PMS 2.0 1397 - The Cowboys Trade Micah Parsons to the Packers, College Football Week 1 Preview, Matt Rhule, Will Howard, Ryan Day, Nick Saban, & AJ Hawk

Summary

The Pat McAfee Show 2.0 #1397 Summary

Date: August 29, 2025
Location: Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio (Live on-site broadcast)
Hosts: Pat McAfee, AJ Hawk, The Toxic Table (Ty Schmidt & Boston Connor), Tone Digs
Special Guests: Matt Rhule (Nebraska HC), Will Howard (Pittsburgh Steelers QB/former OSU QB), Ryan Day (Ohio State HC), Nick Saban (ESPN / ex-Alabama HC)

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Episode Overview

This electric, football-centric episode broadcasts live from Ohio Stadium to kick off College Football Week 1—signaling the start of what Pat dubs “the greatest college football season of all time.” The show weaves together the biggest college and NFL storylines: a historic trade of superstar Micah Parsons from the Dallas Cowboys to the Green Bay Packers, instant reactions, and in-depth conversations with coaches and players on the eve of high-stakes opening games. The atmosphere is festive, high-energy, and packed with both laughs and insights.

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Key Segments & Highlights

1. Atmosphere and Show Open (00:01 – 01:54)

• Pat McAfee sets the stage live from Ohio Stadium alongside AJ Hawk, ex-Buckeye legend.
• Highlights the significance of college football returning: “Football—it is absolutely magical.” (01:11, Pat)
• AJ Hawk introduced (“national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, proud Buckeye, former President of Ohio”); the camaraderie, jokes, and casual vibe are set immediately.

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2. College Football Week 1 Rapid Reactions (01:55 – 04:42)

USF Stuns Boise State

• Tone Digs recaps South Florida’s (USF) huge upset vs. #25 Boise State: “USF with the big upset to start this season in Week 1 over Boise State, who was favored to make the playoff.” (03:13, Tone)

Nebraska’s Late-Night Thriller

• The team breaks down Nebraska’s clutch win over Cincinnati, highlighting a crucial interception by Malcolm Hartzog that secured the victory.
• Pat: “That is certainly a game [Nebraska] ends up losing… going up ten in the fourth quarter, then Cincinnati starts creeping back… Instead, big time pick to end it. It’s beautiful. Love football.” (04:30, Pat)
• Nebraska HC Matt Rhule is announced as an upcoming guest.

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3. NFL Bombshell: Micah Parsons Traded to Packers (04:42 – 16:39)

Trade Details:

• Micah Parsons traded from Dallas to Green Bay for Kenny Clark + two first-round picks.
• Parsons signs a historic contract: $47M/year, $34M guaranteed each year—highest ever for a non-QB.
• David Mulagetta credited as the power agent behind shattering all records.

Fan & Insider Takeaways:

• Ty Schmidt (lifelong Packers fan) ecstatic: “It was just a fantastic night. Had maybe one of the best nights sleep I’ve had in a long time… It was nice being on the side of the Packers actually got this guy.” (08:22, Ty)
• AJ Hawk sees the trade as a game-changer: “Can you imagine the first time he runs out of that tunnel… I think Micah is going to fit in beautifully.” (07:47, AJ Hawk)
• Sportsbooks immediately shift Super Bowl odds in Green Bay’s favor.
• Pat and the crew poke fun at Jerry Jones’ emotional decision-making and marketing flair, positing that he sold a franchise legend out of spite or ego.
• Packers now “Super Bowl or bust,” while Dallas starts planning for a reset/rebuild (“stay tuned,” per Jerry Jones).
• Discussion includes Michael Irvin (on Get Up!) saying he partly blames himself for not stopping the trade and confirms Jerry Jones was personally hurt by Parsons’ departure.
• Tone Digs: “This is the biggest jump documented for a defensive player getting traded… and now you have Micah Parsons moving these odds insanely.” (14:15, Tone)

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4. Micah Parsons’ Impact Discussion (15:25 – 16:39)

• AJ Hawk compares Micah’s impact to Darrelle Revis (“Revis Island”) and Clay Matthews—an elite edge rusher that alters an entire defense.
• AJ Hawk: “Most people are not born with the capability to move like Micah Parsons can move. When you couple that with work ethic, this is what you get—a guy that can wreck the game every single time he’s on the field.” (15:36, AJ Hawk)

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5. Coach Matt Rhule on Nebraska's Win & Program Culture (19:16 – 33:21)

Post-Game Vibes & Early Takeaways

• Rhule joins fresh off the overnight return from Arrowhead Stadium, recounts the thrilling finish and star-studded crowd (including Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Taylor Swift).
• On the win: “To pick the ball off to win the game was pretty special.” (19:33, Rhule)
• Praises best players for stepping up—tailback Emma Johnson’s 100+ yard game, Isaiah Hunter’s clutch TD.

Culture & Approach

• Rhule details leadership and accountability among captains: “You can’t fall start on the one… those are the plays that in the past have sent us into a free fall.”
• Emphasizes toughness, “iron sharpens iron,” and the intentional return to old-school accountability and hard-nosed football. Motivational influences named (Inky Johnson, David Goggins, Jocko Willink).
• “I want my kids to see things as a challenge for them to overcome.” (27:01, Rhule)

Defensive Identity

• Addresses defensive concerns following key departures, focusing on growth areas—especially run defense.
• “We’ve got a tackle better. We can’t give up 200 yards rushing… All this football right now is fun, but when it gets to 30 degrees, you better be able to stop the run.” (29:46, Rhule)

Managing Expectations

• On program buzz around third-year jumps: “You have to expect good things to happen… the last two years they were like, ‘Oh, what if I make a mistake?’ We don’t live in ‘what if’ anymore. We’re trying to live in ‘what is’.” (31:49, Rhule)
• On team culture: “They’re not entitled, they’re not soft… that’s what I love about them.” (32:07, Rhule)

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6. Will Howard: Reflections on OSU’s Run, Leadership & Life with Aaron Rodgers (36:13 – 54:47)

• Will Howard, now with the Pittsburgh Steelers, returns to Columbus and shares reflections on last season’s title run, adversity, and leading through tough times.
• “All those things that we did go through really did set us up for that run… after that Rose Bowl, we all felt like nobody’s stopping us now.” (37:53, Howard)
• On the infamous players-only meeting amid Ryan Day criticism: “Guys said their piece… it got real, but everyone was honest. At the end, we all came together hand in hand in prayer. That was defining for the team.” (41:34, Howard)
• Describes learning from Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh: “I think the biggest thing about Aaron is… nobody talks about what he’s capable of up here [his mind]… just watching his process is crazy.” (45:49, Howard)
• Howard gushes over WR Jeremiah Smith (“he could be one of the best to ever do it”) and supports new OSU QB Julian.
• Howard also addresses mentoring and advice given to Julian: “There’s not a lot of people that understand what we’re going through as being the Ohio State quarterback… just treat it like it’s another game.” (50:56, Howard)

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7. Ryan Day: On Ohio State’s Pressures, Culture, & Texas Showdown (59:19 – 75:12)

• Ryan Day finally joins post-title, quelling rumors that he “hates the show.”
• Addresses pressure of coaching at OSU: “This job is for tough people who can handle it. If you’re going to let it crumble you… you’re not going to make it.” (61:31, Day)
• On turning adversity into a title run: “When we got done with that game, there’s no reason we should have lost… Are you going to focus on results or identifying what has to get fixed?” (62:57, Day)
• On atmosphere vs. Tennessee: “A lot of people came up to me and said that’s one of their favorite games… and it just kickstarted us.” (65:54, Day)
• Looks ahead to facing #1 Texas in Week 1: “For our fans to get back together again early in the season for a game like this is going to be tremendous… a reference point as they move throughout the season.” (71:05, Day)
• On the transfer portal: “You have to recruit really well and then retain the guys that you’re developing… and hand select guys [from the portal] who fit our culture.” (68:25, Day)
• Multiple hosts celebrate Day's resilience and affirm their respect.

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8. Nick Saban: CFB’s New Era, Quarterbacks, & Legacy (84:03 – 107:38)

• Coach Saban appears as regular Friday guest, sharp and candid as ever.
• On top-ranked nonconference clashes: “I wish we had them every week.” (85:03, Saban)
• On transfer QBs: “It’s all about the guy. If he’s got maturity and leadership, that’s a big thing.” (86:07, Saban)
• Dispels rumors of coaching return and heading a CFB government commission, jokes about wife Ms. Terry seeing online rumors.
• Called for balanced NIL and transfer guidelines: “I’d be part of a commission if it was real and could enforce rules and guidelines that would help the game and the players.” (88:03, Saban)
• On adversity and success: “This is not normal. Players have to be aware they can’t rest on their laurels… you become the mountain.” (97:50, Saban)
• Offers technical advice for young QBs: “Play one play at a time… eliminate the bad plays.” (89:43, Saban)
• Pays heartfelt tribute to Lee Corso ahead of Corso’s final GameDay: “He brought entertainment… for the fans, it was more enjoyable. He has a great personality.” (103:41, Saban)
• Saban rounds out with classic dry humor and humility, even amid Emmy wins as a new ESPN analyst.

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9. Other NFL/College Headlines (80:04 – 83:14)

• Jabrill Peppers surprisingly cut by Patriots—the “last captain” of the prior regime.
• Raiders limit themselves to three team captains: offense, defense, and special teams.
• Discussion of new “NFL Nike Rivalries” jerseys.
• Brief acknowledgment of NFL injuries, shifting depth charts, and personnel moves as football returns.

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10. Show Closes & Vibe Wrap-Up (Throughout + 116:03 – End)

• Multiple jokes about band horns, on-field rehearsals, and the “bottom of the biddle” (the rehearsal area at the stadium).
• Shouts to ESPN’s technical crew for their work broadcasting with new high-quality cameras and sound.
• Final words of gratitude: Pat thanks the crew, the guests, and the fans—“Be a friend, tell a friend something nice… Team on me, team on three…”

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “This is going to be remembered as the greatest [college football season] of all time.” (00:09, Pat)
• “It was just a fantastic night. Had maybe one of the best nights sleep I’ve had in a long time.” (08:22, Ty Schmidt re: Micah Parsons to Packers)
• “You can’t fall start on the one… those are the plays that in the past have sent us into a free fall.” (25:50, Matt Rhule)
• “If you’re willing to stick together, tough times aren’t going to last but tough people do.” (62:26, Ryan Day)
• “You become the mountain. Ohio State won the national championship. Everybody wants to beat them even worse now than ever before.” (97:50, Nick Saban)
• “He brought entertainment to this business, which is what you do, and we all have an opportunity to do. For the fans, it made it better.” (103:41, Saban, on Lee Corso)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:01 – 01:54 — Opening, Setting the Scene at Ohio Stadium
• 01:55 – 04:42 — Rapid CFB Results: USF over Boise, Nebraska wins at Arrowhead
• 04:42 – 16:39 — Micah Parsons Trade Deep Dive, Reactions, and Implications
• 19:16 – 33:21 — Matt Rhule Full Interview: Culture, Leadership, Victory
• 36:13 – 54:47 — Will Howard on OSU Legacy, Rodgers, Mentoring
• 59:19 – 75:12 — Ryan Day Talks Pressures, Title Run, Facing Texas
• 84:03 – 107:38 — Coach Saban’s Wisdom: CFB Future, Quarterbacks, Legacy
• 80:04 – 83:14 — Other NFL / College Football News
• 116:03 – End — Show Close, Gratitude, Technical Shoutouts, Final Words

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Tone and Style

• Relaxed, lively, and irreverent; heavy on behind-the-scenes banter.
• Insider insights, emotional candidness, and genuine optimism about the sport.
• Regular use of first names, nicknames, and light ribbing sets a conversational, inclusive feel.
• Blend of deep football analysis, fan perspective, and memorable humor.
• A show aimed as much at die-hard fans as at casual “ball” lovers; accessible and engaging.

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Conclusion

This episode is a quintessential Pat McAfee Show mix: wild headlines (the Parsons trade), major CFB news and interviews, and a cast of coaches and current players who cut through coaching clichés with authentic, quotable candor. Whether you tune in for X’s and O’s, locker room leadership, or just to soak up the passion and chaos, McAfee and crew deliver peak football talk—and set the tone for a season brimming with storylines and surprises.

Transcript

[A]

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, on this Feel good. Friday, August 29, 2025. This program begins right now. Football. It is absolutely magical. And that game will be played on this field behind us as one takes on three to kick off this college football season that's going to be remembered forever as the greatest of all time. Time. I'm obviously sitting next to. Standing next to a man who's gonna be remembered as one of the greatest Buckeyes of all time. Calls this city home. Still at this point ran around with that gigantic head in this horseshoe and tried to CTE everybody that he's seen on the football field.

[B]

Hell yeah.

[A]

College football national champion, super bowl champion, Rodder cup winner, proud Buckeye, former President of Ohio, A.J. hawk. A.J. good.

[C]

Good to be here. Always good to be here.

[A]

They're clapping, they're clapping, they're clapping. Thanks, boys.

[C]

Appreciate you.

[A]

What a beautiful. Watch this. I can do this and just make him incredibly uncomfortable. Camera.

[C]

Oh, is this one shot is here. One right down the barrel.

[A]

Here we go.

[C]

Yeah, that's needed. I'm sure we need that one.

[A]

Now back to me, please, ladies and gentlemen. Okay, whenever I say that today is a great day, I say that because we have actual football to react to. We had massive games last night. College football delivered exactly how we had hoped that it would deliver. Now let's go back to the Thunderdome in Indianapolis, Indiana. The toxic tables there at Boston, Connor in at Ty Schmidt. Ty, crazy life for you right now. We'll get into that in a second. Then there's one half of the hammer Cowboys ap. Tone. Tone. Last night, college football delivered in a massive way. What are some of the highlights? Big takeaways that we need to know other than the fact Taylor Swift. Oh, football fan.

[B]

Unreal.

[A]

Not just NFL. She's all the way in on ball. Other than that, what should we be thinking about? Tone from last night?

[D]

It was an electric night. 17 total games. And the best way to go through that is to go to the high. We start down in South Florida at Raymond James Stadium. We have the number 25 Boise State Broncos taking on USF. And it was a 7:3 game in the second quarter until quarterback Byron Brown of USF decided to go crazy. That was a 29 yard touchdown run on third and 10. And then we go to the third quarter and he's got it again in the red zone. Fifteen yards out, Byron Brown into the end zone again.

[A]

South Florida.

[D]

South Florida goes up 24 to 7 there and kind of sealed the deal. Oh, But I forgot something, Pat. I Forgot. In the third quarter, about 8 minutes left.

[E]

Punt.

[D]

USF punt and getting the ball back.

[A]

Oh, it's a fake. It's not the punter, dummies. That's a backup quarterback. They ran out there.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Wiry looking white guy. Must be the punter. No, backup quarterback. Big ass brain down there.

[D]

Usf third string quarterback. Fresh freshman Lachlan Hewlett comes in and throws the touchdown there. That got him to 177 before Byron Brown went in again. USF with the big upset to start this season in Week 1 over Boise State, who was favored to make the playoff.

[A]

Okay, so obviously USF, big surprise. A.J. you said you called that middle of that highlight.

[C]

Yeah, a little bit. I don't know if I called it to be the blowout that it was, but yeah, I said USF of coach Alex Gorsh are. They're doing good things down there.

[A]

You actually got him. Ucf. While you were saying it yesterday, a lot of people weren't able to understand it. Do you remember that, boys? Now let's. Let's go to Nebraska. Cincinnati last night, little nightcap. How do we feel about that one Tone? It came down to a fourth and seven at one point on final drive. What a game late there for Nebraska and Cincy.

[D]

Yeah, let's go to Nebraska and Cincy, which was apparently a home game for Cincinnati, but it didn't look like it or feel like it at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. It was a packed Nebraska crowd and we will go to first half. 17 seconds left. Huge play right here. Riola goes to Hunter for the huge touchdown to end the second half. We always talk about that middle eight that was huge for Nebraska there to go up 13 to three heading into the half. And then another huge play for Riola in Nebraska. We got a fourth and two early fourth quarter, Riola to Dane. Key to go up 20 to 10. Guess what though. Cincinnati did not give up. Brandon Sorsby fought Cincinnati, fought all game long. Here we are, 39 seconds left. Soares be deep down the right sideline. Picked off by Hartzog Jr. To end the game. That is a game that Nebraska used to lose. But not this year, Pat. This is year three of our sweet, sweet prince. So huge win for Nebraska there, Coach.

[A]

Coach Matt Rule will be joining us in about 10 minutes or so. Can't wait to catch up with him. Nebraska getting a big time win in these close games is something that the Cornhusker fans are not used to. That is certainly a game that they end up losing going up 10 in the fourth quarter. Then Cincinnati starts creeping back. They make it a three point game, then there's a fourth and seven and this is game on the line on that final. They pick it up, it's like, oh no, is Cincinnati going to break the hearts of Nebraska? Is College Football Week 1 about to start in electrifying fashion in front of a Nebraska Cornhusker fan base that was very loud throughout the entirety and instead big time pick to end it. It's beautiful. Love football. Now let's get to some professional football. Yesterday the world was rattled. Holy hell. Jerry Jones just sent Micah Parsons out of Dallas to the Green Bay Packers. Our instant reaction was filmed obviously when we weren't live. You can see that Entire video on YouTube. During that entire reaction, Ty Schmidt was very clearly on the side of. Packers are winning the Super Bowl. Okay, packers are winning the Super Bowl. And Ty was basically calling this for a few days. Ty was even saying, hey, if they want to give him 45 million, 50 million, 55, we got it. And also next year's first round pick, do it the year after that. Do it. You want to give five first round picks, do it is what Ty Schmidt was actually saying. Turns out all you got to do, 47 million a year, $34 million guaranteed each year and the highest guarantees in the history of a non quarterback in NFL history. Who did the contract? David Mulaguetta. This guy. If all the records are broken when it comes to contract, Mulaguetta's name is on it right now. What an absolute dog. Being able to get this deal done with Green Bay before presenting the Dallas Cowboys with an offer that I guess Jerry thought he couldn't refuse. Kenny Clark, great football player, not going to bash Kenny Clark at all in two first rounders. I think with what Ty was saying, I think that was more like what we all thought it was going to take for a guy like Michael Parsons. Breaker, a game ender, a guy who Green Bay thinks is one player away, maybe that player away from winning a Super Bowl. And the odds, the sportsbooks, 400 point turn for the Green Bay Packers. First you're plus 2000, now you're plus 1600 or whatever. That's big time swing in the sports books from the addition of one player. And all it counts, I'm sorry, 600 point swing. All it takes is two first rounders and Kenny Clark is what people are saying now. If this works out for the Green Bay packers, obviously everybody's going to mock and ridicule Jerry for losing his fastball, even though the documentary about him. Pretty nice, pretty good. Guy's a dog.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

But it feels like he lost this one is what everybody's saying in the exact moment. And everybody thought he would get a deal done. He doesn't. AJ let's go to you, pal. What are your thoughts on it all?

[C]

I'm very happy. As a Green Bay Packer alum and a fan of the team.

[A]

I love it.

[C]

I think it was a great move. But the thing about it is, Jerry, you get two first round picks. Obviously that's a Packers. What is it going to be? Late 20s most likely for both those.

[A]

32 is what you're hoping. Yeah, I know.

[C]

That's what I'm saying. Best case scenario, something happens and they, they get up in the teens or something because these first rounders, pick number three is not the same as pick number 30. Now you're still getting great players, but it's just a different level, I think. And you have a lot better chance to hit at 3 to 10, I guess, if you want a first round pick on that one. But I am very happy for the Green Bay Packers. I think Micah is going to fit in beautifully. I think they will love. Can you imagine the first time he runs out of that tunnel when they introductions with defense?

[A]

Well, let's talk to an owner of the team, Ty Schmidt. Yesterday you had quite an animated response to this entire thing. Now you got a chance to sleep on it, maybe some wet dreams. Yeah, you never know. How was it, Ty? How are you feeling in the morning now as a Green Bay Packer owner and a guy that was saying, hey, whatever you need to send to Jerry, send to Jerry.

[B]

Yeah, I'm on cloud nine, to be honest with you. I mean, it was just a fantastic night. Had maybe one of the best nights sleep I've had in a long time. And not just because we have football this weekend that matters and we had football last night. But I'll tell you what, I was ecstatic coming in the office today. I just, it's. It's nice to finally be on the side of, you know, the packers are in this situation sometimes in the past, and then I got to be the one who'd be like, you know what? I didn't want that guy. He's not going to pan out. You know, this isn't, this isn't the right move for them. They got fleeced or whatever. It was nice being on the side of the. The packers actually got this guy. And I could just laugh last night as as fans from other fan bases were saying, like, oh my. Yeah, you're going to love this guy when, you know, he's, he's sitting out games or, you know, whatever the case may be. So, I mean, you know, a lot of people talking about the, how much money it's going to cost to pay him. The way I look at it is, I mean, they're in their window right now and they know that they paid the quarterback, they paid the, the, you know, edge rusher. So I'm very, like AJ Said, I'm very excited to see what Jeff Halfley will do with him as well. So, yeah, it is go in a Super Bowl. I mean, this is an aggressive move. Let's go win a Super Bowl. Yeah. Have to get the super bowl done. And then if you're Dallas on the other side, obviously everyone's going to the. Oh, my gosh. The Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Donkic and the Dallas Cowboys lost Micah Parsons in the same year. That's terrible. It stinks for Dallas Cowboys fans, but it's another situation. Kind of like Green Bay with Jordan Love. Like, you kind of have to wait and see. It stinks right now and you had your best player being Micah, but now you get two picks in the future. You kind of have to wait and see how it pans out. Very similar to Jordan Love. Personally, I'm thinking this might be Jerry's swan song. Maybe Steven Jones does say, hey, maybe it's time for me to take the reigns. I'm gonna go get this done for you, dad. Okay? I'm gonna go get you. I'm gonna make you proud. I'm your firstborn eldest boy. Dad, let me take this team and take them back to the Super Bowl. I don't know if that'll happen, but if you're a Cowboys fan, just think like this. Hey, two years from now, we basically just guaranteed ourselves either Arch Manning or Jeremiah Smith with all the first round.

[A]

Picks we're gonna have. I saw that out there. I saw that. And you know, Jerry said we got four first round picks in the next two drafts. And who says that we ain't using that right now? Get someone. He basically drops a stay tuned at the end of this thing. Go ahead and run that, foxy.

[F]

The other thing that I want to.

[A]

Say is we not only gives us.

[F]

Four first round picks over the next.

[A]

Two years, we not only do that. Nothing says we can't use some of those specs right now to go get somebody right now. Don't rule that out. Literally, literally. Saying, stay tuned. Okay, this ain't over yet. And this is kind of exactly what everybody has been chatting about with Jerry. And I think the documentary kind of lays out perfectly. This dude is a master promoter in businessman. This guy is a gambler. This guy even self admittedly, a little bit too good of a talker sometimes. He writes some checks that his ass can't cash. Like, he even says that in the opening of the entire thing. And during the premiere of this documentary, whenever he was on the red carpet, he said, you know, the Cowboys will always give you a little bit of drama. You know, if there isn't much to talk about Cowboys, we'll kind of go in there and stir up some controversy. And I'll tell you what a lot of the Cowboy fans, I think, are saying. That's what we're talking about, Jer. That's the problem. Yeah, we need to worry about winning a football game, not worried about driving up controversy. And if you listen to Michael Irvin this morning on get up. Who. It is great to see Michael Irvin back on tv. Michael Irvin needs to hear that we are better as a sports world with him talking in that documentary. He's phenomenal. And on get up this morning, he was fantastic. And he basically took some blame, saying, I should have stepped in and said, jerry, we can't be making this type of mistake. But he also said it looked like Jerry was hurt. He said it looked like Jerry was hurt. Jerry was obviously offended and felt disrespected by Michael Parsons is what everybody around him is seemingly saying. And when the folks were saying he wasn't going to budge, I think that's because he was personally offended by the thought that he thought they had a deal done. Now, that deal, you know, handshake deal, a lot of people were saying that's what Jerry bought the Cowboys on was a handshake deal. That would have been less money than what the deal would have been for Michael Parsons for the entirety of it all. And it's like, that's an interesting situation because for Jerry Jones, as great as a businessman as he is, and I like that he's spinning it as they can make some magic out of this. Everybody's calling him an idiot. Everybody's saying he's lost his fastball. And everybody is saying that he's no longer the guy to be running his team that he created. That's a fascinating time for Jerry, I bet, as he looks in the mirror at night.

[C]

I mean, and his. His son Steven, who's going to be Running, you know, in the future, whenever that comes. I mean, I just want to know. We always say you don't want to mix. Like, did he let his emotions get in the way of business? Didn't Michael Irvin mention something about that? Like, hey, you can't.

[A]

Well, I don't know.

[C]

I mean, sometimes Jerry's an emotional dude. He's been running the Cowboys, I think, with his emotions for a long, long time, and it's worked out pretty well. Obviously not the last 25 and 30.

[A]

I believe in gut instinct. Yeah. Okay. Am I gonna. You know what? What? He had to have thought you were.

[C]

Him for a second.

[A]

Close your eyes. He had to have thought, okay, Jerry kind of has the same haircut as that guy from Rutgers last night.

[D]

Thinking about doing that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Is that what Hawk's saving up for? I just figured that's why.

[C]

That's my big surprise, man.

[A]

Don't blow it. By the way. I love anybody that is that confident. Amen.

[C]

I do, too.

[A]

National tv. I'm gonna stand right next to the coach. Let's get some airtime on this thing. I like it. Maybe that is the new cut for everybody but Jerry. Like, the thought of him losing it is seemingly what everybody is saying. Yeah, everybody's saying it. Even the sports books. The sports books are saying the Green Bay packers won this trade. Tone, this seems to be a massive jump for a player. This has to be the biggest jump documented for a defensive player getting traded as opposed to an offensive player like a quarterback or something. This feels like big movement. Has that been chatted about?

[D]

Yeah, it's huge movement. Because like you said yesterday, we, like, there's times like when Rogers came to the Steelers, the Steelers super bods didn't move at all. And that's a quarterback. And now you have Micah Parsons, who, you know, is moving these odds insanely, not only for the super, but also for the division and conference and everything like that and making the playoffs, but also for Micah Parson. He is the def. He is now odds on favorite to win defensive mvp. I can't remember the last time that it's probably never happened that the odds on favorite to be the defensive MVP has been traded to a team. And for a guy who roots for a team that has an elite edge rusher, like, everyone can say, like, oh, the Cowboys are going to get better at rush, defense and all this, and Jerry can try to spin it like that, but when you have an elite edge rusher versus not having an elite edge rusher, it makes a. Makes everything so Much easier for your defense. Not only just him. Okay. But Rashawn Gary is going to get his now. Lucas Van Ness is going to get his now. The corners like the. There's some questions about the packers corners. They're not going to have to cover as long it helps the entire team. So that's probably why one, all those odds moved because of that, because of his impact too. Because there's going to be a lot of money coming in on the packers because that's just kind of what happens. And then three, just overall, that defense is just going to be so much better.

[A]

Yeah. Tone, I appreciate what you said there because, you know, we all talked about Reavis island and how much that affected every defense he was a part of because he can just take care of one guy. What does an elite pass rusher do for the rest of the defense?

[C]

AJ it's unbelievable. I play with Clay Matthews, a guy that every offense had to game plan around every single week. The guy's so explosive. It's just. Yeah. Like you said. Okay, say we have a Reavis island type situation. We, we're going to lock this corner up on this guy. He's going to follow the best receiver. Yeah. It makes it much more difficult. The other 10 guys can kind of play more of a shell situation and take advantage of. Of the matchups that you have. But when you have one guy that can gump not only. But that's the thing about Micah. He's so versatile. It would give me nightmares as a D coordinator because you know this guy like, okay, where's he lined up? Okay. Sometimes he's standing up in a two point, he's lined up a gap, he's mugged a gap. Like he's an inside backer. And then when he's on the edge, he's just, he's such a pure. And he's an unorthodox pass rusher. I feel like how he can bend and move, it's not normal. Most people are not born with the capability to move like Micah Parsons can move. And when you couple that with work ethic, this is what you get. A guy that can wreck the game every single time he's on the field. So will free up those other guys on defense a lot and it will create opportunities, I think, for the other guys on defense to, to make plays and to make impact plays.

[A]

You know, the whole worry about him not being able to stop the damn run. Cherry Jones said.

[C]

Where did that come from? The last couple days?

[A]

How do you feel about. How do you feel about playing Micah, you know, this season? Well, I know we got to get a lead and run the ball. I know it's what we. He said it three times. I know he won't. You just run right at these types of guys and things like that. How so when was it that Jerry started trying to nitpick everything? Was it after the deal in his eyes wasn't upheld? Was he so offended? Okay. Was he so offended that then he started looking back? Yeah, this guy doesn't stop to run. Actually, does he start googling what people say bad things about Michael, like, what are the bad? Like, I do believe these things. Like, when did that all start happening? Because he was like the face of the Cowboys for a little bit. And then it was a. I love Micah talking to his mom. And then when did it all become like, guy can't stop, damn run. Guys die. I mean, guys don't. We're gonna run right at him. That's why we can't win the game like that. Our team got better because of this. Like, that is not how Jerry operates with his stars ever. If you feels like it's not, it's.

[C]

I mean, Jerry is a master marketing guy. We know that.

[A]

He's supposed to be in the wrestling business.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, yeah, sure.

[C]

Yeah, he could.

[B]

Which is the problem.

[C]

What he can do.

[G]

What if he was.

[B]

Yeah. Which one?

[C]

If he was going back through his old. He could go back through his old great. Like, you know, so you get graded every single play and you have in a game and you go like an overall grade. And I bet. What if Jerry went back through some of Micah's old grades from his linebacker coach or his outside his edge coach? He's like, hey, Mike, it says all your negatives are on run plays. What's going on here? Here we go. We can run with that.

[A]

Ma. Ma, See that loaf trader? Yeah. I mean, that's.

[C]

I guess if you want to any great pass rusher, you could find some negative. You could always find something, but it doesn't matter. The. The positives outweigh everything. When it comes to Mike.

[A]

It feels like that's how packers fans feel. And it feels like Jerry's like, we're moving on. And stay tuned. Now, last night, college football was awesome. Very late, and I'm. I'm not gonna lie here. I fell asleep. Second, third, and most of fourth quarter of the Nebraska Cincy game. Woke up. Minute 30 left. What a great time to wake up. Perfect. You always do that perfectly. It is a perfect wake up call. And I think it's maybe because the energy in the wakes me up, like gives me a little rattle and I'm always half asleep while watching this shit. Last night I watched this man get the first win of the season and win one of those close games that have potentially broken the hearts of Nebraska fans for the last hundred years. Ladies and gentlemen, his third year at Nebraska, the head coach of the Cornhuskers, currently undefeated after a massive win last night. Matt Rule.

[H]

What is up? What is up man? Good to see you guys.

[A]

I like it. I like that you're standing. We're standing. You know, it's good energy here on this feel good Friday. Especially being undefeated, I assume. How did it feel getting that win last night? Obviously a close one. You pull it out in front of a packed at Arrowhead. How do you feel this morning, boss?

[H]

Well, we got home about 3:34 o', clock, so I feel pretty, I feel pretty alive right now. But no, you're right, I mean it was, it was unbelievable. Arrowhead was packed. Andy Reid's out there shaking every kid's hand. Patrick Mahomes is on the sidelines, Travis Kelsey, Taylor Swift are up in the stands. I mean it's, it was a who's who last night. So it was, it was a cool environment. And to pick the ball off to win the game was pretty special.

[A]

That was a Cincinnati home game. Coach, I'm sure they felt that obviously we know the Nebraska fan base is one of the things that you were so pumped up about whenever you decided to take that job three years ago. What did you see from your team last night? What did you see from the quarterback last night that maybe makes you believe this could be a year that's special for your team? Like most third year rule coach teams. Temple massive jump in the third year the culture's implemented Baylor third year culture implemented huge, huge jump. And then I actually jump off a boat there in that particular third year. Now in your third year in Nebraska, what did you see last night that makes you think this team could be special or what do you think you need to work on?

[H]

Well, I mean obviously we have a lot to work on, but I thought the biggest thing was our best players made plays. Our tailback Emma Johnson ran for over 100 yards. You see an Isaiah Hunter here transferred in for us, made a big play to score a touchdown. And then, and like I said, Malcolm Hartzog picks that ball off to win the game. And you know, you said it earlier Pat, like I think the biggest thing like when you watch the best Teams in college football, you know, take. Take out the talent, obviously, but I mean, the best teams, they go in expecting to win, man, they don't panic. A team comes roaring back. A team makes a couple plays and they go out there and they. They just make a couple more plays. And so I felt for the first time last night, a bunch of guys on the sidelines that were like, man, no, we're not going down. We're going to go out. We're going to find a way to make a play. And they. Their quarterback, Sorsby was awesome. He competed at a really high level. But at the end of the day, you know, like I said, Malcolm went up and took the ball away and. And we got to celebrate.

[A]

So, yeah, insane interception. End the game. Great way to kick off this college football season. It's going to be electrifying really late at night, but it was still an awesome thing, you know. Got me out of my bed a little bit there. Fourth and seven. You call that timeout? I was half asleep while you had to make that decision. They have no timeouts. You potentially could win the game. I knew there had to be some sort of, what do we want? Best play. Kodak. What goes into that decision and how many people are kind of in your ear at that moment?

[H]

Yeah, no, Kodak's exactly right, man. Hey, let's take a picture. Let's see what they're in. Let's.

[A]

Let's.

[H]

Let's get the best defense possible. Let's get our guys a chance so that we can see. All of our guys can see what they're in and try to go make a play. John Butler's our DC really smart guy, and he asked for it, so we did it. And, you know, you only have timeouts, you know, at the end of the game if. If your guys did things right in the third and fourth quarter and, you know, we played clean, we didn't have any massive, massive errors, so we were able to save our timeouts down the stretch. They had to use a ball there is to get the ball back, and we did that. Now they went and made that play on 4th and 7, as you know, and great play by them. I can't say enough about their quarterback. Man, I thought he was a warrior last night.

[A]

Yeah, it was fun to watch him, especially in that moment. That's a huge moment. 4th and 7, game on the line, throws a strike. But I enjoyed the joust that was happening between you and Cincinnati, first week of the season. AJ Has a question for you. Coach.

[C]

Yeah, Coach. I hear you. This year was one of the first times you actually have captains. You got voted on and you, you have captains now for this team. What made you do that? What does this team, I guess, what's the culture like to where you felt like this is something that you should do?

[H]

You know, I think, I think a lot of times nowadays, guys, guys are like, hey, you know, I'm going to lead by example. You know, I don't want to. If I say this, I don't know how people are going to react. I don't. Coach, I'm not really up for all that. So we've always kind of done like, all right, well, the game captain, a game captain let, you know, let leadership emerge. But you know, when you have a quarterback like we have in Dylan, when you have the guys we have on our back end, you know, if we have, you know, a bunch of seniors in the secondary, we have an offensive line that wants to impose themselves. They came to me and they're like, hey, we want to lead. And so they recognize that nothing's going to be easy in college football nowadays. I mean, these conferences are hard, travel's hard, everyone wants to play well, but they wanted to be the guys that led the whole thing and they asked for it. So, you know, I don't want to be one of those coaches who's set in my ways. If the guys come to me and they say, coach, we want to vote for captains, man, I'm going to slap it to see on someone's chest and then hold them accountable and tell them.

[A]

To go do it.

[H]

And so that's what I'm fired up about today. Like, you know, some of the football has to get a lot better, but, but the fact that our guys didn't panic and the leaders stepped up and led, that makes my job a lot easier.

[A]

Yeah, let's talk about some of that leadership. Connor has a question for you, coach.

[B]

Yeah, Coach, I believe it was the second quarter, maybe the first, and it was first and goal from the one and there was a false start. And I believe you guys ended up with a field goal instead of a touchdown. After that false start, you can see Raiola kind of look back towards the sideline, then come back to the hud and you could actually, they showed him not, not yelling at, but clearly holding the player that I won't name or tell his number that went, that went off sides, kind of letting him know, like, hey, can't have that. You know, you could see him give him a few some words to him and then obviously that's the kind of the leadership you were just talking about. You mentioned the accountability you have with your captains. What about your captains? To the rest of the team, that seems like a very important kind of leadership down the line, if you will.

[H]

Yeah, no doubt, man. I mean, I think, I think that's, that's the key, right? I mean, that game came down to, you know, one play. And what we're always trying to teach him, like, you know, typical coach, but it's so true is it's not always the one play that happened at the end of the game. I mean that, that, that touched that field goal, that was instead of touchdown, that, that was a four point play. And so, you know, we don't want to embarrass people in public. We don't want to embarrass people on camera. I mean, you know, we're not, you know, we're trying to do that, but, but I mean, as a brotherhood, when we step on that field, like we've gotta, we've gotta have a mentality that iron sharpens iron and we gotta hold each other to a high standard. And that's the word that we try to talk a lot about nowadays is just standards. You know, it's not your feelings, it's, it's, it's what works, what we expect. And so you can't fall. Start on the one. I mean, we were literally on the one inch line.

[C]

Yeah.

[H]

And you know, those are the plays that in the past have sent us into like a free fall.

[A]

Right.

[H]

And so hey, we, you know, we dealt with it. We went out, we kicked the field goal, we got off the field and we reset. And so that's the growth, I think, think at Nebraska. But yeah, we're going to hold each other accountable. We're tough, you know, we're, we're tough, tough minded. We don't need a soft environment where we're all, you know, walking on eggshells.

[A]

I love everything about that. Okay. We like that that's happening again. Feels like that's coming back into style. It does.

[C]

It is coming back. Coach, do you feel that? Do you feel like it's, you know, the tough, hard nose kind of mentality is coming back into the sport a little bit?

[H]

I, I think, absolutely. So I think, I think we're all, we all gravitate towards those people, man. Like, you know, my guys get up in the morning, right? You know, I hear them, they listen to Inky Johnson, you know, the hip hop preacher. They listen to David Goggins. Jock, like, they, they. They want to be that. Like, I think as men, like, we want to. We want to go out and we want to do hard things. And so what we're just trying to do is build a culture where we tell them, like, it's okay to do hard things. You know, like, people wake up every day and pay, like, you know, 100 bucks a month to go do CrossFit and do jump. Jump around like ninjas and do all this hard stuff.

[A]

Like.

[H]

Like, we're going to try to do that in our football program. And so I 100% think it's coming back. And. And I think it's a good thing. I think, you know, I want my kids. I have three kids. I want my kids to grow up not looking at everything in life as a threat. Like, oh, my God. I want them to see things as a challenge for them to overcome. And so I want my players to see it the same way.

[A]

Opportunity there, you know, that is. That is what it's all about. Hearing you old school dudes talk about that and the thought that it was almost gonna disappear for a little bit. And I love the fact that you're like, let me see your algorithms, boys. You see the algorithms? What's on the explore page? What's on the explore page? I need to see motivation. I need to see fighting. Okay. Little golf is fine. Don't know what other stuff is, boys. Okay, A lot of this seems like you guys need to stop following certain things.

[H]

Yeah, probably.

[A]

I love that you're everybody's explore page. Kind of looks the same at some point, but I like that you're, like, listening to what the boys are getting jacked up to. It's. I can learn about them now. There was some questions about something that has seemingly been staple at Nebraska for a long time, the Black Shirts. Tone has a question for you, coach.

[D]

Yeah, Coach. It's no secret that the first two years at Nebraska, for you, the defense carried your team. And they were. They've been unbelievable. And then this year, it felt like everyone was like, oh, the. We got no worries about the offense. Feels like the offense is going to be good. New OC but on the defense, also a new offensive coordinator. You lost a couple dogs off the D line. So there was some questions about the defense that has carried the team. You talked about Source, but he made a couple of plays. But it felt like the defense, like, you guys looked really good on the defensive side last night. How did you feel about that side? How did it feel for them to close out the game.

[A]

Yeah.

[H]

You know, I thought we had some really good moments on defense, you know, and to your point, you know, we lost Ty Robinson, who was. I mean, he didn't get nearly enough credit. The Eagles got themselves an unbelievable player in tie and always do. We had the Polar Bear Nash last year. You know, he's in Tampa Bay, so we had some great ones. You know, there were some stretches in that game. I think it was when Pat was sleeping, so. Pat, I'm glad you slept through this part, brother.

[A]

No, no, I'm glad.

[H]

I'm glad because, you know, there were some parts of that game where we. You know, we. Like, we. We went two straight drives where I don't even think they threw a pass, and they went down and scored, and they just. They went tempo and, you know, you're in the Big Ten, you don't see a lot of tempo. And that's not an excuse. That's like a.

[A]

That we. We. We.

[H]

We put on tape that if you go tempo against us, we didn't stop it last night, man. Like, they just went, play, play, play, play, play. And some of it was the quarterback dropping back and then just escaping up the middle, and he was. He was running. And so we. We made the plays to close it out. We took the ball away twice, you know, which led to the win and led to a touchdown, but, man, we got. We got a tackle better. We can't give up 200 yards rushing, especially, you know, you get into the Big Ten, you face the teams that we're going to face. All this football right now is fun, but, you know, when it gets to be 40 degrees, when it gets to be 30 degrees, you better be able to stop the run. So we got some work to do this week.

[A]

Yeah, it's Big Ten football, baby. Always will be. Hey, look out for that Iowa Hawkeye team. They got more Granaski now. Ain't that right?

[B]

Yeah. Well said. Well said. And that a lot of people are saying, hey, that Iowa Nebraska game at the end of the year could decide a playoff spot from the Big Ten coach. Obviously, massive win last night. Like you said, you got to clean some things up. But going into this year, like, is there maybe a different message to the team with, you know, everyone knows about the rule third year, that team's gonna, you know, go on and do great things. And then a lot of people nationally are saying, you know, hey, Nebraska, look at this team. To maybe slip into the playoffs this year. Like, does that change the message to the team at all or.

[A]

Or not? Really?

[B]

And you guys can't pay attention to that kind of stuff?

[H]

You know, I think it's a great question. I think. I think. I think. I think to some degree, yes. I mean, to a major degree, yes. It's like, you know, we want to have our guys walking around this facility expecting to go win and expecting for good things to happen. And. And, you know, we're a better team now than we were the last two years, and we'll be, you know, I think we're on this great path of ascension that will continue on for years to come. But, man, like, you have to expect good things to happen. You can't just be like, oh, I hope. I hope we get, you know, some crumbs at the table this year. I mean, you have to go out and fight for it. So my message to the guys is like, man, you have to take ownership of this. I. I'm going to do the best I can. I'll take ownership of my role. But you got to go out and you got to go make the plays to win the game. And, you know, that was what was so great. The message for last night was, you know, Malcolm coming over the top in cover two. It's him and another player, and it's, you know, 50, 50 ball, and we won the game because of him. And so I. I've always believed that, like, you know, players win games. I'm a much better coach when I have great players. And so I want my players to go out there with a little bit of swagger, a little bit of confidence, a little bit of energy and. And go make plays that maybe the last two years they were like, oh, what if I make a mistake? We don't live. We don't live in what if anymore. We're trying to live in what is. And be in the moment. Just. Just go out there and play ball the way we know we have, the way we know we know how.

[A]

Feels like. Feels like the culture's in. Does it feel like that with the boys? I mean, obviously, we got a lot to learn. We got to play better ball, and Big Ten football is going to happen at some point. You're going to have to win very tough games. That's everybody all season long. But the third year thing, that's because you feel like that is kind of instituted in at this point.

[H]

Yeah, I love the culture that we have. I mean, like, I ran out of the tunnel for the first time ever because the guys were like, hey, coach, you need to run out of the tunnel. I said, I don't really believe in it. I think coaches should be in the side, let the players run out. But like, man, I love, I love this group of guys. And you know, they're not, they're like, they're a gritty, tough group. They're not, not, they're not entitled. They're not soft. They're tough and they're tough minded. And so, I mean, that's, you know, I mean, I'm just a former walk on. That's just, you know, trying to make my way in coaching. Like, I'm not one of these, you know, big name guys.

[A]

Trying to make your way. Yeah, yeah. Trying to make your way. Yeah, Just trying to work my way, Pat.

[H]

I mean, yeah, I'm just trying to.

[A]

You know, which way does it feel? Yeah, but, but I love that.

[H]

I love them. Like, it's like, you know what? Like, hey, we're just, we're just, you know, we're just going to quietly stand over here to Cornhuskers, you know, and, and, and, and battle our way. But like, nothing. Like I said, I don't believe anything will be easy in the Big Ten. But I, I like that this, like, as Coach Paterno used to say, this group has moxie. They got, they got toughness. And so like, even getting in that locker room last night, I, I tell our guys all the time, like, there's no greater feeling in the world. You guys know this. There's no greater feeling in the world than being in the locker room after a big win. And a win like that was pretty dang cool.

[A]

Hell, yeah. Especially in Arrowhead. I mean, you talk about being in a legendary place in the history of the game and everything like that. It was, It's a cool way to start the season. And on that note, I'd like to officially announce to the world that we are incredibly lucky that we'll be riding alongside the Nebraska Cornhusker season this year, catching up with you every single week. We appreciate you agreeing to do that. We are very, very, very, very, very pumped about that. And we love you, man. We're big fans, so we appreciate you doing this. We appreciate you believing that our show could be a potential additive. And also congrats on all the weight loss. You look remarkable out there. I love that.

[H]

I love that thing you just put.

[A]

There was a fat picture of me.

[H]

And then a skinny picture of me.

[A]

Yeah, that's exactly why I said that. That was my first time seeing that graphic. And I said, holy shit. There's the before and the after right there. You Look. Unbelievable. And we're thankful you're doing this, Coach.

[H]

No, first of all, I'm grateful. I mean, I think you know this, but I'm a fan of the show when I'm not on. I mean, it's on in this building all the time. And I love. I love the way you guys speak authentically about what's going on in sports. And so I'm. I'm so excited for. To represent Nebraska, but also to represent just football, college football. I mean, I was up this morning reading about the Parsons deal in case I got some questions about that, man.

[A]

I want to. I want to.

[H]

I want to be. I want to be a big member of the show. And if I get boring, you can just do away in and just see if I'm on the fat side or the skinny side. We can just see where I'm at as the season goes on.

[A]

I like her coming with ideas. That's a solution. We like that. Ideas. Hey, if it gets bad, just put me on a scale. Everything will work out. It's not going to get bad because you're incredible with us every time you're on. We appreciate you. Congrats on the big win last week or last night. We'll see you next week.

[H]

Thank you, guys.

[A]

Hey, whose house rules? See you, brother. I think that's the name of this podcast. Rules house.

[C]

Are you 100 pull?

[B]

Should be now. It is now. It is now.

[C]

I don't know if you wanted me. I wasn't going to bring anything back.

[A]

I was.

[C]

I say our house. I have seen the promo video where he does the walk and talk. It's amazing.

[A]

Thank you. Yes. So follow the product. We're trying to be the best. Okay.

[C]

Rules House for sure.

[A]

Rules. Oh, no. Oh, no, no. I'm just kidding. I got no idea. It's House rules confirmed.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

Oh, it is so close.

[C]

Wait, was he on when you said whose house are Rules House?

[A]

Yeah, Rules.

[C]

Did he repeat it?

[A]

He didn't know what I was doing, obviously, because it doesn't make sense. That could be at the Rules House.

[B]

Yeah, that could be a good thing.

[C]

You sold me, though. Like, if you. Yeah, that was impressive.

[A]

He's gonna join us. I can't wait for that. Him. Him with the parson stuff. We should have him. We missed it.

[C]

Yeah, pot him back up.

[B]

Ah, it's Nebraska season. It's Nebraska season.

[A]

Yeah, you're right. You're right. It is. Okay. Joining us now is a man who's 6 foot 7, maybe 7 foot tall, and he's He's a national champion at this particular institution. He's a guy who's currently a Pittsburgh Steeler, ladies and gentlemen. Whoa.

[F]

Hard.

[A]

You'Ll be on there. Well, a strong depth with that thumb. Just. I just would like to let everybody know that was a very, very strong, strong guy. You can move in a little bit if you want, inside that helmet. Yeah.

[E]

Here we go.

[A]

Let's see if we got you.

[E]

What's up, gentlemen?

[A]

How are you doing? Cameraman, can you just buck? Can you have AJ And Will on that particular shot?

[C]

So I'd be like, cameraman, you look tall.

[A]

You look tall. You don't look that bad. You look pretty tall. Yeah. Very kind of you to do that. Will, thank you for joining us. This your first time back since being drafted to the Pittsburgh Steelers?

[E]

Yeah, I think I stopped by for a little bit in, like, July, but really first time being back, you know, obviously under. Under these circumstances, which. With a big game on the line, you know, I think it was like a two day thing that I stopped by for, so it's good to be back, man. It feels like home.

[A]

How does it? Yeah, you said it feels like home. Obviously, you transfer in here and have this magical run last year, which had a couple, you know, obstacles in it, obviously, early in the season at Oregon. We don't have to talk about the whole thing that happened on this particular field, but then you guys became the hottest team in football. We were watching some highlights from last year's game day and from last year, whenever we were doing a simulcast, and it was evident to us that you guys were the best football team in America. Like, you guys steamrolled through that playoff run. What did it feel like in the moment? And when did you guys know that you were proverbially in your bag, if you will, last year? Because we saw it immediately.

[E]

Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously all the things that we went through throughout the season, you know, it wasn't ideal. It wasn't how we drew it up, you know, losing that Oregon, losing here, you know, to that team up north. But I think all those things that we did go through really did set us up for that run. And I think, you know, once we kind of came out in that Tennessee game, you know, and we started, you know, putting it on those guys, and then the Rose bowl came and, you know, we started making some plays. I felt really confident going into both of those games, but really, I think I was after that Rose bowl bowl or during that Rose bowl where we all kind of looked at each other like, alright, man, like nobody's stopping us right now. Just the way that we're playing and, you know, the way that we were clicking on all cylinders. I mean, it was a hell of a run. It was one of the most memorable four games that, you know, I think a lot of people could say they have been through and so I'll cherish it for a long time, but I learned a lot throughout that whole run of, you know, the playoffs. And, you know, obviously nobody thought we were going to do anything for those first three weeks leading up to the Tennessee game. And then, you know, we really found it in ourselves. And it's a credit to the leaders that we had on that team last year and the seniors and all those guys that came back and I'm just excited to watch these guys run it back and hopefully do it again this year.

[A]

What's your relationship like with coach Ryan Day? Because obviously he was under immense amount of pressure just being the Ohio State coach. That's going to happen. I think every Ohio person understands got.

[C]

To win every game.

[A]

Yeah, the job is going to be difficult, but all right. Yeah. And obviously that is, I don't, I don't think it's unique just to Ohio, but here I think it is vastly different than, I mean, it's. Every citizen in the state of Ohio is expecting the Buckeyes to win every single game. Every coach that has been here has won a national championship. Ryan, what have you done? What have you done? What have you done? Is all he was feeling. I think you guys had a team meeting or a player meeting or something and you guys really, it was like a gut check type situation. From what I've been told. Ryan Day, kind of how he was being viewed and talked about, how did that kind of motivate you guys or generate your energy? And how was the relationship through playoffs with him? Because he was getting thrown under every bus in the state of Ohio. I think elementary school, junior high, high school buses, Greyhound buses. Yeah. Shorter buses, longer buses. He was getting thrown under every bus in Ohio. How much was that a part of the whole story?

[E]

It was, it was a big part of it, man. And like, you know me, obviously I don't have the same relationship that maybe a Jack Sawyer and a Mecca, you know, coming into the season had with him. But coming out of it, I feel like, honestly, I mean, we all were in that thing together last year and, you know, Ryan Day, like, he, he gave me a chance and I kind of think about, you know, what, what I owed to him and you Know, he. When he. When I sat down with him coming out of the transfer portal process and, and how he, you know, really took me in and wanted to make me a better player. Like, I felt like I owed him and I made sure, you know, I was like, man, I gotta. I gotta get back to this guy, man. Like, he. He's given me so much, you know, he's given me this chance. Like, I can't let him down. And, you know, we all. Obviously, you know, you don't want to listen to the outside noise, and everybody says that, you know, like, they don't go on social media, but we all.

[A]

You have to. 20, 24. 2024.

[E]

You know, it gets to you and you see it. That's true. Yeah, but. But you know, you hear it and, you know, it pissed us off. You know, we didn't. I wouldn't say we used it as motivation, but, you know, it did. It put a little chip on our shoulder, and I think it gave us really the spark that we needed, like, to come together and that, like you said, that players only meeting that we had, it was just all of us players and Coach Day, and we hashed some things out. You know, guys. Guys said their piece. You know, it was. It got real, you know, and there was no sensitivity about it. Everyone was just honest. They stated their case, and no one really got uptight about it. And that, I think.

[C]

How did it come about? Did it Coach, Coach Day bring it in or how.

[E]

So, yeah, so the day after that, you know, after that day out here, we got together as a leadership council and we talked and we were like, hey, we got to get. You got to get this group of guys together and talk about it and just, you know, lay. Lay everything out on the table. You know, if anyone has any questions about how we did what we did on that day, what happened? Why, you know, why does this keep happening kind of deal. You know, we wanted to hash all that stuff out and we went into that room and I mean, there were times where it got ugly. You know, guys are yelling at each other and, you know, tempers flared. But, like, at the end of it, we all came together hand in hand in prayer. And I feel like a moment like that is so defining for a team.

[A]

Absolutely.

[E]

A less mature group would have taken that and just, I mean, you know, but we had such a good group of guys that were all mature and, you know, motivated and didn't want that to be the. The way that we remembered. And that was what we kept talking about. Like, what's our legacy going to be? What do you want to be remembered for here at Ohio State? And, you know, we could use that last game to just crumble and make everything kind of fall on top of each other. But, like, at the end of the day, we were just like, man, we got. We got to set the record straight and go out here. And we knew the only way that we could make what we did right is by winning a national championship.

[A]

Crazy that it was all still available for you. As the entire state was kind of crumbling, there was still this magical opportunity that everybody is hunting for that is literally the only thing that is on the top of the mountain. You guys have it forever. Congratulations. That is a wonderful thing. Tone back at the Thunderdome has a question for you.

[D]

Yeah, well, first and foremost, I love you. Just wanted to get that out there. I just want to say that first. Secondly, can you. Can you grow a beer? Because I know you're giving me Big Ben vibes. When I was watching you the. In the. In practice and stuff like that, I got Big Ben vibes. And then thirdly, more importantly, how has. How has this year's expectations changed if they have it all with the hand injury? Because I know that that was a bummer and didn't get to see you in preseason, but has anything changed as far as your role or expectations for the season?

[E]

You know, I think all along, I was looking at this season as a. As a developmental year, and I think we all kind of were with the Steelers. You know, obviously, you don't bring in Aaron Rodgers for no reason. Like, he's a. He's a guy that's coming in to be the. Be the guy, you know, at least for. For this year. For this year. And. And we don't know what it'll look like going forward, but right now, you know, I'm. I'm going into this season saying I want to learn everything I possibly can from. From Aaron and. And just watch the way that he goes about his business. Like, obviously, like you said, Tony, it killed me that I couldn't be out there for the preseason. I felt like I was having a really good fall camp and wanted to kind of carry that into the preseason and show Steelers Nation what I was capable of. But obviously, you know, you got to trust the plan and, you know, God wasn't. Didn't want me out there this preseason. For what reason? I don't know why, but I gotta trust it and understand that, you know, this is all part of my development. And in the long, long term, in the grand scheme of things, you know, I just got to keep working and use this year as a developmental year. And on the, on the facial hair note, I'm working on it.

[A]

Really.

[E]

I, I, I, I.

[A]

Get back in on that box. The cameraman's name is Buck. He's from Canada. He's got, he's got great control of that.

[D]

Looks good.

[E]

Like, the clean shots up there, that's a little too close, but, yeah, I went, I went clean shaving this weekend. But hey, going forward, Tone, I, I'll think about, I'll think about you when I'm, when I'm doing my.

[A]

In the mirror. Yeah. You got a nice baby face, brother. I think I do the entire thing. You're, like, super jovial baby face, but we saw you out there dancing with the boys. We saw you out there dancing with the boys. Whenever you were doing your thing, they loved you. New teammates, I assume, do as well. Go ahead, A.J.

[C]

So Aaron Rodgers, obviously in the room with him. We get to see him on the field. I, I guess what is it really like watching him operate on the field? Like, even in walkthroughs? We were there for one day, and I was peeking out the, the window watching your guys's walkthrough. I could just see his little, how he just bounces down the field. And boy, he got, I'm sure he got everything. Especially when he's feeling good. You definitely know when he's feeling good.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

Or if he's pissed off picking grass.

[A]

Out of the ground.

[C]

Oh, yeah. So, like, what is it like, I guess, what's it been like to observe that not only meeting room, but on the field, just how he, he commands the huddle and kind of has, it has everybody, like, all in the same page.

[E]

Yeah, I think that's a, that's a great point. I think the, the biggest thing about Aaron that, that I have been, like, amazed by. And I feel like when you think about Aaron Rodgers, everyone talks about the arm strength and the arm talent and the ability to have that he has physically, but nobody talks about what he's capable of up here. Up here. And his, his mental capacity for the game and the things that he's thinking about every single play. Like, just watching his process is crazy. Like, I mean, all the cadence operation that he does and just, you know, his knowledge of the game and the fronts and how that, you know, correlates to the pressures and the structures in the back end. And I mean, everything that he talks about, it just makes sense. And he has taught Me a ton. And he's been super, super open. Like, even if he. You know, he has a bad play at practice where he might be pissed off, and, you know, if I ask him, hey, like, you know, what was your thought process there? Like, he'll come over to me, no matter how pissed off he is, and he'll. He'll tell me. And he's very open with not just me, but, you know, Skyler and Mason and everybody else on the offense. He'll talk to a practice squad tight end the same that he talks to dk, you know, I swear. I mean, I'm really. He's like. Well, no, he. I mean, he gets on everybody, and he expects excellence, and, you know, he's demanding, and he's a great leader. I've just.

[A]

Just.

[E]

It's been great to just sit back and watch the way that he operates, and I've been learning from it and trying to pick his brain as much as I can.

[A]

Yeah, smart. You're even doing. Mimicking his motions on the field. Feels like you're watching his every move. Feels like the right guy to do that with, especially with your leadership style, brother. We got to watch that on display. A lot of alphas on that team, you know, that could have went one way. Instead, it went the other with you being the guy that guides the ship to a national championship. Now, on that note, Connor has a question for you.

[B]

Yeah, thank goodness. Went the other way, Will, because it was nice to see you guys kind of just coast to a national championship. One of the guys on that team who's going to be playing tomorrow, Jeremiah Smith. What is it like, seriously, playing with a dude like that? And as you've been in training camp, in these preseason games, do you ever look on the field and say, like, oh, yeah, Jeremiah Smith's better than that guy.

[A]

That guy. That guy. That guy.

[B]

Then get to DK Metcalf and think, like, okay, that's probably exactly what Jeremiah Smith is. Just an absolute freak of nature.

[E]

Yeah, it's. It's a sight to behold, man. Like, watching number four play football, you know, both with the Steelers and with the. With the Buckeyes. I mean, they're both unbelievable players, and they're very, very comparable in a lot of ways. But, yeah, I mean, JJ is. He's a. He's a freak, man. And I was telling people before the season last year, like, this kid's gonna be one of the good, one of the best in the country as a freshman. And they were all like, you know, we'll believe it when we see it. And I mean, I think everyone saw it pretty, pretty loud and clear last year. I mean he's, he's unbelievable. I mean he can do everything. He's big, he catches freaking everything, every single ball you throw at him. I mean, I think when it's all said and done, he could very, very well be. And I know that's saying a lot, but he could be one of the best to ever do it. But he's so talented and I'm excited to watch him ball out this week. Obviously sad it's not me throwing the ball to him, but I'm excited to watch Julian too, man. I think, I think those two are going to have a good connection and looking forward to it.

[A]

What do you think about Julian?

[E]

Oh, that's my guy, man.

[A]

Really? Okay.

[E]

California. Cool. You know, he's, he's, he's got one of the best releases I've seen.

[A]

Ball comes out pretty.

[E]

Oh, it's pretty, man. It sure is. I mean he, he can spin that thing and there's no doubt about that. But I'm excited to go out there and watch his, you know, his demeanor and the way that he leads these boys. Like that's, you know, when you really talk about being the quarterback of a football team, especially a football team like this, like that is one of the marquee things that you have to do is you got to lead those guys. You got to make sure that you're taking them from, from point A to point B every, every single game and they're riding with you. And I think I'm excited to see that come out of him, you know, because I know he has it inside of him and, and I think he's been developing that all camp and, and I mean he can. He physically like he's up there with, with everyone but I'm just excited to see him, you know, go out there and be the guy and, and lead these guys, man. It's, I'm looking forward to it, man. Jules is a great kid.

[A]

And is he tough? He's got to be tough. Oh yeah, he's Ohio State. You got to be tough. They're running the, the little blow up smashy thingy out here on the field. Nice. I mean they got. Yup, yup, yup. Bam, bam. Eat some, eat some, got some legs in the air. This is preparation for one verse three. This is Ohio. This is, this is, is what it's all about. What perfect timing. To cut to that, Ryan, great shot cuz. Really, really awesome stuff. Ty has A question, I think, to follow up on everything we're talking about with the quarterback.

[B]

Yeah. Will, obviously, you know, Julian and you had massively different paths, you know, ahead of your first start. Have you talked to him at all in terms of, like, what can he expect on Saturday? I mean, your first game was against Akron, so it's a little bit different. You know, you're not getting thrown right into the belly of the beast like he will against Texas. But have you talked to him? Have you given him any advice and, you know, just, like, how much different was it for you, putting on that Ohio State uniform for your first start?

[E]

Yeah, it's obviously very different circumstances for me and him, but, I mean, at the end of the day, it's a football game, you know, and. And I. I told him, and I, you know, I texted him when, you know, when the news officially came out, and I've, you know, I stay in contact with him and with Lincoln and all the quarterbacks, really, I try to. But, you know, the thing that I told him is, man, there's. There's not a lot of people that. That understand what we're going through as. As being the Ohio State quarterback. So, you know, I just said, like, if you ever need to talk to me about anything, you know, just let me know. Just like a lot of the guys ahead of me did for me, you know, and. And it's a different place, you know, Ohio State being the guy, being the quarterback, there's a lot of eyes, there's a lot of pressure, but you can't treat it like that. You got to just treat it like it's another game. And, you know, obviously, this being his first collegiate start, collegiate game, you know, it's a big one, but, you know, I. I know that he has it in him and that, you know, he got to watch us go on that whole run last year, and he was a part of it, so he got to see really big games. So I'm excited to see him go out there and take the step, you know, with. With him actually doing it, because I know he's. He's a dude, man. He's a stud.

[A]

And.

[E]

No, he's got a lot of weapons at his disposal. Disposal.

[A]

He's too tall, isn't he? I was just shot here.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, you. You guys are kind of Sicilyanoing. AJ A little bit. Sorry, aj.

[C]

I'm okay with that. I'm okay. I'm perfect size. My. My forehead to go right into their chin. That's what. Yeah, my kids call me short.

[A]

All the time.

[C]

Like, this exact height I wanted to be, actually.

[A]

Well, man wins. Hey, that was a big thing I was talking about whenever it was going through the draft thing. Yeah. By the way, shout out to you. Throwing at the hotel late at night.

[E]

I appreciate it.

[A]

Indianapolis. Yeah. Somebody out of the blue called and said that, yeah, this guy's out in the middle of a parking lot, middle of the night, getting a throwing session in. Yeah. Shout to that guy.

[B]

Out of the blue, you hear?

[A]

But who was it?

[B]

Just out of the blue was a very interesting way to put it.

[A]

Who was it? Well, it was. What I'm saying is, it was not like a. It was. I didn't follow up and say, like, hey, if you see anything downtown, let me know. It was nowhere, is what I'm saying.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then I got attacked. And I got attacked for lying about you.

[H]

But.

[A]

So I want to let you know, like, I. I was a big supporter of yours through the whole draft process because I didn't think you were getting enough love from what we watched with the playoff run. And we were. We were first on the C.J. stroud stuff. Not the first, but we saw C.J. stroud play, and we're like, that's a Sunday guy right there. Like, right in front of our eyes. I've had the opportunity, as my position, to stand on the sidelines of a lot of football games.

[E]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Okay. So in simulcast, I'm getting a chance to see a lot of positions that I've been in before, and, like, your size was the big thing. I thought, yeah, you're gigantic. You can move, and then your leadership. I hope it all works out. I hope the thumb gets better. I like that. He came in for a really strong dap here with me. Oh, yeah. So we're not worried about that. Right?

[E]

We're feeling good, man. It's. It's. You know, I'm back to throwing this week, so it's feeling good, going in the right direction. But I really appreciate you guys, man. Seriously. Like, I saw. I saw all the. All the love, and I do appreciate you guys, man.

[A]

I could have said something. I was getting. Yeah, thanks a lot.

[C]

I should have spoke.

[A]

I was getting murdered out here.

[E]

But I'm just letting you take it, man.

[A]

Actually, it's the reason why I like you. It's because you did. Yeah. Hey, listen, I'm staying. There's no reason to add any spotlight, which is what I appreciate about you. You're a superstar, you're a national champion, and you're a cool dude. And I think your story is an inspiring one. And I can't wait to see what you write for your professional career. Are you getting celebrated here this weekend? Not that I know of.

[E]

I think we. You know, we all. We kind of did that for the spring game when we had, you know, our rings given out and all that, because, you know. I know, I know they want to focus on this year and beating the Longhorns.

[A]

Oh, you're talking about, hey, new team. This team hasn't won anything. Don't be a distraction, Will. Okay? Please don't stay out the way. Ladies and gentlemen, national champion Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback will hire.

[E]

Thanks for having me on, fellas.

[D]

Easy on that hand.

[E]

He's on that hand.

[B]

That's your.

[A]

I'm just raking on it. Pretty good. No reaction. Yeah, I just want in on it. He looks like he's a bowler, you know?

[B]

Yeah, like Rick Kenmore.

[D]

Oh, Pat, you know what he should do? He should go live in seven's basement. Like Sid lived in Mario's basement.

[A]

Hey, Will, Tone says you should live in Roethlisberger's basement. Like Sidney Crosby did with Mario. Yeah, it's nicest basement I've ever seen. He's in, actually.

[B]

I think he likes it.

[A]

Why doesn't seven do that for a city, by the way? He would.

[D]

I think he would. Well, Spencer Spence might be living down there.

[B]

Yeah, that's a good point.

[A]

You got a chef, too. That chef's really good. Spank, obviously. Awesome. That is the nicest basement I have ever seen. Aj that guy won you guys the national championship there. I like that he feels like he's at home because, boy, for a little bit last year, that was not the case at all. This entire Ohio State team was getting run out of the state of Ohio, and then they win a national championship, and it's like, thank you for your service. And then to his point, hey, Ryan Day. That means nothing right now. That's kind of how I feel. Like every school feels, but definitely this school.

[C]

Yeah, definitely. It's. Yeah. What is it to where. When you win? It's so.

[A]

So.

[C]

People almost get. They get more anxious, more nervous when it comes to, like, the coaching staff. And if they want to make sure you don't let your foot off the gas and you continue and don't get comfortable, all that stuff. That's what college football is, though. It's a great. It's a great situation to be in. Hey, let's not get complacent. We just won the national championship.

[A]

That's all. What are you welling? You know, a lot of pressure I guess. A lot of heat.

[B]

I'm just saying. Well, just because like to AJ's point, like Mack Brown talked about at Texas, like towards the end, even though they were winning a ton of it doesn't become like fun to win. It just becomes a relief. And I'm not saying Ohio State's there just yet. I do have a question for you to wise to biddle sound like such because whatever's being played in your background sounds terrible.

[D]

Bunch of dying ducks.

[C]

They're just warming up pal. They're just all warming up, scattered throughout.

[A]

They lose it. People are saying there's individual horns all over the place. You know, like right there. Just random horn players around the stadium. It has been wild. We are thankful and lucky to be here. The sun shining directly on our backs. Hour two on the other side.

[B]

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[B]

Football.

[A]

Is amazing. Batman is a national champion head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes Ryan Day coach the boys back in the Thunderdome both the toxic tables at Ty Schmidt and at Boston Connor and 1/2 of the Hammer Cowboys. AP Tone pumped to see you. We're thankful. Hey, we thought he hated us. Is that not accurate? Yeah, that is very accurate. Now we don't have to talk.

[G]

We love you guys.

[A]

No, well we want to let you know that we are that way though. That is how we operate. We always will. It's not. I think it's a good trait, but a lot of people is not great and it's probably put me exactly. It's like the Buckeyes last season. So we thought you hated us. So we in return had to hate you. Very thankful that you don't hate us because we did not want to hate you strictly because what you have done here and what you've had to battle through. Now granted I'm just getting baptized into college football over the last five years. I understand the state of Ohio has loved the Buckeyes for a very long time. But what we have watched you have to go through with the success that you've had and then the failures that have happened and then the reaction and the criticism and how it felt like the entire state was on fire and then you were able to lead the boys to get a national championship. It's like you should be commended. You are somebody that we like. You are a dog. You need to know that. And we just want to officially say because we didn't get a chance to interview him after the national championship. If you do recall, three requests. Congratulations dude. Congratulations.

[G]

Thank you. I'm glad I'm here. And no love you guys. You guys are about unbelievable, and, you know, you're great for the sport, you know, and just the positivity that you guys bring every day and just pumping up the game, it's. It's something we all respect here in Columbus.

[A]

You don't have to say that. Let's talk, though, about everything. I mentioned it got loud, and I know you're not supposed to listen to the press clippings or hear what's outside, but in Ohio, I think it's everywhere, so you had to have heard it. Obviously, families involved, there's everything echo real loud whenever you're trying to motivate the boys. How much of it is there? Like, why do I dedicate so much time for this fan base that literally is trying to run me out of town anytime we take one misstep? Was there any of that thought? Or how do you kind of stay focused while it's getting real loud and negative outside?

[G]

I mean, that's part of the job. You know, I remember during the press conference when, you know, Urban kind of handed the whistle over to me and I said, know, you. You got to win the rivalry game, and you got to win every game after that. That's how it works at Ohio State, and that's the expectations. And so along the way, there's going to be things that are difficult, and you got to work through those. And if you're going to let it crumble you or, you know, fall apart, then you're not going to make it. And so this job is for tough people who can handle it. And so, you know, last year, I think, was a great example of that. But, you know, when you talk about the fan base, like, these people love Ohio State. It's love, love it. And there's a responsibility that we have, and it's bigger than any one person, any one player, any one coach. And the guys understand that, and they understand what comes with that. And when we lose a game around here, it's not good. You got to figure it out, because there's a lot riding on every single game, and that's how it works. And, you know, but if. But if you're willing to stick together, tough times aren't going to last, but tough people do. And that's. That's something that we learned last year with our guys.

[A]

I love to watch that. I love to hear that. And the run you guys went on, we had a chance to be on the sideline for all of it. Your team was obviously together. Will Howard Just chit chatted about the players only meeting and you and how it got a little ugly in there for a little bit. Feels like people can come together after there is a little bit of a tussle, I'll say, or some disagreements. Did you know your team had the ability to win the national championship still at that moment in that meeting? Was it like, this is good for the boys to kind of get after it and air out all the grievances? Like, when did you know the team could go and maybe get to the top of the mountain?

[G]

But when we got done with that game, I mean, there's no, there's no reason we should have lost that game. We knew it and coming out of it, it was like, all right, are you going to focus on the results or where you are in the process and identifying what has to get fixed. Because at the end of the day, we can sit there and complain about what happened or sit back and look at that game and say, okay, now, you know, let it beat you twice. Can't do that. Got to learn from it and figure out what the things are that we need to get fixed. It was like in the Oregon game and we got some things fixed in that Oregon game and then we had to sort some things out with their offensive line. And when you lose Simmons, who was a first round draft pick at left tackle, and then you have to move Donovan out and then two weeks earlier, now you're losing your Remington Award winner at center. And there was a lot going on right there. And we knew we had to make some changes to get some things fixed if we were going to make the run that we went on. But then the last time we were in the stadium against Tennessee, our backs were against the wall and we felt like coming out of that game, if we could play the way we played in that game, then there wasn't anybody in the country that was going to beat us.

[A]

Nico Ia Malayalava cracked three helmets. I think your defense is doing a okay in that particular game. What was it? Negative 55 degrees down here too. Love that the north, you know, got a big time win. Go ahead, A.J.

[C]

Yeah, coach, I actually mentioned the Tennessee pregame to you before we got on air here. So Pat, I and the boys were all standing on the sidelines. Jack Sawyer's down here talking to every Tennessee player walking off the field. There's a couple ladies that were saying some very hurtful things to the Tennessee players. But it was very. It was tasteful, but hurtful. I would hurt your feelings.

[A]

She's yelling. You don't even look like you lift.

[C]

What are you, the JV team? She had some good stuff, but then Ohio. Yeah, yeah, much. Yeah, much deeper than that.

[A]

But it.

[C]

Have you been a part of a pre game that felt that. I don't know what I. I don't even know how to describe what it felt like. Just so much. It was just like, hey, these dudes are ready. Like, everybody was ready on the sideline. I felt like. And it felt like the game was already over before it started.

[A]

Yeah.

[G]

Yeah. Hard to explain. When you think about a playoff game in Ohio Stadium. You know, you think about having cold weather, you think about, you know, being the middle of December, and you think about a rowdy crowd and everything that would come with that. And, you know, for all of us, whether it was the fans or, you know, alums or players or coaches, like, our backs were against the wall there, and. And we just. We had that mentality right out of the gate. And, you know, there was a decent amount of orange here in this stadium.

[A]

And, like, you know, game day, they took over day. I just want to let you know I was coming out ready to do the whole. Oh, I was ready to do all that. And they say it was rocky top, brother orange everywhere. I was a little tired because we came from Notre Dame night before. It was freezing, ass cold, and it was a big moment, but there was. Tennessee had invaded almost. That's what it felt like in the morning. It felt like that in the morning. And then we got in here. It wasn't as prevalent as there certainly was, but in the morning, it felt like, this is going to be a Volunteers home game in the Horseshoe. We start to talking to him very loudly.

[C]

Buckeye's fans stay calm the whole time, though, Coach. In the moment, I was like, it doesn't matter. Just kickoffs in 10 hours. We'll be all right. Our fans will be here when it matters.

[A]

And they were. But this place was rocking that night, and I think it was a good. It was a good moment between your team and the fans, I think. Yeah, you think so?

[G]

And a lot of. Yeah, no question. And a lot of people came up to me and say, that's one of their favorite games that they've been a part of. Just the atmosphere and everything that came with it, and it just kickstarted us. You know, after you win that game, you're going to the Rose bowl. And it's like. Like, okay, yeah, we got. We got three more games. We got to win here. We got to go on this run, and it allowed us some confidence coming out of the game, but it was good to see us, you know, respond that way. And so now, you know, the next game that we're here, we're playing Texas. And so you think about the way we ended last season with some of these monster games. And here we are, you know, about to kick it off against a great team here and, you know, another monster game to start the season.

[A]

1 verse 3 We love that your team's doing it because this is obviously a big part of the conversation is playing in these big games, okay? Because the schedule, the record, the losses, obviously, you guys were right in the middle of that the first year with the expanded College Football Playoff. Let's talk about the young buck he got playing quarterback here. Obviously not young. Been around, has experienced things. We talked to Will Howard. He was on the sideline in a massive piece of that playoff run. What are our expectations? What should we see? Guy can spin it. I'm watching these highlights. These balls are coming out great. What is your expectation and what are you telling him if you. He goes out there?

[G]

Well, the thing that I've said to him and I've really said to our team is that there. There's no expectation other than winning the game. Because when you go into a first start like this as a quarterback or any position, especially a game like this, it's easy to start saying, well, you know, I need to throw for this many touchdowns or have this many tackles or whatever it might be. And then all of a sudden, when the game doesn't go the way you expect, you can find yourself kind of getting distracted. That can't be the case here. You know, we have to figure out a way to win the game. That's it. You got to play really, really hard. But for him, you know, he's got to trust what he does every day in practice. He got a chance to see Will lead last year and see his command in the huddle and how he handled those types of things. And every day he's growing more and more. Once we named him a starter, I feel like he's picked up some momentum. So he's got to go play in the game. This is going to be his first start ever at Ohio State against Texas, Week one. I mean, how about that? Welcome to Ohio State. But this is why you come to Ohio State. This is why you come into the Horseshoe and playing games like this. And so it's going to be a hell of a start.

[A]

Yeah, we're very excited about it. It's be to going college football fans. He's got a new weapon. Obviously, everybody's a new weapon for him because it's his first time starting. But there's a tight end that you guys have gone. Go ahead, Tone.

[D]

Yeah, Coach. I wanted to ask you about Max Claire, because you obviously brought him in from Purdue. You brought in a DN from North Carolina. Some teams use the portal because they. They, like, they need to. I don't know if the Ohio State needs to. So how do you guys. How do you guys feel? Like, how do you decide that you want to. What positions you want to supplement and what guys are right for a team that, you know, you got. You recruit so well, you're already loaded, like. So how do you decide what guys are right and what positions are right?

[G]

Well, I think the first thing is, you know, now more than ever, you have to recruit really well and then retain the guys that you're developing, because if not every year, the turnover just is too much to handle. And so if you want to, you know, sustain a culture, it all starts with high school recruiting. But along the way, you know, the transfer portal can also, you know, take from you. So if you look at last year, when we got done with our game on January 20, the portal was open for five days. It wasn't open for anybody else other than us in Notre Dame. And we lost seven guys in the portal in that stretch right there. And so we have to replace those holes. So when you look at the guys that we've had over the years, it's replaced holes that are in our roster. And so we hand select those guys and first off, make sure they fit our culture, because that's the most important thing. And then obviously, if they can help us out on the field.

[A]

Let's talk about another guy you stole from West Virginia. Yeah. Good player? Yeah, great player.

[G]

Well, he's. He's gotten bigger, he's gotten stronger. He's in. He's. He's in great shape. I'm just telling you.

[A]

Best shape.

[G]

He's doing a great job, man. He's excited to play in this game. I think for him coming in, there was a lot to adjust for him in understanding exactly how we do things here. But he was a very good player at West Virginia. And, you know, I'm excited to see him running tomorrow.

[A]

Yeah, CJ's a dog. It was very nice to watch him, and I'm actually, like, kind of proud of him. Like, yeah, you went and got good luck, you know, like, it is a great time to be here in Columbus. I think everybody understands that it is crazy. You're playing Texas tomorrow to start the season, right? Ty has a question for you.

[B]

Yeah, Coach. Obviously you're no stranger to the pomp and circumstance of a massive game. You know, with game day, being there and all that kind of stuff. You've had those experiences several times at the Horseshoe. But, but how excited are you to be able to throw your team into the fire week one against the number one ranked team in the nation and kind of see what they're made of? And on the flip side, how much can you actually learn from about your team from a week one game like this?

[G]

Yeah, I, I'm. I'm extremely excited to play in this game. I mean, it's. Texas is excellent. You know, they're super talented, they're very well coached. I think Sark does a great job. I think their coaches do a great job. Certainly Arch is a tremendous player and they have great players in all three phases. But, you know, for us, week one to get some real feedback on where we are to kind of start our journey into this season is going to be tremendous. And to have this game at home, you know, the atmosphere is going to be crazy. And a noon kickoff. You know, I just think that for our fans to get back together again early in the season for a game like this is going to be tremendous and it's going to give our team a reference point. A younger team. You know, when you look at all the guys we lost last year, there's a lot of guys are going to be doing it for the first time here tomorrow and then it. But it's going to give them a reference point as they move throughout the season.

[A]

Yeah. And it's got to feel good that these types of games are going to be possible going forward for teams because feels like College Football Playoff is understanding that this is good for the sport for you guys to battle early. Right. So it doesn't mean season's over here after week one, it's going to feel like it here. And you know, you won a national championship. I don't care is what some Ohio guys are going to say Saturday night. If you guys don't get the dub, you've become noon Kings. Okay. You certainly have. This place is going to be insane. I would assume tomorrow. That's all expectation. Tomorrow is going to be absolutely rocking. Texas travels.

[G]

Yeah. No, they got a great fan base, great team. It's going to be. It's just an awesome day for college football. And here we go. We're about 24 hours out.

[A]

Let's talk about it. Coach Corso's last game day. Thoughts on that as well, because you're going to be on the show, which is awesome. We're very thankful you're coming through, of course, but it's going to be a celebration of a guy who really changed the shape in the face of college ball and certainly college game day.

[G]

Yeah, I think when. When it's all said and done, we all want to have an impact. And Lee Corso's had an impact not only as a coach and the players and the coaches that he was around, but then also here, you know, on game day and ESPN and what he's done and just brought so much enjoyment and, you know, celebration to the sport. And again, another guy who's very positive about builds people up and, you know, in day and age, where it's easy to rip people down and tear people down and be negative, this is not somebody who's done that. He's built people up and he certainly made an impact as a coach in the game, but. But then actually as an ambassador later on in his life and just done so many, so many great things. He's got a lot of respect for everybody here.

[A]

Yeah, I think everybody. I think that's been very evident. Very rarely is the whole world unified in an opinion. It feels like everybody's behind Coach Corso.

[G]

Right.

[A]

It's going to be electric tomorrow. Tomorrow. I. I got a little bit of insight on what's happening tomorrow. It's gonna be electrifying tomorrow as we celebrate the. Out of him. And then between now and then. Any hobbies? Any hobbies. What is.

[C]

I know you're a big tennis guy, right?

[G]

I go over there.

[C]

I just actually, I wonder what's your. What's your opinion on pickleball? I hear the tennis players hate pickleball, people.

[G]

No, pickleball's great.

[C]

Okay.

[G]

Yeah, pickleball's great.

[A]

You're a tennis player.

[G]

So the tennis facility is right across the street. And Ty Tucker, who. Who's an unbelievable coach during COVID he started inviting me over there. And so for about 30 minutes, about two or three times a week, I go over there and just hammer to tennis.

[A]

Great exercise, right?

[G]

Unbelievable. And the team's really good. I mean, they hammer in the ball 80, 100, 120 miles an hour, and just getting after it for about a half hour. It's a great workout. Come back in and you're in a better headspace when you come back.

[A]

It's quite a range 80 to 120 miles an hour. I kind of feel like an off speed pitch.

[G]

These guys hammer the. Hammer the. I mean, you watch the US Open, you see how hard they hit the ball. It's unbelievable.

[A]

You fighting anybody over there? Like we're seeing the. The two women in the. Oh, yeah, they did. You getting beef? You getting beef?

[G]

There's no beef going on over there.

[A]

All right, all right. Something to think about. Congrats to you on becoming a national champion. And let's remember, that means nothing. Ain't that right, boys?

[B]

Exactly right.

[A]

That means nothing, coach. Means nothing. Everybody's at the bottom of the mountain. I think you should take in that you were the way you want, how you won, the circumstance in which you won. I hope you cherish that and realize how special it is for the rest of your life. And good luck trying to do it again as it starts tomorrow against Texas. You're the man. Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for not hating us. And also thank you for the hoodies. Got me a couple. We got a couple hoodies.

[B]

Here we go. We can't be bought that easily, coach.

[D]

I can.

[A]

Con man. I think you wear size 12 as well. Right? Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All right, fine.

[B]

If they're shoes, we can be bought that easily, coach.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Yep. I'm a size 12. And these bad boys were brought in here and. Oh, yeah, I think we.

[G]

National championship right there, man.

[A]

Yeah, I think maybe we can be purchased, you know? Oh, baby.

[H]

Couple more.

[D]

Couple more XL hoodies.

[A]

Couple more XL hoodies. Yeah. There's. There's multiple here. Here. There's multiple here. We are very thankful. We are happy you don't hate us. I. I think.

[B]

No, seriously. Especially because you're a New Hampshire guy.

[A]

Very serious.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

New Hampshire liked you a lot. That's right. Yeah. No, no, no.

[G]

All love here. And I'd love to come on the show as many times as I can. Guys, appreciate you.

[A]

We appreciate you. Good luck. Ladies and gentlemen, national champion Ryan Day. That was very cool of you to do that. Thank you.

[B]

Really cool for those guys to keep playing, too.

[A]

They sound great. Yeah. Hey, these horns playing over you, I think we need to do a little bit of a check in the totem pole. Just a little heads up. Just something to think about. They don't want to start any more problems.

[B]

That's a bit of culture.

[A]

We don't want to start any more problems.

[D]

That is the problems to. Biddle thinks they're bigger than the head coach of the football team.

[A]

They have to have that type of moxie, though, dot the eye out here. Yeah.

[B]

118 on a Friday. They're in the or bowl practicing. You kind of have to respect it. I. I mean.

[A]

Yeah, I appreciate. Now, granted, could it. Nothing.

[B]

Could we do it at 11:18?

[A]

No, we. We don't. Nobody should be stopping anything for us. So that is first and foremost, whatever they need to do to get ready for tomorrow. That's cool. That is an interesting thing to do. And it. It sounds pretty shite.

[B]

It sounds incredible.

[C]

It may be tuning them, I think.

[A]

I don't think they're playing.

[C]

They're trying to play a little number. They're not to play the hit.

[A]

Yeah. But do they know. A lot of people are hearing it? Like that is the. Maybe there's communication. A lot of people are hearing it. And it does not sound up to. To Biddle standards. Because we got individual solo performances happening in 45 different places throughout the horseshoe here. I think it's going to be tough to be on the same page. They need somebody in the.

[B]

Yeah. Where's the mice?

[C]

Where's that guy?

[A]

Yeah. Keeping them all on the same page. That's a big horn right there. I don't know what that one is.

[C]

That's a big two, buddy.

[A]

Believe that's a big horn. Carry that thing around there. Doing the stairs.

[B]

Solo.

[A]

Gone. We missed him. Sorry, Ryan.

[B]

Solo.

[A]

All right. Before coach Saban joins us, which is going to be awesome. Cannot wait to chat with him again. That. That was a really cool thing last year, getting a chance to just watch Saban be. Saban. He is. He's one of the goats, you know, so whenever you get the chance to watch a goat talk a goat, learn from a goat, it's like you got to do that. That. He was so cool to us last year. Don't you think, boys?

[D]

Too cool.

[B]

And the stuff that he was saying, like the amount of game he was just giving was incredible. I mean, of course the Vanderbilt situation happened, but that's gonna happen.

[A]

Awesome. And.

[B]

And yeah. Still it made it even cooler. But just hearing Saban talk like ball is. It's an honor. It's like Belichick.

[D]

And he also pretended to like us other guys at dinner when we went.

[B]

Good point.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And in Ireland, didn't he say you guys ask good questions?

[B]

Yeah, cuz he say that football guys.

[D]

He respects us.

[B]

Yeah. He saw you drinking beers and then he was like, it's crazy. Cuz the other guys are kind of. They even ask good questions.

[A]

And that's. You guys Right. Yeah. Yeah. We're the other guys.

[B]

Well and that's the cool.

[A]

You guys are the other guys. I didn't know that that you guys.

[B]

Were the other guys in this situation. We are the utter guys.

[D]

We're the Bugle boys.

[G]

We're the utter guys.

[B]

It's like when you and AJ and debud are like when we were in the locker room. Even though the other guys weren't in the locker room, they're still allowed to talk about. It's like thank you guys for allowing us to be the other guys.

[A]

Yeah. So is every day another day then if you guys are the other guys? Because I. I didn't know that that was what you guys were going by.

[D]

Yeah. You gotta wake up every morning and treat it as another day.

[B]

Yeah, but. But you.

[A]

You see what's going on here age. Do you see what's happening here? Do you understand what's going on A little bit.

[C]

Does Stanford Steve have any idea. Yes, he definitely impact that he has on this show.

[A]

We love Stanley for Steven.

[C]

He's the man.

[A]

We just hope that he loves us, don't we?

[B]

From one another guy to another guy.

[D]

We asked him yet. Did you ask him this morning by.

[A]

He said he didn't expect the graphic.

[B]

Yeah, yeah we saw that he didn't expect it. Like we always say, you know, play. Played the hand a little too hard, a little too firm. Flew too close to the sun.

[A]

No, you know when we overdo it that's always the problem.

[D]

We thought it might be a chance.

[B]

Like Louis Holtz the second time.

[A]

You know shouldn't have done it. We. We had it. We had the moment and then we had. Well we got a one on one with Marcus Freeman and Ryan Day. Need to bring in Lou Holtz national championship.

[C]

Need to barge in. Lou Hawks.

[A]

Yeah. Ty actually had to rush that mask on too cuz we were late. We almost. The universe almost sold us not to do it. Like hey, not enough time almost. Hey, we will.

[C]

I think I talked to you shortly before you think we should do. I'm like yeah, why not? Seems like a great time.

[A]

Yeah. CFP gives us time to sit with the coaches. How are you going to spend it mask now?

[B]

I mean that's something you look back on like no matter for forever and it's like that was one of the most ridiculous things probably that's ever happened is Marcus Freeman.

[A]

Marcus Freeman knows what's going on. Oh geez. I can't believe this is happening. We're at the national championship championship right now. Yeah. That's on us. We're learning as we go. Speaking of learning as we go, we haven't talked about a lot of things that have happened around the NFL that aren't just Micah Parsons. Michael. Sorry.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Michael Parsons says Jerry Jones to the Green Bay packers con man. What are some other headlines that we need to hit? Variables. Handling business up there, huh?

[B]

Yeah. Vrabel's handling business. Very weird. Jabril Pepper's breaking news was released today from New England. This was the last captain actually remaining from the 2024 New England Patriots. I was still on the team, so now 2025 New England Patriots will have brand new captains. Very interesting. We'll see what happens. Definitely was one of the leaders in New England and was one of our best players. This was stunning to me, especially because all the trade rumors with the Patriots that were going around when it came to, you know, Terry McLaurin or Trey Hendrickson. Jabril Peppers was never a player that was kind of up in the air for that. So that's what's going on. New England and Vrabel's making his turnover. Who knows what we'll see happening. The other thing in New England you could argue is the new NFL Nike rivalries jersey. This was kind of took the Internet by storm a little bit last night. NFC or yesterday? Nfc, West, AFC East. They got all their new jerseys. That should be sweet. Something that we really haven't seen as far lately in the NFL, which I think some people might be worried about would be the Las Vegas Raiders only announced three captains now. I thought you had to have seven captains to have a good football team. The Raiders only have three. It's defense, offense, special teams. I'm worried there might not be as much leadership in Vegas as they might want to for Pete Carroll and the board.

[A]

I love that there's only three. That they're all three. I think in their minds, the best in the world. Cole is the best punter in the world right now. In his mind, he's representing special teams. Max Crosby thinks he's the best defensive end in the world. He's clearly the leader of that defense, as is Cole and special teams and Geno Smith with Pete Carroll had the best offense in the NFL. He's thinking he's the best in the world, and I like that. Pete Carroll says these three are our leaders by far. We only need three C's. That's old school. They'll probably have a week to week one. If I had to guess where there'll be a rotating Cast. But I think it's good that there's only three. They know who's who. As opposed to seven captains. You ever wake up with a sore throat, feeling a little off and you know you're getting sick? Well, getting sick and going on the IL isn't an option, especially for me when I'm traveling for work. You can try to see a doctor. Well, good luck there. Or go sit for hours in an urgent care. Nope. That's why you need a medical emergency kit. This isn't some cheap first aid kit, okay? Your medical emergency kit comes packed with doctor prescribed meds. It's like having an urgent care and a pharmacy right there in your home. If you're coming down with the flu, bam. Here's your Z Pak. You've got gastrointestinal issues. Here's your back drum. From Z Pak to ivermectin, amoxicillin and doxycycline to treat strep pneumonia, sinus infections, UTIs, Covid and more. It's all right there in your kit. Just match your symptoms to the guide or talk with their telehealth document. No doctor waiting rooms, no pharmacy lines. Order online in minutes and get $50 off with the code [e-mail] SMALLS get yours now at URGENTCAREKIT.com SMALLS use the promo code Smalls. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're.

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You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates and read reviews all on the thumbtack app download today. Joining us now is a man who knows leadership better than anybody on earth. Ladies and gentlemen, a man who's won a thousand national championships and now is the man on college game day, our friend, Coach Saban.

[B]

Thanks, Pat.

[F]

Good to be here, man.

[A]

It's great to see you. How was the off season?

[F]

It was great. It was great. I missed some of my partners here and the team, especially you.

[A]

Well, we missed you as well. You were talked about a lot in the Thunderdome. The boys and I have such a high regard for you. Not only because of what you've accomplished, but how you've transitioned into speaking into microphones has been flawless. You need to know that. That you think that this is just easy. I think because you've been great at it. You're great for football. Is that not right, boys?

[B]

Without a doubt.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Huge.

[A]

No questions. You are great for football. So I appreciate the fact that we get to talk to you. And I guess we'll make the announcement now. Coach Saban will be joining us every single Friday.

[F]

Glad to do it, man.

[A]

Yeah, you're great for football, though.

[F]

So glad to be here.

[A]

Okay, let's talk about this season. We got Texas, Ohio State to kick this thing off. Three top 10 matchups in the first week. How do you feel about that potentially becoming a thing going forward? And what should we expect from these teams that are ranked very high in your eyes?

[F]

Well, you know, first of all, I think it's great that we have games like this, and I wish we had them every week. I wish that, you know, some way somebody could control the schedule a little bit, that we had some interconference games and the best games. So it's great for the fan experience, you know, when it comes to this season, I mean, this is one of the most difficult seasons to really predict, you know, who's going to do what, especially after the first few teams because there's so many changes on rosters, there's so many quarterback changing teams, and who's going to fit in the best? Where's the leadership, the chemistry going to come from? How are they going to fit in with the players that they have? What's the production going to be? Hard to figure out.

[A]

How do you feel about quarterbacks going to be. Now, granted, Sain's been here for a little bit, starts with you. Arch has been there for a few years. That's good. But there's a lot of teams that got brand new quarterbacks. Obviously, we've seen it go in one particular direction with them. Florida State, whenever they have DJ UI Ungulole, it doesn't work out. They go down. Will Howard comes here, they go up. How do you feel about the new quarterback coming in maybe for a year, just to see if the good team can maybe win a natty?

[F]

Well, you know, I think it's all about the guy. You know, if the guy's got maturity and leadership and the team's going to sort of respond to him, that's a big thing. But also maturity to me is the. The definition of can you stay focused on the right stuff? You know, and as a competitor, you got to be able to stay focused on the right stuff, especially at quarterback, because you got the ball, you're distributing the ball every play. So it's Important that you can gain the respect of your team by making good choices and decisions and communicating well with the team.

[A]

Do you miss you miss was reported like four times. You're going back to coaching this offseason.

[F]

You know what? And that came out of nowhere. I mean, Ms. Terry said, where did that come from? I mean, she wouldn't let me do it. Number one, I've never thought about doing it. Number two. And I don't know how somebody could just come up with this out of thin air.

[A]

Now you're running a government arm, too. Remember that? What was it, boy? Nick Saban's gonna head up the new college football committee as.

[F]

Yeah, commission.

[A]

You remember that? Congratulations. Hey, thank you for the work, Coach. And, you know, more you can do.

[F]

I didn't know anything about that either. And Ms. Terry sees it on, I don't know, the Internet somewhere, and she says, why didn't you tell me about this? Tell you about what? I didn't know anything about it.

[A]

Oh, no, the Internet's getting you some shit at home. I love that you would be the right guy for the job. Which is why it went so viral. Because as soon as they said, coach Saban's gonna run a college football commission with the government, everybody's like, yes, he's the right guy. So everybody was pumped that it was massive amount of work. Massive amount of work to do it all. Now, obviously, you're going to be an ear. You will certainly help. I feel like you love college football. Want to see it succeed. You're still in the Alabama building, I think on a weekly basis or daily basis. Who knows what your schedule is, But I saw you speaking to them. You're still very much involved in college football. Want to see the best for college football. You're not going to be running the commission, but are you getting ideas run by you? Are you a part of what the future of this thing looks like? Because the game, I think, is immaculate, and that's all anybody wants to kind of keep pure.

[F]

Yeah. And. And, you know, I'm very much committed to it in every way. And I would be a part of a commission if it was a real commission created by the government that was actually going to enforce some rules and regulations and guidelines that would help the game and promote the players in the game. I'm all for players making money, but, you know, you need some guidelines relative to competition and creating some parity in the league. I mean, every competitive venue has it. I'm all for players, but I am really all for college football. You Know, there's so much enthusiasm, so much interest in college football, and, you know, it's still pure in a way. And sometimes we can't let that purity sort of leave what it has always been.

[A]

Yeah, I love college football. The environment, it's what we have to represent. America. Whenever you talk about best fanhoods, like over Europe, they got the hooligans. They're, they're, they're crazy. Gumpy was actually over there in Spain experiencing, you know, I was over there as a young lad, watched the game. We're talking about flares being shot off in the crowd, like they are chanting, going insane. America's representation, college football fans. And we got a great venue here for tomorrow to kind of kick off this incredible season. Go ahead, A.J.

[C]

Yeah, coach. Tomorrow. With these quarterbacks, we always hear the cliche, hey, what do you do to a young, inexperienced guy? Oh, heat him up, get him, move them off the spot, try to throw some pressure at him. I guess if you had, if you have a young, like I say, inexperienced quarterback, how do you get them think about every other position? Like, we get all jacked up and you get excited and you, you're all, your adrenaline is going, go out and hit somebody. The quarterback is kind of the opposite. How do I, how do I hone it in and kind of dial in all of this energy, I guess. What do you tell a young quarterback going into games like this?

[F]

Well, I think the most important thing is you got to play one play at a time and you can't let a bad play affect. But, you know, I always try to tell our quarterbacks, they all want to make plays. They all talk about making plays, making plays, making plays. I said, how about eliminating a bad plays? You know, if we don't have drive, stopping mistakes, whether it's a sack we shouldn't have taken, whether it's a turnover that we shouldn't have had. Because the number one thing for a quarterback to me is can I identify what the defense is doing, can I communicate it to my teammates? And once I get the ball in my hands, can I execute with good judgment and decision making and accuracy with the ball for throwing it or handing it off or whatever it is? So I think those things are really, really important to stay focused on. And there's so much noise, you know, I call it rat poison out there relative to these quarterbacks at these kind of programs that that makes it even more difficult for these guys to stay focused on the right stuff.

[A]

Modern day. I would tell them, Will Howard actually admitted to Us, which every player. It's not really an admission at this point. He was like, we're told not to read the stuff, but it's impossible. Like nowadays it's impossible. It's literally everywhere. Have to have a very mentally tough quarterback to lead the team. Tone has a question for you about another quarterback.

[D]

Yeah, coach, Obviously, it's year two for. For Caitlin DeBoer, and he brought in his OC Ryan Grubb, to be back this year. But obviously the biggest question right now is Ty Simpson, who's a new quarterback, who obviously you knew. You know. Well, I just. I saw an article recently about how you called and you were talking to his dad, who's also a head coach, like, hey, you know, Ty needs to stay here. When he gets to play here, things can be. Can be great with him. What do. What do we need to know about Ty Simpson? That we don't know the guy and then also the player on the field?

[F]

Yeah, well, I think Ty is, you know, a great young man who has, and I have all the respect in the world for these guys that, you know, stay in a program for three years, develop, wait their turn. And I think that's the thing that Ty has done extremely well. You know, Todd, there's so many of these guys that grow up now being outcome oriented, you know, and they're always looking at results. You know, how many passes did I complete, how many touchdowns did I have? And then they create these expectations for themselves, and when they don't live up to them, they get frustrated very easily. And that body language is not good for a quarterback. It's not good for a team. So that's the big thing that Ty's had to sort of work his way through is, you know, not get affected by a bad play, stay focused on the next play because he's got all the talent in the world. He's got legs that are real. He's a very accurate passer. He's a good decision maker. He's smart, he's a good leader. So it'll be interesting to see how he can maintain the consistency and performance that defines success by not getting affected by ups and downs in a game.

[A]

Do you think that there's going to be any quarterback changes early? Like, how long do you think these great teams who have new quarterbacks are giving their. What do you. What do you think?

[F]

Well, I think it depends on who.

[A]

Insane. Oh, okay. Okay.

[F]

I think it depends a lot on who the next guy is. You know, I mean, sometimes if you have a young guy that you really have a lot of confidence in that. You think he may not be ready. Kind of like the Tua Jalen hurts thing that we went through a few years ago. You know, we kept playing, you know, Tua thinking that one of these days he's going to be ready. And he actually went and was ready in the national championship. But that was the plan.

[A]

Yeah, it worked out.

[F]

We were trying to bring that guy along, and, you know, Jalen was struggling a little bit toward the end of the season, beat up a little bit and all that. So if you can bring a guy along and you have a really good player behind your quarterback, then you can afford to have a little bit of a short leash if you think it's not the team's not moving in the right direction.

[A]

There's a lot of difficult decisions that are made. It feels like nowadays college football a little bit more like personal pro football than it's ever been. And if you have some pro football experience, it might help you. Ty has a question for you.

[B]

Yeah, Coach? For the last eight months or to a year, however long it's been, everyone's got to weigh in on Bill Belichick in North Carolina and have an opinion about, you know, whatever. We had Michael Lombardi on yesterday, and he said that they had a couple conversations with you, reached out with you, you know, just. Just for advice or, you know, whatever the case may be. Now that we're a couple days ahead of them actually taking the field, and we're going to see the product on the field, what are your expectations for this North Carolina football team? And do you think the whole situation will feel different to Bill, or is coaching ultimately just coaching?

[F]

No, I think coaching is coaching, but I do think there's some what I would call operational differences. You know, in college, I mean, just take the sidelines, for instance. You got 45 guys on the sidelines in the NFL. You know, in college, you could have a hundred. So that's a lot of people. That changes a lot of. How do you manage that? How does it affect you? How does it impact you? But that's just a sort of a stupid operational.

[A]

Oh, my God. It sounds like you hate how much conjecture is around. Yep. Congestion on the side.

[F]

I made certain guys stand behind the bench because I hated the traffic on the sidelines. But my point is this. They've got 70 new players at North Carolina on their roster. You know, Bill is a great coach, he's a great teacher, and he's great at developing players. So if you have that many new Players, you really don't have a chance to develop them. So, you know, my expectation, it's going to be a little bit of a work in progress, and he's going to make all these players better, and they're going to benefit and create more value for their future because of Bill. But it's going to take a little time, so. And I think everybody should understand that.

[A]

Yeah, we're going to be there on Monday for TCU unc. Big kickoff for them on Monday night. Down in Chapel Hill, Michael Lombardi just keeps saying how beautiful it is. You need to come down and see us. It's beautiful down here. He's always selling. You have to. I guess, as a college football coach, that's kind of what they're doing now. Nobody did it as good as you, brother. Connor has a question for you.

[B]

Yeah, coach. We just had Ryan Day on, and we kind of talked about the mentality of the team going into this year, how, you know, last year's great, but they didn't do anything. And we were kind of talking about how it almost turns into a relief of winning versus, you know, wanting to win in that type of, you know, mindset. But for your teams with Bama, you know, I'm assuming after you guys won national championships, it was very similar. Hey, now that that season's over, we haven't done anything. I think you've mentioned before, you know, I take 20. I've taken 24 hours after a national championship, and then you're right back to it. What do you think that will do for Ohio State? Do you think that is probably the smartest way to go about it for both the coach and the team? And do you think that they will have a lot of success in, you know, going on to try and repeat this year?

[F]

Well, I do think it's something you have to overcome. And you mentioned the word relief. I call it relief syndrome.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[F]

In other words, you do something special. Which society promotes this. So we all grow up this way, and then we should get rewarded for that, and we should be able to rest on our laurels. You know, kind of like when we all made an A on the first test and we jacked around for the next two weeks and made a C on the next test, and we were happy to have a B. Yeah, but.

[A]

I started at C, though.

[F]

So you had to make an A on the next test. But this whole concept of having to deal with success because, you know, success is not a continuum, and nothing in the past that's going to. That you had success with is going to really affect your ability to have success in the future. So this. This is not normal. I mean, it's something that, you know, players have to be aware of. You have to coach it into them that they can't rest on their laurels because everybody's shooting at you. You become the mountain. Ohio State won the national championship. Everybody wants to beat them even worse now than ever before. So players have to understand that it's a new team. Everybody's got to buy into the new role that they have, the leadership that they have, and you got to replace that hunger that's created by not having success. Like Ohio State getting beat by Michigan last year probably had as much to do with them winning the national championship as anything.

[A]

Absolutely.

[F]

Yeah.

[A]

Perspective.

[F]

Yeah.

[A]

You coming out and yelling at their fan base after that was awesome. Sweet.

[F]

They needed it.

[A]

Listen, get in line and shut up. This team can win a national championship and. Right.

[F]

Yeah. And. And. And they got this, you know, psychological disposition about Michigan that's just killing them.

[A]

Yeah. Michigan's dancing the entire time. Because even when Ohio State wins the national championship, now Michigan's getting credit for it. And that is certainly something they dance with all offseason. AJ Has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach.

[C]

College football rivalries, it's a unique world we live in, I guess, in this whole situation. But for tomorrow, noon, kickoff out here, what are you expecting to see? Like, what do you, I guess, in the first game, too, when you're coaching, your first time you guys go on the field, what do you want to see out of your team?

[F]

Well, you know, you want to see your team execute with discipline and not make the kind of errors in the game that are going to affect the outcome of the game. Like last night in the Nebraska game, first and one at the one guy jumps offside, you get penalized, then you end up kicking a field goal. I mean, those kind of things just absolutely kill you. And those are the kind of mistakes that you want to have the discipline to be able to execute in the game. So you don't have those issues, and you don't have those problems. Let me just tell you something. No coach in the country really knows exactly how his team's going to respond in the first game, you know, because you don't even know based on how your offense did against your defense. Maybe your defense is really good and you think you don't have a lot of confidence in your offense, but the fact of the matter is, just because your defense is pretty good, your offense may not be that bad. So you have all these questions running around in your mind, and you can't really know what's going to happen until they go out there and play, you know, and one of the things that I used to do that, you know, my assistants used to get mad at is they wanted to coach all the time. And Belichick did this to me. I coached all the time. And every now and then we'd have a team session where Bill said, let the players play. You're not allowed to make calls for them, you're not allowed to correct them. You're allowed to do anything. Let the players play. So that's what happens in a game. Nobody tells you what to do. Nobody makes the call at linebacker, which way you're slanting or what coverage we play in. So you got to let the players play so they can take it to the game and they have confidence in what they're going to do, which is really important in the first game. And the more maturity your team has, probably the better chance you have to do that in the first game.

[A]

Returning starters is always something we look at. And then amount of starts that players have during the transfer portal era now is something that's looking at. Especially with what Sig was able to do at Indiana. Even though he's talking all that shit all the time, he was certainly able to turn over that roster and that culture pretty quickly. Are we going to see more of that, you think, like, Vandy was obviously awesome because of everything that happened with that, their entire run. Arizona State comes out of nowhere. They win the Big 12, they get into the dance. Indiana, nobody expected ever to be good at football in the Big Ten. Feels like it does provide for that, this modern era that we have here.

[F]

Yeah, there's no question about it. And everybody's choosing how to build a team. And I think it's interesting that Clemson has kind of built their team, developing the players that they recruited and have very little coming out of the portal or going into the portal, where lsu, who has a lot of people coming back, they have the most players that started six games or more at a major college. 18 guys in a portal have started six games in, you know, power four.

[A]

Yeah. Big games.

[F]

Yeah. So they've added a ton of people to their team that can have an impact on the game. But how are those pieces going to fit together, especially early in the season?

[A]

Yeah, if you pay the wrong guy.

[F]

Pay the wrong guy. Get out of luck.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

That was a great moment last year. That was a great moment. You've been paying attention to any of the NFL stuff right now with Micah. How do you know Jerry Jones?

[F]

Well, how can you not?

[A]

Yeah, it's everywhere.

[F]

I do not know Jerry Jones very well, but, man, I tell you what, when you got a significant, dominant player, especially pass rusher, I mean, those guys are so hard to find. I mean, boy, it'd be just hard for me as a coach to let a guy like that go. But it is what it is.

[A]

It is what it is. And there's been a lot of great clips coming out of all of it, including Micah celebrating around the house and telling his mom she's retired forever, obviously, and that's cool for him from the personal side, but the Green Bay packers feel the exact same way you do. They go, hold on. We just picked up out two firsts and Kenny Clark, great player. Nobody's talking about that enough.

[B]

Great player.

[C]

He's a great player. Kenny got stopped to run.

[A]

Kenny's a great player. And Jerry said he got a. But I think there's a lot of teams saying, is this. Did we all know this is what it took to get Micah Parsons? I think anybody would want a dominant pass rusher on their team. Jerry's getting judged pretty hard right now by everybody.

[F]

Yeah, I think so. Because, you know, there's certain ple. There's certain guys that affect the game. And, you know, wide receivers can affect the game. Quarterback can affect the game. Great runner can affect the game. But pass rushers, in this day and age of football, when over 60% of the plays in the NFL are passes, and that guy can impact the game not just in sacks, but how many times do you affect the quarterback and how much is he worried about you as a rusher? I just think that's the one place on defense that a guy can really make an impact. Like, you could say, our whole secondary, we got to cover five guys, got one pass rusher. You don't have to cover anybody. Second quarterback.

[A]

Yeah, you're right. Ball's coming out quick.

[F]

Coming out quick.

[A]

Coming out quick, too. I mean, that makes everybody else's life very easy. And that's how Ty feels as a Green Bay Packer fan. And we as football fans, can't thank you enough, brother. How about tomorrow, Coach Corso's final game day? We just went through the meeting a little bit ago. They'll be paying their respects to the man who did a lot for College ball. What are your thoughts about him before you get on the show? And then now being able to work with him last Year.

[F]

Well, you know, the one thing I think Lee Corso did, and he did it with such grace, you know, we used to just watch games, and people would, you know, got called a game. He brought entertainment to this business, which is what you do, and we all have an opportunity to do. For the fans, it made it better. For the fans, it was more enjoyable. He's got a great personality. I still remember, I mean, when I was playing at Kent State, we had Jack Lambert and we played his Louisville team, and they had Howard Stevens and, you know, Tom Jackson and all these guys. I mean, they had a really, really good team, and they beat the shit out of us. It was something. So I know him from the coach's side, too, playing against them and seeing what he did in Indiana. We played him when I was here at Ohio State. But what he did for the. For the entertainment business, part of it is, to me, the greatest contribution that he made to college sports. I think. I think people don't realize the value of that.

[A]

Yeah, I think college football on a rocket ship, obviously, because the tradition and the pageantry and the game and football is the greatest sport on earth. But, like, what he did to help you watch what game day's growth was with Lee Corso in college football's popularity. And it's like there was a driving force course behind a lot of it, and Lee Corso's face is synonymous with it. And it's like getting a chance to watch him work here the last couple years, obviously been an honor. He's been incredibly kind to me. And just as a fan, whenever I watch it before, I like somebody that, you know, not scared to go there and spin it up a little. You know, it's what makes it up a little bit. And it's not just like me that is benefiting from that. You think about everybody. Charles Barkley, obviously, is a massive person that I look up to in his business because the way he. He speaks his mind, the way he delivers, the way he entertains every single time he speaks, it's like Lee Corso, Charles Barkley are the two in my eyes that are up there in the Mount Rushmore of sports entertainment. And, yeah, tomorrow's gonna be a sweet day honoring them, you know?

[F]

Yeah, I know. You know, my first experience at Texas A and M, I'm a coach, so I'm serious about the game. All right? And I get there and, you know, they're singing to you when you come on stage.

[A]

Okay.

[F]

Country road. All right. And then you're standing on a chair.

[A]

Yeah.

[F]

And then he's dancing the jig with Notre Dame stuff. And I'm saying, what the hell did I get into here?

[A]

You're great. You're great, though. You are a phenomenal. You're one for one. You won an Emmy.

[B]

Yeah. Boom.

[A]

That's it. That's it. That's.

[F]

Must have been a couple of them.

[A]

Didn't want a couple of. He won the.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Bill Newcomer.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And then before J. I thought before too. Saban and Bill, when they had their sit down one on one for an hour, they won an award for that as well.

[A]

You're just collecting these things, I guess. Is that.

[F]

Oh, well.

[A]

Yep. Might as well. Is there trophies? I'm going to win them. No. Shaving football.

[B]

It was a little bit of a bummer, though. He's only said all right once.

[A]

All right.

[B]

Only go.

[F]

I really just want to make. Make an impact and help people understand the game better and enjoy the game.

[A]

You're doing a great job. All right.

[C]

Is it fun? Has it been fun?

[B]

It sounds like he was told not to do that.

[C]

Have you been having fun with it for real?

[F]

Yeah, I love it. It's been very enjoyable. And I like the preparation part of it, too. It keeps me watching film, evaluating players, looking at schemes. I love it.

[A]

Keeps you in it without having to.

[F]

You know, work 14 hours a day.

[A]

Yeah. Or go to the press conference afterwards or have to recruit. Get back to your team. I mean, there's a lot that you don't have to do. You've earned this position and we're all lucky to watch it. Can't wait to see you tomorrow on game day and every single week. Joining us on Fridays. We're very thankful for that.

[F]

Good. I appreciate you having me. Thank you so much.

[A]

Ladies and gentlemen, the Goat. Coach Sa.

[B]

Locked in.

[A]

Coach. Coach. Coach.

[F]

All right, guys.

[A]

There it is. See?

[B]

Why couldn't we get a couple of those? That's what I'm saying.

[A]

Clean fit.

[D]

Always like a clean fit.

[B]

Oh, yeah. He looks pretty jacked.

[A]

He is jacked. Might.

[B]

Might have been squatting.

[D]

You ever seen him with his shirt off? 12 pack.

[A]

Did you get better this offseason or. No?

[D]

The abs that like go.

[B]

Ah, Matt Collins. Okay.

[A]

Yeah, sure. Kind of like age. What.

[C]

You shooting? Scratch golf for now.

[A]

Oh, wow. Matt, Patricia's over here.

[B]

I don't want to say nice.

[D]

Is he coming on.

[A]

Here?

[C]

Yeah, he was trying to come over and say hi.

[B]

Oh, that was a great hug.

[D]

It was.

[B]

That was a great dap up hug by far. Coach looks great.

[D]

He does Go.

[A]

He does look good.

[B]

Yeah, he does. Unbelievable.

[D]

Nice healthy spot.

[A]

He looks really good. He's got a good beard on him right now too. Yeah, yeah.

[D]

Does he have his wallet and keys on him or.

[A]

That was an amazing moment. Epic moment. Absolutely epic moment.

[B]

That defense is going to be pretty good with Maddie P At the hell.

[A]

Well, and also Caleb Dons is out there. You know, we forget about that. You start diving back into all this college football stuff. And Tone's guide was obviously phenomenal at it, but also like just diving in. Watching film from last year, you forget that Caleb Downs is the best player on the field. Field. When he's on the field. Yeah. Like he's a genius on there.

[C]

Think about that as a safety too. Like a guy that can. Great safeties can cover up a lot of mistakes if there are any kind of mistakes early.

[A]

Yeah. And then on the offensive side, Jeremiah says, see you, coach. Good luck, man.

[C]

Good luck.

[A]

Good luck.

[B]

Oh, coach, it's gonna be fun.

[A]

Hey, Arch can move, bro. This ain't another Manning.

[C]

Spy on him.

[A]

He's saying, another Manning. Yeah, this ain't another Manning. Arch does like to wiggle.

[C]

Archie took a shot last year in the playoffs too, and popped right up. Yeah, I, I'm impressed with him.

[A]

Yeah. Did not whine at all about, hey, I got a concussion. He was right back because I don't know obviously what you think. He was so concussed. He didn't know he was concussed. Yes, he definitely knew. He had to get up and. Oh. Because he wobbled a little bit. He did. Oh, yeah.

[C]

They thought it was. They thought it was gonna be a fumble.

[B]

He did.

[A]

Woo. Box. How about when he. I mean, he's got. Got the. He's got the mock.

[B]

Oh yeah, the cookout this summer.

[A]

Exactly.

[C]

New age Manning.

[A]

Yes, he is. He is the modern evolved Manning that he's been at demanding passing academy since he's 10 years old. All these guys go to the Manning passing academy, try to learn stuff. He's been doing it since he's 10. So like there's so many things that I think are going to be showcased this season, especially in a Sark offense. Remember what he was able to do with Mac Jones? Whenever you have a quarterback that is so dynamic and can understand everything that's going on, not the Quinn Ewers couldn't, but they got four twos everywhere and Sark and Arch have been together for a while now.

[C]

That's huge.

[A]

Arch is speaking the same language as Sark has been since he's 10, but definitely now in this entire thing, it's like, I'm very eager to see this offense for Texas because obviously you're going to have to be great to win a Super bowl, but. Or win a national championship, but it's like Arch is the Heisman favorite for Revolution Reason. And to start with Ohio State in Columbus is a pretty wild move. I, I mean, that is a wild start to your career. Kind of dropped into the fire with Matt Patricia, multiple time super bowl champion defensive coordinator, kind of scheming against you. I'm eager to see what this Texas offense looks like because I know the possibilities are huge for them.

[C]

Oh, yeah. And think if you are the Texas offense and you're sorc, you're thinking, okay, what kind of, what kind of defense is Maddie Patricia going to put an install for this Ohio State team? Like, we know they're replacing a lot of great players, but they have a lot of great players coming back. That's the thing too. Like the whole first quarter, whole first half might be kind of a feeling out process. Let's see how we're going to respond to each other.

[A]

What. What have we not talked about that we need to talk about today? Boys, on this feel good Friday, a couple people have kind of come in his stadium. Got a West Virginia Mountaineer guy up here. Good to see him. A couple lads in the back just got here. I believe the AD was here. Brady Quinn. Quinn's here.

[B]

Love that.

[A]

Unbelievable. Brady Quinn looks unbelievable. I don't even know if we're allowed to show him because, you know, definitely don't.

[C]

Yeah, big rivalry situation.

[A]

We show him. I. I would not have a problem with it, but there's potentially. I get it. There's a lot of stuff going on.

[C]

So.

[A]

Hey, can you show Brady Quinn right there?

[C]

Okay, just quick shot. Give him a thumbs up.

[A]

Brady right there. I'm sorry, let me cut to that.

[C]

Oh, he's hiding. Oh, he don't know.

[B]

Oh, he's scared.

[A]

Not allow. Not allowed. Not allowed. Not allowed. Too handsome. Too handsome for the show with Brady Quinn.

[B]

Pat, did you see the new Notre Dame promo with Shane Gillis?

[A]

Yes, Yes, I did see that. I enjoy that. His dad had a major speaking role in that entire.

[B]

I like that.

[A]

I like the dad's in there and I like these wearing Notre Dame out shout stuff.

[D]

They also, they also just put out their injury report for Sunday's game and he is actually on the injury report. I believe he is out. And the reason they listed was tailgating. Like, he's actually. I Mean, he's on the injury report with real players.

[A]

I don't want to, I don't want to give anything away, but he was the guy that I FaceTimed that was watching the Catholics vs Convicts documentary the other day.

[B]

Yeah, athlete.

[A]

And I'll tell you what, but he did have a. He is an athlete, too. He's no longer that offensive line size. He slimmed down a little bit. He's doing arenas now. He's doing arenas now. You know, he's got to be able to be mobile. He's got to be active ATH before Shane Gillis is how it's always supposed to be. And you know, whenever he's taking a pass that people think this guy's an absolute stud. But what he's eager for is to see if this Notre Dame team can get through week one. This is a massive week one. The rest of their schedule, schedule, if we've looked at it, it's going to get real loud for the people that don't like Notre Dame. They're gonna go. People that don't like not. I'm not saying I'm one of those people. My name is Patrick McAfee. Okay. I love when the Irish are fighting. Sure.

[H]

I love it.

[C]

Just like them.

[A]

Bang a lot of dogs. I do love that. I do love that. But if you look at their schedule, there's going to be a lot of people in the Big Ten, in the SEC and certainly the Big 12, West Virginia's conference that are going to say, where's the, where's the, where's the, where's the schedule? And Notre, Dame, obviously, it's not their fault. They are in a great position with how big their fans are. But this is a big one, I think, for the old resume for the rest of the season for Notre Dame.

[C]

Yeah, you don't want to get behind, behind the eight ball early on. But also going back to that Shane Gillis commercial, like, how about Marcus Freeman's performance?

[A]

Great job.

[C]

There's not many college coaches that could perform. It was long, too. That wasn't just like a short thing I, that, that took some time to film.

[A]

It was full content piece. Yeah, yeah, it was full content piece. It wasn't just, you know, a 30 second commercial. Marcus Freeman, his hair's growing in real strong.

[C]

He looks good, man. Marcus looks real strong in reverse too. Like I was with him here at Ohio State. He was two years younger than me. The guy looks awesome. Looks like he's 25.

[A]

I'm excited to see Miami's Carson Beck led team down there because obviously if Miami continues the run like they did last year with Cam, maybe that Miami fan base is back. Maybe the U is back. Maybe Gumpy and the boys can get excited for the U kind of coming into college football relevancy again, pal. Of course.

[B]

Of course.

[A]

Come up here.

[D]

Wonder if there will be any fans.

[A]

Travel coming right here.

[C]

Goomp.

[A]

There's going to be fans. Tone.

[D]

Miami has a hard time filling that place up.

[B]

Very, very hard time. Bunch. Bunch of not people go to that.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Especially take it as a trip down to Florida. All right. Let's go get burnt in south Florida and watch the boys play against Miami. We'll get after it again it. We're going to run out of time too. If you don't.

[C]

We're going to need a sense of urgency out of you, Gump.

[A]

And how's the microphone's backwards. Dead backwards on that.

[C]

That's good.

[F]

You're good.

[A]

Yeah, There it is.

[B]

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

[A]

Was up here, ladies and gentlemen. That's Gumpy right there. Go. Don't sleep on Miami now. Miami who?

[G]

Hurricanes.

[A]

Okay. We won't sleep on them. How's it been over there in the sun? Pretty hot. Yeah. The.

[E]

My computer was actually kind of crashed a few times.

[A]

No. TV just crashed out actually here.

[G]

It might be me.

[A]

Yeah. There's people yelling back here. Okay. That guy just drove 16 and a half hours to watch a hot stay kicked there.

[B]

Yeah, I came through a little bit. That was awesome.

[A]

It is an honor to be here. College Football Week 1 kicks off in a huge way tomorrow. Three top 10 matchups. College game day. Coach Corso's final headgear pick. We're lucky as hell to be here. We'll be enjoying college football and football being all the way back. Shout out to Buck D. And Ryan the camera people here. Shout out to all the ESPN people that set this up for us to be live. Shout out to you boys back in Indy for making this happen. And football's all the way back. Let's celebrate the out of that. We'll be here for overreaction Monday. Let's enjoy this greatest weekend of all time. Goodbye. I feel like I really nailed it. Nailed it.

[D]

Are you speaking of the cameras? Are these brand new like 16K cameras? Because this is the clearest you guys have ever been.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

So I think this is the actual game day camera. Oh, that makes sense. And also the lighting.

[F]

Lighting.

[A]

The lighting is very good because remember, I think lighting is a big deal. You know what else has Been great. The audio. Yeah, the audio has been fantastic. And yeah, this has really gone off without a hitch. It feels like. Except for the talk back, but we were able to work through all that. This was amazing.

[G]

Horns.

[B]

Yeah. The bottom of the barrel of the biddle. Yeah, those did sound like shite the entire time.

[D]

Do you think that's like punishment? You know how, like football players have to run? These guys have up their notes so many times that they just got to go sit at the top of the stadium and blow their horse.

[B]

This is like the joke.

[A]

Yeah. Is it? I don't. I genuinely don't know what was going on there. They couldn't have wanted that to be.

[C]

They had to be tuning their instruments is my guess.

[A]

You got your dorm room, music hall or something. Stadium tomorrow.

[G]

You got to get your reps in.

[A]

Oh, now, Gumpy, now you're kind of getting. Well, that's.

[G]

I'm used to that.

[A]

You know, they did that over in Spain a few times. I tell you what.

[E]

I don't know if I would stand.

[A]

On a box if it was the option.

[E]

I think that's almost worse.

[C]

No, no, I'm with you.

[A]

The chat is saying you're way too close to aj.

[G]

Well, he moved over close to me.

[B]

Oh, look at that.

[A]

Wow. Door Dash a new bud gumping his hawk. What's up, Hawk? Far win every week with doordash streaks. Save up to 250 bucks this season. When you order on game days, Doordash bringing everything to you. That's good. New L wrap right there. Yeah, I like that. Outrap. Whose hand? I like that.

[D]

Is that the duck?

[B]

Yeah. Is that the.

[A]

Let's go docs.

[B]

You could kind of line your.

[A]

Yeah, you're right. Maybe you got to get your arm down. There you go. A little lower.

[B]

Down there. Boom.

[A]

Yeah, that's it. Thank you for holding that pizza for our friends at door dad.

[D]

Take a bite.

[A]

What does it feel like?

[D]

It's a delicious pizza.

[A]

You. We moved it. We moved.

[B]

Get back in there.

[A]

Get back. Get back. Get back to where we got it.

[B]

Higher, a little higher.

[A]

Arms got to go down a little bit higher.

[F]

Y. Yeah, there.

[A]

Got it. Shout out to Gumpy and Door Dash. Shave up to 250 bucks this season when you order on game day. Delicious piece of pie. That is right. We call it pizza in America. But if you want a pizza pie in your eye, Door Dash will deliver that T. That's how Canadians hold doordash.

[B]

All right, well, if you to put it back up, it went with the.

[A]

Joke Guppy.

[C]

Cross the line.

[A]

I got to go to a luncheon that started.

[B]

Oh, yeah, grand entrance.

[D]

What time you're coming in with to biddle, right? The Biddle's leading you in, right?

[B]

You and all those poopy trumpet players. They're the ones leading you in.

[A]

All right. It's been an honor to be here. We are so thankful to be a part of college football in a tiny way. Thank you all so much for watching. Have the greatest weekend of all time, boys. Great work. Way to battle through the technical difficulties early in the back, Zito. I do believe we pushed it a little bit close today. I think we should have probably turned left whenever we decided to turn right. But the fact that you decided to dive right into it, I respect and appreciate that that is what azito production is. 1 minute and 30 seconds before we went live, everything in my ear started working and in their ear. So, like, that is great work, Zeke. Appreciate you doing that, Zeke. And. And the fact that you said, yeah, I should attempt to do this at the time in which you did, I was alarmed, but it worked out. So I appreciate you doing that and everybody that made this possible. You're the best. All right. Have a great weekend. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. If I change their life, we're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Goodbye.

[D]

You've seen the headlines, heard the debates.

[A]

The three point ball has created a monotonous rhythm to the game.

[F]

Has the three pointer ruined basketball?

[A]

And how did we get here? The rise of the three point shot can be partially traced to an eccentric Kansas genius named Martin Manley, whose story.

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