Mike Elko On Brian Kelly Firing, Texas A&M Undefeated & Marcel Reed + NFL Week 8 Recap W/ Greg Olsen

Summary

Bussin' With The Boys: “Mike Elko On Brian Kelly Firing, Texas A&M Undefeated & Marcel Reed + NFL Week 8 Recap W/ Greg Olsen”

Original Air Date: October 27, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, NFL veterans Will Compton and Taylor Lewan host a spirited Monday reaction show, joined by special guests Greg Olsen and Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko. The boys talk all things college football and NFL Week 8, with a focus on Brian Kelly’s firing at LSU, Texas A&M’s undefeated season, the cultural heat around NIL, conference shakeups, NFL standouts and wild inconsistencies, and the Heisman race. Elko shares reflections on his career path, coaching culture, and the pressures of high-level college football. Throughout, the hosts keep their signature irreverent, bro-to-bro, locker-room energy.

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Spooktober, Costumes, and Accountability

00:00 – 07:31

Key Points:

• Taylor Lewan opens with Spooktober festivities, apologizes for not wearing a costume—a big theme given his usual leadership in team spirit.
• Co-hosts tease Taylor for dropping the ball on “selling out” for Spooktober, holding him accountable for not living up to his own standards.
• The boys reminisce about Halloween traditions and pledge to dress up properly for the Thursday stream.

Notable Quote:

“From Taylor Lewan, the dad, this has been the best Spooktober of my entire life ... but you can’t have one without the other. You can’t have a good run game, but no pass game. You got to put them both together.”
– Taylor Lewan (06:55)

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Brian Kelly Fired at LSU: Inside the Fallout

07:36 – 14:28

Key Points:

• Immediate reaction to Brian Kelly’s firing at LSU after a decisive Texas A&M loss.
• Discussion on LSU fanbase expectations, job pressure, and how "hot seats" at major programs (LSU, Florida, Penn State) compare.
• Speculation over next head coaching hires, longevity, patience, and how elite openings shake up the market.

Notable Quotes:

"That fan base knows they can be national championship contenders every single year. And they just think, alright, if you're not going to get it done in one, two years, we got to find the next guy."
– Taylor Lewan (12:10)

“Is there a scarier stadium to have to leave after you're on the hot seat? … Louisiana is essentially always in Spooktober.”
– Taylor Lewan (08:03)

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College Football Coaching Carousel & NIL Era Pressures

14:29 – 16:30

Key Points:

• Avalanche of head coach firings nationally; the pool of available head coaching jobs is at a high.
• Baylor's woes discussed as an example of a once-promising program troubled by bad NIL posture and late decisions on head coaches.
• How the new era of NIL makes certain schools vulnerable “casualties.”

Notable Quotes:

"Baylor seems like the perfect school to be a casualty of the Nil era."
– Taylor Lewan (15:44)

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Game Reactions: South Carolina’s Close Call, Michigan Optimism, Portal Whispers

16:31 – 25:04

Key Points:

• Taylor almost pulls a genius pick with South Carolina vs. Alabama; the group discusses South Carolina’s game management woes, fan morale, and the grind of competing in the SEC.
• JP (Gamecock alumni) expresses the agony of close losses, portal risk, and NIL rumors (potential $7 million for QB Lenoris Sellers).
• Michigan’s continuing defensive dominance and the anticipation for the Michigan-Ohio State game.

Notable Moments/Quotes:

“We outplayed the number four team in the country for every minute, except maybe the last five minutes.”
– JP, South Carolina (17:35)

“Tell you what, Dylan Stewart would look great in maize and blue.”
– Taylor Lewan (23:14)

“Do not ever apologize for a win.”
– Taylor Lewan (26:01)

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Nebraska, Northwestern, and the Upcoming USC Showdown

25:05 – 32:33

Key Points:

• Will Compton on Nebraska taking care of business against Northwestern, officiating controversies, and the season-defining matchup with USC.
• Anticipation and energy around the upcoming blackout game in Lincoln; the group underscores the importance ("This is the season.").

Notable Quote:

“This is a tough game. This is a good ball club. Yeah, I have a lot of respect for USC right now.”
– Will Compton (29:07)

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Playoff Projections, Heisman Buzz & Vandy’s Cinderella Vibe

34:00 – 44:56

Key Points:

• Group discusses which teams (BYU, Navy, Notre Dame, Texas Tech, etc.) are actual playoff contenders.
• Heisman race: focus on Diego Pavia and others, with banter about what makes a "Heisman moment" and leadership aura.
• Vanderbilt’s surprising run, team identity, and transformation under Diego Pavia—a “culture changer.”

Notable Quotes:

“They walk around like their s*** doesn’t stink. And it's like, yeah, it hasn’t—they kind of just keep doing their thing.”
– Taylor Lewan on Vandy (43:51)

"Can we get him to New York? ... I hope he wears this crazy, gaudy, iced out chain that might just say 'Pavi' on it—big as hell."
– Taylor Lewan (44:31)

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College Football: Schedules, Rivalries, and Coaching Rumors

44:57 – 47:55

Key Points:

• Both crew and guests run through remaining big games on the schedule for various teams (Tennessee, Okahoma, Florida), emphasizing SEC playoff scenarios.
• Playful speculation about next coaches at Florida, LSU, and other open jobs (e.g., Lane Kiffin, Dan Lanning, Joe Brady).

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Reflections on College Impact & JP’s South Carolina Stories

36:14 – 39:05

Key Points:

• JP (South Carolina alum) shares heartfelt stories about returning to campus, speaking to students; sense of gratitude and reflection on personal impact.

Notable Moment:

“It was so cool. ... I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to do, where I was meant to do.”
– JP (37:12)

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NFL WEEK 8: Separation Sunday & League-wide Recap with Greg Olsen

58:03 – 115:04

Key Discussion Points:

NFL Parity, Weirdness, and Identity (58:53–63:43)

• Greg Olsen calls the Falcons “one of the league’s biggest anomalies.”
• In-depth chat on why some NFL teams—especially the Falcons—are wildly inconsistent.
• Deep-dive on scheme: pistol vs under-center run game, play action, and defensive reads.

Bills’ Under-the-Radar Dominance (65:38–74:24)

• Olsen breaks down how the Bills dominated Panthers on the ground and explains the strategic shift to run-first, under-center offense. Notable quote:

“...our best player had a much less impact than what we're accustomed to seeing. I think that's highly encouraging.”
– Greg Olsen on Josh Allen (67:51)

Patriots, Drake Maye, & AFC East Drama (74:24–78:04)

• Patriots on a 6-game streak, rookie Drake Maye emerging as MVP candidate, schedule analysis.

MVP Race & Young QBs Rising (76:15–78:55)

• Surprising MVP candidates (Drake Maye, Jordan Love, Daniel Jones, Baker Mayfield) rise as Kansas City/Allen/Mahomes take a back seat.

Ravens, Steelers, and AFC North Survival (78:56–81:51)

• Ravens’ critical win despite injuries, defense resurgence, and AFC North’s volatility dissected.

The Eagles Find Their Groove (83:26–88:36)

• Jalen Hurts’ big game, Saquon Barkley’s breakout, Giants injury woes, and Philly’s championship toolkit.

NFC Power Rankings & Playoff Forecast (88:37–98:25)

• Heated debate: Who’s the team to beat in the NFC? Eagles, Lions, Rams, Packers, Seahawks, 49ers all examined.
• Greg Olsen’s insight: playoff seeding, schedule quirks, and why the best team doesn’t always advance.

Injury attrition and the Luck Factor (98:25–100:00)

• Discussion about how long teams can “weather the storm” of injuries—San Francisco, Rams, Seahawks—and the randomness of NFL season outcomes.

Cowboys & Broncos: Bandwagon Agony (100:13–106:07)

• Taylor’s brief Cowboys fandom results in heartbreak after betting on them vs Denver. Panel analyzes why Dallas always disappoints in big moments.
• Deep-dive into Dallas defense: historical strengths vs. current failures, and how roster construction has failed to match the offensive firepower.

Big-Picture Cowboys Analysis (108:19–113:09)

• Olsen delivers a detailed multi-year macroscopic view of how the Cowboys went from dominant to historically bad on defense. Notable quote:

“They built the defense… to defend the pass and defend the lead. ... That formula works—until your offense goes to the bottom of the league ... They haven’t been able to recapture any of the magic.”
– Greg Olsen (110:19)

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INTERVIEW: Mike Elko (Texas A&M Head Coach)

119:38 – 136:41

Highlights:

• Reflects on Brian Kelly Firing: Having worked under Kelly at Notre Dame and being the coach who beat him in his last LSU game, Elko shares thoughts on the cold realities of coaching and professional respect.
  – “It’s a week-to-week business, more now than it’s ever been.” — Mike Elko (123:09)

• On Texas A&M’s Culture Shift:
  – Emphasizes blue-collar mentality, hard work, and internal accountability over “pounding our chest” about facilities. – How to keep the team focused and “avoid the noise” as expectations rise in College Station. – “We tried to instill a little bit more of a blue collar work ethic… when you have a place that has a lot of really nice things, entitlement starts to creep in.” — Mike Elko (126:11)

• On Career Path and Humility:
  – Recounts starting at small schools, feeling like an outlier, self-effacing story about his salary at Penn.
  – “Sitting there…slicing cut up tapes…I can’t say I envisioned this would be the ending point… It keeps you humble, keeps you grounded.” — Mike Elko (132:16)

• On Staying at A&M Amid Job Rumors:
  – Dismisses speculation, calls attention to “waste of brain space;” stresses leading by example and mirroring his advice to players about blocking out distractions.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

“From the bottom of my heart, I am sorry. This is mere Monday.” – Taylor Lewan on botching the Spooktober costume tradition (06:37)

“LSU is now the hottest job that’s open.”
– Will Compton (12:12)

“There’s whispers there’s $7 million on the table for Lenoris Sellers. There’s whispers.”
– Will Compton (21:32)

"Can we get him [Diego Pavia] to New York? ... I hope he wears this crazy, gaudy, iced-out chain that might just say Pavi on it—big as hell."
– Taylor Lewan (44:31)

“They have been putting 30 on people. ... The problem is at the time, they only had one or two wins. His defense is historically bad.”
– Greg Olsen on the Cowboys (104:42)

“I just think we focused a lot more on that than we have about…our facilities or how nice this place is… That’s flipped a little bit how we see things.”
– Mike Elko (127:16)

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Additional Segments and Timestamps

• Spooktober/Halloween Themes:
  • Start – 07:31
• Brian Kelly/Hot Seats/Coaching Carousel:
  • 07:36 – 16:30
• South Carolina Game Reaction & Transfer Portal:
  • 16:31 – 25:04
• Nebraska/USC Anticipation:
  • 25:05 – 32:33
• CFB Playoff & Heisman Talk:
  • 34:00 – 47:55
• JP’s South Carolina Legacy & Teaching:
  • 36:14 – 39:05
• NFL Week 8:
  • 58:03 – 115:04
• Greg Olsen Deep-Dive (Cowboys/Def. Philosophy):
  • 108:19 – 113:09
• Mike Elko Interview:
  • 119:38 – 136:41

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Episode Tone & Style

Lively, irreverent, honest, and insightful. The hosts use humor and banter to keep things personal while not shying away from deep football analysis or moments of true vulnerability (e.g., career origins, tough losses, campus talks).

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Takeaways

• The coaching profession gets less forgiving by the year.
• College football's playoff picture and job market are more volatile than ever.
• NIL is changing the transfer landscape and talent retention.
• NFL: top teams are inconsistent, MVP race wide open, and defense remains the secret sauce come playoff time.
• Texas A&M is rising, but Coach Elko isn’t letting outside noise or success go to his players’ heads.
• Beneath the sports talk: Brotherhood, accountability, and love for the game—on and off the field.

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Notable Quotes Recap (with Timestamps)

• For full quotes, see sections above.

• “You gotta have one with the other. You can’t have a good run game, but no pass game …” – Taylor Lewan (06:58)
• “That fan base knows they can be national championship contenders…” – Taylor Lewan (12:10)
• “LSU is now the hottest job that’s open.” – Will Compton (12:12)
• “Baylor seems like the perfect school to be a casualty of the Nil era.” – Taylor Lewan (15:44)
• “Tell you what, Dylan Stewart would look great in maize and blue.” – Taylor Lewan (23:14)
• “Do not ever apologize for a win.” – Taylor Lewan (26:01)
• “This is a tough game ... I have a lot of respect for USC right now.” – Will Compton (29:07)
• “Can we get him to New York?...” – Taylor Lewan (44:31)
• “I just think we focused a lot more on that than…our facilities…” – Mike Elko (127:16)
• “It’s a week-to-week business, more now than it’s ever been.” — Mike Elko (123:09)

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This recap covers all major topics and memorable exchanges, providing a clear roadmap for anyone who missed the episode but wants to be in the conversation—on the bus or off.

Transcript

[Taylor Lewan]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

What's up everybody? It's snacks from the Trapped nerds. And all October long, we're bringing you the horror.

[Taylor Lewan]

Boogity, boogity, boogity.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

We kicking off this month with some.

[Taylor Lewan]

Of my best horror games to keep you terrified.

[Will Compton]

Then we'll be talking about our favorite.

[Taylor Lewan]

Horror and Halloween movies and figuring out why black people always die first.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

And it's the return of Tony's horror.

[Taylor Lewan]

Show side Quests, written and narrated by yours truly. We'll also be doing a full episode reading with commentary, and we'll cap it.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

Off with a horror movie battle royale. Open your free aha. Radio app and search Trap Nerds podcast and listen now.

[Kal Penn]

Hey, I'm Kalpen, and on my new podcast, Here We Go Again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? Each week I'm calling up my friends like Bill Nye, Lilly Singh and Pete Buttigieg to talk about everything from the space race to movie remakes to psychedelics.

[Will Compton]

Put another way, are you high?

[Kal Penn]

Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, but my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here we go again with Kal Penn on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Hey, I'm Kyle McLaughlin. You might know me as that guy from Twin Peaks, Sex and the City, or just the Internet stand. I have a new podcast called what Are We Even Doing? Where I embark on a noble quest to understand the brilliant chaos of youth culture. Each week I invite someone fascinating to join me to talk about navigating this high speed roller we call reality. Join me and my delightful guests every Thursday and let's get weird together in a good way. Listen to what are we even doing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Taylor Lewan]

Good afternoon, ladies and ladies and gentlemen. This is the weekend recap and we are presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Bus with the Voice is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook, America's number one sportsbook. Tonight we've got the commanders up against the Chiefs. We're finishing up week eight and heading into week nine. So if you don't already know, we we've got Monday Night Football, same game, parlays loaded up every week on FanDuel. This week, busting with the boys, we got Travis Kelsey anytime touchdown. Patrick Mahomes, two plus passing touchdowns, Marcus Mariota, 20 plus yards rushing and Debo Samuel. Anytime. Touchdown. Score. But what about. Let's see. So we've got something for you guys. Pregame, but what about after the game kicks off? Ando's got a 30% live profit boost token for all customers. And I'm telling you, drive. SGP is the way to use it every Thursday Night Football. Are we not just hammering drives? What's going to happen? Touchdown. Field goal. You try to be a little sorcerer, see the crystal ball. And like, you know what this is? A touchdown. This time, not only can you pick whether the drive will end in a field goal, a touchdown, or a punt, but you can parlay it with passing yards, rush yards, catches, and more. It's like you're in a box as an OC calling the plays yourself. Just visit fanduel.com forward/busing to get into the action. It is Monday reaction show. The week of the greatest holiday of all time, Spooktober. Round of applause for Spooktober.

[Mitch]

For someone who's super big into Spooktober, Time out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Time out. I know.

[Will Compton]

I think we gotta. We gotta have a conversation.

[Taylor Lewan]

You're absolutely right.

[Will Compton]

What's. What's. What's going on, buddy?

[Mitch]

Just for reference, here's the back of the bus and there's the front of the bus.

[Taylor Lewan]

Listen, we're not. We're going to eliminate distractions when it comes to this show. And when it comes to Spooktober, I will. I'll talk about what's going on in this bus. I want to first point out that all of you in the back look fantastic. Especially Clump. Clump. Send it back. Let me see. Clump again. Yep. Yeah, yeah. Clump. Keep going. Yo. Keep going.

[Will Compton]

Keep going.

[Taylor Lewan]

Give us another flex, dude.

[Will Compton]

Like a stuffed animal. Bring home the. Hey, Rue. Got you something.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, dog, that's.

[Greg Olson]

That actually might be too nice.

[Taylor Lewan]

So listen, Spooktober is. It is my favorite holiday. And I'm not gonna make excuses about how I was at Disney World. I did over 40,000 steps this weekend. I was a little tired. It's on me. I need to dress up. I showed up today. The first thing I see is Sherm in a policeman's outfit. The next thing I see is Mitch as a stitch, which, by the way, is my kid. My kid's favorite character at this time. Will shows up 20 minutes after the pre production meeting and he's Rocky Balboa. And so. Did I shit the bed. Yes. Is it going to take away from how great you guys look? It shouldn't. This is About Spooktober. This is about ghouls, goblins, inspectors. And I appreciate each and every one of you for dressing up. I need to be better. I need to be better. And for that, I say I'm sorry.

[Will Compton]

I think where the. The disappointment is, is every year you're like, hey, we got to sell out. It's Booktober. We gotta lead out. Hey, hey. We gotta have the bus dressed up. We gotta do all like. There's like a standard you implement on everybody.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

That you force on everybody. And just to see our guy from the front, like weekend one, you don't hit a spook and you don't. You're not even taking this conversation seriously. Like, I don't know what's happening on the phone that's more important than a Spooktober conversation with our guy, our leader. And then we get into the week of Halloween, and you're the one guy that's not in a costume.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I was looking at my phone because I thought I addressed it, and you were. You still want to go in it, which is great. Here's what I think, guys. I think I've already said that I shit the bed. I did. When it comes to Spooktober, I do like to carry the flagpole. I do like to say, hey, we should have standards and expectations. And it's a bad look when the leader says, hey, we need to have these standards and expectations and it doesn't work out. He doesn't follow suit with what he should be doing. I can't. I gotta stop looking at Sherm. He's kind of freaking me out with the helmet. And I don't know if he's looking at me or looking at somebody else, but yes, I up. I should have been dressed up. I wasn't dressed up. And you know what? To make matters worse, it didn't even cross my mind this morning. It didn't even cross my mind to get this done. That's the problem. You're absolutely right. And so if you guys want to spend the show me figuring out how many ways they can say sorry, I can do that. But I. I am just letting you know I the bed and it's. It's all. I let you down. I let you down. And you know what's going to happen come September next year? I'm going to do. I'm going to say, guy, we got to make this the best spooked over. We got to do this, we got to do that, and it'll be a great time for you. Guys to hold me accountable and be like, hey, you want to be the guy? This is the guy we saw in 2025. What's the guy you're going to be in 2026? And that's once again, from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry. This. This is mere Monday.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

This spooktober for me from just a Taylor Lawan perspective has been very underwhelming. I will say, however, from a. From Taylor Lawan, the dad, this has been the best spooktober of my entire life. We have done so many. The kids are fully bought in. We've done so many things with the kids, and I'm very proud of that. But you can't have one without the other. You can't have a good run game, but no pass game.

[Greg Olson]

All right?

[Taylor Lewan]

You got to put them both together. And I can promise that to you guys in 2026.

[Mitch]

That just means on Thursday for our stream when we all dress up, you need to. You need to win all out.

[Greg Olson]

If you don't win the costume contest on Thursday, there's gonna be some real, real chatter around this.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay, you know what? I'm excited that you guys are giving me an opportunity to make this right. So thank you. Yes. Let's go. I gotta get the spirit. I got myself a nice little, you know what? One piece. Yeah, Thursday.

[Mitch]

We'll see you Thursday.

[Taylor Lewan]

See you Thursday. I'll see you boys Thursday. For the. For the stream. For the stream. But it is the weekend recap. Do we want to get some football?

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Brian Kelly got fired.

[Taylor Lewan]

I think. Yeah. We talked about it with Pete before, and he's like, if this game doesn't go the way they want, I don't think that happens. But I think a conversation takes place with this coordinators, with the staff that's also going on. Then it's essentially on Brian Kelly, are you gonna fire these guys that you need to fire? But after that ass beating that A.

[Will Compton]

And M put on, dude, it was bad, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

And it was close. I mean, LSU was up for a minute. It was close in the first half, and it just. It snowballed toward lsu. The fan base is chanting, fire Kelly. And I think you walk out of that stadium, Tiger Stadium. I don't. I think the administration knew right then and there, this can't be our guy anymore. If we want to keep this fan base intact, is there a scarier stadium to have to leave after you're on the hot seat? No. Yeah. Louisiana. Is essentially always in Spooktober. Like, that is a It's a crazy state overnight to leave when everyone's asleep. Dude. Yeah, Sherman, you're talking about. There's a clip. There's a clip of Brian Kelly that somebody hid in the bushes while he was leaving the stadium or leaving the. The facility. And he's like talking to people and all that and he like books it out of there. I have not seen this clip yet.

[Kal Penn]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And I saw that Harold Perkins, their best linebacker, is basically was like, I'm not playing the rest of the season now. Hold on. I saw that too, but I thought that was no. 3. Not on. I think that was no. 3.

[Will Compton]

Did you get no.

[Greg Olson]

3? Hey, Harold.

[Taylor Lewan]

I looked it up last night and I didn't see anything cuz I. I went. I went to retweet it or quote tweet it and be like, this guy. We amazing blue. We need this guy. Of course. And then I checked one more time and it said no.

[Will Compton]

3 perks, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

I think he got no. 3 and actually does.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Chill.

[Taylor Lewan]

This is. This dude is way too good. This is BK leaving the building right now also. Okay. Is he parked in a handicap spot?

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Oh, yeah, he told me this morning.

[Taylor Lewan]

Then I got leave taking one last look at it.

[Kal Penn]

He's allegedly halfway parked in his reserved spot and halfway parked in a handicap spot.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's all. Allegedly. We're not going to kick a man while he's down three. Does the door open? It does. He's pointing at somebody. I mean, that's a 53 million dollar man walking around right there. That's a 53. I would love to hear what that.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, that buyouts.

[Taylor Lewan]

I think it's close to $200 million in buyouts so far this year.

[Will Compton]

Three fires totality.

[Taylor Lewan]

So. Yeah, that's. That's the video.

[Will Compton]

Josh Pay going off about him. I saw the clip of Josh Pay going off about him on a show and I think what I am appreciating is seeing the fan base like there's. There's been other figureheads as well talking about it. It's just talking about the optics. Coach Kelly, they're allegedly saying that he was doing, knowing he's going to be on camera a lot and kind of going off on all of his coaches. Like every time that there was an opportunity, like if a bad play happened, he's like, what the fuck are we doing, Joe? Like always just, you know, in the microphone, like kind of going at his coaches and thinking it was more of like a, like an optics thing of, you know, Coach Kelly kind of removing Himself from the accountability factor.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, that is, yeah, yeah. I try to make it cinematic. That's not, that's not.

[Will Compton]

Were you seeing these? Were you seeing these?

[Taylor Lewan]

I was not. I was not seeing those clips. I'll take your word for it, though.

[Will Compton]

And like just every time, every time a moment would happen, it's like people were doing the, you know, where they're, they're saying what he's saying, like quoting, like the lip reading and everything else. But every time the camera would come on him, it'd be like he'd pull down the mic, he'd be like, what the are you doing here, Joe? You can't call that you with no timeouts.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right?

[Will Compton]

Just. Yeah, always like these situations a lot and they happen, I believe multiple times is what people were talking about. And if you go off pate, you know, if there, if there's, if there's going to be a way, like if there's going to be a hard decision to be had the position that Coach Kelly would be in, he'd be putting like an ultimatum. Like, you're going to have to, you're going to have to fire guys internally on your staff or coach. Coach Kelly is going to be the guy that falls on the sword and optically, like, if you're trying to blame the staff, this is the way you would be reacting. If the camera is on, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Because if Josh Payton knows the noise and all the noise surrounding, he's obviously very aware and it seemed like just that small little clip of what you're saying is he is preparing himself to fire guys in order to save his job. But that ass beating was so bad that everyone's just like, you know what we're gonna have to do?

[Will Compton]

We gotta go.

[Taylor Lewan]

We're gonna take out the trash.

[Will Compton]

LSU is now the hottest job that's open. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Is that the, is that, is that. We're thinking that's over?

[Will Compton]

Florida, lsu.

[Taylor Lewan]

Florida, Penn State. Yeah. I mean, LSU clump brought up a really good point where Florida might be better than lsu. If you're a coach looking for a longer leash. Because at lsu, solo coacho, he wins the national championship, one, two years later, he's gone. That fan base knows they can be national championship contenders every single year. And they just think, all right, if you're not going to get it done in one, two years, we got to find the next guy. Which could be the quickest way to ruin a program because you want a little more, you need to see these things kind of develop a little bit. Penn state, very similar 10 and 2 coach over and over and over again. He's got to go. And so next coach that comes in the expectation tenant, you get 10 and 2. There's going to be a panic setting in there. Florida, you win yourself 9, 10 games for a few years. Everyone's like, all right, slowly cooking, slowly get back on the right track. Did I hit that correctly? Clump? Yeah, I think that's perfect. I think for expectations for sure. The coach o things the best.

[Greg Olson]

He won a natty and I think.

[Taylor Lewan]

It was 20 months later was fired, so.

[Greg Olson]

And you're also stepping into a place.

[Taylor Lewan]

That did hire Brian Kelly, which scares me.

[Greg Olson]

So it's like the people making those.

[Taylor Lewan]

Decisions, I wouldn't want to be part of that. No doubt.

[Will Compton]

You got to make sure everything's aligned. I don't think they would. They would just, you know, ensue. Just all this expectation.

[Greg Olson]

You will.

[Will Compton]

There is a standard at lsu, but I think these years with Brian Kelly, fan base is going to welcome. If they have the right hire, like, they're going to have. They're going to have a leash. Not to be like a losing, you know, losing record multiple years in a row seasons. But I think that they will have like, patience with this next head coach, if it calls for patience. And they're having like nine and three, eight and four win seasons. But yeah, dude, a lot of jobs opened.

[Taylor Lewan]

A lot of jobs opening up. More jobs open at this point, I think we've seen in a long time. But also more head coaches kind of rearing their head earlier in the season being like, oh, that guy could be a head coach at a major program. That guy Alex Golish at USF or ucf. Which one? Usf? Matt Campbell, Iowa State. Like, yeah, you summer all to lane coach. You've got all these kind of coaches that are like, hey, we're ready for the next step. And it just seems like everything's working out where these big programs are ready for a guy to take the next step.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Horrible year to be the Virginia Techs, UCLAs of the world.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. That need a coach, not UCLA. I mean, I know they got their ass beat by Indiana, but I think they're set.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

But not the year that you want your coach to get fired.

[Will Compton]

Not a year that you want your coach. Which brings us to Baylor, Cincinnati. I was talking with Sherm before and he was just up in arms. He's like, dude, Baylor. I was like, I feel you. But Cincinnati is a tough team. Like, you kind of knew that that was going to happen. Sherman, if you don't, like, don't do the staring thing. This is. This is real conversation time with Baylor. But, yeah, where do you go if you're Baylor? Because you said there's an opportunity a couple years ago to separate yourself from the head coach.

[Kal Penn]

We could have got rid of Aranda two years ago after the Air Force game. We did not. We actually extended them, paid him more money, and then we got more of the same thing. And now we're looking down the barrel of the gun. In a college football environment with now 12 head coaches, there's 12 openings. And it's like, now, now, I don't want a random fired because what the hell are we going to do?

[Will Compton]

Nobody's going to want a Baylor job in this economy.

[Kal Penn]

In this economy. Go down to Waco.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Kal Penn]

God, dude, it hurts.

[Taylor Lewan]

Sick embarrassment. Baylor seems like the perfect school to be a casualty of the Nil era.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Chip, enjoying a game?

[Kal Penn]

Yeah. I was about to say there's actually. There's a lot of money at Baylor. I don't think there's a whole lot of direction of, like, not only building an Nil, but, like, going about finding talent, if that makes sense. I don't know, dude. I'm just very broken. I'm very empty. I'm very sad. And, yeah, Baylor's gotta write the ship and do a whole lot of things if they want to find success in this era of football. I think a lot of schools could say that, but especially Baylor.

[Will Compton]

Who should we talk about?

[Taylor Lewan]

Well, we should talk about me almost being a genius over the weekend. Almost shocking the world and hitching my wagon to the South Carolina Gamecocks. So close, dude. And that is, there are two games other than the Michigan game while I'm at Disney World. And I had to see. I kept the box score up. One was Michigan, Northwestern, and the other one was South Carolina.

[Will Compton]

Michigan, Michigan State.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, I said other than the Michigan game. Nebraska, Northwestern.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, Northwest.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, sorry. Nebraska, Northwestern. I kept watching the box score on that, and then I did pop on at one point. Alabama, South Carolina. When I'm in Epcot, I think I'm in China. And I go and look and I'm like, damn, we. We might be it. And JP And I'm throwing a couple texts back and forth. I shoot him a little text like, hey, you guys can do this. Student section lines up to go rush the field. Alabama pulls through. JP let's get your thoughts.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

It wasn't fun putting on this costume today. I felt like the clown thing another, you know, like the clown Gif. Yeah, but man, it's hard. It's like we, we outplayed the number four team in the country for every single minute of the game, except for maybe the last five minutes. The defense played incredible. The Ty Simpson passed the ball 44 times and I don't know, did he throw for. Did he have one touchdown?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, he had two.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Yeah, but like we took, we took their weapons out. Defense played amazing. Offensive play calling was better. Still could have, still definitely could have put the game away. Beamer said it in the post game, when you're up by eight with four minutes left and you have the ball, you have got to step on their throat and put the game away. And we didn't do it. And the most sickening part of the game, I think is just the first play, pick six, where we throw it out wide, swing pass off our guy into Alabama's hands. Seven. Oh. And it's just like we did that exact same thing against Georgia when we were ranked number 24. Georgia was number three. Swing pass out wide, pick six, Georgia. Touchdown. And it's like, how do we have identical plays against a number four team in Georgia and then a number four team in Alabama? We've given away every game this year minus the Vanderbilt game. And it's just like, when does it, when does it end? Probably next year when we make a run.

[Taylor Lewan]

But.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

But it just sucks, man, because it says a lot about Beamer too. Like to get the team ready. We've been kicking ourselves in the butt all year. Morale would be an easy thing to lose, but he didn't lose it. The team showed up, the crowd showed up. And so when you walk away from that game, 3 and 5 on the year, going to Ole Miss, playing at night, going to Texas A and M, I believe, playing at night, and then Coastal and Clemson, it's like he's done an amazing job keeping the team in it for all the things that haven't gone our way. And it kind of hurts too, because it's our first game, our injury report has been pretty much empty and we competed with the, with the best team in the country, one of them. So it just, it's just like every single year, just pain, man, pain.

[Will Compton]

Is there any part of you that's nervous about the portal world with you guys being three and five and what it could potentially look like at the end? I'm not saying that's what it's going to look like, but it's just so.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Tough to say because with Sellers, you really have no idea if he's going to go to the NFL or stay. I think if he stays, he does stay at South Carolina. Dylan Stewart, he's an interesting one because he's not from South Carolina. He has no home ties. He's been playing his butt off the last three weeks, and the whole defense wants to win, but you can see it. I mean, Stewart is. He's getting gassed, like, because he's going hard every single play, and he's making so much impact that as an ultimate competitor, you wouldn't. It wouldn't be the most shocking thing in the world if he went somewhere else. Hopefully he stays. I know that he loves Columbia. Nick harbor loves that. I met Nick harbor on Thursday before the game, and he was. He's a good dude. Good kid. Meeting him was just, like, a good reminder of, like, this guy is, like, 20 years old. Really. Just started playing for real football three years ago and is kind of enjoying just every. Every piece of it.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Has, like, a naive love for the game, which I wish I could say the same for myself, but I don't know. I mean, it's tough to say, like, I want. I want what's best for all of our best guys, and I believe what's best for them is in Colombia, but it's tough. You're three and five guys want to win championships, and this is a letdown of a year.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Yeah. Should you tell them about a couple of whispers we've heard?

[Taylor Lewan]

No.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

You have to.

[Taylor Lewan]

I thought we agreed not to. And I was really hoping to get to Alabama right now, but you. It's too late now. Now you. Now you have to tell them.

[Will Compton]

There's whispers that there's $7 million on the table for Lenoris Sellers. There's whispers.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

There was eight last year.

[Will Compton]

Okay. Again, just whispers. I'm not saying it's a. It's a guarantee or anything like that.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's one of the whispers, though.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Is it in the Southeast?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yes.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

So one state over.

[Taylor Lewan]

Will doesn't know.

[Will Compton]

Let me blame. Let me look at the.

[Mike Elko]

But.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yes.

[Will Compton]

Is it one state over?

[Mike Elko]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Let me take a look. Let me zoom out here on my phone.

[Taylor Lewan]

Give you a hint. One of the jobs. The head coaches may or may not be there next year.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Oh. So probably not one.

[Will Compton]

What I'm seeing and what I'm thinking is it's two states over.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Yeah. There's a golf to it and there's a.

[Will Compton]

Again, it's. It's whispers.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Yeah. Money's going to be all over the place for him.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Because there's also still a bunch of NFL scouts that are, that are clearly watching the tape. He got to see it in person. Of like Lenore Sellers leads the nation in broken tackles.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, he's quarterback. He's a freak.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

So it's like the, you know, the stats aren't there. So the stat watcher football fans have no idea. They all say, oh, Lenore Sellers, he was overhyped.

[Will Compton]

He's this, he's that.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

But then the scouts that are watch are like, this is one of the most special athletes we've seen. So it's like he could leave and go to the draft. And I, I like Sellers chances of staying at South Carolina. I'd, I'm more nervous of Dylan Stewart.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Tell you what, Dylan Stewart would look great.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

He looked amazing, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

He would look great in maize and blue. No, hey, keep it in house.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

He'd look horrible up there. It's cold weather up there. He's a short sleeve player.

[Taylor Lewan]

Good. D.C. he's from DC. It's cold there.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

No, he looks tough in the garnet in black. And we just have number two DN come and visit.

[Taylor Lewan]

I would love for him to stay there for you, for South Carolina. You guys deserve it. If he were to leave though. Keep it in house. No, keep in house. Amazing.

[Will Compton]

I feel like SEC players that, oh, I mean that's. Haynes was Alabama went up to Michigan. I feel like a lot.

[Taylor Lewan]

Had himself what 130. He had 132 touchdowns.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

You said don't spoil it, so I didn't watch.

[Taylor Lewan]

Thank you. I appreciate that. I couldn't help myself too. I was like, don't. I was like, I'm gonna get home, I'm gonna watch the game. I, I have it saved on the YouTube TV or whatever. And then I, we get back and I'm like, let me just see what's going on now. He was like halfway to the first and I was like, I gotta watch this entire game now. Watch the entire game. Yeah, it was, it was a rivalry game. I think they got the Michigan State got a garbage time back door cover. But the offense wasn't like the best performance through the air. It's not what you want. It was like the most conservative game plan I've seen out of Michigan this entire year. Defense though, like the last two weeks since USC has completely changed their game plan to where they were blitzing 50% of the time. Last week was 25% of the time. I wouldn't be shocked if the number was even lower this week. But they're letting the horses run right now, and it's given me a lot of excitement watching that defensive group play the way they are right now. So I'm very. I mean, there's a very strong chance we're. We're playing Ohio State for a playoff bid, which would be.

[Will Compton]

Don't sleep on Northwestern.

[Taylor Lewan]

Don't sleep on Northwestern.

[Will Compton]

Who else you got? You got a bye week this week.

[Taylor Lewan]

You would know. We got Purdue this weekend, and then we have maybe Northwestern after a buy. And then we have Maryland, which is going to be tough at Maryland, and then Ohio State.

[Will Compton]

Gotcha.

[Taylor Lewan]

How did Bryce play this week? Good. Statistically, not great, but I think he put the ball in positions for guys to be successful. There was one, two linebackers and a receiver that will not be named. And he threaded the needle perfectly. Hit that receiver in the face. Literally hit him in the face. And so, yeah, there was. He had a couple of nice throws, but it was like he threw the ball 17 times like it was. The game was, we're gonna run the football and play defense. There was no offense or buts about it. Third and seven, plus, I could do away with that game plan. I could do. I could do away with that.

[Will Compton]

Let's not be in third or seventh place.

[Taylor Lewan]

But don't ever apologize for a win. That's what I'll say about that. And shout out Michigan State. I. That's probably my least favorite school of all of the schools. They got up for that game. They played hard. There was a lot of times Michigan could have stepped on their throat and they fought back their way in to get that child's kid, the quarterback for Michigan State.

[Greg Olson]

He.

[Taylor Lewan]

I mean, he had a horrendous game, but then he had a couple of drives. It's like, oh, this kid, he's. You could tell he's a special athlete. Like, he's really.

[Will Compton]

He's young.

[Taylor Lewan]

Young. So team that had nothing. They had nothing to play for. Their 3 and 4, 3 and 5, whatever it was. And they. Yeah, they got up. They got up for that game. East Lansing stated it the whole time, so a lot of credit to them. A lot of credit, even though I despise that school.

[Will Compton]

Anyway, you got the little brother.

[Taylor Lewan]

Got the little brother. I did it again.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

I think that's five. Five years in a row. Four years in a row. Talk to me about Northwestern, Nebraska, because I'm watching that game on just, like, kind of refreshing and just seeing the scores go back and forth that. I don't know, it really unfolded.

[Will Compton]

We took our business. I was Saying it last week like, this isn't. This wasn't a. Yo, you guys play Northwestern. You guys should handle Northwestern. I'm glad we got out that energy because you had to show up for this game. There was a moment, There was like 216 and the refs have absolutely screwed us on a fourth and short to where they completed it, they even reviewed it. But the dude was clearly short of the first out. Not like clearly, but you just know he was short of the first down marker to where he double caught it. Did anybody catch this replay? Anybody see this play to where he caught the ball coming back to it, and if he catches it, he's got a first down. But he double caught it to where he bobbled it and then fully secured it once he hit the ground. And when you're watching it like he wasn't. He didn't get the first down. But they end up giving them that conversion. They go down to score that drive, Dylan throws a pick, they end up scoring. They're back in the fucking game, bro. It's, it's, it's 21 all because they got a two point conversion. We end up winning 28, 21. But look, there's things you got to take care of. They had another explosive on us on the run game. Whereas another fourth and short and the D end is just crashing down the right tackle and mostly just focuses on. They think it's going to be a pile for the fourth and short. So the end just crashing them down, not even looking at the ball. And buddy scoots out the side and takes it to the house when they scored off of that interception. Massive game this week. Massive game this weekend. I mean this like USC to me is a, is a very good football team.

[Taylor Lewan]

Very good football.

[Will Compton]

They're coming to Nebraska. It is a blackout game, which I'm stoked about. They got the all black unis on. But this is a tough fucking football team.

[Taylor Lewan]

This is.

[Will Compton]

And right now the line is like minus six and a half, USC at Nebraska. And to where I like, it's obviously it. This is a moneyline game for Willie C. But I'm looking at that line and if you're everybody else, you're almost salivating at this. USC -6,½ at Nebraska. Like, I think they're giving us some fluff there because we're going to have to come correct. Like this is, this is, this is a game. This is a tough game. Yeah, I have a lot of respect for usc, right?

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

This is the season.

[Will Compton]

This is the season.

[Taylor Lewan]

This Is this is the season. Absolutely. And that's a good ball club. The huge win. Is it being in Lincoln? It's in Lincoln.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

That crowd, 92,000, whatever it is. Yeah. Everybody's going to be in their blackout.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

They might need Willie C. On the sideline. You might have to go.

[Will Compton]

We might have conversations.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Yes. We're going to be in attendance for the epic USC versus Nebraska night game Saturday. Hashtag tear talk. That's from Garrett Lake Lake. Underscore Garrett.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. There are some internal conversations being had at the household. You know, I'll either be at the game or I think this could very much be a stream game for myself. Either way, this is. This is. JP Said it. This is the season. Like, ah, yeah, we need everybody.

[Taylor Lewan]

What time's the game?

[Will Compton]

Night game. This is night game.

[Taylor Lewan]

If there was ever a time for Nebraska, like, and it's perfect.

[Will Compton]

USC, they get back in the top 25. Another. Another opportunity on the drought we've been having against top 25 teams.

[Taylor Lewan]

People question marks about the offense, the explosive plays. Usc, they have a lot of explosive plays. USC beat up. Beat up Michigan.

[Will Compton]

And the thought too is like there is a very much a controversial. We could have got called for holding on the game. It was. I want to say it was fourth down. They hit us on a double move. Oh, Buddy's grabbed him coming out of his route coming out of the slugo and fortunately, you know, they don't call it. We got to get back. I'm thinking this would get back for messing up the fourth and short call on our end. But it happened a couple times. They had a couple big plays on third and medium to where we're sitting in the house. And so all the guys are blitz feet on islands and they hit us with the double moves. So if you're a USC and you're looking at that tape, it's like they got some cats like, this is. This is a game, baby. I'm excited about it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Possession, keep the ball in your hand.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I'm excited about it. Dude, Emmett Johnson has been running his ass off, bro. I think he does he lead the Big Ten in rushing yards. Led the entire country and broken tackles over the weekend didn't play.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

See, I mean Jeremiah Love had a ton of success running against usc.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hayes.

[Will Compton]

Yes. Yeah. The formula the for like Emmett Johnson.

[Taylor Lewan]

Does not lead the Big Ten in rushing. Michigan's Justice Haynes does. Yeah, well, last week Emmett Johnson was. Because justice didn't. He only played a quarter and a half versus usc. Missed the entire Washington game and then played this first game. So he missed about one and a half games.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Either way, Washington is a good ball club. That's a good ball club.

[Kal Penn]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

They handled Illinois. They handled Illinois. But Emma Johnson's just having a year like this is, you know, and this game's gonna be awesome. I'm excited. I'm obviously nervous because USC is a very good football team. This is very much a spotlight prime time game for Nebraska. And because you win this game, you're. You're back in all the conversations, you.

[Greg Olson]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You win this game, it's like, oh, this is. This is a playoff. There's a playoff team.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

You control your. You win this game, you control your destiny.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right.

[Will Compton]

And we control our destiny, period.

[Greg Olson]

Period.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right. But if you. We're not even going to talk about this. This.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, we're in the playoffs from here on out, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

We're.

[Will Compton]

We're in the playoffs from here on out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Every. Every two lost team is in that situation because I'm looking at Michigan like, yeah, you're absolutely right.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Every two lost team is in playoff mode right now. And it's very much a playoff game this weekend in Lincoln, Nebraska, at night, prime time under the lights. We need every.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Whatever we need.

[Taylor Lewan]

Everybody got to be there.

[Will Compton]

Black unis.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's got. There's got to be a flyhouse situation. Will Ghost, you got to get to Lincoln in with Everybody got to get to Lincoln in the morning. Our flight, walk the boys out. This might be it, man. Talk about. Look at, look at what me and Matt Rule have done. Me being Will. This is the time.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

It's also the opportunity, though, for Nebraska to let Will know, like, hey, we got you. You don't even need to make the trip. Yeah, because it won't be worth. Oh, I won't even. I don't want to give. I don't want to give USC any, any.

[Will Compton]

No Baltimore material. This is a great ball club. They're playing very well. That offense is. Yeah, man, but great spot for Nebraska this weekend.

[Taylor Lewan]

Need everybody.

[Will Compton]

Need everybody.

[Taylor Lewan]

Everybody. I'm with you, but.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, that's how I'm feeling. I am glad that we came out and handled business against Northwestern. It's a tough football team. Nobody should sleep on them.

[Taylor Lewan]

Nelson, 808. At 808, Nelson says, who do you think has the best chance to make the cfb, cfp, byu, Navy, Notre Dame or Texas Tech? I think the answer. I mean, it's Texas Tech and Notre Dame.

[Will Compton]

Who has the better chance?

[Taylor Lewan]

BYU is undefeated.

[Will Compton]

BYU is undefeated. Big 12 you're thinking BYU, Texas Tech. It's there. Cincinnati. Cincinnati's right there. All these teams, I think they're playing each other on the back half of the season.

[Mitch]

BYU and Texas Tech, I think play this week.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yes.

[Kal Penn]

And Texas Tech is on their third string quarterback. They're back. Oh, no.

[Taylor Lewan]

No way. That sucks. Rolling.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Every conference is like, there's no clear cut champion except maybe the acc.

[Taylor Lewan]

Georgia Tech.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

True. Yeah. I'm saying Georgia Tech, Miami, like probably would be a good game, but that.

[Taylor Lewan]

Seems like it's going to be the championship, right?

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Those two play, do they play?

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

I don't know if they play Georgia Tech and Miami, but SEC like any. I mean, Alabama's play calling at the end of the game. I don't know if y' all saw it.

[Will Compton]

No, you know, about myself.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

It was Lee. It was lethal. Like Wildcat to win the game. Fake reverse. Yeah, he can talk about it, but it like those are the plays that I'm like, that's championship. That's championship football.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

They were had to have it moments and Jeremy wasn't having the best day. And when we needed him most, the infection, he was there. I will say at the game, JP and I talked about it. You've been there, Jack. You've been there. Sandstorm gets insane. It got the most hype during the game, but South Carolina had to come.

[Greg Olson]

Out with the ball.

[Taylor Lewan]

So the stadium goes from being as loud as possible to coming back down. It was probably the best case scenario for Alabama.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

You want to be on defense when the crowd's getting.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And the first time I was like, I think half the stadium forgot that. Yeah, it's second and nine when we come out of this. And it was just.

[Will Compton]

It's so funny listening to you with your costume on right now, but it was great, dude.

[Taylor Lewan]

I mean, yeah, we already talked about South Carolina, but JP has motion in Columbia. That is for sure. Really for sure.

[Will Compton]

He's out there speaking it to the school. He's out there speaking to classroom.

[Taylor Lewan]

How was that, dude? How was speaking to everybody going through that? I saw you and Beam get a little coffee, old beer, a little Bud Light together. What's going on?

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

No going back to talk to the classes. That was. That was awesome. The pregame rush I had before was like when you're getting ready to play a game and when you don't go play college, you miss that feeling since from high school to. You never know if you'll get it again. So my heart is beating through my chest as I'M standing up there. And then finally, you know, probably two minutes in, as they just ask you, like, introduce yourself, you settle into it. And I put it in my post. But, like, it just felt is one of those crazy moments where, like, I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to do, where I was meant to do. And to talk to, like, 20 kids after they're all lining up to come talk to me, ask me about different advice as well as the other speakers. And just, like, seeing the. The looks in the eyes that some of the fears that they had in the. As a junior in high school or junior in college, senior in college, and to be able to, like, try to impart some wisdom after sitting in their seat and feeling those exact same fears was just like a dream come true at a school that I love. And it's like, I grew up a fan of South Carolina my whole entire life, and now, well, I was able to speak at the journalism school where I graduated from and the business school. Mitch's aunt is one of the professors there.

[Mitch]

He spoke in my aunt's class.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Yeah. And when I tell you that she might have the best class across the whole school, it's like, I'm not exaggerating at all. She's getting these kids prepared better for anything in the next part of life than I've seen any professor do. So shout out Beth and shout out that class, because she is. She's dialed in on all of the right things that a lot of professors are not. But it was. I mean, yeah, it was. It was awesome. I almost don't have words for it. Even though I just gave a little speech on it, it was just like. It was so cool.

[Will Compton]

No, that's awesome, dude, because you do you. Your mind, body and soul, love South Carolina and getting to whatever range of impact you're getting to have, but just getting to have an impact on a school that you truly love so much.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Dude, they. They interviewed me before the game. Like, one of the media people shout out Ethan, and they're basically like, what's it like being back home? All this stuff, and I'll just stay in Garrett and everybody. It was so. I was, like, getting emotional there as. What was your favorite moments of being a Gamecock? Blah, blah, blah. I seen it all. I was there for the hit. Yeah, I got Jasper Brinkley's glove.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I got this. I got that. I was like, it was third and short, gotta have it moment.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, it was cool. Cool. That's awesome, man. That fires me up for you on.

[Will Compton]

The on the sec. The SEC is just going to be so fun to watch man. Shout out to Vandy winning 17 to 10.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. How about that last play? Yes. Oh my God. Did you see it?

[Will Compton]

I did not.

[Taylor Lewan]

Last play of the game, Missouri throws a hail Mary and the ball is. Did they end up saying it was caught? Yeah, so it was, it was caught on like the 1 inch line to where the receiver falls on the ground and his body is on the goal line but the ball is not.

[Will Compton]

Oh my God bro.

[Mitch]

We were, me, me, me. Matt and Ryan were all there and like that play happened and it was so loud and then that play happened. We're like oh like what just happened? And like so Vandy players are on the field like Matt Ryan and I start walking on the field and the refs like hold on the previous plays under review and so everybody's just staring up at the big board of like what happened?

[Taylor Lewan]

Look at this.

[Will Compton]

It was yo, that is crazy.

[Taylor Lewan]

Crazy.

[Mitch]

Literally six inches away from being a tie ball game.

[Taylor Lewan]

Wasn't a backup quarterback too?

[Mitch]

Yeah, backup quarterback broke Prabula unfortunately.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Yeah.

[Mitch]

Got got his thing his ankle rolled up on kind of like a scatter boost situation like air cast and everything. But that backup like he was the offense did not slow down one bit once he came in. So I think they're going to be in a good spot like moving forward.

[Will Compton]

With this guy but man that is nasty. That is. I, I, I, I'm just getting even more mad about the wedding.

[Taylor Lewan]

It was, yeah it was a great weekend for ball. I mean I missed all I know I had to go back and comb through and find some of these clips.

[Mitch]

Do you need to to give a shout out to Cade on their like I guess you could say Pavia's game winning touchdown.

[Will Compton]

I saw that clip bro. That is so sick.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, the one you guys put in the group chat, right?

[Greg Olson]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

What you're talking about.

[Mitch]

We like to play before Cade saw Matt and Matt and I like with our cameras and stuff and like made eye contact was like we're that close. Next play they score. You can literally like Pavia is going over here. You can see Cade come in, pull him towards Matt and I and like after the game we're talking he's like oh yeah I saw you. I did that completely on purpose and it was do.

[Will Compton]

That's because Pavia is about to roll and he just grabs him though. You're coming to these boys right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Will Compton]

So sick man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Dude, good video from the other angle where you can like see it all happen from a different point of view.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

Awesome.

[Taylor Lewan]

The. It was on here.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Pavia on Night cap too.

[Greg Olson]

I did.

[Will Compton]

I saw the clip, dude.

[Taylor Lewan]

I saw that as well. What do you. They say you have any more eligibility is. Yeah, about 13, 14 years in the league.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

He did the Chad Johnson silent laugh feel feel.

[Taylor Lewan]

Was that Pavio's mom? Yeah. That's so funny, bro.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Theo with the recruits too?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah. There's like six of them. One in the wheelchair.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

He needs some rest. He needs to be with the Lord.

[Taylor Lewan]

So now it's like 150 of that clip. Does go so hard, dude. And Pavia. So we have the Heisman favorites right now. Fernando Mendoza's plus 260. Ty Simpson 350. Julian S. Pl. Julian S. He's having himself a year plus 400. Check down Charlie Marcel Reed plus 500. And Diego Pavia plus 850. A lot of respect for all these guys. I do joke around by saying but like this bus might have to become advertisement for Diego Pavia to win the Heisman. We might have to stand on that and sway any voters that might watch this show.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

We should see if the bus is on board with that. With that.

[Mitch]

Take some two turn hats he didn't have.

[Will Compton]

I love the Pavia. Like I love the Pavia magic. I really do. But I also love some Tyson.

[Taylor Lewan]

That is the other one you look at.

[Mitch]

You're like, yeah, Diego didn't have like the. The craziest game this weekend.

[Taylor Lewan]

29 passing yards and an interception.

[Mitch]

But it's just something about like. It sounds so weird to say like he, he has these.

[Taylor Lewan]

Jack's first words of the show because I've been seen all day and I'm not trying to do this.

[Greg Olson]

Tennessee versus Vandy.

[Taylor Lewan]

But Joey Aguilar had 20 less passing yards against Alabama than Diego Pavia had.

[Greg Olson]

Versus LSU and Missouri combined. I'm. I, I love this for Vandy 7.

[Taylor Lewan]

And 1, but I just don't know. I don't know. It's fair.

[Greg Olson]

His vibe is I think program but I think that it's like they're taking Vandy as a whole and they should be doing this whole whole Heisman candidacy thing that they're trying to like push but I don't.

[Mitch]

Yeah. I mean like the. Or like the aura and the vibe of Diego like just radiates through the entire team.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Mitch]

And that's what makes it like. Yeah, like probably didn't have the greatest game. Like it hasn't really had like that Heisman moment but like the entire team Embodies his swag. And I don't like, obviously I don't think that's Heisman worthy, but like there's.

[Taylor Lewan]

Something to be said about that might be Heisman worthy. What? Establishing an entire culture on a football team, taking a dead. Taking a dead program transfer in and everyone being like, yo, who the fuck is this Mexican kid with a, with a wrestling brain? And he's just, this is my team now. Takes over and they do. They walk around like their doesn't stink. And it's like, yeah, it hasn't like they kind of just keep doing their thing.

[Mitch]

They might be flipping a five star commit to Georgia who's a Nashville kid. Like he was at the game. So like the aura of Andy is really.

[Will Compton]

They've taken on the identity of old Diego.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. And that. I think there's lots to be said about that. Listen, we don't have to say he's got to win the Heisman, but can we get him to New York? Let's get him to New York. So I could see. And I hope he wears this crazy, gaudy, iced out chain that might just say Pavi on it. Big as. And he's been like, yo, this kid went to New Mexico, no offers, goes to an SEC school and he's seven and one in the SEC right now. That's incredible. Some of the undersized.

[Mitch]

I was talking to some of the coaches like after the game, like we were somewhere and they. One of them was the O line coach and he's like, tell Taylor to fuel that jet up.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, fuck.

[Mitch]

And I'm like, Taylor is shitting himself right now.

[Taylor Lewan]

I am, I am. And I'm also like, I think this is, I wouldn't be upset anymore. It's like one of the cooler stories ever to the point where Kate's coming to the shop today so we can watch film together. Like, he's coming over at 3 today and we're gonna break down the film. And he's like, yeah, I want to watch film. I was like, yeah, dude, let's watch film and let's work on some stuff.

[Mitch]

It's so cool.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Because I got to get him an amazing blue uniform next year. I, I mean it's all hands on deck. Anything you can do to help the program. So yeah, dude, I do. I want them all. Anytime I see somebody make a play. There's a kid from Michigan State, dude, he's like 62, his last name is Marsh also. And I'm like, this guy, he's a selfless player. He Runs. No, dude.

[Mike Elko]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Our marsh is awesome. Our marsh is good. Former five star club knows all about him. But yeah, I'm just getting. I see all these cats and I see the world we live in now. And I know Michigan's got the funds. I'm just thinking myself. Yeah, we did.

[Greg Olson]

That was a nice post by then.

[Taylor Lewan]

That was a nice post by them. Adam.

[Greg Olson]

Chef.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, Chef. Posted. Yeah, I've. I'm also recruiting. I'm also recruiting. Cade.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah. Vandy's got a real shot to be in that college football playoff, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

A real shot. Yes.

[Will Compton]

The rest of their schedule here. They're at Texas right now. Texas is favored by two and a half.

[Taylor Lewan]

Way different this week. I didn't get to watch the whole game, but I. I did see the box score of that while I'm at Epcot walking through Finland and I'm just like, this one's in the bag. Auburn and these, dude.

[Will Compton]

Texas, Auburn, Kentucky and Tennessee.

[Taylor Lewan]

That game's gonna be now nuts. Tennessee, Vandy. Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

Yeah, that might be.

[Will Compton]

Who's the rest of your schedule, Jack? With Tennessee.

[Taylor Lewan]

We got Oklahoma this week, which would be awesome. Dark mode activated.

[Greg Olson]

And then we have New Mexico State, Florida.

[Taylor Lewan]

Excuse me.

[Greg Olson]

Florida. Then New Mexico State and then Vandy. So, I mean, we got three big games, too.

[Will Compton]

Big ones.

[Taylor Lewan]

Big ones.

[Greg Olson]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Florida away.

[Greg Olson]

Vandy home. Vandy.

[Taylor Lewan]

Tennessee.

[Greg Olson]

Might be a win in your end.

[Taylor Lewan]

Was Florida.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

On by this week, Vandy.

[Will Compton]

Tennessee could be a playoff game.

[Taylor Lewan]

We were on a buy this week.

[Greg Olson]

We're looking for our next head coach.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, okay, fair enough. You heard any. Any rumblings?

[Greg Olson]

It's Lane Kiff in her bus for Florida.

[Taylor Lewan]

Lane Kiff in her bus. All right, all right. Ole Miss, too. They look nasty, too. Ole Miss is nasty. Dan Lanning.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

I'm sure LSU will throw him something, but he won't go.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Greg Olson]

Joe Brady.

[Taylor Lewan]

That would be heartbreaking for Oregon.

[Greg Olson]

Man, Joe Brady should go back to.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Lsu, be the head coach.

[Greg Olson]

He was the OC when they won the Natty.

[Taylor Lewan]

There you go. All right, we got to wrap this up, boys. Let's. Any parting thoughts? Anybody? Their team, Anything? Titans suck. Titans are the least competitive team in the NFL.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

I messaged with Ty Simpson after the game and he told me to let you know that you picked the wrong team. And he left it at that, which hurts me. Just.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's crazy. He would just hurt you in order to hurt me.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

I know.

[Taylor Lewan]

And. Yeah. Hey, Ty, you were right. You keep that ball high and tight, brother. After I get Diego to New York. I have my goal. Well, listen, you'll be there too. You'll be there too.

[Will Compton]

We got NFL Talk coming up with Greg Olson and we also. Who's on this one?

[Taylor Lewan]

Mike Elko.

[Will Compton]

A few interviews today.

[Taylor Lewan]

Mike Elko, Coach Elko from A and.

[Will Compton]

M. You'll get to hear from him. Awesome show, big hug, signing kisses. Don't forget to leave comments and make sure you are subscribed. Enjoy the rest of the episode.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

What's up everybody? This is snacks from the Trap Nerds podcast and we're bringing you the horror every week all October long.

[Taylor Lewan]

Kicking off this month, I'll be bringing you all my greatest fear inducing horror games from Resident Evil to Solid Hill. Me and Tony bringing backfire team on Left 4 Dead 2 and we just gonna be going over some of the greats.

[Will Compton]

Also in October, we'll be talking about.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

Our favorite horror and Halloween movies and.

[Will Compton]

Figure out why black people always gotta die first.

[Taylor Lewan]

The Umbral reliquary invites any and all.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Foolish bright safe enough to peruse its many curiosities.

[Taylor Lewan]

But take it all sales are final. Weekly horror side quests written and narrated by yours truly with a full episode.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Read and a commentary special.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

And we will cap it off with Horror Movie Battle Royale. Jason versus Freddy, Michael Myers versus the Alien Thing with the Little Tongue Monster. October, we're doing it Halloween style. Listen to the Trappers podcast from from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Taylor Lewan]

Here we go.

[Kal Penn]

Hey, I'm Kalpen, and on my new podcast, Here We Go Again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics and pop culture. And each week one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions, like, are we heading towards another financial crash? Like in 08? Is non monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lilly Singh, and Bill Nye.

[Will Compton]

When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong.

[Kal Penn]

Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Kal Penn on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Hey there. I'm Kyle McLaughlin. You might know me as that guy from Twin Peaks, Sex and the City, or just the Internet's dad. I have a new podcast podcast called what Are We Even Doing? Where I embark on a noble quest to understand the brilliant chaos of youth culture.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Daddy's looking good.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Each week I invite someone fascinating to join me. Actors, musicians, creatives, highly evolved digital life forms. And we talk about what they love. Sometimes I'll drizzle a little honey in.

[Taylor Lewan]

There too if I'm feeling sexy in the morning.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

What keeps them going?

[Greg Olson]

And you're maybe my biggest, biggest competition on social media.

[Kal Penn]

Like when a kid says bra to.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Me and how they're navigating this high speed roller coaster we call reality.

[Greg Olson]

In Australia, you're looking out for snakes, spiders and right. Hey, he's no Trey McDougal. Chill.

[Kal Penn]

This is like the comments section of my Instagram.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Join me and my delightful guests every Thursday and let's get weird together in a good way. Listen to what are we even doing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Taylor Lewan]

We're gonna interrupt this episode real quick to tell you guys by the way, I just bit my cheek. That was tough. That was tough for me. Make sure you're subscribed. And I also want to talk to you about roe. Rose sparks are a two in one prescription for guys who need a secret weapon against softness. Rose sparks can give you bigger, thicker, longer erections because they get fuller after rose sparks dissolve. They work in 15 minutes on average if prescribed New sexual health patients. Patients get 15 off their first order of Spark on a recurring plan. Connect with the provider at Ro co Bussin to find. Find out if prescription roast sparks is right for you. That's Ro co busin for 15 off your first order. And since I kept biting my cheek, I also talked about keeping yourself safe. And we're gonna do that with Simply Save. Traditional security systems only take action after somebody has already broken in. By that time, it's too late. Simply Safe is setting a new standard in home security with active guard outdoor protection Simply Saves Monitoring agents can help prevent break ins before they happen. How is that? It's because AI powered cameras backed by live professional monitoring agents monitor your property and detect suspicious activity. If someone's lurking around or acting suspiciously, those agents see and talk to them in real time. Activate spotlights and even can contact the police, helping to proactively deter threats before they can escalate into a crisis. You can get 50% off your new Simply Safe system with professional monitoring and your first month [e-mail] busin simplisafe.com bussin again, that's simply safe.com busin there's no safe like Simply Safe. We love Simply Safe so much that we do. What do we do?

[Mitch]

Mitch they're protecting us here.

[Taylor Lewan]

They're protecting us here in this shop because all right, we got people lurking around every once in a while and powered monitors. Bang. They got them. No problem. And while we're in our safe shop, what do we like to do when we want a nice little snack? Mitch we go to Blue Diamond. Blue diamond almonds are the super nut that hits when hit you with a little protein punch to keep you going. There's 20 flavors that are available. They wrote here honey roasted wasabi and soy Smokehouse Boys. That habanero barbecue for me, I like myself a little spice. Makes me feel extra nice. I like to have that. And it's a nice little treat. I have a little water on the side because them boys can get hot. But listen, this football season you can win $10,000 grand prize or hundreds of other instant win prizes with blue diamond. Visit BDSweeps.com for a chance to win. There's no purchase necessary and it ends November 30, 2025. This is the last week of Spooktober. After this, boys, bang. We're gone. Open to 50 US and DC18+ for rules, visit BDSweeps.com void where prohibited. Blue Diamond Almonds. The official snack of the Big ten and football fans everywhere. Let's get back to the episode, guys.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

What's up everybody? This is snacks from the Trap Nerds podcast and we're bringing you the horror every week all October long.

[Taylor Lewan]

Kicking off this month, I'll be bringing you all my greatest fear inducing horror games. From Resident Evil to Silent Hill. Me and Tony bringing Backfire team on Left 4 Dead 2. And we just gonna be going over.

[Kal Penn]

Some of the greats.

[Will Compton]

Also in October, we'll be talking about.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

Our favorite horror and Halloween movie and.

[Will Compton]

Figure out why black people always gotta die first.

[Taylor Lewan]

The umbral reliquary invites any and all.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Foolish brave enough to peruse its many curiosities.

[Taylor Lewan]

But take heed. All sales are final. Weekly horror side quests written and narrated by yours truly. With a full episode read and a commentary special and we will cap it.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

Off with horror movie Battle Royale, Jason versus Freddy, Michael Myers versus the Alien thing with the little Tongue Monster. October. We're doing it Halloween style. Listen to the Travers Podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Taylor Lewan]

Here we go.

[Kal Penn]

Hey, I'm Cal Penn, and on my new podcast, Here We Go Again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions, like, are we heading towards another financial crash? Like in 08, is non monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands, like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lilly Singh, and Bill Nye.

[Will Compton]

When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong.

[Kal Penn]

Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Kal Penn on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Hey there. I'm Kyle McLaughlin. You might know me as that guy from Twin Peaks, Sex and the City, or just the Internet Stand. I have a new pop podcast called what Are We Even Doing? Where I embark on a noble quest to understand the brilliant chaos of youth culture.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Daddy's looking good.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Each week I invite someone fascinating to join me. Actors, musicians, creatives, highly evolved digital life forms. And we talk about what they love.

[Kal Penn]

Sometimes I'll drizzle a little honey in.

[Taylor Lewan]

There too if I'm feeling sexy in the morning.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

What keeps them going?

[Greg Olson]

And you're maybe my vacation biggest competition on social media.

[Kal Penn]

Like when a kid says bra to.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Me and how they're navigating this high speed roller coaster we call reality.

[Greg Olson]

In Australia, you're looking out for snakes, spiders and Right. Hey, he's no Trey McDougal.

[Kal Penn]

Chill. This is like the comments section of my Instagram.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Join me and my delightful guests every Thursday and let's get weird together in a good way. Listen to what are we even doing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or.

[Will Compton]

Wherever you get your podcasts I'll be fully transparent. This is going to be a legitimate full on old school podcast for your boy. Because I had a. I had a really good buddy of mine who had a wedding over the weekend and it was out in Sleepy Hollow. Service was rough. The wedding was on Sunday. I didn't get to watch a lick of football. I got to follow some of the scores. I was involved in the wedding. I had to fly into LaGuardia Drive an hour and a half to get up to Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow was wonderful. I'm talking about. It is Halloween town. It was a good time. But as far as watching ball and coming correct on this podcast, this show today with Greg Olson, I'm. It's more of like I'm gonna ask a few questions, sit and listen a little bit, maybe tell a couple jokes because I didn't really get to watch. The only thing I see is it feels like it was Separation Sunday because there were a lot of ass beatings.

[Taylor Lewan]

A lot of ass beatings out there for sure.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Let's start with. So Greg called the Panthers Bills game. The Panthers got absolutely blown out.

[Will Compton]

I saw that. Dude, what the happened to the Falcons?

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay, That's a different team.

[Will Compton]

What happened, what happened with the Falcons?

[Taylor Lewan]

They're unimaginative in the run game. They've gotten found out. They have not used Bijan Robinson the way they should. I know, Greg, we're. We're not going to have massive takes on this thing, but like if you got arguably the best running back in the NFL, maybe keep them in the game more consistently, right?

[Greg Olson]

Yeah, I'm not sure. Weekend and week out, the Falcons are probably one of the biggest anomalies in the NFL. I mean, I just got done studying the Bills because I had the Bills Panthers game and the last game the Bills played before their buy was against the Falcons and the Falcons beat them and they looked great. B John's running for long touchdowns and they looked really good on defense. Getting after Josh and sacking them handful of times and you're like, all right, Falcons are back. You know, Falcons found it, you know, early in the year they lost 30 to 0 against the Panthers and then they beat the Bills and it just seems like every week they just alternate handled Washington.

[Will Compton]

Handle Washington. Handled the Bills.

[Greg Olson]

Yeah, handle Washington. Then you get beat by the. Was it the Niners? It was.

[Will Compton]

It was close though. Like they went out to San Fran. It was pretty. It was close, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

It was close. It was 20 to 10. But the run game was like non existent in San Francisco. When they played because we. Yeah, Will. After the Falcons Bills game, I, I saw the, the score. I didn't watch the whole game. There are other games on. So I was like, man, I wonder what happened there. And Will's like, buddy, this team, they're sticky in the secondary. Their defensive line standing up. Their run game's incredible. Pennix, he's getting the, he's dishing the ball. They got Drake, London, they got pits. He's coming back. So I'm like.

[Will Compton]

And they bullied the Bills.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm like, oh, I gotta go watch this film. You turn it on and like, there's not a better team. That one game there runs 11 personnel outside zone better than the Atlanta Falcons. You're like, oh, dude, these guys really have it figured out. Like, not a lot of motion, not a lot of like window dressing on their plays. But they're like all off at Simon are getting to their spots. They're getting pushed on the front side. They're cutting off in the backside. And Bijan looks incredible. So I drink the cool A with him too. To where we're on the locker room the next week and I'm, we're breaking down who's going to win, 49ers or the Falcons. And I'm kind of up in the air because Kyle Shannon, to me, he's coach of the year candidate. With all the injuries they've had and been able to still operate extremely high level. Obviously they dropped this week and Will goes, don't overthink it. It's Falcons. I'm not saying that to throw shade because the Falcons end up losing that game. I'm saying I saw the film as well. I'm like, this team can be dominant and then these next two weeks happen.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And they play the Dolphins who are like a walking, it's mooctober. They're a zombie walking around. I'm thinking they're done. And wouldn't you know it, they dropped what, 38 on them.

[Will Compton]

When I checked the score one time, I was like 30 to 3 or something like that.

[Greg Olson]

I was like, yeah, it wasn't even close. It wasn't even competitive. Yeah, I, I don't get it. I don't know how you can be so good one week and so bad. I understand stubbing your toe once in a while.

[Will Compton]

Right.

[Greg Olson]

It's the NFL. You're gonna have a bad game, you're gonna have a bad outing to be so back and forth weekend, week out, get blown out, look like the best team in the league, get blown Out. It's, it's almost hard to do. It's. I don't even know how to wrap my head around it. It's pretty, it's pretty amazing.

[Will Compton]

Especially when you're, you know, you're coach Morris and you're walking in like, you know those vibes, like we're all professionals and it's like, how are we this wildly inconsistent?

[Taylor Lewan]

Right. They're the number one team in the NFL. That reminds me of college football team when it comes to inconsistencies.

[Greg Olson]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Like all the boys went out last night. Like what? Like guys you're, you're a paid professional. Like we can't have this big of a drop off.

[Kal Penn]

Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

I'll tell you what I don't like though. I don't like all the pistol.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, dude, I don't like pistol zone.

[Greg Olson]

I like pistol counter. I like pistol pin and pull. Like, I think pistol is nice because if you are going to be primarily a gun team, which they are, especially with Pennix, I again, I didn't see much of the game yesterday. Did they change much with. I know with, with Cousins playing, I'm not sure. But prior they had been so pistol heavy. Gun heavy. And I get why you don't want to just be single back, run offset back and it gets very telling where you're going with your zone stuff. So I get the pistol idea. I don't think the angles are good. I don't think the play action is good. I don't think it has nearly the benefits that outside inside zone have from under center. I think that's a part of the issue in the NFL. I just don't think the angles front side, I think it gets really wide, it gets really strung out. Yeah. So I mean not to get into super football in the weeds. I just think being so exclusively pistol makes everything else a little bit of a challenge.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, I did. I agree with you. And Dan Orlofsky talks about this all the time. He's like his big trend this year is we need to make football under center again. That's like kind of like what he wants and everybody's doing it. I completely agree with getting under the center, snapping the ball because when the quarterback's back is turned it obviously like it's going to help the play action pass so much more. Which is what you need against these like super exotic defenses nowadays is you need guys to kind of get up so these zone windows are more open behind them. And when you're in the pistol, it's a quick little turn. To the side. And there's nothing like demonstrative about it to where it makes. And you could speak on this. Well, from a linebacker's perspective, if you're in the gun and he's just kind of turning and then goes into setup, it's like there's nothing giving you, like, oh, I gotta get down in that gap to stop the run. Am I correct in saying that?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, you can transfer. You're able to transfer your eyes quicker and you feel like play action and everything else. If you're under center and they're pressing the gap, you're going to take that extra step as a backer to. Whereas in pistol, everything kind of unfolds a little bit quicker for you. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

So, yeah, it just. But that being said, the Falcons. If I'm a betting man, which I am, I'm staying away from the Falcons the rest of the year. You just have no idea what you're gonna get. Like, if I'm going to go in the FanDuel sportsbook app and I'm not going to look at the Falcons logo anymore, it's, it's, it's terrifying. It's probably the scariest team to bet on. But the game we almost started talking about was the game you called. And I want you to break down Bill's Panthers a little bit. Short drive for you. That's where you played your career at. I'm sure, like, when you're calling these games, you're thinking, you know, you, you want to be as unbiased as possible. There's probably a PC. It's like, man, I really hope Andy, Andy Dalton can step in for Bryce Young here and they can, you know, keep this home win streak alive. And the Bills come off as buy and just absolutely dominate all phases. James Cook has 215 yards on 19 carries and two touchdowns. Like, the defense stood up in a big way. It was, it was obviously an extremely dominant performance across the board in all three phases for the Bills. What did you. What was your biggest takeaways from those games?

[Will Compton]

Before you answer that, how the fuck did the jets win always get that much closer to getting in the game?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

What in the hell happened with Joe Flacco?

[Taylor Lewan]

I think, you know, we're gonna stay focused here.

[Greg Olson]

You're coming off the wedding.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Greg Olson]

A lot on your mind. Let's stay locked in. Yeah, me and Taylor, we'll keep this on track. You just, you just hang in there.

[Taylor Lewan]

Rocky out there, but hit the head.

[Greg Olson]

A couple too many times wearing a rain jacket.

[Will Compton]

This is a Rocky Balboa. This is a Rocky.

[Greg Olson]

You know, so it's actually fine. So what we were just talking about with the under center stuff when you watch Buffalo, the Buffalo we all remember of years ago of Josh being in, you know, Josh Allen being in the gun and every ball being in his hand and it's drop back pass and it's. They have made a pretty remarkable transformation to a heavy under center run first mix and play action run, dominant offense and it's been very intentional. I, I don't think their outside weapons are like traditional X. You know, they don't have like a traditional X receiver that's going to work. You know the deeper zones and go up. I think Keon Coleman, they're still trying to get him going. It's a lot of quick, quick passes, a lot of run after catch. Khalil Shakir, you know, guys trying to, you know, Kincaid trying to get the ball in guys hands and run after. But yesterday it was just all about the run game. I mean James Cook was incredible. He had like 135 yards after contact at, I mean before contact at halftime. I mean he was, he was 10, 15 yards into the teeth of what was a very good run defense in Carolina. He was 10, 10, 12 yards into their, into their defensive second level before he was even being touched. You know, he broke a 40 something 50 yard. I can't remember exactly how far it was in the first half. He was incredible. The offensive line was great. So it was funny. We're calling a game with Josh Allen and he's, you know, arguably the best player in the world and of course the reigning mvp and he made some good throws. He made a couple typical Josh Allen scramble drill, keep the play alive and get a conversion down. But like he was a pretty non factor which I, which I said at the end of the game. If I'm a Bills fan and I'm the Bills, I'm wildly encouraged by the fact that the best player in the league, potentially, if not the top two or three, we were able to put up a 40 spot, be utterly dominant the entire game and our best player had a much less impact than what we're accustomed to seeing. I think that's highly encouraging because we all know come the end of the year, come playoff time, there's going to be some Superman moments where it's going to be all right, Josh. The days of just you lining up under center, handing it to James Cook like we need you to be Josh Allen. We need you to be the mvp and we're going to let you go roll designed quarterback run scramble. Obviously pushing the ball downfield like those days are coming for them to be as good as they were offensively and now say, okay, that's not even with Josh Allen. Being Josh Allen is. I think it's scary. I think that's the recipe they want to be in the regular season. I think that's the recipe they think gets them over the hump in the playoffs. Defense was much better.

[Taylor Lewan]

Took.

[Greg Olson]

Took the ball away four times, one down to like the one yard line. AJ Epanessa had an incredible tipped interception on a like a little tunnel screen. Hit him in the hands, caught it, took it down to the one to set up a touchdown before the half. So it was a overall Buffalo dominant performance.

[Taylor Lewan]

The, the, the whole Josh Allen's got to be great. That is coming, I'm assuming in the next week is they're gonna have to play the Chiefs. I don't know if it's at the Chiefs or at the Bills, but the Chiefs played a night on Monday Night Football, so I think they'll have to look at Josh Allen. But hey, now you have to be this reigning mvp, top three player in the NFL. But this is a, this is a Will Compton after the Atlanta Falcons game, which is a big brain move by him by getting us to talk about that game. First is I asked him, I said, hey, what do you think happened? He goes, bro, they got away from the run way too quick and just try to make Josh do everything in that Falcons game. They go to the buy after that and it seemed like they were in Will Compton's head where they're like, hey, let's run the ball till we can't type of situation, get under center and utilize the play action.

[Will Compton]

So especially if you got like the Bills question mark, I know they're in the conversation. Are they going to go pick up like a defensive player? Like, they're pretty light in the ass at the second level. Like when you see them against the Falcons or a good run team, that gets you going sideways. That is where their weakness is. I love that they had takeaways. But an example of that too is you look at the Bears. The Bears were like number one in the league at takeaways. And then you go and play against a team who ends up taking care of the football that game. And when those weaknesses start to show itself, what fires me up about the Bills is if you're winning the football game, especially under center in the run game with James Cook, you're Going to be able to control the clock more, you're going to be able to sustain drives longer. But if you do get in that shootout, if you do get in those high scoring matches against good offenses, that's where I get nervous because I feel like their front seven has been a little questionable when it comes to stopping the run and everything else because you can't just assume they're going to take the ball away. You know what I mean? Like you're, you're, if you're leaning on that, I know that's like, you know, some momentum. Once you get hot, it starts to happen, you start taking the football away. But if you're just leaning on that, I feel like those weaknesses in late season football will start to rear its ugly head if, you know, if they don't go and get somebody on defense or if they just don't consistently eat week in and week out, start taking care of these things defensively where they do, where they have had question marks. So I, I am like, I'm fired up that they ran the ball a lot more with James Cook. I think this is an offense that you get going and when they're not getting touched, you know, they're getting into the second level of the defense. My only reminder and experience is the Tennessee Titans. When Derek Henry gets going in your football really well and then when Josh Allen makes a playoff of it's like, oh, they also have Josh Allen the rating mvp. But I know for me not, not watching the, them defensively against the Panthers. For me my, my whole question mark was man, they just don't, they don't seem like their defense is going to match the offense unless they're living under center and they can keep them kind of off the field.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, the impressive thing about the, the Bills defense in this game was not just the turnovers but I mean Panthers, their bread and butter is running duo running gaps game, double teaming the inside and getting into the, getting into the meat of the secondary between the, both the tackles and they, I thought they did a great job in that game. Like they, they did a, a good job of stuffing the run, making them pass, causing turnovers because of it.

[Will Compton]

Chiefs will be a great benchmark for him because Chiefs are playing fantastic.

[Taylor Lewan]

They are playing great and they, they obviously put a night.

[Greg Olson]

One last thing to add because what you guys are saying is, is, is the real teeth of the conversation that I, I think sometimes people ignore the ability. So, so we'll just take Buffalo since we're obviously talking about that their ability to play Run defense obviously has been a conversation going into that Panther game. The run defense was historically bad. They were giving up chunk plays at a record rate, giving up a lot of yards before and after contact. The tackling like that was everything Buffalo was talking about addressing at the bye week. Right. Going into the Panther game. But the part everyone has to realize is if you want to get better at run defense, just score a lot more points on offense. Right. Like your ability to mask one side of the ball or the other is less about just improving that phase of your team and more about phasing the complimentary piece on the other side of the ball. So if you're a team that really struggles running the ball, you got to make this a shootout. You've got to have an offense that can generate points, finish drives. And then, yes, if you get takeaways and you can, that can also mask some of those issues. But all of a sudden you get into a slugfest and you get into a game where maybe you're not finishing, you're kicking a lot of field goals, maybe your run game is going into a tough matchup up front. You just can't get anything going. That's where Josh Allen, that's where having the best player in the league now, they get untapped and say, all right, Josh, it's time now to put this game on your back. Because we don't want to be in a 14:10 second half game when a team could just run the ball at us 30 times. So that's kind of the back and forth. That's the cat and mouse game. And that's why having ultimately Josh Allen as your quarterback, even if right now you want to be a heavy run team, there is going to be a time where Josh is going to have to take the game over because they're not built defensively to play a 30 attempt run game in a low scoring battle. They have not shown that that's the strength. And Ed Oliver goes out to injury with a bicep yesterday, hoping it's not as bad as it looked. He did not return. So, yeah, little light up front, little light on the second and third level. I don't know if that's the type of game they want to make a, you know, they want to major in.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, the game, the game coming up against the Chiefs is massive because obviously when you win the division, you play the best, best teams in all the other divisions. And the Patriots, who get what they were fourth last year in the division, AFC East, I believe so four third. They, they Were not great last year at all. They're in a six game winning streak right now. They just took arguably one of the best defenses in all the NFL and put 32 on them. Drake May 282, three touchdowns. So they have to get their ass going. Like, there's no. If you want to win the division, you want to end this year with possibly a buy, you've got to. You've got to win out, bro.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Because the Patriots are in a great spot. And I'm. I'm curious too, to dive into all their second half statistics because they seem like a team that's adjusted really well at halftime. Because I want to say, just checking.

[Taylor Lewan]

The sign of great coaching.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, it seemed like it was close going into halftime. And then obviously, like Drake May, he's one of the best quarterbacks right now in the NFL. And the Patriots are just a team and they have the schedule like they could win. I. I feel like they're going to win the AFC East.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, their schedule definitely sets them up for sure. They have Drake May, perfect passing rating over 20 yards.

[Will Compton]

Dude, he's balling.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's balling out right now. And it did get hairy for a second. Like, you know, the, the rookie. What's his name? Will Campbell. Will Campbell. He had himself a tough day against Miles Garrett. People said he gave up five sacks. This is not. He didn't give a ball five sacks. When they were showing the highlights, there was a couple on the right tackle as well. I know that personally. That's something. That's. That's something I want to defend for my boy.

[Will Compton]

Will Taylor sees five sacks in a game.

[Taylor Lewan]

And I literally went back and watched all this. It wasn't all Will Campbell. Okay. Also Drake, me, I get the ball a couple of times there, but yeah, this team, you see Miles Garrett, he's frustrated. He gets five sacks in the game and he's still slamming his helmet on the sideline because their team just cannot win games. Even though he's being superman out there. But these Patriots. Dude, have you. Were you able to watch the game at all?

[Greg Olson]

I saw some of the highlights. I saw some of the clips. I went back. I try to, you know, after my game's over, if it's not in the late window and I'm home to watch the late window, I try to just go and just at least familiarize myself with, you know, the matchups and who played well and take a look at the box score and the highlights and try to get some context. You know, I think the Miles Garrett thing is going to be a storyline all year. I think, you know, you go back to that, you know, I think he goes back to that decision in the summer where he made it pretty clear that he wanted to be out, that he wanted to go somewhere else. And then obviously they threw a ton of money at him and he signed up for it. Right. You signed up knowing you had some questions at quarterback. You had some questions in a lot of different areas. The defense was going to be good. You knew that. But the reality is in the regular season, offense is where you're going to win, right? Offense is going to drive it and then defense will kind of tip the scales a little bit more once we just get all the bad teams out in the playoffs. And defense seems to have a lot more correlation to advancing in the playoffs than it does in the regular season. So he kind of knew what you signed up for. He is incredible. I think he's going to make a lot of offensive linemen look stupid. I don't think it's the young rookie from New England. I don't think it's unique to him. But yeah, they've got serious issues, especially offensively. They got a lot of, a lot more questions than answers. But Drake may, I mean, he's in the MVP conversation. I think what's so cool about this year is the MVP conversation through week eight is really a bunch of. It's not the typical Josh Allens and Mahomes as good as they are. And maybe by the year end they'll be the last one standing. But like Daniel Jones, Drake May. I think Jordan Love has been incredible. I mean this next kind of crop of young quarterbacks is playing incredible ball through call it the first half of the season. I think that's what's made this season so fun to follow as just a.

[Taylor Lewan]

Football fan, Baker Mayfield as well, but he didn't have the best.

[Will Compton]

Sammy Darnold.

[Taylor Lewan]

Sammy Darnold, like yeah, those bunch of them.

[Will Compton]

It's funny because like Mahomes, he's playing, he's playing incredible. He'll, he'll, he'll be in the conversation. But just taking that crop you listed where it was like whether it's Baker Mayfield, Danny Dimes, Sam Darnold, Drake May, if those four, if their names were all these upper tier guys like the Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, if those guys are having the season that these young cats are having that we're naming, nobody else would be in the conversation. It would just be those three to four guys. But no matter what we're always going to hang on to. Even if Lamar pops off at the back half the season, he'll still be in the conversation. Like, you'll still give these guys chances to be in the conversation even though they're not having the season that these other guys are having.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right?

[Greg Olson]

And talk about Lamar. As bad as things have looked for Baltimore, buddy, they're going to get Lamar back at some point and obviously that changes everything. That win yesterday, now obviously only their second, but with the way that AFC North Division is. Is shaping up, it seems like Steelers can't run away with it. They haven't been able to run away with it. They lose last night to. To Green Bay. I think for as it seems like the world is coming to an end in Baltimore, they're two games back and the idea being that you have to imagine Lamar is probably back this week, if not the following. So as bad as things have started, you have sometimes the benefit of being in a bad division. I've been there. I won a division one time in the NFC south that we went 7, 8 and 1 and we won the division and hosted a playoff game. Like sometimes the nature of the league is your division stinks and you have a little bit more margin for error. So I'm not completely out on Baltimore, even though things have looked really bad and obviously Lamar's return is a big part of it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Me, yeah, just going off of that game. I think this is a bigger win for the Ravens than people even realize because what is. What are the Bears done so great is they played great defense, they get in takeaways and they've ran the ball incredibly well. Where the Ravens have really struggled to go back to that Lions game, they. Those two running backs for the Lions were running all over the Ravens. And you get Roquan Smith back, you get Kyle Van Noy back and their defense, I mean, Kyle Hamilton, dude, he is absolutely incredible. They were able to stop the run pretty consistently and I heard a cool, not, maybe not cool staff for Caleb Williams. But first quarter, The Bears are a plus 22 in their point differential and Caleb Williams is throwing at 71%. Quarters two through four. Caleb is like 51.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Was that so it just shows that was that our boy Coward.

[Taylor Lewan]

That was you. You're popping on Coward as well. But yeah, it just seems like when they're on script, Ben Johnson, he. He. His play calling is great. He does everything. He does everything the way he wants, but then his quarterback looks at the first or second read and Then just wants to run for his life. When I think that Ben Johnson's like, really not about that. But their defense has played really well. And for Tyler Huntley. Tyler Huntley, for him to be 12 of 13 after the first half is. Is awesome. So they keep getting healthy. The Steelers, they probably should have lost this game against the Packers. I think everybody thought that was going to happen. But the Bengals, the week prior to that, it's like that's a wide open division right now between those two teams. And I think the Ravens come back and win it. Now they had a chance to put it away with even that. Bengals win.

[Greg Olson]

The Bengals game. The Bengals game.

[Taylor Lewan]

Losing.

[Greg Olson]

Losing to the Packers. I think the packers are good. I think Jordan Love is good. I think that's a young team. They're super talented. Kraft was insane. I mean, he looked like, yeah, the best player on the field. I got Green Bay this week. They ho. I go to Lambeau this week, I got them hosting the Panthers. So that we'll see how that goes.

[Taylor Lewan]

But we know how that'll go.

[Greg Olson]

That's gonna be tough.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, it's gonna be a tough one. It's gonna be a tough one for the Panthers.

[Greg Olson]

That's gonna be. Yeah. But yeah, that the. For the Steelers. That game against Flacco and the Bengals and Mike Tomlin called it. I mean, Mike Tomlin was like, I don't know what the Browns are thinking. They must be smarter than the rest of us. But they send a guy that was their week one starter to an nc, an in division rival that is reeling at the position and giving them fresh life, and now they. The first game he beats, he beats. You know, he beats the Steelers and Tomlin looks like a genius. And then obviously they lose to the jets, but he scored 38.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

So he's definitely given the Bengals a little bit of life defensively. There's still struggle bus there in Cincinnati though.

[Taylor Lewan]

Dude, the jets getting their first win.

[Greg Olson]

To me, who would have thought they were going to score 39 points, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. And that's what sucks too, is because we've all. We've all kind have like said the Bengals defense is horrendous, but like it's kind of been masked and the quarterback play has gotten a whole lot better, so it's kind of quieted down. But you lose to a Jets who's won zero games, it tells me two things. One, the Bengals are as bad as we thought they were on defense. And two, we stay in Nashville, Tennessee. I think we're looking at the Least competitive NFL football team in the NFL right now, and that is the Tennessee Titans because of it. And it's just. It sucks to say because that's where I played my career at, but we got a whole lot to figure out over there. Yeah, Eagles. Yeah. We've all. Hey, buddy. We've all. We've all had some tough times. It makes the good times that much better. Eagles are back.

[Will Compton]

Dude, I. Listen. Say, Quan, he's on my fantasy football team. Seeing him put up north of 30 and seeing him. What did he have, like over 100.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yards, a couple 150 and a touchdown on the ground, one through the air, 24 receiving as well. Hurt his groin. Jalen hurts. He gets four touchdowns.

[Greg Olson]

Four touchdowns.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

He didn't throw for a lot of yards, but he threw four touchdowns, which was super efficient. I think Saquon popped off the second play of the game.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, and that's. Dude, that has been a trend of theirs. If you pop on, like, the first series of every one of their games, like, they run the ball very effectively.

[Will Compton]

And then Saquon looks like he's gonna have a game.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. And then all of a sudden, they, like, change their run game and it doesn't work out. I haven't gone back and watched the film. I just saw it live. But it seemed like they kind of stuck with the same type of run plan as they did in the first series as opposed to going, like, to a bunch of different kind of run type of schemes. And it worked out well for them. Their office line obviously seemed like they play a whole. Played a whole lot better. Cam Scatterboo, rip the boy. Dude, like, the heart and soul of the Giants. Like, I don't wanna. We're not. We're not gonna be massive takes, but the Giants are dead. Like, they're not. It's. It's over for them.

[Will Compton]

I saw the clip. I just saw the group chats firing up. I saw, you know, clump. He's like, eagles are back, Saquon. Yada, yada. Then I see the cam scatter boo post. And it's like, dude, take my leg, right? Take. Take a limb from my body. Don't take cams.

[Greg Olson]

See him put his hands up to his team, like, to his buddy. Like, he, like, with the instinct of, like, hey, help me up and.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

And everyone was like, nah, man. Like, we're gonna stay right where you are. Yeah, we're get you your help. Like, his instinct was like, I gotta get up.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

He, like, put his hands up in the air. For someone to, like, lift him off the ground. And I think his teammates were like, sorry, brother, but, yeah, there's always gonna have to kind of.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, if you're seeing what I'm seeing, you're gonna have to.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's always that one's awful. One panic offensive lineman that's like, please, God, get him out of here. Because everyone. It's all, dude, when you see that. I'm sure you've seen it during a game when you were playing, like, it. Dude, it is a mentally torturous. I mean, I. You hate it for that. Who. It happens to the guy. But the next five or six plays, if you're able to sustain a drive, is like, everyone. Even the defense is like, hey, let's all kind of look out for each other a little bit. Isn't it weird? Like a weird little. Like, we got to make sure everyone's good here.

[Will Compton]

Hey, we can really get fucked up in this game.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, we do. We were playing the Dolphins, and it.

[Greg Olson]

Doesn'T matter if it's your teammate, the other team, like, for a moment there, it doesn't matter what team it is. It's just everyone is having a collective, like, this is awful.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

We were playing the Panthers, and one of our. It was late in the game, y' all were blowing us out, and I was playing against Jared Allen, and one of the receivers went off in the corner of the sideline, had us, like, an ankle dislocation. Jared and I kind of sat there the next three plays. He's like, I'll tell you if someone's behind you. And I was like, bro, thank you. So we got hemmed up a couple, and there was one play we got hemmed up, and he kind of stonewalled me a little bit. He goes, behind you, behind you. And we kind of, like, shifted together for a little bit. It's like, that is really the mental thing for everybody if that is, like, once you see everything, you know, the health issues, it's crazy, because good news is it looked like a straight up. Just a dislocation because it was right there at the bottom of that bone. His leg, like, the middle of his leg was facing the wrong way. But, yeah, that's. That's the heart and soul of the Giants. I think they both saves saved his job for sure, seeing this. This boost of energy, and he should keep his job, but that was tough. The Eagles, however.

[Greg Olson]

The Eagles are for real now.

[Taylor Lewan]

They're for real.

[Greg Olson]

I call. So, I mean, their ability offensively, I always thought defensively, they'd find their way. I think Fangio is really good. I think they had some issues on the edge that they're still trying to work through. But I think defensively they were always going to end up being good and figuring it out. I know they had a couple games here and there. You know, obviously the Giants game being the one couple weeks ago, but offensively I saw them at. I saw them against Minnesota last week and Hertz played probably the best game that we've seen him play in a really long time. I mean, he was pushing the ball downfield, he was accurate, he was buying time with his legs. Like Saquon in the run game was a pretty non factor against the Vikings and Jalen Hurts was awesome. And now this week, Saquon gets off, he goes for 150. Getting back to those early explosive runs for touchdowns that really powered their super bowl run last year where he's running for 60 and 70 yard touchdowns. The defense is taking the ball away. Now you get hurts in the passing game back going, thrown for four. They're never going to be a. That consistently high volume passing game from a sense of like pure yardage. They'll pop off every now and then. Obviously he did against Minnesota, but four touchdowns? I don't even think he threw. Did he throw for over 200 yards? I don't think he did, no.

[Will Compton]

He threw for a 179.

[Greg Olson]

Yeah, but obviously you get Saquon. They've always been. I've always said they're the hardest beat in the league because they can just beat you in so many different ways. They, defensively, they can take the ball away, they've got fourth down, they can pass, throw, skill, roster. Like I just, I don't know why people are so quick to jump off their bandwagon. It seems like every year and then it's just by the end of the year, they're the team to beat in the NFC for all those different factors.

[Will Compton]

You think they're the team that beat in the nfc Because I feel you like Eagles.

[Taylor Lewan]

I.

[Will Compton]

To me, I'm not willing to say. I'm not convinced enough to say that they're back, that they're the team to beat. Who.

[Greg Olson]

Who's the team to beat in the NFC in your mind?

[Taylor Lewan]

I think it's the Lions.

[Will Compton]

Lions.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

I think the Lions. Lions are playing good. You got the Lions, you got the Packers.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know, I'm not sold in the Packers. I'm not.

[Greg Olson]

I like the Packers.

[Will Compton]

Seattle, the Rams, I think.

[Greg Olson]

Yeah. I had the, I had the Rams Philly game week, I don't know. God, I can't remember now like week two or three in the year and we're.

[Will Compton]

Philly ended up getting dominated first half of the game.

[Greg Olson]

They couldn't score a touchdown. It was a red zone field goal contest. And then Jalen Hurts came to life in the second half with AJ Brown and they came back and won. And that's when Jordan Davis blocked that field goal and took it back as the, you know, not a walk off but like the last play of the game. Save it. Yeah, I think all those teams are good. I think the Philly, Philly just has that pedigree right now. Right. They're used to winning, they're used to winning those close games. They can, they could play a lot of different formulas. If their offense isn't great, they can get picked up defensively. If Jalen's having a bad day, Saquon, if Saquon can't get rolling. They got the receivers and like the offensive line, can they stay healthy and get healthy and now Dickerson like they got I think the best tackle combo in the league. Taylor, I'd love your perspective. Like I think Lane and my Lotta are the best combination to duo in the league. Like they just got so many different things they can hang their hat on. They don't have to play perfectly to win. I think we've seen that over the last two years. Those teams seem to do well in those one, you know, win or you're out kind of situations. They're not best of five series, you got to win one game and they're really tough to beat.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. When it comes to the tackles, I haven't been able to watch and break down this film just yet. So I'll save my opinion on this Pat on this past game, but the couple weeks prior to that with the offensive line, when it came to the run game, it was like one guy here or there and especially during the Vikings like my, a lot of had himself a couple of times being at the point of the run game, he was having a very difficult time. Guys going inside, moving around like he wasn't moving his feet very consistently and then laying on the back side of a lot of place. He was kind of, he wasn't getting that cut off the way you usually see him. He had to go get savvy, get a couple of those reach around blocks. I, I a duo to me right now that is like number one in the NFL is Penne Sewell and Taylor Decker and that's kind of what keeps me leaning towards the Lions is they had a tough game a couple weeks ago against the Chiefs. I don't know if it was last week or two weeks ago, but from a defensive standpoint, no, it was a couple weeks ago because they played the, the Buccaneers, right. Last week played the Bucks and they had every single guy and their defensive secondary, their starters were out and their secondary played and they pretty much shut down Baker Mayfield and their, and their offense of their wide receivers. And I just think something about that under center Jared Goff throwing on time, play action, pass. Like with both those running backs, that team to me, along with their culture, when things don't go their way, they don't waver. That is a team that I can see winning it all or at the very least winning the NFC and making it to the super bowl this year. When it comes to the Eagles, it's like you see it, you see it here and there, like, okay, the run game wasn't great, but the defense stepped up. Jalen Hurts has a game a couple weeks ago and then this is, this is the first week I've seen it where it's like, okay, this looks like a championship caliber team. Now we have to see it more consistently for it all get done. But it just seems like one or two things here and there. I think, yeah, after seeing this, Lions.

[Will Compton]

Got the run game, they got, they got the play calling. They got a quarterback that can win you the Super Bowl. They got, they can take you through the air on the ground. Their defense is very salty. Their front seven, Hutchinson and them will just get after your ass. He might. Does Hutchinson lead the league in, in pressures?

[Taylor Lewan]

I think he. No, I think Garrett leads the league in pressure or Benito leads, leads the league in pressures. Hutchinson has had a sack and a pressure in every single game.

[Will Compton]

Dude, he gets after people. It's just a backs like the way the D coordinator Kelvin Shepard has those guys playing. Especially when you have a full backup squad in there in the secondary, I just feel like they are the more complete team that looks like an operation in a machine. They did drop against the Chiefs, but that game the Chiefs had against the Lions, like that was, that was potentially a preview of the Super Bowl. Like that was a heavy. That was a heavy.

[Greg Olson]

Let me ask you this though, right? And I agree with everything you guys are saying. It's probably fair. You know, I, I wouldn't disagree. If they ended up winning the NFC and going to Super Bowl, I wouldn't be shocked. Here's what I will say though. You start Looking at. Okay, what? I know it's early. We're doing like the whole playoff projection thing, but do you think it's a foregone conclusion that the Detroit Lions win the division?

[Taylor Lewan]

I know where you're going with this, and the answer is no, because the packers are still in that division.

[Greg Olson]

Do you think it's a foregone conclusion? Can you see a scenario that. That Eagles. The Eagles don't win the NFC East?

[Taylor Lewan]

No.

[Will Compton]

Correct. I see. Yeah. So you're seeing, you're saying Detroit could be going home.

[Greg Olson]

And I think that's all. The best teams don't always make the biggest runs. Right. Like, there's so many factors. There's luck, there's. We just got done talking about how your division can stink or you can, you know, last year the Minnesota Vikings win 14 games and they got to go. They're not even the division winner. They're a wild card team because the division was so good. Like, there's a lot of factors that go into all of this and that literally could be the deciding factor. Detroit could be better than Philly. But all of a sudden that game's in Philly and it's cold and it's the home field advantage. And it's one of one. You don't get to play a home and away series. It's not baseball. Right. Like, you're not getting. No, don't worry. We'll. We'll get to their place and then we get to come back home to Detroit in the dome. Like, that's sometimes the luck of the draw. So I think there's a lot of factors on how it all plays out. But yeah, you're probably right. Those are probably the two clear cut. Maybe not clear cut, but those are probably the two leaders in the clubhouse. I still think the Rams are really good.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

I think defensively they're nasty. I think Stafford's awesome. They got to get Puka back. Outside of that, I think there's a lot of one dimensional NFC teams that have different areas that they're good, but just don't have the whole package to see them right now making a big run.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right. You. Okay. But hold on, what about, what about Seattle? What about Tampa? Like, those are two teams.

[Greg Olson]

To me, I just fear that Tampa's lost too much juice.

[Will Compton]

I do, too. I agree with you. I agree with you. Like, I think Baker's playing awesome.

[Greg Olson]

Incredible weather in the storm has been incredible. I just think at some point you can only weather losing. So we saw it happen to Detroit last year. Right. It was like, oh, man, Detroit can lose anyone and they just keep playing. They're so good on defense. Well, at some point, as good of a coach as Todd Bowles is as good of a coach as Dan Campbell was last year and Aaron Glenn, the D coordinator, trying to figure out ways to play without their best players. Like. Like the NFL, man, as the. When the playoffs come and all the bad teams have been sent home and we're only left with the top dogs, eventually it catches up to you. That's what concerns me about Tampa.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's a, that's an extremely fair.

[Will Compton]

Good news for Tampa though is they're in a division that's. You got the same.

[Greg Olson]

They're going to be in the playoffs.

[Taylor Lewan]

They'll be in the playoffs.

[Greg Olson]

Their division is brutal.

[Taylor Lewan]

But you're right when it gets to the cream of the crop, every. Like all the bad teams have had, now they're all in Cabo San Lucas or Cancun for the week. These teams like Tampa's probably going to have to go to these plays, these cold weather places during the playoffs and can they stand up? Can they keep this level of consistency with Baker for the whole entire year? So yeah, it's a great point. Seattle though, Sam, defense now. I think they're solid.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

The run game, their one game solid. I wish Kenneth Walker would be more, more north and south guy. I can't stand the east and west movement.

[Greg Olson]

He's a bouncer.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's a bouncer and it's awesome because it's home run hitting. But also you live by the sword you die by. So there's a lot more tfls income than home runs.

[Greg Olson]

So yeah, baseball I like, I like Seattle a lot. I had them, I had them early in the year. They were still trying, you know, Kubiak, the new OC they were trying to get. I actually had them week one. I had them week one against San Francisco. Sometimes all these games like blend together. I can't remember who I call when, where. But yeah, I had him week one. So obviously first game of Darnold, first game of Kubiak. I like McDonald. I like the head coach. That's a tough place. I mean we've all played there. That is a nightmare place to play on the road, let alone in a playoff game. So can they win the NFC west?

[Kal Penn]

Right?

[Will Compton]

Similar situation. Alliance packers like Rams in Seattle is going to be fighting there to the.

[Taylor Lewan]

End and also they're going to be.

[Greg Olson]

Fighting 49ers, Niners again. I just.

[Taylor Lewan]

Injuries.

[Greg Olson]

Shanahan. I think Shanahan and Robert Salah have done a remarkable job. I just. It might be the best coaching job of Shanahan's career. And Robert Sala is going to probably get a head job again because of what he's done. But you can only weather losing these guys for so long. Like, you're not getting Fred back. Yeah, he's arguably one of the best. Like, you're not getting them back. Hopefully they get Purdy back and they finally got Kittle back after missing the first five games. And, like, it's just the injuries in San Francisco. You just scratch your head and say, like, how long can you weather this? And can you get enough of these guys back early enough that you're still in contention that even if Seattle runs, even if, you know, even if Seattle and the Rams run away with the division, but, like, can you stay afloat? Can you get a. Can you get three teams from one division in the playoffs? We've seen it. It happens. But it's. You got to get. You got to get your guys back before, you know, you're in the final stretch of the season.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, yeah, it's a good point. We're definitely getting to the point of the season where all the fun storylines of injured teams that are still rallying through it seems like that might be coming to an end at this point. Like, you can only. You're right. You are absolutely right when you say you can only do it for so long.

[Greg Olson]

And again, a lot of the teams that seem like they're weathering the storm and the teams that don't handle injury loss as well, some of it's internal, right? Some of it's just roster depth, roster construction, the ability of a play caller to mask injuries to o line or, you know, whatever it is. But there's also an element of, like, can you get lucky in the game that you don't have your starting quarterback or you don't have your starting left tackle or you lose your Mike backer for two weeks and you play into a stretch of games against a bunch of teams that just aren't very good? Yeah, right. So they're there. And some teams you're like, all right, I just lost my three best players and now I got to go play the Chiefs and now I got to go play the Bills, and you got to go play some of these, you know, high level teams. So there's so much luck and randomness to the NFL. I think that's what makes it so fun. You know, some. Some years your schedule is incredibly difficult and Other years your schedule is really easy. I think that's part of, that's why the regular season I don't always think is the greatest predictor of, of playoff success because as we've said now, like when all the bad teams get sent home, typically everybody in the playoffs has a good offense. You're not in the playoffs if you're not scoring points. And then the defense now becomes the X factor of what now is the next differentiator between advancing or just being happy that you made the playoffs.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah. And then late October too. Like we're getting into November football. Like teams are going to start hitting their, hitting their stride a little bit and seeing what their identity is rolling into the playoffs. Because again, it's like you look at all these scores over the weekend, like pretty one sided, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. It honestly is a perfect transition to the Denver Broncos and the Cowboys because body the Cowboys. Sorry. The Broncos defense is incredible. Bo Nicks just getting better. They've start slow. They started slow in this game, but it ended up being their best first quarter they've had. Buddy, I feel like I transferred high schools and I see the pretty girl, the hot cheerleader, and the hot cheerleader is the Dallas Cowboys. I see them. You know, I look kind of nice and everyone's like, you gotta watch out for her. Rumor has it she's a little bit like the town bicycle a little bit. And I'm like, no, dude, this one seems a little different. So I go on a date with said girl this week.

[Will Compton]

Sounds like she's turning a page.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, sounds like she's turning a page. Like there's maturity involved.

[Greg Olson]

Different with me.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, with me. I go and I, I hitch my, my name to the wagon of Cowboys fandom for one week. And I, I literally got there. I got on the bird yesterday. I sat there and I was like, I, I, my heart goes out to all you Cowboy fans who got to feel this like life of luxury in the 90s and 80s or whenever it was. And now you, for the last 25 years, you had to deal with this because I walked into that Broncos game, haven't won there since 1996, all those things. And I'm like, defense looked really good against commanders. This is the number one scoring offense in the entire league. Like maybe we're flipping the strip. Maybe I'm buying this stock low. Who would have known it was a 2008 market crash because it was horrendous. I bought it.

[Greg Olson]

You say when you say jumped on the bandwagon, you mean you Put some action on it.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, I. I actually didn't see. I actually did not.

[Greg Olson]

I just want to make sure.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, I jumped in the bandwagon publicly. I was publicly being like, the Cowboys can really get this.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. On all the shows, Taylor was heavy. Taylor was like, you know what? I'm buying the cow.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm buying the Cowboys. Dude. Schottenheimer, his play calling on offense, the run game. William, like, he's what? I think he's number two in the league in rushing. You got. Yeah, yeah. Pickens CD Lamb. It's like, how are you stopping them? Fun fact. The Broncos knew exactly how to stop them. Like, it was extreme. It was, man. Bro. It was so impressive to see. And the first drive, Bo Nix throws a pick. And I'm thinking, I did it. I finally cracked the code on how this works. I'm the man. Tweet out, maybe I was right type of thing. We go down, they get three score.

[Greg Olson]

Scores, cold takes, then just wears you out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, you're looking at. You're just like, why did I tweet this, dude, it was brutal. But yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Greg Olson]

And again, obviously, the week prior, Denver has the getting blown out 19 nothing. And they score 33 in the fourth against the giants. And that game was obviously hotly debated about end of game strategy and the clock and whatever. But, like, I don't know if anyone came out of that Denver game against the Giants saying, like, oh, man, these guys are for. They had an incredible comeback. It almost felt more of like a Giants meltdown than it did again. You score 33 in the fourth, you deserve a lot of credit. But, like, the Giants certainly didn't help themselves closing that game in the fourth quarter with some of the things they did on both sides of the ball. The problem with Dallas, and we cover a ton of Dallas games, is, like, for. And I know their offense wasn't great yesterday and partly was the Broncos defense, but their offense, week in and week out, especially now with CD Back going with Pickens, like, that offense can light you up for 30 in a minute. Like, they have been putting 30 on people. They've been scoring Dax. Been really good. They're historically bad on defense. And I think at some point, for a play caller who's also the head coach, and you're trying to match sides of the ball and you're trying to come up with a script for the week to say, okay, how are we going to win this game when you have to go into every game and you just have to assume it's going to take 30 to win. It is filtered into every decision that you make and from every first down play call to every. It is so hard mentally to go into the game and say every time we kick a field goal and every time if we have to punt or God forbid, Dak throws an interception, the game's probably over. Like, that is really, really challenging. Until Dallas can figure out how to keep people from scoring a million points, I think that's going to weigh down the Dallas offense for as good as they are. I just, it's, it's virtually impossible over long periods of time to operate in that headspace where if we don't score on every possession, we're going to lose.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I mean, that is, that's, that is well said.

[Taylor Lewan]

And I know we're playing Monday quarterback, but it's like you saying that. I'm thinking to myself, how did I not see that the entire time?

[Greg Olson]

No, I've been high. I, I, I know the last couple weeks maybe he's cooled off, but I think I said on, I can't remember what show I said it on, but like, people like, all right, who do you think's in the MVP conversation through week five? You know, all this stuff that me and you talk that we don't love doing, but I got asked and, you know, you mentioned, you know, the usual suspects and then kind of this new cast of guys we touched on with Drake May and, and Daniel Jones and whatnot. But I'm like, hey, Dax, playing as good a quarterback as anybody in the league is. The problem is at the time, I think they only had one or two wins. You know, his defense is historically bad, but as far as just playing the most important position at a high level, Dak is in that conversation. So I've been high on Dallas for years because I've seen the potential there offensively when Dax in the game, it's just they can't seem to recapture any of the magic they had on defense. And you don't have to be a killer defensively to be good in the regular season. In today's NFL, especially if your offense is scoring 30, you just can't be the worst. And that's, you know, they just need to somehow get to, like, middle of the road with a top five offense. You're going to win a lot of games in the NFL.

[Taylor Lewan]

You're absolutely right. If you, if, if you can just tag the Cowboys defense with the word mediocre.

[Greg Olson]

Yeah. Just be average.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yep. Then they would be contenders even Just.

[Greg Olson]

Now you're not going to win the Super Bowl.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. But even maybe below average.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Just not the worst.

[Taylor Lewan]

You could actually be the worst. Just not historically the worst. Like you could even take on the title of. Yeah, they're 32nd, but they're not historically bad.

[Greg Olson]

Points per. In points per game. Because I haven't had Dallas in the last couple of weeks in points per game. Dallas was like two within a couple weeks. So where. Where are they now? Is the dust settled through this past weekend's game? Is it? Can your guys look that up?

[Taylor Lewan]

The Cowboys, I think, are scoring 31. Just over 31 points per game. The Cowboys, which is what I think it was like. I think it was one. I think they were number one.

[Greg Olson]

So they're one. And defensively, I want to say they're 31st or 32nd.

[Taylor Lewan]

They're 32nd and they're giving up like 32 or 33 a game.

[Will Compton]

Like right now, here's where they stand. They are third in the league with 30 and a half points per game. 31st in the league defensively, giving up 31.3 points per game.

[Taylor Lewan]

So the. Even on average, they're giving up.

[Greg Olson]

What's the 20th. What's the 20th best defense in points per game? Well, what's the. What's 20th?

[Will Compton]

20Th?

[Greg Olson]

How many points? Let me see here.

[Taylor Lewan]

Go ahead.

[Will Compton]

Give me a second. Because I was clicking on the team.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

I just didn't know if there was like a list and you could just see like the difference between 31st and 20th.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Just be bottom half.

[Greg Olson]

That's my point. Like, you don't even need to be. You're scoring 31 a game and 30 and a half a game.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm so curious.

[Will Compton]

20. 25th is Chicago 26.

[Greg Olson]

And how many.

[Will Compton]

26.4.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, 26.

[Greg Olson]

You score 31, you can win 31. 26. The math works. The math.

[Taylor Lewan]

The math. Math there. Yeah. This is not a question for you to answer because it's like puts you in a position. But this is me being curious that maybe people can comment on. Like, what is the problem there with the Cowboys defense? Is it Eber Floofs and his play calling or is he doesn't have the horses? I know they've got a couple of injuries, but there's no way Micah Parsons changes the defense that much.

[Will Compton]

There's no way they're still toward the bottom. I feel like last year.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, they weren't great last year.

[Will Compton]

It's a mix of both things.

[Greg Olson]

This is just my observation, so people can Take it what they want. But I'm happy asked the question because I actually think it's bigger than just this sample size of, you know, what do they play, seven games, eight games? Whatever it is, you go back to the, you go back to the 2023 season when they obviously get upset at home. They have an incredible, incredible season. Dax a potential mvp, Michael Parsons potential, you know, defensive player of the year type of that. Like that 23 season that came to a screeching hall. They get upset against Green Bay at home, in, in the, in the playoffs. You go back to that team and you say, okay, what made them so good? Obviously Dan Quinn's the defensive coordinator, you're scoring 30 a game. Mike McCarthy, Dax playing out of his mind. CD you're really good offensively. So how did they build that defense? They've got Duron Bland getting record setting pick sixes, they got Trayvon Diggs record setting interceptions, ball Hawk, they've got Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence and Oso Digizua and they've got light bodies that rush the passer. They play a lot of man coverage, sticky coverage and they're playing with a lead for so much of the game that you might get me here and there. Diggs gives up a long completion. Bland gets beat a long. You know, their run defense was always crappy, but it didn't matter because. Because they're scoring a million points that they were. They built the defense with Dan Quinn to defend the pass and defend the lead. So all of a sudden at the end of the game, Micah Parsons strip sack, fumble games over. Blanded Diggs pick six games over. That was what they bought into. And that formula works. They pay Bland a million bazillion dollars. They play digs a bazillion dollars. Now you look over last year, they're injured, they're not playing right. They lose Mike for a part of the season and then he comes back. Then they lose Dakota and all of a sudden this past defending man coverage pass rush that they had built to complement this high scoring offense. The offense goes to the bottom of the league, they struggle, they can't score. They turn into a very ball control running back Rico Dowdle who's now having a career year in Carolina, he becomes a thousand yard rusher in Dallas because they just have to lean into the run game to just stay remotely competitive. But as we said earlier, all of a sudden that style now of low scoring bloodbaths doesn't match what we do well on defense, right? So everyone gets fired and they start all over. I don't think they've now from a personnel standpoint, DeMarcus Lawrence gone. Micah Parsons gone. Diggs and Bland aren't pick six and guys five, six times a year. They're not having an interception per game. They're not getting all the splash negatives that they really made a living on. Even though now their offense is back to that. So it's really been like a two and a half, three year journey of when they had both sides of the ball matched. Man, they were as good as anybody in the league. They lose the Green Bay in the, in the playoffs, all hell breaks loose. Last year is a dumpster fire of injuries. They fire Mike McCarthy and now they're trying to kind of start back over. They haven't been able to use any of the draft picks they got from Micah. So those trades, with the exception of of Kenny Clark. Yeah, Clark, you're not, you lost. You lost Micah. You haven't gotten the future picks yet. And I just don't think they have the defensive roster to be that good.

[Taylor Lewan]

Well said.

[Will Compton]

That was honestly a great breakdown.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

Cause two and a half years as short, I'm a long winded guy. That's two and a half years of watching them. That's as quick as I can make it. I'm sorry, dude.

[Will Compton]

I mean as far as seeing the entire field and understanding what your offense does to teams, here's how we're going to have to build the defense. Here's the philosophy that goes with this defense. Takeaways, pass rush, the scheme that kind of goes with those guys. How it's kind of falling apart. Over the last couple years guys have been injured when you know, it's like even, even what? Diggs. Diggs was out for a little bit last year as well. No, those are, those are great points. I do think it's a massive combination of a lot of it and it's not unfortunately it's not going to get better this year.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, it's not going to get better this year. And it really reminds you of a Peyton Manning's Colt run Colts run team where you play on the turf. You got two edge rushers that can rush the passer. That team is built to play from a lead and when you don't have those key pieces, you don't have the lead. Therefore your team is in a precarious spot. So yeah, no, that was a fantastic breakdown and also goes to show how short sighted we can all be as the viewer of seeing like game by game basis or Even just like this year, sample size and taking it as like, this is the reason why a lot of times you have to pull back the curtain a little bit, see a couple years back and be like, this is how we got here. How do we get back to there? And so, yeah, it was a fantastic breakdown. Greg, we good.

[Greg Olson]

I appreciate it. My assumption would be if you're Dallas, all these picks that you have coming up, you just double, quadruple, triple, quintuple, whatever, all them, and you just go, defense, defense, defense, defense. They've got all those first round picks on the offensive line.

[Will Compton]

Yep.

[Greg Olson]

They got to figure out how they're going to resign George Pickens. I think that could be a tricky situation when that time comes, because obviously he's not yet on that big deal when they traded for him from Pittsburgh. But I think offensively, I think from a personnel standpoint, they're in really good shape. Ferguson, I think they like their backs. I think it's dump every resource in the draft. If you have a couple bucks left over in free agency, like, it needs to be defense, defense, defense. And if you hit on those draft picks in the next two, over the next two years, you got a shot. The question is, it just puts a ton of pressure. You got to hit on those picks.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, you had to hit those pictures. You had to keep CD Lamb, George Pickens, and Dak Prescott Young. And it's like, who are those?

[Greg Olson]

Nobody beats Father Time.

[Taylor Lewan]

No one beats Father Time. We're gonna have to let you go. Give a great round of applause. We got Mike Elko coming on next year.

[Will Compton]

Hey, Greg. Next week, I would love to do a deep dive into the philosophy of how, like the running game, 12, 13 personnel, how it's making such a surge quarterback under center. Because like a decade ago, when teams were like in 12, 12 personnel, they're kind of utilizing 11 looks. How teams. You have to decide if you're going to go base or, hey, you know what? We're going to call this game Nickel philosophically on defense to where now it's like those big bodies and the way the game is changing kind of back in a circle. I would love to do a deep dive and break that down.

[Greg Olson]

I would love. I would love nothing more than to do that with you. I'll come with some thoughts and some ideas. I love those conversations. Done.

[Will Compton]

Okay, perfect. You're the man, Greg. Thank you very much.

[Greg Olson]

Oh, man. What's up?

[Mike Elko]

Hey, guys, how are you?

[Will Compton]

You see him on the screen?

[Greg Olson]

I'm leaving. I'm Greg Olson. By the way.

[Mike Elko]

From the Jersey roots.

[Greg Olson]

I know, I know, exactly.

[Mike Elko]

Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

You recruited in my dad's school, didn't you?

[Mike Elko]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Greg Olson]

Where? Now where? Remind me where you were when you recruit. I knew you recruited North Jersey because my dad's told me. Where were you when you were recruiting.

[Mike Elko]

A bunch of school schools that you won't remember? Fordham. Hofstra. Of course, when I was down at the University of Richmond, we were up there. Yeah.

[Greg Olson]

Wayne Hills.

[Mike Elko]

Wayne Hills, Yep.

[Greg Olson]

My dad tells me every time he sees you guys on national tv, my dad reminds me that he said, hey, he's been a hell of a coach now for a long time. He used to sit in my office 10, 15 years ago. I was like, I know, dad. You tell me every Saturday.

[Mike Elko]

Every Saturday, I'm gonna leave together.

[Greg Olson]

Good luck, coach. Yeah, you guys have been awesome, man. You're doing a great job.

[Mike Elko]

Thanks.

[Taylor Lewan]

Appreciate you, Greg.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, thanks, Greg.

[Taylor Lewan]

See you, brother. That's awesome.

[Mike Elko]

Good when you get two Jersey guys on a show together.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, they say, I could have sat back here and just watched you guys talk for the next 15 weekend. Took all the time. Just listening to you guys break down Jersey football.

[Will Compton]

You can feel Greg's dad, Mr. Olson, just be like, hey, that's a hell of a ball coach. He used to sit in my office.

[Taylor Lewan]

And it's like the first time you're like, that's pretty damn cool, coach.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

What's up, everybody? This is snacks from the Trap Nerds podcast and we're bringing you the horror every week all October long.

[Taylor Lewan]

Kicking off this month, I'll be bringing you all my greatest fear inducing horror games from Resident Evil to Solid Hill. Me and Tony bringing back fire team on Left for Dead two. And we just going to be going over some of the greats.

[Will Compton]

Also in October, we'll be talking about.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

Our favorite horror and Halloween movies and.

[Will Compton]

Figure out why black people always got to die first.

[Taylor Lewan]

The umbrel reliquary invites inventory any and all fool brave enough to peruse its many curiosities. But take heed, all sales are final. Weekly horror side quests written and narrated by yours truly with a full episode.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Read and a commentary special.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

And we will cap it off with Horror movie Battle Royale, Jason versus Freddy, Michael Myers versus the Alien thing with the Little Tongue Monster. October, we're doing it Halloween style. Listen to the Travelers podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Taylor Lewan]

Here we go.

[Kal Penn]

Hey, I'm Kalpen. And on my new podcast here we go again. We'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House star staffer, and, as of, like, 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions, like, are we heading towards another financial crash? Like, in 08, is non monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands, like, two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lilly Singh, and Bill Nye.

[Will Compton]

When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong.

[Kal Penn]

Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here we go again with Kal Penn on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Hey there. I'm Kyle McLaughlin. You might know me as that guy from Twin Peaks, Sex and the City, or just the Internet. Internet's dad. I have a new podcast called what Are We Even Doing? Where I embark on a noble quest to understand the brilliant chaos of youth culture.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

Daddy's looking good.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Each week, I invite someone fascinating to join me. Actors, musicians, creatives, highly evolved digital life forms. And we talk about what they love.

[Kal Penn]

Sometimes I'll drizzle a little honey in.

[Taylor Lewan]

There, too, if I'm feeling sexy in the morning.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

What keeps them going?

[Greg Olson]

And you're maybe my biggest competition on social media.

[Kal Penn]

Like when a kid says bra to.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Me and how they're navigating this high speed roller coaster we call reality.

[Greg Olson]

In Australia, you're looking out for snakes.

[Kal Penn]

Spiders, and boys, right?

[Greg Olson]

Hey, he's no Trey McDougal. Chill.

[Kal Penn]

This is, like, the comments section of my Instagram.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Join me and my delightful guests every Thursday. And let's get weird together in a good way. Listen to what are we even doing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Taylor Lewan]

Sit in your office. And then after, like, it's like week seven, it's the eighth time he said it, and it's like, dad, I know. He's the man. I got it, coach. Let's give a Coach Elko a round of applause for being on the bus, taking time out of his day. Just got back from putting an ass beating on Baton Rouge, Louisiana, lsu. We can say that, Coach. I'm sure you would not say that, but you're gonna see.

[Mike Elko]

I appreciate it coming from you guys. Guys, though, it sounds good, I'm not gonna lie.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hard fought game, guys. Ended up pulling away in that second half. Your quarterback right now, let's talk about this cat, Marcel Reed. He's fourth in the Heisman running, I'm sure, as any coach would be. You're ignoring that type of noise. So I'm just going to ask you about this core me, like, what is, what is about him, Reed, that makes him so great right now for you?

[Mike Elko]

Yeah, I think he's really taken the next step this year in terms of his ability to beat people both ways. And I think that was the big challenge that he had coming out of last year. He's a phenomenal athlete. I think you saw that Saturday night. What he can do when the play breaks down, what he can do. Improvising is at an elite level. I think what he's done is he's transitioned himself to where he can also beat you in the pocket throwing the football now. And I think his ability to do both really put stress on a defense. And I think that's been a huge part of, of the offensive success this year is. Is we are. We're multi dimensional. We have a lot of different ways that we can attack people.

[Will Compton]

Coach, can you remind me who is number five on your team defensively? Number five? The dude that was barking at the entire offensive line. Was it number five? It might have been a different number.

[Mike Elko]

Oh, no, number nine.

[Greg Olson]

Number nine.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Okay.

[Mike Elko]

Yeah. I was gonna say. Had me puzzled for a second.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, that is my fault. That is my fault. I was scrolling. I saw a clip. I saw this dude barking at basically the entire offensive line at lsu. What type of juice do you feel like that brings to a squad? And again, I was. Greg was on and I was kind of telling the boys, I'm kind of going at the seat of my pants right now. A friend of mine had a wedding over the weekend. Absolutely selfish decision on his part. I didn't get to watch a whole lot of ball, but when I'm watching that clip, like, obviously you're trying to reel it in and everything else, but internally and you know, when you're in the locker room and even watching this stuff after the game, what kind of juice does that bring to a team when you're putting an ass whooping on somebody?

[Mike Elko]

No, I think that's the line you want your team to walk. You know, you play in the sec, you go into some of these environments at night. You can't be timid, you can't be just kind of, oh, we're just going to toe the line. Like, you have to be on an edge. You got to be willing to play on an edge and you got to be willing to do things sometimes to give yourselves an edge and an opportunity. And so that's what we want to do. That's how we want to go about it. And, and obviously that was a really, really big game for us and the kids were fired up.

[Taylor Lewan]

One of the big news stories after this weekend after your game against LSU is Brian Kelly was relieved of his duties as the head coach of the LSU Tigers. It's such an interesting situation that you're, you're in because you're the last coach to play him, you're the last coach to beat him. But at one point in time, he hired you as the DC for Notre Dame. And so you can be as long winded as you want in this situation. But what is your relationship like with Brian Kelly? That game, how it unfolded? I know that a lot of LSU Tigers fans were chanting and I'm sure you guys have established some sort of relationship since you guys have parted ways, whether it's good or bad or indifferent. And I just kind of want to hear your thoughts about, you know, your relationship with him and then how that game unfolded as they were chanting, fire Kelly.

[Mike Elko]

Yeah, I mean, obviously I have a ton of respect for Brian. Brian's the guy that gave me my first opportunity to kind of get on the big stage at Notre Dame. And at that point I was a defensive coordinator at Wake Forest and he was really the first guy to give me that chance. And so I have a ton of respect for him. We've got a great professional relationship, a lot of mutual respect for each other. You never want to see that for anybody. You certainly want, don't want to see that to a guy who has helped you in your career at some point and the guy that you respect. And so I think it's a lot of things. I think one, I appreciate him and appreciate everything he did for me and my family. But also it's probably a quick notice to where this profession is. I saw this the other day. I think three of the top 15 teams in the preseason, eight people have already fired their coach at week eight. And so this is a week to week business, more now than it's ever been. And you got to keep your Head down. You got to keep grinding.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, yeah.

[Will Compton]

I was going to say, it's like you got to just keep your head down and just roll because, I mean.

[Taylor Lewan]

Bullets are flying everywhere. There's barbed wire over your head. Elko's just out there front of the pack. Ain't no just crawling away, being like, I can get God at any moment.

[Mike Elko]

But still trying really hard to not catch any strays.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's got to be a terrifying position. You got your buddy to your left and your right getting shot down. You're like, we, I gotta keep this thing going here.

[Will Compton]

The buyouts that, you know, everybody posting about the buyouts that are happening, it's like, hey, college football, these teams want to win and nobody, nobody, nobody is safe. Talk about your relationship with Trev Alberts. Obviously, he's a, He's a friend of the show. I've had him on this podcast before. He was a Nebraska guy at a linebacker that I admired going through that university. What's your relationship been like with him? Because he did a great job. Your, your guys, staff, everybody did a phenomenal job hosting us last year when we came out to the game, I believe it was against Notre Dame. Yeah, but just talk about that relationship with Mr. With Coach Alberts, Trev Alberts, and yeah, yeah, fluff up the boy.

[Mike Elko]

It's a great partnership. I think when you're the head football coach, what you would love to have is an AD who's a former All American and a first round draft pick who kind of understands football through the lens of a football player. I think that's a really, really good starting point. I think there's a lot of similarities in how he believes a program should run and how I believe a program should run. And then I think we both believe in what Texas A and M is capable of. And so. So it's been a really good partnership. I've really enjoyed getting to spend time with him, getting to know him. And again, as we try to build this place into, you know, what everybody on the outside thinks it's capable of being. It's good to be able to do that with somebody who knows football the way Trev does. And so it's been really good, culture.

[Will Compton]

Wise and standard wise. What do you. How do you feel like this mentality has shifted? Because I know just externally, watching it from afar, watching A and M fans from afar, you guys historically been known as like, you know, the three loss team that's gonna. That eventually comes. I feel like everybody's kind of, you know, clutching their pearls Every week. Now, since you guys are undefeated and at the top of the sec, how do you feel like that mentality and culture has shifted now, being in your second year as the head coach for A and M?

[Mike Elko]

Yeah, I just think what we did was we tried to instill a little bit more of a blue collar work ethic into this place. And. And I think, you know, one of the challenges when you have a place that has a lot of really nice things is entitlement starts to creep in. And all of a sudden you start expecting things to happen for you and you really don't go out and work to make them happen for you. And I think that's kind of been our mentality since day one, is we want to make sure that in those times of the year when no one's paying attention to us, that we're out working people, that we're doing things the way they need to be done so that when we get into the fourth quarter in Arkansas and things aren't going the way we want them to go, we can find a way. When we get into the fourth quarter at Notre Dame and we're down, we can find a way. And when we come out in the second half at lsu, we can run away with the game. Like, all of that stuff gets formed with those things that you're doing throughout the year. And I just think we focused a lot more on that than we have about, you know, pounding our chest about, you know, our facilities or how nice this place is or those types of things. I think maybe that's flipped a little bit how we see things and how we think about them.

[Taylor Lewan]

You're eight. No, right now you're standing at top.

[Mike Elko]

Of the SEC saying that like you're trying to jinx it. Like I'm pitching a no hitter.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, okay, you're right.

[Greg Olson]

You're right.

[Mike Elko]

Say it enough. Yeah, you're right.

[Taylor Lewan]

You're right. Let me try to rephrase it. You've lost zero times this year. So we don't jinx it. And so the. The head coach, the pitcher, can continue to throw his no hitter. What are the messages taking place in your building right now? Because like Will said, we've been to your campus. People, people say it's a. It's very much cult. Like, when it comes to your fan base, I tend to agree with that. And I mean it as a compliment. Like the midnight yells, all that. Like, it is you. You watch it. And if you're a hater of Texas A M, you're like, this, this stuff is a little bit crazy. But as a, as a Michigan guy, like, I would love it if my fan base got together at midnight in Michigan Stadium and like went over what kind of chance we're going to do. So obviously, like the expectation has just grown and grown and grown and grown. Where pearls are maybe no longer being clutched from the outside. They're now like, hey, maybe we actually, maybe we can do it. Like we had a hard time at lsu, but now we don't have a hard time. LSU more, how are you keeping those boys focused going to these last three games of the year?

[Mike Elko]

Yeah, first of all, we use the term passionate. That's what our fan base is.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mike Elko]

When you talk about passionate fan bases like they are at a lot of places around the country, they have high expectations and expectations grow every time you win a football game. And that's just the nature of college football today. And I think the biggest thing that we talk about internally is, is one, how much the noise can impact you. And that's a year round conversation to avoid the noise for the good, for the bad, no matter what, you're going to be on a seesaw, you know, and so you go out and lose a game and you're going to be the worst team in the history of Texas A and M. You go out and win a game and you're going to be the best team. And that's just how this starts stuff goes nowadays. And so a lot of it is that, a lot of it is just education on how to avoid the noise. And then I think we're in a fortunate situation because, you know, we got this program to this spot or very close to it last year where we were five and oh in the SEC and we had just beaten LSU and things were trending in a really positive direction. And I think that was really the first time this program in this last few year iteration of it experienced that. You know, people talking positive about them, people talking about potential, like, and we didn't handle it the right way last year and they know that. And so I think we have the opportunity to kind of point back to that and keep them grounded on a one game mentality or one one week mentality and finish this thing the way we want to so that we can get done what we want to get done.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, because you can see the rat poison even as players like you can see the rat poison that can start to creep into times. Especially if you are you guys right now and you're looking at Mizzou who just lost there Are two lost team. We got Mizzou, South Carolina, Sanford and Texas. Who Texas has had so much conversation around negatively, you can very much see like, hey boys, this is. We don't let our, we don't let our foot off the gas here, especially as a coach. Coachelko, I want to just read you your career, man. Stony Brook, Penn, Merchant Marine, Fordham, Richmond, Hofstra, Bowling Green, Wake Forest. Then you get your lick with Notre Dame, A and M out at Duke and then back at A and M. Man. What. When you reflect back on your career, in your climb in this business, because you clearly took, you were, you were at the absolute bottom you had to climb and earn every bit of where crazy shot at Stony Brook. But in this business, you've done clearly an incredible job. What advantages do you feel like you had making this route, making your own way when you look back and reflect on a resume like this? Again, all due respect to all these teams I just named. Talk about catching. Straight talk about catching.

[Taylor Lewan]

You did just go crazy. All these teams suck. And now you're at a good team. Coach, how do you feel?

[Will Compton]

I don't even mean it like that, bro. I don't even mean it like that. But it's just, you know.

[Mike Elko]

No, I, I get the question. This is, this is what I would say. It was a unique path, for sure. I've said that a lot of times to a lot of different people. It's something we talk about in recruiting. You know, I was, I was never the guy who went and elevated himself as a GA or position coach. I became a defensive coordinator at Hofstra when I was 26 years old and I just climbed the ranks of football as a defensive coordinator. And, and that was just the path that I took. That was how it went. And I think what you learn from it is one, a humbleness and a humility that, you know, you're great coaches, great players, they come from a lot of different places, right? And it's not necessarily who the most star studded names on social media are. It's the people who are capable and do the work to be really successful. And I think that's. That forms from that also. It's probably an appreciation for the opportunities that I have because that first job, I'll tell you, the first job I was at Stony Brook, my office was in a portable trailer right next to the bathroom. And so I can't say that when I was sitting there going to work every day, slicing cut up tapes that I envisioned this would be the ending point. I think it keeps you humble, keeps you grounded, and just kind of makes you stick to the process that you've always gone through your whole life.

[Will Compton]

What were you getting paid as a GA in Stony Brooks? Brooke?

[Mike Elko]

Oh, gosh, I think I was getting paid like 65, $6,500. I'll tell you the best one. So the second year, so I'm a Penn grad, so. So a lot of Penn grads make a lot of money when they get out of college. I didn't. My second year, I went back to Penn and I kept having to bring recruits through this presentation where they were showing the average starting salary of a Penn grad. And I think I was making like 17, 000. I think the average grad was making like 90. At that point, I'm thinking to myself, geez, I'm not sure that I made the right decision with my life. But it's worked out. We kind of got to the point.

[Taylor Lewan]

That is a funny story about questioning your, your path. Has there ever been a real question for you, being like, maybe you have a tough season or two and you're like, I don't know if this is the path I truly want to go down. Have you ever had one of those moments as a coach?

[Mike Elko]

No, I really haven't. I really have been fortunate. I've been fortunate that, that, you know, most of the time I've been part of programs that we're ascending. You're never really been. Been up against the block where things were trending backwards or trending downhill. Knock on wood. I've been fortunate enough to never have been fired. And so, you know, I've had a blessed career. If you can think about how, how many pitfalls there really are in football. And so even though some of those names aren't the most prestigious names of schools that I've been at, you know, I have been fortunate to be part of a lot of really good seasons and a lot of really good situations.

[Will Compton]

Hats off to you for being selfless to know I'm going to take these recruits through this presentation. And honestly, you're just, you're taking strays left and right like you're going to get slaughtered. Your ego is going to get slaughtered every time you're running them through this presentation.

[Mike Elko]

I kept asking the lady when I would leave, I'm like, does this have mine, like in it? Like, is this counting what I'm making or is this like a previous graduating class?

[Taylor Lewan]

Or how does it. That is awesome, Coach. We appreciate the hell of you taking the time out of Your day busy?

[Will Compton]

I have one more question.

[Taylor Lewan]

Well, he's got one more question. I'm going to restart.

[Will Compton]

You had a.

[Mike Elko]

This one comes from the wedding.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Will Compton]

This one comes from the wedding. Who's number seven? You had a famous quote last year. This is a real program. It's not fake. It's not a politician run. It's not a politician running this program, talking fast and bullshitting everybody. This is a real program for all the recruits out there. This is a real place. And if you want to be really good at football, this is the. This is a really good place to be. Your name. With all of these job openings coming open, open. Your name starts to get in those conversations. Because the belief on the outside is also Texas A and M. The brand, the logo, everything else. This at one point in time was a stepping stone to all of these other schools, these jobs that are now opening up with lsu, Florida, Penn State. For you sitting where you're at and the. The movement of nil money, you building this place to where everyone talks about on the outside, what Texas A and M could be. What do you feel? How do you feel about that noise? Are these conversations you have with the players when your name comes up in these conversations? As far as A, Texas A and M is a spot I want to be. This is the most focused on putting into. As a coach of the Texas A M Aggies. What are those conversations like when you're compartmentalizing everything? Being at A M. Yeah.

[Mike Elko]

I had a really other famous quote that came out like a week and a half ago that was on social media about my thoughts on these other jobs and it being a waste of brain space. I think no different than we talk to our players. I think it's really important to focus on what's in front of you. We have a lot of confidence in what we're doing here at Texas A and M, what this place can be. And I just don't think those conversations are things that are important at all during the season. And so internally we address the things that we need to. But like we tell the players to avoid the external noise. I think it's really important that coach coaches do the same. And that's how we try to go about it.

[Will Compton]

Coach, man, you are. I tell you what, I love to have an ice cold Bud Light with you one day. You saying strays? You having some laughs? Like I can just tell you're a guy's guy and would love to have a beer with you at some point.

[Taylor Lewan]

When we visit, we'll get you guys.

[Mike Elko]

Back down to College Station and maybe we'll make that happen.

[Greg Olson]

All right?

[Will Compton]

All right, brother. Coach, thank you very much, man.

[Greg Olson]

Thank you.

[Taylor Lewan]

Thank you for taking the time. Coach.

[Mike Elko]

Yep.

[Taylor Lewan]

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[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

What's up everybody? It's snacks from the Trap Nerds. All October long, we're bringing you the horror.

[Taylor Lewan]

Boogity, boogity boogity.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

We kicking off this month with some.

[Taylor Lewan]

Of my best horror games to keep you terrified.

[Will Compton]

Then we'll be talking about our favorite.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

Horror and Halloween movies and figuring out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Why black people always die first.

[JP (South Carolina Player)]

And it's the return of Tony's horror.

[Taylor Lewan]

Show side Quest, written and narrated by yours truly. We'll also be doing a full episode reading with commentary, and we'll cap it.

[Snacks (Trap Nerds Podcast)]

Off with a horror movie movie Battle Royale. Open your free AHA Radio app and search Trap Nerds podcast and listen now.

[Kal Penn]

Hey, I'm Kalpen and on my new podcast, here we Go again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? Each week I'm calling up my friends like Bill Nye, Lilly Singh, and Pete Buttigieg to talk about everything from the space race to movie remakes to psychedelics.

[Will Compton]

Putting up another way. Are you high?

[Kal Penn]

Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, but my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kyle McLaughlin]

Hey, I'm Kyle McLaughlin. You might know me as that guy from Twin Peaks, Sex and the City, or just the Internet Stand. I have a new podcast called what Are We Even Doing? Where I embark on a noble quest to understand the brilliant chaos of youth culture. Each week I invite someone fascinating to join me to talk about navigating this high speed rollercoaster we call reality. Join me and my delightful guests every Thursday and let's get weird together in a good way. Listen to what Are We Even doing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.