New Top Five in the CFP, Plus Are Kiffin and Sarkisian Leaving?

Summary

Ringer Tailgate – Episode Summary

Episode: "New Top Five in the CFP, Plus Are Kiffin and Sarkisian Leaving?"

Date: November 19, 2025
Hosts: Van Lathan, Joel Anderson, Tate Frazier
Special Guest: Billy Gill

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the shake-up in the College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings, explores the ongoing debate about playoff expansion, discusses the swirling coaching carousel—especially the futures of Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian—and features trademark Tailgate banter about traditions, conference strength, and the logistics (and chaos) of college football scheduling. The crew also pitches and debates a radical "opt-out week" scheduling idea, reacts to James Franklin's surprising move, and previews the biggest games of the week.

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Key Topics & Insights

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1. CFP Rankings Shake-Up & Conference Power Struggles

(03:18–16:36)

• Van’s Take on the CFP

  • Van emphasizes the SEC's continued dominance, pushing back on rumors of its demise:

    "The SEC is still in this bitch. ... If you look at these rankings right now, look at your top 10, A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Alabama—five in the top 10 from the SEC." (04:37)

  • NIL money changed the calculus of bag-dropping, with $500k offers now the new norm.

• Joel’s Big Ten Counterpoint

  • Joel argues the Big Ten has earned “premier conference” status and critiques the idea of playoff expansion for including too many marginal teams:

    “We don’t need to get the fourth-place team in the Big Ten or the SEC. ... If you lose two or three games, hey, man, you probably had a tough season, but we can pretty much tell within a reasonable doubt that you're not a national champion.” (09:50)

• Tate on CFP Objectivity & Clusters

  • Calls out the lack of true objectivity among committee members and the convoluted “cluster” system for rankings:

    "The way they grade out these teams, they do them in fours... when they're in the same cluster, they do head-to-head as premium." (18:27)

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2. Should the CFP Expand Further?

(16:36–26:00)

• Van questions the value of expanding past 12 teams:

  "If you tell me right now that we are going to get a more solid champion because we add more teams to the playoff, I'm good with it. If not, I think it's good at 12, man. I really do think it's good at 12. And honestly, I think 12 is a fucking stretch." (14:09)

• Joel raises player welfare and fairness concerns:

  "My thing is, if you play more games, the good teams are more likely to get hurt ... If you're going to make them play more games, then you better be prepared to pay them more." (15:14)

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3. Billy Gill’s Wild Opt-Out Scheduling Proposal

(27:05–41:10)

• Billy introduces "Opt-Out Week":
  Teams can opt out of their scheduled game late in the season and coordinate—or negotiate—new, mutually beneficial matchups, maximizing strength of schedule for playoff consideration.

  "You have a three, four-day window where any team in college football can decide, 'I'm opting out of my week 12 game,' and work with another school for a better matchup." (28:21)

• Mixed reactions:
  • Van: “I’m for flexible scheduling. Since all of these conferences have gotten so ginormous, I’m for it.” (37:57)
  • Joel: “This is a terrible idea ... it’s too logistically challenging. It doesn’t make sense.” (36:44)
  • The crew riffs on the implications for fans, players, betting, and bowl games, with trademark joking and back-and-forth.

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4. Coaching Carousel: Kiffin, Sarkisian, and Franklin

Lane Kiffin Rumors

(44:33–56:37)

• Is Kiffin really leaving Ole Miss?
  • Joel: “He absolutely is taking this very seriously.” (45:05)
  • Van: “If Lane Kiffin is not coming out and saying, I will be at Ole Miss for years to come … if he’s not doing that, you have to ask why.” (47:36)
  • Both note that Lane seems to have a foot out the door and owes the program more stability.
  • Discussion of Kiffin’s coaching style—he raises a team’s floor, but can he win "the big one?"

Steve Sarkisian’s Job Security at Texas

(57:08–69:36)

• Sark called out for underachievement; does he survive?
  • Audio clip: Sark defensive—points to strength of schedule and adversity.
  • Van: "Sarkeesian’s like, look, I never said we was number one. Y’all said we was number one. ... He's got a point." (60:13)
  • Joel, bluntly: "Texas fans—get over your fucking selves. ... One national championship since desegregation, four conference titles in the last 30 years." (62:17)
  • Desmond Howard's social media adds fuel, hinting that the Texas job might open via “mutual parting of ways.” (68:34)

James Franklin to Virginia Tech

(76:39–79:42)

• A surprise move but deemed a home-run hire by all:
  • Joel: "He should not be available for Virginia Tech. ... It’s arguable that he was the best coach out there on the market." (76:59)
  • Van: "He gets to prove some things at VaTech that maybe he couldn't at Penn State." (78:32)

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5. Games of the Week & Playoff Implications

(80:24–89:58)

• USC at Oregon is called the "biggest game of the week" and a career-defining opportunity for Lincoln Riley.
  • Van: "If they do, Lincoln Riley and SC officially back." (81:18)
• Other Matchups:
  • Pitt at Georgia Tech—a direct impact on ACC championship scenarios.
  • Arizona State at Colorado—curiosity about the state of both programs.

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6. Banter, Culture, and the “Big Van on Campus” Segment

(91:48–99:17)

• Junction Boys Longevity: Van marvels at how many of Bear Bryant’s legendary Texas A&M “Junction Boys” are still alive well into their 90s, musing about the toughness and the secrets of their longevity.

  “What is in Junction, Texas, that these guys got into that’s contributed to this incredible longevity?” (94:37)

• Classic Tailgate Banter:
  • Digressions on competition vs. camaraderie in rec leagues, the seriousness of adult cheerleading, and message board mayhem.
  • Ongoing, tongue-in-cheek “beef” between Joel and guest Billy Gill.
  • Numerous running jokes including "You know I’m a G" and Van’s hyper-competitive pickup basketball tales.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Van Lathan (on CFP expansion):

  “I think with the fall off that you get between 6 and 10, 6 and 12, the quality of the team, the capability of the individual athlete, I think 12’s plenty enough, but I know it’s not going to stop at 12.” (14:09)

• Joel Anderson (on playoff fairness):

  “At a certain point, you want people to have as much of their roster as they’ve had throughout the year when they were compiling this resume ... and you better be prepared to pay them more.” (15:14)

• Billy Gill (on Opt-Out Week):

  "College football is full of its traditions, but now we’ve tossed that out with the playoffs and the nil and all that... So what if we revolutionized college football...?" (28:21)

• Desmond Howard (clip):

  “Don’t be surprised if that Texas job opens up at the end of the season... I’m not saying anyone’s going to get fired, maybe a mutual parting of ways, you dig?” (68:34)

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Important Timestamps

• [04:37] Van’s reaction to new CFP rankings and the SEC’s resilience
• [09:50] Joel’s argument against further playoff expansion
• [13:18] Van on tradition vs. competition in college football
• [27:05] Billy Gill pitches “Opt-Out Week”
• [44:33–56:37] Coaching carousel: Kiffin speculation, Joel & Van on what coaches owe their programs
• [57:31] Saban clip & Texas fans/Sarkisian heat and context
• [68:34] Desmond Howard’s Texas coaching bombshell
• [76:39] James Franklin’s Virginia Tech intro—analysis
• [80:24–82:57] Preview and breakdown of Week 13's biggest games
• [91:48–99:17] “Big Van on Campus”: the Junction Boys, their legendary toughness, and surprising longevity

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Summary & Takeaways

"New Top Five in the CFP, Plus Are Kiffin and Sarkisian Leaving?" offers one of Ringer Tailgate's liveliest explorations of college football's current chaos. The hosts blend sharp, data-driven analysis with irreverent jokes, cultural asides, and real talk about what makes the sport both maddening and beloved. The SEC’s staying power, playoff expansion controversies, behind-the-scenes coaching drama, and institutional quirks spotlight how much is in flux—but it’s their banter, authenticity, and willingness to spin even the weirdest hypotheticals (looking at you, Opt-Out Week) that make the show.

Memorable sign-off: If college football’s future means less tradition and more competitive chaos, Tailgate is here for the ride—bowl game stats, opt-out hypotheticals, and all.

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For more, don’t miss their live Saturday shows and especially Joel's promised story about “raising the roof.”

Transcript

[Van Lathan]

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[Billy Gill]

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[Tate Frazier]

Foreign. Welcome back to Ringer Tailgate, the Wednesday edition of the show. We're still reeling from everything that happened on Saturday. We learned a lot about many things on Saturday, but we also had Tuesday night CFP rankings. And we got a new chairman of the cfp, Hunter Urachek. And he's breaking down why teams are ranked in certain spots. He's talking clusters.

[Joel Anderson]

And.

[Tate Frazier]

And the only time I like hearing about clusters is when Mike Leech is talking about nerds. Gummy clusters. But other than that, let's say what's up to our guys. Van Lathan. Van, good to see you, man.

[Van Lathan]

What's up? What's up? What's up? It's time to tailgate, brothers.

[Tate Frazier]

Let's tailgate. We're fired up. And Van is fired up. And also we got Joel Anderson in the TCU sweatshirt, as always. Joel, no hat this week.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, well, I mean, you all. You all won. You know, y' all won. But also, I mean, look, I gotta. I got a haircut, bro. You know, this is the only reason I had a cap on in the first place, is that I got a haircut the other day. So. Wait, what you laughing at, man?

[Van Lathan]

You still copping? Please, about that.

[Tate Frazier]

I mean, the chat's still lingering.

[Joel Anderson]

I did not like how they were talking to me about that. Again, we talked about this a little offline before. And again, y' all pay attention to people's brims like that. For real. Like, I just.

[Tate Frazier]

A lot of rim watching.

[Joel Anderson]

It's just something I never. Yeah. Something I had never done in my life. I never looked at a dude. The only person's had. Whoever looked at was like L Cool J and T. I, when he would used to have his hat on, you know, basically sideways, but that's it. I never really noticed it.

[Van Lathan]

There's one other hat that I was. That I would marvel at. There was a show called Oz.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, my God.

[Van Lathan]

And on the show, there was a character named Simon Adebisi, man.

[Joel Anderson]

Adebisi.

[Van Lathan]

Adebisi had the hat that was on his head.

[Joel Anderson]

Yes.

[Van Lathan]

And it was like a little kind of like, hat, and it would be tucked to the side. And I would always wonder, how in the fuck is Adebisi's hat staying on his head? How is it happening? The actor went on to be in a lot of different things. Great actor, British African brother, I think, like, but like, I'm like, how did Adebisi's hat stay on? It's one of the seven wonders of the HBO world.

[Tate Frazier]

And he was always tilting his head too. You know what I mean? Like, it would always hang on. I don't know if they had it sewn in or something. That was impressive.

[Joel Anderson]

He, I mean, gotta be one of the top 10 scariest characters to ever be on TV.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, no. It was nuts.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, he was crazy.

[Van Lathan]

There was one scene in particular, and I'm not going to talk about it, but it, it, it freaked me out so bad that I had to. I had to take a, a, a break from Oz.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, man, I, Oz was on some, man, that was, I mean, that was a crazy show, man. It really was.

[Tate Frazier]

This is Ringer tailgate, presented by FanDuel. And college football Saturdays are heating up. Whether you're in it for the Early Kick or FanDuel let you bet your way with same game parlays, live betting game props and more. And Missouri, get excited because FanDuel's coming your way December 1st. Download the app and head to FanDuel.com tailgate and make every Saturday count. Must be 21 or older and present in select states or 18 and older and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800- gambler or visit RG D help.com call 1-888-789-7777 or visit CCPG. That in Connecticut. That was HBO primetime television, the beginning of great television that we've seen, you know, prestige tv, as we like to talk about. But let's talk about some tv. Last night we got the CFP rankings and we got one big reaction for each one of you guys. We got a new top five in the CFP. Alabama falls all the way down to number 10. They're actually behind Notre Dame, who sits at number nine right now. Miami inching closer to the cluster with Notre Dame. And if they get in the same cluster, then the head to head will apparently matter. So then Miami will have to be ahead of Notre Dame. So there's a lot of things to really kind of read into the situation right now. But Van, I go to you first. One big reaction of the CFP rankings.

[Van Lathan]

From this week, man. The SEC is still in this bitch. Everyone is talking about how it is over for the SEC and other comp. People are saying it. People are talking about how the fact that we can't operate our payment program behind the scenes anymore means bag dropping.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Well, look, this is what somebody told me. Somebody who would know, told me what really Nil did was change the calculus of what the $40,000 buys you. He was like, look, it used to be 40 grand was actually a bag. 40 grand, a job for your uncle, a job for your cousin and all of that stuff. Those were things that really mattered. He changes it when it's $500,000. Now, that's different. That changes it. I'm not saying that I subscribe to all of that stuff, but I'm saying is that that's what people say said it was over. If you look at these rankings right now, look at your top 10, A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Alabama, five in the top 10 from the SEC. The Big Ten doing its thing with three representatives right there. Right. The Big 12, of course, occupying the spot that the Big 12 has always occupied, which was nothing.

[Joel Anderson]

Look, man, you get Nathan.

[Van Lathan]

But penetration, unless it smells like sanitation, garbage is what the notorious biag said. So I just looked at this, and it seems to me that the stories of the SEC's demise maybe a little bit overstated. Joe.

[Joel Anderson]

I wouldn't go that far. I mean, I know. I don't think anybody said that the SEC head was no longer the premier conference in the country.

[Tate Frazier]

I think the Big ten has been saying that they want that to be.

[Van Lathan]

The Big Ten, to me, is the premier conference in the country. They are to me.

[Joel Anderson]

This is true. Well, this. This leads into my big reaction, because you. I mean, you did say they had the biggest dick in college football a few episodes ago. I still think that. Philip. Cock wagon is. That. It was a cock wagon.

[Van Lathan]

Did you give that cock. Gotta say, Joel, Say cock.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm not saying that.

[Van Lathan]

Joel, say it. I'm not gonna say it if you're gonna say it.

[Joel Anderson]

Joel. There's no need. There's no need.

[Van Lathan]

He's not aggressive enough.

[Joel Anderson]

Nah, nah.

[Tate Frazier]

You need the harshness.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't. I don't. You know, so is this a cultural thing or a regional thing? Because I don't know that I've heard black dudes sit around talking about.

[Van Lathan]

It's. It's porn.

[Tate Frazier]

I. I hope not.

[Van Lathan]

It's. It's. It's porn. It's a porn thing. Like watch. If you watch porn. And it wasn't the guys it was the girls that were saying in porn. And then as. As jokes, me and my friends would start to say it. Just like we would. We would start to say it, and it's just funny because it. We don't have to. I know on tailgate we had long tangents, but, like, we. It was funny to say the word. In, like, 2002, you're around a bunch of girls and they're like, oh, my God, niggas always talking about they. Dick or whatever. And I'll say. And you say, I don't talk about dick. I talk about cock. And then to watch everybody go, ew. Which is so nasty and aggressive. I apologize. Go ahead.

[Joel Anderson]

It is nasty. That's why I'm saying. I just don't. Joe, that's something that I'd really use. Yeah, I mean, I said it already, but I'm not gonna say it again. Again. I felt like, you know, I made the point and I was trying to get clarity on what Van had said. But look, I think the difference is that the SEC is. People are talking about. It's just not as deep as people have always claimed it is. Like, people understand that at the top of the league, there's always, like, really good teams. Although it's kind of a little different this year. Like, I guess, you know, A and M is theoretically the heavyweight in the. In the conference, but again, like. Yeah, but the undefeated. But it. For people that have been passing around on the Internet or social media that. That the. The list of the SEC standings and, like, who A and M has played in the SEC standings, and, like, nobody has been in the top half of the league, so they're still sort of untested, and people haven't kind of given them the props of a normal undefeated SEC team at this point in the year. But I think it's just like, all right, is Tennessee really as good as we. People think we are? Is Mizzou really as good as people saying they are? You know, Vandy is getting a lot of credit. They have a. But I think people are more taking a. Taking a viewpoint that it's just not as deep as people are saying it is, but the Big Ten. And so this is kind of what I was thinking about as I was been looking at these standings the last couple days. Man, the Big Ten is filling itself way too much. Please stop circulating the proposal to make. To add more teams in the playoff. Bro, we don't need to watch. I. Do you. Do you guys care if. I mean, if Michigan were to make the playoffs Would it change anything for you? I don't think so. Like, I did not. They're not a national championship contender. I don't think we need to see them. I don't think we need to see Mizzou. Right. I just think that we're getting way too, like what we have right now is really too much, but it's enough. I don't think we need to get the fourth place team in the Big Ten or the fourth place team in the sec. I feel like if you lose two or three games, hey, man, you probably had a tough season, but we can pretty much tell within a reasonable doubt that you're not a national champion. Like, we don't need to play, you know, we don't need to have you play a first round game or anything to prove that. So I just think that, like, we've already, the playoff is already too big. We don't need any more Big Ten. Please stop trying to make don't. We don't need any play in games. We don't need any of that kind of shit like they've got in the NCAA basketball tournament.

[Tate Frazier]

We also have a situation where, you know, there is no objectivity, right? There is no such thing. That has always been kind of a farce in our. And with this committee, there is a conversation about, well, they're all objective, even though they all have their hands in different pools. They've been playing for different teams, they're ads of different schools. And Nicole Auerbach reporter put this out. Hunter Yuricheck said Oregon is still getting credit for beating Penn State even though the nitty Lions fell off after that game. We're going to get to James Franklin getting hired at Virginia Tech. That's how far Penn State fell off. Hunter, your check also said in the same conversation that it hurts Virginia that Louisville fell out of the rankings and, and that was one of their best wins. So there's a lot of contradiction with this. And again, objectivity does not exist. So with the 12 teams with objectivity really not being obtainable, can we ever get into a situation where everybody's happy? Van? Because it does feel like we're gonna argue and that's kind of part of the whole CFP situation anyway. They want us to argue with each other.

[Van Lathan]

I want to say, I want to say something to the Big 12 fans real quick. First of all, I love you and I see.

[Tate Frazier]

Texas tech's at number five.

[Joel Anderson]

Don't do it right.

[Van Lathan]

Texas text at number five. And I was talking about the top 10. But if you look at the top 12, you have both BYU and Utah.

[Tate Frazier]

Three in the top 12.

[Van Lathan]

Three in the top 12.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah. Move the field goal post.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah. The. The Big 12. When I have three teams in. I see you, Big 12. I see you, and I love you. Okay. You know, if we are out of the part of college football history where tradition really matters, the question is how? Because the question with college football has always been how tradition meets competition. Tradition is such an important part of the sport that there are times in the past where tradition has trumped competition. Like what it means to have the sport of college football be unique has meant more than trying to find the absolute best team in the country. If tradition is out, if nil killed tradition, if the transfer portal killed tradition, if these big TV contracts killed tradition, the question then becomes, how do we go all in on competition? How do we make sure that every single year college football is crowning the absolute best team? Now, in no sport does that happen Right in. No. If you tell me right now that the 2007 Patriots play the Rams. Excuse not. The Rams play Pay the Giants. Giants. They play them 10 times in a row. If they played them 10 times in a row, I think the Patriots are losing two games at least. Most. But they lost super bowl, and that matters that year.

[Tate Frazier]

David Tyree. What a catch.

[Van Lathan]

Best team. What is adding teams to the playoff going to get us in terms of competition? I can argue what is going to get us in terms of money. I can argue what is going to get us in terms of culture. You can expose more teams to more things. What does it get us in terms of competition? And there's no way to argue to Joe's point that it gets us very much. Now, maybe it's not all about that. Right? Competition is one thing, money is another. And money seems to be the reason. I'm not saying that. Hey, look, we are drafting on the scale and the scope of college football. We're doing a show about something that is as big as it's ever been. Pause. That's a pause. It's a legitimate pause.

[Tate Frazier]

Good.

[Joel Anderson]

Pause.

[Van Lathan]

That's a legitimate pause. Right.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

And so we want the sport to get bigger so that what we're doing here gets bigger, so that everyone has a bigger piece of the pie to get. So it'd be kind of hypocritical for me to say that the sport growing doesn't matter. But the playoff is a different thing. It changes fundamentally the season. When you add more teams to the playoff changes the way the season goes. It changes the Importance. It does changes everything. I'm with that, but not necessarily for the sport to make more money. If in some way you tell me right now that we are going to get a more solid champion because we add more team to the playoff, I'm good with it. If not, I think it's good at 12, man. I really do think it's good at 12. And honestly, I think 12 is a fucking stretch. I think with the fall off that you get between 6 and 10, 6 and 12, the quality of the team, the capability of the individual athlete, I think 12 is plenty enough, but I know it's not going to stop at 12.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, yeah, absolutely. And my thing is, if you play more games, it's more. The good teams are more likely to get hurt, right? They're more likely to lose somebody down the line. And I understand injuries are a part of the game, but at a certain point, you want people to have as much of their roster as they've had throughout the year when they were compiling this resume that got them to this point. And you'll go through the thing like what we did last year with Georgia, where Carson Beck was hurt and they had to throw in Gunnar Stockton at the end of the year, right? I just. I don't. I don't see the need. And also the other big thing for me, just as a moral issue, they need to play them boys more money then if they gonna play more games, right? Like, they don't ever get to negotiate that kind of stuff. And so I would. I would want to see them have a seat at the table and say, all right, if y' all gonna make us play 16, 17 games like we're professionals, then I want a little bit more of the revenue pot. Other than a pittance, which is what they kind of get right now. And I'm not trying to diminish it, but it's just like, that's not. They're not really getting necessarily paid what they're worth out of the pot that they generate. And I still think they should get more of that. If you're going to make them pay more games, then you better be prepared to pay them more. But, yeah, I don't. I don't want to see more games. Do you guys want to see Iowa and, you know, get. Get into a bracket and think that they're going to contend for a national championship? They've already had their chances. They've lost enough games. I don't want to see. I don't want to be arguing over three and four lost teams. In December about who should be in the playoffs?

[Van Lathan]

Let me ask you. Okay, so let's look at the teams that exist from 13 to 20.

[Joel Anderson]

Mm.

[Van Lathan]

Miami, Vandy, South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Texas, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee. Some teams are upstart teams having great seasons, but most of these are pretty established brands. Gt not right now. Virginia not. But most of these teams in Vanderbilt just obviously not. But most of these teams are, you know, established brands, brands that bring a lot of people with them to a playoff. Texas, Michigan, Miami, South Carolina. Would you not be interested in. Could I interest you in, say, BYU versus sc?

[Joel Anderson]

Huh?

[Van Lathan]

In a playing game? Could I interest you in Tennessee versus Notre Dame? Could I interest you in Vandy versus Oregon? Are you into that? Joel? Are you. Can I interest you in something fun? A little razzmatazz, baby.

[Joel Anderson]

I would watch it because I would watch football, right? And I would watch those brands because if they were playing in the Meineke Car Care Bowl, I'm going to watch that game. Right.

[Tate Frazier]

That's the problem too, with the other bowl games. I mean, the more that we do this and stretch it out, it's just like the whole bowl system is completely flawed and just broken at that point, even though it already is trending in that direction.

[Joel Anderson]

And like, I mean, people are already unhappy, man. How many, I mean, I was thinking about this today. How many fan bases and coaches are actually happy right now? Like, it just feels like if you don't, if, if you lose a third game, Indiana, Ohio State, A and M, they happy. Georgia, Georgia and Texas Tech, it's some.

[Van Lathan]

Happy motherfuckers out here. You got to be happy right now if you know the name, right?

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, Notre Dame. There's just. But that goes back to the cluster thing I said at the top for the, you know, the people that didn't get that reference. So the, the way they grade out these teams, they do them in fours. So they do like the top four teams in a cluster, they do the next four in a cluster, then they do the next four in a cluster. And right now Miami is one spot away from being in the same cluster as Notre Dame. And when they're in the same cluster, they do head to head as the premium. Notre Dame and Miami. If they're in the same cluster, then Miami has to be in front of Notre Dame. So that's how they grade out these teams. So, I mean, the whole system is ridiculous in general, the fact that we're talking about clusters, right?

[Joel Anderson]

Absolutely. I mean, and the thing is, I mean, you gotta assume if BYU makes it to the Big 12 championship game, given the way that, the way that game went, like I would much rather see Utah in that Big 12 championship game because I just think that was early in the year, the different team, more explosive, whatever. But if they got to do, if they got to line up BYU and Tech again, it's like, all right, Tech is going to beat byu, maybe BYU drops, then Miami potentially in that cluster.

[Van Lathan]

So Utah has Kansas State and Kansas left. Kansas State is a game that they should win, but you know, you just never know at Kansas State when the talent on the roster is going to show up. Right. And the Kansas is a rivalry game. Well, not really a rivalry game for, for Utah, just like a in conference type of thing. So Kansas is going to get their ass whooped. What the am I talking about? But, but it to me, Utah has. Utah fans should be really thinking that they're probably close to being in the playoff if winning these next couple of games gets them in. The question is how would Miami get in right now? Like what would have to happen to get Miami in? And we see reshuffling and shake ups every single week. But if Miami gets there with Notre Dame, the question I always ask, say all that to get to this question is what matters more to the committee? Losses or wins? Is it about who you beat or is it about who you lost to? That is a fundamental difference that we don't really talk about in terms of what's important.

[Joel Anderson]

I hear that and again, I'm usually a head to head person, but I also know that one game is just one sample. It's just one part of a sample size, right? Like it's not a particularly big part. And when the game happened, we're not really talking about the same teams anymore. Like again, it should count. It does count. Because that's the only reason we're having this debate, right? The only reason we're having this debate is because people like, hey man, Miami beat Notre Dame at the beginning of the year. But if you look at the two teams and the way that they've played since, like it wouldn't really much be much of an argument. And we asked our friends if fanduel, right, if they played on a neutral site, who will win that game? They got Notre Dame almost a touchdown favorite. It's five and a half points, man. So like, I mean, I think most people think that Notre Dame is a much better team than Miami at this point in the season. That's all.

[Van Lathan]

So let me tell you why I feel this way and why I always hold on to this. It's LSU based again. It's nothing to do with scars from 2011. Feel like if you go on the road and you beat somebody, that's not what happened with this game that you shouldn't have to play in again. Whatever, let's move on.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh yeah, man, I did. I was right with you on that. I think the LSU should have had to play Alabama for the champions championship. It's not fair. I was like, oh, they already beat them though. They shouldn't have to play them again.

[Van Lathan]

Crazy great.

[Tate Frazier]

That's disgusted. I was talking about it. It does feel like at some point as we kind of the, the season wanes on depending on how all these conference championships end up kind of playing out. Notre Dame, Alabama, Miami, those are going to be the three teams that are kind of circling that last at large spot. And if Alabama gets into the SEC championship game with things breaking their way and they happen to lose to Texas A M, they were going to have three losses and then a situation where they might be out of the playoff even though they're in the SEC championship game.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

And then you're going to have SEC people say, well, what's the point of the championship game? I'd rather be outside of the championship game, not go in there and take another loss and then get left out as an at large.

[Joel Anderson]

Will they be in or would Georgie have a shot to get in and play against Texas A and M at that point?

[Tate Frazier]

Well, I'm saying if, if Georgia, if, if they lose and like down the stretch.

[Joel Anderson]

Right, okay, gotcha, Gotcha. Okay.

[Tate Frazier]

I think they would have to jump. I need to look at the, all the. There's so many different possibilities. I'm just saying if Alabama ends up in that game and they lose, they get a third loss.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

Then you have people saying the conference championship game is actually something that we don't want. We want it for the money. Going back to, you know, Vance Point at the beginning, money is the anthem that we all kind of, you know, agree to with this whole college football setup. But if the money's not worth it to lose a spot in the playoff, I mean, there's just so many factors.

[Van Lathan]

I feel right now the conference championship game should only help you.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, I agree. I think if you're in the conference championship game, you should probably be in. Right.

[Joel Anderson]

It's a game you don't have to play.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, I feel like it should only help you. I feel like unless you get. And, and here's the problem with the conference championship game is not just a winner. Every game isn't just a win or loss thing. Because if you get to the topic, the conference championship game, and you get four fucking walloped. Let's say, for example, there was a team that was in the playoff and they actually won a playoff game. But then in the next game, after the game that they won, they got fucking destroyed. I mean, like, crazy. Fucking killed in front of the whole nation. Like, they went out there, they won a game that people didn't expect that they was gonna win. Right?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, they did the next season. Yeah, I'm familiar with this example. So, yeah, I hear it's a game that LSU hadn't played in in a long time. Okay, just for clarification, just for clarification.

[Van Lathan]

The question is, you know, is it. Is it worth. Does it change your entire perspective of the team once they get just fucking destroyed? And that can also happen to you in the championship game. That's why to me, playing in the game should only help you. But it still does matter how you look in that game against the other best team in your conference.

[Joel Anderson]

Right?

[Tate Frazier]

But for Florida State, we've already seen the precedent, right? They go to the ACC championship game without Jordan Travis. They win 16 to 6. It wasn't a pretty game. They commit. They basically say, hey, this team is not who they once were. Even though they're undefeated, they're out. You know what I mean? I know it's expanded since then and all that sort of stuff.

[Van Lathan]

I still think that that performance by Florida State in that game is one of the gutsiest, most. I still. I look at that team, you can say whatever the fuck you want. I think that team deserved to be in the playoff.

[Tate Frazier]

Of course, yeah, they were undefeated.

[Van Lathan]

I think that team deserved to be in the playoff. I think that winning that game was gutsy and it showed just what that team was made of. I think that's one of the greater tragedies in college football that's happened in the last handful of years. 10 years. Is Florida State not making the playoff? I think it was bullshit.

[Joel Anderson]

Damn.

[Tate Frazier]

And their quarterback threw for 55 yards in that game. People forget.

[Van Lathan]

It was not pretty football to want to win.

[Joel Anderson]

Very bad.

[Van Lathan]

But they did not fold. They played super fucking hard. I thought it was a great job by the coaching staff, a great job by the kids to come together and win that football and football game. And for them to not be rewarded for everything that they had done because of injury. I thought it sucked. I still think it's whack. Fuck it.

[Joel Anderson]

I Mean, I mean, man, I just. I think the conference championship games, they're going to get rid of these eventually. Because the thing is, and I'm trying to figure out, like, the SEC tiebreakers, but it looks like A and M and Bama are still match. Supposed to be matched up. Like they're still the prohibited favorite to play in the SEC championship game. Do you know how good Georgia must feel about. I mean, all we got to do is close out our season and then we can avoid having to play that game. Man, another game where we going to get beat up, risk dudes getting hurt, you know, like, nobody wants. Who won't want to play in that game if you don't have to. And you already know you pretty much got a spot in the playoffs. Right, so.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the other part. I mean, these conference championships, at some level, you're like, I'd rather preserve and try to go win the national championship, especially if you're an SEC type team. That. That is the ultimate goal. Billy Gill reached out and said that he had a proposal that he wanted to present to us that might save some of these kind of, you know, outstanding questions that you have at the end of the season. So Billy Gill now live and in the flesh, Billy, I turn it over to you. You have a proposal. You want to give, you know, the guys to let them break down what we should do at the end of the season to figure this stuff out.

[Billy Gill]

Yeah, I've been thinking about this for. For a year. So I kind of soft launched this last year. Didn't catch a ton of momentum. But you guys are kind of talking about this, and I feel like maybe you'll be more receptive to it now. Right. So college football is full of its traditions, but now kind of we've tossed that out with the playoffs and the nil and all that stuff. Right. So we have a situation where you have the rankings, obviously, and Even the top 12 don't necessarily make it because you have, you know, the conference champions that have to make it in. So some people that are in the top 12 won't even make the playoff. But what's the biggest problem with the scheduling that we have in college football?

[Van Lathan]

Would you say out of conference scheduling?

[Joel Anderson]

I would say conferences are too big, and so the conference schedules are just too big.

[Billy Gill]

Different, you know, the fact that it's scheduled years in advance. Exactly. Right. Thank you, guys. So here's the thing. You can't really.

[Van Lathan]

On the last podcast.

[Billy Gill]

Yeah, exactly. You can't really control who you're playing because you schedule these things out.

[Guest Speaker / Clip Voice]

3, 4.

[Joel Anderson]

Are you about to make an argument for you? Go ahead, Billy. That's all right. Go ahead.

[Billy Gill]

Well, what's that, what's happening, Joel?

[Joel Anderson]

No, I'm just saying go ahead. Let's go ahead and do it.

[Van Lathan]

You always do this, Joel.

[Billy Gill]

Let Billy Cook say the word.

[Joel Anderson]

I always do this. He just started the show. He just started. He's got here. Go ahead, Billy.

[Billy Gill]

So what if, what if we revolutionized college football and I'm not going to mess with like the last week of the season. That's rivalry weekend. We all know that, right? You don't want to mess with rival weekend. What if the weekend before we have an opt out week where a week before that there's an opt out period where you can say, you know what, I'm opting out of this game against this opponent because it's not beneficial to me. So you have like a three, four day window where any team in college football can decide, you know what? I'm opting out of my like week 12 game. And we're going to work with another school. We're going to figure out a matchup that works more beneficial to us. And you can opt out for a number of reasons, right? Like you can be like a Utah or someone, right, who's like, there, but they don't necessarily have the games at the end of the season to boost their resume to get back in the playoffs. Or you can be a school that's like Indiana, for example, right? Where like, they know they're probably going to be in no matter what, but they want to preserve their undefeated season. So they're going there saying, you know what, we want to play Charlotte that weekend to make sure that we get a win and we remain undefeated for the rest of the season. Or you could have smaller schools and say, you know what, we'll be a sacrificial lamb. We're just going to get a payday. For someone who wants an easy win here to get in. There's a number of things that you can do with an opt out here.

[Van Lathan]

Okay, question. How many times can you opt out?

[Billy Gill]

There's just the one. You just have that.

[Tate Frazier]

Just one week. It's that week.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, so it's just one week. It's one specific week where you can say, I don't. We don't have to play this game.

[Billy Gill]

It's opt out week. So like two weeks before you have anyone who's open to the opt out, they declare for the opt out in like a three day span, right. And then you'll have like the McShays or whoever out there and they're reporting like, I'm here in Texas A M is considering the opt out. And then there's breaking news and there's people reporting on the opt. Opt out. And then naturally there's like wheeling and dealing behind the scenes where like schools are, you know, the fix is in where they already know we're gonna play this person. Right. But you have the schools choose to opt out and then they have to kind of negotiate with the other schools what their game is going to be amongst the other teams that have opted out.

[Tate Frazier]

It's all in the pool together. And then, and then when they opt in to play each other, that's the update. It's like Texas has opted. Opted out of playing the Citadel and now Texas is going to play, you know. Yeah, this Michigan game.

[Van Lathan]

That can help them.

[Tate Frazier]

That can help.

[Joel Anderson]

Exactly.

[Tate Frazier]

Right.

[Van Lathan]

So they opt out of a stupid. And then Billy. I'm with it, bro. Wait, no, wait.

[Joel Anderson]

Why would Michigan, Wait, why would Michigan. So Texas calls out Michigan. They're like, hey man, we're gonna opt out of this game. We want Michigan. And Michigan's like, well, I got a game that week though.

[Tate Frazier]

Well, Michigan has to be in the pool. They have to also be in the op. Everyone that's in the pool, like it's.

[Joel Anderson]

Just.

[Tate Frazier]

Out of the game that you're already in. You opt into the pool with everybody. Then people start making matches of like what could help me beating a top 20 team. What, what do I want to avoid a top 20 team? So I want to play.

[Joel Anderson]

You know, this is a terrible idea.

[Billy Gill]

This is revolutionary.

[Van Lathan]

This was, you know, this was a.

[Joel Anderson]

Terrible idea until you gave me the Todd McShay report. When I, when you, when you said it like that, I was like, man, I kind of like the idea, that little buzz going there. Right.

[Tate Frazier]

You know, Joel still got beef with Billy Gilbert though.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

You know what? I like the, I like the time McShay. What. What are you talking. Look off.

[Tate Frazier]

Really offline opt outs and the opt ins. That's good.

[Billy Gill]

Look, well, Vandy would love an opt out right now. You know what I mean?

[Van Lathan]

Vandy needs a win. They to me, Van, if, if Vandy could opt out right now and let's say Vandy could get a game with, I don't know, name a team on this schedule that would be an opt in pool, another quality win. They would have an opportunity.

[Joel Anderson]

So you think Vandy versus Virginia, you think they would, they would prefer to do that than Tennessee.

[Van Lathan]

I mean Vandy versus Virginia, Vandy versus Michigan, Vandy versus Miami.

[Tate Frazier]

So the opt out week would be this week. So Kentucky plays Vanderbilt this week. So Vanderbilt this past weekend on Sunday puts in that they're opting out of their Kentucky game. Right. So now Kentucky's in the pool, Vanderbilt's in the pool. And then Virginia says, hey, we want to also change our, our matchup for this weekend because we want to help embolden our resume. So then Vanderbilt in Virginia and then the team that's higher in the CFP rankings gets the home field advantage. Right, Billy, that's what you're saying.

[Billy Gill]

Yeah, they play each other 9 and 1 right now Georgia Tech, they're not going to make the playoffs unless they win the acc. And even then they may not make the playoffs. Right. Opt out is the perfect opportunity. Get yourself a quality opponent, get back in the playoffs.

[Van Lathan]

So I guess the thing is this. So if one team elects to opt out, the other team is automatically in the opt out as well.

[Billy Gill]

Yeah, the other, I guess in that situation, Kentucky technically did opt out, even though they might necessarily not have wanted to.

[Guest Speaker / Clip Voice]

Well.

[Van Lathan]

Because, because here's the deal though. If Kentucky doesn't find somebody to play, you're costing them money. They don't get to have a game.

[Billy Gill]

There's a fee, there's an opt out fee.

[Van Lathan]

So there's an opt out fee.

[Tate Frazier]

You have to pay the team.

[Billy Gill]

Everyone's going to be made whole, not.

[Joel Anderson]

Not the players because they want to play that game they're going to miss. They'll, people get paid. And all these guys that have been waiting all year to play this game, it goes away.

[Billy Gill]

They'll find someone to play.

[Van Lathan]

Joe, can you try? Joe, can you, can you try like Joe try?

[Joel Anderson]

I, I mean, no, I just don't think it's a good idea. This isn't personal.

[Van Lathan]

The players are going to kick there. You only get so much tape on them by this point you have, you.

[Joel Anderson]

Only have so many game days in your life.

[Billy Gill]

There's waking up saying I wish.

[Tate Frazier]

You.

[Joel Anderson]

Don'T know what great is going to happen that Saturday. You don't know what, what amazing thing might happen. Diego Pavia might do something to boost his Heisman, you know, he would boost it even more.

[Billy Gill]

Well, that's, yeah, okay, so that's, that's another thing that you can kind of take into account here. Right? So Diego Pavia, you could have a situation where they're just saying, you know, what do we want to do? What's Best for the team. Or do we want to pick an opponent where Diego can put up 700 yards this weekend and win him a high?

[Joel Anderson]

Then everybody would know. Everybody would look like, oh, why did you guys schedule Jacksonville State in the final week of the season?

[Tate Frazier]

They opted out of Kentucky and scheduled.

[Joel Anderson]

Let's get, let's get them some numbers against Sam Houston, okay?

[Van Lathan]

That becomes a part of the conversation, is like, you know, it'd be a dumb conversation, all of these statistics, but we have to consider that there was an opt out game that they played at the end of the season against an inferior opponent, which is he made his Heisman stance or he opts into a game against somebody that's lit, he goes crazy and he goes to New York.

[Billy Gill]

Well, no, then you also have a situation where the committee gets together at the end of the year, right? And they're like, you know what? Like, we're a little bit on the fence here about Oklahoma and they chose not to opt out to better their cause. Like, do we want to put them in the playoffs? If they don't decide, you know what, like we're going to play Kansas State instead of going out and trying to earn that spot because they're ducking then.

[Van Lathan]

Exactly.

[Billy Gill]

If you choose not to opt out, that could affect you as much as.

[Joel Anderson]

If you did choose to opt out. There's a reason this idea didn't catch on last year.

[Billy Gill]

Why?

[Joel Anderson]

Because it's not good. It's not a good idea. Billy, I like you. It didn't have anything to do with you as a person.

[Billy Gill]

This is personal.

[Joel Anderson]

This is a terrible idea.

[Billy Gill]

He was in there this week.

[Joel Anderson]

All these fans have spent all year, they're like, hey, man, me and my, me and my, me and my crew, we're going to go. Me and my crew, we're going to go, man. We're going to have a nice weekend in Baton Rouge. That's on you.

[Billy Gill]

That's on you.

[Van Lathan]

And then the money of that week, That's what you going to be saying. It's like, hey, man, just let you know, you might not want to bring the whole family down to Tallahassee. It's opt out week. Like, it's like, you know what I'm saying?

[Tate Frazier]

No, it's on the schedule.

[Joel Anderson]

Everybody know you make a hotel reservation.

[Billy Gill]

That'S refundable just in case there's an opt out and you can't make the trip or you don't want to see the game.

[Tate Frazier]

And it's the Saturday before Thanksgiving too, so, I mean, people already have plans For Thanksgiving anyway, Joel, So I think if opt out week is on the schedule and everybody knows it's up. Yeah, it's all good.

[Joel Anderson]

What did people say to you when you said this last year? Because you're bringing. Because obviously it didn't work out. People were like, no, that doesn't make any sense.

[Billy Gill]

I think it's going well. I think this is a you thing, if we're going to be perfectly honest.

[Tate Frazier]

Like, I think this is going into.

[Billy Gill]

Yeah, this is fun, Joel. I mean, come on, we live in a different world. The PAC12 doesn't exist anymore. There's evolution now in college, you know.

[Joel Anderson]

So, I mean, I appreciate you trying to do something that's innovative, right? And again, when you did the Todd McShay shit, I was like, yeah, man, I like that. But I just. It just. It's too logistically challenging. It doesn't make sense.

[Van Lathan]

So, look, I just want to let you guys know that Joel is one of these people that is afraid of the future. I said that the schedules for every year should be made after the SEC meetings in the off season. They should all get together and make the schedule for the upcoming year right then. Because now it's too fucked up. That a bridge too far for some opt out. I'm for flexible scheduling. Since all of these conferences have gotten so ginormous. I'm for it. And it also adds drama to think about. Think about some of these coaches that we've seen come on and make these impassioned pleas about their teams. They wouldn't even have to do that. They could put it on the line.

[Tate Frazier]

Play the games, play the games. Also, Kirby Smart just said in his press conference this week, he, when guys transfer out, he puts them on the schedule. And everyone's like, that's not true. Because the schedules are made five years in advance. So that was kind of a fake nomenclature that he made. But if he has the opt out week, if his, you know, second string running back transfers to a team and is a star, and then it's opt out week and they're both in the pool and he's like, we want you storyline. You know what I mean? Like, the story lines are great.

[Van Lathan]

I can't.

[Billy Gill]

I can't see how this goes poorly, Joel. I don't understand how this could go bad.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, yeah, I mean, other than like just blowing up, like a schedule for all these fans that want to come. And then again, you just mentioned you just kind of offhandedly be like, everybody will be made whole. These kids will lose a game.

[Billy Gill]

No, they might lose a game. They'll just play somebody else.

[Van Lathan]

Think about right now if Miami could opt out and then opt into playing Georgia. Think if there was some kind of way, I don't know why would Georgia would do that. But think about if there was some.

[Billy Gill]

Kind of way back revenge game that.

[Joel Anderson]

Wouldn'T help them get into the ACC championship game. Why would they do that? That would be crazy.

[Tate Frazier]

They don't want to play in the ACC championship.

[Van Lathan]

They don't want to play in the ACC. Now you just.

[Joel Anderson]

They need to play an ACC championship game.

[Billy Gill]

Not if they beat Georgia.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, if they beat Georgia, they're in as an at large.

[Van Lathan]

Hey, you know what we're going to do? We're going to break this out. We're going to let the people decide the ricked bow, the opt out. Whether or not it works or not. I'm for this. I'm from whatever type of thing. We could get to get flexible schedul in college football. It's got to be more flexible than it is right now. Too many teams stacked in these conferences. It's too much of a luck of a draw with these teams. You might have a team where all the transfers hit now that team is good. Like it's just there's so much that's going on. There's no stability there. So to me, I feel like the scheduling has to be more flexible than it used to be.

[Tate Frazier]

It just has to like what if Miami and Utah are both in the opt out pool and they're right there next to each other, 12 and 13 and they want to play each other.

[Van Lathan]

Play each other.

[Tate Frazier]

That would be a great game.

[Joel Anderson]

Which I just. What do you. What's going to happen? So one team will win and then they'll be number 12. Yeah, I mean, yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah. And then it's like I'm better than them. You just watched it or then you.

[Billy Gill]

Start your Utah, you start putting out the leaks. Like Utah's trying to strike a deal with Miami for the opt out game and Miami's ducking them and that's.

[Tate Frazier]

They don't want to play them.

[Billy Gill]

Exactly right. And then the committee has to take into account. Well, hold on a second. We want a Miami in this tournament that didn't want to play Utah and.

[Tate Frazier]

Really earn their stripes because you gotta.

[Joel Anderson]

It didn't want to play because they're like this was dumb. We have a home game. We have a home game. All of our fans were coming in for this weekend. We the a local economy floats on.

[Tate Frazier]

A lot of this.

[Joel Anderson]

Like this is a big infusion of cash. Have you. We gonna do the opt out game? Have you seen games?

[Billy Gill]

There's no.

[Joel Anderson]

So we're giving up a home game?

[Van Lathan]

Hold on.

[Joel Anderson]

It's just Miami. How do you know that Miami isn't.

[Van Lathan]

Playing in Miami football.

[Joel Anderson]

Wait, who is Miami playing in this?

[Van Lathan]

Everywhere you go in Miami.

[Joel Anderson]

Something in the Lamborghini. Okay, well, Utah needs that. Utah needs that.

[Van Lathan]

It's some insane looking girl with some guy in a spaceship. They got to be in Miami. Oh, my God.

[Joel Anderson]

Hey, you all are focused too much on the, the home site there. I'm just saying, it just. Then why would teams give up this home game and, and, or, or have all their fans coming in for a rivalry game at the end of the year like it inevitably is for the concept of an opt out game. That's real. I mean, I just. I don't know. Okay.

[Billy Gill]

It's not. It's not.

[Van Lathan]

Let's pull it.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm gonna lose. I'm gonna lose the. Oh, it's not rivalry.

[Billy Gill]

No, it's the.

[Tate Frazier]

It's a war rival.

[Billy Gill]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Joe, are you listening?

[Tate Frazier]

Joe?

[Billy Gill]

He just wants to hate the idea.

[Van Lathan]

Are you listening? No, wait.

[Joel Anderson]

I got confused. You guys keep arguing with me and it confused me. Okay. You guys kept arguing with me.

[Van Lathan]

God.

[Tate Frazier]

Okay, Joe, just to give you a rundown of some of the games that are happening this week. Just in the sec. Just.

[Joel Anderson]

It's just. That's because it's SEC because they're the.

[Tate Frazier]

Week nine conference games. But this is off that week. We got Texas A M going up against Samford. We got Georgia going up against Charlotte, Auburn going up against Mercer. Right. So like if they opt out of those games.

[Joel Anderson]

I know the SEC is being hosed this week. I understand. Yeah, they always.

[Tate Frazier]

If they opt out of those games, then Charlotte's in the pool, Mercer's in the pool, Sanford's in the pool. So, so if there's some teams that are just like, hey, I want to hide out and just get a win. Indiana, they're like, hey, we'll play Sanford this week. You know, they're in the opt out pool, so we'll opt out of our game.

[Van Lathan]

Let Charlotte and Mercer play each other. I think it's okay. Although I will say that they're not.

[Joel Anderson]

Gonna get that money.

[Van Lathan]

That's what I'm saying.

[Billy Gill]

That's what Joel's worried about. What's going to happen with Kentucky?

[Tate Frazier]

Joe wants Kentucky to get a game on the schedule.

[Joel Anderson]

Kentucky? Why would Kentucky want to lose a game? Man, the kids, they Spent all year wanting to play this game this time. And you're a Kentucky football player.

[Tate Frazier]

If you had to.

[Joel Anderson]

Andre Woodson. No. Well, I don't know, man. Man. Who's Big boy? Man? Jared Lorenzen, man.

[Van Lathan]

Rest in peace. The Pillsbury throw, boy. Rest in peace, man.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man. Who was it? Who was a kid? He was kind of like a little.

[Van Lathan]

Didn't Tim Couch go to Kentucky? No.

[Joel Anderson]

1 recruit in the country, man.

[Tate Frazier]

Randall Cob would be a good one.

[Joel Anderson]

Randall Cobb. Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

I liked it, Billy.

[Tate Frazier]

I liked it, too, Billy.

[Joel Anderson]

I like you, Billy. I think you. You've been a great addition to the program. Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

Joel started personally. It ends it personally.

[Billy Gill]

It's always. He spent all week texting me, trying to, like.

[Joel Anderson]

Cause no, no, no, no, no. Allison. Allison actually reached out and said to. For Billy to stop fucking with me. She's made her choice. Okay. And she's known you longer, much longer than me. I barely. I, I, I don't even think I've met Allison in person yet.

[Billy Gill]

He's, like, bullied. It's not.

[Van Lathan]

That statement right there. I could tell that was full on hate. That was a statement right there.

[Joel Anderson]

You know what?

[Van Lathan]

Fuck it. You know what? Opt out week. You know what we're gonna do? We not opt out week. We not worrying about going to Plant. We opting into going to Houston, and our dogs is gonna be barking. We going to Houston, and that's what we need is to get a nice foot massage in Houston.

[Tate Frazier]

As a team.

[Joel Anderson]

I told y' all also, hey, tailgate listeners, by the way, Van didn't send my dad shit. Okay. By the way, he didn't get no barbecue, no nothing. So you talked all that shit you said you would go to? Yeah. My dad's like, oh, I thought I was supposed to get some good barbecue or something. So. Yeah. Are you disappointed a veteran?

[Van Lathan]

That's what Pat said. Pat said if you didn't like what I did, Pat said if you didn't like what I did. You hate the truth troops. You. I'm like, God damn. Oh, my God.

[Tate Frazier]

Great proposal, Billy.

[Joel Anderson]

We don't have to. You don't have to keep saying that to make it one for one.

[Tate Frazier]

One for one there. November 22nd, opt out week. Let's put it on the board. Let's get the CFP committee on that. Hunter, your check. He's the guy that needs to get that done. One big question. Let's. Let's flip forward. Let's talk Lane Kiffin, because there is a lot of people talking about Lane Kiff. And a lot of reports about planes with Lane's family on the plane. So one big question is simple. Is Lane Kiffin playing all of us, or is he actually looking at LSU in Florida? Joel, I'll go to you first here. Do you believe that Lane Kiffin is flirting around and looking for other places, or is this just a big troll job?

[Joel Anderson]

No, absolutely. He's serious. I mean, first of all, if he considered Auburn just a year ago or whatever, the last time the Auburn was open.

[Tate Frazier]

2022.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, 2022. Then he absolutely is taking this very seriously.

[Tate Frazier]

And Auburn's actually open as well. You know, I probably talked about Auburn.

[Joel Anderson]

Auburn's open again. Nobody cares, right? It's like, well, we'll take who's left over. And look, he. So did you all see him? We were just talking about Pat McAfee. Did you all look at the interview that he did on Pat McAfee earlier this week?

[Van Lathan]

I did see it.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. Yeah. And he used that opportunity to deny that Ole Miss had given him an ultimatum. But I was kind of thinking about this because, like, Wale was talking about something about how, like, he doesn't talk to the people in the industry anymore, because when he told people his problems and, like, J. Cole comes out with a song called False Prophets with a second verse, is about a guy who sounds an awful lot like Wale. Right. And it's just, like, you could tell that there was some friction in their friendship, but they were never able to get it back together. Well, I kind of feel like that's kind of what's going on with Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss. Like, even if the reporting wasn't quite accurate, like, even if, like, there's a misunderstanding here, it's like, you can feel that just enough friction right out there right now and that, like, things. People were criticizing Lane Kiffin because of what he said about the crowd after a game a couple weeks ago. It's just, like, you just feel like it'll be really tough for them to sort of get back to where it was. Right. Like, you feel like Lane has kind of already got a foot out the door. And, you know, I mean, if the ultimatum thing is true or not, it just puts a lot of bad feelings out there. It's just a lot of bad vibes around it. And I feel like at a certain point, it's just really hard to get that back.

[Van Lathan]

I think that's fair. I think that's fair. I actually agree with what you're saying, that it could be true. I don't Know, I honestly don't know. I tend to believe that if there wasn't some chance that he would leave Oxford, that he wouldn't be doing this, if there wasn't some chance that he would take another job, that he wouldn't seem to be so overtly courting the courting that's being done. Lane Kiffin is coaching a football team that has one loss right now.

[Tate Frazier]

In the playoff.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, in the playoff. A team that is having one of the greatest seasons in school history.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker / Clip Voice]

Right.

[Van Lathan]

And if Lane Kiffin is not coming out and saying, I will be at Ole Miss University, I will be here, the University of Mississippi, for years to come. If he's not saying that, if he's not committing himself to that, if he's not doing what Kurt Signetti did, if he's not doing what Mike Elko did, if not that Elko was in any danger of leaving, but if he's not doing that, you have to ask why. You have to ask why he isn't doing that. Because if, in fact, Lane Kiffin just likes being the center of attention, just likes being the guy behind the headline, and he really has no intention of leaving, then he's an irresponsible head coach. He's an irresponsible leader of those young men. He's an irresponsible steward for the football culture of Ole Miss. And I don't think that he's that. I don't think that he's that. So I don't think that Elaine Kiffin is arrogant enough to sort of let all of this stuff swirl around. If he is resolute in the fact that he's not leaving Ole Miss, I don't know that he's that type of arrogant. So, you know, I don't have an answer, but I tend to believe that he's actually considering getting the hell out of there.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

Do you consider it? I think that's Joel's original point. So, I mean, that's why Ole Miss fans are very upset, because they're like, not only are you entertaining these other options, you're trolling me while you do.

[Joel Anderson]

It, you know, needlessly cryptic. Needlessly cryptic. You could end the speculation by signing extension to doing what Van said. I don't. I love it here at Ole Miss. There's no need in me going anywhere else. I can do everything I want to do and accomplish everything I want to right here.

[Tate Frazier]

Or even great key at Georgia Tech says, I cut me open, I bleed these colors. Right? I mean, there. He can even Say something as, you know, innocuous as that, or like, hey, I was left, you know, to my own devices. I was at Florida Atlantic. Nobody believed in me. I wasn't getting a shot from anybody, and Ole Miss gave me a shot.

[Joel Anderson]

Yep.

[Tate Frazier]

Right. There's so many things he could say, but he's saying none of that. It's. It's fascinating.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. I mean, it's. Go ahead.

[Van Lathan]

You got Joe.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay. Well, I was gonna say, because, like, he. The thing is, I get it. It's. Understand he has to explore these options because we're talking about tens of millions of dollars and an opportunity to coach it some of these elite programs for maybe the final time in his career. Like, this is not a moment that's going to come up very often where LSU and Florida are going to be vying for your services, and you're the. You're. It seems to be the top coach on the market right now. Like, that's just not a scenario that is probably going to happen again. So he has to responsibly, like, look at all his options and consider what's best for him. But the way that he's sort of conducting himself, it leaves them. It leaves it open to be like, okay, you kind of on these people, bro. Like. Like Tate said, like, they gave you an opportunity when not a lot of people thought that you would get back to that level again, right? That you would. People thought, oh, you know, this is a dude who Nick Saban fired the week of the national championship game, man. You know what I mean? Like, it was just like. And it spoke a little bit about men. Like, what does Nick Saban, who is anti distraction as anybody in the world, he got rid of a guy. So it's like, obviously, Lane, you know, he wasn't on the. On the track to something like this, and you could just see that, like, all right, well, he's clearly thinks. You know, he's listening and. And taking all the offers that he can get, but it's just like, yeah, bro, you're not gonna be able to go back home.

[Van Lathan]

So you know what? A coach owes a fan base more than anything else to me. Stability. So when you look at the situation in Louisiana right now with lsu, the vacuum that's created at the top results in no stability. Without stability, you can't have confidence. Without confidence, you can't have performance. And without performance, you can't win. So stability is a big part of what you do as a head football coach in college football. Stability in your locker room, in your culture, in Your fan base, this guy here is a stable rock. So we can have confidence in him, have confidence in what he does and that the team can go out and perform. And with great performance comes winning, hopefully, right? Lane Kiffin owes the fan base there more stability than this. He owes it to them if he is committed to them to not being in the coaching search every single year. Now, is it possible that Kiffin sees something that Ole Miss that we don't see? Is it possible that there's something that's been going on for the last couple of years at Ole Miss in terms of their collective or whatever it is that they're doing that he doesn't see as something that can happen for the foreseeable future? Is it possible that he sees something that he doesn't think he's gonna be able to win there? Like he would win somebody? Well, yeah, maybe. All that's possible. All of that's true. But at some point, if that's the deal, you gotta end the daily ins. You gotta end the. The. The. The. The flirtation. You gotta make a move. And I keep saying this over and over and over again. Lane Kiffin as a coach has got to stop this nomadic era of his career year. He has to stop it. There have been other coaches that have done this in all different types of sports. Larry Brown, the ultimate nomad, right, will go everywhere, all kinds of places. But he.

[Tate Frazier]

Kansas, ucla. Everywhere.

[Van Lathan]

Kansas, ucla. The Clippers. No, well, not the Clippers. The Culture Clippers.

[Tate Frazier]

Sixers.

[Van Lathan]

The Sixers. The. The Pistons.

[Tate Frazier]

Pistons, of course, yeah. Like, everywhere. Me coaching the aba, for God's sakes.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah. Ultimate nomad. But he also did stay someplace long enough to get a team, a championship and take a team to another championship and then win one in college as well. So he did stay places long enough to get these people and these programs and these organizations over the hump. And Lane Kiffin's gotta do that. He's gotta stay there and do the real soil, the work in the dirt to get somebody over the hump, man.

[Joel Anderson]

The funny thing is. The funny thing is it's really setting up perfect for him to lose the Egg Bowl. Like, I feel like there's something in the air. I just feel like that feels like a thing that might actually happen just because of how things are unfolding right now. But, Van, I was gonna. I don't know if I asked you this already. Do you want Lane?

[Van Lathan]

I mean, if you're an LSU fan at this point, you'd have to be. Be. You have to be okay. With Lane Kiffin, of all the names are out there, Lane Kiffin is the one that you know is going to have you competitive like next season. LSU gets Lane Kiffin. LSU is competitive for in the SEC next season. There are not a lot of coaches you could say that about. Like right now, if LSU were to get Lane Kiffin, they're going to be able to get guys in the transfer portal. They're going to be able to take those guys and at least as far as be the type of team that will still be be being talked about right now, that will happen. As far as how far you can go with Lane Kiffin, nobody knows. But he certainly raises your floor and.

[Tate Frazier]

He could coach his son in law. Future son in law, what weeks.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's certainly a floor raiser. So if you're looking for a coach that you just know a team that's coached by him is going to have some type of philosophy and a chance to go out and win every Saturday, then Lane Kiffin's a great guy. As far as can he coach a dominant college football team, we don't know that yet because he hasn't proven that yet.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, I was going to say he also, he don't coach in the style that you were talking about. Like when we said men win at lsu, that's not the way the old Delane Kiffin wins. Is not in that style of ball offense.

[Van Lathan]

On defense, you look at some of the dogs that they've had at Ole Miss over the last couple of years, Nolan and some of those other guys, those are teams that were styled along the line of scrimmage and had some. Maybe they're not quite as dominated now. But on offense, yeah, he plays a more cutesy.

[Tate Frazier]

A lot of flash, a lot of.

[Van Lathan]

Flash in the offense. But defensively, these Ole Miss teams in the last couple of years have been teams that didn't just go out there and did not play physical and get blown off the ball.

[Tate Frazier]

And if you kind of piece together, I think at the end of the season when all this kind of dust settles and we figure out where everyone's going to go. So if we put the puzzle piece together of kind of all the little droppings that he put along all the breadcrumbs, right, like saying John Sumrall would be a great coach in the SEC when they play Tulane and a lot of people think summer would be the coach to go to Ole Miss if he leaves. Right. There's a lot of things wit weeks with his daughter and lsu, his son Going on the visit to lsu. Right. There's a lot of things that have kind of happened throughout the season where you're like, oh, there was a little bit of a writing on the wall here that we all kind of, you know, laughed at, scoffed at, whatever you want to say. So, I mean, Lane's playing the long game. It seems like.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, it doesn't seem like. I mean, again, LSU has the highest ceiling of any of those programs out there. You understand why somebody will look at it. It just doesn't seem like a lot of fun, man. You know, like, and Ole Miss, Ole Miss will love him if he stays and continues to do what he does or, you know, they will allow him an off season or whatever or a down year. I don't, I don't think he's going to be coming into LSU and people are going to be, you know, is excited with him if he has a down year like Brian Kelly had or something.

[Tate Frazier]

Yes, the same type of situation. The pressure cooker is on. Let's go to another situation where there could be a potential pressure cooker. Overreaction of the week. Steve Sarkeesian at Texas head coach there was asked why Texas has underachieved this season, which was a fair question to ask preseason number one, Heisman favorite Arch Manning. And here's the clip. Here's what he had to say when he was asked about this.

[Joel Anderson]

Steve, what would you say the main reasons are this team is underachieved, according to who? Well, you and your preseason number one. I think most people would agree three losses is not achieving what you are capable of.

[Guest Speaker / Clip Voice]

I mean, I guess that's into who voted us number one. Okay. What I think is that this team has competed their tail off. They've been faced with a lot of different adversity and injuries and a lot of stuff has come across this team's plate. And I'm very, very proud of them with their resiliency. You know, at the end of the day at the University of Texas, we're held to a very high standard. And the standard is to compete for championships year in and year out. And we're going to play the best teams in the country. We're going to schedule the best teams in the country. But by the end of the season, we'll play of our 12 regular season opponents. Five of those teams will be top 10 teams when we played so nearly half our schedule. And we have an opportunity at the end of the regular season to do something that Nobody's done since 2019, and that's beat three top 10 ranked teams in the regular season. Last team to do that was LSU with Joe Burrow. So have we been faced with a pretty difficult schedule? Have we been faced with high expectations? Sure, but that's why we came here, so we'll be okay.

[Tate Frazier]

He says this team could be compared to Joe burrow in the 2019 LSU Tigers. Van, your thoughts on what he just said?

[Van Lathan]

That's funny. Not necessarily Joe Burrow thing. I just remember a homeboy of mine that, look, people go through things in their relationship and they get over them. So it is what it is, guys. But I remember a homeboy of mine being in a situation with his girl and her saying to him, how could it be this many girls? And him saying, well, I never said I wouldn't do that. And us looking like, oh, shit, like, us looking like. He's like, I never said. And then her going, what? And him going, man, you know, I'm a G. I'm sorry, bro. Man, you know I'm a g, Bro. Like, what? He's like, man, you know I'm a G. I was like, oh, like, bro, what are you doing? Bro, what are you saying?

[Billy Gill]

Game.

[Van Lathan]

That's kind of in the same vein of what Sarkeesian is saying right here. Sarkeesian's like, look, I never said we was number one. That's funny. I've legitimately never heard that. Sarkeesian saying, look, we out here doing. I never said we was number one. Y' all said we was number one. We playing who's on our schedule every Saturday. He's got a point. He's got a point. As far as all the other stuff, the coach speak of how tough your schedule is and everybody that you play, there's this new phenomenon where a coach is at a press conference after he's lost a game and he goes, you know, if we get the kickoff in the second half and we don't fumble the ball at the 25 yard line, and, you know, if we have a couple of different plays, then we don't lose that game by 27 points. And I just don't remember the coaches that I looked up to back in the day having conversations like that. I don't remember the coaches going out there and going, hey, if one or two things break our way, that, hey, maybe it's us that gets out there. I remember coaches going out there and saying, we lost the football game. We need to be better, and we're not quite good enough to be what you guys thought as the number one team in the Country. Half of that was patented coach speak. The other half was. I never told you I wouldn't do that. You know, I'm a G. And that's the first thing I thought about when I saw him saying that. But kudos for him to. To try to try to make it happen. I'll tell you one thing, though. Our message board surf. It's one of my favorite things to do, including our message board. People ask me, do you go on your own message board and look at your own fans blowing up? I do. The fans in Texas right now, they're not trying to hear that shit, man. They are fed up. I was on one message board that said that Sark is R James Franklin. Oh, that. That is why I'm not. Bullshit. I'm not making that up. So I don't know if anything that he said is going to really make the Texas fans feel super great about where the team is right now or in the near future with Steve Sarkeesian.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, Texas fans. Get over your fucking selves, man. I mean, seriously. I mean, seriously, bro. I mean, again, I've lived my whole life, you know, I grew up in Texas, went to school in Texas, lived in Texas after. My family's still there, so I've been following the Longhorns my whole life. And again, they're acting like they're Alabama or the Ohio State, but I have actually. I would like to play a clip from Sark from. Not this week, but from four years ago.

[Guest Speaker / Clip Voice]

I was in year four of our program and I had three or four losses already right now, and I've been banging this drum of where we're going to be four years from now, and we still aren't there. Then I would be concerned. But we're in year one. We're in the building phase of where we're headed as a program. You know, in Year four, if I'm sitting here with three or four losses, then I would probably be more concerned.

[Joel Anderson]

Sark, you're in Year five. You're in year five. You have three losses with a game left to play against undefeated number three Texas A and M in the regular season finale. Okay, so by your own standard, you're currently falling short. Now, again, it's unfair. That was early. That was earlier in his career. They were in the Big 12. There's no question that Sark has elevated this program. But, yeah, like, they're much. They're in a much better state, state and place than they were under Tom Herman and Charlie Strong in the last few years of. Of Mac Brown, that they're clearly on the rise, but by your own standard, you're falling short. And remember, I'm just kind of. I'm just. I'm just thinking. Because as I mentioned earlier, like, I've been following Texas my whole life. Life. This isn't underachievement for Texas. I kind of. I get what he's saying. This is. This is what Texas is. And the idea that they're even Georgia today is something that's more of a concept than anything we've seen in real life. Like they had. I understand why Texas fans expect more. They've got more money than everybody. They've got this rich tradition and culture. People really care about the program. They can get in on any elite, elite athlete in this country. But here's who you are. Texas. One national championship since the desegregation of the sport. Four conference titles in the past 30 years. Four conference titles in the past thirty years. Three top ten finishes since 2010. Who does that sound like? Does that sound like a team that. Does that sound like the Alabama team that you all think you are? Does that sound like Ohio State? Or given that context, the 7 and 3 and numbered 17 in the country sound like who the University of Texas football program actually is.

[Van Lathan]

You know, what's interesting with you is you. You position this argument in a way that you can't lose it, right? And let me tell you what I mean.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, that's good. I'm a good. I'm good. I'm good at this. You know, you are good at this.

[Van Lathan]

You are. You are good at this. You should reconsider what you're hopped in. You are. You're a G. I'm a G. I'm a G. You know, I'm a G. That was so fun.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm laughing at this.

[Van Lathan]

So with Texas, recent success dictates that they aren't who they thought they are. With lsu, traditional success dictates that they aren't who they thought they are. So your argument with LSU is that. Or any team that would be like LSU, is that because they have three national championships, six SEC championships, all of that stuff, but it's since 2000 that their view of themselves isn't really anything notable because it's too recent now. And with Texas, that argument is exactly the inverse. Fuck everything that they've done throughout the history of college football. That doesn't matter. What actually matters is what they haven't been able to do in the last 15 or in the last 15 years. Because if you go 20 years then it's a national championship that they won in 2005. So what team in college football?

[Joel Anderson]

I gave you the names. I told you. Alabama, Ohio State, maybe Georgia right now. But I mean, the thing is, only a few.

[Van Lathan]

There's only a few of these. No, no, no, fuck that. No, it can't be Clemson because Clemson wasn't. Clemson was in the doldrums until Dabo got there.

[Joel Anderson]

Although they did win an episode. And I would also say with Georgia.

[Van Lathan]

Georgia. Shout out to everybody in Georgia. Shout out to Big False and everybody. Shout out to everybody in Georgia. But Georgia was a perennial. Also ran second place type program until Kirby Smart got there. They were good all the time, but getting meat stomped in all different types of big games.

[Tate Frazier]

They'd always break your heart. Yeah, they'd be right there and they break your heart. No. Sean Marino, Matt Stafford team preseason number one. That was kind of like this version of, you know, Jay Green. Yeah, right.

[Joel Anderson]

Champ Bailey.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

No, I mean, I get it. I get I could. No, the thing is, is that only a few programs have really the right. I mean, everybody wants their program to be better and they think that they should be competing for a national championship today. Right? That, like, we should be right there. And I'm just like, bro, Texas, like, don't run Sark off, man. Again, Sark. He's underachieving by his own metric. But, bro, do you. Are you forgetting, like, what has happened over the last few years, like, who you are? And when I say that about lsu, I'm like, okay, lsu, like, obviously this proof of concept, they're a great program. But I'm just like, it could easily be what it was for, you know, all those years when Booger McFarlane came on and said, oh, it was like an old abandoned car with leaves on it. And then we got there with me and Kevin Faulkner, we turned it around. Like every pro programs just don't have a right to be dominant forever. It doesn't really happen for people like that. And I'm just like, Texas, like, chill out, man. Your coach is much better than he was. You're going to talk yourselves into getting somebody terrible, if you, like. A new coach. Sonny Dykes is available, by the way.

[Tate Frazier]

And I will say some of this came from that athletic article this summer that was. I think it was Ralph Russo that wrote it. Not to put it on him, but he said that, like, Texas is the new Alabama. And I think some of the expectations. Right. Came a little bit from that. Can we get this clip from Desmond Howard? I want to get your guys reactions to this, because where there's smoke, there might be some fire. Here's Desmond Howard.

[Joel Anderson]

I was also thinking, don't be surprised if that Texas job opens up at the end of the season. You guys were shocked when LSU opened up. Imagine how you're going to feel if that job in Austin pops open. I'm not calling or saying anyone's going to get fired. Maybe a mutual parting of ways, you dig? Anyway, you guys have a great Monday.

[Van Lathan]

The thing about that is, why would he say that unless he had heard something directly? Like, why would he say that? Sarko seems like it's getting to him with the. Why would he say something like that if he hadn't heard directly? It's such. It would be such a reckless take for somebody of his stature and position to go public with on his personal social media without having heard something, man.

[Joel Anderson]

What do I mean? But you know what's funny also, he.

[Tate Frazier]

Must have thought it was going to get out. Sorry, Doris, interrupt you. He must have thought I was going to get out to go outside in his bucket hat with sunglasses on in that moment. You know what I mean? Like, he's like, trying to get ahead of it where he's like, he could have saved that for the show on college game day if he felt like it was something he could keep close to the vest. But he thought it was gonna.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, that's.

[Van Lathan]

Hey, don't do Joe like that again, bro. That was crazy. That was the essence.

[Tate Frazier]

My bad.

[Joel Anderson]

I was looking at, man, that's fine. It wasn't that. That was okay. You.

[Van Lathan]

I mean, you.

[Joel Anderson]

You know, you. We need to clear space out for Tate sometimes, so I was willing to, you know.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, the essence implicates.

[Joel Anderson]

But, man, we just now got his mom listening again, man.

[Van Lathan]

We like it.

[Tate Frazier]

My mom.

[Van Lathan]

Shout out Sutton's drugstore. No more Essence jokes. I apologize.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, shout out Suttons.

[Joel Anderson]

Suttons, man, we gotta go there. Not on the green, not in the green book, but that's okay. Van, man, your friends be arguing in front of you with their girls, bro. Like, I mean, I swear, man, they have no respect for their women. Like, it's like, let's maybe.

[Tate Frazier]

Let's.

[Joel Anderson]

Let's take this argument out of.

[Van Lathan]

Nah, this was a situation where something happened directly, and it was kind of a. It was kind of a situation where we were kind of all in the middle of it. And so it just played out the way it played out.

[Joel Anderson]

He didn't know that that was a good move in the moment because it's Like, I mean, you want to have that kind of moment. You want to leave that moment with your friends for the rest of that.

[Guest Speaker / Clip Voice]

Life, if you can.

[Van Lathan]

I couldn't. It was so wor. When they got married, I was. I.

[Tate Frazier]

They got married.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, they got married.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, yeah, they got married.

[Tate Frazier]

What?

[Van Lathan]

Oh, they got married. Yeah, for sure.

[Tate Frazier]

I was about to ask what they.

[Van Lathan]

Wow. They got married. I was so tempted on that microphone to be like, you know, I'm a g. I l. I asked specifically not to. No, they're married. They're married. They're married. Yeah, they're married.

[Joel Anderson]

What the relationship, man. I'm thinking this is. Yet they couldn't come back from that one.

[Van Lathan]

N. They married. They got married. I was. I was.

[Tate Frazier]

Sounds like she respected it at some level.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man.

[Van Lathan]

She's like, you know, I'm g. Be real. At some level, you had to respect it, bro.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Some level you had.

[Joel Anderson]

Salute the service.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah. You had to be like, I. I just. I.

[Tate Frazier]

We.

[Van Lathan]

We will be years later. We will be driving, just playing basketball. I'd be like, I cannot believe you said that. It's like, I cannot believe you said that. He was like, man. And it's so funny, because he'd be like, like, man, I was at my lowest point, and that's what came out. Say, you know, I'm a g. What? I never said that.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm like, I'm sweating, bro. Oh, my God.

[Van Lathan]

But, yeah, Joe, what are you gonna say, man?

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, no. I don't even remember now. I'm sorry. I may have said it already.

[Tate Frazier]

He put it.

[Van Lathan]

I mean, if. If Sark is gone, this is the craziest coaching year that of all time. If soccer is gone, if Sark leaves.

[Tate Frazier]

Is laying at an angle for Texas, you know?

[Van Lathan]

Well, I mean, my question is this, man. Does Lane know something that maybe we all don't know? Maybe it's not LSU or Florida. Maybe they are homies.

[Joel Anderson]

Lane and soccer homies.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

They're in a group chat together and everything.

[Tate Frazier]

Maybe Lane is Jimmy Sexton.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah. Maybe Lane knows something. Because, honestly, if we just talking resources, if the Texas job opens up, then that becomes the best job. I still think there's a cultural component that makes LSU as good of a job as anywhere in the country. But if Texas, you will have an endless, endless bag of cash to go get the players you want.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, also, you looking at that LSU situation right now, you just like, man. Governor Landry's thing and the Verge oxberry thing. It's like, I don't know, if I really want to be involved in that.

[Van Lathan]

You know, it's tough. It's tough.

[Tate Frazier]

Go to Austin, you get Matthew McConaughey, you get Glenn Powell.

[Joel Anderson]

Austin, man. Man, I had some good, man. Austin's dope, man. It's good. Well, I've been there like 20 years like I used to be, but yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, it's different now, my friend.

[Joel Anderson]

It's different. Yeah, the same. Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

I was there this summer for a bachelor party. Good time.

[Joel Anderson]

It's a good bachelor bachelor party city, man. You know, man, Texas Relays, man, when I to used to fall through back in, man. Whoa, early, early April, man.

[Van Lathan]

Don't get me started, okay?

[Joel Anderson]

I want to go to P Relays one day.

[Van Lathan]

Don't get me started about the Texas Relays. You know I'm a G. Texas Relays. The Texas Relays, boy. What?

[Tate Frazier]

We might need T shirts to say that, you know I'm a G. You.

[Joel Anderson]

Know I'm a G. You know I'm.

[Van Lathan]

A G. You know, hey, man, you know I'm a G, G. I'm like, oh, my God.

[Tate Frazier]

All right, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk biggest games of week 13, our favorite other matchups. We'll talk a little James Franklin and we'll do big Van on campus. We'll be right back after the break. Ring your tailgate is brought to you by FanDuel. Ready to fire up your Saturday's. FanDuel's got a boost you don't want to miss. It's called boosting with the boys and it's giving everyone a college football profit boost every single week. This weekend I like Pittsburgh to cover against Georgia Tech. You can look at that number right now in the FanDuel sportsbook app and go hammer at home because the ACC is total chaos at this point. We're talking real games, real teams, real Saturdays with an extra payout on the line. It's easy, it's fun, and it's only on FanDuel. Go to FanDuel.com Tailgate to download the app, check out the boost and what the boys offer and get in on all the action. Must be 21 or older and present in select states or 18 and older and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Opt in required bonus issued is non withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply including any token expiration and max wager amount. C [e-mail] gambling problem. Call 1-800- gambler or visit rg-help.com, call 1-887-897777 or visit ccpg.org chatinconnecticut.

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[Van Lathan]

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[Tate Frazier]

Ring your tailgate. Big news of the week in the coaching carousel. James Franklin. We heard it on the rumor mills, but he's officially the head coach in Blacksburg for the Virginia Tech Hokies. He did his press conference. I would say he won the press conference. Obviously, big news. A lot of ripple effect all throughout college football. Joel, your thoughts on James Franklin taking the job down there at bt?

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, man, this is a home run, bro. I mean, he should not be available for Virginia Tech. He should be at Penn State. And I guess maybe Coach Franklin got tired of waiting on Florida State or Auburn, you know, went into the mother schools. I guess he's just like, you know what? I think I can win here. And it makes sense because Virginia Tech, for people that don't remember, they're like, you know, if you're, you know, 20, 25 years old, you don't remember where Virginia Tech used to be something. But man, they won the first. They won four of the first seven ACC titles. Like it's a real football school. Like in the acc, which is, you know, got the reputation as a baseball, basketball conference. It's a real football place where football matters more than hoops. It's got a great home, stadium, environment, stadium so good. It's dope, man. And look, man, if you're James Franklin, if you could get kids to go to State College Penns, you can get kids to go to Blacksburg. That's right within like his little recruiting footprint there. And then you just add to that they just recently approved like a 230 million dollar investment in its athletics program for the next four years.

[Billy Gill]

Years.

[Joel Anderson]

So it, you can see why that is an appealing option for James and then for, I mean, man, look, Penn State, good luck finding somebody better, you know. Now on the bright side, the buyout goes from 49 million to 9 million. So they got some savings out of this deal. But I think they're going to regret losing James Franklin. I actually think a lot of other schools are going to regret not getting in on this because he's a really good coach, man. You, it's arguable that he might have been the best coach out there on the market. And so yeah, I think Virginia Tech made a really, really smart move to getting him, getting him and locking him down.

[Van Lathan]

I think it's a fantastic, fantastic hire. I think it's great for both parties. I think he gets to go there and coach and remind people just what he can do for a program, which is build a program, solidify a program and he gets to choose, he gets to prove some things at Vinyl Tech that maybe he could improve at Penn State. You know, who knows how the conference realignment and all that stuff will shake out. Who knows if he knows where he, who's even going to be playing in the next couple years. But he is a good football coach, a great football coach. And for a program that has a lot of pride but hasn't had a.

[Tate Frazier]

Lot of success lately, great hire, great traditions as well. Inner Sandman coming into the stadium, they, you know, every time it's a key play, everybody in the crowd gets the keys out, jingles the keys. They do the Hokey Pokey. Not sure how I feel about the.

[Joel Anderson]

Hokey Pokey, but I said they did the hokey Pokey. I didn't know that.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah. Oh, man, it's it. When you go to a Virginia Tech football game, like you feel it. Blacksburg, I've been there for a couple of games in my time back in college, even before college, it's a crazy atmosphere. Been some great players. Cam Chancellor, I got to see him in person there. Incredible, you know, safety to watch in real life. Michael Vick, obviously that era was incredible. Marcus Vic, not so much, but you know, still had some great games.

[Joel Anderson]

Kevin Jones, you know what I'm saying?

[Tate Frazier]

Cornell, Brown, yeah, they've had some great players every time. Virginia Tech, it is a football school like you said, Joel, and he's got a two week head start on everybody with the portal and the dead period coming up. So James Franklin will make some noise at Virginia Tech. So I think it's a really good move. All right, let's look forward. Biggest games of week 13. We'll be live on Saturday as we always are. We got number 17. These are all the AP poll rankings, by the way. I got some people complaining about me mixing up the AP and the CFP. I'll keep it strictly AP for the games. Number 17, USC. At number 8, Oregon. We got number 22, PIT at number 16, Georgia Tech deck. Number 12, BYU. At number 25, Cincinnati Van. Of those games, are there any that really stick out to you of those Big three?

[Van Lathan]

The SC game is one of the most important football games in Lincoln Riley's career.

[Tate Frazier]

Oh, the biggest game of the week.

[Van Lathan]

It's one of the most important games in the career of Lincoln Riley. Lincoln Riley is a bonafide stamp minted college football genius. He is call plays, work with QBs, all of that. You got that many Heismans, that many wins, that many points. You are the guy. What he has yet to prove is that he can do everything that he did at Oklahoma, at sc has yet to prove that. The only thing that is going to prove that is big wins and this is the opportunity for a big win. Win. He has a team that is rapidly improving, rapidly finding their identity. Can they go up to Austin and get a win? If they do, Lincoln Riley and SC officially back.

[Joel Anderson]

I like that, man. Yeah. Oregon's a nine and a half point favorite, which is kind of a, it's crazy disrespectful. Yeah, yeah, man, I say, I, I, I don't think there's that much difference between those teams. But yeah, I mean, to advance point man, this is a big game for Lincoln Riley. If he pulls an opportunity, if he pulls it off, man, like they, I mean you, USC is still, we haven't talked about them a lot, but they still have a chance to make the playoffs. Right. And it starts Saturday at Austin and then they got ucla. So it's pretty simple on paper, but obviously much more difficult to pull off in real life.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, I mean Lincoln Riley, if he gets that win and USC's in the fold I think the, the whole tenor in Los Angeles because, Van, you know, I know being out here, I got USC neighbors. They, they're, they're kind of teetering towards the edge of their, you know, patience with Lincoln Riley. So if he were able to somehow backdoor his way into the playoff, they'd be very happy about that. Favorite other matchup on the board. Van who do you like, though? Who do you like on the board? Who do you want to watch this weekend?

[Van Lathan]

Arizona State and Colorado. Lots of stuff happening in Arizona State surrounding Kenny Dillingham, whether or not he'll be around, obviously, Sam Levitt and some things going on there. That what's happening with that team, which was just last year at this time, was a team on the rise, that went on to really make some noise in the College Football Playoff. You could easily look forward six weeks, two months, and have Arizona State back at square one. It's interesting to see that team perform against Colorado. Colorado, a team that we just don't talk about in college football anymore. Just don't talk about them at all. Just no conversation about Colorado, Colorado or Dion or in any way, shape or form. So interesting to see that game as far as the other matchups are concerned.

[Tate Frazier]

Joel, what about you?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, well, I mean, in terms of the big games, I mean, man, you know, that pitted Georgia Tech, man, that's going to play a huge role in figuring out sort of that mess at the top of the acc, because if Georgia Tech wins, it's pretty simple. They make. They get to the championship game, and then Pitt and Miami can't make the ACC championship game. But if Pitt wins, right, and then it has Miami the following week, I mean, this is. I mean, these are the probably two of the toughest games on their schedules. I mean, that. I mean, their closing stretch has been rough, right? But there's still a chance if they beat, if they went on Saturday, that they could make it to Charlotte. So they, you know, this, this is a game that's going to do some sorting for us. But I mean, I don't know, man. Can the one thing I think about, man, for Georgia Tech and can. Can Haynes King survive? You know what I mean?

[Tate Frazier]

Like, that's how I feel watching every game. I'm like, yeah, I was like, absolutely right.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, bro, man, he averages 16 carries. Game, man, I just. That's a lot. They put a lot. They put a lot on that dude, man. And I mean, so he's going to have to survive this game because Pitt is nasty on defense. They got a Good run defense, a great linebacking core. And then you got to do it against Georgia the next week. Man, I just, just pray for people. Pray for Haynes King, man. Cause he's got a lot on his shoulders coming up here at the end of this month.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, they might preserve him against Georgia so he doesn't get knocked out of the ACC championship game. They might have to be smart about that game, but we'll see. It's a rivalry game. You never know what's going to happen. My other favorite game on the board, Duke at North Carolina. I'm very excited to see this game. Little rivalry game. Always a close game, no matter what. I was there a couple years ago when Drake May won at home against Duke. They are back in Chapel Hill this weekend. And I know that this is going to lend itself to a conversation about what we all saw this week on Twitter. Bill Belichick is at a adult cheerleading competition leading into the Duke game, supporting Jordan.

[Joel Anderson]

Can I.

[Tate Frazier]

Can I, you know, do a little bit of therapy here with you guys? Like what. What should I do?

[Van Lathan]

Hey, don't be Belichick. God square Pablo up. Don't. Don't they got it. Don't they got a drop.

[Joel Anderson]

You got to shoot him to fade, huh?

[Van Lathan]

At this point, don't he got a square Pablo up. I. Pablo going back and forth with. With Jordan Hudson. And she started it, by the way.

[Tate Frazier]

She did.

[Van Lathan]

She started it because Pablo finds out it was voted one of the best podcasts of the year. Fantastic. Well deserved. People been talking about it all year. She got at him and then he's going back and forth. At this point, don't Bill Belichick just got to go to some shit and go. Gotta go on drink champs and something like that and go, you know, as a man, fuck the football. Fuck the football. As a man, he take a shot. EFN and normal Temecula Chill. Real quick. As a man, though, I wanna say something. As a man, fuck football, fuck North Carolina, fuck all of that. As a man, I feel like it's certain lines that men don't cross and step into somebody's girl is one of them lines. That's why I gotta say, Pablo, I need that fade. Don't. Don't Belichick gotta do that. Yeah, he probably Belichick up, but like Belichick like 90. But, but, but who don't pop a.

[Tate Frazier]

Low center of gravity, you know?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, and he was a college, didn't he?

[Tate Frazier]

Like he's a rest.

[Joel Anderson]

He played college football player, something like.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, y' all think that he got.

[Joel Anderson]

A lot of meat, man. Not. No, Paul, he got a lot. Bill Belcher got a lot of meat. But he paused. But he's big, dude, man, what are you doing? A lot of meat. He got a lot of meat there, bro. That's a lot of Joe.

[Van Lathan]

What the is up with you? What are you doing? You can't do that. You can't say that.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I can't. Yeah, I can. I just did. Now he got a lot of meat, you know?

[Van Lathan]

You know.

[Tate Frazier]

That'S what Belichick should say in. In response, you know?

[Joel Anderson]

And Tate, I mean, look, man, people keep talking about Bill Belichick like he. He's, you know. Oh, man, this is embarrassing. He. Right where he want to be, man. He's doing exactly what he wants to be doing. This is where he wants to be. He's like, babe, okay, man, I'll get to seeing your cute little cheerleading outfit.

[Tate Frazier]

Or whatever it is kind of true love, you know what I mean? This isn't a hookup. Like, the fact that he's at the adult cheerleading competition that would give any man the ick watching your, you know, adult friend who's doing cheerleading. But the fact that he's there, he's supporting.

[Joel Anderson]

Damn, Tate. People. These people are doing this shit in their free time, you know what I mean? They doing it. It's like, commute. It was just like, yeah, community theater. It's like, man, doing this community theater.

[Tate Frazier]

Gets a lot more respect.

[Van Lathan]

Okay, what is adult cheerleading? Because when I hear adult cheerleading, I think, you know, obviously about something else, but, like, what. What? What? What? What. What do they do? Is. It's a.

[Tate Frazier]

It's a video so you can watch.

[Van Lathan]

It's a hobby. It's a hobby that they do. It's basically like rec league ball. I mean, if we could play rec. Hold on. This. Think about this.

[Billy Gill]

Maybe.

[Tate Frazier]

Maybe you're right.

[Joel Anderson]

Maybe it is.

[Van Lathan]

If we could play rec league ball, right? Which I've been in all different types of basketball leagues all over the city of Los Angeles. I know you have, too, Tate. But if we could play rec league ball, why can't people have rec league? I mean, like, cheerleading.

[Tate Frazier]

You're right. I didn't think about it like that.

[Van Lathan]

You know, I played softball. That's a good play. Flag football. I've played basketball. They even got me out for kickball one time. Until I got to the point with kickball, I was like, I'm not out here with y' all doing this dumbass.

[Tate Frazier]

This ain't recess.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, kickball was too much, man. Kickball was like, hey, we gonna go out there? I got better to do.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, damn.

[Van Lathan]

But I with kickball, I with kickball, when it's being played at a high level. But this was like just people. I don't play sports. Let's say this. I don't play sports for camaraderie. I don't. I play sports for competition and to get my aggression out. So when I went to play the kickball, I agree, it was too much. It was too wholesome. It wasn't enough. Nobody cared if they won the game. And I can't fuck with that, see?

[Tate Frazier]

But see, that's giving run club energy. Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

My wife is like that because she's like, well, why don't you go? Do you know one of these things? Or whatever? And I'm like, Like, after I stopped playing sports, I was like, nothing. I could never make myself care enough. I'm like, well, none of us, nobody getting paid. We're not going to the league off this. So it's very hard to summon the same sort of intensity. So I just. I don't know, man. I. I mean, but so I admire people who can be like, you know what? I'm just going to go have some fun. I want to go meet some people. We're going to have a little socializing. Keep me. Let's get a little sweat going. Like, you know, I. People that can do that, man, I wish I had that. Whatever it is to make you want to do yourself, you score me, I care.

[Van Lathan]

Like, I like to get buckets, but like, I also don't like.

[Joel Anderson]

So you got dentist.

[Van Lathan]

I don't like to be scored on. I don't like to give up shots. I never understood that.

[Joel Anderson]

You strap up pause.

[Van Lathan]

I like to compete, you know, I like to compete. Like, I like to compete. That's why I love everybody. Anybody that's ever hooped with me will tell you it's not that much fun.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, this is free time. I mean, this is free. I mean, this is free time. Why you. I mean, you know the other. I mean, I get. I understand the aggression. Could. Maybe that's what the boxing comes into this too.

[Van Lathan]

Boxing as well.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, boxing as well.

[Tate Frazier]

But so, hey, one of the guys I played golf with played basketball with Van back in the day. Shout out to Garrett. And he was giving me game on. Van, he's like, Van, he's like ultimate competitor, you know, Van don't play.

[Van Lathan]

So I'm out there. We don't. Don't do the thing where somebody drives by and you do that weak ass flick. Go stop the ball.

[Joel Anderson]

Like, wow.

[Van Lathan]

Like, don't you care that he's scoring? He's better than you. You don't care. Whatever.

[Joel Anderson]

I'd say I did a league like that.

[Tate Frazier]

100 gr cordon. This is her mindset.

[Van Lathan]

This is her mindset. She's just trying to compete. She wants to bring it on and let her bring it on.

[Joel Anderson]

Being a cheerleading is really hard, man. You gotta keep in shape and work out all that. They practice. She's spending a lot of time. I don't think you could just kind of be halfway into that and cheerleading because they throwing you up in the air, holding you and stuff. Yeah, man. So she's really serious about this. If she's. This is what she's doing. So.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, man. And I'll tell you something else. With that whole situation. When I'm in these games and when I was playing in them rec league games, I expected her to show up and watch me play. We in the championship. It's me, Vic, Dev Ryan, it's all of the crew. We in the championship. We winning the championship. We had stats. I'm gonna send y' all some stat lines. We had stats. The whole nine. I expect you to be there. So the reality is, for Bill Belichick, he had better show up to that shit. It.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man. That's right.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah. It's real. Love that he's there. He's also got Duke on the schedule this week. So let's hope to God he has done some game planning, prep for that game or Jordan's involved. I don't know what's going to happen there, but I appreciate that spin on it. I was being a hater. So I like the. She tried to get her competitive out. All right, let's turn it over to you, Van. Big van on campus. What do we got this week?

[Joel Anderson]

All right.

[Van Lathan]

Are you guys familiar with the Junction Boys? Do you know what that is?

[Tate Frazier]

No.

[Joel Anderson]

The Junction Boys.

[Van Lathan]

The Junction Boys. Yes.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, yeah. From a. Yeah. That was Bear Bryant's first team at Texas A and M, right?

[Tate Frazier]

Oh, like the history. I. I don't know why I went to modern times. I thought I was thinking, like, TikTok or something.

[Van Lathan]

So the Junction Boys.

[Joel Anderson]

That sounds like a good name for TikTok.

[Van Lathan]

It is. The Junction Boys are Bear Bryan's first team in Texas. This is 1954. And what happened was there was a movie about this. Recently made a movie about this. Texas A and M. Bear Bryant's the Coach, he puts on a legendarily grueling camp in Junction, Texas. I mean, it is completely unwoke. They aren't getting any water breaks. It's 110 degrees. The legend is that like a hundred guys went down there or something, and only 39 guys came back from Junction, Texas. Right. He wanted to set a cultural standard there. And part of that standard was to see who wanted to be a Texas A and M football player bad enough that they would put their bodies through all of this stuff. Now, why are we talking about this? We're talking about this because on Twitter, somebody put up one of the greatest defensive plays that ever happened in any game. And it was a play that George Teague made in the championship game against Miami where he ran down a player. Force fumble or. And then came back played in Indiana, kind of. But it was a fantastic play. Then I thought to myself, what is Gene Stallings up to? And what happened to Gene Stallings? Haven't heard from Gene Stallings in a long time. He was the coach of that Alabama team. And then looked up Gene Stallings. Gene Stallings. Gene Stallings is one of the Junction boys. He's also 90 years old.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man.

[Van Lathan]

Then I looked at a list of the Junction Boys, and I have to say something about them. I think that the key to longevity in the world exists in Junction, Texas. Something happened to the survivors of the Junction Boys. Gene stallings is 90 years old. This camp took place in 1954, which means the youngest you could have been. Been. The youngest you could have been is 18 at that age, which means that you were born in 1936, which means that right now you are 89 years old. So the youngest Junction boys would be 89 years old right now. Gene Stallings is 90. When I looked at the list of Junction Boys, there are, I think 70, 75% of them are alive.

[Joel Anderson]

Damn.

[Van Lathan]

Really? 75 of them are alive. There are. This is. According to Wikipedia. This is knowledge that I'm getting from Wikipedia. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Nine of the 39 Junction boys. Let's let me make sure that this.

[Tate Frazier]

Is right, because they started. They started with a hundred, and I think they. They've. They've had, like, some arguments for stolen valor over the years where there's guys that. That quit that were like, I was injunction. You know. And then like, the guys that actually, you know, held out were like, nah, he's not. He's not really one of us, you know.

[Joel Anderson]

Damn.

[Van Lathan]

So of these guys that are listed here as the the final group of guys, nine of them has passed away. This is 30 some odd guys, 23% of them have passed away. And of the ones that have passed away, really, three have died in the last five years. So they got some fresh ones, right?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

The average age. Life expectancy in Texas is 73 years old. So the average guy in Texas dies at 73. The Junction boys are kicking the life expectancy of Texas's ass. 77% of them are alive. The vast majority of the players who went through this intensely grueling camp that put all of this on their bodies, they're still kicking around. Stallings, 90, still doing great. I went down and looked at this. I'm like, what the fuck is going on, by the way? Some of these positions are crazy. Some of these stats. Ray Barrett, who's still alive, he was a senior from San Angelo, Texas. 591-195-lbs. That's a guard beast.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man. God, that's a goal. As big as they got back then, man.

[Van Lathan]

The tackle here, Darrell. Darrell Brown. What? No, Darrells. Darrell Brown, 61 1, 90, sophomore at tackle from Dayton, Texas. He actually. He actually sadly passed away in 2011. I'm looking at this list, and I'm like, what exists in Junction, Texas, that these guys got into that has contributed to this incredible longevity that all of the junction boys seen. 77% of the guys who survived the camp and junction still alive. 90 years old. Like 89. 90 years old. These guys would have to be, like, seniors, juniors, all of these guys. Some of these guys are well into their 90s.

[Joel Anderson]

90S, man. What kind of life you think they. What kind of quality of life you think they have them right now? Because they. They learn to live through some really tough.

[Tate Frazier]

I mean, I was gonna say they learned toughness, right?

[Joel Anderson]

They learned toughness, man. It's just like they could be holding on, you know, they got no water.

[Tate Frazier]

No water. That movie was, like, on espn. I remember they used to play that movie, like, you know, espn, too. And then you watch that movie, you're like, this definitely seems messed up.

[Joel Anderson]

I went to, like, a media showing for it in Dallas the year it came out. What? It came out 2000.

[Tate Frazier]

Like, two.

[Joel Anderson]

2001. So I was in. Yeah, I was living in D. And the guy, Jim Dent, the guy who wrote the book that became the movie, and they had a little showing at the Magnolia Theater right there. And was that University Park? It's right off of Mockingbird Lane for my people in Dallas. But anyway, it was very cool. It was Very nice. A nice time, a nice night. I remember I forgot the Jet Pardee, Houston football legend. Cause remember he was the coach of the Houston Cougars during the roster.

[Tate Frazier]

Coach of the Rams. Right.

[Joel Anderson]

The Houston Oilers, so the Oilers in the early 90s. Some warm moon teams with Haywood Jeffries, Ernest Givens, all them guys. So he's a, he's a Houston legend, man. And I'd forgotten that he was one of them junction boys guys.

[Van Lathan]

39 official junction boys. 30 are still alive. 30 out of 39.

[Joel Anderson]

Crazy, man.

[Van Lathan]

I'm looking because I'm looking at the list and I'm like, oh, man, what the fuck going on? Like, you know, I'm from Louisiana and you know, we're not basically a bastion of longevity. So I'm. So I'm looking at this, I'm thinking to myself, what a weird set of circumstances has led to these guys having this specific longevity. And like even what I'm saying, even the guys that have passed away, most of them like the ones recently. 20, 23. 2020. 2020. So, like is.

[Joel Anderson]

You said a lot of people stuck.

[Tate Frazier]

Around for a while.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, 2020, man. You said 2020 a couple times. Oh, I wonder what got them that year.

[Van Lathan]

Ah, come on now, let's. This is supposed to be popping positive. Only one of these guys died.

[Joel Anderson]

Charles Scott from Alexandria, Louisiana.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, like, I'm so. I'm looking like I want to look deeper into this. Joel's Barber.

[Joel Anderson]

What? Wait, what about my barber?

[Van Lathan]

This, this, this beef between you and Billy.

[Tate Frazier]

Billy. Billy Gill is. He has turned into the chat during our show.

[Van Lathan]

Beef between you and Billy. Billy's still coming, so I am going to. Here comes Billy. I want to hear here, so I am going to.

[Joel Anderson]

What are you doing?

[Van Lathan]

I am going to. For the rest of the season. I'm going to investigate. Billy, stay on. I'm going to investigate what is specifically keeping the Junction Boys alive.

[Tate Frazier]

Here's what Jack Pardee said. He said in an interview, asked about, you know, the importance of this. He said that they lost 10% of their body weight while injunction. So maybe they. They literally all got such much fit in shape because of that whole situation that they're just kind of like. It kind of like lasted on throughout life. You know, they got in their tip, tip, tip top shape. I don't know, maybe something.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't know, man. You know, I don't know. I mean, I went through. Yeah, so I went through two a day. It's my first year. I lost 18 pounds because I didn't know nothing about, you know, hydration or whatever. So I lost a lot of weight, so that can just happen. But I mean, I mean, just water break. Yeah, man, that's the part. That's the part of Texas, man, that is. I mean, it was. It was, you know, as hot as people imagine climate change to be. Now, like, that's like. It's just known for being a sun scorched place. They got a guy on this team called Eddie Joham.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, I know he passed away. I was gonna. I was gonna mention that name was incredible.

[Joel Anderson]

I saw Eddie Johan, what a great Eddie Joham.

[Tate Frazier]

And he was a sinner.

[Van Lathan]

What's your. What's your thought about why the Junction Boys are still kicking around?

[Joel Anderson]

Around?

[Billy Gill]

No, I mean, it's impressive that they're still living. You're talking about 2020. What happened 2020? We found out before you got on here, Van Joel's barber might have been a super spreader at that time. So then he was. He was. He was banned from going to that barber anymore. Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, look, man, I mean, that was just only the smart thing to do. I really believe. And shout out to Dame. Dame's good dude.

[Billy Gill]

If he's still with us.

[Joel Anderson]

I went back. I went back. After a couple years, I started going back to Dame. He started cutting my hair again. He was my barber until I left. But, yo, man, he just didn't. He didn't believe in Covid, man.

[Van Lathan]

He didn't believe in.

[Joel Anderson]

He didn't believe in Covert.

[Van Lathan]

Y' all remember the 5G tower era where everyone was saying that, like, Covid, I don't want to get into this because, like, some of y', all. I'm just letting y' all know. Some of y' all niggas, I lost respect for y' all forever. Oh, man, like, y' all hit me up and y' all asked me to do stuff, and I don't do it because some of y' all the stuff y' all was putting out, I lost respect for y' all forever.

[Joel Anderson]

I love y'. All. I love y'.

[Tate Frazier]

All.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man. I mean, yeah, man. D, D, man, Dame is a. A black Israelite. You know what I'm saying? So. So that's the 12 tribes of Israel. You know what I'm saying? You need to know them when you go in there, you know?

[Van Lathan]

I feel you. I feel you all.

[Tate Frazier]

Everybody so cuts Dick Bose's hair, right? Yeah, he.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, no, this is the other barber.

[Tate Frazier]

That I had to go to.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, Cuz if he cut Nick Boss's.

[Van Lathan]

Hair, I was about to say that.

[Joel Anderson]

Bosa wasn't going to that one.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That's probably him and Nick Bosa. You wouldn't think they would get along, but they probably best fucking friends.

[Billy Gill]

How many super spreader barbers did you have, Joel?

[Joel Anderson]

No, no, the one that Nick Bosa went to was the one that allegedly.

[Tate Frazier]

He was the COVID compliant one.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, he was a Covid compliant one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Van Lathan]

So you mean. Tell me there's no way he cut Nick Bosa with a mask on. Nick Bosa would rip that mask right off, man.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't. But you know what? He probably. Nick Bosa probably had like his own individual time and actually the one time I did go there and saw Nick Bosa, he was in a different room. He wasn't even getting cut with everybody.

[Van Lathan]

No, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what happened. Nick Bosa knew that you were coming, so he went to a different room.

[Joel Anderson]

Stop it.

[Van Lathan]

He was like, you just trying.

[Joel Anderson]

You're trying to. You're trying. You're trying to spark up because of how things go with me and Billy.

[Van Lathan]

You trying to showed a picture of you and Nick Bos. I got to go to actually, you know what? Get the cut, cuz I don't want. I don't get cut around them.

[Joel Anderson]

You.

[Tate Frazier]

Oh, that's what I'm saying, Joe.

[Joel Anderson]

But it wasn't nothing but. I mean, you know what I'm saying, It wasn't nothing but in there.

[Van Lathan]

Nothing but the. Oh, yeah, see Nick. See Nick. Nick Maga. But Nick got so many. They probably like Nick in the locker room.

[Joel Anderson]

They do. Have you seen. I mean, you've seen his hair. He got. I mean, you can tell if you look at his hair. You can be like, oh, okay, you go to a barbernet and I wish I could remember this. His name.

[Van Lathan]

Football players don't be caring about none of that type.

[Joel Anderson]

They don't give. They don't give a. They don't care about.

[Van Lathan]

They don't give a. About none of that type of.

[Joel Anderson]

They really don't.

[Van Lathan]

Hey, man, all I know is like, all I know is he take up a double team so I could get a sack. So that's my.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah. So he's doing his job. I'm all good.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

All right.

[Tate Frazier]

Shout out to Dame.

[Van Lathan]

Shout. Shout out to Dame. Shout out to everybody. Everything we. We going. Everybody good. The. The. The. The. The. The team is intense. Attacked everybody.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man, I don't have no be.

[Van Lathan]

I'm.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm happy. I'M Billy. I'm happy you're here, man.

[Tate Frazier]

Thanks, Billy. No beef, right?

[Joel Anderson]

You.

[Tate Frazier]

Billy's never had the beef. I think I don't have coming his way.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, he never responds affirmatively to the things that I say that are positive.

[Billy Gill]

I. I'm. I just come here to be attacked by Joel, you know?

[Joel Anderson]

Well, see what I'm saying? I tried to. I tried to. I tried to get it back. I mean, Billy has to work out on this, Work on this on his own, man. I've been trying.

[Tate Frazier]

Are you working? Worried about Billy getting pulled on all these different shows? He's everywhere. Everybody wants a piece of Billy Gill now.

[Joel Anderson]

That's a good point.

[Van Lathan]

I. I mean, it's dick riding to me. I mean, I'm gonna be straight up with you. You know, Billy's making a huge splash here. You know, Tailgate. We trying to get. We're getting off the ground, doing the whole thing.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man. Follow us. Follow us on all this.

[Van Lathan]

You know what I'm saying? To me. To me, that's that I'm a. I've been a trendsetter. You know what I'm saying? I was one of the first people that had the new Jordan at McKinley. So, like, I was. That's actually not true. But, like, I. But I. As. I'm not a trendsetter in any way, now that I think about it. It's all. But I did have Mortal Kombat first in the neighborhood.

[Tate Frazier]

So I will say that Billy's our Mortal Kombat.

[Van Lathan]

Billy's our Mortal Kombat.

[Joel Anderson]

He's our Mortal Kombat.

[Van Lathan]

But, I mean, it's good for you. You get to go everywhere but, you know, home team, home team, tailgate. Never forget.

[Tate Frazier]

Get.

[Joel Anderson]

One day I'll tell the story about how I invented the razor roof. You know what I invented? Razor roof. You remember when raise the roof was a thing in the 90s?

[Billy Gill]

You invented that.

[Joel Anderson]

I invented that.

[Billy Gill]

Saturday.

[Tate Frazier]

You going to tell when you were 10.

[Joel Anderson]

When you were the. I can tell you on Saturday. I mean, I got to get out of here.

[Tate Frazier]

That's a nice te. That's a nice tease for Saturday.

[Joel Anderson]

Just come. Come back on Saturday.

[Van Lathan]

I. I want to hear this story right now.

[Guest Speaker / Clip Voice]

We're going to talk.

[Tate Frazier]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, sorry. Okay.

[Van Lathan]

On Saturday. Clear out at the end of the podcast.

[Joel Anderson]

Y.

[Van Lathan]

You have to tell everyone how you invented Raise the Roof.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I was also. I was also involved in the founding of a word that refers to women. It was very positive. It wasn't negative. I was there when I was there when it was created. So anyway, you know what? On Saturday, story time.

[Van Lathan]

A lot of story time with Joe on Saturday. We raise the roof. I want to hear this.

[Tate Frazier]

And as a reminder, we'll be live 6 o' clock in the Pacific Time, 9 o' clock Eastern on Saturday. Ring your tailgate. Go to the YouTube subscribe like comment. Definitely comment in the chat, especially if you like Joel's hat. I think that is our new slogan for the show there. But come hang out with us. Rigor tailgate. We appreciate everybody tuning in and we will see you all on Saturday and you'll get a little story time from Joel. We'll see you then. Must be 21 or older in President select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and older in present in D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problems. Call 1-800-G GAMBLER or visit rghelp.com call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit MD gamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 27 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE in Y or text HOPE and Y in New York. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here wishing you a very happy half off holiday because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited. To be clear, that's half price, not half the service. Mint is still premium unlimited wireless for a great price. So that means a half day.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment.

[Joel Anderson]

Of $45 for three month plan equivalent.

[Van Lathan]

To 15 per month required new customer.

[Joel Anderson]

Offer for first three months only.

[Van Lathan]

Speed slow hacker 35 gigabytes of networks busy taxes and fees extra see mint mobile.com.