← Josh Pate's College Football Show
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Josh Pate
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
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Bradley
This is Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman
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- [00:13]
Bradley
Honestly, I needed that. I'm feeling a little foggy.
- [00:15]
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That's your body talking. Brain fog is one of the potential signs of mild dehydration. Did you forget that already?
- [00:22]
Bradley
Maybe for a second, but I know the others. Thirst, nausea, fatigue, headaches, irritability and dark pee.
- [00:29]
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Bradley
Are you saying we're not real experts?
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- [00:47]
Bradley
Wrong. It's sugar free Mango Pineapple.
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- [01:03]
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Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a of a kind index and lets you backtest it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available@public.com,
- [02:04]
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- [02:36]
Bradley
Busted Appliance this is your sign to upgrade shop at Lowe's to get up to 35% off and next day delivery on hundreds of major appliances. Lowe's we help you Save valid through 318 while supplies last selection varies by location. Order by 4pm Available Monday through Saturday subject to availability, fees, exclusions and restrictions apply. See Lowes.com appliancedelivery for more details. Visit your nearby Lowe's on Colorado street in Kennewick. I seen the live chat as we're coming on air. Ol wet blanket 77 in there said we should go to Stillwater and interview Eric Morris for the Speaker Series. We had two big commitments for the Speaker Series today. Whomst I can't reveal yet but two newbies on the Speaker Series. So maybe Eric Morris will be the third. I don't know. We're jam packed. We're high atop a very refreshingly warm downtown Nashville, Tennessee on this Thursday, March 5th, the year of our Lord 2026. I have, well, I have the toughest places to play in college football listed in front of me. It was very suspicious that our friends down the street over at busting with the boys came out with theirs a little while earlier. Even right as we had revealed the show title for tonight and revealed that we were going to talk about. That's not an allegation. You know, it's just a coincidence. How many of these playoff teams from last year are going to be repeat playoff teams this year? I'm just going to throw the over under out at six and a half. Someone asked us that earlier today. I'm going to answer that tonight. I am also going to just ask the question. Anyone who has a good theory can answer me. Why is the ACC the way it is? Why has the ACC been the way it is? Don't be telling me the ACC went to the national championship game last year. It really didn't. Miami did. Miami almost feels independent of the ACC at this point. So I'm going to talk a little bit about it later. And then there's a wild theory floating around by one of our brethren in the college football media space that I'm going to react to. I have to. I can't pretend like I haven't seen it or heard it. So I'm going to react to it. We'll talk about Lou Holtz. Lou Holtz passed away yesterday. I'll just give you my viewpoint on Lou Holtz. Not one of those whacked out of my mind Keith Olbermann takes like A legit just human being's take on Lou Holtz, legend, icon for many different reasons to many different generations, which is kind of what fascinated me about Lou Holtz. So we'll talk about all that tonight. They're watching us in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Reno, Nevada, St. Augustine, Florida, Joplin, Missouri. You might be asking yourself, hey, I'm new around here. Is this a college football show in March? Yes, we do it year round. What else are we going to do? Talk about the NBA? No, it's college football all year here. Do me a favor. The show's free. It just helps us. If you subscribe to the channel and then that's it for you, it doesn't sign you up for anything. You don't have to pay for anything. It really doesn't change anything for you. It just helps us. And anything that puts food on Director Bradley's table is something that we're in favor of around here. Let's dive into the show. It's that time of year. This happens. I don't know, Jesse. About once a year or so someone asks us for this. And this year it was Elliot from beautiful Longview, Texas. Elliot, Longview, Texas, he said, I've seen people ask you about the biggest or your favorite stadiums, but I want to know the stuff that really matters. What are the toughest stadiums to play at? You're in luck, Elliot. I had free time on my hands today and as you can hear, I've got the list in my hand. And so I'm just going to go 10 to 1 because I'm not going to go 50 stadiums deep here. Number 10, I'm putting Georgia. Let me give you a little bit of thinking. Behind each one of these, I've got Sanford Stadium, Athens, Georgia, as the 10th toughest place to play. Now you could do the whole, well, it's toughest place to play. Cause the team's good. Let's almost remove the quality of the team here for the sake of the venue. If we're just talking about the venue, you know, Kirby Smart challenged them several years ago. He in a roundabout way said, guys, we are not measuring up to some of the other big time environments on the road that we experience in the sec. And to his fan base's credit, they responded. Because if you went to a road game in Athens in 2015 and then you went to it again in 2025, that place is like totally transformed itself. More from an attitudinal perspective. I guess the fan base took it upon themselves to answer the challenge. They've also greatly improved their in stadium presentation. The settings immaculate. And you were pretty much born with that. God just kind of gave you Athens, Georgia, and then you had to make the most of it. Yeah, the team's good, but I was there last year for, I think, two primetime games, right? The bama game was primetime game. Texas was a primetime game. And it gets no better than that. That was unbelievable. So give me Georgia at number 10. Okay, I'm going to put Alabama and bryant Denny stadium. I'm going to put bama and Bryant Denny stadium at number nine. Toughest places to play in college football at its best. It's unreal. The problem with bama and the problem with that environment for a long time was they were winning so much. Those people never really felt threatened. And so you'd go there for a big game, it'd be a good, solid environment, but it would be a lot more of an event or like a, you know, a spectacle or a celebration of Alabama football than it would be just a rabid environment. And now I'm not saying they've fallen off greatly, but bama plays a lot more close games these days. Bama is in greater threat to lose at home these days than they were in the vintage Saban years. And so if you've been to a bama home game lately, we go to at least one every year, if not more. It's pretty off the charts. And there's the other thing. When you get with Ohio State, Alabama, some of these blue blood, been there forever type programs, on average, you've got an older crowd. That doesn't mean the average age is 75, but it's not 25 either. Now that's a blessing because that means you've been around and you've mattered for a long time and you got a lot of money. Those folks don't tend to be at the top of their lungs on third down. So you're fighting that a little bit. It's a small price to pay. But bama is really good right now. That environment's really good right now. So I'd put it at number nine. Number eight. I know this will shock you coast to coast, but I'm going to stay in the SEC for just a second. Give me Texas A and M. Kyle field. Texas A and M I would put as the number eight, toughest place to play. Now, this has a green arrow pointing upwards. So I don't think that Kyle field has peaked. I still think that they could rise on the rankings here. It's like its own planet. I know a lot of you haven't been there. You need to go. I need to see if I can get you credentialed and we can get some, some sideline passes for you and you can just stand there and you can experience this place. There are a lot of places that are loud. Kyle Field is loud too. It's deafening, but it's like you're on Mars watching a football game. Now this is complimentary to A and M. People try and hate on them. And I have long since shared my difference of opinion with people who talk about cult like behavior and talk about this and that. That's just tradition to me. That's just setting yourself apart from the rest of the world to me. So I appreciate that. I love that. It's not homogenized and it's not like a plug and play just like every other place you would go on Saturday. But it's the most disorienting venue in college football to me. If you can go in there, you can stand on a field and you can look up when they do the war hymn, you know, when they sway back and forth, it's like 110,000 people doing it. And your senses aren't really used to first off noise like that, but then your senses visually aren't used to seeing that. It's like back in the day when they had those 3D puzzle books and you'd have to stare at it for a second and you'd cross your eyes and oh, there goes the picture. It's popping out at me. And then you uncross your eyes and it takes a second for you to adjust again. Or, you know, if you've been on a merry go round and you get off of it, you're dizzy. It takes a second to adjust. That's how it feels to me when I'm looking up at the crowd at Kyle Field and I don't even have to complete a pass on third down. So it's not the easiest place in the world to play. I think it needs more love. Give me Kyle Field at number eight, at number seven. I think we're going to get controversial here, but just trust me, I am a great source on this. I've been to this place many times. Jordan Hare Stadium, Auburn, Alabama. I would put Jordan Hare Stadium at Auburn at number seven with caveats. So I have little stars written on the page here. It needs to be a good year for Auburn and in an ideal world we would have Georgia or Alabama in town. I could make the argument that Auburn in a Good year with Georgia or especially Alabama in town is actually the toughest place to play in college football. There will be doubters on that, and I understand, because we're splitting hairs at a certain point. But if you've ever kind of been there for that environment, if you've been there for that kind of occurrence, I don't think people who have experienced that push back on it a whole lot. And I go to all these places and I've seen big games, and every place that I'm going to talk about here, it's very, very loud, it's very intimidating. Really tough road accommodations for the visiting team, all of that. But also, and I don't know how to explain this, I can't quantify it. It's the place for a visiting team when the home team's good. That makes you feel like you're playing uphill the most. Kind of feels like the field is tilted figuratively against you a little bit more than your typical road environment. Some people just call that black magic, dark magic. I don't know. I've seen evidence for and against, and so I can't prove that. I just know Auburn's a really tough place to play. And then, mark my words, there will be people who agree with me on that when everyone else is disagreeing, who will now disagree with me on number six, because I've got Washington at number six. Washington just blew me away when I went up there a few years ago. Obviously, I grew up in the south, so I knew very little about Washington football. I would listen to, like, Cowherd when he would talk about west coast football back in the day, and he would say, yeah, all the SEC places, those are really tough to play. There's some good Big Ten venues, but Washington's the most underrated one in all of college football. And I'd listen to that and I would just think, it's west coast bias. It's notorious in college football. And I just wouldn't believe it. It was a simple math equation for me. You're telling me they've got like 50 or 60% of the capacity of some of these places in the south and the Big Ten, and yet it's deafening there. So I went up there a couple of years ago and sure enough, they were right. If anything, they undersold it a little bit. Just an amazing, amazing, picturesque environment. And that's before they opened the gates. And then they opened the gates, and place is deafening. Can't hear anything. You can talk about architecture, whatever you want to explain it, it is what it is. And so you're not able to hear anything. And yet you can also see the ocean. I don't really know anywhere else I can say that. So it has to be the right time because there will be teams that have gone in there to play, you know, like a non high level matchup and they'll say, well, we went and played at Washington and it was okay, but it's really overrated. It's not what these people say it is. Well, look, all due respect, I don't think there have been many vintage Oregon State teams that went in there that got the kind of environment that Oregon got a few years ago. I was there for the Oregon game, so it blew my mind. Number five. And we got to be careful here. And this is really where we got to call on John Sumrall, friend of the program, possible speaker series participant this spring, to resurrect the attitude, to resurrect, dare I say, the reputation of the Swamp. So I'm putting Florida at number five, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, or as we call it on the streets, the Swamp at Florida at its best. Borderline unmatched in college football. Here's the problem that's very obvious. It hasn't been at its best enough. So we're kind of creeping further and further down the road where we have to explain to people who are younger why this venue is on this list. Now, if you're 35 years old, you know why this venue is on this list. Because you heard it, you've witnessed it when Urban Meyer was there, or maybe you're a little bit older, you're a generation older and you witnessed it when Steve Spurrier was there. Well, not much has changed about the place. It's still the same. So you know what it's capable of, you know what it wants to be. It just hasn't had enough reason to consistently be that. But it can be noise. And then also, this is one of those few places that also weather can regularly creep in and affect how tough it is to play there because Florida just gets to live in that all year. Like everything that you would think Tennessee had to deal with traveling to Ohio State a couple of years ago for the playoff. When it comes to cold weather, well, if you turn that entirely upside down, you go play in Gainesville, you're liable to have to deal with the opposite end of the meteorological spectrum. What about number four? Number four, I've been blessed to take in several games here now, Oregon, Austin Stadium, Oregon, number four, toughest place to play in College football for me right now, again, kind of like with Washington, there will be doubters. I know this because I get pushed back all the time when I talk about how tough it is to play at Austin Stadium. And then you come to find out, like, 95% of the doubters have never been there. So all they're doing is the thing I used to do when I was growing up. The capacity is like 60,000, 50, 4000. There's just no way. I don't know how else to explain this to you. Yes, there is a way. You just have to go experience it for yourself. Insane volume. But also there's something above and beyond just the volume there. Energy, which you would think is synonymous with noise. And it's not always. I mean, because you could stand still and yell. They don't stand still and yell at Oregon. So a lot of movement, a lot of energy, a lot of juice in the crowd. I remember a couple of years ago when we were up there for the Ohio State game, and at halftime, I think I've told this story before halftime, I go and I talk to some esteemed dignitaries who are in attendance from Ohio State, and they were blown away by the environment, and their attitude was, I'm glad we traveled so well out here. I'm glad so many of our people made the trip out here because they need to experience this, because they admitted we kind of lagged behind when it comes to game day environment. Now, this is two years ago, so Ohio State's taken steps since then. But I mean, Oregon and the trip to Oregon, it almost like serves as a palate cleanser for a lot of other game day operations people. And they'll send their folks out there and say, hey, go to Oregon, get a load of that. And then come back here and bring me ten good, fresh ideas. What about number three, Numero Trace? Penn State under construction right now, Penn State Beaver Stadium. I think the whiteout there is the most amazing spectacle we have to offer in college football. And since college football is the best sport on the face of the earth, by default, the whiteout at Penn State is the best spectacle in all of sports. Confirmed. So when we went up there for the whiteout game a few years ago, I came back and I think I did a solid 10 minutes just on what it was like, because it was my first one and I had heard about it. And it's one of those rare instances in life where something's really, really hyped and you experience it and somehow it exceeds the hype. And I remember I was trying to explain to buddies who had not been there why it's different above and beyond just the volume, the volumes off the charts. There was this other element and the best way I could describe it is it was like 110. What is it, Jesse? What's capacity? Like 106,000. Called 110 standing room only. So like 110,000 people who just perfectly accept that they have a role to play. And there's like, there's no wasted seat, there's no wasted space in there. Everyone goes in there and they almost go in there like they have a job to do. And I know every fan base thinks they do that Penn State just does it better than the rest of you. So it was like a high level football game and a rock concert and Wrestlemania in terms of spectacle. Just witnessing that all at the same time. Unbelievable. I'm putting LSU at number two with a caveat of my own. Now we're splitting hairs at this point. I got LSU Tiger Stadium as the number two toughest places to play in college football. And if you just gave me night games at lsu, LSU would be number one on this list. But I have to factor in all elements here. So lsu, let me be very clear. If I take it at its best, if I put Bama in there on a Saturday night, there's no place like Tiger Stadium. Big game on a Saturday night. But your noon kickoffs, your three 30s, sometimes if I have to throw those in the blender, maybe it brings it down just a little bit. But coming down to number two is still really good. Just think about these elements being thrown into that blender. Think about that as a concept. Louisiana on a Saturday night. And now Lane Kiffin's the head coach there with the number one portal class in America, Sam Levitt, ready to pull a trigger at quarterback. I got great front line players, I got great secondary depth in that portal class. Maybe some mystery third candidates. Who is this year's Trinidad Chambliss? Who's going to be the first person to print that headline? We'll see. But I get all that thrown into the same equation and I know it's March right now, April, May, June, July, August, September. We got a little ways, but it's going to happen. Do we have kickoff time for the Clemson game? Jesse I know they play Clemson in week one. They're at last check about a ten to a ten and a half point favorite at FanDuel, our friendly neighborhood odds provider night kickoff. So we have that confirmed. Jesse. Oh, because I don't I don't want to be misquoted about kickoff times in March. Tba. Okay? Tba. Which means it could be. Could be possibly a night kickoff. I guess we don't even probably know what day they're gonna play. They move that stuff around all the time. Number one. Has been for a while for me, Neyland Stadium. I got Tennessee. And Neyland Stadium is the toughest place to play in college football at its best. I've never witnessed anything like it. Now I have seen Neyland Stadium at its best. I would call the Georgia game last year and the Bama game in 22 and 24 the best I've ever seen. College football. Deafening noise. The most hostile environment, especially for the 2022 Alabama game. Just like Roman Colosseum. Kill, kill, kill. Blood thirst type afternoon that you really don't get to witness anymore when you hear your grandfather talk about how it used to be that way. Nah, man, it's been that way in the last four or five years in Neyland Stadium. And they took Alabama down after, what, 15 consecutive losses or something like that. And there was just this overflow of emotion. It changed me. It shaped me. It is the spectacle, the game, the experience through which I judge all other stadium experiences. So Neyland Stadium at its best is without equal in college football. And Bill Martin, the last three or four sound bites were for you, my friend. Let's move on. We were really happy there, but we got a really sad question here in the inbox. By the way, if you're wondering, about a month ago, I was going to do one of the Pate State Extra Mailbag episodes, and then I didn't do it. And so we just had this massive backlog of Twitter questions, and we've been sitting on them. And Jesse prepared all these elements for him, and at some point, he's got to speak up. And Jesse has a question later in the show, by the way. So Jesse has to speak up eventually and say, are we ever going to do these questions or did I waste five days of my life preparing these elements? So we're just mowing through the questions right now. Admittedly, I hand picked the best ones. Earl in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, for example, came at us with this. He said, with Florida State and Clemson falling off, it feels like Miami is the only ACC team that could win a college football playoff game this year. What happened to this conference, Earl? That is a phenomenal question you're asking there from Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, because it is the most inexplicable thing about college football that doesn't have anything to do with the ncaa, I guess, or lawsuits over the past several years. The fact that the ACC has been secret garbage, with few exceptions, for several years now is so inexplicable. If you really think about the collection of programs, the collection of teams, the recruiting footprint, it should never be this bad collectively. So Miami just played for a national title and they were close to winning one. Miami for a long time screwed it up and they didn't hold up their end of the deal. Now they are now Florida State's fallen off and Clemson has fallen off. So we've never had a stretch where it is 1, 2 and 3, perennial title contender type mode. We haven't had it. We haven't had it and we should have it. It's just that there's so much that can't get out of its own way at times up and down the Atlantic Coast. But it's not just them. The State of Virginia has dropped the ball fantastically. Virginia Tech once was a national power. I'm not saying they ought to be beaten down the door of the playoff every year, but you ought to have to go through them. Or Virginia. You have Josh. Virginia sucks. They're hardly ever good. Yes, it's inexplicable to have to say that. That's my whole point. North Carolina has woefully underachieved. I think once Kenney got Arizona State back with a pulse and a heartbeat, North Carolina became the most underachieving program in America. It was Texas A and M for a while, then it was Arizona State and now it's North Carolina. North Carolina State's the same way. It's just like good enough has been enough in that conference for so many years. And here's the problem. You see all those little orange tiger paws there? I thought in the mid 2000s, mid 20 teens rather that Clemson was going to change this. I thought Clemson and Dabo Swinney going on that run they did in the 20 teens was going to change the dynamic. Because I thought for sure there's no way this conference is just going to let Clemson beat it over the head every single year. There's no way they're just going to get collectively body bagged every single year and not put up a fight. And guess what happened? They zipped the bag up for Clemson every year and never put up a fight. Which in a weird, twisted sort of way was the most impressive thing about what Dabbo and Clemson did. Because if you think about the run they went on. Who was. Who was the great foil? Like, who was the great 1A or 1B to their 1A? Who was pushing back? Who'd they have to go through? They just laid waste to the acc and then they'd run up against Ohio State or they'd run up against Alabama and they'd beat them. And it flew in the face of what history had taught us. History had taught us. Boy, if you're facing a team like Bama that's been battle tested in the SEC and you've just cakewalked your way through your conference, you're going to have to ultimately pay the price when you face them. Clemson was so razor sharp despite not getting battle tested. That was a huge testament to the way dabo ran Clemson. Now this sounds like a dabo love fest. It's about to take a very sharp downward turn. I don't know that it's that way anymore. Like, that's kind of what's exposing the ACC even further. Thank the Lord for Miami right now because Florida State's fallen off and it doesn't feel like they're coming back. Clemson has fallen off, and it doesn't feel like they're coming back. And I had, like, a strange amount of you asking me if I heard what Fornelli said the other day about Clemson. Now, we don't typically just play sound bites from other college football shows on here. I don't really know why. So I said earlier today, well, let's do it. So Fornelli's on cover three. The other day. I think it was him and Chip who were talking about Clemson, and Fornelli was tired of beating around the bush. You know, Tom, at a certain point, it's time to go. It's time to wrap this thing. So he just kind of cut to the quick, and I'll play what he said for you, and then I'll react to it because it. It hurts. But I think we need to hear it. Clemson is dead. It's dead. It's not coming back. There's no. Like, there will be. As the off season goes on, you will start seeing people, you know, like, saying, maybe, oh, Clemson, Clemson. Maybe this is the year. Nope. I told you it would hurt. I don't think he's wrong. I really don't think he's wrong. I can't poke holes in that. This is the time of year where traffic's a little down and, you know, there may be someone out there in the creator sphere that wants to say stuff for shock value. And you could say anything you want in March. Cause even if you don't mean it, you just take it back in May or June and then you make your predictions in July and everyone's forgotten about it. That's not what he's doing there. He's just kind of calling it like he sees it. And I think he's seeing it right. 2025 was supposed to be the year for Clemson. 2025. If you'll recall, this time last year we were pointing to the upcoming season saying, this has got to be the year for Clemson. Forget about 26. Don't even look past 25. There's an edge of a cliff behind 2025. The reason I was saying that is because I knew 2026 did not shape up well. It did not look very promising on the horizon. Well, the problem is Clemson didn't even get it done in 2025. So now going into 2026, the talent level has fallen off. The players aren't there. The players are not there. They have finished outside the top 20 in the Rivals team rankings the last two seasons. They're not a major portal player at all. The players just aren't there. They. They don't match rosters with Miami. They're not even close anymore. So Clemson's not going to be the one that pulls the sled for you anymore. Maybe it's Miami, but behind them, I'm looking, and I don't know that I can count on Clemson. I don't know that I can count on Florida State at all. We'll see what James Franklin does at Virginia Tech. SMU is the one to watch, really. I don't have confidence in Belichick at North Carolina. There are a lot of places that I wish they'd get their act together, but they haven't. SMU is the one. They bought their way into this conference. They got a totally different financial situation than the rest of the league and they saw fit to do that because they have a plan. They beat Miami. We were at this game last year. They beat Miami at home last year. But I've been out there and I know that staff pretty well. It's kind of like, hey, if no one else is going to take it, we'll take the opportunity. And I think they are, and I think they'll continue to do so. So if you're kind of searching the landscape, my needle doesn't stop on Clemson or Florida State right now. My needle stops on Virginia Tech because at least I know they're going to be all in on trying to get something done. And SMU for the same reasons. Georgia Tech, I think I could describe that way for the same reasons. But Tech hasn't done anything yet. So it's we're still in sort of the remains to be seen camp with Brent Key. I know it sounds a little harsh, but I mean for it to sound harsh. The big think about the Big 12 and the ACC. So they are viewed as a distant 3 and 4 behind the SEC and the Big 10 in terms of quality. The Big 12 got robbed of their top two programs not too long ago. Texas and Oklahoma left. They left. The ACC hasn't had anything. Who'd they lose? Maryland. The ACC hasn't lost anything. And yet they're still sitting there and it's like an afterthought of a conference. I can't explain it. I would say you've got to have someone that lights a fire under the rest of the league. Dabo tried for like a decade. Dabo and Clemson did their job and everyone just kind of sat there, watched Clemson like it was a fireworks show and they were children. Just whoa. And no one sought to duplicate it. No one. I don't know. I don't know. We do not have any ACC merch in the store right now, but we do have some good shirts in the store right now. Patestatematerial.com if you want to go there. And I made some comments the other day about how we had new items in the store and then there was some new stuff that I didn't know about. Well come to find out there was some new stuff since then that I didn't know about it until this morning, which is why I'm telling you about it right now. Long sleeves, short sleeves, all kinds of different accessories. Patstatematerial.com the place to go and Alex would appreciate if you filled out a comment card and said hey to her on your way to checkout. Not mandatory certainly, but it's appreciated.
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- [33:39]
Lenovo Pro Ad Voice
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- [34:08]
Bradley
wasn't that delicious? So good. Your bill, ladies.
- [34:12]
Cindy Crawford
I got it.
- [34:12]
Josh Pate
No, I got it. Seriously, I insist.
- [34:16]
Bradley
I insisted first.
- [34:17]
Josh Pate
Don't be silly. You don't be silly.
- [34:20]
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- [34:26]
Bradley
Okay.
- [34:26]
Josh Pate
Rock, paper scissors for it.
- [34:28]
Bradley
Rock, paper, scissors. Shoot.
- [34:30]
Liquid IV Ad Voice
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- [34:39]
Cindy Crawford
hi, I'm Cindy Crawford and I'm the founder of Meaningful Beauty. Well, I don't know about you, but like I never liked being told, oh wow, you look so good for your age. Like, why even bother saying that? Why don't you just say you look great at any age? Every age. That's what Meaningful Beauty is all about. We create products that make you feel confident in your skin at the age you are now. Meaningful Beauty. Beautiful skin at every age. Learn more@meaningfulbeauty.com.
- [35:15]
Bradley
Let's continue. A lot of good questions in the mailbag. A lot of good questions. I feel like we could do a three hour show tonight. Allen in Benslem, Pennsylvania. Where's that? Jesse? Bensalem. Not Bethlehem. We know where that is. Bensalem. Bradley cut all that out. Allen up in Pennsylvania. Probably rural PA if I had to guess by the town over under six and a half teams who made the playoff last year? Making the playoff this year. I like it because FanDuel is not even offering me this yet. Maybe they will tomorrow, but they're not offering me that yet. So obviously 12 teams made the playoff last year. There are the teams there. Do you have them memorized if you're listening on podcast. If you don't really quick Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas Tech. Those were your top four. Oregon, Ole Miss, A and M, Oklahoma, Bama, Miami and then Tulane and JMU both made it. So we're asking over under six and a half of those teams making it back to the playoff. Okay, now per FanDuel paper popper of a stat, 10 of the top 13 teams to win the title this upcoming year made the playoff last year. So FanDuel thinks it's an over. FanDuel is clearly leaning towards the over. But FanDuel doesn't make the bets, they just take the bets. So who knows? Who knows, Maybe we can find some hidden value here. My first thought if I'm trying to nail this over under is who are the best bets to make the playoff this year. That got left out last year. So Notre Dame immediately comes to mind. Like I would be shocked, really stunned to shocked if Notre Dame doesn't make the playoff this upcoming season. Well, that's one because they didn't make it last year. Texas, tough schedule now, but Texas, there's no excuse for them not to make playoff this upcoming year. That'd be two. LSU has the ninth best odds to win it all. I'm going to say LSU should expect to make the playoff. I'm going to put that on lane right here in front of God and everybody before they even start spring practice. So that'd be three. Usc. No, I won't go as far as to say they should expect to make it, but I think they've got a reasonable shot to make it. I just have my fingers here counting. That'd be four. Well, I'm not. I'm not saying we're going to go 4 for 4 there, but if you think about the G5 element of this, the G5 put two teams in the playoff last year because it's expected that these conferences are going to fix their tiebreaker systems. I don't think we're getting two G5 teams in the playoff period this upcoming year. And if it sounds complicated, it is. It's mainly stupid that the ACC tiebreaker situation was such that they allowed a second G5 team to get the playoff last year anyway. We think that's going to be fixed. So kind of a moot point on whether you think two G5s should make it or not. I don't think either of the G5s that made it last year are going to make it this upcoming year. Tulane and JMU made it. They both lost Their coaching staffs, they'll be good programs, but I don't think they're going to make the playoff this upcoming year. So that's going to open in the aggregate a spot for at least one new team to make it, maybe two. We'll see the most vulnerable teams out of the 12 that made it last year. Let's just think about it. First off, the SEC had five, the Big Ten had three. Maybe we see a shift there. Maybe the Big Ten is a little deeper but less top heavy. Maybe there's some separation in the sec. Maybe it looks like the Big Ten where there's three solid top tier teams and then there's a little bit of a drop off. So maybe there are five Big Tens and three secs this year. Who knows? Michigan, Penn State, usc. I'm looking at you. You're the ones who have to provide the depth in the Big Ten. So that could happen. And then obviously you could have Alabama not make it. You could have Oklahoma not make it. You could have any of a number of teams in the Big Ten, like I just mentioned, that didn't make it last year make it this year. What's the ACC going to do? What's the Big 12 going to do? Each of those were one bid leagues last year. Miami and that's it from the ACC, Texas Tech and that's it from the Big 12. So do either of those send more than one team? My guess is out of the ACC and the Big 12 they will combine to send three teams. So someone will be a two bid league. I think. I think the G5 is just going to get one team in. Here's the bottom line. Can I find four more? If I think the Big 12 and the ACC will combine to get three in. If I think the G5 is going to get one team in, can I just find four more somewhere? Notre Dame? Yes. Texas. Yes. I'm struggling though. I'm struggling. And obviously it's March 5th, so we're just on the record forever here with my over, under. So if I had to bet this right now, I would say very slightly under six and a half teams repeat as playoff participants. That's where I'm going. Right. Jesse went over. You went over, right? You think over six and a half. I'm saying under I'm landing on six, you're landing on seven is basically what we're saying. So I think half the playoff field this upcoming year and no more will be made up of repeat playoff teams. I very well could change my mind on this Fanduel clearly thinks I'm out of my mind, so I very well could change my mind on that. Let's continue. By the way, I appreciate you guys watching live. If you're watching, make sure you subscribe to the channel and like the video. Oh, this was a really, really good one. Let me take a sip of water. I need to be hydrated for this. Before I take the sip, here's a little tease. How well do you remember Texas A&M's 2022 signing class? Yeah. Well, I ask you that because Anthony asked us this. Anthony from Dallas, Texas. Can we officially call the Texas A and M number one class in 2022 a bust? Yes. Yes. I think we've mostly arrived at that conclusion. Yeah, it's a bust. Historic bust. What do you remember about this? Even people who don't follow recruiting remember this. This was the beginning of the NIL feeding frenzy. This was when we kind of knew what the acronym stood for and we knew that it was coming. It was sort of on the horizon. And then all of a sudden it was in our face. And then I had Jimbo Fisher being called out by Nick Saban and then Saban apologizing, and then Jimbo wearing jeans to a press conference and just excoriating Nick Saban publicly. Called him a narcissist. Called him the devil. Again, this was on live tv. And so then we have Jimbo on signing day. Call out, bro Bible, call out, sliced bread. Did it on air. We had him on air. Right, Jesse? So I was hosting the signing day show for CBS in Fort Lauderdale. We had Jimbo on live. It was. It was like. It feels like 100 years ago, but it wasn't. So why was that happening? Well, it's because Texas A and M signed the highest rated class ever.
- [42:25]
Liquid IV Ad Voice
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- [42:26]
Bradley
According to rivals, that class had nine five star rated players. To give you an idea, Bama and Georgia combined to have less five star players than A and M had. And Bama and Georgia were the number two and number three classes. So it was A and M and then there was a canyon and then there was everyone else, and it went off the rails. It went totally off the rails for all kinds of different reasons. This is one of those situations where in retrospect, everyone said, oh, a blind man could have seen that coming. Well, let me just put it this way. Not everyone was that vocal when A and M signed the class. People were terrified when A and M signed the class. As it turns out, A and M fans should have been terrified when A and M sound Signed the class. Shocking numbers here. Out of the 30 players in that Texas A and M signing class, only four of them finished their career with Texas A and M. I have a list. I can't even read it all. Like, Walter Nolan ends up transferring to Ole Miss. Evan Stewart heads to Oregon. LT Overton at Bama. Gabriel, Brownlow, Denby. He was South Carolina, right? Jesse. Yeah. Denver, Harris, Half a dozen teams. We think he's at UNLV now. Chris Marshall, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Boise. Connor Wegman's at Houston. Still. Jacoby Matthews went to Auburn. Ini White, Penn State, Oklahoma State. Anthony Lucas, usc. Cam Dewberry, Alabama. I'm not even a third of the way through the signing class. Four of them finished their career at Texas A and M. And it was a classic example of basically, one day, Jimbo just walked into the office and said, we're gonna sign the number one class. Don't care how we're gonna sign the number one class. You're telling us that we can legally go pay players now? Well, we're gonna go sign the number one class. And they did. There was this grocery store game show back in the day. I was a very, very young, young, impressionable youth, and it was called Supermarket Sweep. I don't even know what the format of the game was. All I know is there was a part of the show where you got a shopping cart and they put you in a grocery store, and you just got to run up and down the aisles and put as much as you could in the shopping cart in like, 60 seconds. Well, that was essentially Texas A and M's recruiting strategy in 2022, and they put a bunch of five stars in the shopping cart. Now, did they properly evaluate these players? No. Did they properly evaluate character? Who cares? They're five stars. Just load them up. We'll figure it out. Did they care about any kind of core philosophy? Did they even have a philosophy? Did they adhere to it? No, no, no, no and no. We just got a bunch of five stars. They'll win. We got a bunch of parts that'll create the machine. We got a house. We're just going to go buy the most expensive furniture from 15 different stores and throw it in there. And then a designer is going to walk in and say, what happened in this house? What do you mean, what happened? We got the best furniture that money can buy. Yeah, yeah. But there's no design. There's no feng shui, as Meemaw would talk about. And I never do. But I do remember the early fear, like when a And M first signed this class. Folks were worried that this was the new way of college football. Saban was worried enough about it to start speaking publicly on it. Kirby, I can guarantee you did not enjoy this. Still does not really enjoy this era. And it's because they did not fundamentally shift how they do things. What happened was it took what would be a solid, effective recruiting strategy from Georgia and it threw a wrench into the blender and it threw this element of, well, now it really is a bidding war. Now. People always run around and say, oh, it always was a bidding war. Oh, it was always like this. No, it wasn't. You're foolish if you say that. No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't. There are two truths in the room. It can be true that money always exchanged hands. That can be true. While it's also insane to say money changed hands at the level and degree it did starting in like 2022. No, this is a whole new ball game. I'm not even here to say it's right or wrong. Well, obviously it was wrong strategically. I'm not even here to say. I'm just here to call balls and strikes on it. Like this fundamentally changed the approach or it fundamentally changed the truth of other programs that had existed for a long time doing it the older school way atop the recruiting rankings. But there was this thought that, oh, this is what college football is going to be now. Oh, the highest bidder is just going to be the one that wins all the time. Then people chuckle because people will say, you mean. You mean like the highest bidder already was winning all the time. And then you get into the aforementioned debate about whether it really was always that way or not. But Jimbo is obviously not the head coach at Texas A and M anymore. This experience is what necessitated the Mike Elko hire, because Elko was there and then Elko moved on and got his head coaching shot at Duke. And Mike Elko is a supreme example of someone who is a plus in the areas they lacked during this area. You need an evaluator, you need a developer. You need someone who understands core philosophies, principles and values of a program and how to recruit congruent to those. That's Mike Elko. And I don't know that they get to where they're ready to hire Elko or they need to hire Elko if they don't experience this. So, yes, it is the pound for pound, probably the biggest busted recruiting class that we've ever seen in the history of recruiting rankings. I don't even know who number two would be, but that's number one. Ah, memories. I just telling you we had Jimbo on on national signing day and I don't even remember what question it was. I wish we could pull the we don't own the footage, but I wish we could have pulled the footage. Costenko, see if we could pull the footage. Just send it to us. But man, he, he asked me to repeat a question and it was like he thought I was throwing an allegation at him. I wasn't. And then he just goes off about all the things that people were alleging that they were doing. I love Jimbo Fisher, by the way. I think we should get him on the speaker series. I worked with him in the national title game. I stood next to him for the Miami A and M game. I wish you guys could experience watching a game with Jimbo Fisher. You would think Jimbo Fisher is the smartest person on the face of the earth. You would think that he has the spoilers like he has already seen the game script with how he can call a game one and two plays ahead. Boggling, boggling of the mind. That's what that experience is like.
- [49:26]
Public Investing Ad Voice
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisors Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comdisclosures Pro Drivers
- [50:28]
Lenovo Pro Ad Voice
Live for race day, but for small business owners every day is race day. That's why going pro with Lenovo Pro Matters one on one advice IT solutions and customized hardware powered by Intel Core Ultra Processors. Keep your business on the right track. Business goes pro with Lenovo Pro. Sign up for free@lenovo.com Pro Lenovo.
- [50:54]
Bradley
Lenovo. Wasn't that delicious? So good. Your bill, ladies. I got it.
- [51:02]
Josh Pate
No, I got it. Seriously, I insist.
- [51:05]
Bradley
I insisted first.
- [51:07]
Josh Pate
Oh, don't be silly. You don't be silly.
- [51:09]
Liquid IV Ad Voice
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- [51:16]
Josh Pate
Rock, paper, scissors for it.
- [51:18]
Bradley
Rock, paper, scissors. Shoot. No.
- [51:21]
Liquid IV Ad Voice
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- [51:28]
Cindy Crawford
Hi, I'm Cindy Crawford and I'm the founder of Meaningful Beauty. Well, I don't know about you, but, like, I never liked being told, oh, wow, you look so good for your age. Like, why even bother saying that? Why don't you just say you look great at any age? Every age. That's what Meaningful Beauty is all about. We create products that make you feel confident in your skin at the age you are now. Meaningful Beauty. Beautiful skin at every age. Learn more@meaningful beauty.com.
- [52:07]
Bradley
Let's move on. This one was from John. John from beautiful Gulfport, Mississippi. He said, who are some dark horses that could end up in conference title games this year? Who? He said, who would have. I think he means whomsted of thunk that UVA was the ACC dark horse last year. Jesse, I got to give us some credit. Didn't we talk about Virginia's schedule and how they could be a dark horse? I guess outside of us, nobody would have expected. Yeah, could we stay in the state but go to Blacksburg? Because I'll start with the acc. I got one for every conference here. I think Virginia Tech would be my preseason dark horse, my pre spring dark horse in the ACC. James Franklin just landed a top 10 portal class. Let's not just overlook that Brent Pry is still there. Now, I know that's old hat. Everyone knows that at Virginia Tech. I don't think America has quite realized what just happened. So Brent Pry was fired as the head coach at Virginia Tech. James Franklin was hired. James Franklin looked and said, wait a second, Brent hasn't even moved out of town yet and he's my old defensive coordinator. I wonder if he wants to stick around and, I don't know, be my defensive coordinator. And then Brent Pry said, okay, so Brent Pry went from being the head coach to the defensive coordinator in the same program. I don't think many people realize that happened yet anyway, so you've got that. So there's a lot of familiarity with the roster they're going to have, I don't know if it's going to be number one, but they're going to be one of the highest returning production teams in the conference. The transfers are upgrades. It's a very important thing to note because sometimes schools take a ton of transfers, but they're trying to backfill good players that left with average players. That's not what Virginia Tech's doing. So I would say Virginia Tech and the ACC in the sec, it's kind of tough. SEC and Big Ten are a little bit tougher, but if we're trying to pick a dark horse team to make the conference title game, I'd say Missouri would qualify. I think Missouri would be my dark horse team in the SEC to make the conference title game. Obviously, this is just me betting on Austin Simmons at quarterback. Because once upon a time, Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss were extremely sold on Austin Simmons being the guy. And then it started off a little shaky and he got hurt. And then Trinidad Chambliss happened and everyone forgot about Austin Simmons. Well, here's the thing about Lane Kiffin's feel for the quarterback position. He doesn't miss very often. So maybe the gratification for the way Lane felt about Austin Simmons will just be delayed and ultimately realized in Columbia, Missouri by Eli Drinkwitz. Now, here's what they need. They need that to pan out and they need defensive transfers to pan out. But you know as well as I do, every year someone in college football is like plus four in one possession games. And if Austin Simmons becomes a superstar at quarterback and they stay relatively healthy and they just catch lightning in a bottle winning close games. Yeah, I could see Missouri being that team. What about the Big Ten? Big Ten is the same way. It's tough. You got a core of top teams. I think it's pretty obvious if you're looking for a dark horse contender in the Big Ten, who it is. It's Washington. Jed Fish and Washington, I think, have to be the dark horse in the Big Ten. They were top 20 last year, offense and defense. Now, you'd get some pushback on people saying, oh, well, you need more context on that because when they face the good teams, they were really, really inferior. Then they loaded up, whatever. Okay, I'm looking at this year and I'm trying to figure out Damond Williams, okay? He tried to leave. The door was locked. He couldn't get out. So he's still there. It's just the way it went down. Everyone could talk about kind of shining that Situation up all you want to. No, he wanted to leave. And you figured out a way legally not to let him leave. Good for you. By the way, I was pro Washington in that whole deal and now he's still there. Now, a generation ago, he would be like Persona non grata in the locker room these days. It just kind of is what it is. So he'll probably be an all Big ten caliber player this year for all I know. But here's what I do know. They did a good job of closing wounds in the transfer portal. They didn't kill it. They didn't go and do like LSU did and just transform everything and become an instant national title contender. What they did is they said we've got bonafide weaknesses here, here and here. Let's cover those up with the portal. That's good. That's good because they're not a long ways off and Jed Fish is a proven guy. He can win. I think they can win. Look at the schedule. Late in the year, Penn State and Indiana come in there in the last month of the season. So they really need home field to matter in the last month of the season. They don't make a single east coast trip. I mean, their road games in Big Ten terms are pretty manageable. They go to Purdue, they go to Nebraska, Michigan State, and they go to Oregon at the end of the year. That's a really, really tough draw. They go to Southern Cal earlier in the year. There is no, you know, at Indiana at least. There's no at Ohio State. There's no at Michigan there. So I'd say Washington in the Big Ten, the Big 12, two different directions we could go. I chose one. Brave, very brave. Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State, as of March, is my dark horse contender in the Big 12. Oklahoma State. Don't they suck? No. They did. Did. I don't think they will this year. Eric Morris drove up from North Texas. He's now the head coach there. He did not drive up alone. He brought like a huge chunk of his team with him and not the least of whomstadt were Messamaker, some say the best arm of any quarterback that was in the portal this past year. Caleb Hawkins, great tailback. They got 54 new faces in the portal. 17 of those were from that North Texas team. Understand this is the Big 12 we're talking about now. Texas Tech may have assumed the lead dog role in that conference. It is still wildly volatile any given year. And I have a sneaking suspicion that Texas Tech's activities have lit a fire under Oklahoma State. Now that's just a suspicion they have to prove me right on that. But, yeah, Question. Just as I was writing notes here. You know, Miami hasn't even played for the conference title under Mario yet. They almost won the national title last year. Still haven't played in Charlotte. So that's a domino we need to knock down. Ohio State, Big Ten championship game. Like, I'm asking myself, in conferences like the acc, how does Miami not make the conference title game this year? How does. How does Ohio. I guess this one's a little easier to answer. How does Ohio State not make the conference title game? It's just tough to see those teams not in Charlotte and Indianapolis, respectively. But that's only part we have another open slot in those conference championship games. Let's move on. Good brisk pace tonight. Who is this? Okay, press. Did you text me during the show? What did he send me? Oh, a graphic. Graphic. Okay. All right, I'll post it afterwards. Who is this from? Henry in Slocum, Alabama. Bradley knows it. Well, what are you thinking on the quarterback battle at Alabama? Well, I think it's a legit quarterback battle. It feels very old school. It feels like years gone by. It used to be that we were like a dozen programs every year where you had legit who's going to take the starting job? Spring quarterback battles doesn't feel that way anymore. Most of the time you've got one qb, one candidate, and everyone who knows they're not going to win the job has already transferred out. And at Alabama, that's just not the case. They got probably two of them they can win with. They've got two of them. That would be an ultra, ultra high demand if they ever were to have hit the Portal, but neither one of them did. I think that surprised a lot of people. I don't know how surprised Alabama was about it, but I think a lot of people nationally were surprised. Especially if you were watching the Rose bowl in the process of them getting splattered all over Pasadena by Indiana. You notice when Ty Simpson went down, Austin Mack came in, made some impressive throws, showed off enough to where I'm watching it. And I'm thinking, this is his portal audition. And I know good and well I had coaches texting me during the game saying, he's making himself a lot of money right now. Well, what the translation was is, hey, they're about to get blown out, their season's going to end, but people are just going to get their appetite whetted. I guess is the past tense version of that by watching him he is a monster, by the way. He is 66235. So Austin Mack was their backup last year. Keelan Russell ran with the threes last year. So let's talk about this year. Not all quarterback battles are as they appear. A lot of them are cosmetic and I think we all understand why. This is not that. This is a legitimate quarterback battle. Now just because Austin Mack was the backup at Alabama last year in no shape, form or fashion means that he would be the starter this year. I had a working theory last year and this is just an in house working theory. Let me be clear that if Ty Simpson got hurt at any point in the year last year and someone had to come in in a pinch, it'd be Austin Mack. My theory was if it were week seven and Ty Simpson were to miss extended time, I thought Keelan Russell would have been the guy. That was my feel on things. I can't prove that, but both of them are really big. Like Austin Mack's a monster. Keelan Russell's very big too. I can't remember where we were, what game. It was on the road last year, maybe in the Oklahoma game. Actually maybe in the playoff game and I saw Keelan Russell walk by. I thought he was Dijon Lee. Dijon Lee is a huge corner that plays at Alabama, like 6 4, really abnormally large for a corner. The fact that I mistook Keelan Russell for Dijon Lee should let you know physically what Keelan Russell looks like too. Now he's going to look small compared to Mack. Both of them are big. Both of them are really big players. So my feel on this is Keelan Russell will be too good to keep off the field. That's my feel on it. So I think he's going to win the job. I think Austin Mack's a really good player. I think it really to a certain extent doesn't matter what my opinion or anyone else's opinion on this is. It doesn't even matter what Calyn DeBoer's opinion on it is. Like I see this a lot and the difference in maybe the way a fan thinks versus the way a coach and a staff thinks. Because like you, a head coach may have his feel on who's going to win a starting position. A coordinator may have a really good feel. A coordinator may even confide in you in private. Hey, this is probably so and so's job to lose. But here's the difference. It doesn't matter even what they think. It matters who takes the job. You can think a guy is the best for the job all you want to. But if he doesn't take the job, you don't just hand it to him. You don't just give it to him. So with Keelan Russell, I could sit here in March or I could sit here in August and have the opinion all I want that I think he's going to be the best. I think he's going to win the job. If he doesn't take the job, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Plus people are wrong about their gut feels on who's going to start at quarterback all the time. And to take it a step further, a lot of times a guy will win a starting job. Think Austin Simmons last year at Ole Miss and then go down and then the backup comes in and the backup was better all along. This happened to Mullen down at Florida one year. And like I supremely trust Dan Mullen's opinion on quarterback evals, it's just you don't know until you know sometimes. You don't know until the lights come on sometimes. But Austin Mac's not going to be easy to beat out. The evidence of that should be that grub and Kaylan DeBoer had him at Washington and then one of their first acts when they got to Tuscaloosa was convince him to come down from Washington. And let me promise you something, Austin Mack came down not expected to start at Alabama and I can assure you there were some major league programs that offered major league money for Austin or not Austin Simmons for Austin Mack to come start for him and he chose Alabama and thus far he has remained at Alabama despite there being opportunities out there. So I can assure you Austin Mack's not sticking around because he enjoys being QB2. So it's going to be a very, very hard fought battle there. I doubt we exit spring with an announcement. I don't know. I doubt that though. I think they can win with either one of them. Let's move on. Before we have watched a single practice it says Leroy Starks. This is from Jesse. Jesse from the control room in Nashville said, I've never been in the gym but I want to start. What are some tips you would give me to help me be successful in the gym? Okay, I don't want to joke about this. Jesse just told me someone hit us up for gym advice. Now, notoriously, Jesse works out at a place that loosely profiles as a gym, but it's not really a gym. But if you're someone, Leroy, who really has not worked out and you're looking for advice, let me give it to you. First piece of advice, most important one by a mile. Just go, just start. Don't worry about how sore you're going to be. You will be sore. Don't worry about how bad your form is going to be. Although I'll get to that in a second. Don't worry about what anyone's going to think of you. Anyone who's judging you in the gym is a loser. So don't worry about them. Go, go, go. Number two, you need to understand technique and you need to understand how to attack a muscle group, and you need to understand how to eat. So those are things that, that's what the Internet's for. That's what God and Arnold Schwarzenegger gave us the Internet for. So there are limitless amounts of information. Some of it's crap, but you'll notice there are a lot of folks who understand what they're talking about. I was lucky enough, blessed enough to work out with someone very early in my life who understood the proper way to work out, the proper way to get after it, but the proper technique form, the way to structure a workout, the way to target a muscle. Group number three. And I get asked this all the time. What about splits? Like, what's your split? Mine's not right or wrong. I'll tell you what I do. What I do is I'll do like a six day on, one day off sort of thing. So I'll do back, chest, legs, shoulders, arms, legs. So I prefer to do legs every 72 hours to 96 hours. So like two leg workouts for every one workout of any other muscle group. Like I said, you got to eat, man. Learn how to eat properly. My philosophy on partners is I don't like one. I don't like workout partners. But if you're going to have a workout partner, like Meemaw used to tell me all the time, either get the right partner or have no partner. And the right partner is not someone who merely shows up at the same time you do and who you have a lot in common with. In fact, you shouldn't be talking a whole lot at all. So if that person's not bringing the best out in you, and likewise you with that person, you don't need to be working out with anyone. I hate working out with folks. I hardly ever work out with anyone. Even Bradley, I never work out with him. I'll trash talk him in the office. And we do have a weight rack here and so like, I'll tell him he can't bench 225 and to this point, Bradley can't so far, right? Yeah, so far. But I'm not a big partner guy. That's okay. To each his own. But understand if it would normally take you an hour 15 to work out and it's taking an hour 45 because you're working out with a partner, you got the wrong partner. And lastly, like I just said, there's no excuse for you to be in the gym over two hours. If you're really hitting it hard, there's no excuse for you to be in there over two hours. So it should be short but also intense immunity. And you should really understand that if you're working out the right way, it should be a cardio workout. When you strength train to a certain extent, you should be getting after it that intense. And if you can't, then you could still go. But you're going to look the same in the mirror three years from now as you do right now. You'll notice when you go to the gym that you'll look around Leroy and you'll see a lot of folks. You'll see the same folks. Merely going is important, but you'll notice there are a lot of people who go and they just look the same forever. And it's because they really kind of go, but they don't really get after it. So as much as physically, you're able to turn it loose in there, have a standard like get after it. Don't compare yourself to anyone else. I'm not telling you to do that. But you understand what your physical potential is, what you're capable of doing. So there's no excuse to do anything less in there unless you're hurt. FanDuel hard transition here. FanDuel exclusive odds provider of the show. As I said earlier, we have got certain lines on games already available. For instance, like I said, LSU is a double digit favorite over Clemson right now in what we hope will be a night game in week one in Death Valley. We don't know. You could obviously check out a lot of the futures markets at fanduel. You could go bet conference tournaments. About to crank up at FanDuel. You could do all that at FanDuel. A lot of you don't bet, A lot of you never will bet. That's cool. If you wonder what in the world this would have to do with you, we got a lot of folks who don't bet, who don't even have an account with fanduel, who just go there to look at the odds. So purely for entertainment purposes. If you want to go check it out, fanduel's there for you in that way as well.
- [70:24]
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- [71:08]
Bradley
I wanted to wrap up the show by talking about Lou Holtz. Lou Holtz passed away yesterday at the age of 89. College Football hall of Famer, a man of very strong faith, very vocal about his faith. So I appreciated both of those things about Lou Holtz. But I think the thing that I always realized, I guess like the thing I would always say about Lou Holtz, especially lately, is Lou Holtz was one of those rare individuals that was a legend or an icon to multiple generations for different reasons. So if you think about my dad's generation, for example, they knew Lou Holtz as being a former head coach, being a guy that went, what was he, 60 and 21 at Arkansas, had some huge wins at Arkansas. He resurrected Notre Dame football, Notre Dame football. In the years prior to Lou Holtz, they hadn't won more than seven games in the half decade prior to him getting there. So they had fallen on hard times. And he comes there and wins a national title in his third year. They won 24 games over a two year stretch there. At one point he was the head coach at South Carolina. You know, I was kind of a kid when he was the head coach of South Carolina, so that's what I remember. But I don't remember Lou Holtz so much as a coach. I know that he was one, but I don't remember Lou Holtz as a coach. So if you're my age, what you remember is the absolute fever dream that was college football final every Saturday night on ESPN. And all I can tell you, if you're 16 years old and you're watching the show right now, great. You have your whole life ahead of you and youth is something that most anyone would trade most anything for so great. Don't be in a hurry to grow up. All I'm telling you is there's one thing that I feel sorry for and that is that you didn't get to experience college football final. You didn't get to experience the greatest college football studio programming that has ever existed in its prime like we did. And that was college football final hosted by Rhys Davis and Lou Holtz and Mark May alongside. You couldn't look away. Jesse, what kind of studio programming would be considered appointment programming now inside the NBA? Some people would say that about inside the NBA, like an ecosystem that exists almost independent of the sport. There are people who watch inside the NBA that couldn't care less about basketball. There were people, I'm dead serious. Who would tune in to college football final who only loosely knew much about college football. It was an entertainment product that just happened to cover college football. And Rhys Davis was there and Mark May and Lou Holtz and it was appointment viewing. And remember what I said the other day about on air chemistry? This was it. Those were three guys that were thrown in a studio and it just worked. And it was magic. And you never really know you have it until you have it. But once you know you have it, leave it alone. And to ESPN's credit, they left it alone and they let them experiment and they let them run with different concepts and the final verdict stuff you've probably seen floating around a lot. A lot of people have been posting that on the Internet in the couple of days since we lost coach. And I've never done drugs in my life. The way people describe consuming content, music, movies, whatnot while they're under the influence of a substance. That was what it was like watching portions of college football final totally sober. And if you go back and watch the replays, like I said, and you're like 17 years old right now and that's your first introduction to that. You can't believe what you're watching. Like you can't believe that this was airing on ESPN and understand this. So these days, ESPN's a lot looser than it used to be. You're in the post podcast world, the post YouTube world. I go up to New York and do get up with Mike Greenberg. I wear a T shirt on air. This was the suit and tie era of espn. This was still the buttoned up era of espn. This was go get three or four people, sit them behind a desk, out produce everyone and don't take risks. That was kind of espn. And in the Midst of that climate in the mid to late 2000s, you turn on ESPN on Saturday night and Reese Davis is wearing a judge's robe and Lou Holtz is cutting what can only be described as like a pro wrestling promo on Mark May and in any other world. If you said to Mark May on the street what Lou Holtz said to him in a studio, Mark May probably fight you. Be a short fight. Lou Holtz was just able to get away with it. I couldn't believe it happened. You would get so sucked into it, and after it would be over, you would look around and say, did that just happen? Yeah, it just happened. You know what it was like in the era. It wasn't appreciated enough in the era that it aired. To me, I feel the same way about Vern Lundquist. I felt the same way about Uncle Vern calling games for CBS in the Saturday Game of the Week era. I thought Uncle Vern will be appreciated way more down the road than he was in the moment. College football final, you appreciate it so much more now that you're removed from it, because you now understand in retrospect how special it is. It's like if you look at the aesthetic of a McDonald's in 1995 and then drive by one in 2025, how different it looks. There was character, there was a fully built out play place. It was Hulk Hogan, but in restaurant terms, it was red and yellow, and they didn't apologize for it. And now you drive past it and it's this. This minimalist, like, amorphous, homogenized nothingness. And I'm not quite saying that the studio programming has fallen off like McDonald's architecture has, but I'm saying when you turn on a Lou Holtz, Mark May, Reese Davis college football final from the mid 2000s, it's like nothing that exists right now all those years later. So that's what he meant to my generation. He meant so many different things to different generations. So he had been in bad health as of late and passed away yesterday. Lou Holtz, man, what an icon. What a legend. All right, that's our show tonight. We appreciate you so much. We'll be back Sunday night, obviously. And by the way, if you haven't been checking, we've been doing PA State extra podcasts during the middle of the week that's not available on YouTube, so you're only going to find that in your podcast feed. And so go check that out. And if you got a long road trip this week, I just did you a big favor because you've got a solid bonus piece of content you didn't know existed that could probably get you from Jackson, Mississippi to Spartanburg, South Carolina. Someone somewhere is making that trip this weekend. So I appreciate you guys so much. For director Bradley for producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. Take care. Have a good weekend. We'll see you Sunday night. Until then, God Bless.
- [78:47]
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- [79:31]
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- [80:02]
Josh Pate
At CVS it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night. And we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and, yeah, healthy snack. At cvs, we're providing proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters. So Visit us@cvs.com or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location.
- [80:38]
Bradley
Janice Torres here and I'm Austin Hankwitz. We host the podcast Mind the Small Business Success Stories produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Intuit QuickBooks.
- [80:47]
Josh Pate
We're back for season four to talk to some incredible small business owners.
- [80:51]
Bradley
The big thing about working at Tech is that it's ever evolving, ever changing. Everyone's a rookie, that's how fast the industry is changing. So what I'm really excited about is to be part of that change. So listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts with the Venmo Debit card. A taco in one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking your rewards. Nice get up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash on your favorite brands when you pay with your Venmo Debit card. From takeout to rideshares, entertainment, and more, pick a bundle with your gotos and start earning cash back at those brands. Do more Stash get more cash Venmo Stash Bundle terms and exclusions apply. See terms at Venmo Me stash terms max $100 cash back per month this
- [81:34]
Josh Pate
is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.