, NFC East rival.
How do you feel about Siriani?

Speaker 1 How do you feel about the Eagles?

Speaker 1 I mean, I'm not giving you guys good stuff, but I like them. No, that's critical.
Yeah, I like them. They're great.
Did you hate Sirianni ever?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 No, he's the bad.

Speaker 1 Ty, go ahead.

Speaker 6 In terms of tonight, obviously, you know, big underdogs, if you want to call them big underdogs.

Speaker 6 Lou Holtz comes out and stirs the pot again, starts talking shit to Marcus, or not Marcus Room, Ryan Day. We thought it was over.

Speaker 1 It's not over.

Speaker 1 It's still living.

Speaker 6 How do you feel about that whole situation?

Speaker 1 Are you worried old Coach Lou's giving a little more bullets and board material than that? No, I like Lou's fired up from the inauguration. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Is he there? That's the thing.

Speaker 1 Is he sitting in the front row up there, I do wonder? I don't know. He put out a tweet this morning.
If you know, you know, is about a motivational speech that he gave to the boys way back.

Speaker 1 And he basically won after. I mean, it was a pretty big shot across the battle, right?

Speaker 6 They replaced.

Speaker 6 It was against Miami, and he basically said something along lines with Jimmy Johnson.

Speaker 1 Oh, save Jimmy Johnson's ass for me.

Speaker 6 We'll beat their ass in the parking lot, and you can save Jimmy Johnson's ass for me, and they just replaced Jimmy Johnson with Ryan Day.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. Blue Holtz is awesome.
Holtz is the man. Feels like all the Notre Dame people have come back

Speaker 1 full, you know, and that's good for college ball to have Notre Dame good. You agree? Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, you started a war with Sabin by saying, you know, now everybody can do it.

Speaker 1 The North is going to rise. You know, you've been.
The North is back, dude. But it does feel like that.
Big Ten could go back-to-back national champs.

Speaker 1 Notre Dame has won, what, three bowl games already, pretty much this season. And you guys have massive support.
This isn't ending after this season. No, Marcus.
No, it's not. It's just the beginning.

Speaker 1 But, yeah, I saw Saban up here.

Speaker 1 I was back there hiding. I was like, oh, shit.
I was trying to figure out whether or not we should link you again. No, no, I don't think he would.

Speaker 1 I don't know. I don't know.
You guys have to link you. This has to happen, yeah.
Yeah, I would. I thought we were joking.
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you tricked me. No, no, no.
You did that on purpose. I did not.
I was on like, what, 80 milligrams? I thought everything was good with the fucking college football playoff.

Speaker 1 No, man, I think Saban's pissed, dude. And I'm like, I don't think.
What? You're like, no, he's not mad. I was like, I know he's mad.
He's pissed.

Speaker 3 At this point, you should just choke slam him, or you guys should get in the rear.

Speaker 1 Not in the Hall of Fame. I have no reason to choke slam.
You got to go one way or the other.

Speaker 3 It feels like it's not getting settled.

Speaker 1 You two get along. You two and get along.

Speaker 1 I'd love to get along, Kevin. But until then, let's win a national championship.
Let's get a title today. Yeah, Deebon, I have this question for you, Shane.

Speaker 5 I want to ask you about, obviously, you you had a bit of a runaway last night. Do you have two plans tonight? Or is it win or lose, you booze, or you win the natty, you're out in the town?

Speaker 5 What's the plans post-game tonight?

Speaker 1 I mean, I'm just... Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's going to be win or lose, you booze.
Okay.

Speaker 1 It'll be a sad loss. That'll be a rough drunk.
How do you feel about the booze intake? You feel like you're doing a good job? I've got it under control.

Speaker 1 Is this an Adderall day? No, good night. No, no.
No, no Adderall today. We got focus today.

Speaker 1 We got to stay. That would help that.
No, Adderall would just not be drinking.

Speaker 1 I'd be off. Okay, so you got Tire Season 2 coming up this spring.
Any more Under Armour commercials? How's that come together? No, that just came together like last week.

Speaker 1 They just reached out and we're like, we have an idea. And then McKeever, who writes and directs everything I do, he came up with that idea.
And yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1 he was like, I was just sitting there.

Speaker 1 Knees killed.

Speaker 1 That was a long shoot. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And then he was, yeah, John was just like, all right, do this.
Yell this, say this. And I was like, I don't know how this is going to cut together.
It was amazing. And it ended up great, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's great to work.

Speaker 1 Very rarely do you see the internet just be like. Yeah, it's a good one.
Yeah, it's a good one.

Speaker 1 Filmed it in Pittsburgh. And then

Speaker 1 John edited the entire thing on the turnpike on the drive back because they needed it the next day.

Speaker 1 Okay, so you're at the point now where you've produced enough great stuff like tires and like other things where companies come to you, they have an idea, you say, hey, we're going to do this, we'll get it to you, and they trust it?

Speaker 1 Yeah. No, they were awesome.
They let us do kind of whatever we wanted. Still on tour too, as well, right now? Still on tour, yeah.
I'm gonna, I don't know where I'm at next. Whatever.

Speaker 1 You're at Atlanta, brother, national champion? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is all I was thinking about.
Pittsburgh in the moment. Did the arena in Pittsburgh? What was that? Two nights ago?

Speaker 1 That was Friday. What are we doing? We're working on a new set.
We're ready for a new hour. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just got to do it for another year. Your next show's in Vancouver going to Canada.

Speaker 1 Vancouver, hell yeah. Yeah, you're going to do great.
Can't wait. I love it.
You're going to be a national champion potentially. Yeah.
We'll see. What do you guys think?

Speaker 1 I'm hoping.

Speaker 1 I'm praying for you.

Speaker 3 I hope it's just a great game. It's just sometimes it's hard to get myself there.

Speaker 1 I like the Irish. You like it? I do.
Damn. That's nice.
Went to a Catholic school. That's good.
Worried about that left tackle. No, don't be.

Speaker 1 He's a stud. JTT.
Jack Sawyer on the other side.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, I saw him, yeah. Have you watched film on the Ohio State team? What scares you? Oh, he was pretty scary.
Whiteout, Smith. There's, yeah, they're scary.
They got a lot of weapons.

Speaker 1 Hopefully their O-line shits the bed tonight. His chance.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 AJ has great faith in the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Speaker 2 I do.

Speaker 2 I see some pundits saying that Notre Dame is probably going to go for it, like once they cross the 50, they're going to be in four-down territory. You think that's going to happen?

Speaker 2 And do you want Marcus to be, like, do you want him to take chances?

Speaker 2 We know with special teams-wise, he's going to do some things to give him an advantage, but you think they're going to take some chances?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think they have to. Yeah.
He'll take chances.

Speaker 1 Absolutely, yeah. Are you on the sideline with the headset? Are you leading him out? Are you leading him out? No, no, no.

Speaker 1 I'm going to be,

Speaker 1 I'll be up here.

Speaker 2 You know, post-game, you'll be in the locker room.

Speaker 1 Could you do? Could you win?

Speaker 1 If they win, I'm coming down.

Speaker 1 If they win, I'm going to cry and hug my dad.

Speaker 1 My dad's going to go. I could hear you say that.
That's going to be very embarrassing. That's not embarrassing.
I'm going to cry a lot. Don't be embarrassing.
People are going to be.

Speaker 1 You're crying because you're happy. You're all going to cry because you're happy.
Don't cry because you're sad. Yeah, NCTC.
If they lost and I cried, that would be the saddest.

Speaker 1 That'd be the most pathetic.

Speaker 1 No, no, no. Very emotional.

Speaker 1 Connor Stallions. Your dad being Jesus Christ with his Notre Dame football team, dying? No, he's dying.

Speaker 1 Then fucking opens the rock, comes out of the tunnel, win a national championship.

Speaker 2 Maybe in Marcus's pregame speech, he's probably going to mention Shane's dad.

Speaker 1 You know, Shane gets.

Speaker 1 My cousin's here, too, and we were talking, because my whole family is obsessed with Notre Dame, and they're getting old. And if Notre Dame wins this, I think like three of my uncles will just let go.

Speaker 1 They'll go, hey, we did it. They've been hanging on.
Yeah, they're hanging on. They're waiting.
1988's last time. Notre Dame has won national champions.
Well, 93. They got to cap that.
Why?

Speaker 1 What happened in 98? Same record as Florida State. Head-to-head, Notre Dame beat them, and they gave it to Florida State.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I will make sure that that is added this evening during the conversations. I will certainly make sure you guys.
93.

Speaker 1 I hate the way the Catholics have been kind of doubted and

Speaker 1 left out and prosecuted for some time.

Speaker 1 That's unbelievable. What's that?

Speaker 1 Hey, some of the things they've done, you know.

Speaker 3 Are you worried that if Notre Dame loses, it's because you went AWOL and left your post at Army?

Speaker 1 Are you not worried about this? What's this guy lost?

Speaker 1 One of the guys was just asking me. He was like, Do you know this guy? He was at West Point with you.
I was like, dude, I talked to like 10 people at West. I was there for five minutes.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but we're all very thankful you took the path that you did. We're very lucky.
I cannot wait to see your next stand-up special. I cannot wait to watch the next four years with you.
You know?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Should be pretty good.
We're together. You and me.
Having a nice time. Well, how often are you going to, like,

Speaker 1 I know they kicked you off the show? Because they found something that you said. Oh, SNL? Yeah.
Yeah. Are they...

Speaker 1 You're the best Trump. You're by far the best Trump.
Yeah, I got four more users. That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how's that work? Are you playing?

Speaker 1 Is there any of that type of conversation? No, I have no idea. They're pretty.
SNL is pretty like last second with their hosts, who they pick to host there. Chappelle just did, what, an 18-minute

Speaker 1 discussion? It was great. It was great.
Damn.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Shallows next week, and he's the musical guest as well.

Speaker 1 Timmy? Yeah, double duty. He's going to do a little Bob Dylan up there.

Speaker 1 Hey, it was unbelievable. He's good at college ball, too.
I mean, his picks on College Game Day were outstanding. Yeah, he was good.
Did he get any of them right?

Speaker 1 Got that MAC one right. I don't think he's got any of them right.
Yeah, but he sounded good.

Speaker 1 You're just way more prepared than me every time. No, no, you got a right another day, my million, after you took a shot at Algeria Jones.
Did your entire thing. Shane, enjoy the hell out of the day.

Speaker 1 We can't thank you enough for stopping by.

Speaker 1 Are we tailgating for this thing? You guys, yeah, whenever you want. We tailgating?

Speaker 1 I think we should at least do something. I mean, last night we weren't able to link up with you.
It was tough to find a bar. But then you did, it sounds good.
We found a bar, yeah.

Speaker 1 It stayed open.

Speaker 1 What'd you do? You shut a place down last night? You and... Yeah, we just went back to the hotel and drank there.
That's good. It was a nice time.
That is. That's what this is all about.

Speaker 1 We enjoy the entire experience. We appreciate the hell out of it.
You guys are awesome. Hey, seriously, thank you.
Young Jamie, you and him. Yeah, Jamie's down there, too.
Oh, yeah, we're here.

Speaker 1 You got a Buckeye Jacket. Oh, okay.
That is Jamie. Yeah.
It's good jacket. Hey, I thought you two were really going to get into it on Rogan.
I like the Bible. Can he he give you points? Yeah.

Speaker 1 You guys were dancing.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You guys were dancing with some real shit there.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was a mistake.
Seemed to expect it.

Speaker 1 I keep running my mouth on these shows, and I wake up the next day, like, oh, shit.

Speaker 1 I was watching it. Then young Jamie would be like, do we want to talk about this? Yeah, and I'm like, let's go.
We can do it. As the clip was starting, I was like, oh, shit.
Here we go.

Speaker 1 Are these two about to dial? But that's college ball, baby. That's what it's all about.
And Shane will be watching that. Were you going to join us on the field pass thing? I would love to.

Speaker 1 Okay, we'll figure that out. Yeah, let me know.
You're Shane Gillis. They gotta let you get down.
We'll see. That'll be no problem.
You're the man. Tell your dad we're happy he's alive.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hey, we're happy you're alive, man. Good job, Phil.

Speaker 3 Have an EMT nearby tonight.

Speaker 1 Him and Brady Quinn right almost got into a brawl with people. Yeah, in Ireland, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, Phil was ready to fight.
I was the one going. Let's call him that.
Let's not. Phil's a legend, as are you.
Ladies and gentlemen, Shane Gillis.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Thank you, Shane.
Good luck tonight.

Speaker 1 go get them hey good luck tonight

Speaker 1 thank you hey we'll see you on the sideline sorry about the low energy

Speaker 1 no you brought it we're still alive we're still alive

Speaker 1 shane we are still alive still alive

Speaker 1 my bad no no not bad no don't worry about it shane don't worry about it the energy was fantastic let's get a couple hey we'll see you tomorrow or tonight

Speaker 1 93 gotta give us that yeah that's the first time i've heard that me too i feel like i should do my research a little bit more yeah i forgot they did they like split them back then sometimes?

Speaker 1 Jamie's hair looks amazing. I mean, Jamie looks amazing.
I love that jam. Voted on, voted in.

Speaker 1 What's that? Yeah, Florida State obviously got voted in, or they deem a game the national championship, right? And then I assume Florida State won that game. Notre Dame was not in-game.

Speaker 1 So I assume that is how it kind of all came to be.

Speaker 1 Shane,

Speaker 1 that dude's in the middle of...

Speaker 1 All-time run. Yeah.
I'll put under arm and just be like, here's the idea. Just if you guys could.
That's awesome. Yeah, that's really cool.
Good job.

Speaker 1 Editing it on top of an airport or airplane, whatever. Pingo.
So cool. Quick turnaround.
Tires 2 is going to be great.

Speaker 1 I'm very

Speaker 1 amazing. Because I guess the first one was just kind of put together.
Like, hey, do we got something or not? Yup. This one, like, full-on, prepare.
We need him and Saban to shake hands.

Speaker 3 Or just fight.

Speaker 1 That'd be a great beef. Yeah.
Just to have going forward. Nick Saban and Shane Gillis? Yeah, it's like the two bowler opposite people.
I don't think we need any of that.

Speaker 1 All right, let's talk about a hiring that took place in the NFL. Tennessee Titans have hired Borganzi Paisano from the Kansas City Chiefs as their general manager.

Speaker 1 So that's one of the jobs that has been filled. Fantastic name on this guy.
You know, just like a lot of these GMs, we don't know a shit about him. No.
We don't know anything about him.

Speaker 1 Assistant GM, so he's with Veech over there, the Chiefs. He's been in the room where it happens.
He knows what you should be looking for. Chris Ballard also comes from that particular building.

Speaker 1 There's been a lot of people that come from successful teams that get hired into these roles. And

Speaker 1 the brutally honest truth is this guy could be the worst of all time. He could be.
We have no idea.

Speaker 4 But he's Italian, so he won't be.

Speaker 1 We assume he's going to be great. We assume he's going to do a fantastic job.
Now, Tennessee is now in a situation where the head coach was hired at a different time than general manager.

Speaker 1 Are they going to force them together like they have done the last couple times? And how does that end up working out? Tennessee Titans' job has been filled.

Speaker 1 Defense coordinator job for the Atlanta Falcons has been filled as well. Yeah, Jeff Olbert.

Speaker 1 Coach Brick out of the running for the Jets. Oh, yeah, Brick.
Now defense coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons with Rahim Morris as the Atlanta Falcons try to do their thing. A lot of jobs still open.

Speaker 1 Age, which one would you be eyeing down if you were one of these potential candidates? What's the best job in your eyes out there that is currently available?

Speaker 2 The best job. Well, an interesting job when it pops out to me is the Jacksonville Jaguars job.
For some reason, we continue. I've forgotten that job was even available.

Speaker 2 I assume they filled that role yet.

Speaker 2 So that one, I'm curious to see who goes there, but that Raiders gig, like the Raiders cow, we all know Cowboys is always going to get some, get some pub, but that Raiders job, I want to know what's going to happen there.

Speaker 4 The best jobs in San Francisco 49ers D.C.

Speaker 1 I mean, you step in.

Speaker 5 That's like they swapped it out with five years in a row now?

Speaker 4 Yeah, but Bob, if Bob goes back there, Sala, Coach Sala, Robert, sorry.

Speaker 1 He's interviewing us.

Speaker 4 Made him go for Bob.

Speaker 1 Go by Bob. He still has years left on his contract, so he's going to be getting a head coaching salary guaranteed, much like Cliff Kingsbury is currently with the Commanders.

Speaker 1 But everybody assumed that Coach Salo would be heading right back to San Francisco after a year with the Green Bay Packers finishing it up.

Speaker 1 You say you don't like that job because the turnover is so hard.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean, they get guys out of there really, really quick. They do have good players on that side of the ball, so that always helps.

Speaker 5 But if I'm looking at that list, I still think it's the Chicago Bears right now because you have, I'm still hopeful, I'm still optimistic with Caleb Williams.

Speaker 5 You obviously have to build and get some more stuff going, but I think he's still a talented quarterback. You got talented guys on the outside.

Speaker 5 So I think that Bears job is probably the best of these right now.

Speaker 1 Is Caleb Williams addicted to football? Working? I think so, right? That was the big thing everybody was saying. After we got the dome, this guy loves ball.

Speaker 1 All the noise that we heard surrounding him was more so his team. It wasn't necessarily him.
This guy loves football. He loves this because this offseason is a massive one for him.

Speaker 1 Huge. Obviously, physically, it's a big deal, but learning NFL football is going to be a big combo.
Every quarterback, and Shane Waldron's gone. Another offense coordinator is gone.

Speaker 1 So you're going to have more anonymous sources that have worked alongside Caleb. And Zito, what happened to this guy's wrist? Do we know what happened to his wrist?

Speaker 1 I believe it was a cyst, and they removed it. It was a healthy process.
Throwing hands still good. Okay, that could have been a part of the entire issue.

Speaker 1 You got a cyst growing in your wrist while you're throwing it around. But like, obviously, physically, he's going to have to continue to develop and become in shape and everything like that.

Speaker 1 But you listen to, you know, the sources that are talking to the quarterback gurus that are on TV. They're like, this guy doesn't have a clue.

Speaker 1 This guy guy has basically got to play whatever football he's wanted to play at USC and at Oklahoma.

Speaker 1 And that was the Caleb shit that we liked, extending the plays, running, doing crazy stuff, throwing strikes, which is like backyard football. Basically, hey, wide receivers, he's outside the

Speaker 1 pocket now and get open. Like in the NFL, you're going to have to be able to understand what the defense is in.
You're going to have to know what your first read is, your second read is.

Speaker 1 You're going to have to play on time. It's like, I think if you listen to any of the people that might have a relationship with any of the offense coordinators in the NFL that Caleb has had had yet.

Speaker 1 That's their biggest gripe. It's like, hey, got to learn ball.
But he has an entire offseason to do that. Number one overall pick, there's going to be a lot of pressure for you to do that.

Speaker 1 If he can develop the game IQ alongside the football and also get some consistency maybe at the offensive line and offense coordinator job, maybe we shouldn't just throw in the towel on old Caleb.

Speaker 5 Yeah, and you hear a lot of these things. You got to take for me at least who you're hearing it from, when are you hearing it from them and then the sources or whatever.

Speaker 5 But once again, I still believe in the talent. I see the talent.
Now, it is a big, big learning curve when you come into the National Football League and just understanding where to go with the ball.

Speaker 5 We hear it all the time: playing on time, playing from the pocket, allowing your playmakers to be their best and allowing you to be their best as well.

Speaker 5 And then kind of waiting for those moments to take over the game and make special, special plays. But if you look at his whole rookie season, it wasn't terrible.

Speaker 5 You have Jaden Daniels who played phenomenal. You have Bo Knicks who played great as well.
But if you look at Caleb, he didn't turn the ball over a ton and he had some moments where he flashed.

Speaker 5 So I think it's still hopeful.

Speaker 1 Okay, so drake man what's sorry drake just leaving out drake i mean they played full seasons went to the playoffs those guys were you know head and shoulders 13 games i do appreciate everybody coming out and saying i said it jaden's the best guy in this draft yeah true honestly i said it coach saban i think probably did actually because for sure that take he had about jaden damiels i remember him saying at the draft whenever we had the that was his first like college game day experience up in detroit a lot of people were were saying it.

Speaker 5 I think, especially this rookie year, they felt like Jaden would be the better player this year. Now, in the full career, we'll still see.

Speaker 5 But yeah, Nick Samus said he was the best player, the most dominating player since Joe Burrow that you've seen. That's saying a lot, been in that SEC every year.
But a lot of people saw

Speaker 5 exactly what he's doing on the NFL stage. He did it last year in college and won the Heisman.
So, you know, that's not a crazy statement, but people are definitely taking their victory laps right now.

Speaker 1 Congratulations to the commanders making it to the NFC championship in their first year with a new head coach, new ownership, new quarterback, new building, new everything. Crazy.

Speaker 1 That's a quick turnaround. That's just like the Houston Texans who, once again, lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, but won another playoff game.
It feels like some places are on the right trajectory.

Speaker 1 It feels like the commanders are obviously going to become a blueprint. Let's talk about a little college coaching news.

Speaker 1 Steve Sarkeesian, after his name was floated for a couple NFL jobs, hey, this guy,

Speaker 1 people want him. He's an offensive guru.
He knows how to coach quarterbacks. He knows how to lead a program.
He knows how to lead a team.

Speaker 1 Look out for maybe the Cowboys or the Bears to want to maybe look into Steve Sarkeesian. Was that floated out for real? Was that ever a possibility? Or was it being utilized as a negotiating chip?

Speaker 1 And maybe it was. Sarkeesian just signed a brand new deal with the Texas law.

Speaker 1 Congratulations, Sarge. Steve Sarkeesian agrees to a contract extension with Texas after declining interviews with two NFL teams.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Okay, have any of the NFL teams come out and said which ones they were? Or that's not a bad play. I like it.
I understand that he's a great coach, and maybe NFL teams are doing that.

Speaker 1 But it feels like more often than not, when college coaches' names kind of get thrown into the head coaching cycle or carousel in the nfl it's a potential huh all right you know what you're we could leave huh you think marcus freeman brand new deal with notre damn this a little bit steve sarkey brand new deal with texas it's like if you got a winner you hold on to that though aj a lot of people think the grass is greener on the other side not always the case texas obviously back-to-back years college football playoffs obviously with arch manning coming into us they're thinking that's only going to continue smart play down in texas yeah smart play if you find your guy you got to keep him do whatever it takes like we know how much money is floating around college football and the NFL.

Speaker 2 Like, if you find your dude, find a way to keep him there.

Speaker 2 And if you're a coach, absolutely try to get some interviews with some NFL teams and have your agent let them know as well because you want to know, hey, there's some competition.

Speaker 2 You can't just sit back and expect me to be here if you don't want to re-up me and pay me what I'm worth.

Speaker 1 Options always good during contract negotiations.

Speaker 3 Yeah, hey, Dan Lanning.

Speaker 3 You need to get on the horn right now and say, hey, the Bears are calling me.

Speaker 1 The Jets are calling me.

Speaker 3 And to be honest, I might go to the NFL because if any school could do it, if any coach could do it, like Dan Lanning is number one, I feel like at that position.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I love it for these guys. It's so cool.
Get all the money you can get.

Speaker 1 College coaching life is not easy. We'll talk to Bill Belichick tomorrow and a weekly check-in all the way through the playoffs.
I can't wait to hear his takes on this Detroit Lions team.

Speaker 1 Hey, Foxy, we're about an hour and 39 minutes into the program now. Any change in your thought? You said you were bummed out earlier.
Are all Lions fans feeling like that? And

Speaker 1 is there any like silver lining in this? Like, we're much better than we were and have been for a long time, or is it all is it all shite right now? Are we eating shite up in Detroit again?

Speaker 1 Certainly bummed out, Pat, but from a grand perspective of my 30-year life, we just had the best regular season in Detroit Lion football history.

Speaker 1 And every single week, we didn't just win games.

Speaker 1 We kicked ass. We won the Tennessee North.
It was a standard network. That was awesome.

Speaker 1 But to your point, Hawker, the standard was a Super Bowl, and we didn't even win one single playoff game. And I have a stat for you guys.

Speaker 1 I hope this is correct, but I believe no team has ever won a Super Bowl after losing both coordinators. So yeah, if anyone could do it, it would be MCDC.

Speaker 1 But I'm pretty bummed out because next year is going to look a lot different. It certainly is.
This is what it's like to have a good team and a good program. Welcome to it.
Congrats to Detroit.

Speaker 1 We love watching your team and your program and your culture build. Remember, if MCDC is there for 15 years, what happens in the third year?

Speaker 1 You know. amen.
It's a lot different animal. Let's talk about Jaden Daniels against his Lions defense.
Aaron Glenn interviewing with the New York Jets today, I believe it's being reported.

Speaker 1 So Schefter said in the first hour, they're going to move quick on those guys. Jaden Daniels versus the Lions.

Speaker 1 Jaden Daniels, rookie quarterback at LSU for the Washington Commanders.

Speaker 1 Zero interceptions, zero fumbles,

Speaker 1 zero sacks taken, nine total incompletions after 31 attempts, and he accounted for 350 yards in total offense, let alone all the fourth downs that they went for.

Speaker 1 You know, the Lions had to watch literally themselves beat him. Yeah.
You know, and that's that's tough. And you guys were down two scores, and it was like a must-have.
Yeah. This one was over.

Speaker 1 You know, you guys got back into it, but it felt like...

Speaker 1 I don't know how much time you guys are going to have or find, but congrats to the commanders being able to beat this very dominating Detroit Lions team that we've been a massive fan of throughout the entirety.

Speaker 1 Baltimore Ravens, obviously lose to the Buffalo Beals. Shout out to Razul Douglas.
Yeah, that was

Speaker 1 getting the onside kick at the end. What a play.
Because if they lose that game there. It's on him.
You know, if Lamar goes down. They can't blame anybody.

Speaker 1 And let's say they, you know, they don't get that two-point conversion, but they do recover the on-side kick. And they go down, kick a field goal.
Justin Tucker hits that thing. They win.

Speaker 1 It's like the Josh Allen narrative bananas. Okay, the Josh Allen narrative would be absolutely crazy.
But he gets his ball frozen. And being there, too.

Speaker 5 Being a corner and being

Speaker 1 Designated.

Speaker 2 Nobody's around him, but multiple Ravens right there. He knows if he bobbles that even an inch.

Speaker 1 McDermott said, we need it. We got to have it.
Who we put in there? West Virginia guy.

Speaker 1 Razzle Douglas. And then, I believe afterwards, he even talked about it because some people said he was probably shitting bricks out there.

Speaker 6 Yeah, some guy tweeted at him and was like, I know you are so scared on this. And he said,

Speaker 7 fuck that.

Speaker 6 I've been playing shortstop since I was six years old.

Speaker 1 That was a routine ground ball.

Speaker 7 Was not worried about it for a second.

Speaker 6 And it showed up.

Speaker 1 Justin Tucker gave his team an opportunity in that cold-ass weather with a cold-ass ball, not going to be able to hit a high hop. You know, ball's not going to be able to do that.

Speaker 1 Grounds probably not going to let you be able to do that. So have to be one where he has to make a play.
He did. Yeah.
And congrats to Razul Douglas. That was, that's a huge deal.
133 left. Huge.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of times, though, and Lamar just walked right down the field. That's a game.
I mean, yes.

Speaker 5 That's huge. And I was that guy in college.

Speaker 5 Had a high hop, got flipped, landed on my neck, and I said I'll never do it again. Actually,

Speaker 5 Coach Midge midge came and hey gentlemen

Speaker 5 he had me as I was supposed to be that guy in one game and I just told him coach look we're putting the team in a bad spot if I'm back there

Speaker 5 that's another note too for parents out there have your kids play multiple sports yes they always we pay multiple sorts right soccer start growing up you play multiple sorts play multiple sports I don't care when you go pro in play multiple sports they all kind of fit in and give you different superpowers in different areas what a different tale today would be if Russell Douglas isn't like perfect with that

Speaker 1 You know, Josh Allen,

Speaker 1 the defense, the Bills defense, yet again, 13 seconds against the Chiefs. Now they give up

Speaker 1 nine points in a minute to let the Baltimore Ravens come back, cement an MVP for Lamar Jackson, win a game. Instead, casual, give me that.
We win the game.

Speaker 1 Philadelphia Eagles thought they were going to trick that one off.

Speaker 1 Thought that was legit. Thought

Speaker 1 that was going to be a problem at the end. I assume there was a lot of Johns, too.
They were like, of course, now we got in Jalen Hurts' hand. Now we got to kind of end this game.

Speaker 1 We're not able to do it. And then they go down and score.
And now it's a six-point game.

Speaker 1 It's like, are they about to are the Eagles about to go ahead and ruin everything here for everything they've accomplished?

Speaker 1 Have a guy rush for whatever, 200 yards, have two 60-plus yard touchdowns in a playoff game, become a record breaker. Are you going to ruin this day and give this game up? They were close.

Speaker 1 The Los Angeles Rams could have won this game very easily. And I think that's good news for the Eagles' grit.
But big ooze having a catch like that, 125 left. I mean,

Speaker 1 this would have been a nightmare for Philadelphia and for Siriani. Without a doubt.

Speaker 6 And he made a couple big kicks in the snow. But if you're an Eagles fan, you're worried about Jake Elliott moving forward.

Speaker 6 Missing those two extra points, like we, at the time, you know, after Saquon's long run, it's like, okay, ultimately, it's not going to matter. You know, this will be just a little footnote.

Speaker 6 Who cares? But then after Nakua has that massive catch, it's like, oh, okay, we're talking touchdown extra point wins this thing.

Speaker 6 So, you know, obviously it didn't kill him yesterday, but that's the the kind of thing where it seems like against the commanders who didn't make any mistakes last week, like that's the kind of thing that can show up if it happens again.

Speaker 1 Okay, so this game, great. Yeah.
Yep.

Speaker 1 Ravens game, Bill's game, great.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Commanders Lions storybook.

Speaker 1 And then Chiefs, Texans, Chiefs is still the Chiefs. It was a good game.
It was a great division. What's that?

Speaker 3 Refs is still the refs, is what people are actually saying.

Speaker 3 That's just a word on the street.

Speaker 5 Eight sacks that the refs get.

Speaker 1 yeah chris jones going bananas out there look i'm a patriots fan so you know where i stand on this

Speaker 3 good teams win good teams get lucky lucky good teams get the calls okay that's where i stand i'm just telling you yeah he can't be flopping though patrick knows he's a nude dad the flop was egregious coach read on his knees too we yeah we didn't see that

Speaker 1 that wasn't real that was an i'm just saying that was ai i'm just saying and all eight of those sacks came after the miss calls is that pro or wow that seems like a made-up stack.

Speaker 1 It was a great divisional round weekend. We assume it's going to be a great game this evening, too.
And I believe we have some gifts here from what appears to be chefs.

Speaker 1 Yeah, like very sharp-dressed lads who just came in here. This is Big Matt.
Matt, how you doing, Matt? Pat, you can set that down right here if you want. Matt, what are these? Are you guys all sharp?

Speaker 1 Oh, shit. Oh, no, no, no.
Oh, shit.

Speaker 1 We lost the popcorn. It's okay.
It made it better. That's a better.

Speaker 1 That's a better presentation.

Speaker 1 Roman's going to be able to make that happen. It actually looks better.

Speaker 5 That looks better. Popcorn on the dog.

Speaker 1 Yeah, nice.

Speaker 1 Okay, so,

Speaker 1 Matt, Chef Matt? Yeah, yes. Okay, so what do we have here? And we thank you for bringing us some grub here in the middle of the program.

Speaker 8 Absolutely. So, this we created just for this game.
So, this is our barbecue box of champions.

Speaker 1 Oh, yes.

Speaker 8 And we got some barbecue. So, this is something we did just for this game.
So, we have brisket, some chicken quarters.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, look at that.

Speaker 1 Look at that.

Speaker 8 We have two different kinds of barbecue sauces representing both teams. Baked beans, peach cobbler, coleslaw.
So really cool item. Comes in a nice box.
There's a lid right there.

Speaker 1 Who's buying this? Anybody or is using a sweet?

Speaker 8 So these are, we're doing 200 of them. So once they're out, they're out.
And you can get it at Molly Bee's concession stand.

Speaker 1 So shout out to Molly B's.

Speaker 1 I saw somebody yesterday. We were driving in a car.
They said,

Speaker 1 house music is the greatest. And in peace, love.
And I said, this car loves Molly. In front of us.
This is not that Molly.

Speaker 1 This is Molly B's right right here at the Gallagher Club.

Speaker 1 How much is this thing right here?

Speaker 8 So this is $40. So this is it.

Speaker 1 You can charge us.

Speaker 8 Cornbread and it's well I forgot that piece. So yeah, this could feed three, four people.
We got a couple of them for you guys. So definitely dig in.

Speaker 8 And just to give you some facts on quantity, so for today's game, we did about 3,000 pounds of brisket, 3,500 pounds of chicken,

Speaker 8 2,000 pounds of mac and cheese.

Speaker 8 So it is a lot.

Speaker 1 How many chefs? How many people? Obviously, we just saw five guys.

Speaker 8 So I have a team of 10 full-time chefs and then 300 cooks to open up this building. So we have a lot of people that got ready for this.
We've been planning it for about six months.

Speaker 8 We have an amazing team here that does an amazing job. So we're excited.
We're ready for today.

Speaker 1 Well, it sounds like, and it smells like you guys have done a great job. We were just talking about the pizza.
How much is the pizza?

Speaker 3 Yeah, like a full-sized, what, 18-inch pizza is like 22 bucks or something.

Speaker 1 Affordable. You guys want to make it affordable? Affordable.

Speaker 8 Absolutely. So that's that's the name of the game right here.
So that board, if you get a close-up of that, everything on there is $20.

Speaker 1 This whole thing is $20.

Speaker 1 You have the nachos. That's crazy.

Speaker 8 You have the pretzel, you have the hot dog,

Speaker 8 a slice of pizza, chicken tenders and fries, $20 for that entire board.

Speaker 1 Who's making that decision? Who's making that decision?

Speaker 8 That's Arthur 100%. So this is something that we started when the building opened.
Fan-friendly pricing, $2 hot dogs. That price has never changed for any game, including national championship.

Speaker 1 What's the company that you guys run?

Speaker 8 So we are Levy Restaurants.

Speaker 1 Levy Restaurants? Sure. Thank you so much, Chef.

Speaker 1 We can't wait to enjoy this. Thank you for taking care of the sports fans.
Sports, absolutely. Legit, because most people prey on them.
No, no. Got to feed you guys.
Legit. Thank you, Chef.

Speaker 1 There's nowhere else you can get food, so you got to buy it at the stadium. Well, here's a $10 water bottle of water.
Instead, I think the Hawks also do it, the basketball team down here.

Speaker 1 I believe the Koonins are about it. And in Arthur Blake, the same thing.
Like, want people to be able to take their family to a game. You're already paying enough for the ticket.

Speaker 1 The ticket price was crazy. That entire board being 20 bucks is crazy.

Speaker 1 This thing being 40 bucks is insane. There's a half rack of ribs right here.
So much. There's a full chicken right here.
And then there's pooled pork.

Speaker 1 And then there's five pieces of cornbread, two soups in this entire thing. 40 bucks.
That's a family.

Speaker 5 I cannot wait to dig in on this breakfast.

Speaker 1 It is so good. I'm going to wait.

Speaker 5 I'm going to wait because I'm going to eat this how it's supposed to be.

Speaker 1 You remember down in Miami? I kind of dove in a little early. I had the entire thing.
Look at this thing. Went to Rome.
Get me.

Speaker 1 It really is.

Speaker 1 Size of my face. It's almost negligent how cheap it is.
It's incredible that they're not going to be able to do it. Snap that thing off.

Speaker 6 But like, they could.

Speaker 1 They could sell us for $150. And it's delightful.
People wouldn't blink twice. People would have to buy it.
It's just like the

Speaker 1 merch. They got these popped up all around the stadium.
It's like they can charge whatever they want for these because they got people here. Yeah.
These are your only option.

Speaker 1 Also, it is cold as shit in Atlanta. It is really cold.
It is cold as well. The whole country is cold as shit.

Speaker 3 I don't know if you know, but when we get back to Indianapolis, it's going to be about negative 20, 30 degrees colder than it is right here.

Speaker 1 It might be cold outside. Cora might still be blowing her cold-ass winds on the entire country, including places where it's supposed to be warm.

Speaker 1 But what we know that will be happening on this field here tonight is hot action. High spicy.

Speaker 1 It is going to be high heat. Super hot.
Super, duper

Speaker 1 Fuego action with a team.

Speaker 1 that is built with so many weapons that you would say maybe this is a future nfl starting 11 on the ohio state offense and then a team from notre dame that has had come together and had to fight for everything that they've got all season long.

Speaker 1 They were counted out.

Speaker 1 But now here they are. We started with 12 and we're counting down to one.

Speaker 1 Tonight we find out who is the one, who is Neo, who are the national champions for this college football season, which has been the biggest and best season of all time. Ratings up and to the right.

Speaker 1 Top five games up and to the right.

Speaker 1 Interest in sport up and to the right. Tonight is going to be electrifying.
Obviously, it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Speaker 1 I hope you take a look around and say, hey, we can be more unified than ever before. It would be our choosing to do so.
It's inauguration day up there in DC.

Speaker 1 Obviously a lot of storylines developing from that particular world, which is very serious.

Speaker 1 And then tonight, to cap it all off, the entire country and world are going to watch two teams from cold weather climates.

Speaker 1 From the north,

Speaker 1 try to win a national championship. It's a wonderful Monday here in the United States of America, Tone Diggs.

Speaker 4 It really is. And I don't know if you guys saw the tweet.
It came out, I think, earlier this week, end of last week.

Speaker 4 The last year before NIL started, 130 underclassmen came out for the NFL draft. 130.
This year, only 70 are coming out for the NFL draft. The NIL has done like a huge part for

Speaker 4 keeping these kids in school. Whether they go out, they get the grade, they come back, or they think they can make more money in college.

Speaker 4 But that's, I mean, that's 70 underclassmen this year, 70 more underclassmen than before NIL that are playing in the college football this year that would have been in the NFL.

Speaker 4 And we're getting, like, I think it's raising the game of college football a ton.

Speaker 1 Most definitely. Now, the numbers that are being paid to these guys that are sticking around and going in the transfer portal, I don't know how long that's going to last.

Speaker 1 You know, Coach Statement said, we need, all right.

Speaker 2 Yeah. This is not sustainable.

Speaker 1 I got to say this.

Speaker 1 How much time? I got 30 seconds. This needs to be said.
We're at the national championship. I love what we're doing.
I love college football. This is not sustainable.

Speaker 1 He said, you just mentioned Jeremiah Smith maybe going to Michigan because this can't be how this goes going in the national championship. I think everybody with a rational mindset sees it that way.

Speaker 1 So I think it's a big offseason for college football. We're not there yet.
Obviously, we're one game away from that.

Speaker 1 But where we were being set up in our production meeting in the hotel, it was right next to the college football playoff committee with a lot of meetings happening with all the commissioners of college ball.

Speaker 1 And it feels like everybody understands. We got something special here.
We can't throw it away. We can't ruin it.
We got to continue to make it more special.

Speaker 1 We got to continue to introduce it to more people. We need to give more people a shot to shine.

Speaker 1 And we need to make sure we take care of the student human athletes in a manner that is respectable for the grandness that is college football at this point.

Speaker 1 I feel like there is nothing but blue skies in the horizon. And tonight is going to be a majestic game that's going to make us say, wow.
That was the greatest college football season of all time.

Speaker 1 As we wrap up here on, I don't know if we're on ESPN or not. We We didn't start on ESPN.

Speaker 1 Okay, we are on ESPN. I don't know how that happens.

Speaker 1 But all the people that helped set this up, this is the game day set, and did a little extra work all season long for me, for this show. I can't thank you enough.

Speaker 1 Okay, I appreciate the hell out of you. College game day, five o'clock.
Then the national championship from the sideline. We'll see you there.
Goodbye.

Speaker 11 I am so excited for the spa day.

Speaker 1 Candles lit, music on, hot tub warm and ready.

Speaker 11 And then my chronic hives come back. Again, in the middle of my spa day, what a wet blanket.
Looks like another spell of itchy red skin.

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Learn more at treatmyhives.com.

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Speaker 1 I think we hit it. Sorry,

Speaker 1 I like it. Okay, so we're still live here.
Okay.

Speaker 1 What we need to do is we need to take a little bit of a break.

Speaker 1 Actually,

Speaker 1 let's just pick the games. There is a PA announcement test

Speaker 1 that is going to happen in here.

Speaker 1 And they have delayed it already an hour for us. Wow.
Okay. Obviously,

Speaker 1 there are people that are not thrilled.

Speaker 1 We can pick the games now. Naturally.
Yeah, we should do that now. 10-minute break.
Well,

Speaker 1 got a long night. I want to.

Speaker 1 Foss, Foss had the Foss presented the information, and I said, so just let them do it while we're live. That'll be great because we'll just talk about it.
They're like, they do not want to do that.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Okay. So they have bobbed and weaved with us.
So we should certainly do that as well. I'm hearing that we have a sick B-roll shot of a plane.

Speaker 1 This is a live shot from the sky. They're testing their camera and they're off.
Okay. That was sweep for a second.

Speaker 1 Was that Goodyear? That was probably the Goodyear blink. I would assume so.
Let me see if I can see it. A little sneak peek.
Still never going up in that thing.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, you're looking live as they test their cameras and all their shots. Let's get a good white balance here on Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Speaker 1 We have a little insider information that maybe this particular stadium costs a little bit more than projected. Sure, yeah.
Whenever they want to build it, you can see. It's beautiful.

Speaker 1 It was worth it. It is glorious.
It is gorgeous. You are looking at the home of tonight's national championship as Ohio State takes on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from from gorgeous atlanta georgia

Speaker 1 all right i will clip that yeah

Speaker 1 i guess we'll use that for some all right let's make these picks before this pa announcement and i think whoever's doing the actual pa announcement is watching the show going

Speaker 1 okay there it was yeah we're sorry that was them answering you right there I mean, I don't know if you could ever work something out to be that timed up.

Speaker 1 But that is kind of what the conversation that I was hearing was.

Speaker 1 Let's go around the table here. Tonight's national championship.
Con man, Notre Dame or Ohio State?

Speaker 1 Ohio State wins, Notre Dame covers. Notre Dame plus eight and a half.
That's the number we're going off right now. It's high.

Speaker 1 I'm a big ten guy.

Speaker 1 I'm also a Catholic guy.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I'm going to go with the motherfucking Irish tonight, baby.

Speaker 1 Okay, going with the Irish.

Speaker 1 Kevin Diggs, yeah, you see.

Speaker 1 Yeah, as you know, I was once the mayor of South Bend, so that's where my heart lies. But my brain says my favorite bet is Notre Dame team total under 18.

Speaker 1 So that would make me take probably the Ohio State Buckeyes. Okay, seems like you kind of did not give an answer.
Because you got a lot of family and friends. Ohio State Buckeyes.

Speaker 1 Okay, you got the Buckeyes.

Speaker 1 You got Notre Dame covering or just Notre Dame? Nah, I don't think so. Jeez.

Speaker 1 Good luck going back to South Bend town. Jeez, Louis.
He's going to have your ass. Yeah, I think.

Speaker 1 Maybe.

Speaker 1 AJ,

Speaker 1 your pick for the game tonight?

Speaker 2 I like Ohio State to win and I like Ohio State to cover, but I think it may be be a KG affair early on.

Speaker 1 I think it could have, I think Notre Dame obviously is a great team.

Speaker 2 Marcus will have these guys ready. Might try to steal possession or two, but yeah, I think Ohio State wins and covers.

Speaker 1 Debutch?

Speaker 5 I'm right there with AJ. Ohio State wins.
Ohio State covers. It will be a great game for Notre Dame.

Speaker 5 You know, they do have, you know, kind of no pressure, almost playing with house money, but I just feel like too many weapons. We saw them not play their best game last week against Texas.

Speaker 5 I think they're firing on all-sellers.

Speaker 1 Ohio State cover, Ohio State cover, Ohio State cover. Notre Dame wins straight up, and Notre Dame covers, Ohio State wins.
Boom. All right.

Speaker 1 That'll help me make my pick on game day. Yeah, well, can't wait to see you guys out there.
All right. From all of us to all of you, thank you for allowing us to do this for a living.
We are.

Speaker 1 He can't read the music, but he can sure hear it.

Speaker 1 That's Travis Barker. All right.
we got the national championship tonight live from this building. It's going to be electrifying from all of us, especially the guys back in the truck.

Speaker 1 Good work back in the truck, boys.

Speaker 1 The Braxton, the Pyro, the Flames, the DA. Tonight is going to be a spectacle as we crown the next college football national champion.
Be a friend, tell a friend something nice.

Speaker 1 It might change their life. We're in this thing together.
Team on me. Hey, thanks for the food.
Levy restaurants.

Speaker 1 Team on me, team on three. One, two, three, two.
team. Goodbye!

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