PMS 2.0 1270 - College Football Playoff Recap, Sugar Bowl Preview, NFL Week 18 Preview/Picks, Nick Saban, Laura Rutledge LIVE From The Sugar Bowl, Chuck Pagano, & AJ Hawk

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Pat McAfee Show – Episode PMS 2.0 1270

Release Date: January 2, 2025

Introduction

In episode 1270 of "The Pat McAfee Show," host Pat McAfee, along with AJ Hawk, Chuck Pagano, and Ty Schmidt, dives deep into the latest developments in college football playoffs, previews the Sugar Bowl, and anticipates the final NFL Week 18 matchups. The discussion is enriched with expert insights, spirited debates, and humorous banter, making it both informative and entertaining for listeners.

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College Football Playoff Recap

Focus on Ohio State's Dominance and Other Contenders

Pat McAfee opens the episode by highlighting the excitement surrounding the college football playoffs, particularly emphasizing Ohio State's impressive performance. He notes, "Ohio State playing just unbelievable football... the hottest team in football right now in all the football." [00:05:00]

Key Points:

• Ohio State's Performance: Ohio State has been a standout, defeating teams like Oregon and dominating in all three phases of the game. Their offensive prowess, led by standout wide receivers Jeremiah Smith and Marvin Harrison Jr., positions them as favorites moving forward.

• Other Playoff Teams: Arizona State's resilience and Texas's robust showing against Arizona State add layers of competition. Penn State also enters the conversation with strong performances that could influence semifinal placements.

• Semifinal Matchups: The upcoming semifinal between the SEC's Texas and the Big Ten's Ohio State is anticipated to be a clash of titans, with Ohio State favored due to their consistent performance and depth.

Notable Quote: Pat McAfee: "Football playoff football is better than no football and we're lucky to be a part of it all." [00:03:52]

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Sugar Bowl Preview

Georgia Bulldogs vs. Notre Dame: Analyzing the Matchup

The Sugar Bowl, slated to kick off in New Orleans at 4 PM Eastern, promises intense competition between the Georgia Bulldogs and Notre Dame. Laura Rutledge joins the discussion to provide on-the-ground insights.

Key Points:

• Georgia Bulldogs: With experience in handling playoff pressures, Georgia is expected to leverage their time off to prepare strategically. Their defense, led by players like Ransom and Caleb Downs, has been formidable.

• Notre Dame: Notre Dame, on the other hand, has had a grueling season battling tough weather conditions and injuries. Their ability to adapt and punch their final ticket into the semifinals hinges on exploiting Georgia's potential complacency post-break.

• Strategic Insights: Both teams have their strengths—Georgia's physicality and Notre Dame's adaptability. The key for Notre Dame will be to disrupt Georgia's rhythm early, while Georgia needs to maintain their disciplined approach.

Notable Quotes: Laura Rutledge: "When you have a mismatch player like that, you know he's going to make plays in critical situations." [00:14:00]

Pat McAfee: "He put on an absolute show in a double overtime thriller that saw Texas inevitably get a big time win." [00:05:00]

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NFL Week 18 Preview and Picks

Analyzing Key Matchups and Making Predictions

The final week of the NFL regular season has significant playoff implications, both for the college playoffs and the NFL itself. The panel discusses various matchups, betting lines, and standout players.

Key Matchups:

• Ravens vs. Browns: The Ravens are substantial favorites, with Chuck Pagano confidently stating, "Give me the Ravens." [01:00:00]

• Bengals vs. Steelers: A closely watched game where the Bengals, led by Jamar Chase, are slightly favored. Both teams have their playoff hopes on the line, making it a must-win scenario.

• Commanders vs. Cowboys: With Cooper Rush potentially securing a hefty bonus, the Commanders are tipped by five points against the Cowboys. The discussion touches on the mental aspects of coaching decisions and player motivations.

Betting Highlights:

• Ohio State vs. Texas Semifinal: Ohio State is favored to continue their winning streak, with predictions leaning towards a significant margin of victory.

• Atlanta Falcons vs. Carolina Panthers: The Falcons are favored by seven and a half points, with insights on team dynamics and coaching strategies influencing the pick.

• Giants vs. Eagles: A competitive matchup where both teams have their stakes, with the Eagles being slightly favored.

Notable Quotes: Chuck Pagano: "Give me the Ravens." [01:00:00]

Pat McAfee: "They are the most skilled team and now they have the most chips on their shoulder." [01:30:00]

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Special Segments

Team Culture, Management, and Player Insights

Beyond game analyses, the panel delves into the importance of team culture, effective management, and the psychological aspects influencing player performances.

Key Discussions:

• Team Management: Laura Rutledge and Chuck Pagano discuss how coaches like Nick Saban and Chip Kelly cultivate winning cultures, emphasizing discipline and strategic planning.

• Player Mentality: The conversation highlights the mental resilience required by kickers and quarterbacks in high-pressure situations, citing examples like Bert Auburn's struggles and Patrick Mahomes' leadership.

• Injuries and Team Dynamics: The episode touches on player injuries, such as the incident with Pat McAfee's son Axel, and their impact on team morale and performance.

Notable Quote: Laura Rutledge: "Whatever decision he wanted to make, I let him know, if you want me to play, I'm gonna go out there and make sure I get it." [06:03:00]

Pat McAfee: "We gotta know that you're freaking gonna die on that treadmill before you let somebody else beat you." [05:30:00]

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Concluding Remarks

Pat McAfee wraps up the show with a blend of humor and heartfelt reflections. He acknowledges the challenges faced by teams, commends the efforts of coaches and players, and reinforces the show's commitment to providing insightful and entertaining sports commentary.

Final Highlights:

• Fan Engagement: Emphasis on community support and the show's role in fostering a positive environment for football fans.

• Upcoming Games: Anticipation for the Sugar Bowl and the final NFL playoff push, with promises of continued coverage and excitement.

Notable Quote: Pat McAfee: "There might be a line in the sand of like, hey, these teams are great this year and these teams, not so good." [04:55:00]

Laura Rutledge: "A lot of optimism, no question." [06:25:00]

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Conclusion

Episode 1270 of "The Pat McAfee Show" offers a comprehensive overview of the college football playoffs and the NFL's final regular-season week. With expert analysis, engaging discussions, and memorable quotes, the panel provides valuable insights for fans eager to stay informed and entertained as the sports landscape rapidly approaches pivotal postseason events.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome on the Sugar Bowl. Thursday, January 2, 2024. This program starts now. Football. It's wonderful. We've been celebrating it, obviously for the last two weeks in a big way. Fresh off the field over there in Pasadena. Rose bowl right here to Indianapolis, Indiana, as the Sugar bowl will kick off down in New Orleans at 4pm Eastern. Obviously that was scheduled for last night after the heinous act, terrorist act, that place yesterday morning. That was moved to today. We will be chatting with Laura Rutledge in the second hour who has been boots on the ground throughout the entirety of this. She will actually be on the sideline down there in New Orleans at the Sugar bowl to break down everything that we need to know that has happened over the last 24 hours. And who does this favor? Yeah, does it favor the Georgia Bulldogs who have already had a break? Or does it favor the Notre Dame team who gets an extra day after having a tough one against Indiana in 10 degree weather up there in South Bend? Now they are trying to punch the final ticket into the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. Ohio State just beat the hell out of Oregon. Arizona State gave Texas everything they could handle. And I can't wait to see Cam Scatterboo in the NFL. He was a leading passer, receiver, rusher. I think he had a couple tackles too, somehow. And he puked more than anybody. He put on an absolute show in a double overtime thriller that saw Texas inevitably get a big time win. And then obviously Penn State beat Boise State to kick off the entire round of quarterfinals. Now we just wait on Notre Dame and Georgia cannot wait to see how this fares. Now you look at the first semifinals that's already been made down there in Texas, it's the SEC taking on the Big Ten. Then you look down there at the Orange Bowl. It's currently the Big Ten waiting. Who is it gonna be? An SEC team or is it gonna be an independent team? All the teams that have had buys got their asses kicked early. Arizona State was even down a bunch going all the way into the fourth quarter. They come back scrap and claw. They can show that Big 12 grit to make that a game to take it into overtime. Oregon just got gobshmacked early. It was 31 coming off a bye week. You won the championship. Congrats. You get a bye week from the first round. What do you get? Oh, Ohio State playing their best ball fresh off an Aspen in Tennessee, ready to roll. You kind of got to gather your thoughts this game's already over. And then you think about what happened with Penn State, Boise State early. Boise State had two fumbles in the first quarter. I think there was another turnover. Penn State came out flying after their massive win at home a week before that in a freezing cold. It's like the first round buys I think are going to be reallocated, re chatted about whenever we move forward in this 12 team playoff. But nonetheless, football, playoff football is better than no football and we're lucky to be a part of it all. Then obviously, as we forecast ahead into the weekend, massive NFL games, big time implications, there's playoff implications on the line, there's number one overall seed implications on the line on the NFC side. So football is buzzing and we're lucky to talk about it all. We'll have Coach Saban join us in about seven to eight minutes to kind of gather his thoughts on how it's all going. The toxic tables here at Boss Conor Natashmit 1/2 of the Hammer done Cowboys AP Tone is here. A man who has coached football for 36 years of his life, 18 in college, 18 the NFL. A man I called head coach one time. Absolute honor of mine, not his. Ladies and gentlemen, Chuck Pagona. Chuck, the bye week has kind of become something here. You know, it's kind of become a talking point as it should be. They say. Is it rest? Is it rust? Some of these teams wait like three weeks before playing ball. That's a long time. While another team is kind of gearing up. You can get healthy. Isaiah Bond comes back obviously for Texas and I know they had to play in the first round, but you can get healthy and get guys back for this entire thing. But you can also get a little bit too comfortable. You can also kind of fail on your fundamentals and techniques. You can also have to get like woken up in the first quarter, which all these teams have had to do thus far. Is Georgia going to be able to handle it better than others, you think? Because they've been in this situation before?

[Chuck Pagano]

I think so. There's such a fine line and Kirby's done this for, for so long and been in these games, you know, so, so many times. He knows the right balance. It's always trying to figure out like with the buys and you got two and a half, three weeks, you know, how much do we practice, how much do we rest, how much is walkthrough, how much we going to tackle, how much ball. All those things that you listen to. Every head coach that we talk to, you guys talk to on the side of what's the biggest concern with, you know, having a couple weeks off. It's our ability. Are we going to be able to tackle? Are we going to be able to take care of the ball? And you saw. You mentioned Ashton, Jenny, and I was there for that game, you know, with. In Tempe, there for that game in Phoenix, a Fiesta Bowl. He hadn't. He fumbled, what, twice all season. All season. Right. And he's got two fumbles, you know, in the first quarter, first half of that game. So you're always worried about knocking off rust. You're always worried about, you know, your guys and the. Excuse me. The distractions, you know, in the period of time and listening to this, listen to that. To me, maintain focus. Kirby and them, his boys will be focused.

[Pat McAfee]

He's had delays before, and obviously bowl games have had delays. There's been like month and a half delays for, like, some teams that end up playing in the semifinals or in a national championship before, alone this season. But it has become a little bit of a despair. You talk about Russ holding onto the ball, hitting people. It's also like game speed. You know, we saw Oregon watching Jeremiah come across and then like eye candy. And you haven't been like in a season. It's like back to back weeks. Okay. So you're kind of in it. Whenever you're out of that. You can try to replicate it in practice. You try your best to replicate it, but whenever it's all happening and then like, check, that's your guy. My guy. What zone am I in? What am I doing having to get that all back in in the first quarter of a college football playoff game? And the other team knows that you got that shit to deal with, too. So they're coming out trying to kill and chip Kelly in the Ohio State Buckeyes. I think their plan, their strategy, and taking advantage of the break was evident. I think that was very, very evident. And also if you got that guy. Yeah. On your team, I mean, triple coverage, double coverage, behind the line of scrimmage, down the field, on a sideline, in the middle of the field. I mean, where's number four? Let's go and give him the rock. And then a Booker, obviously is able to eat as well. He's the number one wide receiver in a lot of teams. Tate, a number one wide receiver in a lot of teams. But I think what I've seen from this Ohio State team with these eyes these last two games. Shoo. That was filthy. I was right there doing it with him. On the side. I couldn't help but get excited the entire thing. Watching him jump. Almost hit his head off the crossbar. Yeah, he almost hit his head off the crossbow there while he was jumping and turning and doing his thing. He's a freak show all season though. There is a chance now this is Chip Kelly's first season as offense coordinator over there. But Chip Kelly obviously knows the game. There's a chance that like the way you run your offense, you have to take care of a lot of people. You know, with the new transfer portal, with the Nil, with how people feel like you can get a lot of players plucked, especially if you're in there. So maybe Chip Kelly was trying to make everybody happy for a long time. Maybe. I'm not saying this is what he was doing, but I'm. These last two weeks there has been an obvious effort. We are going to. Jeremiah Smith's going to get the ball.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And I think everybody okay with that.

[Chuck Pagano]

Hey guys, we're going to throw to number four, Jeremiah. Everybody go with that? Yes, coach. Yeah, we're good with that.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, good. That's where it was very obvious. I mean in the Tennessee game it was like as soon as Will Howard saw Jeremiah one on one, it was like, I don't care what this play is, I'm going his way. And that happened last night a bunch of times. It was like, I don't know what the play was supposed to be, but I do know Jeremiah Smith is on the field. So let's go ahead and try to get him the rock. There's a couple plays where he wasn't in, you know, and then as soon as he gets back on the field, it's like, we know what is going to happen here. He's unguardable and it don't matter. It does not matter. And also I like the fact that this Ohio State team is just trying to do whatever they can to dominate people. It's not like, hey, we're not going to try to prove we're tough. We are. You know how we know we're tough? We're up 31, nothing on you. We're not going to try to prove that everybody else on the team is just as good, which they are. They got weapons everywhere. We got something that's different than everybody else. And he's a 19 year old freak show. And he seemingly work ethic insane coming out of high school. I guess he wanted to be coached. I think you talked to Heartline. Heartline like breaks it down. He's like, hey, all these guys that come through here, the wide receiver corridor, Heartline's guys, they're all told like, hey, we're going to work, we're going to do this is how we're going to do it. The buy in from that wide receiver room over there in Ohio State has created just greats. Through it all, Marvin Harrison Jr. Were like, this guy, how are you going to get him?

[AJ Hawk]

Best ever.

[Pat McAfee]

I, Jackson Smith and Jig B goes for 347 in a row. How are you going to get another one of these guys? Chris Olavi, how are you going to get another one of these guys? And it's like, oh, well, here it is, the youngest one that has ever come through here and he might be the best one ever. It's like what Heartline's doing over there in that wide receiver room, co offense coordinator. It's like, what a dog, what a recruiter, what a coach and what a team. Understanding what they have value. This Ohio State team is by far the hottest team in football, no doubt right now in all the football. You know, I guess you could drop in like Cincinnati Bengals, what they're doing. But their defense hasn't been as Ohio State's defense is saying, you're not really playing either.

[Chuck Pagano]

Did you see that last night?

[Pat McAfee]

What's that like?

[Chuck Pagano]

Every time a guy caught the ball, bam. Like swarm DB said it stapled to the ground. I mean they knocked a living shit out of this team. They were so physical and nobody, there was no run after, there was nothing. Nobody had any room to breathe.

[Pat McAfee]

And Chuck, you know this. If you can get to the passer with four, you got seven dudes sitting back watching. And with the way Oregon operates, which is a lot of misdirection, a lot of quick yak, we're going to go do this. They just swarmed. They had four dudes on everything, seemingly on both sides. And then Ransom and Caleb Dimes, they were there. Hey, Ed Reed, Troy Paul, Molly type plays at a ransom last night down in the box blowing people up. Then you're talking about Caleb Downs just having a vision for everything. They got high football iq, they got all the speed in the world. They got NFL guys in every single position. Obviously they've spent the money to get this team to bring in Chip Kelly's offense coordinator. But everybody they're playing against has done the exact same thing. They're all buying in. And that Michigan loss is the greatest thing that happened to this team. Because we talked about this last night with AJ And D. Butts on the sideline whenever you look around and go, what's the worst thing that could happen to us? What is the absolute worst thing that could happen to us? Well, I guess we could lose to Michigan this year. Okay. So when that happens, that's the worst thing that could happen. You hit rock bottom. Okay, what's the worst? Our entire state. Not our entire state. I apologize for lumping all Ohio State fans in there, but it certainly felt like that for a majority. The entire state is bummed out about the team. This is a waste of talent, waste of money. Another year of not being able to. All the things are being said about them. They felt that too. They felt that in there. And then also what? We still got an opportunity. Yeah. So let's just go ahead. We've hit rock bottom. Let's be free and let's go hunt. And that is exactly what that team does on the offense, defense and special teams. They're kickers hitting that ball over the net.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Every single kick is going over the net. Pure. We're talking right down the middle. You talk about Texas missing a couple of kicks. This Jaden fielding kids who's kicking for Ohio state. He in 4 degree weather in Columbus. He's hitting that ball pure. I like where they're at on all three phases.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, all three phases. They are so talented. But you talked about it with Heartline and then recruiting. So Jeremiah Smith, five star number one wide receiver coming out. Emeko Buka, five star number one wide receiver coming out. Carnell Tate, five star number three wide receiver coming out. And then Brandon Ennis or Enos, depending on how you want to pronounce it. He was also a five star number five wide receiver coming.

[Chuck Pagano]

So if you're a wide receiver, right, what they've got going on anywhere in the country, the first place you're looking to go, oh, that guy. That place. I'm going to have that guy coach me and develop me because it's going to get me a.

[Pat McAfee]

Isn't it crazy too because it's cold. Yeah. Like normally you would think like SEC climb. Now joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is the greatest college football coach of all time. Superstar on TV legend. I assume he's about to win some hardware for TV as well, you know.

[Chuck Pagano]

I assume they're going to be lined up.

[Pat McAfee]

I think so. As they should be. Ladies and gentlemen, West Virginia. Man, college football goat guy who loves a good meal. He will love good. He will love a good meal. Nick Saban. Look at this. How you doing?

[Laura Rutledge]

How we doing today, man?

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so we saw Ohio State beat the hell out of the SEC's, Tennessee in freezing cold at home. And I didn't know if that was Tennessee not showing up or Ohio State playing just unbelievable football. So I picked Oregon to beat Ohio State. What a, what a. What an interesting decision that was because I actually watched the Tennessee, Ohio State game and I saw how dominant they were. And then last night, what they did to Oregon was just all three phases smothering. What did you see from them? And by far the hottest team in football right now, in your eyes, clearly.

[Laura Rutledge]

Yeah, I, I think you hit the nail on the head, though. I think that having teams that had high expectations externally, like we sometimes did at Alabama, you know, creates an anxiety, you know, on your team that, you know, players play tight, they play not to lose. I actually think you hit the nail on the head when you said, when they lost the Michigan game, what's the worst thing that could ever happen? Now these guys are just playing free and easy and going out there to play, to win. Everybody's making plays, quarterbacks playing better, everybody's relaxed, playing with confidence. And I actually picked Ohio State because, you know, when I saw the way they played against Tennessee, which was a dominating performance in all three phases, I said, these guys are going to be hard to stop if they continue to play that way. And I thought they would gain that momentum in the playoffs. So I'm in 100% agreement with you in terms of how this team's playing right now and why.

[Pat McAfee]

What about that guy right there, Coach Jeremiah Smith? They threw it to him in triple coverage. They threw it to him when he had six eyes on him. They threw it whenever there was one guy. They, Chip Kelly clearly said over the last couple of weeks, hey, number four is on our team. Let's make sure we're utilizing him. Will Howard's best tag team partner is Jeremiah Smith. Now, granted, they have a run game, so you can't have too much outside the box or Judkins and Henderson will kill you. But this guy's a freak, coach. And we talked about all the wide receivers that have come out of this Ohio State wide receiver room. This guy might be the best of them all. Can you ride a wide receiver to a national title?

[Laura Rutledge]

I don't think there's any question about it. You know, when you have a mismatch player like that, you know, Chuck knows this. When you're a coach and you know you got to go to guy and they can't guard the guy. From a quarterback standpoint, I Mean, who makes who better? The receiver make the quarterback better, the quarterback make the receiver better. And you know when you got a mismatched guy like this that he's going to make plays in critical situations. I mean, we had Julio Jones, you know, back in, what, 2009 or whatever, and he was that kind of player. And we had lots of first round draft pick wide receivers, but he was the one guy that you knew if you threw him the ball in a critical situation, he was going to win and he was going to make the play. And I think that's what they got in this guy, number four.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, he advances obviously to the semifinals. Cannot wait to see what Ryan Day and that Ohio State Buckeye team continue to do. Texas also gets a massive win over Arizona State. Now, the first round buys have proven to be a bit of a detriment for the first half of these teams that didn't play in the first round. Same thing happened with Arizona State. Texas comes out and beats their ass early. They're down big. It was like a, a baseball score there for a bit with a safety and a field goal for Arizona State. And then in the second half, Arizona State and Cam Scatterboo came alive. I mean, this Arizona State team showed fight, represented the Big 12 in a beautiful fashion. Scatterboo even threw a 40 yard touchdown in the entirety of it all. It's just like what happened with Texas. Are you worried about this or is this more of a celebration of Cam Scatterboo and what this Arizona State team is, is?

[Laura Rutledge]

Well, I think Arizona State, you know, I think psychological disposition is really important in terms of playing in big games. And, you know, these guys talked a lot of smack going into the game, so they had high expectations and they thought they were going to go out there and just dominate this game. In the beginning, it didn't happen. They got frustrated. But once they regained their poise in the game and just became who they were, they were physical team all year. They ran scatter boost, physical guy, quarterback, took advantage of, you know, their ability to run the ball and then make plays down the field, even though they don't have great receivers. But as soon as they became who they they are, they competed and really almost, you know, kind of physically kick Texas ass a little bit, you know, in this game. So. And that's why I think it's so important for whoever's playing in these games to be able to stay who you are, you know, control what you can control, you control what you do. The game's always going to be about what we do, forget about what the other team does. That's technical in terms of how we match the patterns or how we block their fronts. But the rest of it is you got to focus on what you got to do and quit worrying about all this other outside bullshit.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so let's talk about what you can do. Kicker for Texas is going through it. Tone has a question for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Coach. I feel like before Will Riker, you kind of went through this with, with some kickers in Texas. His kicker, Bert Auburn, he was first team all conference last season, so it's not like he is a bad kicker, but this year he is kind of hit a cold streak. And then there was a, a video of Sark, you know, kind of talking to him before that, that final miss, kind of, you know, giving him a pump up speech in that situation. When you've dealt like kickers in the past, I know coaches either have, well, I'm going to talk to him or I talked to coach Pagano this morning. He was like, I just tried to stay as far away as possible. What was your mindset dealing with kickers when they were either going through a situation like this or not?

[Laura Rutledge]

You can verify this for 3sa, but when I saw that happening, I said, I never talked to these guys when they had.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Amen.

[Ty Schmidt]

Said the same thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

[Laura Rutledge]

I didn't, I didn't want them to think it was a different kick than every other kick they had to make, you know, and, and be so concerned about the outcome of making the kick that they didn't just, you know, kick with confidence and go through their normal rhythm of how they do what they do, you know, I mean, I always go back to golf, man. As soon as you think you've got to make a shot, you're going to make a bad shot. So you got to be in the right mindset all the time.

[Pat McAfee]

As a kicker, I didn't like, you know, I didn't mind him going to talk to him for how long it was and how focused it was. Okay, here's something. But if, if a coach wants to come up to a kicker and say like, hey, we believe in you, brother. And then just as you're going out there, like, I don't think that's bad. But that was clearly not what his normal pre kick routine is, right? Like Vinatieri, if there was a timeout, he's going back to the net, he's hitting a ball into the net and then he's jogging onto the field about the same amount of time that would be a normal kick. So, like you ice him. Did you really know? He's also not staring at the upright like this guy's staring at the side that he's going to kick at the entire time. So I think like the pre kick routine, whether it's Sark talking to him or not, I think was kind of bobbled there. I think that was kind of a mismanaged situation. And normally you'll see guys just try to, okay, you're taking the time out or whatever, let's go ahead and get back. And then, bang, same kick. Let's go out there and do it. So if he makes that kick, I think people would obviously celebrate the shit out of Sark. But what you said to Reese Davis was the same thing that Darius Butler said as we were watching it on the side. No shot. He's talking to him way too long. Obviously making the moment bigger, which it is. You hit this kick, we move on the College Football Playoff. But I thought that was interesting. Burt's good kicker. He's missed a few. Now there, there's two yesterday and they missed one against Michigan. I think he's a good kicker. Going to need to make him going down, especially with how these games are going to get, I think, Coach.

[Laura Rutledge]

So if you were kicker on our team and I was the coach, I'd be scared to death to talk to you before you kicked. I'd be afraid you'd tell me to go kiss off. So.

[Pat McAfee]

Depends on how I feel, you know, it depends on how I feel. It depends on how if I just missed, he just missed one before that, right? He had just missed one. So then you come up. If a coach was to give me like a hey, all good ass slap, keep it moving. I think that's a. Okay, but doing the full on.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That's an interesting moment. Yeah, that's an interesting moment. That's a very interesting moment. Now, speaking of interesting moments, we have one down in New Orleans taking place right now. Chuck has a question for you. Coach.

[Chuck Pagano]

Yeah, Coach. Based on the horrific and tragic events that happened down there, as a coach, you know, this thing, your team's geared up, you're geared up, everybody's geared up to go play. And all of a sudden you're postponed, you know, for, for a day, 24 hours, whatever it's going to be. How would you handle that situation?

[Laura Rutledge]

Well, you know, it reminds me of way back when, when we got a call on March 13th and we were in our first day of spring practice. And they said schools closed. Covid's in season might be off. You know, we don't know when we're going to play. So in the team meeting, I first thing I said to the players was, whoever handles this disruption the best is going to have the best chance to be successful. So I don't think anybody has any experience handling a situation like this that involves so much public safety. And, you know, how are we going to make the play safe so that we can play and postpone in a game. But I do think that that same concept works here. You know, whichever coaching staff can handle this disruption the best with players and keep them focused on what they need to do and, and not be concerned about when we played, what time we plan. It's in the day, it's in the night, it's in the parking lot. I mean, I used to tell the players, you know, the field is 53 yards wide and 100 yards deep. So no matter where we play, that's the way it's going to be. And no matter when we play, that's the way it's going to be. So let's say focused on what we're going to do when we get inside the rectangle and see what happens.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, whenever, when you told your team whoever handles these distractions is going to win, did you guys win or no?

[Laura Rutledge]

Yeah, we won a national championship. But, hey, we gave them all a scale. We gave them all an apple watch. We knew when they were working out. I mean, we got turned in by the NCAA by 52 different teams.

[Pat McAfee]

But Shane Gillis was out there saying, you see what this, the way you motivate and talk and coach and simplify everything. It makes sense whenever you like. We hear Bill Belichick talk, too. It's like you and he are speaking from the same exact point of view, but you and he also win on a regular basis. Feels like, you know, you got a lot of guys from your camp that are out there trying to do the exact same thing. Today's no different. And this first round has been a problem, or first round bye has been a problem for a lot of teams. Go ahead, con man.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, coach. After, you know, the first three games of the second round, basically every team on the bye has come out slow. And aside from Eric, Arizona State, most of them have been gotten absolutely slaughtered during the game. Is there any real way to kind of keep your team hot when you do have this massive, you know, time off? Because it wasn't just, you know, a one week by, obviously most of the Teams hadn't played since championship weekend. And do you think Kirby did anything different because of the fact that he has dealt with, you know, a little bit of a break before on his national championship runs?

[Laura Rutledge]

Well, I think there's two things that you worry about. First of all is ball security because the ball handlers haven't been hit. And then how are you going to tackle on defense? Because you know when you practice, you don't want to tackle and take people to the ground. So you got to do a good job of trying to set up and all that type of thing. But my thing was the first years that I was a head coach at Michigan State, we lost five straight bowl games and I tried to practice the team to the game, if you know what I mean, carry the momentum of the season all the way to the game. And we got our ass kicked in every one of them. And then when I got to LSU and other places, you know, I said we're going to treat this like a one game season and we're going to back out from when we play to have 11 practices, three or four of them camp practices, the rest of them, you know, preparation for the game and go play the game. And we had a lot more success that way because emotionally, you know, the players didn't have to worry about the game for three weeks. But this is different because it used to be in college everybody had a long time off before they played. So we had a 14 playoff. You played December 6th in the SEC championship game. Then you play January 1st in the first round of the playoffs. Every, the other team was off too. So there didn't look to have a difference in how people played. But now you got people that are being able to play continuously with, you know, maybe 10 days in between games. And then you got somebody that's been off for three weeks. And I do think how you manage that is really, really important. But I, I'm telling you, you need to go from the, wherever the game is and take it back. Like it's a one game season and you're getting ready for one game and just have the players work out condition, do 7 on 7 on their own coaches not in their face telling them what to do. I mean, not worrying about the game, not worrying about the game plan because you can practice too much for a game and you can lose a lot of fundamentals if you don't practice the right way. And that's why we always had three camp practices, just like we're in fall camp.

[Pat McAfee]

Do you think Kirby understands that like I feel like Arizona state. Dillingham, he's 31 years old. This first time his team showed up for him, too. And his speech last year, I think at the end of the year, how close they were. He said, with everything we're doing behind the scenes, it's almost like what coach Dan Hurley did with UConn. But obviously UConn goes on to win multiple national championships. But Coach Dillingham over there, he said, we're close. I see everything we're doing behind the scenes, I think we're close. They come out. They do. They put up a fight against Texas, almost win that game. Should have won that game. I mean, helmet, helmet, helmet, helmet. That's game over. That's first down. That game's over. Nonetheless, it's not called. Then you think about what happened with Boise State. They've ever been in that situation. This particular Boise State team, never been in that situation before. Oregon, you would think like, okay, Lanning's been around, he's been in it, but they haven't had to deal with it. Kirby has had to deal with this type of thing before. You would think the Georgia team would be ready. How do you feel about this 4:00 game and how do you think Notre Dame takes advantage of maybe Georgia not playing for a while? Are they going to try to do what Chip tried to do to Oregon? I think Chip Kelly knew, hey, if we come out and bomb them early, they're going to be in a whirlwind because they haven't played in a while. Do you think. You think Marcus is thinking the same thing for Notre Dame or how do you think this thing goes early?

[Laura Rutledge]

I think Georgia, because of the experience they have playing in these games, and they've had to play games, playoff games, lots of playoff games, where they had a significant amount of time off. I think Kirby's got a lot of experience managing, you know, that situation. Probably do it fairly similar to the way we did it. So I. It's. You never know if time off is a good thing. Just like bye weeks. People talk about bye weeks during the season as being a good thing. Sometimes they're good things, sometimes they're a bad thing. You know, when your team has good momentum, you just want to keep playing and roll on. If your team's beat up and hurt and tired, you want to have time off, get them to rest and recover. But I think every, every one of those things is circumstantial. And I think in Georgia, case they had a lot of guys injured, you know, toward the end of the season. So they, they probably will benefit from having some time off.

[Pat McAfee]

Actually, I'm excited to see what Notre Dame tries to do early because they had that 98 yard touchdown run what in the first quarter against which set the tone for it basically. Now Indiana was able to tighten it up. They were able to tighten it up 27:17 is that game. But like they're very focused on the run. On the run, on the run. You would think that fizzle could maybe beat down Georgia if they're trying to find their bearings yet again. But to your point, Georgia knows that they're going to run the ball. So yeah, Kirby's had a few weeks here now knowing that the run's coming and I think that I'm excited for this game. At 4:00, I think we got another really good one on our hands and obviously it being delayed another day helps up. Go ahead.

[Laura Rutledge]

I think two things for Georgia. Number one, they got to do a good job up front building the fence on these runners and stop the run, which means they got to tackle well and they can't put all the pressure on the secondary making tackles in space because that's, that's going to be a problem. And the second thing is, is can they keep Gunner Stockton out of long yardage situations where this guy has to make plays? If they can keep him sort of on schedule where the down the distance is in his favor. You don't know if it's a run, a pass, a bootleg, whatever, that's how he'll operate the best. But if they have a lot of self inflicted wounds and get behind the sticks, then he's probably going to have a tough time. And that's when Notre Dame is going to dial it up on him and give him some looks that he's probably not ready for. And what happened in the Texas game when he threw that bad interception may happen again.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so if you look at all these teams that have made it already, Quinn Ewers, and they talked about his check on 4th and 13 with the blitz coming and telling that he can spin it if he has to. Drew Aller, Penn State, he can spin it if he has to. Will Howard can spin it if he has to. I'm not saying Riley can't spin it, but he hasn't been able to prove it to be able to be a passing quarterback to win. Now he can run better than all those guys and what he has on the ground is certainly impeccable gunner. Also the big conversation is like, hey, he can run in this entire thing to win it all. Are you going to have to be able to spin it in the NFL? For instance, there's always, you know, the conversation about the drop back passer is dead, the pocket passer is dead. You're going to have to be able to extend players. You're going to have to be able to run. But at some point during your playoff run, quarterback is going to have to hit a third and 12 ball that is going to have to be right here to extend a drive in the fourth quarter. You're going to, it's going to show up at some point. You're going to have to be able to spin it. Riley or Gunner at this point, do you think is the right guy that's going to be able to do that? Because we don't know shit about Gunner. Does he have that in him? And then Riley, do you think he has that in him as well?

[Laura Rutledge]

Well, I don't think Riley's a great sort of down the field passer. I think he's a smart guy that'll throw the ball to the right guy and take the check down, take what the defense gives. I don't think he's that guy that's going to drive the ball in there in a critical situation. He does have more experience, so he's probably got a better chance to make the plays than Gunner. But, you know, nobody knows what Gunner is going to do. No, nobody knows, you know, how he's going to respond to this situation, if he's going to be able to go out there and play with confidence or not. But I think if Georgia wins the game, it's going to be because they're the more physical, difficult team, that that's going to be the key for them. They're going to have to run the ball, they're going to have to stop the run, they're going to have to win on the line of scrimmage. And I agree with you 100%. It's hard to win in the NFL if you don't have a quarterback. I lived through that several times in Cleveland, in Miami. I get that. I understand that part of it. And I think that's true in college football to a larger degree, too. So hard to win if the quarterback doesn't play well and the people around him have to play well so he can play well. And I think that's probably more important for Georgia than ever.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Playing tough, you know, like nice ram truck football. Hey, there was a couple of ram trucks last yesterday. Ohio State had like Three of them on one drive.

[Boston Connor]

Ransom.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, wait, he. When he cleared up. I mean, they're thumping people right now that Ohio State to play and free. Yeah, everybody's playing. Caleb Downs, him and Ransom, they're a problem. They are now. I don't know if they're making their own checks too, to come down and kind of play in their own ball or if Knowles is telling them or he's giving them the freedom to do that. They're everywhere. They are everywhere. Ransom and Caleb, it's old school safety play coming out of that Ohio State.

[Chuck Pagano]

They're fun. They're obviously very, very well coached because they were on everything to your point. There was like no rack, no yak, no nothing. When guys caught the ball, guys, you know, took a handoff, they had multiple bodies around them and there was no rack or yak, like I said, and they were stapled to the ground.

[Ty Schmidt]

I could tell you there was a couple times where Caleb was not happy with how quickly the defensive call was getting in because he was then looking to. Yes. Make his own checks and calls.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Caleb obviously going, hold on, let's see, please. Can we wait to see what they want to do. Caleb's a genius, right? Super genius football guy.

[Laura Rutledge]

Yeah. But he, he's not a very patient guy. And if you don't get the call in quick, I've got a couple bad looks from him last year based on that. And I wasn't calling the defense himself, but he knew I was the guy getting on the defensive caller's ass.

[Pat McAfee]

So, heck, we hurry this thing up around.

[Laura Rutledge]

He wants to know, he wants to know what's the call? What am I supposed to do? What can I look at so I can anticipate what's going to happen in this formation with this motion and all that type of stuff? Because he's that kind of player. A lot of guys aren't that kind of player, but he is. But the one thing they're doing a lot of which is helping these safeties is they're buzzing these safeties down inside the box a lot more than he did early in the season. And I think they're both. Those safeties are making a lot more plays because of that open field tackling.

[Pat McAfee]

Out of those two. Fun to watch, you know, because there's a lot of plays that could have been made last night that ended up being like three yard gains. But you break one tackle, you're talking about rack and yak. That's an eight, nine yard gain. Now all of a sudden you're on schedule, you can continue to move. Instead, Caleb sets his feet outside thigh board, saws it out, gain of two. He's the one putting the four up as opposed to James going and then Ransom. I didn't know he had it like that. I had no idea he had. We're talking about Jeremiah Smith, freshman wide receiver. Caleb's a sophomore. Caleb's true sophomore in this entire thing. They're young over there, still playing great. Now tonight's winner, 4:00 game winner will take on a Penn State team. That is very good. Ty has a question for you, Coach.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Coach. So a lot of people talking about Penn State, you know, kind of for the last couple years here it's been, hey, James Franklin's record against, you know, top 10 teams or top five teams. And then a lot of people were bitching about their pl. Their path to the semifinals. Now, you know, whatever you want to say about SMU and Boise State, but they've looked, you know, pretty solid. Do you think there's something to them maybe like exercising those demons and now that they've won two games in a row that it doesn't necessarily matter who the next opponent is? They have the, you know, they actually feel and believe like they can win this whole thing?

[Laura Rutledge]

Yeah, I actually think that because. And I know Penn State hadn't played the same level of competition in two games, although those teams are very good. Their offensive line, though, and those two running backs, they have. These guys have been able to run the ball effectively in the last few games, very impressively. And then to have a quarterback that can play behind a running game like that, with play action passes and staying out of long yardage situations, I think they're for real. And their defense is playing really well, too. So if you just go on how well teams are playing right now, you know, Penn State and Ohio State are probably playing the best. That doesn't mean they necessarily going to win or that Penn State's going to win, but I do think they're playing extremely well. The quarterbacks playing well, they can run the ball well. Look, I was worried about Oregon because you guys saw that film I showed yesterday. They gave up 15 explosive plays to Penn State and the Big Ten championship game. Now, Oregon won, so people never paid a lot of attention to that. And I was really, really concerned if their defense was going to be able to hold up against Ohio State. And obviously they weren't able to and it really, really showed. But I think Penn State is playing well on both sides of the ball and I Think, you know, they're a very good team. I'm a believer. I was not a believer in Penn State early on. I'm a believer right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And I think the more I learn about what Penn State is doing behind the scenes, it's like everybody's talking about, you know, Texas has a bunch of money, Oregon has a bunch of money. Ohio State has a bunch of money. Obviously these. Michigan has a bunch of money. Especially now Larry Ellison, because a Michigan guy because of his. He's like. It's like Penn State is. They're all in right now on trying to win football. They're deep, too. Nobody talks about it because Penn State has never. It's always Ohio State or Michigan in the Big Ten. So Penn State's kind of like the cast aside. Like, yeah, they're going to be good, but they're never going to be able to really make it. It's like their athletic director, Pat Kraft, he's a former linebacker, football guy and he's doing business up there at Penn State, shaking hands, getting everybody to rally. They're spending. They are trying to win it all up there in aller. If he was up for the draft, I think this year, with how tall he is, the moxie he has and his arm talent that he has and he can move. I mean, this draft process would do him very well. I think if he was to sit down and have these meetings. You're talking about maybe number one overall pick in this guy. He's coming back. He's got another year. It's like Penn State's setting themselves up here for the long haul. And allegedly Singleton and Allen, who are both juniors, they're going to be coming back too, allegedly, for the running back. It's like Penn State's setting up here.

[Ty Schmidt]

You could talk about the teams they played, but both those teams that they played were ranked very high in rushing defense. And they've. They've been like, their man, meet his man, made it over the other two teams and. But they need to get Abdul Carter. He needs to make sure that he is healthy for this one, because he is.

[Pat McAfee]

Absurd. That was a first quarter situation, right? You ended up on the bike and.

[Chuck Pagano]

Being on the field for that game, like TV doesn't give you an appreciation on just how big and physical and athletic a team is. Penn State is got a. Like, I've walked in some, some stadiums. Like when we went to go play Pittsburgh one year and coach, we were going through warmups. You know, sometimes you look at the other team just going through Warmups. We're in fricking trouble today. They look so much bigger and better than us and more physical and more athletic like. And give Boise credit, they had a hell of a season. But that Penn State team, I mean, that tight end, Tyler Warren, he's like 6 9, 357 pounds. This guy is an athlete, man. They are a good looking team.

[Pat McAfee]

So what you just said though, Coach, like, I think that's whenever you have the alumni and boosters all, that's how you get those guys. You know, like Tomlin told Chase Young.

[Laura Rutledge]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

He said, hey, I never going to lose enough games. To get guys that look like you in college, to get guys that look like that, you're going to have to be active in Penn State certainly is. They talk about behind Warren, there's a freshman who is.

[Chuck Pagano]

The whole team look like that. He got the same hair. You got great hair, too.

[Laura Rutledge]

That was kind of my argument, Pat, about, you know, the committee going to watch some games. Because what just said is really true. When you stand on the sidelines and you look at a team, you see how physical they are. That goes a long way in football. You know, Parcells used to say the heavyweights don't fight the lightweights in boxing for a reason. It has nothing to do with skill. If they have equal skill, the 139 pound guy is not going to beat the 215 pound guy. All right, so that's why we always had big physical teams. That's what we recruited. That's what we look for. Belichick's the same way. Now they got to be players, don't get me wrong. But little guys have a hard time beating big guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And that's how football is always going to be. And that's why it's a beautiful game, beautiful sport. Cannot wait to catch today's 4:00 Sugar Bowl. Coach, you've had a hell of a season. Can't wait to see you next week down in Miami.

[Laura Rutledge]

Yeah, well, I'm looking forward to it, no doubt. But if I was an Oregon fan, I. I have to say this because this kind of bothers me. And you're the 13 0, number one seed and you got to play Ohio State in the first round.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Laura Rutledge]

I'm not an Internet guy, but if I was an Oregon fan, I'd be on the Internet screaming about that.

[Pat McAfee]

Would you be in your basement, your underwear too, doing it? Is that what you're doing? I know you love those Internet.

[Laura Rutledge]

Living in my mother's basement.

[Pat McAfee]

Ms. Dar's basement is a beautiful thing as well. Hey, we appreciate you so much, Coach.

[Laura Rutledge]

All right, man. You guys have a good one. Ladies and gentlemen, happy New Year.

[Pat McAfee]

Happy New Year, ladies and gentlemen. Coach Nick.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Coach.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he. I don't know if it was on our show or on game day. He did a full speech about how this committee is always in like a conference room every time we see him. They're in a conference room. In a conference room. Let's go on the sidelines, go watch a game, go see who you're actually picking to go against whoever. And obviously, Arizona State shows up in a big way before the college football playoffs as a whole. But how it has been thus far is like, hey, the teams that have been favored are favored for a reason. And the teams that have been seeded higher have been seated higher for a reason and they have won. And that might just be how college football is every single year. And I'm not saying it's the same teams are going to be dominant, but there might be a line in the sand of like, hey, these teams are great this year and these teams, not so good. There's also a situation that happened yesterday. I don't think Oregon played their best football. And that happens in football sometimes. You just don't show up on a certain night. Dan Lanning said it, he was like, that Ohio State team, I don't think they played their best against Michigan. We obviously did not play our best tonight and we got taken advantage of. That's football in a nutshell. I don't know if they'll ever be able to get it right. But he was pissed that we were going to lose out on Ohio State, Oregon in the Final Four because if it was just four teams, it was just 14 playoff. Ohio State and Oregon would have both got in. Now only one of them's there and he's like, that's, that's. Is this how we want this to be? It's like, I don't know how you get it right in the future, but if you're an Oregon fan, I, I can see how you'd be upset about the setup.

[Ty Schmidt]

It feels like it's not going to be that way next year. They're, they're already reporting that they're looking at that the conference winners, not an automatic buy, but an automatic bid. So that'll take away from that, hopefully. But to your point about like, you know, sometimes some teams, some programs, Sorry, excuse me. There was a 10 year period there where we knew every single year it was going to be Georgia, Bama. Clemson or Ohio State one in and some. I mean they get, they get the best recruits, they have some of the best coaches. Like that's just how it's going to work.

[Pat McAfee]

More schools get a shot to shine though.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, they do.

[AJ Hawk]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I mean more, more schools get a shot to shine.

[Chuck Pagano]

No doubt.

[Boston Connor]

Quarter finals certainly.

[Chuck Pagano]

I like that. I like that idea about if they could actually go see these teams.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, they should. I mean that's a whole other.

[Chuck Pagano]

Go spend some. I mean just because, you know, he's coach is right. I mean you just like, okay, this is.

[Pat McAfee]

But then Arizona State would have never been considered. Yeah. Having a shot against Texas, you know, because if you look at the size of those two, like it's going to be a vastly different thing. Our West Virginia. I always think back to our West Virginia team too about how I think we could have played with anybody. And we did. We beat like damn near everybody except for Pittsburgh one particular night. But we beat Georgia down in Georgia, we beat Mississippi, we beat a bunch of these big name teams. Oklahoma out the Fiesta. Like we beat the big names. But I think if you're just a look at our roster and the amount of stars that everybody had and the size in every single position, I don't think you would put us up to have a chance against those teams. So like some teams are just built different. Like that Arizona State team I think had a bunch of dogs.

[Ty Schmidt]

They do have dogs.

[Pat McAfee]

They had a bunch of dogs that can outplay what the visual optics are. But a majority of the case in football, bigger, stronger, faster team is going to have quite an advantage and that's just kind of how it is. And some of these teams have those dudes. So it certainly should be brought to the conversation. But with the way the college football season happened, this year was like Vandy beats Bama. Oklahoma beats Bama. This team beats this team. This team supposed to win. They have such a better team on paper than this team. But they didn't show up that day. It's like I don't know how you ever get it right. I don't know how they're ever going to. I don't think they ever are. You could open that thing up to 64 teams, I think people would still be pissed. I think no doubt because football, you never know who's going to show up. Like matchups are a problem. All you need is one good matchup. If you get a defensive end that has a tackles number, he can wreck the entire game. It doesn't matter who's on what side of the thing? It's like, that's why football is great, but it's also why it's hard to project who the best teams are without seeing them actually play each other. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

And I think that's why it was like a mess, massive feather in their cap that the Arizona State Texas game ended up the way it did. Because if it would have, you know, like when we went down to the field, I mean, like we were all gobshmacked when we heard like, oh, they just tied it. Like this is about to go into overtime. Like this would have been another blowout then I think it would have been a lot louder. But also one of the, like we were talking about with the sec. If you do the, you know, just going down to the sideline and like that would skew very heavy sec because like the games we've done, you go down there and it's like, sec.

[Pat McAfee]

Penn State.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. Penn State, Ohio State.

[Pat McAfee]

There be it would be all the teams that have, have once again they're.

[AJ Hawk]

Getting all the five star recruits.

[Pat McAfee]

You have massive backing. The reason why those dudes are five star recruits is because they're bigger, stronger, faster than everybody. You know, Cam Scatter Boo has been doing this since he was a toddler. But because of how tall he is, he was. You're going to San Jose State or whatever. It was like the big time recruits are the dudes who are gigantic and they are the ones that are fighting for this big time nil money whenever it comes to signing day and everything like that. So if you were to look at just size, all the teams with the most money are going to be the ones sure that are going to have it. That's just how it is. But there's a reason in football why that works. You know, that is a benefit in football. But if you don't show up every week, how can you trust it? How can you trust it? Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

And even Boise though, like you think about that Boise State game and obviously they ended up getting killed, but like it was much closer, it felt like, than the actual score kind of showed. Like that first drive, they drive down the field, they shank a field goal. Okay, obviously shank's an understatement. Shake is, is not a bad game. Stadium pressure was very high. If we're talking about NCAA 2K28.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

I mean it was moving. And then they threw what, three picks, they had the fumbles. That basically never happened during the season for Jinty. Like a lot of things. Basically everything went wrong for Boise State. So like they still were able to hold their own, but it's like those high pressure moments that those guys, those five stars, those bigger schools, it feels like are used to versus like a Boise State type school.

[Chuck Pagano]

Yeah. So that game's going to be 24, 21, you know, in the third quarter and they get that penalty. They throw a touch, they throw a touchdown penalty. It's a number 17 Strachan, and they got a hands to the face and they bring it back and they end up getting no points on that. Otherwise it's a three point game. And it's a little bit like Texas and Arizona State. Texas let them hang around. They let them hang around, hang around at 17:3, then at 17:5, they get a safety. They don't run the ball for whatever reason. I was going to ask coach if he was surprised that Sarkin at Texas with the running backs that they have didn't commit to running the ball, especially.

[Pat McAfee]

With the size you have.

[Chuck Pagano]

They let him. They let him hang around just long enough. And Dillingham, they don't care the way they talk. And they do have dogs and they got swag and they got scatter boo. And next thing you know, it's 248 and then that's 4th and 2 and he throws a halfback pass for a touchdown. And then you're in a dog fight now.

[Pat McAfee]

And also clearly, helmet to helmet.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, big time.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, that was clearly. That's game over.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, I think. And that's another part about it. Like, do you think the conversation is how are they going to call that if the, if the game's on the line?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, well. And once again, you got. That's first down. You're driving in to kick a field goal. At least Arizona State's kicker, is he gonna be able to knock one day. He already did there. But like, that's clearly held down. We saw this, we saw this down on the field because we had already left. And I'm like, oh, what happened here? First down, they go down like, no, no call. I'm like, what do you mean? No, no flag, no nothing. I'm like, what? How's that even happen?

[Chuck Pagano]

So that may be to your point, like in college football, like, because it's not targeting and it's not an injection. There's. They don't have the 15 yards. Like in the NFL. That's 15.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, gene stereotypes nobody out. Gene Stereotor tweeted this morning. Yep, Every single part of the rule. Yeah. Was broken here. This should have been a penalty. But to this. Yeah. Here's Gene Steretor, paisan, legend, NFL ref, college basketball ref. Now CBS is authoritary on the rules. My phone has been burning up all morning. Yes, it should have been a flag for targeting in Texas asu. It meets all the criteria, targeting. If you want to check me, it's rule 9 dash 1 dash 4. You can get through it all. But they didn't call one earlier too. On Texas, Isaiah Bond, during a pick, he takes a massive shot down the middle of the field. And they didn't call this either. So I appreciate that the refs had kind of state like this bang. That gets cold all the time. Yeah, that gets called basically every single time in modern football. I mean that is just kind of a call. So they didn't call this one, they didn't call the other one. I think the refs will say we were consistent with it. But whenever you take that highlight minute, some left Arizona State driving in. Texas goes in and goes helmet to helmet and they say, nah, nope, I don't know what you're talking about. That is gonna. Because then people say, well, what if Texas on the other side of this, if Texas was on the offense and Arizona State did this against them? Everybody just automatically assumes they would have called, that they would have called that for Texas. They don't call for Arizona State because they don't want the Big 12 team to win. I think the refs would say, hey, there was one earlier we didn't call either. It's kind of we're letting them play out here, which I can respect as well. I can respect the refs calling their game. Just like Oregon, Ohio State. Those refs were hands off.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, it was awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, we're out of this thing.

[Boston Connor]

Five penalties.

[Pat McAfee]

I love that. I think the first one came in like third quarter. Yeah, yeah.

[Chuck Pagano]

It was a bunch of rags on the field.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly. And if they're going to call it consistent though, like if you're just going.

[Chuck Pagano]

To be consistent and it's just like offense and defensive pass interference. Right. Like at the end of the game you got to believe that the moment, you know, late in that game, there's what, a minute left and they're going to win that thing in regulation that you don't think that comes in the back of those, those officials minds.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, definitely. Like, do I want to win?

[Chuck Pagano]

I want to.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Chuck Pagano]

Because it's. Because it's game over.

[Pat McAfee]

I think they're going down kick a field.

[Chuck Pagano]

They'll burn all the clock.

[Pat McAfee]

Arizona State now do they hit the field goal, that's all the question.

[Chuck Pagano]

Texas, well, they had a kicker that struggled as well. 26, I think.

[Pat McAfee]

Here's the thing about kickers. Yeah, they kickers, big mental thing. Okay. Kickers, massive mental thing. That's why you talked about before Will Rikert at Alabama have a kicking issue. It's like when every game is a big game, okay. Every single game is for national championship. Like on kickers, that is literally the thing is mental and can you execute in the biggest moment? So a lot of these big time schools, people are like, well how come they don't get the best kicker? It's like, well this dude probably talent wise is the best kicker, but he has to deal with the pressure every single kick. That this point matters. This point matters. This point matters. This point matters. So the guys that can withstand that through a college career mentally ready to go to the NFL. That's why whenever you get a kicker from one of these smaller schools, and I'm not saying there's been a lot of, I mean Adam Venetary is my guy. He came, comes from South Dakota State. You never know what they're going to be like whenever it matters. Like what is it going to be like whenever every single point matters. Especially in the NFL when there's money on the line. So like Auburn, I think he's going to bounce back. I think he's had a lot of massive moments for them. Yes, but that those are big kicks. And mentally if you just get a little doubt, I mean it's going to be hard to find that sweet spot. That's about that.

[Ty Schmidt]

He was all first team, all conference last year. Good kicker and like he was, I just looked it up. He was 85% his entire career and now he's 65% this year. Like that's, that's mental at all.

[Chuck Pagano]

Mental. All it takes is one little, one little smidgen of self doubt at all. Just. And you, oh, it's over.

[Pat McAfee]

And then you're trying to find it like.

[Chuck Pagano]

And then like Sark like, no, that ain't gonna work.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, they love that he was doing that at the time that he missed the kick. But he missed that first one, right? Go back to the first one. He misses to the right there. Watch his stroke. He stands up tall, doesn't lean at all. Obvious push, trying to force that one in. You know, he's trying to like force that one in. Doesn't want to pull it. Then this one, watch him, he falls off of it. Go to the second one, please. Then the Second one, he falls off of it. Missed to the left. Two very clearly different swings. Yeah. Like, it's just. Those are two different. That's. And that's. Whenever. And mentally, it's like he's hoping this game gets over.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

All over the place. Get me out of here. Get me to a practice. Get me to a practice field so I can get back to this. Because once you start battling that. And once again, this is going to be good for Auburn going forward. I think mentally having to deal with it, even though it seems like it's a nightmare, you still win the game. So people are going to forget about it hopefully soon. What have you done for me lately? You can hit a big kick. But he couldn't wait to get to the practice. I assume he's kicking today. Will you.

[Chuck Pagano]

They won.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly.

[Chuck Pagano]

Could you. Can you imagine?

[Pat McAfee]

No. Especially with all the money.

[Chuck Pagano]

Oh, no.

[Boston Connor]

In Texas.

[Chuck Pagano]

Oh, my God.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I don't know how many.

[Chuck Pagano]

Throw your phone away.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Throw. And also, he's a senior. Go and disappear, too. That's one of those ones where you try to get out of the way. Yeah. You can't go. You can't go down and get any barbecue down there at Black and Orange. Can't. No.

[Boston Connor]

With the next game being in Texas. Could have been in that, too. Cotton.

[Pat McAfee]

Which. Which is interesting here. Ohio State has to travel down to Texas to take on Texas.

[AJ Hawk]

Very much so.

[Pat McAfee]

Fascinating. Very, very fascinating. Now with the Buckeyes travel.

[AJ Hawk]

Yes.

[Boston Connor]

They're massive favorites.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Buckeye faithful will travel down there.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Because they know that this is potentially Texas at home against Ohio State in the semifinal game. So I think the Buckeye, The Ohio folks will want to show face and make it happen, but that's an interesting setup for this particular game.

[AJ Hawk]

Well, you said every. Everyone. You know, it kind of feels like everyone's back on Ohio State after everything with Michigan. And I think if there was anyone left who was kind of just like, we still got to see, like, after they beat the shit out of Oregon, now everyone's like, okay, this is a national championship team, so, like, if. If we can go down to this game, like, let's go fill it up. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We'll be doing our field pass again for both these games. I mean, we don't know why. We don't know why we get the opportunity to do this.

[Chuck Pagano]

We are very phenomenal.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're so fun.

[Pat McAfee]

We enjoyed it. We really do. And I realized in the moment there, and I've said this before, a lot of the things we do are for the people that watch the show. Like, we're trying to give you guys a good time. We're trying to give people an escape. We're trying to give people comedic, informative sports stuff every single day. We're trying to have fun, trying to have some laughs, trying to formulate what's going on. That's what our show's mission is. Do we always hit the mark? No. Do we miss sometimes? Of course. Do we hit more than we miss? Definitely. It's why we're who we are. But those games, just field pass ones, Those are for us. We have a blast. I have so much fun out there. I. I think there's, you know, people that watch it and enjoy it. Boy, there's some people that really hate us. What, that sideline? Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Do they know it's the. The. There's another cat. There's 12 other casts if they want.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, we have it on the screen at the same time, but I don't. I don't think people see it. I don't think they know the Herb Street Fowler out there. I don't think they know Scott cast is out there.

[Ty Schmidt]

There was a blimp cast out there.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll tell you what, that blimp, I appreciate what it is in the history of sports. Americana, the Goodyear blimp and everything. Sure. The more I think about, why is anybody getting on that thing? Like, Jen Lota got on there, and I was watching it, and I'm like, don't. What are we doing? Why would you get in a horse and buggy right now? That was like, that was a way to travel through the sky, what, a hundred years ago? We don't need to do it anymore.

[Chuck Pagano]

Let's see the movie.

[Pat McAfee]

Hot air balloons.

[Chuck Pagano]

Like, did you not see the movie?

[Pat McAfee]

Which one?

[Chuck Pagano]

Hindenburg.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, okay. See, that's what I'm talking about now. Hopefully silent film. Eric the Good. Exactly. The Goodyear blimp is obviously better than that. We would assume. Yeah, it has a success rate and it's very safe. Jen got in that thing. That thing was pointed like this. She's taking that thing off, going straight up to the sky. It's like she's got a lot more courage than I do. They would have showed me. I think you. Hey, how about you get on the iconic Goodyear blimp? Congratulations. I go, hey, how about you go yourself? I'm not dead on that.

[Ty Schmidt]

She talked to us about it. We were talking to her while you guys were doing game day. She wasn't thrilled about the idea at first either. But then she said once she got on, it was kind of nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

It's kind of cool the way Jen's a dog.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah. Jen Lauda is a dog. She tells phenomenal stories. Worries, man. She'll have me crying every single week, basically. Yeah. And then she got on the blimp and I'm like, don't, Jen, we need you. We got a good playoff push going on. We don't even be getting into something.

[Chuck Pagano]

Hard to see down there.

[Pat McAfee]

What's. Yeah.

[Chuck Pagano]

From the field.

[Pat McAfee]

Hard to see the game. Yeah, yeah, we have no idea. Is that a gain of four or seven?

[Chuck Pagano]

I mean, very important.

[Pat McAfee]

No idea. Or maybe 13.

[Chuck Pagano]

You get a great perspective on how good looking a team is.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah.

[Chuck Pagano]

But trying to follow a game, impossible. It's tough blocking schemes and figure.

[Pat McAfee]

See, we actually do have some good, like, angles on that stuff. Like dbuts and AJ were able to see like some checks that were happening at the line because it was happening right in front of us, which is good. But once again, you have no idea if that's a sack, a loss or a gain of four whenever a place happens because you're looking at the end. So that's either massive win for the defense, kind of a. A stalemate or a big win for the offense. And you have no idea what just happened. So you gotta look up at the Jumbotron and you look at Jumbotron and they're showing like a big play and you don't know who it's on. So we gotta wait for it. And then you go to the. We have a little monitor. The people that were working for us this time are awesome.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, they were great.

[Pat McAfee]

Cameraman, great. Monitor holder, great audio people, great. That was the best Ben Ward dish. Great. That was the best we've had. That was the best we've had, I think. Don't you think?

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure your guys are our camera guy. Murphy was the man.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So you had exactly this. This time, I think was the best crew of people that we were working with. I think everybody kind of understood what was going on.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Every once in a while they'll drop a new person in. Super genius. They need to figure it out. Like, just please, come on, come on. This time was the best. I think it's gonna be same crew going forward, which is good. And by I think, I mean it is gonna be the same.

[Chuck Pagano]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

But we have fun. What's up, y'all?

[Darius Butler]

It's Joe Button here to talk about.

[Pat McAfee]

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[Darius Butler]

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[Pat McAfee]

ESPN Podcast and Omaha Productions. Coach is a new, groundbreaking educational football podcast hosted by NFL legends Bill Belichick, Matt Patricia and Michael Lombardi. In each episode, the coaches break down game game changing situations and front office management tactics, sharing insights from decades of coaching experience and opening up the Bill Belichick Encyclopedia of Football Knowledge created by.

[Darius Butler]

Football legends for football fans. New episodes of Coach Drop weekly.

[Pat McAfee]

Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Football. It's wonderful. We're lucky to talk about it every single day. The talks tables here at Boston Connor and that Ty Schmidt, one half of the Hammer Cowboys. AP Tone is here. 36 years as a football coach. 18 in college, 18 in the NFL. Chuck Ban is here. I bet. Coach hey. Your Thursday night yeah. Picks against the spread this season.

[Boston Connor]

Thank God there's not one tonight. My bank account can't take it.

[Chuck Pagano]

Amen to that.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, a tough year now granted. Let's go ahead and put that Sugar bowl right up in there. Yeah, let's put that Sugar bowl there today. Right into it. We have a chance to get back. We'll count this one as two because it's kind of out of. Yeah, you know your bingo. We can get back to 500 on the year we go big today. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, live from Anatican, Ohio, is a man who we're all incredibly lucky to be around over the last 12 hours or so. His son ended up in a hospital yesterday in Southern California because he puked, in his words, all over an entire section at the Ritz bowl this man had his name chanted out by half of the stadium in Pasadena. He's a national champion for the Ohio State. Will these boys at Ohio State become national champions? He believes yes. The all time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, a man who has a tree on the Ohio State University campus. Never seen it, never watered it, but it's strong. Ladies and gentlemen, a terrible flyer, but a man who loves to be in the sky. A.J. hawk. Yeah. Good to see you, A.J.

[Darius Butler]

Good to see you. I'm with you. The. The blimp would be kind of scary. I saw that, that takeoff when you're going straight up and you're leaning back. I want no part of that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And then you're looking up, it's like, is this a jet engine? What is it? Nah, it's just, you know those balloons you get in like the, for the holidays? They say they have helium in it or whatever. It's just a bunch of those. You know what I mean? It's no big deal. It's like, okay, what happens if. Do we have any other options?

[AJ Hawk]

No, you're dead if that happens.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, well, it's a good view. At least going down. We'll be able to see all windows out there. But I appreciate everybody that goes up there much more courage than me. Speaking of going up there, Chip Kelly, Ryan Day, that entire team, when they're going up in front of the squad in chit chat, what are they saying? Age? They're saying we're the best team in football right now. They have to be.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, no, I mean, I think they are definitely not satisfied. They're. I guess they're happy that they, you know, the plan that they, they felt like they were going to, you know, going into this playoffs, they're starting to execute, and I think they probably even think that they can play much better. So I think they know they have two more games left.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you talked to anybody in that building since the game?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, I talked to some guys because I, you know, pregame, I like to go and, and see my guys and see James Laronitis, linebacker coach, different guys. Mark Pantoni, the guy that's crafting a lot of things behind the scenes when it comes to recruits. I, I get to chat with them before the game, then after the game, let them know, you know, here we go, two more. And, and they seem to all kind of be on the same track. Yeah. Excited, happy with how they're playing, but they know they, they can get much better.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think we heard something out of the Ohio State team. They had like a senior something and all they kept saying was four more games. We got a four game season, four game season, four game season,. Four game season, season. Now they're at two game season, two game season. Everybody seemed to be focused and on the task at hand. Everybody in Ohio understands too, we can win this thing right now, right? Everybody in Ohio understands this is a national championship team.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, yeah.

[Laura Rutledge]

A lot of.

[Darius Butler]

A lot of optimism, no question. But we know, like, look at Oregon. They're undefeated. Everything, everything is going great. And then boom. These. The season just ends so quickly. It's just like the NFL playoffs where you have all this build up all these expectations and you know, in these win or go home games, like, it ends so quickly. I think Ohio State's very aware of that and they know that.

[Pat McAfee]

They don't want that to happen and shout to Oregon. Hell of a. Yeah, it's been a hell of a year. It really was. And I had some Oregon people that weren't happy in the mentions at DM saying we were being disrespectful. It's like, wow, Ohio State was being disrespectful to you. Okay. We had to call it what. We had to call what was happening out there. I love Dan Lanning. I love the Oregon Ducks. I picked them to win this game because I thought they were going to be able, you know, to maybe slow down this Buckeyes team. But I think what my eyes are telling me now is like, we ain't picking against Ohio State ever again. Nope. That is not. This team is more motivated. This team seems to be locked in. Chip Kelly's doing his shit. And then Justin Fry, that offensive line coach. I mean, I don't, I don't necessarily.

[Darius Butler]

He's pretty jacked up on the sidelines. We got a great glimpse of him instantly as he is doing this towards you, telling you, keep talking all this stuff, fist pumping like he was trying to find you every single time. They even had not even a score, an explosive game. He's looking for you to, to, you know, let you know what's going on.

[Pat McAfee]

I think some of those Ohio State Buckeye coaches were like, I thought we were okay.

[Boston Connor]

We hospitality.

[Pat McAfee]

I thought we were very nice to you. Yeah, we were very nice to you. We watch your show. You know, AJ's on the show, feels like we are a part of it. And then you just go out there and say, yeah, the Oregon Ducks. I felt it. I felt Chip Kelly pregame. I mean, that was an immediate saw Saw what you did. Oh, no. Justin Fryo, the line coach. Oh, okay. Is that how. Okay. Laurinaitis. Even you. All right. Okay. Heartline docs. Okay. All right. And everybody. And then as soon as that thing started rolling, just accidentally glimpsing over to the Ohio State Buckeye thing. And they're all basically to me as.

[Chuck Pagano]

They should to me.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, I'm like, okay, all right, let's get to a break here. All right. This isn't about this entire thing, but I love. They're finding everything obviously to stay motivated. And I do appreciate the fact that they felt like I betrayed them. Like I betrayed them with my pick of the Ducks. I just thought, you know, that Dan Lanning and their team was cut from the same gym. Like, I thought this was going to be a fist fight in this entire thing. I think that first round by man, I think that needs to be chatted about a lot. I'm not saying that Ohio State wasn't clearly the better team. I mean, clearly the better. It wasn't even. No questions asked. But did they face the best Oregon that we've seen all year? I don't think so. You know, but we. We definitely have seen the best Ohio State. And that's all that can. That's all that can matter is who shows up on that particular day. Ohio State definitely did.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Still love Dan Lanning. Like, he is the man. You know, throughout the entire game, I think we all thought like, hey, Dan Lanning is going to figure this out and get these boys back in it. But that even. And you know, all the coaches doing that to you, that just adds to the fact that, like, they're the most skilled team and now they have the most chips on their shoulder. Like they are continuing to stack them. Like it's impossible to think of a different team coming in and beating them somehow.

[Chuck Pagano]

God, I would have been chopping them too. So we owe you too. They. You get part of that victory for doing.

[Pat McAfee]

I was. We're literally standing there and Trevion Henderson has what, a 66 yard touchdown. So we're just kind of watching him just cruise over there. And then the first thing we see is that old line coach just being like on your mouth, you. And I'm like, he ain't talking to me. You. Yeah, it's like A.J.

[Chuck Pagano]

You.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, keep talking, Docs. Okay. And then basically just like a full on boom, boom, boom. And the thought of Chip Kelly right now, it's a master class what Chip is doing. This is why Chip Kelly was Chip Kelly At Oregon, this is why Chip Kelly got like the Philly job. This is why Chip Kelly was the future. He has all these pieces that are more talented than you have and he's using. He's dialing up all the shit. This G. Scott Jr. Guys, the first play, this is the first play he was lined up at running back. Everybody talks about Henderson, obviously. Judkins, who's going to be the starting running back. Oh, we got our tight end out here. Let's put him out in a wheel. Oregon hasn't played a real snap in forever. Eye candy. This way nobody even thinks about. Gee, Scott JR. Wheel bang. That's a gain of 25 to start the thing. I mean, it was from jump. Chip Kelly just had them on their heels and the boys executed. The boys executed everything they possibly could.

[AJ Hawk]

And maybe has his best weapon ever. Like I. I know we've talked about it ad ad nauseam, but like seeing Smith in warm ups and looking back him and like, listen, Oregon's defense has been very good all year, but like seeing their cornerback, it's like no one's gonna be able to stop this guy. So I mean, it's just ridiculous.

[Pat McAfee]

Who is the tight end? Maxarach. What was his name? What's his name?

[Darius Butler]

Kazmarick.

[Pat McAfee]

Kazmark. There it is. Oregon. No, Ohio State. I didn't even know who this guy. I should have obviously. And I'm sure he's made a lot of plays. Kazmarick is his name.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, I believe that's how you pronounce it.

[Pat McAfee]

They had him flanked out to the right. He's 6, 6, 6, 7. He's. He's tight end for this team. They had him flanked out to the right. They got cornered five, nine. Yeah. On this guy. And then you got Jeremiah on the other side. 6, 4, whatever he is. 620. And they got a 5, 10 guy on him. Then they got G. Scott Jr. That guy's a freight train right there. He's lined up out here. Then you got. I think they had. I think Buka and Tate like stacked on his. And it's like how. Good luck.

[AJ Hawk]

Good luck.

[Pat McAfee]

How do you. I don't know. Yeah, we're.

[Darius Butler]

You're going to win some of those matchups. You feel like if you're Ohio State, you're like, we're going to win a couple of these matchups. If we just put a good ball in the air, we're going to be okay.

[Pat McAfee]

And they even had Will Howard go under center a couple of times. You know, Everything's like kind of shotgun. They did a couple pop passes, too. Classic Chip Kelly. Classic. Old school. Let's just get the ball in the guy's hands as fast as we possibly can. But then at the end of that game, they even went under center. 23 different offensive line combinations. They're going under center. We're running power to get this thing out easy. Just hand off to Henderson. Bang. They're hitting it for four or five. Like, if they needed to do that all game, they could have done that. They could have just done that. They got four different game plans that worked yesterday all at the same time. They're humming, man, and they feel good. All right, let's pivot away from college ball. Obviously, we've got a big one at 4:00. We'll be joined by Laura Rutledge in about five, ten minutes down there. Let's talk about the NFL. Huge weekend. Obviously it is. You know, the topic of conversation is the number one overall seed for the NFC coming out of the NFC North. Lions, Vikings in Detroit. How do we think that one's going to go age? Obviously, the NFC north is stacked. We all know that. Chicago Bears trying to figure it out.

[Boston Connor]

Of course.

[Pat McAfee]

Chicago Bears trying to figure that out. But we have two 14 and two teams out of the NFC north right now, and they're battling on Sunday night. And we're going to be waiting all day, aren't we?

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, I will be waiting all day for Sunday night this week. Normally we're not, but this week, I'm. To be honest, I'm going to be waiting the rest of the week for Sunday night.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, me too. I think this is a huge one. How do you see this one kind of faring, AJ as we look out at this and try to project a.

[Darius Butler]

Little bit, I mean, my early. My early thoughts on this game, I feel pretty good about the Lions at home. I love what the Vikings are doing, obviously, Sam. Darn. I think they're awesome. But for this one, I feel like Dan Campbell and the Lions. This feels like a game at home, like a. It's like a defining game in the Dan Campbell era. I think we could see happening on.

[Pat McAfee]

Sunday, the first playoff game of the year, we'll call this. You know, obviously it's a big deal. Loser goes down to 5, 5 seed in the NFC. And that's a different road than having home field advantage throughout the entirety. Both of them dome teams. So obviously it's good for the entire NFC that you get a chance to go in no matter what and experience 70 and sunny. No matter how, how it ends up shaping up, what do you think both these coaches are saying? Obviously Kevin OConnell is a young wizard and watching that locker room with Sam Darnold last week was so cool. And Kevin O'Connell taking it all in. We know he can drop a play for anybody. Ben Johnson can do the same up there. Mcdc has been singing the same exact tune since the very beginning. We're tougher, we're all bought in. If you're a coach, which team would you rather be coaching right now? And what do you think the messages are?

[Chuck Pagano]

I would rather be the home team. I'd rather be Detroit. I love koc. I think he's by far head and shoulders above everybody else coach of the year this year. I know AP's got a got a vote on that but I would pick KOC as coach of the year. What they've done with this offense, Sam Darnold, you know, this defense be flow they're cooking. But there's just something about this Detroit Lions team. Like I didn't think there's no way in hell they'd even go to San Fran and San Fran's got nothing to play for that. They'd end up winning that game. But they'll find a way to score 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 more points than you. The defense is totally depleted. They've got a massive chip on their shoulder. They play that way because everybody's saying you got no defense, you got no players, you've lost everybody on that side. There's no way that you can win. And all they do is they keep winning. And you know, Sam Darnold's had a great year but he's also thrown I think 12 interceptions on the season. And this Kirby Joseph for frickin, I mean he's got nine interceptions on the year. He'll find a way to come up with one. Branch may come up with one, they'll make a play, make a play here or there, trick play. Ben. Ben will get in his bag. You know, I wouldn't bet against the Lions for nothing.

[Pat McAfee]

Angelone's back for the Lions or what's the story there? Yeah, he practiced yesterday. It looks like he'll be a game time decision but yeah, they're expecting. Hopefully he can be back for this one and then Aiden Hutchinson's back for the Super Bowl. Oh yeah, especially Carlton Davis in the playoffs sometimes potentially Montgomery at some point. So yeah, things are starting to align a little bit here. There's obviously some other Games that have playoff implications in the AFC involving Denver, Cincinnati in Miami for the number seven overall seed in the wild card. Denver wins and they're in. Miami wins and Denver loses. They're in. Cincinnati wins and Denver, Miami both lose. Cincinnati is in, which is obviously a phenomenal thing for this Bengals team. That was what, one in five? Yeah, yeah. One in five to start the season. Joe Burrow having a potential MVP like year, especially if they find a way to make it into the playoffs with this whole thing. Broncos will be taking on Carl Wentz in the Kansas City Chiefs as Patrick Mahomes gets healthy for a playoff run as the number one overall seed. The Dolphins, without tua, will take on the New York jets, who just had their worst performance of the season last week, somehow. And then the Bengals take on a Pittsburgh Steelers team who are very much still trying to figure out what team they are. Fresh off. Few losses.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah. And that game is also huge because if the Steelers lose, then the Chargers can jump you. Right?

[Ty Schmidt]

Steelers need to win. Yeah. Because they want the five seed. They want to go down to Houston. I. I would assume, because if they lose, they go to Baltimore, so.

[Pat McAfee]

And one of the Chargers. The Chargers play the Raiders. They're either five or six. Correct. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. So if. If the Steelers lose and Chargers wins, they. They jump up to five. And I, I. When we went to the Chargers facility, a beautiful facility, made sure I told everyone in there, hey, you're going to Baltimore. Okay. Steelers aren't losing.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you said hardball bowl back again. Yeah. In the playoffs. Congrats to you guys.

[Boston Connor]

NFL wants that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And so Chargers do, too. Big facility. I love that Chargers team even more now. Awesome. Happy mission, aj. We're on a happy mission. Everybody in that building was happy. Everybody. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, look at the. Just look at the facility. First off. Looks beautiful. I wasn't able to. To go there with you guys, but it looks awesome. I mean, what harbor has been able.

[Pat McAfee]

To find yours, Your name, your name.

[Darius Butler]

Appreciate it.

[Pat McAfee]

Your name is clear.

[Darius Butler]

Cathcart. Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That's Kyle.

[Laura Rutledge]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Because I was there. Yeah. And also Jose.

[Darius Butler]

Full names. Yeah, full names.

[Pat McAfee]

Shytehead. Yeah. You were invited. You were part of it. Just. I saw some people, they were coming after me a little bit.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. They couldn't come.

[AJ Hawk]

They gave the invite.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. This is just like when Rap Sheet wasn't able to come on the show. I talked to him for this entire thing. Just would like to let everybody know. AJ was clearly invited. AJ's name was cleared by the Los Angeles Chargers. But that would have been 12 people instead of 11. And Harbaugh would not have liked.

[Boston Connor]

He would have to roll around with only 11.

[Pat McAfee]

He said 11, that's a perfect number.

[AJ Hawk]

That's the way it should be.

[Pat McAfee]

We got to start offense, starting defense, starting special teams, walking around with you. That's how it should be. That was his first reaction. He was like, wow, you guys are rolling deep. Like nice little on thrush. I was like, yeah. You guys had to clear 11 of us to get in here. That was awesome. He's 11th. Perfect number. Perfect number. That was his first. That was his first. That was literally his first react. Everything he did was just. I don't want to say beautiful, but it was.

[AJ Hawk]

It was as advertised.

[Pat McAfee]

Everything he did was awesome. That entire facility. He tried to give a handshake to that particular high five trophy. Did break the hand off. We had to put it back on. He said, I want to shake the hand. I want to shake the hand like it's a high fiver. You know, it's on a handshake. I. He goes, let me try it. Takes it off. I think he's gonna. I think that's gonna live in his office. I hope so. He seemed to be pretty pumped up about it. They were very kind to us.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

The ice cream in that place, they.

[Pat McAfee]

Got cinnamon toast crunch soft serve yogurt. Holy. Stop. Oh, really?

[Boston Connor]

Coffee soft.

[AJ Hawk]

Two new flavors every single day.

[Chuck Pagano]

God, I'd be 260.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. They also had pizza oven.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Which was just a smidge below so good.

[Pat McAfee]

It wasn't pizza pizza, but it was. It was very good pizza. A very good pizza. Then they had. I think there were some tacos and tacos.

[Boston Connor]

It was all different bars, sun chips. They did have garden salsa and harvest cheddar.

[Pat McAfee]

You're right. They did have all that. This building, this golf simulator.

[Chuck Pagano]

Did you see Ortiz. Did Joey or.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. He came in and obviously I thanked him for everything. Everything.

[Boston Connor]

Matlock is huge.

[Pat McAfee]

Matlock's head is gigantic. I mean, that thing is really.

[Darius Butler]

Anybody get a workout in going that weight room?

[Pat McAfee]

We were in the weight room under bars.

[Boston Connor]

Not the VIP club.

[Pat McAfee]

Silver Bells Club.

[Boston Connor]

Excuse me.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. We're not in the Silver Bells Club, which is. They got these old school dumbbells that are just metal, you know, they're not. They're old school. They're huge. And I think the way the story went is one of their offensive linemen during the holiday season or at the beginning of December was over there lifting in their silver. So he was saying Silver Bells. And then he was betcha and then he was doing a Silver Bells, doing the entire thing. So then coach Herbert, who is Pittsburgh guy who was at Wisconsin then I think he was at Baylor. Then he went to Michigan and that's where he met Harbaugh. Now he's over there. Great. He's strength coach dog. Great energy. Pittsburgh guy. As soon as you heard the silver bow thing, he was like, wait a minute, I think we can do something with it. They made a VIP club. They put red velvet rope, velvet ropes around two of the two of the benches or whatever. And then it's all the silver belts. And then if you get in the club, obviously they open you up to come on in and then put you in there. Khil Mack, 200 pound single arm. What? Yeah, yeah. Dumbbell. 202 silver bales. 200 pounds.

[Ty Schmidt]

200 pounds.

[Pat McAfee]

He's the biggest one. It's the biggest one in there. Justin Herbert, I think has a 150. The 150 pounder. It's for one arm bench over there. It's like they all commit in love what's going on that weight room. They all commit and love what Jim Harbaugh is preaching. And everybody in the building's happy. Everybody's like excited to be there. It is infectious over there, what they got going on. And how many owners are spending 300 million on a new facility just for practice? Facility, Especially in la. The placement in that the location itself had to be so expensive.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

But then for them to do it upright for the last couple, it's like, look out for the Chargers, dude. Look out for the Chargers. Talk about getting a hiring right. And we've chatted about this a little bit for a while. It was, we need the new offensive guru. Okay. Sean McVeigh comes in, we need new offense guru. We need to offensive guru. Then you see guys like Harbaugh Mc DC having success that they're having and it's like, are we getting back to a time where it's like, hey, we need somebody that's able to build a culture. We need somebody that's able to lead people. We need somebody that's able to bring people together. I think so. And that's good for football, I think. Chuck, don't you agree as a man that was that type of guy?

[Chuck Pagano]

100%. Can you imagine? You're just talking about the Because a great culture. You guys walked in that building, you could see it, you could feel it, you could taste it. Right. And then you could walk into another building. Some we know, like, this stinks. Yeah, this is nasty. This ain't got no feeling like that. Like it matters. And so bringing a guy like Jim Harbaugh, think about these coach like Dan Quinn, what he's done in Washington.

[Pat McAfee]

Right.

[Chuck Pagano]

Second time around Jim Harbaugh, like second time in national football. And he won big in San Francisco. Right. He's having great success. So these guys, Raheem, he's still 8 and 8. He's better second time around MCDC, second time around MCDC, you know, at Miami, think he was, was the interim, whatever. So if, if I was to go back, like what I know now compared to what I thought I knew back in 2000, because there's no manual for this, for this job. But the one thing we all do know is like, culture matters. And so what you're talking about that building and that infectious, like the energy that he brings, like wouldn't. Why wouldn't you want that? You know? And everybody in that building and then a guy that they actually come in, you can feel him like, okay, this is a guy I want to follow. And you get everybody to buy in like that. I'm talking front office ownership.

[Pat McAfee]

Ownership.

[Chuck Pagano]

Ownership. Yeah, because you just sit around and watch after those games and you watch everybody standing there waking the call up in the locker room. And in Spanos football.

[Pat McAfee]

He'S a jolly. Now, granted, winning helps, yes, but do you win because of the culture?

[Chuck Pagano]

But think about mcdc, right? How he started out, Owen, whatever. And then the next season. Oh, and whatever. And then finally it clicks in and you start to get a taste of winning and how to win. And that team learned how to win and they drafted like crazy and they got really good players, but they stayed with it and there was continuity. It wasn't one of these owners like Tepper down in Carolina, like, oh, out.

[Boston Connor]

Psst.

[Pat McAfee]

Out.

[Chuck Pagano]

You just can't buy that. You gotta be able to figure that out. You gotta be able to get a guy in front of you like, okay, this guy's the real frickin deal. And whatever that is. However you're going to go about that selection process, like they haven't figured it out down there, but you got to hear an Indianapolis. Because nobody, I think Coach Belichick talked about patience. Like there isn't patience anymore.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but what if you're patient with the wrong guy like that? That's like the biggest issue, which is what ownership kind of fears is. You see red flags potentially. And it's like, is this guy ever going to be a leader or Is he not? And then waiting and waiting and waiting. What if you wait three, four, eight years to find out if the culture that you were hoping was going to settle in never settles in? Then you just completely wasted an error, which is. I'm just saying that's a counter argument. I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying that is what the counter argument is to all these things about patience. Patience, Patience. What if you're patient with the wrong guy? Then you're in a bad spot. Then you're in a. Then you've set an entire fan base, a generation of a fan base back.

[Boston Connor]

Well, and that's why, like, we love Ben Jon Johnson and, like, we all have faith in Ben Johnson being a head coach. I. I assume. But, like, this far out and, you know, what is it? It's January 2nd. The head coaching cycle hasn't started yet. But it feels like Pete Carroll and Mike Vrabel are both, like, locks to be guys like this who can turn around. And this wouldn't be Pete Carroll's second time he's been, you know, Seattle was his second time because New England, he was the head coach. But like, Vrabel, Vrabel was in Tennessee. That was his first head coaching job. I assume what he's learned over the. Over this past year, being in a place like Cleveland and what he can bring to a team now would be exponential compared to, you know, some of these places.

[AJ Hawk]

Well, that's what I was going to say. Like, do you think now. And it's not the case. It's not the case everywhere. But if you want a guy who needs to completely change the culture of a place, like, look at all the guys we just mentioned. Mcdc, Harbaugh, you know, Vrabel. Like, do you think it needs to be a guy who played in the league for a while? Because it seems like all these new guys that are getting like. Like they are the gurus, they're the X and O's guys. Like, they don't necessarily. And it, you know, I assume, like, I look at a guy like Matt LaFleur who, like, now, however many years into this, like, he's starting to get his culture in place. But the first couple years, that was always the knock is like, this guy's a play caller. Like, he. He can't. He can't necessarily.

[Pat McAfee]

He was up against it, too, with, like, an old generation of a team. I think, like, I feel like Leflore probably feels like he has his guys. Feels like he has his guy for sure. And I agree. He was just a play caller, I think, as opposed to being a leader. But you don't continue to win like that without having some good.

[AJ Hawk]

Definitely not.

[Pat McAfee]

Definitely not behind closed doors for him. It's like the culture, people are starting to come back, I think, into fashion. Like, I think it's starting to become a good thing. And that's good for Ball. I think that's good for ball, AJ do you agree with that?

[Darius Butler]

It's great for Ball. I don't think you have to be a former player to, like, have that command of the room or have control, but it sure as hell doesn't hurt, like, especially early on. I think if you can have success early on, it just kind of springboards you and you. It gives you a jump start where you might not have to have those one or two, you know, kind of terrible seasons while you turn over the roster and try to figure out who's the right person to be here.

[Pat McAfee]

Zach Kiefer, who we all have immense respect for, used to write for the Indy Star. Now he's at the Athletic, which is obviously owned by the New York Times. He wrote an article today. I was like, yeah, cultures have no culture, pretty much. And we're eight years into Chris Ballard's tenure as the general manager. And I think he's a great man. I think he's been great for the city of Indianapolis and everything like that. But some of the things that are being said in that article by Zach Kiefer, who, you know, did his sourcing and getting inside of it more than I know even, he's like, there's no vision in this building. It's like, how. What do you mean? There's no.

[Boston Connor]

What's that mean?

[Pat McAfee]

And then you start watching it. It's like, that makes sense that there's no vision and there's no accountability and there's no this, there's no that. But Shane can drop a hell of a play. And was he cut off at the knees whenever he got here already? It's like, there's so many questions about just what's happening at the Colts. And they're not the only one. There's a lot of NFL teams that are trying to figure out what the hell went wrong. This coaching cycle should get electrifying. And you said, if I went back, is Chuck thinking about going back? Are you thinking about going back into coaching Chuck?

[Chuck Pagano]

No. Unless you're firing me.

[Pat McAfee]

If that means you're going to go back and go, you're fired.

[Boston Connor]

You're fired.

[Chuck Pagano]

I got a Pretty good gig.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's pivot away from the NFL a bit and do some journalism.

[Laura Rutledge]

Journalism.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now is a scythe on reporter for this afternoon's Sugar Bowl. She's also the host of NFL Live. She's one of the prominent faces around ESPN both for College Ball and the NFL friend of the program. Ladies and gentlemen, Laura Rutley. How you doing, Laura?

[Nick Saban]

Hi, guys. It's good to be with you.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, it's an honor to be with you as well. I think there's a bit of a delay on the video, so we will certainly figure that out on our end. It's definitely not you, but let's talk about the last 24 hours down there. Laura, obviously you've been down there. You've been the one that has been breaking the news to the entire world about what's taking place in the Sugar Bowl. When this is about to get delayed, what was the conversation like? Were they worried about potential bombs at the, at the Mercedes Benz Stadium down Superdome down there? What was the kind of the, the how do we get here? Is the right question, Laura?

[Nick Saban]

Yeah, I mean, Pat, it's been really wild and there's just a heavy feeling for everybody here. Certainly, as we all think about these victims, their families. That's been a sentiment echoed by the teams as well in Georgia and Notre Dame, and, and yet here we are, you know, preparing to play a football game, which certainly pales in comparison to everything that's happened here with these terrorist attacks here in New Orleans. But when it came to the actual decision making process, there was a meeting that happened yesterday, midday between the FBI, between the College Football Playoff officials, Sugar bowl officials, the teams, many other people, government officials here in New Orleans. And they said it was a really difficult decision to make to postpone the game. Initially, they said it would be 24 hours. And, you know, as we were finding this information out, Pat, I was over at the hotel, like I was getting ready to come over, do the game. We just sent our game production meeting. And then all of a sudden I'm starting to kind of hear some rumors like, hey, this game might be postponed. We start reporting, we start calling sources, we start figuring things out and realize that that was, in fact, true. And I think it's important, you know, as you do look at the football side of this for both these teams, the coaches and people involved. We're pushing for an earlier start than 24 hours, just gaining even a few extra hours when it comes to what will be a really quick turnaround for the Winner of this game for that Orange bowl against Penn State.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so obviously, rts P's positive thoughts for everybody in New Orleans. What a phenomenal gift to the world the city of New Orleans is. And obviously we've all had time down there. We've all spent time down there. It was hard yesterday not to be like, man, I could have. That's something I could have very easily been. So a terrible act. Obviously, football is a good thing to get back. Sports are a good thing to let them know, hey, you might take it to shop, but you didn't beat us. I'm happy this game is happening. You talked about hotels and have a meeting. What do we think is happening with the fans here? Because obviously a lot of travel, ticket everything. What do we think the stadium looks like today for this game? Laura?

[Nick Saban]

Yeah, it's interesting. In fact, we were told by the mayor here that they're reopening bourbon street around 2:30 local. So 3:30 Eastern. And we've seen a lot of fans milling about. I mean, there were even fans yesterday that had planned to fly in day of the game because the game was supposed to be later and still got on. Those flights still came in. And there has been major security advancements here at the stadium. Now they already have security planned, right, but they're doubling that essentially. And we were told that basically it's the same amount of security that you would see for the super bowl, which of course is going to be here in February. So all of those precautions that they would take, they're doing that. You've got to go through a secondary level of security to get into this stadium. They did have the police dogs come in here yesterday. They were looking for explosives. They didn't find any. I have seen some of those police dogs here today. So that security presence, you see the law enforcement here, and I would just shout them out because they have had to go through so much here. Many of them that were responding to what happened on Bourbon Street. But then in the aftermath of that as well, they've all come. They, they probably haven't slept. They've been putting so much into making sure that people are safe here. And somebody, a law enforcement official told me that the Superdome is actually probably the safest place in New Orleans right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell yeah. Hey, shout out to law enforcement heroes walking amongst us. Obviously in the middle of a lot of, lot of devastating chaos that took place yesterday in New Orleans. Got a football game at 4:00. Go ahead, A.J.

[Darius Butler]

Laura, how do you feel this is going to affect the gameplay at all. And we know these are young kids and. And they can kind of handle whatever is thrown at them. Different schedule changes, things like this. But do you think the game is going to feel normal like the rest of these college football playoff games at kickoff? Like, do people feel safe? Like, what's the vibe, I guess, around that stadium?

[Nick Saban]

That's a great question. I'm honestly not sure. It does feel a lot different being in here today than it did yesterday. Yesterday was certainly eerie and extremely sad, and obviously we still feel that sadness today. But there has been more out here. We've seen the bands out on the field. The teams are heading over here shortly. Georgia is supposed to get here around 1245 local. And I do think that you'll see a sadness around it, but then hopefully some hope about college football. I mean, as Pat said so. Well, certainly football can be something we can point to as something joyful and something to give us a little bit of hope. They are going to do a moment of silence before the game. I just saw them kind of rehearsing through some of that in and around the national anthem. And of course, we'll cover that on espn. You can see it as it's happening. So you sort of feel what the vibes are going to be. And when it comes to the players, you guys. Marcus Freeman said yesterday that they actually mourned the victims as a team. They spent some time on that and really did also then turn their attention to planning for the game. But they wanted to talk through a lot of it. And Georgia did actually come over here yesterday around 6pm and practiced on this field. Just a light run through. But I think it is about trying to keep it as normal as possible for these players while also being aware of the tragedy that happened here.

[Pat McAfee]

On that note, Coach Pagano has a question for you. Last one here. Laura, we appreciate your time.

[Chuck Pagano]

So same thing. Laura, you just mentioned that Kirby and Georgia went over and did a little walkthrough. Were these guys sequestered into their hotels and weren't able to get out because of security issues. And. And what have you heard how they spent these extra time, you know, at the hotels? And did Notre Dame get out and do a walkthrough themselves?

[Nick Saban]

Yeah. So Georgia told me around 11 local that they had a shelter in place that basically happened as soon as they figured out something had happened. The places that the teams are staying are less than a mile from Bourbon street, very close to where these attacks occurred. So they were sheltering in place. Notre Dame was sheltering in place for much of the day. Probably around 4pm yesterday, they started to loosen some of those restrictions where people could come into those team hotels who were staying there, some fans and family members, but they didn't let the players leave. Notre Dame never left. They stayed in their hotel, did some practices and meetings in ballrooms there. And Georgia did, of course, come over here and do that light practice, but it was a very brief time that they left their hotel. Otherwise, the players were just there. I talked to some who said they were just kind of going over film and doing everything they could to use that additional time to prepare for the opportunity that now they have today.

[Pat McAfee]

How do you feel preparing for the opportunity? Obviously, chaos comes in. In the last 24 hours, you've had to be a hey, shout out to you. Like we're talking real journalism out here, real world stuff. We do sports stuff. We're lucky to do it, but there's some real, really real world stuff that's been taking place. How do you feel going into the game and what is the. What do your commentary team feel about the energy from both these squads?

[Nick Saban]

Yeah, you know, it's about trying to strike the right tone. Right. We want this to be about the players who have earned this opportunity to be here, and we want to celebrate them. And yet you're thinking about families that are never going to be able to forget what's happened to them and what they saw. And, you know, the pain of losing somebody that you love never goes away. It's not like something that all of a sudden you wake up the next day and you feel better about. So just our hearts are with them. My heart is with all of them. I can't shake what it must feel like for them to be dealing with all of this. And yet it's our job to celebrate football and to bring the product that we always bring to the table on espn, which will be great today. And we have so many great stories in this game. Gunner Stockton getting his first hurt ever in this environment on this stage. He's waited so long for that. Notre Dame has so much to prove on this stage and we'll celebrate that while also doing our best to just be sensitive to what's happened here.

[Pat McAfee]

We can't wait to watch. We appreciate you joining us and we know college ball is something that you cook on for the entire year, but the NFL as well. Minnesota or Detroit Sunday night, Laura? Minnesota or Detroit?

[Nick Saban]

You know what? I'm going to go with Minnesota.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Nick Saban]

Don't tell Orlovski. I did that Orlovsky is going to kill me over that. But I just think the Vikings have something super special going there. May be a slight bit healthier. And that game is going to be one that I can't wait to watch. We'll also be on that Ravens Browns game. That's where I'm going next. And I got Danny in the booth for that one. So prayers up for me getting through it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. A lot of bros. Yeah. That sucks. Yeah. That is certainly something you'll have to deal with. Great work on Christmas. Great work down here. We can't wait to watch you finish the season. Incredibly strong. Thank you for joining us and great work.

[Nick Saban]

Thanks guys. Appreciate you all.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, Laura Richard. What happened at the beginning there we just. Her mouth. What was the delay? Two different feeds. Okay. Cross feeds. Crossfeed. CrossFit is cross feeding.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's like Ghostbusters.

[Pat McAfee]

Good information. She was. We were. We were lucky to be in a trailer yesterday that had just like a feed TV into it. Just what was being filmed. Laura was like on the beat. Oh, yeah. Like she, she was. All of a sudden we're doing NBC Nightly News. Laura's like in these meetings with the FBI and then she's coming out basically saying, this is what I'm hearing. And obviously there's a terrorist attack that just happened. So it's like for being a sports person to be able to have to jump into that and then get back.

[AJ Hawk]

It'S like that was biggest story in America world. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Especially with the College Football playoff thing taking place and then everything else that happened yesterday too. Yeah, there was some other.

[Boston Connor]

Other stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

Day 1 of 2020 Cyber Truck explos.

[Chuck Pagano]

Front of Trump town.

[Pat McAfee]

And then there was there fireworks on it in that.

[AJ Hawk]

That was part of what he used to blow up the.

[Pat McAfee]

And then there is New York. Right. When there's something that happened in New.

[Ty Schmidt]

York nightclub.

[Pat McAfee]

Yankee don't beat us. Okay. No, they ain't gonna beat us. So sad. All those things, whenever they happen, it's hard not just be like completely devastated when we should be, you know, and you should have those moments of thinking like that. But inevitably I believe the same thing that I believe for a long time. There's a lot more good, way more good than there is bad. And I think we're at a time where the way more good people are starting to be like, nah, we're done with it, we're done with it, we're done with it, we're done with it. And I think that's a good thing. I think football will be something that's celebrated, especially down there in New Orleans. Louisiana loves ball.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Louisiana loves having a good time. New Orleans likes hosting people, too. So it's like you might be able to sneak by, you know, and do something terrible, but in the end, we got you. And I firmly believe that forever over. Shout out to the United States of America. Let's go. Shout out to football. Yeah. Georgia. Notre Dame's gonna be a good game, too. Two and a half hours until kickoff there. I believe after we get done here on espn, Sports center with Matt Berry will be a kickoff show. Nice kind of lead into that. I don't know if Matt Berry knew he was doing that as of yesterday. Really? Yeah. But I think he's prepared.

[Boston Connor]

He's always ready.

[Pat McAfee]

Matt Berry's always ready to go. He is always ready. Golf, football, you name it. Anything you need. He is a team. He put his left hand up.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You say you need somebody? Sure. I'm a little boozed up right now. Arizona station, who is it? Whatever. Yeah, sure. I'm having a good. Yeah, I'm nowhere near the set where you need me to be. I'll find a flight, I guess. Yeah, I'll get in there. So shout out to Matt Berry. That's. You need more Matt Berries. Yeah. In this entire world, he doesn't give a shite about anything but doing his job. Bingo. Which we appreciate. A lot of shites on that program.

[AJ Hawk]

So many shites.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, it got the game, got away from the game and then shite happened.

[Pat McAfee]

Shite happened all over the place.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Speaking of shite happening out of the mouth, how's Axel? Are we okay? What's going on with the kid?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, yeah, he's. He's doing better. He's not as pale as he was and he has stopped puking, so he's en route back to Ohio.

[Pat McAfee]

For those that don't know what happened, here's literally from last night's watch. Along field bass, ladies and gentlemen, being serenaded by.

[Darius Butler]

Chance, I see at the 47. Unfortunately, my youngest son puked all over himself, went to the hospital. So my whole family's not here anymore to hear that. But I'm getting some updates every once in a while. He seems to be doing not much better. He puked over the whole section.

[Pat McAfee]

Jeez.

[Darius Butler]

Instant urgent care. Instant hospital.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, no.

[Boston Connor]

What type of shite was he eating here?

[Darius Butler]

Is someone making salmon down here?

[Chuck Pagano]

We came down here.

[Boston Connor]

Smell like.

[Darius Butler]

I'm not going to lie.

[Pat McAfee]

Who's this guy? Oh, that about your Kid. I want you know. I am so sorry to hear that.

[Darius Butler]

Real story.

[Pat McAfee]

Very anxiety riddled that time.

[Nick Saban]

Hopefully.

[Darius Butler]

I think we're doing better.

[Pat McAfee]

I would immediately ask the duck what happened, but that was the first we had heard about any of that. Yeah. What he said right there. And you just. The way you delivered it. I died. I couldn't hold it. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

It'd be cool if my family was.

[Pat McAfee]

Here to hear this. Man. It'd be good for the boys to be able to hear this. But turns out they're actually in a hospital down the street because my youngest lad just puked all over everybody. He's. And then he said, I'm getting updates. Turns out he's not much better. Just kept going.

[Chuck Pagano]

Said that so nonchalant. Kids in the hospital. I'd be out of there.

[Pat McAfee]

Dude. And that's why I wanted to apologize because obviously I think you did it to make us laugh. But then as I was laughing, I was just thinking about, like, if my wife had mackenzie and we're in Southern California at a game and she has to go to a hospital while I'm on a side. It would be the amount of anxiety that would be felt inside of like, what's wrong? How do we get there? How do we get out of here? Rose Bowl's impossible to get in and out of. Oh, yeah. Couldn't even imagine the amount of stress that was happening in your phone. So that's why I want to apologize. Before we dealt with the salmon situation. I never smelled the salmon.

[Ty Schmidt]

No.

[Darius Butler]

As soon as we got down towards that end. It smelled like fish. I'm not joking. I didn't know the duck was behind me. I had no idea. It wasn't about the duck. It smelled like fish from the jump. I just had to mention that.

[Pat McAfee]

You almost started puking just like Axel. How about you? He continued to follow up. Sprayed an entire section.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. I need you to apologize. Section 3C. I believe shout out Foss for helping out with the tickets. But I believe he got a lot of people in that area. But some people ran and got towels. My wife said. And helped out a couple Oregon fans in the section she believed were not. Not very excited about Axle puking all over the place. But everything is good right now. We're. We're on the mend.

[Chuck Pagano]

Didn't this kid on one of your road trips to see these guys somewhere in the Winnebago or something. Wasn't he sick? And that one too.

[Darius Butler]

AJ Sprinter van. Run the sprinter van. The window got blasted out. But yes, on the Ride down. He puked all over that.

[Pat McAfee]

Axel's a problem. Axel's a dog, dude. I'm very excited to watch what Axel becomes, you know, cuz he's puked all over the Rose Bowl. He's puked all over the Peach Bowl. Yeah, he is. Puked all over everything. And guess what? Comes out the other side stronger. Yeah, it does. That's the type of adversity that Ohioans and Hawks love. Right Age.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, yeah. That's going back to what we're talking about. You cannot defeat us. The. The doctors, they hooked him up to make sure he had nothing wrong early on. And they said, where are you from? He said, america.

[Ty Schmidt]

So nice.

[Chuck Pagano]

That's.

[Darius Butler]

My wife wanted to make sure that I knew because she was proud of him. Legend.

[Pat McAfee]

How old is he? How old is he?

[Darius Butler]

He's seven years old right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Seven years old. Just got done puking everywhere. White as a ghost. Just like body, just kind of like straining. Doctor comes in, hey, listen, we're gonna take care of you, all right? Where are you from? Just so I know that you have your bearings. Fucking America. He's gonna be just fine. Doctor said over there. Did he give him IV? Seven year old, you don't get IV right seven.

[Darius Butler]

I don't think he got IVs. No, they're trying to figure it out. Yeah, but he's. He's all right. He's doing okay.

[Pat McAfee]

She.

[Darius Butler]

My wife carried him up like a mile up the hill to a rickshaw. Rickshaw to an Uber with the other four or five kids. My daughter's friend was with them. Yeah, they figured it out, man. Like I said, it's all part of the store. It's all part of the pro. You know, the process.

[Pat McAfee]

The Hawks Love adversity. That's AJ's first response. Always. Yeah. Sprinter van got the windows busted out last night. Don't know how we're gonna drive home. Man, that sucks. You know? No. Hawks love adversity. That's what we love. Hey, kid. Puked all over an entire section. Had to get carried up a hill to a bike rickshaw to a hospital. Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. You need to go anywhere. Hawks love adversity. That's just what we do. And that Ohio State team feels like their adversity has led them to where they need to be excited to watch college football playoffs wrap up. And then for us, since we're going to be off tomorrow, we need to make our picks.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Aj, let's look at the slate for the NFL and let's go ahead and do this thing and Chuck will obviously join us during the picks, but let's remember this guy can't pick shite in the NFL right now.

[Boston Connor]

True.

[Pat McAfee]

So we will take that into account. Saturday doubleheader shout out to the NFL both on espn. Browns at Ravens. Laura Rutledge, Dan Orlovsky on the call in Baltimore. I don't believe anything is on the line here for the Ravens or the Browns. Browns, go ahead.

[Ty Schmidt]

Ravens have to win to win the division.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so Ravens could win the division. They're favored by 18. What? At home?

[Boston Connor]

18?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And his Browns team actually just reworked DeSean Watson's contract so he'll be there for at least another two years. Shout to Mula, get to having a locked in deal that just like we thought it was while people were trying to tell us no, it is navigable. It is not because Mulaguetta negotiated it. With that being said, 18 point favorites at home. Who do you like, Chuck?

[Chuck Pagano]

I love the Ravens, but 18 points, that's a lot. My God, it'll be 35, 10. Give me the Ravens.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, that's a 25 point win, obviously. Go ahead, A.J.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, 18 feels like a bunch, but give me the Ravens.

[Pat McAfee]

I would take the Ravens as well. Bengals, Steelers. Now this is a massive one. Bengals obviously need to win. Steelers need to win because they could still potentially win the division.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, well, they'll know. They'll know if they can win the division if based on the Ravens game before them. But they want to win. So they go to Texas and probably not ball. Baltimore would assume.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so Bengals favored by two in Pittsburgh.

[Boston Connor]

Whoa, that's wild.

[Pat McAfee]

Steelers can win the division that the Cincinnati Bengals are in. Steelers can decide whether or not they're a five or a six seed. The Bengals are still hoping and praying to get in. Steelers are at home in Pittsburgh. Oh, mama, I'm in fear for my life. From the. Of the Bengals favored by 2 tone. How do you feel about that?

[Ty Schmidt]

I assume it has some to do with the books, assuming that the Ravens are going to win. And then there is some speculation, which I doubt Tomlin would do this, that they rest some guys because they know they can't win the division because they were, they were two point dogs, I believe, going into Cincinnati when they won that game. So I think it has something to do with the Ravens maybe potentially win the division, the game before that, but I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, A.J. who do you like?

[Darius Butler]

I like the Bengals here, man. I just love what Joey B. In this Offense is doing. I think the defense is getting better as well.

[Pat McAfee]

The Steelers have been absolute shite.

[AJ Hawk]

They've been shy, truly, but they've taken.

[Pat McAfee]

On some very good teams. Well, here's another one, you know, here's another one. Can someone put the fire out, you think, Chuck?

[Chuck Pagano]

I don't know if you can figure it out. Ten days, they've had to figure it out. And Cincinnati, like Joey B, 42 TUDs, only eight interceptions, and Jamar Chase is going to, you know, they're trying to get him the triple Crown. He's got 117 catches, 16, 17 yards and 16 tutties.

[Boston Connor]

He has more yards and receiving, I believe, than the entire New England Patriots.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Probably other teams as well. If I had to guess, Bengals.

[Chuck Pagano]

And T. Higgins. And Jamar Chase. Joe Mix. Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, I'll take the Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh, plus two at home.

[Laura Rutledge]

Respect that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Thank you.

[Pat McAfee]

Lose four straight. We think Tomlin's gonna lose four straight games.

[Chuck Pagano]

But here, but here's the thing. Like the first.

[Pat McAfee]

Mike Tomlin's gonna lose four straight game. Just. Just as a thought, I know the Bengals have a lot to play for. They need to. They need to do that entire thing. Mike Tomlin's gonna lose four straight, but they're in the.

[Chuck Pagano]

They're in the playoffs. So Baltimore plays first. Right. So Baltimore is going to win. So they know they got no shot. So they're going to rest guys. They're not going to even try.

[Pat McAfee]

Mike Tomlin is just going to rest guys.

[Boston Connor]

You think even if you. If it's between playing Houston and Baltimore.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't think now us as fans don't want to go. Go to Baltimore. I don't think they care about going to Baltimore.

[AJ Hawk]

I think you'd rather play the Texans.

[Ty Schmidt]

And I don't think you want to go into the playoffs. I agree they'd rather play the Texans, but they just won eight out of ten against the Ravens. I'm saying as a team, like when you were in the NFL, did you care about who you were going to play the next week?

[Pat McAfee]

Me, I was trying to pit him inside 10 every single time.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

Chocto.

[Chuck Pagano]

Small rectangle.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That's all we're trying to play.

[Chuck Pagano]

Come on.

[Pat McAfee]

We're trying to play full court defense, half court offense. That's what we're trying to do. For me, that is what I thank you for that. That is how I'm being jumped. Thank you. You thank you for that, Chuck.

[Ty Schmidt]

Did you think about that? Did you care who you're going to Play next week.

[Pat McAfee]

No, I should have thought about that maybe.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Chuck Pagano]

Still working.

[Pat McAfee]

I think we. I think we should have thought about that a little bit. I'll take the Steelers. Okay. I'm taking four straight losses. I don't know, man. That would be crazy if that happened. It'd get loud in Pittsburgh. Yeah. Four straight losses to end it and then lose in the first round, the wild card. They would get very, very, very loud. Not. Not saying. Not for a reason. I'm just saying that would get very loud in Pittsburgh.

[Chuck Pagano]

Did you see the latest tick tock that Sierra and one of Russell put out?

[Pat McAfee]

No. What was it?

[Boston Connor]

Reenact it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Are you on tick?

[Chuck Pagano]

Something in a hotel. Right. Just make sure you. You might want to hold off on your pick for you.

[Pat McAfee]

What?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, wow.

[Chuck Pagano]

No, it's pretty good. I mean, they. They know it.

[Darius Butler]

Can you show us a little bit? Chuck, what is it?

[Chuck Pagano]

I can't.

[Pat McAfee]

You were starting. They look like they're starting this. Are they doing this?

[Boston Connor]

Was he doing that?

[Chuck Pagano]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Hold on. That's winning. That's been winning as of late, if that's what you're talking about. All right. Steelers plus two. All right, let's roll to Sunday now. Panthers, Falcons, Falcons can still. Right? Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Falcons have to win because if Tampa loses and Falcons win, they are in.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so Falcons favored by seven and a half at home against a Carolina Panthers team that we think is going to be much better next year than they were at the beginning of this year. Chuck Pagano, who do you like?

[Chuck Pagano]

Atlanta.

[Pat McAfee]

AJ Carolina Panthers plus 7 1/2B as well. Buffalo Bill is playing. Mitchell Trubisky is the conversation other than Josh getting a start, Right? Yep.

[Boston Connor]

Yep. Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

Josh getting a start. But everybody's assuming Trubisky is going to get a lot of playing time. He's favored by two and a half, taking on Coach Mayo in the New England Patriots. Con man, how do you feel about this matchup?

[Boston Connor]

I mean, it's a must win for New England. I don't see why you want to take the two and a half and the team is still bought in on draw Mayo.

[Pat McAfee]

Chuck, who do you like? Why do you say that?

[Boston Connor]

Just, you know, a couple videos stuff that the players are saying. They're definitely. There's not. There's none of that. Maybe we need some of that. But no, the team. The boys still seem to be believing in the direction that they're going.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. And do the fans.

[AJ Hawk]

No.

[Ty Schmidt]

How upset will you be if they win half?

[Pat McAfee]

The number one overall pick right now? The New England Patriots.

[Boston Connor]

I'll be, I'll be pretty upset that if they win, but again, we need to, you know, it wouldn't be terrible to show the world and possible free agents like, hey, Drake May is still a guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so you got the Bills do.

[Chuck Pagano]

Well, do we know how many players are resting the Bills?

[Boston Connor]

I believe, yeah, I believe a majority. The whole conversation with Josh Allen star is because of like start streak. Yeah, start streak and percentage.

[Chuck Pagano]

Give me New England home in the points.

[Pat McAfee]

Then age.

[Darius Butler]

Give me the Bills minus two and a half.

[Boston Connor]

Thank you.

[Darius Butler]

Mitch can play, bro. Mitch can play.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

At a 69 yard touchdown. I mean, look, I'm. I'm getting a Trubisky jersey if they win. So I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna say it.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll take the Bills. Give me the Bills minus two and a half.

[Ty Schmidt]

Tough week to pick games.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, redeem, redeeming quality. Drake May. And you think to yourself while you're watching the game, wow, Drake's pretty good. And then you look at the score. They're down 30. Yeah. And it's like, what?

[Boston Connor]

I mean, he does look good though.

[Darius Butler]

He does look good.

[Chuck Pagano]

They did lose 40 to 7, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Receivers are last in separation and the O line is last in protecting the quarterback.

[Chuck Pagano]

Give me the Bill.

[Pat McAfee]

Give me the Buffalo.

[Boston Connor]

That's a real stat.

[Pat McAfee]

Jacksonville Jaguars taking on the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts, I mean, what is. You know, the Colts are a lot of things right now. Everybody's saying it sucks, including the people that are there. So that's not great news. Who knows what the future looks like? But know this, the Colts are going to be back in a relevancy conversation. You know, there's playoff chatter with a few teams in the afc. The Colts could have been that, you know, but instead they tricked off a loss to the Giants, which then led to everybody exposing everything going on in that building. That's good news for the future. Sometimes you got to have those uncomfortable conversations to get to a better place. Now, what are those uncomfortable conversations lead to for this particular week? I think a loss at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Give me the Jags +5.

[Darius Butler]

AJ AR's back injury does worry me a bit, so Give me Jacksonville +5.

[Chuck Pagano]

Chuck, he's not starting well.

[Pat McAfee]

He's had back spasm since eighth grade. Okay. That's what he said. I don't know if it's better.

[Chuck Pagano]

He's not crawling around.

[Boston Connor]

Mac Jones is hot.

[Pat McAfee]

Jacksonville has the Colts number.

[Chuck Pagano]

So here's what I researched. Joe Flacco's gonna start Jacksonville's 32nd in pass defense. We got a quarterback that can sling it in Joey Flacco and we got some receivers that can catch it. Pittman and Pierce and JT can run.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I'll take the Colts. I'll take the Colts minus five.

[Boston Connor]

Ah, come on.

[Pat McAfee]

They're gonna take the tractor another round. I think they have a chance.

[Boston Connor]

Last game possibly.

[Pat McAfee]

And a lot of people on that Colts team. Hopefully last game as Indianapolis Colts. That's kind of my hope. I wish we could transfer portal. The whole team.

[Boston Connor]

Just take Ohio State.

[Pat McAfee]

We had like 70 guys to hit the portal. Can't do it though. In the NFL, I guess. I've been trying to reach.

[Chuck Pagano]

Thank you for your services.

[Pat McAfee]

And just in case I wanted to go pitch myself as president of the Indianapolis Colts. Not that I ever would, but I put a plan together. And how do you get rid of this entire fucking roster except for Pittman. I want Pittman here. I want Pierce here.

[Boston Connor]

D. Buck.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's keep Quentin Nelson. Let's keep DeForest Buckner. Let's keep Kenny Moore. I like Kenny Moore. Other than that. See ya. Every one of them. Goodbye. Take a hike. Thanks for coming. Jonathan Taylor. Trade his fucking ass out of town. How do we go about doing it? You got a second round pick. Sweet. First would be better. We'll do this for the good of the program. Anthony Richardson was a good project. Get them out of town 4th round or whatever the hell you got. See ya. That's what I would do if I was going into this place. Need a full reset of this. The more that comes out, the more.

[Chuck Pagano]

I feel like podcast you guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Great tackle.

[Chuck Pagano]

What are we saying, guys?

[Pat McAfee]

Great tackle. I think he made a Pro Bowl. He did. You guys want him third, second round. That's what I would. I mean I would do. That was what I would do. That's why I would never be a president of a team.

[Chuck Pagano]

You think the Giants played that?

[Pat McAfee]

Obviously I want to play a terrible team in a big market. Okay. Thanks for being a champion. Okay. That's what, you know, that's what playoffs are, you know, just terrible teams.

[Chuck Pagano]

45 burger comes.

[Pat McAfee]

So I'm just a whole. Get them the out of the city. I can't. I can't do it legit. But that's also why I went. I'm a president gm. I think there's a couple moves you make. You can get your culture back. I think it's going to involve trading some big names though and saying, hey, that ain't how we doing. It anymore. Now will they do that? I have no idea. We'll continue to make these picks on YouTube, ESPN Plus, Disney plus and tick tock Live. Okay, we're off tomorrow. We're back on overreaction. Monday should be electrifying. Next week we'll be down in Miami. We'll also be in Dallas for the Orange bowl and the Cotton bowl. And then obviously the playoffs ramp up in the NFL Black Mondays right around the corner. Who's gonna have a job, who's not? There's a lot to be thankful for. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We'll see you on Monday. Goodbye. I think we got it. I think we get it 30 seconds earlier because Mike Foss sold a 30 second ad clip at the end of the show. Add a baby, Mike. Hey, 24 bucks. Bucks.

[AJ Hawk]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Those 30 second ads are really the ones that are doing damage in 2024, 2025. Yeah. I'm not gonna get into it.

[AJ Hawk]

Buy you seven gallons of gas.

[Chuck Pagano]

What do they cost?

[Pat McAfee]

I assume people are paying upwards 36 bucks for those. At least 37. Who's negotiating these deals? Mike Foss. I think it's actually Mike, Mickey Mouse. I think it's Mike Foss, Mike Lawson, Mickey Mouse, saying, hey, remember these 30 second ad rates? They work. Yeah, right. Always have. Last 60 years. These ones are the ones. Yeah. People don't just immediately go to their phones or a different channel or something else. Whenever these come on. They still matter. Yeah, they don't. Most of them stink.

[AJ Hawk]

Shite.

[Ty Schmidt]

There's some shite up.

[Pat McAfee]

You put a little pizza though on the screen and it's got a little smoke on it.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Wait a minute, is that pizza? Wait, wait, I forgot. I do like pizza. 30 second AD reworks.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

You put a couple of these. You put a couple of these. I don't love. No, I'm not getting into it.

[AJ Hawk]

No, no.

[Boston Connor]

Still delicious.

[Pat McAfee]

It's been a whole season of these boneless wings. Can we get an actual wing deal with pizza? We've been trying our best, have we not?

[Laura Rutledge]

What do we have to do here?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, the boundless ones are able to bundle and they could do this entire. But it's a great deal. This is not a 2024, this is a 2003 deal. This deal, right.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

It's not an inflation 2025, 2024 deal. So I like that. The pizza people are like, we gotta peacock this thing a little bit. Well, that being said, the bone and wings are phenomenal. So good. The pizza, so damn good. So they tried at that Chargers bolt. So ability.

[AJ Hawk]

They tried real hard, valiantly.

[Pat McAfee]

And a paisan outside of a pizza oven thing with the stick.

[Ty Schmidt]

Didn't they say that was. And I'm not not being sarcastic here, because it'll come off like that. Didn't they say it was Emeril's pizza oven? They had it shipped from Italy, I.

[Pat McAfee]

Think you guys said that.

[Chuck Pagano]

Wolfgang Puck, I believe.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah. I was not being.

[Darius Butler]

That was batali.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no.

[AJ Hawk]

For shooting.

[Pat McAfee]

That's it right there. Oh, we missed it. Yeah, that's that one right there. Oh, that's sweet. Super Italian.

[Chuck Pagano]

Super.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they were super Italians cooking. And I would say the pepperon was crisp. Oh, yeah. Delicious. It was. It was some solid pizza. But once again, no one, and we.

[AJ Hawk]

Mean no one out pizza's the hut.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't care if it's coming out of a helmet oven. No, I don't care if it's coming out of Los Angeles. I don't care how paisano seguido is. It's cooking the pizza. No. 1. There's been a couple places I've been to, but it's hard to get. You know, they're not sure. You walk into some of those old places, they get that thing. It's just properly.

[Ty Schmidt]

We're talking national.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah, for sure. Blind taste test, though. You put both those behind.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom.

[AJ Hawk]

You know, holy what? This is divine. Slice of heaven.

[Pat McAfee]

And then you go, that was Pizza Hut. And that's why no one, and we.

[AJ Hawk]

Mean no one now.

[Pat McAfee]

Pizza's the hut. I think there are some people that are close in the boneless wings department to Pizza Hut, you know, because chicken nuggets with flavor, certainly done by a lot of people. The difference with Pizza Hut is they have actual fryers in there. So they're making their chicken nuggets with flavor.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, the bone in wings are, I mean, unbeatable.

[Pat McAfee]

So good. Yeah, just do it.

[AJ Hawk]

Top flight.

[Pat McAfee]

Why don't you get you some bone in wings and some pizza for the sugar bowl. Kicking off in two hours.

[Chuck Pagano]

Imagine.

[Pat McAfee]

Smart move. What a time.

[Boston Connor]

You want to have a great year, Start it right.

[Pat McAfee]

Call Parker. He didn't have good service when we talked to him the other night, though.

[Boston Connor]

He might still be on tv.

[Ty Schmidt]

You guys start your resolutions.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I worked out this morning. I did 14 push ups. Thank you. I'm on it. Parker, we're live. We're live. We're live. We're live. Right now on the Pat McAfee Show. Yes. Yes, we are live chips. You're eating chips. Let's put the chips away for a second, please. Please, no more chips. Just for now, just for you. Can you tell everybody what 2024 was like? Was it a hell of a year or no? 2024 was a hell of a year, man. Very blessed. A lot of good things got to.

[Chuck Pagano]

Go on the Pat McAfee Show.

[Pat McAfee]

We need to hear it. We need to hear it. We need to hear it.

[Laura Rutledge]

2024 was great for me, man.

[Pat McAfee]

And, you know, I'm the only person that can make 2025 great for myself.

[Chuck Pagano]

And even better than 2024.

[Pat McAfee]

So I like that. I like that. I like that. But 2025, whenever it's all said and done, because you're taking accountability for yourself, and only you can control your happiness. I like that mindset. That is a good one for the world to hear. But on New Year's eve, going in 2026, we're going to say 2025, man. That was better. No, no, you're still doing it wrong. You know what we want. You know what we want. What. What type of year was it? Parker, what type of year was it? It was that kind of year. Play the hits, damn it. You described a year perfectly.

[Boston Connor]

Piece of shite.

[Pat McAfee]

This is shite. I have to do that in the.

[Laura Rutledge]

Grocery store all the time, man.

[Pat McAfee]

It's been a hell of a year. I'll save this for you. Hold on. Let us say it for. Let us say it because we've been working on this. It's been a hell of a year. Okay, now, is that good? I remember from last time. You guys can sing.

[Chuck Pagano]

Y'all got a little something going on there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it's special over there. Listen, we'll turn the auto tune on if you want us to. I would say 2025 has already been a hell of a year. I don't speak too soon, but it's been good. It looks like it's Pringles right now. I think it looks like you're eating a Pringle. Regular Pringles. Wow.

[Boston Connor]

Nice og.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that your favorite, or is that the only one available at this moment? We got a lot of chips here. It was a. We had a great 2024. We got some good chips. What you have, what you had, you had. We got all the good stuff. And these are. These are regular Pringles, though. These are the OGs. And that's it. That's. That's it. You had a hell Of a year, man. I'm proud of you. And it was a hell of a year.

[Boston Connor]

That was a hell of a can.

[Laura Rutledge]

I'm to that point of the can.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, I don't like those people saying you used autotune, by the way. We weren't happy about that because we saw your ass stand right here. No. Terrible.

[Ty Schmidt]

He cut his teeth. He cut his teeth in Nashville. He would do that.

[Pat McAfee]

He did cut his teeth in Nashville. His s moved back to the ranch, though. He's on a horse. This, you know, we see the whole entire thing. You had a hell of a year, Parker. We're proud of you, buddy. Thank you. Love you guys. Appreciate y'all calling me and seeing what I was doing. It's been a hell of a year.

[Boston Connor]

Boom. Thank you, Parker.

[Darius Butler]

Got it.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you, Parker. Thank you, Parker. That's kind of shite.

[AJ Hawk]

It was. It was a bit shy.

[Pat McAfee]

It was kind of shy, to be fair.

[Boston Connor]

Probably had to do the hell of a year gimmick for. Couldn't put down 100 times the last 24 hours.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, what. These are the worst three days for him. Hey, hey. Make a great, like, New Year's song, you know, they said. What they didn't say was, everybody now is going to ask you. Yeah, yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Just like your schedule. Open the first three days of the year. Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Just like saying that a lot. Shaboozy.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Sing the tipsy song. I got five other heaters.

[Boston Connor]

Shut up and sing the.

[Ty Schmidt]

Nobody cares. Tipsy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Parker, what type of years it been? It's been a good year for my family. Like, don't care.

[Boston Connor]

Don't be a fool.

[Pat McAfee]

We do not, buddy.

[Ty Schmidt]

I had a baby.

[Pat McAfee]

I called him on New Year's while we were pretty boozed up at dinner. And him just getting off a stage, sweating Parker's bear hell of years. All right. Okay. All right. I got a bunch of drunk guys at a restaurant right now singing to me. Parker, can we hear a little bit? Then he lost service. Couldn't see him.

[AJ Hawk]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

They're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Ty Schmidt]

Who.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't know if you just sang or not. I did not. Okay, do it now. Why aren't you singing right now? I've been on TV since 7:00pm oh, okay. Yeah, we missed it. No TVs here, as you can see. No TVs. Hey, Parker. It's been a hell of a year. All of us. All right, let's get back to picking the game, shall we? So who's on the Colts?

[Boston Connor]

You and Chuck?

[AJ Hawk]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Age. You're on The Jags. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

I like what Mac Jones is doing. Give me the Jags.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll be excited to see what the turnout is for that game. It feels like a lot of Colts fans have gotten to the point where we're done with this, you know, kind of done with this.

[Darius Butler]

Colts need to get to a hot start, I think, in that one.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, it'll be good. Momentum.

[Pat McAfee]

Take tractor. Another round, boys. I don't know if the transfer portal is available for all you, but you should give it a shot. They should give it a shot this off season.

[Chuck Pagano]

They got a shot. After getting embarrassed like that.

[Pat McAfee]

They don't care. That's the thing. That's the problem is this group.

[Chuck Pagano]

This is. This will be very, like. We know a lot right now, but this will be very, very telling. Then they didn't show up when the.

[Pat McAfee]

Playoffs were on the line, Coach. They're showing up for this. What are you saying?

[Boston Connor]

They don't give a shit.

[Pat McAfee]

This team does not care. They get a check to be in the NFL. They get to say they're NFL players. And if you have a couple of those guys on your team, you can hope that, like, hey, it's not just about being on team. It's about, like being a part of the team and like being a good team and like being a good pro. It feels like 87% of their team is just like the guys that you don't want on your team, and that's not good. Talent everywhere, they've talent damn near. They've paid guys everywhere, and now it's just we're lucky that they're wearing the uniform in the city. You're wrong. And I can't wait for you all to be gone. And I don't know if that's even possible, but I'm hoping for it legitimately. And the more I read Zach Keefer, the more I read, the more I hate. Because there's a lot of good people in that building, Chuck, you know, Absolutely. A lot of great people in that.

[Chuck Pagano]

They've been in there, sacrificed a lot.

[Pat McAfee]

Long time. Long, long hours building stuff, doing all the shit you don't want to do, like just to, you know, put a left hand up. Selfless for the Colts since they got here from Baltimore in 1980 something. So, like, seeing all the different iterations of the Colts, they kind of have a good feel on what's going to work, what's not going to work. And then you talk to them and it's like they're wondering what the. And then you hear this stuff coming, it's like, what the. What are we doing here? Is this even a professional outfit or what are we just. We're lining up 11 guys to go play football for a movie every single week? That's what it feels like. I don't like it age. I don't like it one bit. Agent.

[Chuck Pagano]

You know Mr. Ursay and you know how much he loves and cares and what he'll. What he'll do for his players. Right. And for. For that to give back to like, that's a slap. And not to mention, like, there's no better owner to me. I like the way he loves and cares about these dudes. Come on.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, we'll see if he loves and cares about the city because clock's ticking.

[Ty Schmidt]

What do you mean?

[Boston Connor]

We need two Super Bowls by 20, 30. So he better get this thing. He better trade for Josh Allen or something.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you saying? Two Super Bowls in a decade.

[Boston Connor]

That's what he said. And if. Guess what? If it doesn't happen, I want a piece of the team then. Because he guaranteed that to be happening.

[Pat McAfee]

Your taxes are going towards that, aren't you?

[Boston Connor]

My taxes are going down the scheiter because nobody is playing ball in this city.

[Ty Schmidt]

What was it counter? Two Super Bowls in the last decade. But you know every other team in the division has at least two division championships and the Colts don't have one.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

So that.

[Pat McAfee]

It feels like a lot of you are piling on right now.

[Chuck Pagano]

Sometimes they're coming off the top turnbuckle.

[Pat McAfee]

It's all there. It's all. It's always there.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. I mean if it looks like shite and it smells like shite, guess what? It might be shite.

[Pat McAfee]

I thought about like running into an event to one of these guys on the coats, but they don't do community stuff, so they wouldn't be at any event.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

And if we see blue. Yeah. And if we see him, we're gonna his shite up.

[Pat McAfee]

We like blue.

[Chuck Pagano]

No, we like blue.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm done with that blue.

[Ty Schmidt]

Did you see it was in that Keefer article.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you mean you're done with blue? What's that Done with it all.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're calling them shite stanking instead of Shane Steichen.

[Pat McAfee]

No, they're not. I know that's not true. I know that's not true.

[Chuck Pagano]

Stop it.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a lot of smoke coming out of that team though, about like who's doing what, what's going to be. Nobody knows except for one man. His name is Jim Mercy. That's a nice piece of information to have. I didn't know he was still making like end decision because I don't think he's in there every single day. I think the daughters are in there every single day. So I thought maybe they're the ones that were gonna have to make make the decision. But from what we've been told, right, Still Jim making all the decisions for the program. Hopefully he takes a nice hit of that vape and thinks to himself, this place is shite, brother. Sounds make change. That's what I'm hoping legitimately. Because it's like, you know, in a lot of these cities the football team is like what you do during the fall. Yes, like that is what to do.

[Boston Connor]

But everyone cares about people talk about.

[Pat McAfee]

Like you're in LA or Miami. There's a lot of distractions, a lot of other to do. It's like in the fall in a lot of places, football towns, it's like the football team is it. So whenever you watch shite and just can clearly see it and then they're not a likable bunch, it's like, so we're just going to have another miserable fall with this group of people. I don't know. I don't know. And whose fault is I don't know. Seemingly everybody top down.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean no disrespect to Indiana or Notre Dame or whoever else, but like you can't have the NFL team in your city be like the third, third most talked about or third most important team or third most exciting team. Like that just can't happen. Especially when you're not an also ran franchise and you had Peyton Manning and you know what I mean?

[Pat McAfee]

Like a lot of history, a lot of football here.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of football people here in Indiana, A lot of football people here. They also a lot of like old school people here. You know, a lot of old school. That's why Signetti comes in here and it's like we're gonna work hard. I don't think they loved him talking to Notre Dame because a lot of Indiana people, also Notre Dame fans, I think that was a miscalculation potentially by Sig, but the way he operates, old school, work hard, you know, like chip on shoulder, like that's Indiana people is a very like very military place too. So like they. So whenever you got these, this, if you're winning it's fine, but like if you don't represent the state, the city in the fashion in which they would like it to be, it's like. And then you also suck and continue to suck. It's like, where are you? Why do you get off thinking you can be the.

[Chuck Pagano]

I think what. You'll get a little bit of a pass. Like, everybody knows you're gonna have a bad. A bad day here and there. And if they know you are dying and killing yourself to do everything possible to make sure that you show up for these people week in and week out, then it's like, okay, we'll get it next week. But they gotta. They gotta know that. That you're. You're freaking gonna die on that treadmill before you let somebody else beat you.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And that's the thing. I don't know if these guys even know how to turn a treadmill on, you know? And that's. That's seemingly the problem. Just from my outside looking in. Just from outside looking at. Thank God I'm not on that team. But also if I was on that team, it's like the locker room can police themselves. None of that there in blue winning this loot to service award. I mean, I don't even know. Congrats. Congrats.

[Boston Connor]

That's what's saving his ass right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Blue's good. Blue's a good mascot. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Is Blue the one that ate Foxy?

[Pat McAfee]

That's Air Blue. Yeah. I don't think Air Blue one this loot serves.

[Darius Butler]

There's multiple mascots, though. For the Colts, there's Junior Blue, Air.

[Pat McAfee]

Blue, then there's actual blue Marvel superheroes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

That was potentially.

[AJ Hawk]

That's when you should have known that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Was kind of the Turner. But wasn't it?

[Pat McAfee]

Remember when he had New York Times Square Spider man fighting off against Captain Americana?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

In the middle of the thing and the Spider man couldn't fit in the. And they were running across the field.

[Darius Butler]

I just saw that guy. Actually. We took my kids to Madame Tussauds the day before the game out in la. We saw the slightly overweight Spider man jammed into a Spider man costume. Trying to get pictures with my kids.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, he was a halftime show for the Colts last year. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

And I should have told him, hey, good work last year.

[Boston Connor]

Need your back, brother.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, great. He brought the house down. He brought the house. I hand himself. When he passed out. Almost had a heart attack at the 50 yard line because he ran 20 yards.

[Chuck Pagano]

Come on.

[Pat McAfee]

Trying to catch up. He was doing this one. It wasn't working either because I think you got to be have a little bit of energy to get out. He's doing one of these Ah, it. I'll run and catch him. And then he didn't know he had run in a while. We could tell by looking at him. But he didn't know.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Captain America had to give him CPR on the 50.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, no.

[Pat McAfee]

What's the name of Spider man in real life?

[AJ Hawk]

Pete Parker.

[Pat McAfee]

So embarrassed by the Pete Parker that they chose to put out there at the halftime show. They'll figure it out. The Colts, they'll get it all figured out. Transfer portal.

[Boston Connor]

Need it just fall to the island of irrelevancy.

[Pat McAfee]

Either way, been there for a while. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

What we're still talking about, I mean, like, hey.

[Pat McAfee]

Only reason we're talking about on those, because the show happens to be from Indianapolis, which isn't forever. Although I love this place. I do love this place. I enjoy the city. I do love the city. I don't like the rich class here in this city. Sure, I don't get along with any of the suits of the city, but the people. I like the actual people, you know, I like Tyrese.

[AJ Hawk]

Mm.

[Pat McAfee]

He's the best. I like Tyres Halliburton a lot. I like the Pacers a lot. I think the Fever are going to be able to continue to do their thing if the WNBA remains a league, even though they're trying their best, you know, how do we get everybody to fucking hate us so we don't have a league? You know, they're trying their best every day, it seems like. Let me open my phone. Oh, okay. They're still trying to ruin their league. That's good. That'll get figured out. I think they'll figure that out. And Fever are going to go on and win. That's good news. The people here, here, local business owners, the people that call this place home, phenomenal people. But the culture, the biggest representation of this city in this state, and they got a lot of bum tendencies all over the place. They'll figure it out, though. Good luck, boys. Tough Jags team.

[AJ Hawk]

Tough Jags.

[Ty Schmidt]

Tough Jags.

[Pat McAfee]

Tough Jags team. You still in The Colts. After everything we just said?

[Chuck Pagano]

Colts gotta beat the shite out of the Jags.

[AJ Hawk]

Well said.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll take the Colts as well. Last game. This is something they would do. Let's fuck up the draft pick at least, you know, let's. Let's do one last. How can we say, fuck Union city. That's what this Colts team's gonna do, and we're thankful for it. Bears, packers, packers favored by 10. Ty, anything to think about for this game?

[AJ Hawk]

Not a whole lot to Play for. I think it's kind of out of their hands. Obviously. They need to win. They could still be the fifth seed, but. Or, excuse me, the six seed. But that's as high as they could go right now. They're currently slotted as the seventh seed.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Awesome. Love that. Jordan loves a dog.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, he didn't play great last week, but I don't know if that's necessarily all on him, so we'll see. He. He's still been good.

[Pat McAfee]

They.

[AJ Hawk]

They need to start fast.

[Pat McAfee]

Bears stink.

[AJ Hawk]

They do. But the Bears played the packers very tough last. I mean, packers blocked the last second field goal to beat them.

[Ty Schmidt]

So packers can go up to six if the Commanders lose to the Cowboys.

[Pat McAfee]

And Z, you wore that Chicago Bears hat into the Chargers facility. I noticed that after we left. Yes, sir. You've been riding alongside of them. You have no idea who the coach is going to be or the GM or what the future is. How do you feel about this particular game against the packers to wrap up this horrendous 2024 NFL season for the Bears? I think we would in Lambo. Okay, I'll take the Green Bay packers favored by 10.

[Chuck Pagano]

J's out, right?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

For the rest of the season.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that mean, Ty? Nothing.

[AJ Hawk]

Cuz he hasn't really played like at all the last two years, so. You know.

[Pat McAfee]

Love J though. Love everything.

[Chuck Pagano]

Give me the points.

[Pat McAfee]

You like the Bears. A.J.

[Darius Butler]

Homer, give me the Packers -10. Zito did not. Zito's enthusiasm did not sway me over to the Bears.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll take the packers favored by 10. Big win going into the playoffs. Get that mojo back. I feel like Jordan Love is a swagger guy. It feels like a good one. Speaking of what you just mentioned, Commanders taking on the Dallas Cowboys. Commanders favored by five going into Cooper Kush's town. Cooper Kush is sitting at 52 and a half percent of the snaps played this particular season. If they get to 55%, he hits a $500,000 incentive congrats of Cooper cup or Cooper Rush potentially getting to that. We assume he will. With that being said, I like the Commanders by at least a touchdown. A.J. your thoughts? Yes.

[Darius Butler]

With all that being said, I. I like the Commanders as well. I've been a big fan of what Dan Quinn has been doing and I think they are. I think they might make a little run in the playoffs.

[Chuck Pagano]

Chuck, you're riding high. Give me the commander.

[Pat McAfee]

Saints getting 13 and a half against Tampa. Who needs the win? Win. Tampa needs a win for the NFC South I like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to get the job done here and cover. Don't love what has happened with this New Orleans Saints team. Oh, should we think about what just happened in New Orleans?

[AJ Hawk]

That's what I was gonna say. I feel like that kind of thing can really galvanize a team, like, especially when their season has kind of largely been shite. Like this could be like a nice little send off.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so I'll take the saints plus 13 and a half. I'm gonna take the saints plus 13 and a half just because that is bigger than the game there and a lot to pull from, especially if you're a citizen and a member of that community. How about you, A.J.

[Darius Butler]

Who'S playing quarterback for the Saints?

[Pat McAfee]

Spencer.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, right. Okay. You know, I. Thirteen and a half. Yeah. I think the Bucs probably win, but give me the saints plus 13 now.

[Pat McAfee]

Chuck.

[Chuck Pagano]

Yeah, I love Darren Rizzi when he came on and talked about this, this, you know, tragedy that happened down there. They got so many injuries though. They will galvanize and they'll fight for a minute. I just don't think they have enough. And Tampa Bay is riding high and this for the NFC south title and, you know, get a home playoff game, all that stuff. Give me Tampa.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll take the bucks as well. Houston favored. No. Houston going into Tennessee as a dog.

[Boston Connor]

Believe they're arresting everybody.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, because they're locked in.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

They can't.

[Chuck Pagano]

Tennessee's got the number two ranked defense in the league too.

[Pat McAfee]

Nobody talks about it. Everybody thinks Tennessee stinks. They do.

[AJ Hawk]

They do.

[Pat McAfee]

They need a quarterback this off season. They're going to continue to build in that Callahan system, you would assume. Tennessee fans, I think, are, you know, kind of distracted by the country music seeing what's going on. But if that Titan scene gets good, they rally behind that team. I mean that's a good football city if they're worth a damn.

[AJ Hawk]

New stadium on the way too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So hopefully next year they will be worth a damn in this entire. C.J. stroud not playing. Is that what you said?

[Ty Schmidt]

Believe he is not.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, I think it's like a defense as well kind of rest in.

[Darius Butler]

Hey, we're so they rest in some offensive linemen too. You only rest your quarter like, you know, if you're starting quarterbacks playing. Your. You're starting offensive line is playing. Are they going to pull a couple of linemen out?

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[Chuck Pagano]

That's dumb.

[Pat McAfee]

What?

[Chuck Pagano]

As bad as they've been playing, they need to play to get. Get some mojo Back?

[Pat McAfee]

I think so.

[Chuck Pagano]

Give me Tennessee. But that. That's dumb.

[Pat McAfee]

You don't like. You don't like that we're resting, not risking any injuries.

[Chuck Pagano]

That's like they've been resting for the last five weeks.

[Pat McAfee]

That's like the Steelers too. Like, the Steelers cannot have a four game schneide going into the playoffs. Like, they need to win a game no matter what's on the line, whether they're looking at the next week or not. It's like the Texans. Same exact thing. You need to figure out how to play good ball again. I. I think you would want to go do that. What are you saying, Tone?

[Ty Schmidt]

I. I haven't seen anything yet that he's officially out, but I think we're just judging based off the line.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll take the Texans. I'll take the Texans who need one down there in Tennessee. Beautiful city of Nashville. Who do you like, A.J.

[Darius Butler]

I like the Texans as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Giants, Eagles, everybody's resting in Philadelphia, including saquon, who is 101 yards away, or what is the number 100? 101 yards away from the all time leading rushing record. Here's what Saquon had to say about the decision. The coach asked me, you know, what I like to do. We had a conversation, he called me back, let me know that we were probably gonna be resting. And my reaction was kind of like, I told my family, obviously my family, you know, probably wondered a little bit more than me, but at the end of the day, the most important thing is winning football games and winning the playoffs. So I got a bigger go on mine anyway. I mean, he asked me if I wanted to play, if I want to go for it. I said on Sunday, you know, I probably didn't care too much for it. When I slept on it, I was like, there's an opportunity to implant my, you know, my name in football history. May never get another opportunity like that again. So I'm down. But at the end of the day, like, I don't care for putting the team at risk. He's the head coach for a reason. He makes those decisions. And whatever decision he wanted to make, I let him know, if you want me to play, I'm gonna go out there and make sure I get it. And if we don't, I'm okay with that too. Isn't it crazy that if that's 50 yards, they're going for it, right? Because he can get that in the first quarter. 101 yards, that's like, that's a full game going for 101 yards. So Sirianni literally has to sit there and just be like, if I play him and he gets hurt, let's say it's 30 yards into this thing somehow rolls an ankle. I'm not saying that Saquon isn't built Ram truck tough, okay? I'm not saying that that isn't the case. But I'm saying if you play him and he gets it and nothing happens to him, huge success. Way to go. We did it. We're. We're in it. We're in the history books forever. This is going to be one that's going to be tough to ever get, especially with the way football has kind of changed. But if he plays, when he gets hurt, it's fired. Sirianni's fire, gone. Gone. No questions asked.

[Chuck Pagano]

Gone.

[Pat McAfee]

See you get this goofball the hell out of the city. We said this John was going to make a decision that was going to ruin our season. Oh, oh. For a running back record. Okay. Well, he did it in 17 games anyways. He won 16 games. That's how people would react. Now granny doesn't play him, doesn't give him an opportunity. This guy, I don't like his players. This guy. This is a. I know we've talked about Sirianni a lot this year because everybody else has talked about him. They're on a winning team and the reason why they're not playing is because they've already figured out what their playoffs look like and everything. They're in there. They're a very good team. But this is not a decision I'm happy that I would ever have to make. I am very thankful.

[Chuck Pagano]

No, you don't want any part of it. It's a no win deal. But you remember earlier in the year when Sirianni went down to Saquon, they're sitting on the bench and he had that, that monster game. I forget.

[Boston Connor]

The Giants.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Chuck Pagano]

Okay, so he's at 170, 180 yards, right, against Giants. And he said, no, let them other guys eat Saquon, Dad. So he's very selfless in this. And it's a, it's a huge, you know, it's a really, really tough decision for the, for the head coach, but he's doing the best thing.

[Pat McAfee]

I like that. His family, Saquon's family was like, yeah, you were real nice what you were saying. It doesn't matter, you know, how long Dickerson's had this fucking record. There's a reason this one is a long one. Who knows if you're ever going to get back into this situation to go get this thing. And I am speaking as a person that was a very small part of a member of a team that was undefeated and chose to lose the final two games basically by resting all the players going in the playoffs and we lose in the super bowl to the New Orleans Saints. And Reggie Bush, who was great on the field pass yesterday.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, he was.

[Pat McAfee]

Congrats to him. High fashion. Had to figure it out because they gave him a jacket too big. But the older players, I think as they look back, obviously regret losing to the Saints, but obviously didn't like that they weren't given the opportunity to maybe have a perfect season. But if they play in those last two games and somebody gets hurt, we lose. Because we're a very not deep team. We're a very high end team. You lose Dallas Clark, you lose Reggie Wayne, you lose one of the offensive linemen. Fuck, God forbid, any of those situations. It's like you were in massive jeopardy. And Bill Polian made that decision. I think for everybody. Jim Caldwell didn't make it. I think it was Bill Pulling was like, nope. We are looking forward to the playoffs. That's not a fun position to be Saquon. We assume you'll get it next year.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Chuck Pagano]

You think if he wins a super Superbook gets a ring this year, if he didn't like if he got the rushing record. Hall of Fame one way or another affects his resume. Saquon like so if he doesn't win a. Got the record but didn't win a ring or vice versa.

[Pat McAfee]

Records automatic into the. Oh, yeah. Record automatic and all of him. I think Saquon's at the point now where he's gonna end up.

[Darius Butler]

He's only the ninth guy, right? Only the ninth guy to get 2,000 plus.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Russian yard.

[Pat McAfee]

We just put up the list over here about.

[Darius Butler]

It's a huge deal.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, huge deal. Obviously, Adrian, Jamal, you're talking about the who's who of this entire thing. Mile High salutes.

[Chuck Pagano]

You think he's in already?

[Pat McAfee]

Regardless, then I think getting here, he was also. What. What pick was he?

[AJ Hawk]

Two?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I think if you're that highly touted and then what he's going to do with Philadelphia, I think in Philly, he's going to have to go here. I think he's gonna have to have multiple years like this because of how bad the Giants were. But I think he is on a path to hall of Fame. I think everybody kind of can see it. The reverse jump over backwards guy. It's just like this thing is different, but you get the rushing record, you're automatically in. If you're running back, I think. What would you do?

[Chuck Pagano]

I'd do it. Sirianna. I wouldn't play him because you're going against the Giants, too. And last thing they. They're going to allow him. They'll put 10 guys in that box and just let you throw touchdown passes before they're going to let this guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Who says that that's what the Giants.

[Chuck Pagano]

Would do or that that would work guarantee you.

[Pat McAfee]

Mr. Mara, it doesn't matter what Mr. Mary said. We've already seen him say a lot of things. Yeah. And just completely backfires. Yeah.

[Chuck Pagano]

I wouldn't throw him. I wouldn't throw him out there.

[Pat McAfee]

101'S a lot of yards.

[Darius Butler]

I wish he was playing. No, I thought it was. I thought it was gonna be much. I thought it was going to be, you know, 150, 160. And then I still thought maybe they'll give him a shot. When I saw 101, I'm thinking Saquon might do that in a quarter and a half and then get him out of there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, Legit.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm okay either way. I would like to let everybody know I'm okay either way. If he goes for it and gets it. Legendary. If he goes for it and gets hurt.

[Ty Schmidt]

But then you got to play all those great offensive linemen. You have as well, too, right. If he's going for it, they're going.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they all have.

[Darius Butler]

They want the record, too. As D butt said, that's not just a running back. They gotta. That's if he breaks it. I mean, the 2000 is already a testament to the O line. The O line coach, everything. Offensive coordinator. But that is kind of an offensive team away reward when a guy like that breaks that record.

[Pat McAfee]

Can't live in your fears either, right? Okay.

[Darius Butler]

Nope.

[Pat McAfee]

What if your fear becomes your reality and then all of a sudden it's, oh, no, this guy's a big dumb dip. He's yelling at the fans again. Why'd you put him out?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, that's cute.

[Pat McAfee]

That's real cute. Put him out there. Somebody gotta be an adult in the room. Sirianni answers there. What do you want for me?

[Chuck Pagano]

Can you. How would you like to go up to that podium?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh. After. If you get hurt. Oh, I always go for my guys. I up.

[AJ Hawk]

Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

Just like.

[AJ Hawk]

What do you want me to say?

[Pat McAfee]

Why'd you do it?

[AJ Hawk]

Do we not want. Are we not Trying to break records.

[Pat McAfee]

Trying to win Super Bowls. Right?

[AJ Hawk]

We're trying to win Super Bowls, too. We're breaking records. Is nice, isn't it?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, is it? I don't know. Is it nice whenever you lose a guy? Well, yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

And I guess now Saquon's out for the rest of the season, it's maybe not so nice, but we'll be okay. We'll be just fine.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think he has to be okay. We'll. The percentage of the offense that runs through one guy, first everybody else, and now you got to go to your most important game and you're without your. Your ace because he played well.

[AJ Hawk]

At this point, it doesn't matter because I'm get fired after a season anyway.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, Coach, we say that's the reality of the situation that Sirianni has to figure out. All right, let's go to the next game here. Do we like the Philadelphia eagles favored by 2 1/2?

[AJ Hawk]

Giants are kind of hot.

[Ty Schmidt]

They are very hot.

[Pat McAfee]

Look now Drew Lock. Yeah, I'll take Drew.

[Boston Connor]

Got that thing on.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm gonna take Drew Lock in the New York. What a fucking horrible thing to come out of your mouth. I like the New York Giants against the Philadelphia. Bruce, how do you feel? How's. It doesn't sound good coming out, but what you guys did to the Colts makes me believe you guys maybe got a shot.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, we win and we fall.

[Pat McAfee]

To 9th looking for our franchise quarterback of the future.

[AJ Hawk]

So I'm hoping Malik Neighbors goes out there. I think he needs like probably 3.

[Pat McAfee]

4, 5 catches, I forget the number.

[AJ Hawk]

To break Puka Nuku's record and then.

[Darius Butler]

You know, yank him and hopefully lose this game on purpose.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Okay. So they're trying to lose. Eagles aren't trying to win. What? Who do you like? Who do you like? Chuck?

[Chuck Pagano]

I'll take Philly.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Just because the amount of talent.

[Darius Butler]

AJ yeah, I'm going to take Philly here.

[Pat McAfee]

I will as well. Just because it's impossible for me to even. I try to say it. I try to say Giants plus two.

[Boston Connor]

Almost had it.

[Pat McAfee]

I just couldn't do it. Chiefs. Broncos. Broncos favored by 10 and a half with the Kansas City Chiefs resting everybody. Similar situation to when Patrick Mahomes actually got his first time playing in the NFL. Kansas City Chiefs with Alex Smith has already secured whatever their playoff spot was going to be last week of the year. They're playing the Denver Broncos in Denver. Patrick Mahomes comes out and wins for the Kansas City Chiefs. Didn't need to win. Did win. They would then trade Alex Smith to Washington. Patrick Mahomes would become the new quarterback. New franchise quarterback for Kansas City. And then that's all she wrote. Then it became a whole new era of NFL dynasty football. Will Carson Wentz be able to do the same thing and keep it within ten and a half? How many people are not playing? Patrick Mahomes not playing. That means Travis probably not playing. Chris Jones is not playing on defensive side. How many more people do we know?

[Ty Schmidt]

You would think Hollywood, because he's been banged up all year.

[Boston Connor]

Pacheco.

[Ty Schmidt]

Pacheco definitely not playing.

[Pat McAfee]

Is Taney playing out there?

[AJ Hawk]

Afford to let him get hurt?

[Pat McAfee]

Where's Joe Tuni from?

[Darius Butler]

I believe he's from Centerville, Ohio.

[AJ Hawk]

Pat, did you know that Joe Tunley's from Centerville?

[Pat McAfee]

He's an Elk.

[Boston Connor]

Did not know that.

[Darius Butler]

No, he's not. He didn't go to center. He went to the Catholic school. He went to Altar, where Nick Mangold went. But, yes, he is from Centerville.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so he's got Centerville water pumping through his body. He doesn't have elk pride, though.

[Boston Connor]

Legend.

[Pat McAfee]

He doesn't.

[Darius Butler]

He could have, though. We could. He could have been an Elk for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. Putting that elk coming on, you're gonna have to earn that. I don't know if Joe Taney would have been able. Able to crack the starting lineup over there. Which is probably why I want to hang out with the Catholics out there. I did not know he was in Ohio. Makes sense, though. If he just says, put me a tackle. You need to put me up.

[Chuck Pagano]

Anything. Unbelievable, everybody.

[Pat McAfee]

He's not playing, I assume, right?

[AJ Hawk]

Doubt it.

[Pat McAfee]

Patrick Mahomes isn't playing.

[Chuck Pagano]

You only got 45 guys on the roster now, guys, remember that.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's not true.

[Chuck Pagano]

It's not like you can buy more. You got 53 and then you gotta sit.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, now with the. They got 18 on the practice squad, right?

[Chuck Pagano]

Yeah, but you can't just sign all those and cut everybody and bring those guys up. Tony, you got to play people.

[Pat McAfee]

So who do you like?

[Chuck Pagano]

Ten and a half. Carl Wentz and the Chiefs. Give me ten and a half.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow. Andy Reid still coaching? That's what Chuck just said. Is Smag still coaching? Is Tobe still coaching? Are the coaches taking the game off.

[Chuck Pagano]

Or are they still get to rest, Pat?

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, they wouldn't want it any other way. That's like fourth quarter of those preseason games. They get shot on those head coaches and they're still like, dialed in.

[Chuck Pagano]

It's like, imagine this. The young players that are getting an opportunity. You know how big this is for them?

[Pat McAfee]

Huge.

[Chuck Pagano]

They frickin go off.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you think, A.J. you like the Broncos who are in a must win situation or do you like the Kansas City Chiefs who are kind of saying, you know, let's mail it in.

[Darius Butler]

I obviously I love what the Broncos defense does. I like Bo Nix, but I'm taking the Chiefs here. This is Carson Wentz, like another coming out party. He gets to reintroduce him himself to the nation as a great quarterback.

[Pat McAfee]

Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name's Carl. I'll take the Chiefs plus ten and a half. Wow. Seahawks, Rams. Seahawks. Favored by six and a half going into Los Angeles.

[Ty Schmidt]

James Garoppolo at quarterback for the Rams.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll take the Seahawks.

[Chuck Pagano]

Yep, same.

[Darius Butler]

I'll take the Rams.

[Chuck Pagano]

They're resting Jimmy G. They're not playing anybody.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't remember Jimmy G enough. You know, it was just a few years ago he wasn't went to a Super Bowl.

[AJ Hawk]

He was shite in Vegas.

[Chuck Pagano]

Good looking.

[Pat McAfee]

Some Geno Smith needs 185 passing yards for a 2 million dollar incentive. Okay, give me the Seattle Seahawks.

[Chuck Pagano]

That means they're gonna hand it off to his. Is Walker back? Seahawks are gonna just F him them.

[Pat McAfee]

You think so? No, they're gonna run the ball 45 times. Imagine they're gonna have a jet sweep to DK Metcalf. They're gonna have jet sweep to a lot of these. A lot of these. A lot of these. Let's go boys. Two million. That's a big. That is a massive payday. What's another incentive? That's huge. Mike Evans needs 85 yards and a touchdown for $3 million. Is that what I saw? Yes. 85 yards, five receptions, 85 yards, no touchdowns needed. $3 million. That is a gigantic, a gigantic incentive. Normally it's like 250,000 what you're seeing down here. 500,000 is a big one. $3 million for a 5 reception, 85 yard game for Mike Evans. Congrats to him on picking up a quick three mil. That's fantastic. Geno Smith, $2 million center. These are huge. This is when you sign a deal there and you give a team a friendly discount and then everything's like incentive laden. $3 million incentive laden is being nice to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But now that you're on the precipice of it, I believe biker's probably going to be looking for Mike Evans a lot. That go ahead.

[Ty Schmidt]

That 3 million is also I believe for him to get a thousand yards, which I think is his 12th straight season. Getting a thousand yards.

[Pat McAfee]

First ballot. Obviously. Another three mil in the books. Dustin D. Hop. DeAndre Hopkins. Not Dustin Hopkins. Kicker for the Browns. D. Hop. A touchdown. Six receptions. 100. 140 yards which could happen with Carl Went 750. 000. Kyler Murray. A rushing touchdown plus 50 rush yard. 750 grand. Derek Henry, Cortland Sutton, Tony Pollard, Joe Mixon, Valtez Scantling and Dobbins all playing for a little bit of cashola. Good luck to all you guys. We hope you secure it. Carl Wentz. We like him. Seattle Seahawks -6 1/2. I like them. A.J. who'd you take?

[Darius Butler]

I'm taking Jimmy G and the Rams here.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Ninerr his cards. We just talked about. Kyler Murray has the ability to win some stuff. Favored by four at home against his Niners team that fought valiantly against Lions. That was a hell of a Monday Night Football game. Great game. We were just catching it in clips because the WI fi on a plane. Obviously not as great as you could imagine.

[Chuck Pagano]

Quarterback for who? Sam Frown.

[Pat McAfee]

Who is it?

[Ty Schmidt]

Rock's out.

[Chuck Pagano]

The astronaut.

[Pat McAfee]

I would take the Arizona Cardinals favored by four at home.

[Chuck Pagano]

Me too.

[Pat McAfee]

Chuck Will as well.

[Darius Butler]

AJ Give me the Cardinals.

[Pat McAfee]

Dolphins. Jets. Dolphins are lurking. Huntley played his best game that he's ever played as a Miami Dolphin last week to his injury. Pops up out of nowhere. Now he's missing again. So that sounds very. That feels serious.

[Boston Connor]

Yes, definitely.

[Pat McAfee]

This one feels very serious. Don't know what it is. It's the same hip they said, but they haven't really. Right. They haven't fully put out what it is. No. Jets fresh off their worst game of all time. Now, what does Aaron's future look like? Nobody knows. He said open everything attached to nothing. That includes playing again. That includes playing for the jets if they want to keep them there in the new regime, which we all assume not going to be the case. But there's going to be a lot of teams that potentially need a quarterback. Will Aaron Rodgers test the waters to go elsewhere? Will he be a Jet? Or will he just not play football and sail off into the sunset? So we're looking at potentially last hoorah here for Aaron Rodgers, who's a Mount Rushmore football player of all time. AJ who do you like? How do you like it here in MetLife? Are they gonna put Fireman Ed up on the Jumbotron?

[Darius Butler]

I don't know if that will happen or not but man Dolphins traveling to New York. Not sure what the weather will be like Tua being out. Give me the jets here.

[Pat McAfee]

I I think so. I I think Aaron understands and this is not from information he's told me but Aaron understands what's going on around him him. There's a chance this is the last time here.

[AJ Hawk]

There was a it was like an article or something came out that said like he is very aware that this is this could possibly be his last.

[Ty Schmidt]

Devonte is going to have 48 targets.

[Pat McAfee]

How about Gary Wilson? You get him the wall or not?

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't think so.

[Pat McAfee]

Jeez. Maybe there's a chance. Yeah, I like the jets as well.

[Chuck Pagano]

You like me the Jets.

[Pat McAfee]

How about that? That's just as hard as saying the Giants there. That's just as hard as saying I'll take take the jets plus one taking on a Miami Dolphins coming into the.

[Ty Schmidt]

Cold first must win team you guys didn't take I don't think.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah well listen we watch what the Colts did last week.

[Boston Connor]

No Broncos. They all took the Chiefs.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

It's ten and a half.

[Boston Connor]

Like a money line spread.

[Pat McAfee]

Chargers, Raiders, Raiders getting five at home. I'll tell you what, we all know which way we're going here.

[Chuck Pagano]

I know I wasn't even with you and I know which way exactly and.

[Pat McAfee]

I kind of got a glimpse into what Harbaugh stepped on a team this week. I think he's going to have the boys ready to go.

[AJ Hawk]

Message.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I I, I like the chargers favored by five here in week 18. Go ahead.

[Darius Butler]

Age yeah Justin Herbert, Jim Harbaugh. Give me the Chargers here.

[Pat McAfee]

There is some playoff implication seating here.

[Ty Schmidt]

In this particular they will know like they'll know if the Steelers lose then they can have something to play for. But if the Steelers win on Saturday they will have nothing to play.

[Pat McAfee]

And then it all comes down to this Vikings Lions for the number one seed in the NFC 2 NFC north team battling at 14 and two for home field advantage for the rest of the way. What a phenomenal season by both of these teams. Congrats to the Vikings rebuilding, becoming who they are. Congrats to the Lions getting out of the depths of hell from professional sports franchises to get to this point that they're in so many injuries all season long they've been able to continue to stack dubs because the pillars of that team are all in on being tough. A high football IQ team having fun while doing it and winning games. AJ who do you like? How do you like it?

[Darius Butler]

So I told you earlier in the program I was leaning towards the Lions here on this one. And I, I, I stand strong with that. I love the Vikings, what they do, but give me the Detroit Lions at home. I think they find a way to get it, make it happen, I guess.

[Chuck Pagano]

Chuck Pagano, shootout. Shit, ton of points. Bet the over. I'll take the Lions too.

[Pat McAfee]

I would take the Lions as well. Congrats to the Vikings having to go on the road, you know, take the long way home, at least for one round of the playoffs. I think they'll do that. Let's enjoy the hell out of this weekend of football. Let's know the college football playoffs will continue next week and also in an hour and 25 minutes. Let's know that Pizza Hut is always there for you, okay? And no. 1, and we mean no one. Alpiz is the hut. Hop in your Ram truck. Utilize doordash. Okay. Shout out to seat. Giving us tickets, everything we need. And let's enjoy the hell out of Pizza Hut. Let's have a great weekend. We can't thank you enough for being such a dedicated crew of people that follow us. You know, I know there's a lot of people watching that thing on ESPN2 last night, even though it was a completely crap game, because people, for some reason, really enjoy spending time with us. Well, we want to let you know we enjoy spending time with you. Thank you for allowing us to do this for a living. We hope you have a great weekend. From AJ Hawk, all the boys, Chuck Pagano. Great work this week. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. Might change your life. We're understanding together. Team on me. Happy2025. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three.

[Laura Rutledge]

Team.

[Pat McAfee]

Goodbye.