Trump’s Sit-Down With Josh Pate, NFL Combine Preview, and Big Ten vs. SEC

Summary

Ringer Tailgate Episode Summary

Episode: Trump’s Sit-Down With Josh Pate, NFL Combine Preview, & Big Ten vs. SEC
Date: February 26, 2026
Hosts: Tate Frazier, Van Lathan, Joel Anderson

Main Theme & Overview

This episode of Ringer Tailgate dives into one of the most controversial moments in the college football podcast world – Josh Pate’s interview with Donald Trump. The hosts break down the fallout and significance of that event, address the intersection of sports and politics, and offer their candid takes on responsibility in sports media. The crew also previews the 2026 NFL Combine and explores conference supremacy in college football, particularly the ongoing Big Ten vs. SEC debate, with their trademark blend of sharp analysis and lively banter.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

---

1. Show Opening & Banter

00:43 – 12:05

• Hosts catch up about work, credentials, and their status at The Ringer, laced with friendly jabs and inside jokes.
• Credential banter: Joel wonders about the show's access to the NFL Combine and jokes about the internal group chat and who contributes (or doesn’t) anymore.
  • “You didn't put that on the show notes.” - Joel (01:59)
  • “How dare you even fix your mouth to bring up credentials…” - Van (03:20)
• Anecdotes of social gatherings among Ringer crew and college football personalities, including dinner stories and family cooking (gumbo in LA).
• Special occasions: Shout-out to the “podiatrist” (an inside joke for Joel’s birthday).

---

2. Headline: Josh Pate Hosts Donald Trump — CFB’s Political Fault Lines

12:28 – 49:55

Initial Reactions and Critique

• Context: Josh Pate, prominent CFB podcaster, hosted Donald Trump for an 11-minute interview. Massive reaction & backlash ensued for crossing the ‘keep politics out of sports’ line.
  • “The juice was not worth the squeeze here.” – Van (14:12)
  • The hosts agree the move felt out of step, with a small, conservative core supporting it but broad swathes of listeners alienated. (16:00–18:00)
• Discussion of Sports & Politics:
  • “You're lying to yourself if you think politics is not a part of it.” – Joel (15:43)
  • College football has always been political—from stadium funding to antitrust exemptions, to current NIL debates.
• Missed opportunity and critique of the interview itself:
  • “You have an opportunity in front of this guy to talk about anything and you want to ask him: ‘How do you get along with people so well?’” – Joel (18:34)
  • The group finds the questions asked to Trump as frustratingly soft, missing the moment to hold power to account, and “nutting up” in front of power (23:10).

Quote Highlights

• “People are also trying to see if we are afraid of power.” – Van (21:06)
• “It's not a flex to have Trump on and nut up.” – Joel (23:10)

Broader Implications in CFB

• Political leanings of CFB: Some places, especially the SEC heartland, are conservative—but the mass audience is more mixed.
• Sports media responsibility: If you host a powerful, controversial figure, there’s an obligation to ask hard questions.
• Trump’s lack of ‘ball’:
  • “I miss when the president knew ball… this is not one.” – Tate (27:02)
  • Trump is described as an owner/observer, not a real CFB mind.

On Platforming Political Figures in Sports

• The importance of using platforms responsibly and not being an uncritical conduit.

Proposed Solutions and Invitations

• The crew offers an open invitation for Josh Pate to come on Ringer Tailgate and have a transparent dialogue (37:24).

---

3. NFL Combine Preview

58:12 – 66:18

Who & What to Watch

• Deep WR class: AC Concepcion, Carnell Tate, Makai Lemon are mentioned.
• Defensive standouts: Sonny Styles’ athleticism is specifically praised—hosts discuss watching his high school basketball highlights (59:01).
• QB intrigue: Joel wants to see if Nussmeier can make himself a serious NFL option (60:43).
  • “If you are a Jets fan, it must have really, really sucked to see Sam Darnold be good enough to have a really good year offensively in Minnesota…” – Van (63:35)
• Evaluation of draft QBs: Expect some late risers and shocks, but the hosts are skeptical about some “hype” picks.

---

4. Overreactions of the Week / Mendoza & QB Draft Discourse

66:21 – 76:04

• Dan Orlovsky’s cryptic take (“It’s not what I expected so far”) on Raiders QB pick Fernando Mendoza leads to debate: is Mendoza a generational prospect or just steady?
• Van’s emphasis on “results” versus “traits”: He values winning and clutch play (69:08).
• Mendoza is labeled “high floor, low ceiling.” Joel argues you should take a true potential generational QB at #1 – and compares to the Reggie Bush/Mario Williams/Adrian Peterson debate (71:43).

---

5. Big Ten vs. SEC Debate

76:05 – 84:42

• Crowning the Big Ten:
  • “The Big Ten is the premier conference in college football.” – Van (78:34)
• SEC’s new reality:
  • SEC fans are challenged to “take the loss” and accept Big Ten dominance—no SEC in the latest top 10 from McShay.
• Playful bickering: Joel and Van banter about the recent championship credentials of TCU, LSU, and others.

---

6. Quick Headlines & Offseason News

87:52 – 100:36

• Shots fired: Kirby Smart & Mario Cristobal exchange jabs at a Steve Spurrier event (88:17).
• Eligibility lawsuits: Virginia’s Chandler Morris sues NCAA for a seventh season; Joey Aguilar denied.
• Nepotism & coaching trees: Rivers’ son (Gunner) commits to NC State. “If you’re a second generation, we get into the third.” (90:24)
• Army-Navy Game scheduling: Coach Monken wants to move the game to Thanksgiving weekend—Van argues this would overshadow the Bayou Classic, a cherished HBCU event (97:49).

---

Notable Quotes & Segments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote / Key Moment | |-----------|---------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14:12 | Van Lathan | “The juice was not worth the squeeze here.” | | 15:43 | Joel Anderson | “You're lying to yourself if you think politics is not a part of it.” | | 18:34 | Joel Anderson | “You have an opportunity in front of this guy to talk about anything and you want to ask him, ‘…get along?’”| | 21:06 | Van Lathan | “People are also trying to see if we are afraid of power.” | | 23:10 | Joel Anderson | “It's not a flex to have Trump on and nut up.” | | 37:24 | Joel Anderson | “Let’s bring Pate on the show.” | | 69:08 | Van Lathan | “I am one of the rare sports fans that actually love results…” | | 78:34 | Van Lathan | “The Big Ten is the premier conference in college football.” |

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Show opens, crew banter, Ringer internal politics: 00:43–12:09
• Josh Pate/Trump fallout, politics in CFB: 12:28–49:55
• NFL Combine Preview: 58:12–66:18
• Overreactions: Mendoza QB talk: 66:21–76:04
• Big Ten vs. SEC: 76:05–84:42
• Headlines: Coaching jabs, eligibility lawsuits, nepotism: 87:52–100:36
• Army-Navy/Bayou Classic scheduling debate: 97:49–100:36

---

Tone & Notable Moments

• Signature Tailgate banter is present throughout – frequent inside jokes, “hoe or not” riff, playful bickering, running jokes about credentials, group chats, and who misses meetings.
• Direct, frank analysis of Pate’s Trump interview, notably distinguishing the usual “softball” sports interview style from a journalist’s responsibility to ask real questions when power is at the table.
• No-holds-barred conference debate: SEC and Big Ten fans get their fair share of both mockery and grudging respect from the hosts.
• Calls for self-awareness and honesty– whether evaluating quarterbacks, discussing nepotism in CFB coaching, or admitting conference supremacy shifts.

---

For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode is an essential listen for anyone interested in how sports and politics now intersect in college football media, how the NFL draft class is shaping up, and the ever-present regional and cultural feuds that define college football’s passionate culture. The hosts’ willingness to challenge each other, call out colleagues, and invite uncomfortable but necessary conversations makes this an unusually honest podcast in the sports media space.

Skip to the time stamps noted above for each segment you care about, and check the key quotes for the hosts’ best lines and sharpest opinions!

Transcript

[Van Lathan]

The world moves fast. Your workday even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint,

[Tate Frazier]

and other Microsoft 365 apps you use,

[Van Lathan]

helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize so you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn [e-mail] M365 copilot foreign.

[Tate Frazier]

Welcome back to Ringer Tailgate. I'm your host, Tate Frazier. It is a beautiful Wednesday, so you know what that means. It's time for Ringer Tailgate, and we got to say what's up to our guys. First and foremost, in studio with the bucket hat on. What's up, Van Lathan. Good to see you, man.

[Van Lathan]

We gotta raise it on up, guys. You guys know how we do in the tailgate fashion. My guys over here.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, we're fired up. And I went on the Bill Simmons podcast yesterday, and he said that Tailgate was the Star show of 2025. And one of the main reasons for that, really, because of the next man, I'm about to introduce Joel Anderson in the place to be Joel mvp. There you go. Mvp.

[Joel Anderson]

Is that really. I appreciate that really happened. He's really.

[Tate Frazier]

That really happened. You haven't listened?

[Joel Anderson]

Not yet. Not yet, man. I have a lot of podcasts to listen to. I was doing a lot of pro prep for this show. I had to listen to a whole Josh podcast the other day, you know what I'm saying? So.

[Tate Frazier]

Okay, well, we're gonna get to that.

[Joel Anderson]

You know, I know we're gonna talk about it, but I'm just saying I had a lot of prep that was outside of my normal rotation, so I had to fill it in.

[Tate Frazier]

Well, the good news is that Bill and, you know, Billy was on the show as well, and he said to both of us that the kind of special sauce of this show is that you never know where Joel's gonna go. So before we get to our big reactions, big questions, overreactions, we'll do some headlines of the week. I just wanted to get a little temperature check. Joel, what's on your mind to get into the show?

[Van Lathan]

What?

[Joel Anderson]

I. You didn't put that on the show. Notes.

[Tate Frazier]

We see where you want to go.

[Joel Anderson]

So there's a couple things here then, not that you mention it. Are you sure that we have a future as a podcast? It's funny that you said all that with Bill said all of that, which I've not heard from him on that, so that's Fine. Couldn't swell it. I was watching Todd McShay on Netflix today. Okay? They're all in Indianapolis. They got all these nice graphics. I mean, what are we doing? Are we ever. Do you think we're going to get treated like that? Could we have gone to the combine if we wanted to?

[Tate Frazier]

Joel, you're trying to create problems when I was giving you a perfect example, a perfect moment to lead us down a right path. And here comes Billy. That's how quickly you brought Billy out of the way.

[Van Lathan]

Here comes the dude.

[Joel Anderson]

Here comes the dude. Well, you said that I could start how I want you. You opened the floor. What did you think was going to happen? But seriously, it was just really nice to see them.

[Billy]

I would like to say I specifically ask if you wanted to go to the combine, and to get you to go to LA was like pulling teeth just to do a recap.

[Joel Anderson]

I could probably drive to Indianapolis. Billy, it's not that far.

[Billy]

So do it. No one stopped. You can go.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't have a credential, and there's no plan.

[Van Lathan]

Hold on.

[Billy]

What?

[Van Lathan]

Wait a second.

[Tate Frazier]

I thought you were Mr. Credential.

[Van Lathan]

How dare you even fix your mouth to bring up credentials after you roasted us.

[Joel Anderson]

I didn't apply for one.

[Van Lathan]

About the fact that we could not get credentialed to the national championship game. And you could.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, I could get credentials.

[Van Lathan]

Get the same way you got the other credential. Get this one, and then drive your ass over to the combine.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm not going to do it because I don't have a plan. There's no point. Like, y' all are not going to be there, so we're not going to do that show. Brian is already here in D.C. so, I mean, I'm not going to do the press box in Indianapolis. What am I going to. We have probably four or five people from the Ringer there already, including Minch, Todd McShay. I think Tucker is there. I heard them mention Tucker. Tucker, who is still in our group, our group chat, who doesn't contribute anything anymore because he doesn't care about our show.

[Van Lathan]

But

[Joel Anderson]

it's just funny. Have you noticed that Tucker is in that group? And it's like, what is he still here for?

[Billy]

What is Right.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't. We kicked out.

[Tate Frazier]

You know, I think his gripe is graphics, which, I mean, maybe that's a Tucker job.

[Joel Anderson]

It wasn't. No, it was just. I just thought it was really nice that I was like, man, look how they're being treated. You know what I'm Saying they go on Netflix. They got their Indianapolis. They had this whole set up, man. Mitch even has this thing where his iPad has a stand so he doesn't have to hold it like Van was holding in his lap when we were there. It was just like they really seemed. When I was in la.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They didn't have a stand for us because of the. But I'll tell you guys something. Next time you guys come out here, you guys gotta visit Sycamore. Baby new Diggs over there in Sycamore. We got brand new stuff.

[Joel Anderson]

Is that where you at right now?

[Van Lathan]

No, I'm back in. I'm at Mateo because the Midnight Boys hasn't moved to Sycamore yet. But then I'll be coming to you live from Sycamore. Joel, here's the thing. I do feel like you do need to kind of be the change that you want to see. So if you wanted to go to the combine, to the Duke's point, there was nothing stopping you.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, nothing but a. An absence of an assignment. That's the.

[Billy]

Yeah. If you want to go, we'll figure out a plan for you and we'll go, like. And I could have put in a credential for you. The fantasy guys are there. Like, it could have happened, but not, you know, Wednesday of combine week, just to complain about not being there.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm just. I. No, I'm not even really complaining about it. I'm just, like, looking at it.

[Van Lathan]

Friend.

[Joel Anderson]

That could have been us complaining. That's not. I don't consider that complaint.

[Billy]

I'd also like to say I think that we're all treated very, very, very well and fairly. Raise your hand if you potty. Oh, Bill this week because.

[Tate Frazier]

Oh, yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, man.

[Van Lathan]

I potted with him.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Billy]

It seems like we're all good.

[Van Lathan]

I thought it would. Bill. And with sports star Mina Kime.

[Tate Frazier]

Wow.

[Joel Anderson]

I did see that. I did see that. You and Mina, y' all at Bill's house. Was this all Bill's house?

[Van Lathan]

Doing watchables. Crazy, stupid. Loves, Fantastic. People love me.

[Joel Anderson]

That's right.

[Van Lathan]

Why is Van still here? Dei Higher.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. When you go over to Bill's house, do y' all cater food or who makes lunch?

[Van Lathan]

What you mean Bill makes it?

[Joel Anderson]

Bill makes. He actually goes into the kitchen and, like, heats up chicken nuggets.

[Van Lathan]

He has a. You know, he has a little apron and he goes. Like, when you. When you go there and you do

[Tate Frazier]

think Dave Chang is in there sometimes cooking up food.

[Van Lathan]

Like, sometimes it's Chang. Shout out to Chang. But, like, Bill will be in there. He'll be like, I got the meatballs or whatever, whatever. He goes, are.

[Tate Frazier]

You usually text us on the thread with all of us, and it's like,

[Van Lathan]

before you go over there to do a pod, Bill goes, do you have any dietary restrictions? And then you. You answer that question. Then he goes, what? Well, I mean, what. What. What's your preferred temperature for the pool and all of that stuff, man?

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, y. Y' all hop in a little bit. I mean,

[Van Lathan]

I. I like to go over there and take a little spits. I like. I like to, you know, run around with Murph and have a good time. I like to take a spitz.

[Joel Anderson]

All right. That's what's up, man. I mean, you. Look, man, I. I'm happy for y'. All. I really. I know. The thing is, is that if I were there, I would feel an inordinate pressure to have to do things that I can't do and nor want to do sometimes.

[Billy]

What does that mean?

[Tate Frazier]

I try to give you a layup to start the show on the right rails, and you have gone so far down van.

[Joel Anderson]

You had Deontay, Kyle and Rachel over to your crib. Huh?

[Van Lathan]

I did not. They were not at my. That was not my home. That was posted on Instagram.

[Joel Anderson]

It looked. It was a nice house. I was like, God damn.

[Van Lathan]

That was. In fact. That was, in fact, Rachel's home. And we. My mother. Rachel. My mother went to visit Rachel, and Rachel said. My mother and Kalika went to visit Rachel, and Rachel said, can you make gumbo? She asked my mother to cook on my mother's vacation. And so my mother and Kalika then spent, like, a full day getting everything together. You need to make a gumball. Remember, it's not just, like, Louisiana, where you can go to, like, one grocery store and find everything you need to make.

[Joel Anderson]

What do you really need in Louisiana that you can't find in la? I heard you say that on another show. Like, what do you. I saw Tony Sacheries on your counter there. Like, what's. What all do you need that you can't get there? You get Zatarains, whatever. What's the. What's the problem? What can't you get?

[Van Lathan]

So the. The. There's a bunch of stuff. Like, there are places that have specific cultures, and then those cultures. Grocery stores there will.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, what grocery store. What grocery store do y' all have for Baton Rouge that's so special got that they don't have? I mean, the gross.

[Van Lathan]

Hey, the grocery Stores are the same. The stuff that they bring in is different.

[Joel Anderson]

All right?

[Van Lathan]

Because there's a whole different. Like right now, if you go to, like, Baltimore or if you go to other places like that that have specific things that they might have different stuff based upon a lot of Old Bay.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, they got the little. They are big old. But you can get Old Bay pretty much in any grocery store country, I'm pretty certain.

[Van Lathan]

But what I'm saying is that, like, there are things like at your local grocery store, can you get filet?

[Joel Anderson]

Probably.

[Van Lathan]

In your local grocery store, do they have specific packages of crawfish meat? Like the crawfish peeled and just the meat so that you can make etoufe? No, they don't have that because they don't need to have it. Because they had to. They had to go around and, like, they had to find crawfish. They had to find all of that stuff. And it took them a long time. Then Deontay Kyle from Grits and Eggs was in town. Deontay and Big Cat, they came over. We ate gumbo. We then did a versus on tick tock live. 50 cent versus ti we had a fun time.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, man.

[Tate Frazier]

Who won the verses?

[Van Lathan]

Tip one.

[Tate Frazier]

Okay, I think that's right.

[Joel Anderson]

That sounds right.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, yeah. Tip one. I tell you what. Everybody before the verses was like, oh, man. If you did the verses between Tip and 50 Cent, Tip gonna win. If it's. If it's 20 records, that's a dead heat. 20 records is a dead heat between 50 Cent and T.I. it was very fun. I wish the actual guys could do it. We have a lot of fun with it if they did.

[Joel Anderson]

Damn, that's sound fun. I got. Now I gotta look. I'm look at some potato pie.

[Van Lathan]

We had cornbread. We was chilling.

[Joel Anderson]

Man, your mom really did it up, man.

[Van Lathan]

She went to sleep as we were in there having a good time. She went to sleep. But no, it's cool. It's all of the things that you can do from being in Los Angeles.

[Joel Anderson]

Why didn't you invite Tate?

[Van Lathan]

I don't know.

[Joel Anderson]

What? Okay.

[Van Lathan]

Me and Tate had dinner last week, though.

[Tate Frazier]

We had dinner last week.

[Van Lathan]

Me and Tate had dinner last week. We had dinner last week with Cam Johnson.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I heard Tommy Alter.

[Van Lathan]

We had Joe. Me and Tate was hanging out like we had said we talked about. And we. And while we were at dinner, we FaceTimed Billy.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah.

[Billy]

That's nice.

[Joel Anderson]

The funny thing is, if Y' all had FaceTime me, I know I wouldn't have answered. So it's Fine. No, you wouldn't answer.

[Van Lathan]

I called you this. The thing with Joe, this was starting to piss me off about all of this shit. I called Joel, Like, I legitimately called Joe just to talk. Like, earlier this week. It took me two days to get with Joe.

[Joel Anderson]

It did not take two days.

[Van Lathan]

All of this stuff.

[Joel Anderson]

He called it, like, 10 o' clock at night.

[Van Lathan]

Y' all acting like this. This is a bit. It took me two days to get with Joe.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, I'm a very busy person, dog.

[Tate Frazier]

You have an assistant.

[Billy]

You listen podcast.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. I mean, but I'm listening to Josh Pate's podcast while other shit's going on, player. Or, I mean, I'm cleaning the dishes. Maybe I'm taking a shower. Maybe I'm laying in bed next to my sick child and just trying to pass the time until they go to multitasker. Yeah, I have a lot going on, dog. So, yeah, so when Van Tech called me at 10 o' clock at night, I was like, hey, bro, let me get back to you, because right now, everybody in this house is asleep. And then I called you back. You didn't pick up. Then you called me back, and I didn't pick up. And then I called you back at, like, six o', clock, and I had my daughter with me. I had little Lonnie with me and hold. Holding her while we talked. And so we talked yesterday. Yeah. Right.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Tate Frazier]

So there you go. I was. Yeah, let's raise the roof for that race.

[Van Lathan]

Roof.

[Tate Frazier]

We were trying to open the show with some special sauce, and maybe that was the special sauce. I don't know. You tell us in the comments. But Joel Anderson got us off on the right foot, and he did bring up what he was up to. Billy, last. That you got. You got one more note here for. For Joel, right?

[Billy]

No, you just mentioned we got off the right foot. I. I'd be remiss if we didn't say happy birthday to the podiatrist before we went any further.

[Van Lathan]

You know what?

[Joel Anderson]

That's really foul, Billy.

[Van Lathan]

That is.

[Joel Anderson]

That.

[Tate Frazier]

That is.

[Joel Anderson]

That's up, man.

[Tate Frazier]

Well, that's a perfect segue. Joel has already listened to the podcast. This was the biggest story in college football. If you've been hiding under a rock, you probably may have missed this. But otherwise, if you're anywhere on the Internet or, you know, a f. Of podcasts, we appreciate you listening to this podcast. And of course, we talk college football on this show. But the big story. A college football podcast. Josh Pate Show. The Pate State is What everyone's talking about, it was not the state of the union, it was the paid state. And everyone's trying to figure out what is going on here. And we'll start with you, Van. One big reaction Josh paid having Donald Trump on the show. And then we'll get Joel's thoughts, because Joel has listened to all 11 minutes. But, Van, your thoughts on this whole situation?

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, I think that Josh and probably the college football world learned some lessons here. We know that there's a conservative leaning within the college football world. We talk about it all the time to get directly political, but we talk about that all the time. But President Trump is a deeply divisive character. It's just a fact. I don't know if you guys feel like the president should be a deeply divisive character. Whether or not you guys think or people think that that's a symptom of the decay of American political discourse or maybe the fabric of American society, that people can't coalesce around a leader and, like, have a sense of oneness, even if you disagree politically. That to a lot of people, that leader represents an existential threat and not just political disagreement. But that is the truth about Donald Trump. And I think a lot of people in the college football world would talk about keeping politics out of college football. They would talk about keeping politics separate from college football, and they thought they were doing it to stop talking about leftist or liberal politics. But I think what a lot of people found out was that seeing Donald Trump on your favorite college football podcast is not a lot. A sizable growing number of college football fans favorite thing. And there will be a cost. So if you look at the. The section now, I looked at the section that, that was broken out from the interview the last time I looked at it, I think it had around 40,000 views, like the specific President Trump. This is not worth it. The juice was not worth the squeeze here. And I understand how a lot of people would say that, you know, interviewing the president is this ridiculously prestigious thing. But I think it's also important to, like, be in tune with the feelings in the moment of people. And maybe we will get back to a point one day where we can have conversations with the leader of the country and those conversations won't be colored by people feeling like their lives are on the line and all of that type of stuff. But we're not there now.

[Tate Frazier]

We're not there now. And Joel, you listened to the 11 minutes. Did you have any takeaways from what you heard in the 11 minutes?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I mean, I really want to thank Bill, even though, you know, I don't hear from him that often, or like the whole Ringer crew and Spotify for allowing us to be ourselves. Okay, that's first, because, like, I know it'd be much easier to not talk about politics and just kind of have the fun that we normally like to have on this show. It would be real easy, and nobody would find anything controversial about us other than our football opinions, which would generate its own sort of controversy or anger or excitement. But it wouldn't be the same as when we start talking about race and politics and culture and whatever else. But a part of the reason why I think politics are an important part of sports coverage is that you're lying to yourself if you think politics is not a part of it. Why is the franchise here? Why does the stadium get built over here? Why does a university have resources? Why does the NFL and the NBA have antitrust exemptions? How could colleges have gotten away with not paying athletes for so long? All that shit is politics. And currently, even within the sport, so many college football coaches and administrators are wishing out loud for the Congress to use the machinery of the government to intervene and pass the kind of legislation that would reorder the sport to their liking. Right? So it's already sort of endemic to the game. And look, there's the other piece of this, which is more along the lines of President Trump. Van knows this. As an LSU fan, Governor Huey Long used a lot of his power and influence to transfer LSU as an institution, and he took a particular interest in football. He thought that having a good football team was great for the state's image, and it led to a lot of investment in the program and in the stadium and all the other reasons for it. And like just this off season at lsu, the governor inserted himself into the coaching search, Right? Like that is a political act itself. And so, look, it's a privilege to talk about sports, and it's a privilege that I take seriously, even if it doesn't always seem that way. But I don't think that absolves you of the responsibility to talk about how sports and politics impact people in the places they live. That's one of the reasons I wanted to do this. So I'm to believe that Josh Tate hears from the president in a week that people are combing through millions of documents related to the Epstein files while they're preparing to pressing Iran to make a deal on nuclear arms, with the subtext being that they might attack them. Josh, you live In Tennessee. Right. Just that week, the Trump administration had ordered FEMA to suspend the deployment of AIDS workers to disaster torn areas in your state. One of the counties you probably live in, if you live in and around Nashville. Right. That's a political thing of what? Workers, of aid workers.

[Van Lathan]

Okay. When you put the S on that, that completely changes it, but go ahead.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, my bad. Whoa, man. Look, see, we were out. I was rolling. You know what I'm saying? I was rolling anyway. Well, maybe I wasn't. I could. Look, I'll let the commenters be the judge. But anyway, you have a, you have a, you have an opportunity in front of this guy to talk about anything and you want to ask him about, hey, man, is it hard to get along? How do you get along with people so well? Which is something that he is famously not good at. So look, man, that's the clip that

[Tate Frazier]

I saw where, you know, Trump basically was like, I actually don't. Which was. I thought that was maybe one of his most earnest moments.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, bro, I just, I don't want to tell people how to use their platform. Josh Pate is a lot more famous than me, probably makes a lot more money than me, but it's like you can use your platform to connect the dots while talking ball. You're a grown up. It's okay for you to act like it.

[Tate Frazier]

Did they talk ball, though? That's, that's my question. You listen to the 11 minutes they

[Joel Anderson]

talked about the kickoff again, which I think Donald Trump, which is an NFL

[Tate Frazier]

rule, nothing to do with college football,

[Joel Anderson]

nothing to do with Cosmo. And also, like, I don't understand, because the kickoff rule actually creates more kickoff returns now, like, I don't know, what is his problem with that? Like, I like it. I feel like there's more.

[Van Lathan]

There's a man to be a man. Yeah, get cte. That makes you a lion.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

What do you like?

[Joel Anderson]

What do you complain? Because, like, I feel like I've seen more returns with this, this change. So anyway, it's just like the thing about Donald Trump, and I remember when NABJ interviewed him a couple years ago and the people caught hell for it. And it's like, bro, when you invite Donald Trump, he don't give a shit about what you don't talk about, man. He's going to talk about what he wants to talk about in the moment and he probably is going to have a very tenuous grasp on the facts of anything, like anything you ask him about.

[Van Lathan]

So it's just.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, go ahead. No Go ahead, go ahead.

[Van Lathan]

No, I'll say something about the nabj. I think the NABJ came out ahead in that situation because Rachel Scott.

[Joel Anderson]

You think so?

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, because Rachel Scott did such a great job.

[Tate Frazier]

Rachel Scott moderating that whole thing.

[Van Lathan]

Rachel Scott being on the stage and actually holding down Trump's feet to the flame and just seeing how he reacts when he is presented with some type of opposition, particularly in long form. You know, you get the President for, on MSNBC or CNN, 10, 15 minutes, whatever, he's only going to give longer talks to people that are going to be very complimentary of him. So when you see him in long form actually get challenged, the president got flustered a lot. He showed his ass a little bit.

[Joel Anderson]

Right. But he ran off a bunch of lies too. He ran off in real time.

[Van Lathan]

And I think. Well, I think she did do a good job of that. And I think if you're up to the task of holding power to account, then you do it, right? If you're up to the task of holding power to account, then you do it. But if you are in front of power and you don't hold it to account, people are going to assume that you're in lockstep with it in the bag. And that. And that is the interviewer's burden. Right. People, especially now, are not just watching for what the person that you're sitting across to will say to the questions that you're asking. They're also watching for what you won't ask. They're looking at you to see what is this interviewer? And everybody up here knows this. What is this interviewer afraid to talk to this person about so they know how captured you are. And once you've done that, that's it. Yeah, like one, like once you've, once you've been in front of somebody like Donald Trump or whomever, we have a whole bunch of left leaning politicians on higher learning. The audiences from all over the place, the audiences to the left of us, the audiences to the right of us, they're watching us to get answers to questions that they think we should ask. But they're also trying to see if we are afraid of power. Because like a lot of Americans are asking themselves right now, are they even in the position to hold power to account? And man, if you got the President coming on your podcast when he was campaigning, it was one thing, I mean, I had a knowledge and an understanding of who Donald Trump is. But now a lot of these policies and these decisions, we've seen them in action and People are just going to wonder what you talk like. Okay, so the, you know, Alex Pretty and Renee, good or dead, do you want to really have a conversation about nil? I mean, and that's a decision that every person would have to make, but God damn, that's a tough choice to make at this particular time right now. And I think it was an unforced error.

[Joel Anderson]

My thing with pay is like, it's not a flex to have truck on Trump on and nut up. I mean, the dude was in Rome, Georgia for an explicitly political event. Like, he was there to talk about that voter fraud, what he claims is voter fraud in Georgia in 2020. He was talking about how he's going to have this new voter ID plan. And he was talking about the FBI raid of the election offices in Fulton county, saying, the Democrats cheated like dogs, bro. I mean, again, it's okay for you to push it, but the thing is, and you know, maybe I'm not gonna make any assumptions, Van, you know, you know, paid a little bit. What do you think? Like, what do you, like, what do you think he actually thinks? Like, do you think he's a Trump supporter?

[Van Lathan]

Well, I think he's a conservative.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

You know, obviously I think he's a conservative. I think that anyone that would have the president on right now that and wouldn't want to talk politics with them probably is a conservative leaning person. But whether you are or are not a conservative, like, I talk about this all the time. That doesn't really bother me. I grew up around a lot of conservatives in Baton Rouge. I grew up and shared a lot of memories with a lot of people on the opposite side of the aisle. I think people think that I'm more animated by those distinctions than I actually am. What animates me, I don't care what it is, as long as we can talk about it. As long as you don't get all offended by my actual unvarnished take. As long as you don't go, okay, Because I'm not going to stop talking about the things that matter to me because they might be inconvenient to you. If my humanity, my freedom, my living on this earth is inconvenient to you, then it's gotta be fuck you, right? But everything else we can discuss, like, we can discuss, and I can tell you right now, if you are a part of specific political movements, that you are part of one of the more grave grotesqueries that has existed while I have been alive. And there's nothing redeeming about it that's that you can be mad about that, we can talk about that, but I have to be able to be honest about that. I think when we talk about this particular situation, you being anybody being. Cause we saw a bunch of people interview Trump. We saw Aiden Ross, we saw Andrew Schultz, we saw. I don't know if the Ovan did one, but we saw Trump going all of these different places. And it wasn't that people that he went on those places and had those interviews that bothered people. It was that he went on those places and had those interviews, and that those interviews were incurious to who he is. And he was running to be president after having that type of reputation for that long and saying those types of things. That is the deal that makes people wonder, how serious are you? Period? Like, not just about politics or anything else. Like, how serious are you about this stuff? And so, I don't know. I mean, I don't want to be a hypocrite insofar as, like, you know, Obama used to do his sweet 16 and presidents have done the I'm throwing out the first pitch thing. It's a part of it. It's always been a part of it. But I don't care what president it is. If I got a chance to talk to the president, you would think that you would want to ask some things that were more penetrating, particularly in times that we live right now. Honestly, though, I think this was probably more of a calculation that was less political than people think it is. It probably was more of a career calculation. Like, we get a chance to interview the president here, it's going to be this huge, big deal, let's do it. Despite the president's politics, it probably had less to do with politics than people think that it did, but either way, I think the impact was the same.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, we now, yeah. Just to give context, too, just for the. How we got here. I mean, when we first saw that tweet, I think, Joel, we thought it was AI at first, right. The way that it looked. And then just talking about, like, kind of the. The situation and setup of it. All right. I mean, Lane Kiffin, what, not even a month ago, tweeted out what he tweeted out with the. The MAGA hats, like for LSU or whatever, and he immediately deletes the tweets pretty much. And he saw the reaction and the recoil from the people from him doing that. So it just. Just to go back to the miscalculation, to put it back on Pate's front, it just seemed very out of step in general, and then the reaction afterwards where, you know, there was a lot of, to use a modern term, gaslighting on the back end. It just seemed all very strange. And Josh Pate's been nice. You know, he. I think he, you know, has supported the show and stuff over time, and, you know, we see him liking some of the tweets and everything. So it just. I don't know, it just. It seemed very off. And my one big reaction to the whole thing is just, I miss when the president knew ball. You know, this was supposed to be a college football conversation. George Bush knows ball. Barack Obama knows ball. Bill Clinton knows ball. You know what I mean? You start going through the litany of presidents that know ball. This is not one. So, I mean, it just seemed very. Just. I mean, outside of all of the implications that we're talking about, I mean, to. To put it back on the. The football of it all, it just makes no sense.

[Joel Anderson]

So do you not think that he's so. I mean, whatever. I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. I think that's senility. I mean, but Donald Trump did used to be kind of. I mean, if you followed boxing in the 80s, Trump was a part of it. Trump owned. The reason that he's homies with Herschel Walker is that he signed into the New Jersey Generals in the usfl, and he owned the Generals and wanted to own the Buffalo Bills. Donald Trump has been sniffing around sports forever, and so I feel like he's sort of capable of talking about it or was in the past. And the reason that he couldn't pull it off now is because either, A, he's just not paying attention anymore and it's whatever, or B, he's incapable of articulating his thoughts because his brain is rotting inside of his head.

[Tate Frazier]

He said Urban Meyer and Nick Saban were his two favorite coaches. They don't coach anymore.

[Van Lathan]

Well, I'll put it to you like this. There is a difference. There is a difference in the way you talk about a sport, if you are an owner than if you are a fan. Like, a fan is invested into the sport. An owner is invested into the team. So, like, viewing the sport as a commodity is just a lot different. Like, when you go, I'm not saying that, you know, Trump didn't like boxing and that he didn't like football, and, like, he didn't what. But, you know, those things were happening at his hotels. He was going there. He was being. I mean, like, if I was to ask. Donald Trump loves boxing, if I was to ask Donald Trump to tell me about his favorite Wilfredo Benitez moment. You know, but. You know what I mean? Or, like, what. What does he remember from the Hearns Duran fight? He's watching it with this air of. There's a. There's a kind of. It's the same way that the fucking Caesar watches the Gladiators. He's not watching the Gladiators in the same way that the.

[Joel Anderson]

That.

[Van Lathan]

That the fans do. So that part of the reason why Trump might not know ball is that ball is different for somebody like him than it is for somebody like us.

[Tate Frazier]

It's a commodity way to frame it.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, I still think that he once upon a time possessed even a base level of knowledge about sports. But here's the thing. They're asking him about something that he ostensibly has opinions on and has, like, discussed publicly, which is nil legislation. Right. And it was like he couldn't even get to that. Right. And I feel like there's been times in the last year where he was able to at least pretend to have some thoughts about that. And even though they weren't necessarily coherent or good thoughts, like, it was in keeping with the man that he was. And I felt like by listening to the Pate interview, I was like, oh, he's totally disinterested in discussing this. And it's maybe because he's incapable of it or because he think he found a mark. And it could be that because Pate's the one that said that the Trump campaign reached out to him. They're the ones who want him to go up to Rome, Georgia. So. They picked you for a reason, bro. You know, they. And they knew, you know, saying they

[Van Lathan]

might pick everybody for a reason. Like in. In that type of interview. Yeah, they only play home games.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Like, legitimately. Like, think about it. In that type of interview, the. If we talk, go back to boxing, they're like, late stage. Mayweather, you know, after Mayweather. Mayweather, before the De La Hoya fight was anybody can get it. Mayweather, the. After the De La Hoya fight was, you might be able to get it. If you're. If you're young enough and inexperienced enough or if you're old enough or if you're like, whatever. I'm not saying fully didn't fight a whole bunch of fighters. Floyd is one of the best ever to do it, and I guess we're going to see him fight it.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah. Pacquiao, he. When Pacquiao calls, he's like, I'm ready. Let's go.

[Van Lathan]

I'm ready. I'm ready. You know what I mean? So I guess, you know, whatever that. The fuck that is 50 years old. But like now, you know, you pick your opponents differently. You put them, you put yourself in a position to succeed, you know, so, like, in long form, I think that politicians, period, normally go to places where they're not going to be pressed on their, on their collection of beliefs and policy.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't think that. I don't think that I'm going to. If I'm. If I get picked for that interview, I don't think that I'm going to proudly proclaim and I'm not going to ask him anything hard, you know, like if that's your pose going into it. But Van, just for a second, because you asked me about this when I went on Fine Bomb the other week. So I just like. Do you think you're cucking out right now? Because, Patriot Boy, you don't want to.

[Van Lathan]

Am I cooking out?

[Joel Anderson]

Yes. Are you cucking out? Right.

[Van Lathan]

What do you mean?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, well, I mean, what do you think about pate now? Like, as a person?

[Van Lathan]

No, I mean, do it. What do I think about paid as a person? I wasn't surprised about this. This is not the first person that I know that has done an interview with Donald Trump or the first person that I know that has a political leaning. That's kind of disappointing me. The first person I know that has done an interview that has disappointed me. Right.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

I know plenty of people that I probably share politics with that I'm like, hey, you had this person on and you didn't ask them this. And I know back. I know in the back of my mind it's because they know the person or because they do whatever. I don't. I guess if, if I thought, how can I put this? I. I guess cucking out for me in this situation would be like, if we had paid on, would I not ask him about this?

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

Like. Like, if, for me, if I have an opinion about someone and this is roundly. This is kind of what I'm known for, if I have an opinion about someone and I'm in front of them, I would ask them about that opinion. I would, like, offer that opinion. I would offer that thing to them that I had said to them. I would not, not say that. Right. My opinion on this is this was a mistake. This was a mistake and this was a miscalculation that was probably made for career. It doesn't really change my opinion of Josh very much. Because I kind of already knew where Josh was politically and how he looked at the world. Last thing I'll say about that is like. And this is gonna sound stupid to a lot of people, especially people that know me, you know, like, I don't believe in the whole. Like, to Joel's point earlier, it's a point well made about politics, right? Politics color everything that happens in and around sports, in and around college football. Politics is ingrained into every single aspect of American life. You can't get away from it. I will say to me, a place that felt non political, it feels non political. And that's like Tiger Stadium on Saturday, like, outside the stadium. And it's not that I don't know that that place is political. It is political. It's very political. Everything that's happening inside of the stadium has been litigated by, you know, policy made right around the corner in. In downtown Baton Rouge. And the prices are set and all of this stuff, even the. The demographics of who's on the field and who's watching the game and who can afford to. All of that's political. But when we're there, we're rooting for lsu. Like, when we're there, we're rooting for lsu. When you go there and you're around there, you're tailgating, people feed you, people talk to you, you dance together, you're celebrating, you're rooting for lsu. The thing that always would bother me about the game is when someone broke that truce. When someone broke that truce and they flew a Confederate flag. When someone broke that truce and they showed up and they had some type of political paraphernalia on. When someone broke that truce and then made me remind them that I know where the fuck I'm at. That is what Lane Kiffin did with the hat. And if Lane Kiffin thinks that I love LSU so much, then I'm gonna put something MAGA on my body. Lane Kiffin is a fucking idiot. Right? And if Pate or anybody else thinks that I'm going to ignore the fact that the president is on a show because I love the show so much. That's stupid. But all of these people, I don't really judge them directly as much as I want to talk about things that are systemic. Now, I will say this. If you had a criticism of someone and you go on their show and you don't bring up that criticism, I can make the argument that you were cucking out.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't think it would be a great argument, but that's fine. I don't think that'd be a great argument, but that's fine.

[Van Lathan]

Like, just. Just for me. Just for me. I'm like, you know, don't matter who it is. If it's Kanye or if it's Emmanuel Acho, if it's Gavin Newsom, whoever it is. If I. If you. If you sit in front of me and I had. And I had something to say, I wanna. I wanna have it out. But we don't all think about it that way, Joe, what we call it out here.

[Joel Anderson]

But that's fine. Let's bring Paid on. Let's have Paid on the show.

[Tate Frazier]

I hope we don't get blocked.

[Joel Anderson]

We talk about it off there. Let's bring him on. Let's bring Paid on. Come on to the show.

[Van Lathan]

Come on to the show. Josh. I think. I think Josh lurks. I think Josh learned some lessons here, though. Like, come on to the show. And by the way, just for this, for anyone, this for anyone, like, you know, you put. You put Trump on the show, there gonna be some expectations, man.

[Tate Frazier]

That's just how it goes. And just a. Just a very interesting week in the world of college football podcasting. But I think that's an open invitation. Let's get Paid on the show. At some point, we can talk through this. And, you know, I think Van will, you know, say what he needs to say to. To Paid. I hope Joel can do this.

[Van Lathan]

Some people might. There is a universe where. There's a universe to where I might have already said it. To where you might have, like, you know, to where there might have been conversations and there might have been people who actually listened in good faith to the criticisms that you had. Like, there might be a world where it's already been said.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, so you just don't want to have that conversation in front of the world, possibly.

[Van Lathan]

No, I would definitely have. In front of the world. I'll have any conversation with anyone. I was the one that wanted to have a conversation with somebody who's contributed a great deal to the world and entertainment of so many people. And we tried to get him on his podcast. The Duke just jumped in and said that we couldn't do it. Yeah, I know. It doesn't matter.

[Joel Anderson]

We can have anybody on this podcast except Thompson. Good.

[Tate Frazier]

As far as I'm concerned, son, that's the only man.

[Van Lathan]

See, now, here's the deal. Now, see how you dissed him? If we get him on the podcast, you don't bring up the fact that

[Joel Anderson]

you act like I say, yeah, I made a joke. I made a joke because I don't know you, and I'm not familiar with the comedy. And. Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

So I will say to me, forget about him. To me, you gotta fight Lane Kiffin.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

To. To me. Pop the Duke on pop for.

[Joel Anderson]

To me. I don't have to fight. I don't have to fight.

[Van Lathan]

To me, you gotta fight Lane Kiffin. You called him a hoe. You told him to come find you.

[Joel Anderson]

To me.

[Van Lathan]

If we get Lane Kiffin.

[Joel Anderson]

In the past, if he's had a. If somebody called him a hoe, he usually stepped to him. So I'll just wait till the step. To me.

[Billy]

I mean, if we're gonna be honest, too, though, Joel, like, on the thread today, you. You said you wanted to fight Josh.

[Joel Anderson]

That. That was a. That was not. That was not the proper context. Billy. Billy, you really. You really going for the neck today, dog? What's going on? What is this because we talking about Trump? You upset? Is that what it is? You come after me because you're talking about your boy?

[Billy]

I did. I did something nice for you yesterday, Joel. We were talking to Bill Simmons. He's, you know, he's in charge of company.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't know if, you know, I've heard of him. Yeah.

[Billy]

So when I was talking to Bill, we were talking about the fact that how baseball teams have a captain. The Mets say they're not going to have a captain anymore. And then he threw out their hypothetical, what if we named a captain of the ringer who should be the captain of the ringer? And Bill said, you know, I feel like maybe Van should be the captain of the ringer. Like, what do you think about that? I said, van's usage rate is great. He's on all kinds of shows. Like, I think it would be a good one. And then we discussed how if Van was named captain of the ringer, that you would not like it. And he said, who would you name captain of the ringer? I said I would honestly name.

[Joel Anderson]

Wait, why would I have a problem with it?

[Billy]

I was like, I would name. Because if it was Van, like, Joel.

[Joel Anderson]

No, wait. Come on. That's not

[Van Lathan]

Joe.

[Joel Anderson]

Joe, I know that I'm not no captain of the ring.

[Van Lathan]

Not. Listen to him. Listen to the vernacular change. I know I'm not no captain. That's how you can tell he's aggrieved.

[Joel Anderson]

Like, I'm not aggrieved. Okay? Y' all are trying to.

[Van Lathan]

It doesn't matter. Can I be honest with you? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who would be named captain, me or anybody else. It's not a me thing. If anyone is named captain at all. You wouldn't want to be the captain because if someone named you the captain, you would say, I got to take my kids to the daycare. Yeah, I do.

[Joel Anderson]

I would. I would. I do have a lot going on over here. That's right.

[Tate Frazier]

You'd have to pick up the phone more.

[Joel Anderson]

It's very true.

[Van Lathan]

This is the Joel conundrum. If. If, like, Joe would be a great captain, you. No, the joke conundrum is if they

[Tate Frazier]

made Joe, the cat voice went up in inflection.

[Van Lathan]

Joe would be like, I can't do it. And if they made anybody else.

[Joel Anderson]

That's false.

[Van Lathan]

Who would be like, man, they gotta be the captain. Why didn't they make.

[Joel Anderson]

That's false. That's false. How did we get here again? Because I had a point before all this guy started y', all, and y' all interrupted me. Where were we at?

[Tate Frazier]

It was Tom Segura.

[Billy]

You're the captain. I don't know.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, right. Oh, yeah. About me having to fight L. Kiffin. That's what this is about. No, I'm not going to fight him unless he wants to fight. And at that, I'd have no choice. But I'm not. I mean, you acting like I'm afraid to fight Lane Kiffin. I.

[Van Lathan]

No, no, no.

[Joel Anderson]

But I would not. I don't want to have a fight with him.

[Van Lathan]

Hold on for a second, killer. I didn't say you afraid to fight Lane Kiffin.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, all right.

[Van Lathan]

What I said, hold on. Yeah. Is that you called his hands and into question.

[Joel Anderson]

No, I said he was a hoe. I didn't call his hands on the question.

[Van Lathan]

Okay, you definitely called his hands. You said you asked him to meet you at the parking lot at a Wegmans, I believe. Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

It wasn't. It wasn't it? First of all, that's. That's not quite exactly right. What I said is that if he had a problem calling him, if he had a problem with me referring to his actions as being that of a hoe, that he could meet me at the parking lot at the Whole Foods in downtown Silver.

[Tate Frazier]

Whole Foods.

[Billy]

Whole Foods.

[Tate Frazier]

That should be a spot for the show.

[Joel Anderson]

If you wanted to, that's fine.

[Van Lathan]

So I would. So all I'm saying is I would expect that if we had Lane Kiffin on.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Which we probably would. That you would say, hey, Lane, I think that you are a hoe. And if you have a problem with that, Meet me downtown, Silver Springs.

[Joel Anderson]

And I don't think I would say it that way. I don't think I would have to

[Van Lathan]

say it that way if you didn't say it that way. This is how I used to be in high school, and this was the fucked up thing about me. If that happened, I'd have been like, hey, man, are you going to tell him about the time that you told him that, Blah, blah, blah. Are you going to tell him about

[Joel Anderson]

the fact that that's some hoe shit that you doing right there?

[Van Lathan]

That's not. Because it's national. It's not instigating. Yeah, I don't want that type of shit. It's tailgating.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm on a podcast that gets hundreds of years. Okay? So, I mean, it's not like I'm. There's any secret about how I feel about Lane keeping what he's doing. I feel this is an act. I mean, not a lot of people would call Lane Kiffin a hoe in the. In the college football space, I would think. I don't know. Maybe.

[Tate Frazier]

But the best part is that two minutes ago, you said you didn't call him a hoe.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, well, I said his actions were that of a hoe.

[Billy]

Yeah. Okay, so on the record, hoe or

[Joel Anderson]

no, I'm saying he act like a hoe. He act like a hoe.

[Tate Frazier]

That's a good segment. Ho or no, he's just some ho.

[Joel Anderson]

He's just a real ho.

[Van Lathan]

So, Joe. So Lane is a hoe. CFB is a hoe.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I said what CFB Reddit was doing with some ho shit. Oh, okay.

[Tate Frazier]

But you.

[Van Lathan]

But you're saying there's not a whole.

[Joel Anderson]

Whole it's hoe shit that they were engaging in.

[Van Lathan]

Gotcha.

[Tate Frazier]

Josh paid last one.

[Joel Anderson]

I think that's some ho shit. I think that kind of. Right. It's more. It's too serious to be ho shit. I don't even know what the proper term of it is, but I don't. Yeah, I don't like. I don't like that. I don't like what he did. Going to Rome, Georgia, and letting Trump run it up on him, dog. I don't like it. I would tell him that to his face.

[Tate Frazier]

Why'd he.

[Billy]

Why'd he promote it so, like, excitedly if he knew how bad it was gonna be? Like, if he knew, if he knew the content of it wasn't that good, why did he draw even more attention to it on the front end?

[Van Lathan]

I legitimately. I legitimately think that there are still people. And by the way, just, just be real about this is worked right. The flager interview with Donald Trump has like 10 million views. Like during the campaign, everywhere Donald Trump was going. As much as we criticize guys for doing softball interviews with Donald Trump, those, those interviews were like super amazingly successful with millions and millions and millions and millions of views. Like, I think that this was probably a very cynical career move that wouldn't have happened if the president was of a different party. Like a, like a, if they're, if, like, I don't know if, if this would have happened. If. Let's, let's say X, let's say ex President Obama wanted to come on. I don't know if there would have been enough political alignment to take the chance. But I do definitely think that this was something that was more about like, how many eyes, how can I grow my show, how I can, you know, compete in a, in a college football system, ecosphere ecosystem or whatever. And it's just you, you, you, it off. Like you, you make people not going for that. People aren't going for it. Like, sometimes the measuring sticks of your audience are mistakes that you make and not just things that you say that people like. So like sometimes you find out who you actually talking to about what the. They won't go for. And this is definitely one of those.

[Joel Anderson]

Although, you know, it also could have worked too though. I mean, there's a lot of people that do go for that and they think that what we're saying is ridiculous and that it, like we're, we're making a big deal out of nothing and that we got to grow up because everything doesn't have to be politics and so on and so forth. There are a lot of people and probably, we're probably underrepresented. We're not a representative sample for people that are involved in the college football space. But you know, can we just say

[Van Lathan]

on that for one second? I think, I think, I think I disagree. And can I tell you why real quick? Okay, so most of the places that we're talking about have at least, besides maybe like Aiden Ross, they have enough different guests on to know that their audience wants what it is that they're doing. So if you're talking about other people that have had the president on, it'll be comedian, comedian, politician, Clay Travis, conspiracy theorists, all of that stuff. Like these people have enough different guests on to know that people like that. Right? So you, you're not stretching the edges of your audience. You're actually feeding your audience even by Having people on that are just obviously objectionable. Objectionable to like everyone the place. If you would have Steve Bannon on, if you would have something like that, right? Almost. This is almost like a situation with Gavin Newsom where Gavin Newsom was doing his podcast and he, he put on Charlie Kirk, he put on Steve Bannon and then he found out that, you know, as much as he thinks he needs to be doing this, like a lot of people that are investing into Gavin Newsom just don't want to hear him have those conversations, especially in the way that he was having them, which was in a completely, almost non confrontational way. I think we understand that the grander college football landscape is conservative, is they're, they're conservative. But I do think that we might overestimate how directly political they want to be on everything. Like when they, like there are people out there that when they say they don't want politics in it, we take that as code that they don't want the other people's politics in it. And I think for the most part that's true. But then there's also probably a sizable chunk of people that are some either more to the left than we think they are, centrist, moderates, whatever, but that are also non plus about what's happening right now with the administration that were just like, why are you doing this? Like, legitimately, Even the people that like, they're just like, what's the point of this? Like, why are you doing this? I think that there are enough of those people. I mean, obviously there's no way around it. There's enough of those people that the Josh Pay College Football show felt this, they felt this, they felt it enough to where the comments got turned off. It seems like he's going to address it on the show coming up. So even if we say that we're an underrepresented minority of people that like had a problem with this can't be that small.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't think we're that small, but I don't think we're in the majority. Maybe that's the better way to say it. And I, I. And again, and we can move off of this because Josh Pate has got a lot of damn time on our podcast today. I just think any position of neutrality, a posed position of neutrality, is actually choosing to align yourself with power. And so when you say I ain't talking about politics, well, I don't want politics in this is because you don't want to talk about the kind of politics that you enjoy or that you support, like. And maybe that's not quite fair, but that's just kind of where I met with it.

[Van Lathan]

But I don't disagree. Do you think that that's true everywhere?

[Joel Anderson]

Don't think it's true everywhere. I guess I need to know the context. You know, this.

[Van Lathan]

Like, would that be true, like, say, in church? Do you think that there were people that would tell you, hey, I don't want to talk about politics in church because church is about God?

[Joel Anderson]

No, I think people. I think people. I think. I mean, not unfortunately, and I think particularly, I don't. Look, I can't say. I've only been to a white church a couple times. Well, I guess I did go to Catholic church a lot because, you know, I could go to Catholic school. But the tradition of the black church is that it's connected to politics as well. And like. Like, there's an expectation that, like, the pastor is going to have a take on world events, and it's going to, you know, make a connection between that and the Bible and your Christianity, whatever. Right? And it's. That might not be an explicit politics. He may not say, hey, man, I need you to go out and vote for Jasmine Crockett. But there's an expectation that you. You. You have something to say about the world and that your Christianity informs your view of it. I don't know. Again. I don't know. Again. I have not been to a bit, you know, I. I told you I went to Lakewood Church for a few. A few months when I was in Houston just to see, you know, man, I was in a bad. I was in it. I was having a down time, bro. Like your boy. Your boy was down bad. And I was like, I could use anything to feel better. And so I started. I read about Joel Osteen, which is crazy. I felt like TD Jakes had said

[Tate Frazier]

something because his name was Joel, that you liked him?

[Joel Anderson]

No, because his, you know, his dad was a big pastor in Houston growing up, right? Like. Like Lakewood was. It started on the north side of town, and then they moved to the old Summit Compact center and made the church there. So. But anyway, I was like, I would never go to that church. And then somebody I knew wrote a profile of them, and I saw TJ TD Jake say something about, you know, it could be that Joel Osteen pastors to more black people than any other black pastor in the country.

[Van Lathan]

And I was like, just. Just by sheer volume. Yeah, yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

Just by ship. I was like, God damn. For real? So I went to his services for a few months, you know, just. And you know what it is? It's, like, really good. It's like church, if you don't really want to get too concerned with the Bible, you know what I'm saying? It's like a good. It's like a good Christian pep rally when you go to a Joel Osteen service. And it was actually, I, I, it worked. It made me feel better, you know what I'm saying? So. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

Well, that was good. As far as, like, the conservative crowd, Joel. That was a nice little.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah. Joel, what's your favorite Joel Osteen message?

[Billy]

Yeah, man,

[Joel Anderson]

go ahead. What is it? What?

[Van Lathan]

So this, real quick, Taylor, like, this Joel Osteen want to act like he be hooping about. He played basketball. Like, he liked to hoop. I always like that. Elbow that nigga in his mouth. But, But Joel Osteen talking about he was hooping, and he was like, one time he was hooping, and he was in this run. It's crazy. He's getting buckets, going crazy. And there was a Rockets game that was coming on, and he had taped the game.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

And the whole time he had taped the game, he was wondering who won the game, and he was doing everything he could to avoid who won the game. And then he goes, this message actually always stuck with me. He goes, like, he was talking about who won the game. And he was like, he gets home and he puts the game on, and the game was on the first, in the first quarter. He's watching the game on, on. On tape, and he's all nervous about who's gonna win the game, like, who's gonna win it. He's on every possession. It's a big game, Rockets probably, like, I don't know, spurs or some shit like that. And then his wife walks in and inadvertently tells him who won the game.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, yeah. I can't imagine him telling this story on church.

[Van Lathan]

Like, oh, he's like, pausing and doing all of this stuff, like, inadvertently tells him who won the game. And then what he found out was that he watched the rest of the game and he enjoyed the game, but he already knew what was going to happen. And what that took away was his fear about whether or not the Rockets were going to lose.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

And he said, that is the way that you should live your life, without fear and with faith of God, because you know where you're going.

[Joel Anderson]

I like that.

[Van Lathan]

So you know what's going to happen at the end of your life and because you know what's going to happen at the end of your life. The game itself, the outcome shouldn't be in doubt to you. You should just enjoy the game. And I remember at that one particular point I was like, this might be the illest ever to do it.

[Joel Anderson]

Damn.

[Van Lathan]

I was like, just listening to that message. And then of course, the hurricane came and he didn't open up the church up.

[Joel Anderson]

Do you know what's crazy? Do you know what I have here on my desk?

[Tate Frazier]

Oh my goodness.

[Joel Anderson]

I didn't realize I had this on my desk. Joel Osteen, 30 thoughts for Victorious Living.

[Tate Frazier]

Joe, you love him. What's number 17?

[Joel Anderson]

Be joyful always.

[Van Lathan]

Well, all seem full of. And by the way, and me being as far to the left as I am, I don't believe in the church, like almost at all. Yeah, but, but like, I could see why people would be into that.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man, expect favor. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, you know, like I said, it's not really the church that I grew up with or that I'm used to or whatever, you know, but it, it, I, it serves a purpose. It's, it's a very accessible Christianity if you don't think too hard about it or whatever. And yeah, I, I did all, I did all that before the didn't let people come in during Hurricane Harvey.

[Billy]

So no Joel next week is what you're saying.

[Joel Anderson]

No Joel Osteen.

[Billy]

Yeah. Bill Bellamy. The ask is out, so hopefully that one's really.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh man, I'm glad you finally got around to it, man. Damn. Did y' all watch, did y' all watch the Bill Bellamy clip that I sent y' all on our thread about Jim, Jim Brown getting body slam?

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, he was on Carmelo's show.

[Van Lathan]

Saw that.

[Tate Frazier]

Yes, he's on the circuit.

[Joel Anderson]

It's a good story, man. We got, we get stories like that on here. Many more any given Sunday stories on our podcast.

[Van Lathan]

This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast, smart move. Being financially savvy. Smart move. Another smart move. Having State Farm help you create a competitive price when you choose to bundle home and auto bundling. Just another way to save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the color, customer availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.

[Tate Frazier]

Your little one grew three inches overnight.

[Van Lathan]

Adorable.

[Joel Anderson]

Also expensive.

[Tate Frazier]

Sell their pint sized pieces on depop

[Joel Anderson]

and list them in minutes with no

[Tate Frazier]

selling fees because somewhere a dad refuses to pay full Price for the clothes

[Joel Anderson]

his kids will outgrow tomorrow.

[Tate Frazier]

And he's ready to buy your son's entire wardrobe right now. Consider your future growth.

[Joel Anderson]

Perfect.

[Tate Frazier]

Third, budget secured.

[Joel Anderson]

Start selling on Depop, where taste recognizes taste.

[Tate Frazier]

Payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply.

[Joel Anderson]

See website for details. I have created the most advanced AI soldier.

[Tate Frazier]

The wait is over.

[Van Lathan]

Tron Ares now streaming on Disney plus.

[Joel Anderson]

We are looking for something, something you've discovered. Give me something to believe and some

[Van Lathan]

of us will stop at nothing to get it ready.

[Tate Frazier]

The countdown is complete.

[Joel Anderson]

There's no going back.

[Van Lathan]

Dark directive is clear. Hang on. Tron Aries now streaming on Disney Plus. Rated PG13.

[Tate Frazier]

Fingers crossed that we get there. Bill, you know Bill Bellamy. You're welcome on the show anytime. Joel Osteen, maybe you're welcome. It sounds like Joel wants him on the show.

[Joel Anderson]

We'll see. I don't have a problem with him. Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

I like that message, though. That was a nice story there. Van. To wrap it all up. Just an insane week in college football podcast to wrap it up. We just wrapped it up. That was.

[Joel Anderson]

We have so many other topics that we. I've been. I prepared for. We got things on it.

[Tate Frazier]

One big. That was the reaction that we're wrapping up. We're moving on. We're. We're putting a pin in that. Joel.

[Billy]

That was the first question.

[Joel Anderson]

Overreaction of the week. I mean, Van. Big Van on campus.

[Van Lathan]

That.

[Tate Frazier]

That's it. That's what's coming up. That's what we're getting to.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Tate Frazier]

All right, all right, all right.

[Joel Anderson]

My bad.

[Tate Frazier]

Joel's upset that he wasn't allowed to go to Indianapolis. So let's start here. One big question. Who or what are you looking forward to the Most at the 2026 NFL Combine? We will have combine reactions next week when we talk. Joel obviously wishes he was at the combine, but I'll go to you first, Joel. What were you specifically looking forward to that you're going to miss now that you're not at the combine?

[Joel Anderson]

Well, no, the big thing, I mean, there's a lot of things because this is a deep wide receiver class, I'm looking forward to see the separation among them.

[Tate Frazier]

AC Concepcion.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, yeah. Carnell Tate. Makai. Lemon. Jordan Tyson. I saw Omar. Yeah. Omar Cooper is. Was in Danny Kelly's top 50. Chris. Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

He's moving up draft boards. I've seen a lot of people putting him up.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. Denzel Boston. I gotta shout out my boy Eric. Alistair, you know what I'm saying, from tcu. He should Be up there. But the deep defensive lineman class is great, but I actually.

[Tate Frazier]

Linebackers. Sonny Styles.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, man. Man. Dog Tate, have you watched Sonny Styles high school basketball highlights?

[Tate Frazier]

I have not. I need to go check those out.

[Joel Anderson]

Yo, Mitch mentioned this on the. On. On. On the McShay show, man, about Sonny Stiles's high school highlights. Now, it's not like he's Zion or anything like that, but I was like, God damn, he was a handful, man.

[Tate Frazier]

I'm looking it up right now. Hold up.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, whoa. Sonny. Sonny.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, like that.

[Van Lathan]

Like, he's got, like a. Oh, he's got, like, a basketball body.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man, I was kind of. Man, he's like 6, 4, and he's like 6, 4, 2, 40. Now, I'm sure he came in at probably, like, you know, 6, 4, 2, 052 10, something like that, and put on football weight, but, yeah, I was like, God damn. I mean, he. I mean, he pitched a lot of people.

[Van Lathan]

What. What speed are these guys playing at?

[Joel Anderson]

That's the thing. Like, that was kind of. So he's from. He's from Ohio. He went to Pickerington Central, which I think is outside of Columbus.

[Tate Frazier]

He kind of looks like Carter Bryant out there a little bit.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, he looks like a.

[Van Lathan]

You know, sometimes football players, they play. One time, DEZ Bryant came into the gym.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh.

[Van Lathan]

And DEZ actually is a very fluid athlete. Yeah, DEZ was jumping out the gym, but you could tell DEZ had more of, like, a football kind of sensibility. As far as the smoothness of a basketball player. DEZ is good. DEZ can hoop, but, like, he actually. This Sonny Styles is actually built like a basketball player.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah. At least he was back then. But I mean. Yeah. And he. I mean, he's punching. It's kind of funny. There's very few, maybe 10% of the highlight clips of him hitting a jump shot, you know? Yeah, but that's safety. How percentage. Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Sonny Styles in this. Okay, look, I. I'm looking forward to see Gary Nussmeier throw the ball, Okay? I want to see him throw it. I want to see him throw it around. You know what I'm saying? Because even in the Senior bowl practices, it looked like Nuss was. Was healthy. And so I don't think that the tape from this year is going to allow him to rise too far up, because he also is not going to overwhelm you athletically. But I'm interested to see whether or not in the combine, Garrett Nussmeier can play himself back into being A serious quarterback that's considered to like one day be a starter in the NFL.

[Joel Anderson]

Don't you think that if he shows enough that he could even be the second quarterback off the board? Because I don't think. I think people, Ty Simpson's going to go up to the combine and they're going to be like 6, 2, 2, 10, not that big. He hasn't had that many starts. You know, I mean, like, there's nothing that Ty Simpson does that blows you away. Like, I could Garrett Nussmeier, like potentially,

[Tate Frazier]

could he be like Jackson Dark last year, right?

[Billy]

Dark.

[Tate Frazier]

Dart was one of those guys that was like third round projected. And then all of a sudden, you know, even McShay I think, was pretty early on it. He was like, dart might end up going in the first round. Tyler Shuck, another guy that kind of jumped up from, you know, sixth, seventh round to ends up being a top 50 pick. So there's gonna be a couple of those guys. Drew Aller could be one of those guys that jumps up a little bit.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, maybe. I mean, they do if they pick Drew Allerban. I mean, no disrespect to that young man because he's, you know, he's more accomplished in college football than I certainly was. But I just, I mean, man, you, you just throwing away a pick if you picked Drew Allen, bro. I'm sorry.

[Van Lathan]

Wow.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man.

[Van Lathan]

So throw away of a pick. Did you feel that way about like, say, Anthony Richardson?

[Joel Anderson]

I thought it was dumb. I thought it was a dumb pick because I was just like, I mean, he's shown you nothing.

[Tate Frazier]

But what if he went like late first round? You know, I just feel like, no, no, no. If Richardson went like late first round, I feel like it would have been little bit more. It would have been palatable.

[Joel Anderson]

I guess so. Yeah. I mean, the thing, but the thing is though, if you're going to make the pick like Anthony Richardson, you really believe that he's going to be great. Like for him to be a first round pick, you got to be like, oh, the, the, the talent blows you away. You got to make him an early round pick. Because otherwise it's not like the numbers or the tape or the sell on him. It has to be that he has such elite athleticism that you got to pick him at the top of the draft. Otherwise it doesn't make any sense. And I just was like, I don't think it's that important to be that great of an athlete as a quarterback.

[Tate Frazier]

What about Carson Beck and Katie Klubnick? These are guys two years ago, Carson Beck was the number one mock going into the season. Last year, Kate Clubnik was the number one mock. And now both those guys are sitting there and they're not even first round picks. I mean, does somebody. Okay, so look, I just, I'm just fascinated.

[Van Lathan]

Quarterback is a difficult position. Who just won the Super Bowl?

[Joel Anderson]

Sam Donald. He was number three pick in the draft.

[Van Lathan]

I know. Say he was a number three pick in the draft. Then he, I guess if, if you are a drafted by jets, right. If, if you are a Jets fan, it must have really, really sucked to see Sam Darnold be good enough to have a really good year offensively in Minnesota, then have a good year in Seattle and then deliver a, a Super bowl championship to the city. But it also, it illuminated something else. If you are drafting a quarterback, this is for any franchise. If you are looking to draft a quarterback that on that quarterback's right arm or left arm or whatever, on that quarterback's arm you can put the hopes and dreams of your franchise. Yeah, you are legitimately drafting a guy that gets drafted once every two or three years. Yeah, like legitimately somebody that you can go, okay, you're so good that we can count on you to go out and win games. They just don't make those guys that often. But what happens more regularly is that you have guys who are good enough A, not to lose games and B, make critical plays when it's time. That guys who make less mistakes and keep an offense on schedule and do all of that type of stuff and can make big throws and don't get rattled. So like I say all that to say that like if you, when you look at the quarterbacks that you are trying to take any of them by the, most of them, by the metric of this guy is going to be a franchise changer. Are just not going to be that. Because there are very few franchise changers. Even right now. The guys who are singular talents. If you look at Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, those guys don't have any Super Bowls. They haven't won any Super Bowls. Quarterback needs help, especially now. Quarterback needs something around him. So maybe there's another set of standards for the position that people are looking at. They're saying, hey, we can work with this guy or this guy could be the type of guy that could win games for us.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, like a Sawyer Robertson out of Baylor.

[Joel Anderson]

Right.

[Tate Frazier]

That could be a guy that goes in the fifth round that somebody, you know points out and says, I like his throwing motion. Maybe we can Build him into a Kirk Cousins 2.0 type guy. Right? I mean Taylor Green, your guy Joel

[Joel Anderson]

let's see that's kind of the thing at this point. I mean I guess when I, it's not to say that those guys like Carson Beck and whatever and Sawyer Robinson can't make an NFL roster but if you have the idea that they're going to be your NFL starting quarterback, I just, I don't see that out of those guys. And so you know what's appropriate for them is basically where Shadow Sanders got drafted on down like fifth, sixth, seventh round. Like that's what I think, think about those kind of guys.

[Tate Frazier]

But now he's a starter in Cleveland, was a Pro bowl quarterback.

[Joel Anderson]

Pro Bowl, Pro bowl quarterback man, Pro

[Van Lathan]

Bowler, one of the best.

[Tate Frazier]

That's what they're comparing him to Mendoza right now. And that gets us to our overreaction of the week. So Dan Orlovsky always apt to tweet something that you know this is a very vague post but I just wanted to get your guys reaction to it and I think it's been an overreaction based on what he said. He said studying the first five games of Mendoza's tape he then, he then did a space, gave a little line break there and then he said it's not what I expected so far. What do you suspect, what do you suspect that he's trying to say here?

[Van Lathan]

VAN I don't like NFL guys getting into the sport.

[Tate Frazier]

You're saying shrink the game. What I like it.

[Van Lathan]

I don't like NFL guys getting into the sport, man.

[Tate Frazier]

I also am like I'm, I, I, I'm like this with the college basketball and the NBA draft as well. Why didn't you watch it when it was happening? You know like that to me just blows my mind like you know this is coming up the draft and the sport is the sport, the game is. Why would you not be watching in real time? I'm always shocked by that sort of behavior.

[Joel Anderson]

Well I mean you know you get, you get a little bit chance to watch a little bit more cut ups and more film angles and stuff and I, I mean I hate, I, I don't necessarily want to agree with Dan Orlofsky because I don't want Indiana fans to get mad at me but I kind of get what he's saying.

[Tate Frazier]

What is he saying? He vape posted.

[Van Lathan]

I don't know, he didn't say anything.

[Joel Anderson]

I think the implication to me unless this is a hell of a, he's going to do a hell of a, you know, plot twist here is that Fernando Mendoza is not the. Not typically what you think of when you think of the number one overall pick in the draft. Right. Like, I, I, okay, like, and I, I have to say this so people don't get mad at me. There's a lot to like with Fernando Mendoza. He's tall, he's got a good arm, mobile, athletic enough, clearly a good leader and has whatever it is that people consider to be winning traits. Very smart, he can read the defense before the snap and after. Is he, do you think he's a better prospect than Caleb Williams was?

[Tate Frazier]

No.

[Joel Anderson]

Do you think he's a better prospect than Trevor Lawrence was?

[Van Lathan]

Nah, he's a better cop. He's a better prospect than Caleb Williams was. He is to me.

[Tate Frazier]

You think so? Oh, okay.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay. All right.

[Van Lathan]

He's not a better athletic prospect. He's not. He's not a better athlete than Caleb Williams.

[Joel Anderson]

Do you think he was? Do you think he's a better prospect than Burrow?

[Tate Frazier]

No.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

I don't think he's a better prospect than Trevor Lawrence.

[Van Lathan]

Let's go back for a second. Like, Burrow doesn't figure into this because the reasons that make Mendoza, to me, a better prospect than Caleb Williams, they are consistent with Joe Burrow. Caleb Williams is a fantastic football player.

[Billy]

He is.

[Van Lathan]

I love, love results. I, I am one of the rare sports fans that actually love results. Like, I love to see you in a high leverage moment, make a high leverage play that ends up in your team winning a football game. So to me, when I see somebody, it exude leadership, playmaking ability and clutchism over the course of an entire season and then get to a point where the game is on the line and they continuously make plays like they will not go away. They continuously make the right play, they continuously throw the back shoulder, they continuously find an extra five or six yards and that results in their team winning. Not the fact, not to say that Indiana didn't have more around him than Caleb did at sc, but when I see that, I go, okay, that's someone who I look, look at and go, I can count on this person maybe not to make the spectacular play like the throw at the end of the game that Kaylin's Williams, Caleb Williams would make. But to be a steady hand and build a franchise around, I mean, obviously with Joe Burrow, you're looking at uncanny accuracy and the fact that, that he was simply almost a perfect football player when LSU made their run to a national championship.

[Joel Anderson]

I think so. State case a Little bit. But here's the thing about Fernando Mendoza. I think he's worthy of being the number one overall pick this year. I think that in this quarterback draft, he's the best prospect. I understand why the Raiders would want to take him, but I also am like, I remember one year that Reggie Bush went number two in the. The. The draft. And I was just like, if. Because people were so surprised when the Houston Texans took Mario Williams over Reggie Bush. They're like, reggie Bush is great. You know, he's one of the, you know, one of the best prospects ever come out of college. And I was like, you know, and nobody will believe me unless you, you know, talk to my boys from 20 years ago. I was like, if I were the Texans, man, I'd rather have Adrian Peterson. I was like, I don't know that I would tank for Adrian Peterson, but I wouldn't take Reggie Bush and hope that next year I'm in. Somehow in position to take Adrian Peterson, because I think that, like, he's a generational prospect. Reggie was still a solid NFL player. I think Fernando Mendoza will be a solid NFL player. But I would probably, you know, if I were the Raiders, I might think about trading out of that spot and hoping that I can get one of them guys next year, like Arch Manning, somebody like that.

[Van Lathan]

You know what's interesting about the Reggie Bush thing?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Is that. So Mario Williams went over Reggie Bush, right?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, he did. He was number one. Bush was two.

[Van Lathan]

Mario Williams had really great career, by the way.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, it's really good.

[Tate Frazier]

It's a great player in college.

[Van Lathan]

Adrian Peterson also goes on to have a Hall of Fame career, right?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Reggie Bush is the player that, of all of those guys, won a Super bowl with the team that drafted him.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

And let me say, like, what happened with Reggie Bush is, you know, Reggie Bush came to the Saints. Then something else happened. Coach came to the Saints that was able to make the best usage of Reggie Bush's skill set. Like, Reggie Bush was not going to be the type of player that you could hand the ball off, not at every down back and tell you to go win a Super Bowl. But obviously, Adrian Peterson wasn't that either.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah,

[Van Lathan]

hold on for a second. And Mario Williams also never anchored a defense.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

That was. That defense went on to become the most suffocating defense. So what I. What I'm telling you is that, like, it. What no matter what it is that you say, the reality of the Reggie Bush situation is that Reggie Bush became an integral part legitimately.

[Joel Anderson]

He wasn't even the best running back of Pierre Thomas.

[Van Lathan]

But what, but what I'm telling you, though, is that like the Saints having Reggie Bush, like when you think there were years Reggie Bush caught a. A like 80 some odd balls, there was like, like the Saints having Reggie Bush gave. Reggie gave the Saints a tactical advantage.

[Tate Frazier]

He was an offensive weapon for sure.

[Van Lathan]

Was able to use to make that offense very multiple and get them to do all kinds of different stuff. I know that because I watched it snap in and snap out. I don't want, I don't want.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't want to sit here already. Bush. All I'm saying is that.

[Van Lathan]

And Reggie Bush played against the Vikings and what did Adrian Peterson do in the game against the Saints? He was fumbling the.

[Joel Anderson]

If who would you. Who is a running back, if you were a general manager and you had in front of you Reggie Bush and Adrian Peterson, which running back would you rather have?

[Van Lathan]

This is my, this is my point. Like, Adrian Peterson is a much better one. Adrian Peterson might be the most purely gifted running back of all time. Right.

[Joel Anderson]

It was very productive.

[Van Lathan]

Like it was and was incredibly productive. Right. And so was Barry Sanders. And I can talk about other guys that were incredibly productive. What I'm talking about is. It gets back to my other point when I'm starting to notice more about football as a whole. We just talked about the fact that Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush won a Super bowl, right. What I'm starting to notice about football is that these great and dominating players are very important to all of these dynasties and all of this stuff like this. But there is so much that goes into evaluating these players and there's so much that you have to have. If you are the type of team or the type of offense that does that, wants to build a full team, trenches, offensive defenses, you want to have people like that, and you need a quarterback that you know you can trust in a big moment. There are very few quarterbacks that have proven that better than Fernando Mendoza has. Now, if you want somebody that can run left, run light, run right, throw across their body and make this crazy play, well, you had Aaron Rodgers do that. You had Brett Favre who could do that, that you had a lot of guys that could do that. And those guys might go get you one or two Super Bowls, right? Like, maybe they could. Josh Allen still hasn't. Lamar Jackson still hasn't. So, like, what I'm saying is, like, it depends on what it is that you want your quarterback to do, right? Yeah. So I, I think this is a

[Joel Anderson]

floor versus ceiling argument. I feel like. And like, with Fernando Mendoz, I feel like, you know what you're gonna get. He'll be. He's a very high floor, Very high floor. I don't think he'll be bad. I think he'll be a very credible NFL.

[Tate Frazier]

You're saying the room is claustrophobic, though. You're saying the floor is so high that the ceiling is right there.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I just.

[Van Lathan]

I don't.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't. You know, and maybe he'll prove me wrong. Right. But again, I might. If I'm picking number one, I think I want the guy that's potentially a. Potentially a generational prospect. Here's everything, all the tools.

[Tate Frazier]

Here's McShay's top five. Just for a reference point here. Jeremiah Love, running back, Notre Dame. Obviously, you know, the Raiders aren't going to take Jeremiah Love. They just took a running back last year.

[Joel Anderson]

So.

[Tate Frazier]

Jeremiah Love, number one. David Bailey, edge rusher for Texas Tech. Arvell Reese, linebacker, Ohio State. Caleb Downs, safety, Ohio State. And then Fernando Mendoza there at number five. And then that leads us into Colin Coward, who said the Big Ten is officially a better at the top, better overall, deeper conference in the sec. Another overreaction of the week right there, Van. I wanted to get your thoughts on Colin saying that. And if I look at the top five, you know, three of the top five right there from the Big Ten.

[Van Lathan]

So this is starting to become dick riding. This is.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, I know.

[Van Lathan]

Colin Cowherd is.

[Joel Anderson]

Y' all can't handle it. Y' all can't handle it.

[Van Lathan]

Okay, so it is clear that the Big Ten is better than SEC. Like, clear. There is.

[Tate Frazier]

He has no SEC in the top 10, McShay, by the way, no SEC representation.

[Van Lathan]

So it is to me, it is clear that the Big Ten is like. Like over the sec, right? This, to me, is like when you. I had a homeboy one time, and he would always say that his new girl was better than his ex girl, his new girl was better than his ex girl. And one day we was all sitting around, we was at Chick Fil A on the yard on LSU's campus, and we said, hey, bro, why don't you let that girl live, dog? It's been a year. Yeah, your new girl looks better, but for some reason, it is you who cannot stop.

[Tate Frazier]

You can't get over it.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, you can't get over it. Like, we. We with you. This new girl was cool. She had a big ass, booty, the whole nine. Like, we liked her. Like, it Was fun. Her friends were fun. Her friends were a lot more fun. And so. And so, like, the whole nine, we, like, yeah, it's cool. But like, after a while, you know what we found out after a while. What we found out after a while is that he would never go on to get over that girl. He would dump the pretty big booty girl and they would go on to get married. That's a true story. That actually is.

[Tate Frazier]

That.

[Joel Anderson]

Is that. Is that. Is that the. You know, I'm a G guy?

[Van Lathan]

I don't know how you knew that.

[Tate Frazier]

You know, I'm a G. What it

[Van Lathan]

is, but I don't know how you knew that. So, like, yeah, like, to me, after a point now, I think that this is kind of a little bit of dick riding. This is kind of like a little bit of a cloud chase right here. Any SEC fan right now that is arguing that the SEC at this particular moment is a bigger deal or a deeper, better conference than the Big Ten is delusional. The Big Ten is the premier conference in college football.

[Joel Anderson]

Make a clip of that.

[Van Lathan]

It is not tough to say.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

Not tough to say in any way.

[Tate Frazier]

And the ACC is nipping at their heels. Right?

[Joel Anderson]

Nipping at their heels.

[Tate Frazier]

ACC got three in the top 10. That's right from the SEC.

[Joel Anderson]

Interesting. Okay. All right. Yeah, man. Well, I'm glad. I'm glad the sec. I mean, this is a totally different tone from the whole. I had to. We had to live with for the last generation of SEC that we all were fed. And it's a. We can't. We couldn't possibly have SMU. We got to have 8 and 5 Auburn in the playoffs. You know, just that kind of. That was going on.

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

It's not the topic right now.

[Van Lathan]

It's not. It's not. It's not the problem.

[Joel Anderson]

Just shut the up.

[Van Lathan]

When you all just take it when they.

[Joel Anderson]

Us.

[Van Lathan]

Y' all won't let us. Y' all keep bringing us up. We licking our wounds. We doing all this. Y' all won't let us. Y' all keep making us the main character. The SEC is begging to be mediocre. Like they're not winning national championships. The players aren't getting drafted in the

[Tate Frazier]

mocks in the top Dan's doing the Britney. Leave us alone.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. SEC is big mediocre.

[Van Lathan]

But the Joe.

[Joel Anderson]

The.

[Van Lathan]

The scarred Joel Anderson. The hurt Colin Kyle hurt. The painfully diminished.

[Joel Anderson]

Take it, Danny Canal. Y' all.

[Van Lathan]

Can't.

[Joel Anderson]

Y' all. Let us. Us son just let. You can't handle three of the Big Ten giving it to y'.

[Van Lathan]

All.

[Joel Anderson]

And now. Oh, man, y' all making us the main character. Nah, man, just take the, man, just take the. Just live with it.

[Van Lathan]

Trying to.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, but y' all won't like, legitimately

[Van Lathan]

trying to not be the main topic. We're trying to not be the main topic, but y' all are so hurt, y', all. So nobody hurt nobody.

[Joel Anderson]

Big Ten's on top right now.

[Van Lathan]

I know who's not on top. I know who's not on top. Southern, the Big 12.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

I know who's not on top. I tell you one thing, though. I tell you this, this, this is so funny to me.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay?

[Van Lathan]

I used to say this. I never, I, I was always. At least the way I was taught, I was always like a part of the conversation where I never been is the other.

[Joel Anderson]

I was. Oh, he got you. Okay.

[Van Lathan]

Ah, he got you. You, Joel, talk about the Big 12. When are they going to be on top? Who's going to win?

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, Texas Tech was right there in the playoff this past year. Man, they were right there.

[Van Lathan]

And they, they were dominant.

[Joel Anderson]

They had a tough, they had a tough matchup. Matchup. They got a new quarterback, spent the most money.

[Van Lathan]

He went there for his girlfriend.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, that's right.

[Van Lathan]

We gonna see how it works different.

[Joel Anderson]

This is how it starts. This is how TCU was just one

[Van Lathan]

block at a time, Joe.

[Joel Anderson]

More recently than LSU. So the Big 12, his guy is bonafide.

[Tate Frazier]

And if Josh, if Josh Hoover goes to Indiana and they run it back and they win again, are you taking credit as a Big 12 quarterback? Josh Hoover?

[Joel Anderson]

I know I would be mad at Sonny Dykes like, yeah, man. See what happens. Yeah, but, but we already, we already on that time right now. But yeah, I mean, look, I, I, I'm, I'm totally fine with admitting the TC is not where it needs to be right now, but hey, they, I might argue they're a better program than LSU right now, to be honest. I mean, two nine win seasons back, back to back. Most recently in the national championship. I don't know. You know that.

[Van Lathan]

Most recently in the national championship.

[Joel Anderson]

More recently than lsu.

[Van Lathan]

More recently. Okay.

[Joel Anderson]

More recently than lsu.

[Van Lathan]

Okay. Okay, okay. That's fair.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

All right. Okay. Which team has won a national championship? Okay, Joe, I give it to you.

[Tate Frazier]

2014. Out.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, what are you talking about?

[Van Lathan]

More recently, they lost by 70 points. Like, what, what team, what team has won a national championship more recently? Can you just, can you just admit

[Joel Anderson]

to who has had a better program over the last five Years. Just admit that.

[Van Lathan]

I get it, tcu.

[Joel Anderson]

We're gonna talk about it on my terms, Joe.

[Van Lathan]

Your terms?

[Joel Anderson]

Your terms?

[Van Lathan]

Joel's terms.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, my terms.

[Van Lathan]

Better than lsu. Okay.

[Joel Anderson]

Right now.

[Van Lathan]

Right. Right now.

[Joel Anderson]

Right now, right now, right now.

[Van Lathan]

Just say this. Which team has won. Joe, just one. Say this. Which team has won a national championship more recently? Just say that.

[Joel Anderson]

Indiana.

[Van Lathan]

See, this is the problem.

[Joel Anderson]

It's not the problem.

[Van Lathan]

It's the problem. This is the problem.

[Joel Anderson]

You want me to ride, and I'm not into that. I don't want.

[Van Lathan]

Dogs are arguing, and then somebody else

[Joel Anderson]

goes, aha, he got you conversation. What are you talking about? Y' all had a gossip caller. Focus on what's happening. We talking.

[Van Lathan]

Colin Kyrt is bringing the big 10 sec battle back up because Colin Coerdale wanted to be talked about on shows like this. That's over. The Big Ten is beating the sec. The Big Ten is the best.

[Joel Anderson]

That's right.

[Van Lathan]

College Football Conference. Yeah. It's this bruh. There's no problem for me to admit it.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

Like this.

[Tate Frazier]

And the SEC is saying, you know, I'm a G, so don't worry about us.

[Van Lathan]

I mean, really, to be honest with you, that's not what I'm saying. I don't know if we a G anymore.

[Tate Frazier]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

What I'm telling you is it.

[Joel Anderson]

It's.

[Billy]

It.

[Van Lathan]

That takes no emotional cost. Like, legitimately zero emotional cost for me to just look at what's happening in college football.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

And be like, the Big Ten is clearly better.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

My only thing was there was a time when the SEC was clearly better, and a lot of. I feel like the animus towards the SEC is because of that time.

[Joel Anderson]

No, because y' all talked all that, and we didn't not hear any other arguments. It was always. And. And. And the thing is, like, even up until very recently, until, like, maybe this year, it was like, you're hurt. The sec. No, no. The SEC would argue pain on your face.

[Van Lathan]

You have pain.

[Joel Anderson]

You're hurt. I'm fine. I'm happy.

[Van Lathan]

Just let. Just. Just take the win.

[Joel Anderson]

No, take the win. I did. No, you take the loss. You take the loss.

[Van Lathan]

Taking it. Look. Look at. There's pain on your face.

[Joel Anderson]

On my face.

[Tate Frazier]

This feels like goodwill hunting right now. It's like a scene. Just let it go, Joe.

[Van Lathan]

This is the moment y' all been waiting for.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. Everything's been accepted.

[Van Lathan]

So.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

So the s. The. The. The Big Ten is better than sec.

[Joel Anderson]

Good luck with Coach Kiffin.

[Van Lathan]

I have no great luck with Coach Kiffin.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay. All right.

[Van Lathan]

Like, I cannot wait to have.

[Joel Anderson]

I can't wait too. I'm excited.

[Van Lathan]

I can't wait, too.

[Tate Frazier]

Like, it's a great storyline for our show.

[Van Lathan]

It's a. It's going to be fantastic. Now, look, LSU wins, LSU loses. Whatever. LSU has a football tradition that, like, I can. I can lean into. And, you know, we are LSU and we have an identity nationally.

[Joel Anderson]

Your Tiger. That's right. Not been in the national championship game recently, but maybe that would change that. That's not.

[Van Lathan]

We've been. We've been recently.

[Tate Frazier]

Again, don't want to discuss.

[Joel Anderson]

Not more recently than tcu.

[Van Lathan]

That's not more recently.

[Joel Anderson]

I want to hear about. I want to hear. Losing his program in the. In college football.

[Van Lathan]

16 nothing.

[Joel Anderson]

It wasn't 16.

[Van Lathan]

What was it?

[Tate Frazier]

Joel? Where did.

[Joel Anderson]

Where did Mario.

[Tate Frazier]

Let me look at coach once upon a time.

[Joel Anderson]

How do.

[Tate Frazier]

Who by you? Fiu. Mario Crystal.

[Billy]

What's up? Gave him a start.

[Joel Anderson]

TCU Davis champion. Didn't FIU fire Chris Crystal ball?

[Billy]

Yeah, because he was dog at FYU. Went like 2 and 9 or something.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Billy]

Can't really great recruiter. Couldn't get anyone to play in Miami, the sundog Conference. Get out of here.

[Joel Anderson]

Yes, sir.

[Billy]

Then you give him $40 million a year. All of a sudden, what a great coach he is.

[Joel Anderson]

So. Yeah. Hey, nobody's talking about that. Up.

[Van Lathan]

Gave up.

[Joel Anderson]

Gave up.

[Van Lathan]

589 yards of total.

[Tate Frazier]

How many first downs did they give up?

[Joel Anderson]

The LSU, Texas A&M game. Let's look at the LSU, Texas,

[Van Lathan]

Georgia. This to Georgia.

[Joel Anderson]

Remember how this is broke, y'.

[Van Lathan]

All Six yards of pass. A and M conquer Baton Rouge.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, that's right. They did.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah. Colin, Kyle. Her to me. There's still an obsession with the SEC that I think the college.

[Joel Anderson]

Not an obsession. You just need to take the L. That's all anybody is asking you.

[Billy]

He's so calm about it, too.

[Joel Anderson]

Like you're the one that's getting emotion. Why are you here? I don't understand. Who called you in Houston, you started

[Billy]

talking about fiu, which, by the way, if we're gonna not, you know, put ourselves out there too much. We were talking about maybe we offer our services to calling a college football game this year. And I know a school that probably would let us do that. So just be careful, Joel, before you

[Tate Frazier]

kind of burn some bridges.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

Come on, Joel.

[Van Lathan]

Joe, what are you doing?

[Joel Anderson]

Or.

[Tate Frazier]

Or the. Or the text threads going to be calling the game without you.

[Joel Anderson]

Which text?

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Hey, we could take the text buddies. The text Bros hold on, hold on. You know how they did. They have the tech bros. Yeah. Three of us. We're the text bros. The text bros. We could call the game because we don't. What? We don't need Joel being obsessive the whole time.

[Tate Frazier]

We tweet our credentials at Joel, we

[Van Lathan]

tweet our credentials, we call the game. We go down there, we get to hang out in the panther enclosure. A great weekend.

[Tate Frazier]

What's the crab place in Miami that we can go to? The Joel Stone crime. We got to go without Joel. Yeah, we got to go without.

[Joel Anderson]

I wouldn't be at. Look, man.

[Van Lathan]

Okay, no, Joel, you stay up there because you got to. You too busy anyway.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, really, you about. Why you tripping? I'm getting a text where my wife is getting tired. You know what I'm saying? It's after. It's 5:30. You know what I'm saying? She's like, where are you? So, yeah, we can move on. Take the L and let's. Let's hit some.

[Tate Frazier]

Let's hit some quick headlines. Let's get some quick headlines. Some other big things that are happening in college football. Mario Cristobal. This was a Steve Spurrier event, but he had some jokes for Kirby Smart. He basically pointed out that it's nice to watch a player like Carson Beck and what he can do with great coaching. He also said, if it wasn't for all his years of pre nil, we wouldn't have nil right now. So Mario Cristobal taking some shots at Kirby Smart.

[Joel Anderson]

Man. Kirby Smart kind of fired back though too. He had some did.

[Tate Frazier]

He came after somer all pretty hard. He was like, this is the fifth coach at Florida. He asked Steve Spurrier about his daughter being a real estate agent. He was like, you must be having a great business getting all these Florida coaches new houses. Thought that was a nice shot from Kirby. Yeah, a lot of fun at this event, man.

[Joel Anderson]

Coach Spurrier, man, that's a. That's a fun ass coach, man. I didn't necessarily root for Florida, but like I. You can see how he could get that kind of energy sparked up. Cause that, I mean, that's. That's spurious whole vibe, man. He used to love shitting on like Georgia or whatever, Florida State. That's. I. I was some of the funniest

[Tate Frazier]

press conferences that South Carolina used to have. Just talking about his team, he's like, we can't pass, we can't catch, we can't block. So I don't know what you guys expected of Us this season. Just so good.

[Van Lathan]

A total personality coach. The team walks and talks and acts just like Steve. Spurs.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, I thought that was, that was a nice one. Nice moment.

[Van Lathan]

It was a nice one, Steve. Oh, Stevie, Stevie, Stevie.

[Tate Frazier]

More news, more headlines. Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris is suing the NCAA for a seventh season of eligibility. Joey Aguilar, your guy. Joel denied. The NCAA gets another winning court. So Joey Aguilar not coming back. Chandler Moore is trying to come back. Too bad.

[Joel Anderson]

Tennessee could have my boy Nico. Ian Maliava, you know, saying they just ponied up. They could have him right now. Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

He's not. Three years.

[Joel Anderson]

They could have had three years of him.

[Tate Frazier]

I would assume that Chandler Morris is going to lose because the NCAA is starting to win these cases. They won the Betty Ako case. Alabama basketball, they won this case against Aguilar. They're doing a little bit of a victory lap right now. So Chandler Morris not looking good. Chambliss did prediction. Yeah, here we go.

[Joel Anderson]

Joe prediction for Chandler Morris is going to be making 8, $9 million in BAT 15 years. There's a hit is a coach somewhere. That's what's gonna happen. Watch. He's gonna, I mean, I, I already, I'm calling it right now. He's going to be a multi millionaire. I don't make the, the, the salaries may go even more out of whack in the next 10, 15 years or whatever, but he's gonna, he's gonna be up there making a lot of money. Just watch.

[Tate Frazier]

Okay, well, I like that.

[Van Lathan]

I know that he's going to be making that much money coaching because like everyone else, his dad is a coach.

[Joel Anderson]

Right, Exactly.

[Van Lathan]

Chad Morris. Chad Morris dad is Chad Alan Morris. Morris offensive coordinator at Clemson. And now you cannot become a coach unless you are a Shanahan.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

Morris, a lot of second generation stars out there.

[Van Lathan]

If you're a second generation, we get into the third generation.

[Tate Frazier]

That's true.

[Joel Anderson]

Look, man, when Nussmeier, if he watches out of the league, you know what I'm saying, and he doesn't last very long, he's gonna go right until he's gonna have one of them offensive quality control jobs starting out, he'll be offensive coordinator in two or three years.

[Tate Frazier]

Start spiking his hair up.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man, he's gonna make a lot of money in it, too. Just watch.

[Van Lathan]

I want to let you guys know something. I don't know. I don't know if nuss. Maybe. I don't know if Nuss. How can I put this from what I Know and have heard. I don't know if Nuss would ever. I don't know if Nuss has what it takes to be a coach. There are some concerns that people have

[Joel Anderson]

had about Slow dog.

[Van Lathan]

Not slow. Not slow.

[Tate Frazier]

There's doing a KD Jabari Smith here. Van.

[Van Lathan]

There's a. A work ethic thing.

[Tate Frazier]

Oh, okay.

[Van Lathan]

That I think that I. Not. I never seen it. I ain't never seen it. I ain't never seen it. But there's a work ethic thing that some people talk about when they discuss Garrett Nussmeier that might, you know, preclude him from being a coach. Because it does, even though it's this biggest, this gigantic game of nepotism, it does take a lot of work.

[Tate Frazier]

So, yeah, a lot of football. Know how a lot of. Yeah, a lot of that goes.

[Van Lathan]

How this works for Nuss now. But there is. There are some rumbling sometimes that Nuss might not be the hardest worker.

[Joel Anderson]

That last name, though, bro, it's real hard. I mean, I. Look, here's the other piece of this, is that, you know, I hear what you're saying about work ethic or whatever, but, you know, a lot of this coaching is false hustle, dog. There's a lot of, like, hype about how hard they work and how the hours they spend. I'm not denying that they. They do work hard, but sometimes it's just a little bit of falsehood. So all these guys aren't the. The legend that Jon Gruden was who had his alarm clock went off at 4:17 every morning or whatever. So, yeah, I just, you know, a lot of it.

[Tate Frazier]

Also Signetti's kind of changing the whole model, right. With him running his practices short and, you know, kind of like make it being more effective within the hours that you are there. He wants his coaches to get home to their family. So he's changing sort of that, like sleep is.

[Joel Anderson]

Is a health benefit.

[Tate Frazier]

Benefit, of course. Right. It matters at some level, man.

[Van Lathan]

Just go out there and call the right place. Yeah, but you got there at 7, 7am the night before. Like, you got there at 7pm tonight. But I've been here all night long. You go out there. I remember it was very funny. Jim Haslett from the Saints song about I go in there 5am all that stuff like that Bill Parcels was like, doesn't seem to be working.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

Maybe change the routine up, get some sleep. Maybe think about it. That's a good thing.

[Joel Anderson]

Good.

[Tate Frazier]

Good thing to point out. You mentioned nepotism. Let's talk about it four star quarterback Gunner Rivers has committed to NC State. Son of eight time Pro Bowler Philip Rivers, who we enjoy talking about on the show. We talked about him playing college football this season, what he could do, but now his son is going to be at NC State. Pretty big deal there. Gunner Rivers, one of the 11 children. Now Philip Rivers going to be playing

[Joel Anderson]

college football, man, you know, I'm happy he went to NC State. That's kind of cool, man. Yeah, I like.

[Tate Frazier]

Good story.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. I mean, again, he could.

[Tate Frazier]

He's gonna tear Bill Belichick up, right? I mean, there's no doubt about it. I already see it. I mean.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, man. Damn. Well, Billy Check ain't gonna be there by the time Gunnar Rivers is playing.

[Tate Frazier]

No, he'll be there. He likes cashing 10 million dollar checks. It's a good gig.

[Joel Anderson]

All right, but you.

[Van Lathan]

But you think they're not. They wouldn't fire him? Yeah, I think he's got job security.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, I think they're. I think they like the idea of Bill Belichick.

[Joel Anderson]

This is Big Carolina talking right here. So you heard it from Tate.

[Tate Frazier]

I mean, they celebrated Mack Brown at the basketball game on Monday, you know, and Bill Belichick was on the middle of the court with him, you know, giving him his praises. So.

[Van Lathan]

Are you still in on Belichick as the coach of North Carolina?

[Tate Frazier]

I mean, I have no choice. I have to be in.

[Joel Anderson]

You're a hostage like me.

[Tate Frazier]

What can I say? I mean, I hope you're not a hostage.

[Van Lathan]

You're not a hostage, bro.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, I mean. What, what do you mean I'm not a.

[Van Lathan]

Not a hostage? Because nobody cares.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

All right.

[Joel Anderson]

Let's talk about martial fault. Let's talk about martial fault. You know. No, you're not hostage.

[Van Lathan]

Who would be holding you hostage? No one if, if that hostage note. Nobody would read it.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, all right. Okay.

[Van Lathan]

Nobody cares.

[Joel Anderson]

All right, man, Again, you're talking a lot of. For a program that is not better program right now. This is what I'm saying. He won't take the L, just take the L, man. It take the L. Yeah, yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Gunner Rivers. I'm looking at him right now. Gunner is one of the few boys in the family. Most of Rivers kids are girls. It looks like. Gun. Gunner's the number one player in the state of Alabama.

[Joel Anderson]

Damn.

[Van Lathan]

Number one player in the state of Alabama. It looks like he's the number one player state of.

[Tate Frazier]

Have you seen him throw the football? He doesn't. He doesn't throw it like Philip.

[Van Lathan]

Look at him.

[Tate Frazier]

He doesn't you know, Philip has that weird kind of release. You know, it's kind of like a. Kind of. Of sticks out when he throws it. Gunner has a more. More polished looking form from what I saw.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, yeah, Gunner is. Gunner is spinning the bin like Gun's got. Yeah, gonna look like he. And he's. He's got decent size, too.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, he's, like, big. He's big kid, man got decent size. I've never heard of a kid named Gunner before, have y'? All?

[Tate Frazier]

It's a great name for a quarterback. He was predetermined.

[Joel Anderson]

I was wondering why he did that. Yeah, it's pro gunslinger.

[Tate Frazier]

Gunslinger Rivers, you know, gonna.

[Van Lathan]

Moving it around, throwing it. He's throwing off platform. He's getting.

[Tate Frazier]

He looked good in the film that I saw. I was like, kind of rivers, I'll buy some stock. I like these.

[Van Lathan]

These kids are like pros in, like, high school. Look at him move and throw this ball. Look at, like, this guy. And he's already as tall as his dad.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man.

[Van Lathan]

Already as tall as his dad. Go ahead. He can. And the good thing about Gunner is he didn't really need to wait for practice to play play. He had enough in his house to feel the field.

[Joel Anderson]

That's right. He does have an 11.

[Van Lathan]

Boy, Phil was getting busy, man. Phil been working.

[Joel Anderson]

That's not fair, bro. That's horrible.

[Van Lathan]

Like, Phil been going crazy for a long time.

[Joel Anderson]

I just don't. I mean, I don't even know how you get to know all 11 of your kids.

[Tate Frazier]

Well, if you have, I think that's part. I think that's part of it, though, you know? Like, I think, you know, they. They create a certain, like, you know, the kids will take care of them. It's kind of like an old, like, farm model.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, yeah. My mom was one of 12, man. You know what I'm saying?

[Tate Frazier]

He's like, we need people to work on the. On the farm. Gunner Rivers. I'm excited to watch him. Last one last headline. One to hit. Army head coach Jeff Monkin says he wants to move the Army Navy game to Thanksgiving weekend. And it sounds like that's trying to be put into motion right now. We said it needed to move. Does that sound good? Thanksgiving weekend?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. I mean. Cause otherwise, it was basically the white celebration boat. I mean, did they have. They. They opted out of the playoffs, man? It's like, hey, man, it's like, don't y' all want. Do y' all want to compete with everybody else? I think the celebration bowl is great. I don't think they should have to play in the fcs. They don't want to. That's fine. But it's just kind of like, all right, well, y' all have never, you know, winning the black national championship champion is much bigger deal than being the FCS champion. Great. But like, for army and Navy, it's just like. Like, I know that it's not necessarily realistic that they'll be national championship contenders, but at least, like, they could potentially play in a playoff game.

[Tate Frazier]

And, I mean, he was in the mix for a minute this year.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Army has been in the past like this. If you move this to Thanksgiving weekend, Joel, you forgetting what is it going right up against?

[Tate Frazier]

Flex week.

[Van Lathan]

No, the Bayou Classic. I like, like, if. If you move this. This game is normally on NBC, right?

[Tate Frazier]

Yes.

[Van Lathan]

Army, Navy.

[Joel Anderson]

Is it on NBC?

[Van Lathan]

I think it's on NBC.

[Joel Anderson]

They can just stagger it, you know, you.

[Van Lathan]

I don't want that game on that weekend. That's a black weekend. That's Southern versus Gramlin. Okay.

[Joel Anderson]

Talk about being left out of the conversation.

[Van Lathan]

Everybody in Annapolis. No, that's. That's the look. That's the name. Yeah. Navy. Shout out to everyone in Annapolis and everyone in West Point and everything. And shout out to everyone. The Bayou Classic is the game of Thanksgiving weekend. I don't know if Monkin. If you don't notice, or maybe Monkin, you do notice. Maybe you do notice, maybe. Because think about it. It used to be that that was. Now you got all kinds of people in and around that game and all of that stuff.

[Joel Anderson]

Stuff.

[Van Lathan]

NBC always plays the game. They feel like they're doing something for black people. It's like that's the only game where they show the Boys and Girls Club before the game. Like, they don't show that no other game. Look at the young people running the track. Meet downtown New Orleans, whatever. So, like what? Like what I'm saying is, leave the Bayou Classic Saturday alone.

[Joel Anderson]

Them days are over, man.

[Van Lathan]

Like, leave it alone.

[Joel Anderson]

We ain't getting that no more.

[Van Lathan]

If nothing stays the same, Southern and Gramlin on Thanksgiving weekend must stay the same. Nothing must besmirch this. This idea from monking could take away from what is, to me, the most significant.

[Tate Frazier]

I didn't think about the nefarious angle.

[Van Lathan]

Here it is. He's trying to. This is what this is.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, American, you know, American military.

[Van Lathan]

They always take the anti blackness and they shroud it in patriotism. This is the new theme thing or the old thing or the theme thing. As soon as he said this. I heard him say Southern.

[Joel Anderson]

That's what I heard. Damn, man.

[Van Lathan]

Joe didn't even catch it.

[Tate Frazier]

We need Marshall Falk on this.

[Joel Anderson]

There are a lot of games on Thanksgiving. He's not the only one. But it might be the only one that. It's that profile on NBC.

[Van Lathan]

The only black one. Yeah, that's the only. That's the only Big Black game. Big black game. That's the only. The only bbg. That's the only BBG that they have out there. But seriously, though, the first thing when I heard. When I heard this, I was like, I don't want this to kind of fuck with the Bayou Classic, but it's a fair point. Yeah, that's what it is.

[Tate Frazier]

I like that. I'm glad you brought that up. Big Van on campus. Do you have anything Van, or did we already hit everything we need to hit today?

[Van Lathan]

No, I didn't have anything. Big van on campus. It's hard enough to follow what's going on when there's no college football. Like, big van on campus is great. Great. But, like, when there's no college football, it feels like, what is Big Van doing on campus?

[Tate Frazier]

Okay, maybe. Maybe that's something we address. You know, we're gonna have a meeting this week. We're gonna scout our off season plans, you know, on Friday, and I think we should introduce a little.

[Joel Anderson]

We're really having a meeting on Friday?

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, we're having a meeting on Friday. We already talked about it, Joel. And our text thread, so.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, no. This was all. This was a text, bros. That's right.

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Tate Frazier]

Yeah, it was actually.

[Van Lathan]

Joel, you're not. We don't need you there. We can just.

[Joel Anderson]

What? I'm saying this. I mean, what's the point? Again? All right, that's all. It's all good, man. It's all good, man. Hey, let's go. It's time for me to go.

[Tate Frazier]

All right. Joel's got to go get his kids. We hope everybody enjoys the rest of their week. Any parting shots, Joel? Anything else that we let you start off the show, we'll let you.

[Joel Anderson]

Just let me know. Just tell me. Just tell me how the meeting went on Friday and we'll pick it back. Back up on Wednesday.

[Tate Frazier]

Perfect. To all the tailgaters out there, we appreciate you tuning into the show. Thanks so much. It's the off season. We're having a lot of fun. And again, we will see you all next week. Must be 21 or older and present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino are 18 and older and President D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem call 1-800- gambler or visit RGB help.com call 1-887-89-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE and WHY or text HOPE and WHY in New York. For Louisiana, call call 1-877-770-78672 good and

[Joel Anderson]

coffee creamers are made with farm fresh cream, real milk and contain 3 grams of sugar per serving. That's 40% less than the 5 grams

[Van Lathan]

per serving in leading traditional coffee creamers

[Joel Anderson]

for a rich, delicious experience. Whether you enjoy your coffee hot, cold, bold or frothy, two good coffee creamers make every sip a good one. Two good coffee creamers Real goodness in every sip. Find them at your local Kroger in the creamer aisle.

[Van Lathan]

Spring break isn't what it used to be. It's better this spring.

[Joel Anderson]

Stay three nights and get a $50

[Van Lathan]

Best Western gift card.

[Joel Anderson]

Life's a trip. Make the most of it at best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions.