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The Pat McAfee Show
PMS 2.0 1432 - NFL Week 7 Preview/Picks, TNF Recap, Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart, Nick Saban, Country Superstars Bailey Zimmerman, Luke Combs, & AJ Hawk
02:39:11
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- [00:00]
A.J. Hawk
Feel good. Friday, October 17th. I'm A.J. hawk sitting in for Pat here in the Pat McAfee Show. We had a barn burner last night. Bengals, Steelers.
- [00:11]
Ty Schmidt
Football.
- [00:13]
Nick Saban
Football.
- [00:13]
A.J. Hawk
We're doubling it up right there because football was so beautiful last night. We saw the seven total touchdowns between the two quarterbacks last night. Steelers battled the Cincinnati Bengals in Cincinnati. I was actually in person in the crowd. We watching that thing. An electric, electric environment. I know. Another electric environment. This weekend. Pat will be down in Athens, Georgia. Pat, what's happening down there, buddy? Where you at?
- [00:35]
Pat McAfee
Hey, it's an honor to be here. I'm at the Buttsmere Heritage hall, which obviously houses all the sports admins. And behind us we have the track team currently practicing, I think, for their last season here as they have a new state of the art track facility right down the road. And we're going to see some real athletes running behind me. And obviously this game's a top 10 matchup deep in the heart of Georgia here in Athens in SEC football. Cannot wait for that. But let's go back to last night. I did not know you were going to be in the jungle. I did not know you were going to be in Andrew Whitworth's jungle for a night as the Pittsburgh Steelers came to town as five and a half point favorites. And it was four and a half point favorites in the middle of the show. Then five and a half again. And I'll tell you what, early in that game, it felt like the Pittsburgh Steelers were going to do what we thought they were going to do at the beginning of the show yesterday, which was absolutely run away with it. But don't let Joe Flacco get hot. Obviously Aaron Rodgers in this Pittsburgh Steelers offense has been getting better and better as the year went on. He's throwing dots all over the place. DK Metcalf stepping over, people not getting personal fouls because they're saying that's not that big of a deal because of how smooth it was, how athletic it was and how great of a play it was. It was Thursday Night Football prime time.
- [01:35]
A.J. Hawk
Aaron.
- [01:36]
Pat McAfee
It looked like it was 20 years ago. Aaron Rodgers, he's running all over the place, showing he still got in. And John who Smith, who had a penalty earlier on the drive, gets a massive touchdown early. It was like, wait a minute, are the Pittsburgh Steelers going to make this look too easy? Then let's go to before the half and second quarter. Boom. Jamar Chase, Joe Flacco. Jamar would have 16 receptions on the evening and obviously even drop one which Joe Flacco lost his mind. But if you got Jamar Chase on your team, you're going to throw him the ball. Aaron's going to throw the ball to the other team. AJ what the hell's going on here?
- [02:05]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, I don't know. This is. I think maybe got caught up in the moment. Maybe throw it up and get dk, Give him a chance, right? Maybe get some PI down the field. I don't know. But these guys, you, I'm sure. So like I said, I was there in person watching them. These guys both were slanging it, man. Like first off, Joe Flacco, watching him in the pocket and watching his super quick release and how smooth he was blew my mind. It really didn't.
- [02:24]
Pat McAfee
I.
- [02:25]
A.J. Hawk
And I was, I played against Joe 10, 12 years ago, 15 years ago, whatever it might be. Now I was blown away at the quarterback performance, I think on both sides last night.
- [02:33]
Pat McAfee
Absolutely. The old men brought it and I like to show of respect afterwards. A couple hits on the chest by both of them, a little pat on the head from Joe Flacco to Aaron Rodgers. It was a nice, you know, interaction of respect because if you can play football at that position for this long, obviously there's a greatness that's in your brain and a greatness that is in your body. And I think that greatness is exactly what Tomlin was talking about whenever he said Andrew Barry, what the hell are we doing? Why? And a little tap on the head I think is awesome. You know, Joey Flacco just doing one of these, you know, because he is Italian, so he might want to go in for a, you know, smooch on bow. You know, it could have been a Grazzi put a situation there, we don't know. But obviously the respect between the two is fantastic. But Joe Flacco, the respect that Mike Tomlin has for him, very real. And I think Mike Tomlin last night you said you played against Joe Flacco 15 years ago. Mike Tomlin did too. And he was having flashbacks of whenever he was with the Baltimore Ravens and they were running wild. And those Ravens Steelers games were insane, both in Pittsburgh and in Baltimore. And Joey Flacco is liable to do absolutely anything. And last night was a Joey Flacco masterpiece. He said afterwards he didn't even know some of the play calls. I didn't even know what was going on there. And he beat this. Pittsburgh Steelers defense. Let's go to 1/2 of the Hammer Cowboys AP Town Pittsburgh Steelers defense last night seemingly non existent. Joe Flacco didn't even know the play calls Tone. Didn't even know what he was doing out there.
- [03:53]
Tone
Yep. Steelers got flaccoed last night when he got traded. The Bengals tie in. I knew it was going to be one of us. Whether it was going to be that first game on a Sunday or that second game on that Thursday Night Football, we got flaccoed. And, you know, Tomlin knew that was going to happen. And, you know, I think. I hope Tomlin listened to this show yesterday because we talked a lot about the emotional quotient, which is, you know, basically your thoughts and your emotions seep into other people's thoughts and emotions. He was talking about Joe like he was prime Tom Brady. And it seeped into the defense last night, and they treated it like that. They were afraid of him all night long. They sat back, they let him do whatever he wanted. Just an absolute masterclass from the defensive staff and the defensive backfield as a whole. Just overall, they looked like the week one and two of the defense. You know, Edelman came out last year and said, we always knew what the Steelers were going to do. Ja' Marr Chase came out last night and said it as well. So, you know, maybe there's some things that needs to be changed on that side of the ball. Also the record on Thursday Night Football, maybe Thursday Night Football is the problem, I don't know. But just overall, an absolute disaster class and a very, very frustrating night for the Steelers fans.
- [05:02]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I could imagine that being the case because the first few games, the defense didn't look great, and everybody in Pittsburgh was saying, this defense not good enough to win a Super Bowl. I know we're winning games here, but this defense ain't it. Especially with all the money that was being spent on that side. Then you guys get some massive wins over Carson Wentz and Dylan Gabriel, and everything starts looking good. Tone. And all of a sudden, the Steelers defense is back. I read those tweets were sent to Tone yesterday. So that is just me talking shit to Tone and also all of Pittsburgh. I guess you can kind of take that as a jab as well, because a lot of people seemingly thought that this was possible with Joe Flacco and the offensive weapons that they have. Which takes us to the toxic table at Boston. Conner. Hey, Con man. Now, you knew that sweet feet Footsteps. Joey Flacco could pull a zone option for himself whenever. He doesn't even know the play call. And then he said he figured it out and it was too late to actually do a shift that would have helped him. So he actually just kept Jamar there and ended up just picking up this first down, backed up at his own 10 in the fourth quarter with five minutes left in a 10 point game. Okay, so that's insane to think that Joe Flacco did that. But you thought, you know, Mike Tomlin's going to do everything he can to get ja' Marr Chase out of the game. I think that was a good thought. They didn't. He went crazy. But you also said, T. Higgins, let's look out for T. Higgins. What about the brainiac decision he made at the end of the game? Yeah, what about the. Obviously hitting it right up the gut in between? I think it was the Tampa two, not sure. T. Higgins superstar performance last night, and you felt it coming from a mile away. Con man. What did you see from the Cincinnati Bengals team now late in crunch time, obviously making that decision to be able to run the clock down for money. McPherson, to come in and win that game. What a night for him. By the way. He's all the way back, seemingly for the Cincinnati Bengals. But T. Higgins shows up, Noah Fant shows up. You kind of were on that early yesterday. What did you expect and what did you see? Con man.
- [06:43]
Conor
Yeah, those two. Those two played great. A couple things fell short. Fan getting 50 receiving yards would have been nice. He got 44. But no, I mean Footsteps Flacco, man, I should have known. I should have known. I woke up, first thing I said to myself was, in Gumpy's voice, week two, Flacco, pal. And I knew I should have done it then after the program and go with the Bengals. But instead of I, you know, put my faith in Mike Tomlin, I put my faith in a defensive game plan that I assumed was going to be good. Little did I know Mitt McMahon drew up the defense for the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday. I get it now. I get why Steelers fans want Mike Tomlin fired all the time. This was one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. Darius Butler tweeted late in the game. It was one of their got to have it downs. And they had two guys go to Drew Sample over Jamar Chase. I don't know who came up with the plan. Darius Slay. I don't know if he was out for the game after he went out or if he came back. Because I was so disgusted watching the Steelers defense. I tried not to. I just decided to enjoy Joe Flacco. But all of a sudden, now the Bengals are all the way back. They win A game like this, now, they're not gonna. You would think not. They're not gonna sell, you know, a Trey Hendrickson. They're not gonna trade some of the pieces that they might have before this game, because now, you know, it's three wins. You would hope Burrow gets back for the last eight of them. You know, maybe the last seven of them, 10 should get you in. It just. It's shocking what the Bengals did. It's more shocking what the Steelers did or tried to do or what they didn't do. But, I mean, it was great football game, to be honest.
- [08:19]
Tone
They. They. They just started running slants and outs last night. Like, that was pretty cut of the edge type of stuff.
- [08:25]
Conor
Yeah, Jamar had Jamar.
- [08:26]
A.J. Hawk
The defense gives you tone. That's what you do.
- [08:29]
Pat McAfee
AJ how were the vibes in the building? It felt amazing. Did you guys think that Joe Flacco was. You felt like Joe Flacco was going to come back and do that?
- [08:36]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah. So I, I, honestly, I. I was sitting in traffic going to. We stayed in a hotel. My kids and wife had already were there at the stadium. I was sitting in traffic about, I don't know, 0.1 miles from the stadium, and I could see everybody. I was there for about an hour and a half trying to get my parking spot. And the people. I was. I was shocked. Not shocked, but I guess pleasantly surprised, how juiced the people were. They're tailgating everywhere. Everyone's wearing white. And then in the stadium, it was so loud. They did a good job of their game day atmosphere, too, man. Like, the lights. Everything was on on point, I feel like. And those fans, man, like, it was awesome to see those fans and how crazy rabid they were. They never, like, got down on them. I was used when I was a kid to go to Bengals games at Riverfront Stadium. You'd hear people yell, yo, we want an aquarium. Sell the team. All those kind of things. There was none of that last night. Just people from Ohio coming together and so pumped for a big win. It was. It was a magical experience. I gotta thank Brick. He's the director of operations now in Cincinnati. He was an equipment guy when I was there. He hooked us up. Was unbelievable. Just unbelievable person, Pat, you know, like, the people that make things go behind the scenes with football teams, they're special people. And he really helped us out and got to see Pac man, too, as well. Saw Pac man underneath the stadium when I walked in. He was awesome. Pac man and Tish Boom Herron, who I know you Know as well. It was, it was a great night, man. It was, it was really, really fun.
- [09:52]
Pat McAfee
I'm happy to hear that. And obviously Ohio people and Ohio football people behind the scenes at every football operation are going to be all in for the cause and people you definitely want to know. I'm happy to hear that you got a chance to go experience that live. What was your guys thoughts when Broderick Jones just tackled Aaron Rodgers? So the whole. So Aaron Rodgers last night, dude. I mean Joe Flacco obviously as well. I mean, let's not get it twisted. Joe Flacco had a night that. I hope everybody has respect for Joe Flacco going forward. It may be Colts fans, you know, at some point, hopefully some of these Colts fans that were trying to kill me last year, a lot of those times and now I think they're kind of seeing it all, you know, I think they're starting to realize there was a reason why I was excited about Joe Flacco being our quarterback. Certainly Joe Flacco is 40 years old still playing in the NFL. Is that because everybody with a football mind wants to pay a 40 year old quarterback? No, it's because the guy is really good at the football and he talks about how much he loves doing it. It's like the way he talks, he looks like he and wants to for another 10 years. Now that love of the game, both these men obviously have to have to commit this much of their life to it. But like Joe Flacco growing up in Pittsburgh and understanding the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens kind of rivalry, the way he handled that and the situation that he was and how he came through that and won a Super bowl for Baltimore, it's like Joe Flacco is good with me forever. So if he's 55 years old and he's potentially being allowed an opportunity to play for the Indianapolis Colts in the state that we were in years past, I'm probably still going to get excited about it strictly because I see him like Tomlin sees him, which is a guy. I mean, I don't want to stress this too many times, but it's like crazy to think about at this stage, especially against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He said he didn't understand some of the play calls. Zach Taylor would be sending a play call and he, ah, fuck, I don't know. I don't know what that is. And he's a quarterback and it's like. And then he probably makes something happen out of it and they win this game. They put up over 30 and then obviously all of Cleveland is losing their mind. Oh, my God. Just the thought of what the Cleveland Browns offense has been. And then what Joe Flacco's been on a team. Now, the Cincinnati Bengals are constructed to be a quarterback's friend if they can protect at all against anybody. They got weapons everywhere. Like Joe Burrow is supposed to lead that team to the super bowl. And they got weapons for Joe Burrow. That is what they decided to pay. Now, the offensive line, I think they've tried their best. They've never really been able to get it, but Joe Flacco had some pockets last night, and Joe Flacco was moving pretty good. But the weapons they have, I assume, is not comparable other than Jerry Judy up there in Cleveland. So I think it's a little different story. But like them thinking, you let this guy out of the building, you just beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night. He just went for 342. And we got rid of this guy whenever we started the season with this guy. So instead of starting a rookie and saying, hey, we're definitely in a new era here on offense, we start this guy, Joe Flacco, then we decide to get rid of him, trade him in a division. You know, there's probably some Cleveland Browns fans that think it wasn't the best decision like maitama did. And then he goes crazy like this. It's like, we had this guy was our opening day starter. Now he's doing it. And then what we got to do, there's some people in Cleveland losing their mind, but there's also people in Pittsburgh saying, this is exactly what Mike Tomlin was talking about. And then there's people all around the league that are saying, like Conor said, is Cincinnati going to survive this year like they've done in the past? In the past, they've been dead out of it and then have had to climb themselves out of it. Always. Whether it's injuries or just starting slow, Cincinnati Bengals are always putting themselves behind the eight ball. And then there's been a couple times where they've been able to catch up and run the table. So is there a thought that the Bengals aren't dead? I guess comes out of last night is certainly a real one. And then for the Pittsburgh Steelers. What are they, Tone? What are the Pittsburgh Steelers? They still in it? I mean, Universe Ball told me Universe Ball told me yesterday to take the Bengals plus five and a half twice. Told me that twice when I threw it in there in a Thunderdome.
- [13:32]
A.J. Hawk
Gotta listen.
- [13:33]
Pat McAfee
So then whenever I shoot the Universe Ball before The season, it's for the Pittsburgh Steelers win a Super bowl splash. Do you remember that?
- [13:38]
Ty Schmidt
Oh, yeah.
- [13:40]
Pat McAfee
It was a no doubter. So are the Steelers still on a run to potentially win a Super bowl like you thought a week ago, or are you completely out on that tone?
- [13:47]
Tone
I would say I'm mostly out on that. You asked who you asked. You asked who they are. And last night was the night that you can do something that the teams of the last five years who are good teams, they're good football teams, but we know are probably not going to win the Super Bowl. You had a chance to do something that they haven't done, go on the road, win the Thursday night division game, and actually look like a team that can put lower or lesser teams away. And they did not do that. They started great. It was 10 nothing. You know, everybody was feeling good. And then they came down and scored. And then Aaron was like, he threw the. He threw the fucking interception, which was fine. He was feeling it. He was kind of seeing what he wanted to do. But then there was another inception and then somehow they were losing at half when they had outgained the outgain, the Bengals by like 150 yards in the first quarter. But no, like, this is. Is it just a team that's going to, you know, win there nine.
- [14:35]
A.J. Hawk
Wild pick right here. Wild pick right here by D.J. we got to give him credit. This got him three points before the half. Huge, huge flip. Right? But what a pick. I mean, I had no idea he came down with this. I mean, the fact that you're able to do this, especially with dk, is unbelievable.
- [14:48]
Tone
Yeah, but, like, Rogers was awesome. Rogers has been awesome for this team all season long.
- [14:52]
Ty Schmidt
He's.
- [14:53]
Tone
He was awesome last night. He's perfect for this offense.
- [14:55]
Kirby Smart
The.
- [14:56]
Tone
The ball he hucked at 70 yards last night for that Hail Mary, like, that was awesome. Rogers has been great. This was all on the defense last night. They ran for Jalen Warren, ran for 100. You would have told me yesterday. Jalen Warren runs for 140. Rodgers throws four touchdowns. We score 31 points. I thought it would have been an absolute blowout. It was. It was not. They did not do anything on the defensive side. They've been doing the last three games. Herbig barely played, which is insane. He. We had a segment on Herbig this week.
- [15:21]
Nick Saban
Week.
- [15:22]
Tone
Nope. Just probably, you know, make the playoffs and then. Yeah, probably.
- [15:29]
Pat McAfee
You want 4 and 2, you're 4 and 2, you're still winning games. And let's go back to that Hail Mary at the end I, I think there were some wide receivers there that thought he was going to throw at 79 yards. Did you see them back at the back of the end zone there? If he would have been able to do that, that would have been absurd. But he's 41 years old and I guess it's the longest pass or throw in an NFL game since something. Obviously Aaron can still spin it at his age and I think there are some people pot actually questioning his arm strength last week whenever he under threw somebody. Here's the next gen stats. Aaron Rodgers Hail Mary pass attempt that result in an incomplete traveled 69.8 yards in the air. The longest recorded pass attempt since at least 2017. So he's 41 years older. This guy in the league has the longest ball. So his arm obvious he's going to feel good about that this morning. You see that yet somewhere between 68 and 70 yards is what he's going to say too. Somewhere between 68 and 70 yards, which I think he's already done to us on our show. So we would say 69, which is exactly what he just threw. So that's a little bit of an interesting situation here. That certainly just brewed in front of our face here in real time. I should have thought about that earlier, but that looked exactly like that beer can toss at Tahoe right there. Legit. When I watched that. I have a sleep for this, obviously. I'm so sorry. Yes, exactly. Look like it just woke up, just went into the fridge. Somebody called for it in a lake. All right boys, you got it. Little tiny two step boom. Just go ahead and huck that thing and it's unbelievable that he can still do that. It's unbelievable how much he's running. It truly is. It's cool to watch. Ty, what's your big takeaway from last night, brother? As an independent viewer, you know, the.
- [16:57]
Ty Schmidt
Flaco thing, I'm kind of just you know, reaffirming like hey, I, I wasn't an idiot to think that going into the packers game like you, you can tell with the Bengals, like that is kind of, they've, they've raised their ceiling. Like we all saw how things were going with Jake Browning. Like, like the season pretty much was over. If they can protect Flacco, like they, they can beat teams. You know, they had some timely takeaways last night as well. But the Rogers stuff, it, I mean it's just so fun watching him play and like being able to pick out plays and be like man, that feels like 2014 in Green Bay. That looks like 2016, you know, like when he was winning MVPs and stuff like earlier in his career. And I'm just. The big thing is I'm glad he didn't. I mean you mentioned a little bit earlier, Pat that I'm glad he didn't break his leg when Broderick Jones jumped on his back and he went. Yeah, right here. Went absolutely ballistic. Like starts with this.
- [17:48]
Tone
He ragdolls him way too long.
- [17:50]
Ty Schmidt
He had flashbacks of his Achilles getting blown out. You could tell. I mean he was not expecting that in any way shape or form. But no, just. I mean it's far and few between when we get that good of quarterback play on Thursday nights.
- [18:00]
Pat McAfee
So what the was going on.
- [18:02]
Ty Schmidt
Crazy. Crazy.
- [18:04]
Pat McAfee
Yes. He was actually pissed. If people were on the Internet were like, is he actually mad? I don't know him. It's like, yeah, very, very pissed. They got. He'll move past it. Obviously he's appreciative of this guy. But this follows into that. I assume Aaron was like, yes, what are we doing? And Jones to Jones's defense, he's just super duper excited.
- [18:23]
Tone
Well then he tries to give him a concussion too.
- [18:25]
Pat McAfee
After Rod loves to celebrate.
- [18:26]
Tone
This is not first time.
- [18:27]
Ty Schmidt
He loves to celebrate.
- [18:28]
A.J. Hawk
He doesn't know how big he is. Like a small dog that barks and thinks they can take on. He doesn't realize how big he is now. Like, hey man, I'm a monster.
- [18:35]
Pat McAfee
I think he's going to be changing the way he celebrates what the quarterback goes for. Because if I, if I had to guess, if I had to guess. But on a note, they had a game winning Dr. Drive. Like there's a game winning drive in the Pittsburgh Steelers mind. Just this goes back to the Miami Dolphins just a couple couple weeks back against the Chargers where less than a minute left. They had a game. Jeez. They had a game winning drive. I mean that's tough to watch. Every single time the. The game would. They had a less than a minute game winning drive. And then all of a sudden no. And then you got two ago and we got players and it just spirals into an entire thing. Steelers had a game winning drive. They come back, they went in, Mike McCarthy even called. He's like in the AFC world, footballers will be a lot of close games and there's nobody right out of ball and say Aaron Rodgers if it's he's got the most. If not, he just started making up stats about Aaron in the end that he hadn't done actual Research. And it's like, well, here we go again. Late in the fourth. You need a touchdown. Only can have a touchdown. Aaron does that with the offense. I'm not saying it's just Aaron, but you get it in its entirety. And then Joe Flacco, you left too much time. You left too much time for Joey Flacco. And T. Higgins sliding there. And then Ja' Marr Chase, after the game was asked about it, would you slide? And he said, if you want to win the game, you slide there. It's like, like, yo, that's a great culture. That that's just immediately. Exactly. I. I think that's very indicative of, like, the way Zach Taylor is delivering his message that you're two number ones, right? You got two number one wide receivers there that a touchdown is certainly good for, maybe incentives. And there's. Because they put into contracts, hey, if you score, we'll give you more money. So that's my job, I guess, is to do that, because this is what I'm getting incentivized to get paid more in my profession. And then they say, hey, why don't you be a good team player and not score? And it's like, well, why'd you put in my contract? Score a touchdown, I get more money. Well, the team went, don't you care more about the team? Like, that is always a defense that players could have. But we all, every player wants to see their teammate make the right decision in the moment. You know, like there's a Super bowl touchdown. I think some, some. I think it might. I forget who it was. Maybe it was Ahmad Bradshaw. I'm not 100% sure. It might have been Ahmad Bradshaw. Where he, like, I think he was running Super Bowl. Holy hell, here we go. And then he. Oh, no. Oh, late. And then he does the stop fall thing there. And I think we all appreciated the fact that he remembered, oh, no, I shouldn't do it. But also like the fact that he got his touchdown, you know, so it's like a Super bowl touchdown, which is a huge deal for life and everything like that. So T. Higgins doing this on a Thursday night Football in prime time, when you want to pad stats and everything like that. And he probably has incentives in there to make more money if you do it. Like, dude. And then Jamar Chase saying the same thing. Maybe since he isn't dead, look out for the jungle. Yeah, look out for the jungle.
- [21:07]
Tone
In defense of the Steelers defense that could have got a stop on that last drive, Jamar had only had 21 targets at that point. So they had no. Like, there's no way they could have known that they were going to go to him twice to start that drive.
- [21:19]
A.J. Hawk
And leave him wide open.
- [21:21]
Conor
And he had 94 yards of yak, by the way. So it wasn't as if he was. Yeah, look, he's wide open. Like, that's the crazy part. It's not like he had, you know, 16 catches for 100 yards and, you know, 10 yards a yak. Like, the guy had 94 yards of yak. He was catching the ball, and then he was just running around wild. Like, genuinely before, I always thought, like, all right, fire Tomlin. Whatever. This is a game where it's like, okay, who the hell did this? Because this is like, just as egregious as a ref screwing up a game. I think, like, the. The best player in the league, the best wide receiver, top two, whatever, in the league, and he's going to get 23 targets and catch 16 balls. Like, did they even watch? Do they know he's on the team? Like, it makes no sense.
- [22:07]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I think there's a lot of Steelers fans asking the same questions you are. It's early in the season. They're 42 is what the Steelers will say and what the coaches will say. And there's still a lot of room ahead and a lot of season left. But there's certainly a lot of question marks on that defense after Joe Flacco does what he does. Now, to your point About Jamar Chase's 23 targets, there's a little bit more context here from Hembo. That's the most in a game since Antonio Brown's 23 targets in 2015, week nine. Okay, let's go ahead and feed A.B. it's the most in a game versus Mike Tomlin led Steelers. It's the most in a game with Joe Flacco's quarterback. Joe Flacco likes to get everybody a rock.
- [22:40]
Ty Schmidt
That's right, he does.
- [22:42]
Pat McAfee
You know, so. But 23 times, it's the most in. It's the most here. It's the most tear. And he ate. And T. Higgins did, too. So congrats on the offensive juggernaut. Now, let's talk about something that hit the Internet this morning. Pablo Torre, who is sports Batman, I would say.
- [22:59]
Nick Saban
Yeah.
- [22:59]
Conor
Is that weapon.
- [23:01]
Pat McAfee
I think. Exactly this guy. Now, I'm assuming the people that are on the other end of Pablo Torrey's investigations aren't going to say this, but we, as somebody that's in the sports media world who have a Lot of questions about a lot of stuff happening around the world and the sports world. We're like very impressed by the fact that Pablo Torre is just going all in like this. It is on everything. It's like he's uncovering stuff that I think has been around made for a long time. I think he's only going to continue to do those things like we are. I, I don't want to speak for everybody in the Thunderdome, but like this guy's courage. Oh, yeah.
- [23:36]
Ty Schmidt
Wildly impressive.
- [23:37]
Conor
Huge fan of Pablo Torre now.
- [23:39]
Pat McAfee
Yes. And his like, his courage and what he's doing right is very impressive. Now this morning he released a tape and he described it as a hot mic. Now I don't think it's a hot mic because it's a pre recorded show. So hot mics normally on live show, you think you're in commercial, you're not in commercial. But this was certainly a recorded sit down that was happening during a podcast that Bill Belichick was producing called Coach. And it's a conversation between him and Jordan and the way they talk about kind of everything, you know, it's pretty enlightening, obviously, but I don't think Bill Belichick or Jordan thought that was ever getting out. You know, this is a time that they definitely thought nobody was recording. They certainly had to have known that they were mic'd up in this entire thing, which could worry a little bit. And you're doing this for people, but they were talking as if it was just a break in the show or break in the action amongst themselves. But obviously they're mic'd up, it's being recorded. It's an interesting thing. I don't know, I think whenever we watched it, I felt uncomfortable watching it because I knew that the people that were on camera didn't know they were potentially being recorded or we were watching it. But nonetheless it was found and discovered and put out. So certainly something that the world has now. And I immediately thought to myself, he was doing all his work at NFL Films. Did NFL Films leak this video to Pablo Torre to then add into his investigation about what's currently happening at UNC with Bill Belichick and hiring and everything else that's going on behind the scenes. So I reach out to NFL Films and I, I will say this as somebody who has a. What has it been, five years? Four. Five. What has it been? Five years? Probably, yeah.
- [25:12]
Ty Schmidt
Five.
- [25:13]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Five. Five year business relationship with NFL Films. NFL Films operates as like the 33rd NFL team. They've been with the NFL you obviously all remember Steve Sable talking about, you know, the frozen tundra and Green Bay. We all grew up with NFL Films happening. I think it's 50 plus years now. They've been around. They've basically been the 33rd owner for the NFL. They have been a part, a massive part of the growth and development of the NFL. I think every league around the world hope that they have a Scorsese like level of production, but also content creators and creativity that are able to showcase the game and its people while not just being a propaganda machine for the NFL. And that's what I have experience with NFL Films in our business relationship. Now. Have they messed up with our relationship? Yeah, yeah. Have I let them know that I didn't appreciate what happened? Yeah, of course. And they, to their credit, have taken full ownership every time whenever they mess up. The NFL Films people feel obligated to be good to the NFL, its players and its coaches strictly because how much they love the NFL, its players and its coaches. You're talking about some of the biggest ball fans out there. So whenever this gets leaked, I immediately send it to the people that I know at NFL Films who I've been giving millions of dollars to for five years now for rights for the show so that we can run plays and we can run highlights and we can do everything that, you know, studio shows on TV were able to do while we were just an Internet business. So I was actually the first person to negotiate digital rights with NFL and NFL Films because we were a social media show, a digital show before we got here on espn and I wanted to compete with the studio shows. And I thought the difference that the studio shows had, or ESPN had, or Fox or cbs, these people that have these rights is they were able to show actual footage. So I wanted to do that. So I approached the NFL. I do an agreement with NFL Films, it ends up being a couple million dollars a year, two and a half, $3 million a year for rights so that we can post and use and everything like that, which is now a big time talking point, I guess, across the Internet. I'm staying out of all of that. But me in NFL Films, what I'm saying go. We're pretty. Okay. I've. We know each other pretty well. They've never lied to me, so they haven't. Right? I think that's true. Business relationship.
- [27:23]
Conor
Yeah. The only time actually was when it was, I believe, Bengals Steelers on Thursday Night Football. And we didn't use their graphics and we drew some stuff. We did the drawing graphics.
- [27:31]
Pat McAfee
I Actually, no, but that wasn't. So that wasn't NFL Films. So NFL Films was actually fighting for us there while it was another network was trying to attack us at the time. So it was like a one day show where NFL Films actually two actually. That's a great example. NFL Films had to fight for our relationship and said that we were not doing what these other people were saying with graphics and things like that. So other networks didn't like that we had a digital deal deal with them. So there was shows, maybe even this one. I'm not 100% sure ESPN was one of them or not. But these people were trying to attack our deal because what CBS and Fox and ESPN were paying was like billions of dollars for NFL rights. But that was for games, live games. So how much were five minutes of no audio tape in there? So there was a lot of people sending like at us trying to take. Once again, it's kind of the story of the thing, people trying to bury us, you know. And NFL Films has actually came out and was like, nah, this is what the wave of the future is. And now they have Inside the NFL on X actually. So they're moving in to digital world, which we were certainly talking about with the Brian Branch thing. So I asked them about the NFL Films, seemingly NFL Films footage that was leaked for this Bill Belichick story that Pablo Torre is doing. Because this is not what they do, A.J. right. NFL Films feels obligated to protect everybody. Like they don't. That isn't their thing. So here's a couple things in back to back days that I think the NFL Films people not very in and I think every player knows that about NFL Films too whenever they go in there. Right, AJ Part of it.
- [28:53]
A.J. Hawk
People like players are not, you know, players are paranoid about a lot of different companies and places that are trying to get them. They don't feel like NFL Films is out to get them.
- [29:00]
Nick Saban
No.
- [29:01]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, NFL Films always on their side, but also not a propaganda machine. So it's a fine, you know, it's like a, it's a little bit of a balancing act for them. So I asked them like, hey, this Belichick video is pretty dirty here. Like this feels like pretty dirty. It's coming out of your building. They responded with, when this footage was captured, NFL Films did not produce Coach with Bill Bell. NFL Films did not edit this show. NFL Films did not shoot the show. NFL Films did not and does not own the show as a matter of convenience to him, which once again NFL Films obligation to like People and players and coaches in there. As a matter of convenience to him, NFL Films allowed Coach Belichick and the production team from Underdog to use our studio for his coach show because he was already here in his capacity as talent on Inside the NFL. NFL Films has a long standing relationship with Bill Belichick based on trust and mutual respect built over many years of working together. We have absolutely no reason to believe that this footage leak came from NFL Films or from any employee of NFL Films. So that's their statement on it. That is. Now that's like high level. Okay. At NFL Films. That is the leadership group that is saying that now. I don't think they know, for a matter of fact, and I don't think Pablo Torre is ever going to tell anybody what his sources are, who his sources are. But NFL Films wanted to make sure and they could. I tell people that that did not come from our people, from the research that we did. And that was not our show. That was happening, happening in our building. Now, on that note, I assume they regret doing that at this point as a convenience to Bill Belichick, especially because what gets out. And then the Brian Branch film that came out, our video that came out.
- [30:34]
Luke Combs
Yeah.
- [30:34]
Pat McAfee
On ins on Inside the NFL, that was being read by Lewis Riddick, that made Brian Branch look awful. Right? Foxy. That was the big takeaway from that video, right? That hit the Internet. Yes. Lions fans. Lions fans are pissed. It felt like a hit piece. It was just the weirdest thing ever and everyone is really pissed about it today. Okay? So I basically told the NFL Films people that I was talking to, like, hey, you got this with Bill. And then you had the Brian Branch video, like. And they're like, wait, this is not. This is. So this is the answer on the Brian Branch clip. Okay? We want all of our shows to have a distinct voice and point of view. In the case of Turning Point, that voice and point of view is Louis Riddick's. He spends time every week with the show's producers, watching each segment and going over the script before narrating. That particular sequence felt different to us as part of a nine minute break down of the Lions Chiefs game than it did as a standalone excerpt on social media on X. It felt overly critical to Brian, so we took it down. So they wanted to say, like, everybody was attacking them for taking it down. They're like, you should. We should have never put it up as it was to begin with. So that is kind of their stance on it. And I think they didn't say it there in the exact text to me, but in the conversation that I was having, I think they were trying to provide more in their head. I know that's wasn't what the excerpt was, was from the nine minute video in their head. They wanted to give context for Brian Branch on why this situation happened, but it obviously went a different direction. They said they. So that's why they took it down. AJ they're like, that's not what we wanted in the whole thing. So I don't want to be here, you know, just speaking for NFL Films, but it feels like somebody should in this world because NFL Films is an asset to us, not a bad thing to the entire football world. AJ Hawk.
- [32:12]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, NFL Films, they're not the people to go after that try to do that. That stuff, I think to make people look bad. And it was like the lowlights of. Of Branch in that game and the voiceover. Everything just didn't feel right. You're trying to add context to it. I guess it's like when, remember, Tua came out and Tua apologized and he said, they, like my teammates, know my heart, they know my intention, but it didn't come out that way. When I spoke to the media, it looked like he was taking shots at people. I feel like maybe that's what happened here. Like, their intention was to give some context. Hey, he feels like he got blocked in the back. That's what got him upset. That's what, you know, came before this. He didn't just jump out of nowhere and attack Juju, but obviously that didn't work. And now they took it down. But doesn't matter. We all saw it.
- [32:50]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, we all saw it. And everybody attacked him for taking it down. And they're like, well, we didn't. Like, that wasn't what we wanted either. So what are we supposed to do, you know? And then the people that recorded, like, no, we already got it. This is what you did. They're like, okay, we know. We're trying to. Jeez. Yeah. So I think they should view NFL Films people as like, they have. They're away from the New York office. They're not in the NFL office. They're like their own operating team. And they try their absolute best. And they say every once in a while we get things wrong. Okay. And we are. We're gonna own up to that. But we would like to, you know, continue to try to make our sport and our players and athletes continue to grow and build, you know, that. That whole thing. And they're a talented group but they've been in it here last couple days. And Pablo, Tori, brother, he's a dog getting that footage, dude. He.
- [33:34]
Ty Schmidt
He's a.
- [33:35]
Pat McAfee
He's a dog.
- [33:36]
A.J. Hawk
When did he get it? When did he get on this path where he started to, like, what's his question? Was this? Is he called a whistleblower or what's he doing? Investigative journals.
- [33:43]
Pat McAfee
Investigative journals.
- [33:44]
Conor
Yeah. I believe he got called out by a certain somebody whose show's now on Netflix, which is cool about not being a real journalist. And then I. I think he was basically. Is that right? And then that's where the Clippers thing, you know, kind of start. Because this isn't his first one. I mean, we all. It kind of started with the Clippers and Ballmer paying Kawhi.
- [34:04]
A.J. Hawk
How many people. Sorry to cut you off. How many people you think are pretty scared and worried that he's gonna start digging in and sniffing around their program and what they're doing?
- [34:11]
Conor
Probably everybody. Yeah, everybody should be.
- [34:13]
A.J. Hawk
If you've done something anybody can get it says.
- [34:15]
Ty Schmidt
I mean, he's. He's been on this USC beat for aisle too. He was the first one way back when, like, when things started going bad. That. Yeah, excuse me, not usc. He was the first one when things like kind of started going bad, where it was like, hey, everyone needs to be aware of what's going on here. And then it kind of cooled off for a little bit, and then now it's just like, you know, he. He's back on it. So, yeah, if you. If you got some shady dealings, I would. I'd be watching your steps very carefully.
- [34:40]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I don't know.
- [34:40]
A.J. Hawk
I think it's going to quiet down on that whole Pablo situation in North Carolina.
- [34:44]
Pat McAfee
Right?
- [34:44]
A.J. Hawk
He's not going to talk about them anymore, probably.
- [34:46]
Ty Schmidt
We'll see.
- [34:46]
Tone
We'll see.
- [34:46]
A.J. Hawk
Pat, what's going on, buddy?
- [34:47]
Pat McAfee
Who you got there?
- [34:48]
A.J. Hawk
Absolute living legend, it feels like with you right there.
- [34:51]
Pat McAfee
That's right. Six time national champion, two time as a head coach. Ladies and gentlemen, Kirby Smart.
- [34:58]
Kirby Smart
What's up, fellas?
- [34:59]
Pat McAfee
How are you, man? Thank you for joining us. Thank you for the hospitality here. I'm at the Buttsmere Heritage hall, right. And it's a sports admin here, which is on the facility though, of your football offices as well. Right. This whole area here is your guys.
- [35:11]
Kirby Smart
It's unbelievable view, man. I can't get over the view this guy's got, man.
- [35:14]
Nick Saban
It's.
- [35:15]
Kirby Smart
It's awesome. And it's a beautiful day, too.
- [35:17]
Pat McAfee
It is a beautiful day. It's like a perfect day here in Athens. Normally hotter than this, I would assume it's hot.
- [35:21]
Kirby Smart
Last time you were here, brother, I.
- [35:22]
Pat McAfee
Want to let you know it changed my entire life. So I got bare skin third. Yes, I'm very fair skinned, as you see. I got third, fourth degree burns on my face and arms here last year. Beautiful stadium. And now on Fridays, I don't know if you know that. Look up, brother. We will always have coverage. We will always have coverage going forward. So thank you to your school for that. Now let's thank you for your school, for the hospitality to us here today. And also game day. Coming for a top 10 matchup. This feels like just normal for you. What is the message to the boys and does it feel different this year versus last year? And I don't want to bring it up, but you already have a loss on the record. So does that change anything that you say to the boys or how do you treat this particular weekend?
- [35:56]
Kirby Smart
It's another weekend in the sec, but you better get ready because you know what? There's another one waiting a week, a week later. But for us, it's all about fast and free in this game. I want our guys to play loose, enjoy it and go out and compete. But you know how these big games are there a dime a dozen. Lane's been texting me all week, so I had to put him on. I had to put him on mute. I had to put him on mute.
- [36:14]
Pat McAfee
What's that? He wants intel. You think he wants to talk shitty? He wants to soften you up a little bit. What do you think? You guys, what is he trying to do?
- [36:19]
Kirby Smart
Whenever I think he's worried about my figure, you know, I told him that's my wife's job, not his.
- [36:23]
Pat McAfee
I heard that. He talked about you not doing hot yoga. He's looked at you. He judged a little bit. He's a brand new Lane though, right?
- [36:31]
Kirby Smart
Yeah. You know what? I'm all about Self. Self deprecation. I'm good with it. I told him my son got all upset when he said it. Lane texted me and said, hey, I was just cutting up. I said, now you're telling the truth. But sometimes the truth hurts.
- [36:43]
Pat McAfee
No, I think you look great, by the way.
- [36:44]
Kirby Smart
Precious while we're black.
- [36:46]
Pat McAfee
Well, hey, you're not the only one, dude. That is. That is the move, Lane. Same guy on the field as he's always been and then just off Lane, because there was even a documentary that came out about how he's changed his life. Do you see a Difference from his team now versus what you maybe would have seen in the past with Lane Kiffin as a head coach over there?
- [37:05]
Kirby Smart
Well, his team's always played just free and really well. I think he's done a great job. I think he's got better players, and I think he knows who he is better. Like, he's done a great job. You watch him on the sideline, his management of game. Like, they've had three or four games that came down to the last possession. In every one of them, they just methodically move the ball, eat the clock, win the game in the fourth quarter. He's really good at managing these games, and we both have had extremely tight ball games.
- [37:30]
Pat McAfee
So on that note, have you taught him how to clap with a timeout signal?
- [37:36]
Kirby Smart
Absolutely not. I told him. He texted me. I said, do you read my lips? No human being ever calls a timeout where he's saying, they're clown clapping. They're clapping, they're clapping. And I'm repeatedly saying that with my lips. And he's like, I don't care about your lips.
- [37:49]
Pat McAfee
Nobody cares about that, by the way. Nobody cares about that. And until you just said that right there, I didn't know you were being 100, ser. You're being 100.
- [37:56]
Kirby Smart
Read my lips.
- [37:57]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so you're saying your. Your body might be.
- [38:00]
Kirby Smart
Read my lips. They're clapping. They're clapping. They're clapping. They're clapping. And I've told Lane Loves.
- [38:08]
Pat McAfee
You're being serious whenever you say that. I thought this was all you like talking because you got one over on. You're saying no, actually in my brain.
- [38:15]
Kirby Smart
When I'm saying, they're clapping. Read my lips. Read my lips. And I don't know any coach that ever has tried to call a timeout without saying the word timeout. That wasn't the case there. They're clapping. They're clapping. They're clapping. Either way, I'm gonna tell you this. Lane has loved that. He thought it was gonna be a good distraction Sunday and Monday, and then he did a great thing by coming out and just blowing me up for being a fat guy with his. With his language. And he took all the attention off that. So.
- [38:38]
Nick Saban
So my.
- [38:39]
Kirby Smart
My kids got to see it. My wife got to see it, so.
- [38:41]
Pat McAfee
Well, I want to let your wife know and your kids know you look great in my eyes.
- [38:44]
Kirby Smart
Thank you.
- [38:45]
Pat McAfee
Okay.
- [38:45]
Kirby Smart
You're a thick guy. You know, we're not like Lane. You know, Lane is a little more, you know, he's all about prima donna, and he's a little cleaner.
- [38:52]
Pat McAfee
He's a quarterback.
- [38:53]
Kirby Smart
Quarterback.
- [38:53]
Pat McAfee
He's a quarterback. That is the exact thought. He's a quarterback. And also, if you're doing 6:30am hot yoga, I mean, your body's gonna look better than ours. Like, that is just.
- [39:01]
Kirby Smart
I did try it once. I tried it a couple times with some guys here locally. I struggled. I, I, I couldn't do it. But Lane swears by it. It's changed his life. I think. It's put him in such a good mood, done a fabulous job.
- [39:12]
Pat McAfee
I'm happy for him. I'm happy for you guys too. Obviously, you're both under the Saban tree. Everybody's going to talk about that. What do you think you gathered from the tree? And what about this team is similar to past teams of yours and maybe different than past teams?
- [39:22]
Kirby Smart
Well, speaking of the Saban tree, I just walked out of a meeting, production meeting with him in there, and I realized that he's still in control of all that. Does he boss you around like he bosses us around?
- [39:30]
Pat McAfee
Yes, absolutely. That is great. Actually, there's a chance that we were on the phone with one of his former coaches as well during one of these meetings.
- [39:38]
Nick Saban
Yeah.
- [39:38]
Pat McAfee
And that particular person does 6:30am hot yoga. And I was like, hold on. He's talking. And he was like, oh, this is what me and Kirby used to do. Me and Kirby used to whisper while he was talking on the side of the meeting. It was like the good old let's be clear.
- [39:51]
Kirby Smart
He whispered. I was sitting there quiet saying, hey, can I move my seat? I sat next to Lane in the staff meeting for the couple years we were there. And I was like, lane, please don't talk to me during the staff meeting. He goes, why are you so worried about talking during the staff meeting? It's disrespectful. I don't want to talk while he's talking. This guy didn't care. He just. I told him all the time. That's why he gets back at me now, Lane, because all those butt whoopings he used to get.
- [40:14]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so let's talk about your team. Butt whoopings. You got a team that's normally just physically imposing on everybody. Do you feel that same intensity from this team and aura? And what was the thing you do on Tuesdays?
- [40:24]
Kirby Smart
What's the thing you do on bloody Tuesdays? Yeah, we get after it. We have a physical team. Absolutely. We've got a physical team. But guess what? So does everybody in the sec. So it's really about who can Be physical in the moments that matter most. And we got an extremely tough team. We got a resilient team. If you watched our team this year, they're never going to quit. They're going to keep fighting, and we need to play better at the start of games.
- [40:42]
Pat McAfee
You got a tough quarterback.
- [40:44]
Kirby Smart
Yes, we do. He is taking some shots, man.
- [40:46]
Pat McAfee
The first time I seen him, the first time we all saw him, he was just getting helicopter to concuss and it's like, yes. And his name's Gunner. It's like this guy.
- [40:55]
Kirby Smart
That's it.
- [40:55]
Pat McAfee
Seemingly perfect for football. Tell me why he's perfect for you and this team.
- [40:59]
Kirby Smart
Because he kind of embodies this team's personality. Like, to see that guy get hit last week. Zoom in and watch the hit he takes from the Auburn corner when he gets hit and how fast he pops up, runs back the huddle. It'll give you goosebumps. It'll make you think, oh, my God, did you see that guy just get hit? He's back up, going to the huddle. And the rest of the team's like, oh, my gosh.
- [41:15]
Pat McAfee
Motivates everybody.
- [41:16]
Kirby Smart
Absolutely. They play harder for him.
- [41:18]
Pat McAfee
How is he as a leader in the. How do you feel about the team's chemistry? I guess not just him, but how do you feel about how. The togetherness of the squad.
- [41:24]
Kirby Smart
I love the togetherness of the squad. I mean, there's no. No questioning anything at the. The points of our season when it's been tough. Tough at Tennessee, tough at Auburn on the road. They bounce back. They don't let the scoreboard affect them, which I think is a really good quality to have. There's other good qualities to have, but that's a good quality to have.
- [41:38]
Pat McAfee
I wasn't there for the Auburn one, the Tennessee game, 100 and whatever. Thousand. You guys just not supposed to win that game.
- [41:45]
Kirby Smart
Keep shopping, man.
- [41:46]
Pat McAfee
Brother, that was cool. I assume you enjoyed the hell out of that win and what you. You just mentioned it right there. The resiliency that a coach has to see from his crew has to feel big. AJ Back in the Thunderdome, has a question for you, Coach.
- [41:57]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, coach, how you doing?
- [41:59]
Pat McAfee
You.
- [41:59]
A.J. Hawk
You mentioned you got to start fast, you got to get out to a hot start. Like, obviously every team wants to do that, but what can you do schematically or with the schedule to do? Are you going to dial up some blitzes on D offense?
- [42:08]
Conor
You.
- [42:09]
A.J. Hawk
You want to, you know, try to get some explosives down the field? Like, how do you get a fast start?
- [42:14]
Kirby Smart
I think Having a plan that you stick to and that you trust. You know, we really did that on offense at Tennessee. We didn't necessarily do that on defense at Tennessee. Everybody wants to start fast. The media ask me every week, how are you going to start fast? I think the prep of that, I think playing looser, I think our guys not afraid to make a mistake allows them to play a little faster. And that's the kind of the mantra we've took for this week, is fast and free. We want to start fast, but we want to play free of worry.
- [42:37]
Pat McAfee
You talk about starting fast. Your second halfs have been dominant, especially on the defensive side. Tone has a question for you.
- [42:42]
Tone
Yeah, Coach. Starting fast, but they. Those second half. So you've given up seven points in the second half over your last three games. And there's a famous quote from Peyton Manning where he was talking. He's like, I've never even heard of a halftime adjustment. That's not something that that's ever happens in football. Now, do you guys like how.
- [42:59]
Ty Schmidt
How.
- [42:59]
Tone
Why have the second halfs on defense specifically been so good for you? Is it a halftime adjustment thing or is it just adjusting to what the team's doing throughout the. Throughout the game?
- [43:07]
Kirby Smart
I think it's settling down. That's why I go back to the beginning. Like, how do we play free of anxiety? Because I kind of agree with Peyton, guys. I mean, there's only so much you can do at the halftime. It's short, it's quick. You're not coming up with a new scheme or new players. I agree with what he says. Everybody's like, oh, man, y' all make great halftime adjustments. No, we just play better in the second half. We relax and go play. Why can't we do that at the start?
- [43:25]
Pat McAfee
Well, I think getting the anxiety down, though, is what halftime coaching is all about. Now let's talk about pregame coaching and maybe even halftime. I don't know where all those videos come from. We haven't seen them as of late. Connor has a question for you.
- [43:36]
Conor
Yeah, Coach? Some of the best parts of college football are the pregame speeches that get leaked from your locker room. And I'm sure that probably pisses you off, but to be honest, it pisses me off that I haven't seen any this year or in recent memory. Did you tighten up the locker room? Did you tell everybody, like, hey, if I, you know, find a recording, it'll be bloody Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday? Or what happened there with the pregame speeches?
- [44:03]
Kirby Smart
No, my son says they haven't been as good, so that's why they're not leaking. He says you. You become dull and boring in your old age. So we'd wa everybody before they come in now. And some people actually believe that, but it's not true. It just hasn't leaked.
- [44:15]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Your speeches are epic, though. Still the same guy.
- [44:18]
Kirby Smart
Still same fire and passion. Maybe it'll go a little lower and maybe we won't start with so much anxiety. So maybe it'll be a chill mode.
- [44:24]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so do you have it? You have different gears in there.
- [44:27]
Kirby Smart
Oh, you got to have different gears, man. You got to have different gears. I don't know which gears needed because some players need some gears and some players don't. Halftime. I've had to gear it up a couple times this year, and I think sometimes that helps, and sometimes you got to get it down.
- [44:38]
Pat McAfee
How much are you changing how you coach different generations of players? You've been around here now a long time. Expectations are to be great. We all just saw what happened at Penn State. I mean, college football is a different animal. You created a lot of great times here, and I'm not saying anything would happen to you because you've won national championship here and you are cemented in legacy forever. But you do have to evolve and change, Right? With every single group. Is this different generation now than it was whenever you started, and how do you adjust to that?
- [44:59]
Kirby Smart
Yeah, it's very different. It's completely different than it used to be. People say, well, it's not different. You just treat them different. I'm like, like, well, it is different because the players are transient. They can come and go. They have money that they're not used to having, and I'm so happy that they have those opportunities and they get a chance to make money. But the hardest thing for me to change is on the field. Standard, like practice. I cannot, like, just let it go, right? So something irks me. Something bothers me. A guy doesn't give effort. A guy doesn't thud. It's going to drive me nuts. And I want to confront and demand, and that can wear you down if it happens a lot. So the biggest thing is don't change your standard, but change. Maybe the treatment, how we do things. Maybe not as long a practice. We've shortened those. We want to have high energy, fast, get after it. But at the same time, I'm not changing what the standard is in terms of how you practice.
- [45:40]
Pat McAfee
Here's the definition of transient. Obviously, we knew.
- [45:42]
Conor
Thank you.
- [45:43]
Pat McAfee
Smart was going to Force us to have to do that. It's an adjective. Great. Thank you for dropping that.
- [45:47]
Kirby Smart
Look at that. Number one. Read that for me real clear.
- [45:49]
Pat McAfee
1. A person who is staying or working in a place for only a short time.
- [45:53]
Kirby Smart
Yeah. That work? Tee it up.
- [45:57]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, you lefty. I don't see.
- [46:01]
A.J. Hawk
He thinks.
- [46:01]
Conor
He thinks so.
- [46:02]
A.J. Hawk
More.
- [46:02]
Ty Schmidt
More power from the left handed side.
- [46:04]
Tone
Switch.
- [46:07]
Pat McAfee
Growing up, this looks better. It feels because I did The Ken.
- [46:10]
Kirby Smart
Griffey Jr. Ken Griffey, man. That was my rookie card. I had so many of those.
- [46:13]
Pat McAfee
Boom. It just was so pretty. Yeah, it was pretty.
- [46:15]
Nick Saban
Yeah.
- [46:16]
Pat McAfee
So I never played baseball, but if I was around the baseball people, I would always go, yeah, I'm lefty. Yeah, just do the one of those. But it turns out I got no power over there.
- [46:24]
Kirby Smart
None.
- [46:24]
Pat McAfee
None. Yeah. Everything comes from this side. And I'll tell you what, I've got about 2 million less hacks on this side than I do on this side.
- [46:31]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yeah.
- [46:32]
Pat McAfee
So it's a bad spot. Ty Schmidt is my baseball expert. Actually. Ty, this guy love baseball. I mean you. It never gets you a baseball guy.
- [46:38]
Ty Schmidt
Hell yeah.
- [46:39]
Kirby Smart
I love baseball, man. I love the. The contact part of it. You know, I can't deal that. But I love the mind game. I love watching the. All the series and I'm a Braves fan. I love. My son plays a lot of baseball. So get a lot of baseball in the summer around the house.
- [46:51]
Pat McAfee
Dodgers about to win again.
- [46:52]
Kirby Smart
Looks like it.
- [46:53]
Pat McAfee
They got more money than anybody. How's anybody else supposed to win?
- [46:56]
Kirby Smart
That's college football. Is it?
- [46:58]
Nick Saban
Right?
- [46:58]
Pat McAfee
You're right. You're right.
- [46:59]
Kirby Smart
We.
- [46:59]
Pat McAfee
We don't want to get into that full conversation. But you are, brother. I mean. I mean, I don't know how often you've said it. I know we haven't said it enough. You're a goat in college football, dude.
- [47:08]
Kirby Smart
Appreciate it. I don't know about that.
- [47:09]
Pat McAfee
You are.
- [47:10]
Kirby Smart
Appreciate it.
- [47:10]
Pat McAfee
You actually are, though. You're in real time and you don't get talked about. Ty actually has a question for you. But that just hit me like you're a goat, dude.
- [47:16]
Kirby Smart
Holy goats in there doing the. Doing the stuff. He's. He's the best that's ever done it. I learned from him.
- [47:21]
Pat McAfee
No, of course. So. But you are a goat. Whatever. If it was to be over right now, you'd be considered one of the greatest of all time. Congratulations on that. That just hit me. I don't know how often you've thought about it. We should. I should have thought about this before you came on the show. That'd be what a good host does.
- [47:32]
Kirby Smart
Maybe then I can do some hot yoga. That would be good for me.
- [47:34]
Pat McAfee
Maybe you get better. Yeah, maybe.
- [47:36]
Conor
Maybe that's why you're the goat and he's not.
- [47:38]
Ty Schmidt
Could be.
- [47:39]
Pat McAfee
Wow. Well, I'm sorry.
- [47:40]
Conor
I'm sorry. Intrusive thoughts. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
- [47:45]
Pat McAfee
Goats do yoga, though. I see it on the Internet. Ty has a question for you.
- [47:48]
Ty Schmidt
They do. You're a certified goat coach. You just mentioned, though, the sec, how physical it is week to week and how good the conference is. Obviously everybody knows. Knows that there's kind of two schools of thought when it comes to it. It's like, hey, either, you know, you're battle tested at the end of the season because you've played so many good teams, or, you know, if it doesn't go the way you want it to, well, you know, the. The league cannibalizes itself. Yeah, exactly. Do you. Do you lean towards or coaches in general, I guess, across the sec? Do they lean towards either one of those ways? Like, does it sometimes it feel like that we're like, this year you guys might get, you know, five or six teams into the playoffs, but then there will be that conversation. If someone doesn't win a national championship. Well, the league's too deep. They just. They cannibalize themselves during the season.
- [48:33]
Kirby Smart
Yeah. You know what? I think it's the agenda that the coach personally has. So if you end up not getting in, that's the case. If you're in and you lose, that's the case. I mean, everybody uses it how they want to. And that includes the SEC and it includes the others. I think the greatest debate right now in all of college football is what you're talking about. The other conferences are. Or saying, oh, well, the SEC just has all these teams ranked, but they really don't deserve to be ranked. And they play each other and they beat each other up. I don't think we'll ever know the truth. I always say, go poll the NFL scouts and get them to tell you where they're pulling from and where they're drafting from. And those usually equal the best teams. Who has the most team players drafted? We did when we won the national championship. Michigan did when they won the national championship. Ohio State did when they won the national championship. Just look at that. And that'll tell you where the best players and teams are. But we're not going to know until they start putting us all in there. And they play a cross conference like they do in basketball. I'd love to do one of those with. With another conference.
- [49:24]
Pat McAfee
Are you ever. So that's a good question. Texas and Ohio State obviously kicked off this season. Sec, Big Ten, Michigan, Oklahoma happened. And refresh me if it has happened. Do you guys. Do you have any.
- [49:34]
Kirby Smart
We had Clemson last year where we start. We opened with them to start off and you try.
- [49:39]
Nick Saban
Jesus.
- [49:40]
Pat McAfee
Do you remember what they did? A Clemson.
- [49:42]
Kirby Smart
Well, it was tight ball game and a half. But again, you go back and you look good.
- [49:45]
Pat McAfee
Speed up, you look.
- [49:47]
Kirby Smart
You look across the board. And that's one of Lane's biggest complaints. And Lane is very bright. And Lane is biggest concern is we're losing opportunities to play other conferences when we schedule nine conference games. So that's the best reward any conference can get. There's less opportunities for me to play, for us to play other conferences. And the only way to measure conference to conference is that modern world.
- [50:07]
Pat McAfee
12 teams playoff. Everybody said we should be getting bigger matchups on a regular basis. Obviously we've had like a top 10 every single weekend. There's been one that kind of had an interesting slate. You keep going forward. Do you like where we're at with college football right now? Do you feel like, obviously it's a transition era. You've been around a long time. You're one of the goats. We talked about it. Right. But it does feel like we're in a transition era. But in this transition era, ratings are higher than they've ever been for the sport. The sport is hot right now.
- [50:31]
Kirby Smart
Would they not be if it was 16 or 24 or 30 teams? I think they still would be. I think the ratings would still be higher. I think you'd have unbelievable playoffs. It's going to mimic the NFL when we get to having that many teams potentially in the playoffs. So you get better matchups for longer because these games at the end of the year are going to come down to essentially being play in games. You're either in or you're out. I would love to see a bigger pool of teams make the playoff because that's what all our fan bases want is an opportunity to do that.
- [50:56]
Pat McAfee
And also home field advantage, man. Yeah. Part of college football is the atmosphere. Yes.
- [51:01]
Kirby Smart
So then we have two NFL analysts on our staff. Okay. And they've been in the NFL for a while. They're with us now. And they're like the difference in the crowd noise and day to day, it is night and day now. NFL players, playoff games, not so much, but NFL weekend games. It's not even close to what you're experiencing in these games.
- [51:17]
Pat McAfee
But the tradition and the chance and everything like that, that is what college football is.
- [51:21]
Kirby Smart
That's what you are. You're the one that brings it to life. Because you go to campus and you get all these crazies. You got people taking shirts off and running around. Absolutely not. That's Dan. So, I mean, you didn't teach Dan that, coach? Absolutely not. Dan got that from Lane. That's not me. That's not me.
- [51:38]
Pat McAfee
Who's that coming down the track or what's that coming down the track?
- [51:41]
Kirby Smart
You got it, man. You're supposed to know the answer to that. I know the answer to that. I grew up in Georgia. That's your job.
- [51:46]
Pat McAfee
Somebody said, who or what?
- [51:47]
Kirby Smart
I don't know. You tell me.
- [51:48]
Pat McAfee
Well, I think the generational problem you guys have, I, I, I do believe that.
- [51:51]
Kirby Smart
Don't you guys Me, I'm good. I'm in there. I know.
- [51:57]
Pat McAfee
AJ has the last question for you.
- [51:59]
A.J. Hawk
I do, Coach, as a player, when I think of you, I, I think of a hybrid of Steve Atwater, John lynch back there just taking people's heads off. Is that accurate? Can you accurate, yes or no?
- [52:10]
Kirby Smart
Absolutely not. As I remember you, I got to go work him out at how he came, and I was at the Dolphins the year he came out. So I went and they had a couple, I think it was Dante Whitner. They had some safeties. I went to Ohio State and got to work him out. The coolest thing in my life, getting to go to pro days at usc, ucla. And I'm a pro coach and I get to go work these guys out. But when you turn it back to me, I was not any of those guys. I was the finesse guy that didn't make the Colts. I did pick off Peyton several times in practice, but I couldn't make the team because I couldn't, I couldn't tackle.
- [52:39]
Nick Saban
You made.
- [52:39]
Pat McAfee
You had a spring in a TR Training camp with the Colts.
- [52:42]
Kirby Smart
I was just a training camp. It was real short. It was the cup of coffee theory.
- [52:45]
Nick Saban
Right.
- [52:45]
Kirby Smart
So it was, it was Peyton's second year.
- [52:47]
Pat McAfee
Transient.
- [52:48]
Kirby Smart
Yeah, transient. Not by my choice. I was definitely transient.
- [52:54]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, that was a long way transient. Okay, as we look ahead, what does the rest of your day look like and morning look like before? I think you're joining us on game day. We appreciate that, but what happens with your team now?
- [53:03]
Kirby Smart
Until tomorrow, we lock in and focus and want to be able to play fast and free. So to do that, we Got to do a walkthrough. We do a kind of routine we do to get some mental practice. And then we break up up and go enjoy the evening. We got a big volleyball game tonight. Our volleyball team is going to break a state record for attendance. We're going to bring some players over there because it's right next to us. So we're going to check out a volleyball game for a few minutes, then get out here. I love all sports. I'm a sports enthusiast, so I want to go support our volleyball team.
- [53:27]
Pat McAfee
Okay. So I want to watch the Penn State women's volleyball. They're the reigning national champions right now. They were playing against USC or ucla. I forget which one. It was one of the California teams. They had a dome in there. Packed, packed, crazy.
- [53:38]
Kirby Smart
We're trying to pack it out tonight. It's unbelievable how athletic these women are.
- [53:40]
Nick Saban
Now.
- [53:41]
Kirby Smart
Talking about athletic jumping. I mean, we could sign a couple of them to block some goals.
- [53:44]
Pat McAfee
Absolutely. Who was the. Who was the player's daughter that was at Penn State?
- [53:49]
A.J. Hawk
Kennedy Martin. Revel Martin's daughter.
- [53:52]
Pat McAfee
Oh, do you know who that is?
- [53:53]
Nick Saban
No.
- [53:53]
A.J. Hawk
She transferred in from Texas.
- [53:56]
Pat McAfee
What was Florida? Is. Was he offensive lineman?
- [53:59]
A.J. Hawk
He was a receiver, actually. Then he was actually an assistant coach for a little bit in Green Bay. Not anymore.
- [54:04]
Pat McAfee
Nonetheless, his daughter, 66, something like that, 67, she's playing weak side. She was on weak side, bang. Went over to block power and then ran around, hit another one over here. She's six. Six.
- [54:15]
Kirby Smart
That's so. I love watching that. I love seeing the athleticism.
- [54:17]
Pat McAfee
Great sport. Great sport, Great sport. You got a lot of them down here. And congrats on the beautiful setup and everything. And thank you for the hospitality, man.
- [54:24]
Kirby Smart
Thank you guys. Appreciate what y' all do for college football.
- [54:26]
Pat McAfee
You know, your. Your fans try to kick me out of a restaurant down here.
- [54:30]
Conor
Yeah. Carson.
- [54:31]
Pat McAfee
20 people showed up at our show down here, and Carson Beck spilled water. Carson Beck's dad spilled some water on Connor. All those on purpose. All the noise around this place towards me. You have been very kind to me since.
- [54:42]
Kirby Smart
Absolutely.
- [54:43]
Pat McAfee
I'm very thankful for you.
- [54:44]
Kirby Smart
Just get. Who's that? Or what's that? Right? We'll be good.
- [54:48]
Pat McAfee
That's unbelievable. We appreciate you, man. Thank you so much. Back to you, boys. I'll be here about a minute.
- [54:53]
A.J. Hawk
Like I said, don't be you guys and me, right?
- [54:54]
Conor
Yeah.
- [54:55]
Ty Schmidt
I grew up here. I know what it is.
- [54:56]
A.J. Hawk
Tony, you got any big games this weekend?
- [54:58]
Pat McAfee
College games?
- [54:59]
A.J. Hawk
I know we do have a big car. We got hard out Here coming in.
- [55:03]
Conor
Do you have any big games?
- [55:04]
A.J. Hawk
Oh, I know there's some big games.
- [55:06]
Tone
Obviously this, this one's the one where game day.
- [55:07]
A.J. Hawk
Usc, Notre Dame. I'm circling that one. And I don't cut you off. Right. I'm circling that one.
- [55:11]
Tone
I, I would circle that too because honestly I think the loser is done.
- [55:17]
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
- [55:17]
Ty Schmidt
Loser leaves town. Master.
- [55:18]
Tone
Yes. Obviously Notre Dame, that's their third loss is going to be tough when you all three of your losses are the three best teams that you played. And then sc, they've got one loss so far, but they still have a couple hard teams left on their schedules. So there's probably another one coming. I do think the loser that is out winner has a really, really good chance to make the the playoffs. And then obviously the Tennessee Alabama game winners smoking cigars.
- [55:42]
Ty Schmidt
The.
- [55:42]
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
- [55:42]
A.J. Hawk
How'd that start? Do we know?
- [55:46]
Tone
They filled it a thousand times on game day and I, I always forget. But that's awesome. And then obviously the holy war, BYU and you.
- [55:53]
Conor
Yeah, it's.
- [55:54]
Tone
It's good. It's a great weekend in college football.
- [55:56]
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
- [55:56]
A.J. Hawk
Pat, do you know why they when they started smoking cigars when you win that Tennessee Alabama game?
- [56:02]
Pat McAfee
I do not know the exacts, but I do know it's a gigantic ordeal. I remember when we were there two years ago, I think Desmond Howard got a photo with Peyton Manning smoking a cigar afterwards in the gate and it was like he has that up in his house, I think. So it's a. I, I don't know the exact start time but I do know that it is very real. And obviously LSU Vandy being a real thing is crazy. Vandy continues to be awesome. Texas Tech spent a bunch of money and it paid off. Them is 7 1/2 points point favorites in Arizona State. How you do who's playing quarterback there?
- [56:31]
Tone
Sam Levitt I believe because it went from eleven and a half down to.
- [56:33]
Ty Schmidt
Seven and a half.
- [56:34]
Tone
So I think they're expecting Sam to play.
- [56:37]
Pat McAfee
And then obviously we saw Matt Leinert do the shove.
- [56:41]
Ty Schmidt
Push, push.
- [56:42]
A.J. Hawk
First push. 20 year, right?
- [56:45]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Absolutely crazy. That's huge. We got a lot of big games and then top 10 down here in Athens. Come on down here now. Perfect weather. It's perfect day. Football is amazing. This is Marshawn Beast mode. Lynch prize pick is making sports season even more fun.
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- [58:10]
Conor
Whatever.
- [58:11]
Pat McAfee
It's fine. I'm totally fine. But I cope with losing with an ice cold Dr. Pepper.
- [58:17]
Nick Saban
Mmm.
- [58:17]
Pat McAfee
Those 23 flavors are like so delicious. They totally wash away the pain of your college football team taking a big fat L. College football. It's a Pepper thing.
- [58:33]
Nick Saban
Football.
- [58:35]
A.J. Hawk
Kirby was great. Pat. I don't know what you think, but I love when he said don't be you guys and me.
- [58:39]
Pat McAfee
What are you doing?
- [58:40]
A.J. Hawk
What are you trying to talking about?
- [58:42]
Nick Saban
I.
- [58:42]
Pat McAfee
It is a generational thing for. What's that coming down a track or who's that coming down the track? I will say that I just want to let the Georgia people know that they need to figure it out. That they need what.
- [58:53]
A.J. Hawk
And then the young say who.
- [58:55]
Pat McAfee
Who's. Yeah, I'm pretty sure like the o. The older generation. The. The ones who would say they. I don't know. I don't want to say anything because there's young dogs that believe that they've been dogs since birth as well. So I. I don't want to question. But. But the older dogs. Dogs I believe what's that coming down the track And I believe there was a some sort of generational that said. Yeah, but we're people though. So who's that coming down? So I think there is a little bit of a. So each time I do it which is. This is the best call in sports. This is the best call in sport. This what they do here. The call of the dogs by far. I mean it's just so long drunk is mentioned in there. You know, like there's just for it to be their thing. It is the coolest I think so. It is a lot of. Of fun to do it. And every time as I'm doing it, I'm like, all right, who we pissing off here? What's that coming? And the Youngs, you know, it's. I'm lucky to do it. It's cool. This place has a. Obviously a lot of deep history and tradition whenever it comes to football. You can go all the way back to the greats that played in the past and then of the recent history, dominance that they have certainly had. And now hosting another top 10 game, which is going to happen seemingly anytime another team is a top 10 team with crazy Kirby Smart as the head coach. And to your point about liking what he was saying, I liked everything about what he just did here. I thought he was awesome. Was that not. That was maybe one of the best ones we've had with somebody. Just.
- [60:12]
Ty Schmidt
Yes, go ahead. Yeah, without a doubt. The. For literally the first thing we. We kind of all said after, we is like, man, he is unbelievable. It's impossible not to like that guy and not to root for that guy.
- [60:24]
Pat McAfee
And the amount of times he said, that's a Lane Kiffin thing, you know, and they both get it, by the way. They both are very tough, tight. It's like these football minds, these football people are special. We have coach Saban joining us here in a matter of moments. And then we have Luke Combs and Bailey Zimmerman. Okay. Coming and joining us. They're both performing during game day tomorrow. I believe that that was. I mean, we'll ask them, but I believe that was agreed to, like, ahead of time, because schedules with everybody's life, especially fall music, there's touring that's happening. Getting people to every single city, every single week is pretty difficult. So the fact that these two locked in this weekend for game day to come, put on a show for us. And I think. I mean, of course, the students that come out and kick ass every single week are the greatest. Like, we are so thankful for them. But me just getting a chance to watch as Luke Combs and Bailey Zimmerman concert tomorrow morning. I'm pretty pumped up. Yeah, I am. I take it in. I turn my chair around, I kick the feet up. I mean, I am. I'm like, we're at a concert right now, and Luke Combs, obviously is a guy that sells out arenas and is huge. People are even talking about him maybe being a Super bowl halftime because everybody seemingly knows his stuff and he has a range of doing it. And then Bailey Zimmer, Zimmerman's like 24 years old. He has, like, 10 hits already. So it's like these two dudes giving up their time to come do a show here. I'm very, very thankful for. So we'll chit chat with them in the third hour. I know they're not from Georgia, so that is a little difficult because I got friends that are Georgia musicians as well. And it's like there's like a thousand of them. There's like a thousand of them. But I don't. I don't think, like, the scheduling is as easy as everybody just. You know what I mean?
- [61:56]
Ty Schmidt
Sure.
- [61:58]
Pat McAfee
I don't know if everybody takes that, all me included, because I'll send tech. I got nothing saying anything. I'll send texts like, this is the dumbest decision of all time. Why are we. How are we trying to make a good show? Like, what are we. Are we trying to make the people like us? Or what are we. What's the goal here? And then I obviously get a full breakdown. Well, you know, like, people have this and then this. And to get to this, the closest airport is this. And it. It's just like a full. There's always something with everything. And on that note, we got Luke Combs and Bailey Zimmerman doing a concert tomorrow. And then Jelly Roll is one of the best speaking musicians. I think every time he speaks, there's always an entertaining thing. I think that's another scheduling thing that potentially happens. Now, I'm not saying that a Georgia musician, and I'm one of Jelly Rolls, I'm maybe Jelly Roll's biggest fan. I mean, as soon as I do big night out back in Pittsburgh, my first call is to Jelly Roll. Jelly Roll has impacted and made my life a lot better as a friend. And Jelly Roll, I think on the flip side, would say, like, hey, Pat's pretty cool guy. Like, I think Jelly Roll would say, we're friends. I do believe that, like, somebody from Georgia would be a good guest picker for a Georgia game. But if it's not like, Jelly Roll is the perfect human. This guy is the greatest. Like, Jelly Roll story, his music, everything about him, how he gives back to everybody. Like, he's special. So I'm excited for tomorrow. Just in general. We got a lot of really cool and talented people, part of a program. James Franklin's going to be here.
- [63:19]
Tone
Crazy, really?
- [63:20]
A.J. Hawk
Is that. Is this the first announcement of that or. I know you kind of. I feel like you teased it earlier of the week, maybe.
- [63:25]
Pat McAfee
No, no, it was. I don't know if we teased it or gave it Away, but they announced that James Franklin's gonna be there. It's like, good show. Coming tomorrow, I think. Good. Good show tomorrow. Now, the Georgia students for game day, I think, you know, have had a lot of game days. I think they've had a lot of game days. I think we all, as people that are relatively new to game day, understand that and how you go to, like, a James Madison and in the entire. Everybody that's ever gone to school there shows up. Yeah, it's like 30,000 people, and they're like, so pumped. It's like some of these places. Obviously, game day's been to a lot, so it's not as, you know, maybe, but I think they're going to show up. From what I've been told, crowd's going to be awesome tomorrow morning. I don't know if they're good kickers or not. I don't know how expensive it's going to be. Last time we were here, bell sessions and Henry Silver were a special moment. And I got a handwritten letter this morning from Bell.
- [64:16]
Nick Saban
Oh, really?
- [64:17]
Pat McAfee
Handwritten. It was one of the nicest cards I've ever read in my life. That girl right there, Belle at bell sessions. And then Henry Silver, the kicker from Indiana who went to school down here. This is. I believe this is last year when we were down here. Yes, last year. And I had just gotten surgery to take out my. What was the thing in the back of your mouth?
- [64:39]
Ty Schmidt
Wisdom tooth.
- [64:40]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, you remember that? I had a wisdom tooth that was cracked in the back of my. My mouth for like five weeks. It hurt so bad, I couldn't make it anymore. Had to get surgery to get that thing removed. Was on all types of painkillers. Come down here to Georgia for game day, and all of a sudden we're giving away $800,000. So, I mean, it's. It was a magical moment, and Bell wrote me a letter, and it was one of the nicest things I've ever read. So it's been great down here. I think tomorrow's going to be spectacular. But to Tone's point from the last hour, the college football slate's amazing, and as is the NFL slate in last night's game. AJ I think, was a good starter for NFL Week 7. Anytime you got two teams scoring 30 plus points, the average viewer is going to enjoy that. That's going to be a. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We got a lot going on. Not a lot of good defense, though. You know, last night, the box score, 54 plays for the Steelers, 72 plays for the Cincinnati Bengals. So you talk about Chase Brown. He. I mean, out of Illinois. I think he was at Western Michigan, maybe before that transfer in there. We did a little research on him as well. We were watching him just dominate last night. He's special, dude. This guy's fun to watch. And everybody talks about that offensive lineup being great. If you can run the ball well, that helps out the offensive line for everything. Now you have to have an offensive line to be able to run the ball well, and they were able to do that against a Pittsburgh Steelers defense that we thought was going to be able to be good against it. So I think there's a lot of positive shown last night from an offensive side, defensive side. Without Trey Hendrickson, Cincinnati Bengals are able to get a win. Congrats to them. And I guess the Steelers fans are worried. Their defense stinks. And if you're the Bengals, it's like, holy hell, we stole one. AJ Feels like we might have stole one here with Joe Flacco is our quarterback without Trey Hendrickson on the defensive side. A.J.
- [66:16]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, I know. With Joey Burrow on the sideline cheering his team on in the boot. Do we know when exactly, like, or estimated time of return for Joe Burrow, anyone? Did they say last night in the broadcast? I haven't figured out.
- [66:27]
Tone
No.
- [66:28]
A.J. Hawk
He looked. Yeah, he's grown his hair out a little bit, letting it hang.
- [66:31]
Conor
Yeah. I'm not sure exactly when it is. The emo hair was cool, and then once they were winning, he put a hat on to cover it up, which was awesome. But I'm not sure exactly when he. He's coming back. I think the timeline was, what, three months when it initially happened? So people were kind of speculating end of November, maybe mid November, depending on how it all goes. But, I mean, just seeing him on the sidelines, seeing him in a boot, seeing him walking around, moving around, it makes me think, like, okay, well, Burrow is a tough son of a. Like, if he can get back early, he's going to. He's at least going to try. So that's why, like, one win, even, you know, you look at it, okay, they're three, and. But, you know, if they win one more game without Joe Burrow, and then Joe Burrow comes back with time to, you know, get it done. I have complete faith that Joe Burrow is going to, you know, run the table and get the Bengals in the playoffs. He damn near did it last year.
- [67:20]
Pat McAfee
I like the fact that Joe Burrow said, I'm going through this rehab I'm not cutting my hair, okay? I'm just going to grow this thing out. All I'm worried about is getting healthy and coming back. He's an Ohio guy, obviously. We think he's tough. We appreciate that. He was out there, there last night. I saw somebody tweet and call him my Chemical Joe Burr romance.
- [67:37]
Conor
That's great.
- [67:38]
Pat McAfee
Did you see that? I laughed very hard. Yeah, I agreed with it. I. I did appreciate the hair in front of the eyes. I appreciate he's got long swag. Maybe he goes with some braids. You know, maybe cornrow that thing back and see what he's looking like whenever he comes back. Maybe the moxie level will be put so high that Cincinnati Bengals can't help but win. I don't think we watch the Cincinnati Bengals and we think they win a Super bowl bowl right now, but I do think we think that the Cincinnati Bengals can have a season that isn't ass. Right. That is kind of where we're at, A.J.
- [68:08]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, I feel like last. So I, I was in the stadium and I heard multiple fans said a couple times, hey, we. We need this. This would be so big for us. A win here would be so good for our, like, morale for what we're doing. We're trying. It would keep us alive, and that's exactly what it did. Ty, when you look at it, I guess when you're watching the Bengals offense, all right, we saw two defenses that. That I guess could not really get a stop when they needed it.
- [68:29]
Tone
I guess straight touchdown.
- [68:30]
A.J. Hawk
Can you figure it out? Do you think these defenses. Can the Bengals. Bengals defense figure it out to, I don't know, maybe make a somewhat of a push in the playoffs or get to the playoffs?
- [68:37]
Ty Schmidt
I mean, I don't know. I think, you know, we're kind of high on Joe Flacco throwing for almost 350 yards and three touchdowns. I don't know if we can expect their defense all of a sudden to be holding teams to 10 points. I don't think that's going to happen. I think they played pretty well, but in my mind, you know, I was big on, hey, get this Bengals team off prime time. This needs to be done. Now you look ahead at that Thanksgiving game, the. The script is flipped now. Everything's on the Ravens. Hey, we got to see what the Ravens are like after the bye week because Joe. I want Joe Flacco on Thanksgiving night. Exactly. And I think that's what every, you know, didn't want to watch Jake Browning on Thanksgiving night. I'm I'm all in for watching Joe Flacco on Thanksgiving.
- [69:15]
A.J. Hawk
My buddy told me, he texted me.
- [69:16]
Ty Schmidt
He.
- [69:16]
A.J. Hawk
He felt like Joe. Joe Flacco was on beta blockers. He was so calm and so in the moment. It looked like Joe never even. Never was, never flustered, never even sweat. He just. He was out there just doing his thing. I don't know, Pat, I think you have another. You have the goat actually with you on camera campus right now, right?
- [69:33]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. I have a man that could obviously go into a Thursday night football game and win it right now if you were to put a whistle around his neck, just like Joe Flacco was able to do when getting traded. Cincinnati, the greatest of all time. Ladies and gentlemen, Nick Saban.
- [69:45]
Nick Saban
Thanks.
- [69:46]
Pat McAfee
Gosh, Coach, I see the families here. I love that. I see a good crew. Jimmy Sexton's over there, which we need to keep his ass away from the field goal kick. Every time he shows up at the field goal kick, they make it. And if you watch that drive, Georgia one, Henry in Bell, he guess who's dead center right behind the kick. Jimmy Sexton there costing a lot of money to go out of the pocket. And then we tell him not to do it. Hey, don't do it. Okay, then, Penn State. You go ahead and watch that film. Guess whose head's creeping into the Penn State. Jimmy Sexton back there. So this man is synonymous with people getting paid. And in my experience, it's been all the kickers. So great to see you, Jimmy. You're the man. Great to see see you, Jimmy. It's almost Jimmy Sexton season, by the way. It is almost Jimmy Sexton season. Let's talk about this season. We're talking about last night. Aaron Rodgers, 41 years old. Joe Flacco, 40 years old. Joe Flacco got traded to that team like 10 days ago. Aaron Rodgers, first year there. They're both leading their teams to incredible outcomes. Now, the Bengals win last night, the Steelers doing well. What are your thoughts on older quarterbacks at that position having that much knowledge or I guess experience has to be a benefit. How do you view these two guys playing well at this age?
- [70:53]
Nick Saban
Well, these two guys have played well their entire career. I don't think that if you put them in the right teams with the right kind of guys around them, they're going to be able to continue to play well because their decision making, they don't. They're not going to make bad plays for their team and they're going to put themselves in winning position. I mean, Joe Flacco has done it for years. I mean, and wherever he's been, I mean, he helped Cleveland play halfway decent when he was. I mean, and now he goes to Cincinnati, who couldn't win a game before, and they go out and beat the Steelers, who is. Who. Who are a really good football team. So I think older quarterbacks can play in the NFL, providing they have the right kind of people around them and.
- [71:36]
Pat McAfee
Also still the physical capabilities. Joe Flacco can spin it. Aaron Rodgers threw at 69.8 yards last night, which is the longest recorded pass thrown in the NFL since 2000, 2017.
- [71:45]
Nick Saban
Unbelievable.
- [71:46]
Pat McAfee
He's 41 years old, threw that thing 70 yards.
- [71:48]
Nick Saban
Unbelievable.
- [71:50]
Pat McAfee
That's insane. That is wild.
- [71:51]
Nick Saban
It is.
- [71:51]
Pat McAfee
That is crazy. Yeah. I saw him throw a beer, though, Coach. We talked about in the first hour plenty of times before. We were at Lake Tahoe at that golf tournament. You need to go and win. You know, I'm talking about out there at the American Century. And he rents a house. It's a big house. And he woke up, there was somebody in the lake, I don't know, 200 yards away.
- [72:08]
Conor
How far it was at least, genuinely. 150 yards.
- [72:12]
A.J. Hawk
From an elevated position, too, but elevated.
- [72:15]
Pat McAfee
Position, though, you know, so, like, houseway up here, Lake out here from kitchen, throws this thing, hits the dude's tube that he's sitting on in the lake. And we all. I was rather high, coach. You understand that it's California, the rules. And, like, we all started, like, taking it in. We're like, did that guy just throw a beer can 100 yards? And then we asked him about it. He's like, I. I feel like I'll always be able to spin it, but if you listen to Drew Brees talk at the end of his career, he's basically like, I'm trying to hang on physically because my brain is at a level that obviously is an advantage over everybody else. So physically, if we can just hang on, I'll be able to get the most out of it. Aaron obviously doing that. Joe Flacco obviously doing that. Other NFL stories that I'd like, your take on, it involves your former quarterback, Tua. Okay. Tua, I think, made one of the most accountable statements that I've seen in a long time from a player when he was correcting something that he did after a game where he basically called out some teammates unnamed, and then threw teammates under the bus. And then a couple days later, he immediately went out and was like, I shouldn't have done that. I added more noise to the outside owned it. It was beautiful. Whenever you see something like that happening with a former player, especially when you care about like Tua, do you reach out and send them advice? Do you say like, hey, I'm proud of the way you handled that. Like, how does that kind of go with you?
- [73:26]
Nick Saban
Well, I am proud of the way he handled it. But one of the things, things that I always try to tell our players is, you know, you never criticize another player. And in my entire coaching career, you never ever saw me criticize one of our players. You know, I think everybody's got to take responsibility for what they can control. And if you start worrying about things that you can't control, that's going to start affecting things that you can control. But if everybody takes responsibility for their own self determination and do what they can do to make the team better. So I was really shocked that Tua did what he did when he threw some guys under the bus and, you know, maybe they're not playing the way they should play. I'm not taking up for the guys, but you don't say that about your teammate. But I really was proud of the way he came back and sort of took accountability for making a mistake.
- [74:15]
Pat McAfee
Dumpy was really riding a wave, as you could tell, I would assume, as that was happening.
- [74:18]
Kirby Smart
Well said, coach. Well said.
- [74:20]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, Coach Saban understands how big of a Dolphins fan Gumpy is. And obviously Coach Saban, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, a former head coach of Alabama, and obviously your coaching tree is huge this weekend. It's been well documented about Lane, Kiffin and Kirby. We just had Kirby on. Yeah, he was awesome. He was absolutely incredible. Talking about how different he was from Lane, though, and obviously Lane vastly different than Kirby and I think Lane stands the same thing. What do you see from these two head coaches and the teams that they represent? And I know it's a weird thing to continue to ask you if you're proud, but whenever you see the way they are doing, that obviously feels good for you. And everybody just talks about coaching trees. They never talk about how the tree feels, if that makes sense.
- [75:00]
Nick Saban
No, I feel great about it. I love it that guys that have been involved in our, our program and contributed to a larger degree to the success that we had. I mean, those guys were, you know, Kirby was a big part of being a great coordinator for a long time who really contributed to the success of our program. To see them knowing that they want to go out and have the opportunity to be head coaches and to see them be able to go out and do it successfully is, you know, something I'm really proud of because we helped them do what they want to do. They helped us do what we wanted to do. So it's kind of a give and take. And Lane and Kirby are very different. But it should shows you that, you know, there's more than one way to skin a cat. But both these guys fundamentally are not that far apart in terms of the football part of it and what you get across with, you know, discipline and execution and good game planning. And even though they systematically might be a little different, they still know what it takes to win. And both of them, in their own way, do a really good job of executing it with the players they have.
- [76:07]
Pat McAfee
Coaching tree is pretty average. Last week we were out in Oregon, Dan Lanning and Kurt Signetti. Kurt Signetti now $93 million.
- [76:15]
Nick Saban
Good.
- [76:16]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, congrats to him. We're all happy for you, Kurt. Congrats to that. And Indiana, by the way, saying we're real. Hey, we're the real deal. And Kurt Signetti announced on our show yesterday, and I guess IU tweeted it out before, they have the largest alumni base living, alumni base in America at I don't know if that means signed up to be an active alumni or whatever, but it's like 805,000 people. They obviously have $93 million to give Signetti after they redid his deal last year just to kind of make a statement like, hey, we're in this thing for the long haul. But last week. And congrats to him and them. Life changing money. He's earned it. Good for him. And him betting on himself to go do this. All cool. But last week, Dan landing Kurt Signetti, now it's Kirby and it's Lane. And it's like four different ways of doing ball though, isn't it? Kind of four different ways of doing ball. Do you think that. And why was your system able to take in all these different personalities and still seemingly have the same Alabama team throughout?
- [77:07]
Nick Saban
Well, I think that the key to our success was always the culture that we created. And I think that every one of these guys that you're talking about have created a culture with their players to be able to have success. You know, this is what you have to do to create value for yourself and for the team. They all do it in a different way, but they all create a culture in their organization. Organization that gives them, the players, the best opportunity to have success and their teams the best opportunity to win. So. And they're all the same in that. But I do commend Indiana for making the commitment. Because, you know, Kirk Signetti would have been the first guy on everybody's list to hire for every job based on what he's done at Indiana and what he's done at other programs that he's been at and the success that he's had his entire career. So for them to step up at this point, point in time and lock him down is really smart on their part if they want to continue to have success as a. As a football program.
- [78:03]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so I think we just heard what you would be thinking if you were Penn State there. Before yesterday's announcement of the extension. You said any job anywhere. A lot of people are thinking Penn State's going to be the bell of the ball, obviously, because of all the resources. You think even at his age, Pat Kraft up there in Penn State would have been like, if Sid can do what he did in Indiana. Now I'm. Once again, I would like to say, I think a lot of people don't know how much money Indiana has. I think Mark Cuban obviously doesn't have an NBA team anymore. He's a very proud Hoosier graduate. He actually made his money and became a billionaire the first time because he was trying to listen to Hoosier basketball games. So whenever you talk about, like, alumni, being sport people and being wealthy, Indiana has some of that. But whenever you think about Penn State or any of these other jobs, I think it happened at Indiana whenever he got hired. You don't think agents an issue because he feels like he's, what, 45 years older and he's out there coaching. Is that a. Is that something they should think about? And who do you think Penn State ends up going?
- [78:55]
Nick Saban
Well, what is he, 62?
- [78:56]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Yeah, I think so.
- [78:58]
Nick Saban
Yeah. Well, we went to the playoffs when I was 72, so I think he's got some years left.
- [79:06]
Pat McAfee
Ah, that was awesome. Good for you, dude. You're a little different, though, as you understand. But so is Signetti. So is Signetti.
- [79:14]
Nick Saban
No, he is different. He is. In a good way.
- [79:16]
Pat McAfee
I think so. He's great for Indiana.
- [79:18]
Nick Saban
Great for Indiana.
- [79:19]
Pat McAfee
He came on our show the other day, and I think Ty asked him the question about how, hey, you're not seemingly not creating as many, like, gifts or, like, quotes. And he said in the first eight hours that he was on campus, he had to change everybody's thoughts on everything. So he said he went back to, like, whenever he was 40 years old and started talking his shit. He said he doesn't feel like he has to do it anymore. Now, he's still that same person, but he feels like for the good of the program, he doesn't really have to let everybody know that they're here because it feels like maybe more respect is for them, if that makes sense.
- [79:46]
Nick Saban
I think that's smart, and I think it's smart on his part because you do want to create an image that's a positive image that people want to be a part of, and I think he's doing a good job of that.
- [79:56]
Pat McAfee
I like that you said last year, though, at Notre Dame, what I. What I didn't teach is all that shit you've been talking. And I wish. I wish Shake would have went to you in the moment and be like, I have to. I just want to. Indiana, they didn't even have a weight room, bro. I had to. I had to do this whole thing, him calling his shot. Crazy. AJ Has a question for you.
- [80:13]
A.J. Hawk
Coach. Yeah, Coach. Obviously, Penn State moves on from James Franklin. I'm just wondering, whenever they do bring in the new coach, whoever that might be, what. What's their first message? What do they. What's their first, like, what's their agenda? What do they need to do that first week to really ensure success moving forward?
- [80:29]
Nick Saban
Well, you know, obviously they got to hire somebody that has a history of having some success, who knows how to develop a program and continue to win and to deal with success. You know, one of the things that people talk about with James Franklin is couldn't win the big game. Well, but how many people beat those teams? Yeah, you know, like, people used to get on them about not beating us, but we didn't beat very much. So, I mean, there's some give and take and all that. And terms of. And you actually put me and James Franklin, put them in a position to do that because they weren't in a position to do it before. And he created an expectation that really was difficult for him to live up to, but he created it. So the next person is going to have to do the same thing, but then learn how to deal with success and get the program over the hump. So it's going to have to be somebody who can win over the people who support the program as well as went over the people that you need to get in the program, whether it's coaches and players to be able to get you to that level.
- [81:34]
Pat McAfee
We talked about. You said people in the program, people that. Right. What you were alluding to there as, I think the donors, the boosters because over there they have a lot of resources, they have a lot of money. And I would assume that that money begets a little bit more free flowing if they have full belief in what's happening. So winning them over is a massive piece of the job. Right. And that kind of a piece of.
- [81:52]
Nick Saban
It all, no question. But there's also, you know, a little bit of a downside that goes with that, because when those people do give to the program, make a commitment to the program, they also think they have a bit of a voice in the program.
- [82:07]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I.
- [82:08]
Nick Saban
Which can get you hired, but can also get your ass fired.
- [82:12]
Pat McAfee
Yes, it certainly can. And there's a lot of money being handed over and there's not a lot of ROI on that. You know, they're not getting any money back. That money is a donation for players and for things you need. And if we're not winning, I don't even get a chance to enjoy it with my family. I do this entirely. It's a crazy time right now.
- [82:29]
Nick Saban
Crazy time right now. And I think the players should get paid. I think they should have name, image and likeness. But I think this is a system of. That's not really good for college football to be in this position for players, coaches. And I want to see the players do well, I want to see them get rewarded. But the system of how the money flows is not the best way to do it for college athletics.
- [82:51]
Pat McAfee
You know how they say in everything, follow the money, Literally everything, it's like, follow the money. And then you start seeing like college football, like, follow the money, follow the money, follow the money. Every once in a while you're going to get a Kurt Signetti to come through and build a program up out of the ashes.
- [83:04]
Nick Saban
Right?
- [83:04]
Pat McAfee
Literally the ashes. That wasn't even a football program. I said this to him yesterday and I know the people at Indiana probably understand this as well when Kirk Herbstreet said they were 1 in 71 won in those games at the beginning of game day last week. And I try to get in, like, they didn't have a football team until last year.
- [83:19]
Nick Saban
Right.
- [83:20]
Pat McAfee
This dude literally built them a football program.
- [83:22]
Nick Saban
That's exactly right.
- [83:23]
Pat McAfee
But now other people are going to think it's possible.
- [83:25]
Nick Saban
That's right.
- [83:26]
Pat McAfee
And that's what.
- [83:26]
Nick Saban
That creates an expectation.
- [83:28]
Pat McAfee
It does. And that's not great news. Tone has a question for you, Coach.
- [83:31]
Tone
Yeah, Coach. When I think of your defenses, when I think of Kirby's defense and those national titles, like, I always think of sacks and, and chaos, tackles for loss stuff like, like that pressures. When I was looking at Georgia this week, they have eight sacks in six games, which just mind boggles me, like, I have no idea. That's not Georgia. So why do you, why do you think that is? Because I know, I mean, I know Kirby still. Still recruiting five stars up front on the D line. And is that a sustain? Like, do you need to have sacks and, and TFLs and stuff like that to win a national championship?
- [84:01]
Nick Saban
I don't think. I think affecting a quarterback is really, really important to winning. I don't think there's any statistical data that would say how many sacks you get contributes to winning, but affecting the quarterback does. And sacks are a part of that. Tackles for a loss are a part of creating positive down a distance where you can do things to confuse the quarterback. So I agree with all that. But, you know, the difference in your team is you always have a lot of good players, but how many real difference makers do you have? So to have a difference maker that's a pass rusher, just like a big difference in Penn State's defense. Not to beat a dead horse here, but the guy that was the first guy picked in the draft last year made a huge difference in pass rush and how he affected the quarterback and how they got off the field on third down. So just taking that one guy away that is a disruptive player and a difference maker can make a huge defense difference in how you play defense and how you, how well you do on third down. When you play the system that we played and play the system that Kirby plays, three, four, you need bigger guys. You need a big nose guard. You need two pretty big four eyes. So you got to have a couple outside backers. Well, the outside backers have got to become the pass rushers because those big guys are not going to be the pass rushers. So that's one of the downsides of playing a 3, 4 defense is you need bigger people to play those inside play positions that don't convert well to third down. So you got to make sure you recruit enough outside backers like Will Anderson and people like that who can rush on third down and become the defensive ends for you, that can create pressure.
- [85:38]
Pat McAfee
What's the upside? You're able to stop the run.
- [85:40]
Nick Saban
Stop the run? Yeah, I think. And multiples that you can create on defense with four linebackers instead of three.
- [85:47]
Pat McAfee
Here's a stat from Hembo about what we were just talking about there with impacting the quarterback. Georgia's opponents have a QBR of 73.7 this season, 131st in the country. They're just not impacting. The QB, says Hembo. Eight sacks on 209 drop backs. But what you're saying is they're not potentially built to be able to get pressure on the quarterback every single time. They have other positives. QBR 73.7. Not great news for anybody.
- [86:09]
Nick Saban
But when they were really good, they had people who could affect the quarterback.
- [86:14]
Pat McAfee
Yes, they.
- [86:15]
Nick Saban
They actually had those people.
- [86:16]
Tone
They're on the NFL.
- [86:17]
Nick Saban
But I think one of the issues for third, third for Georgia, has been getting off the field on third down. A part of that is how do you affect the quarterback? So those two things go hand in hand.
- [86:28]
Pat McAfee
Oh, my God. You talk about the 3, 4 at the big bodies and you say like the middle guy's supposed to eat, not necessarily get to the quarterback. They had Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. Right. At the same time.
- [86:36]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [86:39]
Tone
And Nolan Smith and coaches, big boys.
- [86:42]
Pat McAfee
They had a Philadelphia Eagles defense. Right?
- [86:46]
Nick Saban
They had.
- [86:47]
Pat McAfee
Oh, my gosh.
- [86:48]
Nick Saban
Yep. And those guys were. You know, to me, people talk about defensive linemen. There's only one thing that makes you a good defensive lineman. Your ass is hard to block. And those two guys were hard to block.
- [87:01]
Pat McAfee
Amen. Amen. Toxic. Table. Ty Schmidt has a question for you.
- [87:05]
A.J. Hawk
Code.
- [87:05]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, Coach. One of the other marquee matchups this weekend, USC going to South Bend, a lot of people think it's a pretty much like a title eliminator kind of. I'm just curious. With Lincoln Riley, like a couple years ago, he was the bell of the ball. You know, people were talking about him maybe even, you know, getting the Cowboys head coaching job. And he's had a couple, you know, things go okay for him at USC with Caleb being the number one overall pick. But when they moved to the Big Ten, it was kind of just early on, like, oh, they're just getting out physical by everybody. If a team is more physical, which a lot of teams in the Big Ten are, they're not going to win. They've started to look a little bit better this year being able to run the football and kind of standing up against some of those other teams. Do you think Lincoln Riley's got USC kind of moving back in the right direction or what do you. What do you think about this USC team?
- [87:54]
Nick Saban
Yeah, I do. I think they, they, they're definitely moving in the right direction. I said, first of all, I think they're the only team in the Big Ten that scored 30 plus points in every game. So they're still doing a good job. The issue to me with Lincoln Rally's team was how physical can we play on defense? Can we stop the run? Can we create positive, you know, down and distance situations? And they're doing a better job of that. You know, they are, they are doing a better job of playing defense. They're creating a lot of negative plays. They're one of the top teams in the country in sacks and affecting the quarterback. And you can't do that unless you can stop the run because you got to create positive down of distance situations for your defense so that you can give some looks that confuse the quarterback and you can pressure the quarterback. And I think last week against Michigan, you know, they stopped the run and they did a good job. Now can they continue to do that in terms of their ability to play? So for Notre Dame, to me, the number one thing they need to do is they need to be able to control the line of scrimmage and run the ball so that they don't let Southern Cal get in the kind of situation where, you know, they can affect, you know, their quarterback. Because I think USC is going to score some points no matter who they play. So it's going to be how can we keep from getting beat on the other side of the ball?
- [89:14]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, keep them off the field is a good idea. Keep the offense off field. Run the rock. Notre Dame should be able to do that. They are a good running team. And once again, Notre Dame, two losses are to Texas A and M and Miami. Who might be the two best teams in the country at this point, we have no idea. So if they're able to get a win over usc, I think that helps out their college football playoff conversation at the end of the year mightily. And then usc, if they get a win here over Notre Dame and then still go on to win the Big Ten, I mean they got obviously an incredible season. There's some stats here from Hembo that aren't great about Lincoln Riley traveling. And we've heard Lincoln Riley talk about this whenever he has to do a thousand miles plus of travel. Okay, that's so far, by the way. One in six win loss, 07 against the spread. Five of six losses by one score. The other is 28 point loss in Notre Dame in 2023. They've been talking about this travel a lot. Lincoln has and I think his teams have not done well. What is that? Why? Why? Because you hear obviously Oregon, Dan Lanning will never talk about it, the travel, you know, and we heard Kirby Smart say, yeah, people Use excuses whenever they have the opportunity to do it. And the travel certainly is one. What do you think it is about a team that maybe can't handle the travel? Is it nutrition? Is it health? Is it mindset? What. What do you. What would you do if your team had to travel?
- [90:21]
Nick Saban
I think it's mindset. You know, I used to tell our guys, I don't care if we play in a parking lot on a gravel field, as long as they make it 53 yards wide and 100 yards deep, you got to be ready to go play. So, you know, none of that. None of that outside noise matters about traveling, time of the game, night, game, day, game, none of it matters. All right. You have to prepare yourself to go out there and execute no matter what the circumstances. But I think every time that you sort of create this fragile mentality, I'm going to call it about something, whether it's playing on the road, whether it's playing against noise, whether it's traveling across the country. You're just telling everybody in your organization, we got to build in an excuse here rather than making it an opportunity to do something. Something special by overcoming adversity, which is really what you need to be selling as a leader. You know, how are we going to frame this up so we got a chance to overcome these obstacles? That's how you want your competitors to think.
- [91:23]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. You don't want your team thinking, we have an excuse already and even our coach is saying it. You want them to think, hey, we do have an opportunity to do something special. Other teams might benefit or lack in the travel. We are actually stronger than the travel.
- [91:35]
Nick Saban
Right. Which. And if we can do that, we're creating an advantage for ourselves knowing that most people can't do it.
- [91:40]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, we get to flex our a little bit.
- [91:42]
Nick Saban
That's it.
- [91:43]
Pat McAfee
I always want to flex our.
- [91:45]
Nick Saban
You're good at that.
- [91:46]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Got to. Got to. We had a good press release this week, coach. We had a good press release this. Coach. We learned. We learned of a stat or I don't even know what the hell it is. Emotional quotient. I assume you know what that is, but Connor has a question about either.
- [92:03]
Conor
Yeah, Coach. Big Mike McCarthy blew our minds on Wednesday when he dropped this topic that he wanted to talk about when it came to, you know, NFL QB's emotional quotient. And before these last two days, NFL Films actually had an awesome week because they posted a cool puka video of him miked up. There was an awesome video of Danny Dimes miked up and Then Bryce Young was the other one. It was incredible, just him kind of telling the team, you know, stick with me. They were down early. Hey, we always finish well and kind of just motivating the team. And then of course, they end up do, you know, coming back and beating the Cowboys. But when it comes to Bryce Young, why do you think right now a lot of people, myself included, are kind of just surprised by how. How well, you know, he has bounced back both this season and last season after he got benched. And what is it about Bryce Young that, you know, we, or Mike myself, have kind of learned over these mic'd ups about what a leader he is and how positive he is and what kind of leader he is that you probably have always known about that we didn't really know. Can you just speak on that? Especially when it comes to just his emotional kind of awareness when, you know, he's talking to his team and leading these comebacks and things of that nature?
- [93:18]
Nick Saban
Yeah, well, first of all, you know, Bryce has the right psychological disposition to be successful. But I think one of the things that probably impacted Bryce a little bit in the beginning of his career is, you know, Bryce is a point guard playing quarterback, and he can make all the throws and all the plays. He's athletic, but he's got to have some decent players around him. And I think when he first went to Carolina, they didn't have a very good supporting cast around them, which I think was a bit of a problem. I think now they've gotten some better weapons on offense. He can take advantage of those things. But, you know, to Mike McCarthy's deal is, you know, I always talked about to players about being emotional versus playing with emotion. Playing with emotion is important from a competitive standpoint, and I think Bryce Young does that very, very well. But once you get emotional, you lose your ability to think and make good choices and decisions about what you do, whether it's getting a penalty, forcing the ball, making a bad throw or whatever. And Bryce Young, to that point, he doesn't do that. You know, he can stay where he needs to stay no matter what happens in the game. He never got frustrated when things didn't go well. He never got way up here when we were having a lot of success, and he always prepared the same way for every game. And I think that's what he's doing now. I think it's starting to pay off for their team.
- [94:38]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I like what the Panthers are doing. I like Bryce Young's leadership. That might miked up for me was a Huge deal, honestly. They called Bryce Young the Steph Curry of basketball or Steph Curry of the draft. Whenever he was coming out, that was like a big thing. And I think what they meant was he is a point guard. That is how he plays. He has a good sense of feel, and he can change the game and he's athletic and he can make moves. But then as we see the Carolina Panthers thing kind of unfold, we just think, well, this guy's career is going to go into the dumps. They've turned that entire place around. And I think Bryce's legacy could become one of the. This guy being, you know, Cam Newton obviously did his thing down there at Carolina, and he was beloved. But if he's able to win there, he'll be beloved in Carolina forever. Coach forever down there.
- [95:17]
Nick Saban
Yeah. And I'm very, very hopeful. Like, you know, I always root for our players. Obviously, you want to see him do well, just like the coaches that we talked about. But in Bryce's case, you know, he did such a fantastic job. For us to see him do well, I think, especially after a little bit of a rock start, is, you know, something that I'd love to see happen.
- [95:37]
Pat McAfee
Good resiliency. Resiliency, which is what Coach Smart was talking about with his team. He was talking about Tennessee, he was talking about Auburn, how they were down and out and they showed good resiliency in the second half. They've been playing great, so they've been able to bounce back, haven't started out the best, which he acknowledged, like 14 times. But resiliency is a big trait, man. And we're worried, I think all of us are worried that it's going to go out the door with all this easy exit stuff that's happening with Nio and transfer.
- [95:58]
Nick Saban
Well, I think that's the. The challenge, I think, you know, for a team to show resiliency. That's why I like Georgia's team, because you either have that or you don't. And you see more and more teams that don't have that. So the ability to overcome adversity makes you a great competitor. And they've shown time and time again that they can do that. You know, a lot of teams, you know, don't have the capacity, whatever you want to call it, to have that. So when you have resiliency, and that's what I told Kirby after the Tennessee game, I said, I know you're going to look at the film and think there's a lot of things we can correct, but the one thing your Team showed in that game was resiliency to keep coming back in the game. And that's probably more important at this point in the season because you can fix a lot of the rest of the stuff.
- [96:42]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, Kirby was awesome on our show. Coach, you'd been proud of his performance, maybe legitimately. Don't. I don't want to, like, talk out of pocket here. Kirby was incredible in the first round.
- [96:52]
A.J. Hawk
He was great.
- [96:53]
Pat McAfee
He seemed way too comfortable with us, didn't.
- [96:55]
Tone
He seems very confident.
- [96:59]
Nick Saban
Well, that's a good thing. I mean, if the players don't think that you're confident and that you can win and that if they believe that if they go out and execute and do their job, they're going to be successful controlling what they can control. But you know, the one thing to me that Georgia has created a huge advantage for themselves is the competitive disposition that they've been able to play with this season so far to overcome adversity.
- [97:32]
Pat McAfee
They do. Bloody Tuesday still. They're still grinding pound out there with Kirby. Smart. Last question here for you, Coach. Comes from a AJ Hawk in the Thunderdome.
- [97:41]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, Coach Kirby was on here earlier and he was awesome. And it sounds like he and Lane have a very good relationship, kind of taking jabs back and forth at each other through the. The media. Now, Kirby said Lane would sit next to him in your staff meetings at times and be whispering in Kirby's ear, trying to talk maybe while you were presenting or someone else. Do you remember any of those staff meetings? Did you ever have to. To separate them like you were a teacher, like in a fifth grade class?
- [98:05]
Pat McAfee
Come on.
- [98:06]
Bailey Zimmerman
All right.
- [98:07]
Nick Saban
So they did sit next to each other.
- [98:09]
Ty Schmidt
All right.
- [98:10]
Nick Saban
Lane was like, you know, a first grader who could not. Not talk during. And Kirby was always sitting there saying, like, I would never talk in class. You know, I mean, that's how different they were. But they were really good friends and liked each other. And I know they text a lot and kid each other a lot about a lot of things right now and have a tremendous amount of respect for each other as well in terms of what kind of coaches they are and the challenge it is to play, you know, each other. And that was one of the fun things that we. We had, I think, you know, when our guys started becoming head coaches other places and we had to play all these guys that used to be assistants. You know, it was kind of fun to have to compete against somebody you had a tremendous amount of respect for. But they were also your really good friends. And. But the point I was going to make earlier. You know, both of these guys have created tremendous expectations for their fans, fan base. You know, Lane's done it at Ole Miss, Kirby's done it here at Georgia. And what you don't want to happen when that happens, which happened to us, I felt like in our last two or three years at Alabama is the players start playing not to mess up a lot of anxiety that and I think this may be one of the issues that Georgia gets a slow start. You know, their players are so anxious and wanting to do well, so, so bad badly they're not cutting it loose and just playing early on.
- [99:37]
Pat McAfee
So then when we're at second half, we got nothing to lose.
- [99:39]
Nick Saban
That's right. And then they, they play like they're capable of playing. And I think that's created by expectations. And you know, I mean I remember the game we lost at Tennessee, you know, on the last second field goal when we missed a field goal to win the game. You know, our players used to always do this chant when we come out, you know, like in the locker room and we're getting ready to come out of Tennessee and they're totally quiet. I turn around and say, what the hell's wrong with you guys? And they were nervous. I, I can't even do it. I mean it's a crazy chance. But it was, it was like traditional for them to. This is what we do before we go out and play. Now all of a sudden we're not doing that because we're so worried about winning the game and there's so much on the line and there's so much anxiety. And then we just went out and played like, I mean, terrible, you know, in the first half of that game. So I see that happening more and more to teams because there's so much social media, there's so much expectation created, there's so much talk about getting in the playoffs. All right, a lot of money, money. A lot about the money, about how much, you know, I taught you that.
- [100:44]
Pat McAfee
But anyway, I think the money adds the expectations though. Obviously getting 19 year old kid getting paid 2 million bucks and then you also got expectations supposed to win to Heisman. Then also you're supposed to win every game. You can see how potential anxiety starts to creep in and the pressure of it all starts to weigh on you a little bit. Especially in front of a hundred and some thousand people that these games are, no question.
- [101:06]
Nick Saban
But just think of all the people who didn't pay Indiana's quarterback 2 million. They wish that it paid him four yes, they.
- [101:15]
Pat McAfee
Yes, they. Sure. There's no, hey, not about your money. It's about how much. Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest of all time, A guy whose coaching tree is literally just kind of what we're following around on college game day for the biggest games of every single weekend. That's coach Nick Saban.
- [101:31]
Nick Saban
Appreciate it, man.
- [101:33]
A.J. Hawk
Thank you, Coach. Yeah, he always. I like, he says, I like. You guys are football guys. You ask football questions. You think. Can you imagine seeing him up there speaking and seeing Lane Kiffin and Kirby Smart and Kirby's just. I've actually been that guy. I got a friend, Bobby Karl Carpenter, who kind of was like that. And I would sit there and yeah.
- [101:48]
Tone
We all, we all those.
- [101:49]
A.J. Hawk
Luke Fickle was our linebacker coach. And Bobby would be, you know, drawing spaceships on my, my papers and trying to. I'm paying attention. I'm paying attention up here. No, it's just there's a time and place for it, obviously.
- [102:01]
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
- [102:02]
Tone
I mean, every single time that we've ever been on a desk together at a remote location, you're driving spaceships on my paper.
- [102:08]
A.J. Hawk
Just trying to keep a mood loose, you know.
- [102:09]
Ty Schmidt
Sure, yeah, I suppose. I mean, you want. Are that guy, though. You can act like, you know, when you were playing, like, oh, you know, I was laser focused and what Coach Fickle was saying, you are that jackass in every other, you know, realm of life. Pretty much, yeah.
- [102:24]
A.J. Hawk
Okay. I'm not going to deny that. I won't deny it. Dep.
- [102:26]
Nick Saban
Yeah.
- [102:26]
A.J. Hawk
I guess it just depends on the crowd that you're around and what you're. And what you may be.
- [102:30]
Tone
You need that self doubt.
- [102:31]
Conor
Yeah. Who do you guys have this weekend? Ohio State?
- [102:33]
A.J. Hawk
Wisconsin?
- [102:34]
Pat McAfee
Coach Fickle.
- [102:35]
A.J. Hawk
I know.
- [102:36]
Conor
How you feeling?
- [102:36]
Ty Schmidt
Revenge.
- [102:37]
A.J. Hawk
Tougher. I mean, I feel for him because Coach Fickle is one of the good guys. Great coach, awesome human being. I just don't know if you can win there.
- [102:43]
Pat McAfee
Right.
- [102:43]
Conor
Yeah. People want Fickle up in New England. I'm being dead serious.
- [102:47]
A.J. Hawk
He and Brave were our best friends, so it would make sense if he did. But. Yeah, I feel bad for Luke in Wisconsin. I don't know. I don't know what the future holds for him. But Pat, Coach Saban was awesome. I thought he was great. He was loose, seemed to have fun.
- [102:59]
Pat McAfee
Unbelievable vibes here in Athens. I'm going to say this has been very spectacular. I love where we're set up at too. It's like we got sports happening around us. I think the track field and cross country team kind of hubbed here until they move into their new facility. What I was told here at the Butts Mere Heritage Hall. It used to house obviously the track and field. They're building a brand new facility down the road because current athletic director, big fan of track. Like, so I guess, like, it kind of. Athletic director loves what they're. They're trying to build a Eugene south here.
- [103:29]
Ty Schmidt
Oh, wow.
- [103:30]
Pat McAfee
What they're saying about track.
- [103:31]
A.J. Hawk
They're some fast people in Georgia. I get it. I understand. You should lean into the. That. No question.
- [103:35]
Pat McAfee
Women's team national champions last year. So I guess, like they are. Very much so. I'm watching these guys work out here during the break. We got some very explosive individuals on this track back here. A couple Olympians. We were going down the hall here as I went to the bathroom. Gold medal winners, Olympians everywhere through the track. I mean, it is. It's nice to learn about the history as opposed to just standing in stadiums getting sunburns. Now let's talk about. Let's talk about the. The games this weekend. The NFL slate. Obviously, a big storyline of the year, especially when it comes to picking games, is when the public is on something. Just know that it's probably problematic, especially if it's over 60%. That rang true yet again last night. Right, Tone? I mean, isn't this another situation of that with everybody riding the Pittsburgh Steelers last night or.
- [104:19]
Tone
No, no. So actually last night it. Yes, it closed the Bengals 57%. It didn't get over the 60% to impact that number. But the Bengals closed 57%. So the public and you guys who were on the Bengals last night won.
- [104:35]
Pat McAfee
I love everything about that. And A.J. maybe we're seeing the board better than ever. Let's. Is what we need to look at. 82% are on the.
- [104:43]
Conor
Oh, no.
- [104:45]
A.J. Hawk
All right.
- [104:46]
Pat McAfee
All right.
- [104:47]
A.J. Hawk
Traveling all the way out.
- [104:47]
Pat McAfee
That's a high number.
- [104:49]
Conor
Got. Got a great one for that game actually, too. If the Colts lose to the Charger Chargers and the Patriots, when the Patriots are the ones heating the afc.
- [104:59]
Pat McAfee
That is a cool one. That is a cool one. Patriots 76% though. Don't get too crazy. Yeah. The Bucks 78%. Dolphins 75%. 77% on dart and scatter boo at plus seven and a half against his Denver Broncos defense, which might be problematic for a couple rookies, but hey, they've obviously been awesome. And then the Falcons 75%.
- [105:19]
Kirby Smart
Wow.
- [105:20]
Pat McAfee
Cowboys getting 72% at home with the Washington Commanders coming to town. Cliff Kingsbury returning to Texas, 64% on the Carolina Panthers. What have you done for me lately? We love the Panthers and the jets are ass in London. And then 61% on Seattle. Congrats to them. The Saints getting 60% of the action, getting four and a half. Congrats to New Orleans. I don't think they've ever had that much success this season thus far. And then The Eagles getting 60% against a Minnesota Vikings team. All right, let's go in to make our picks here, AJ as we wrap up hour two here in glorious espn. We were both on the Bengals. Congrats to us. We win. Now let's go to London town. Los Angeles is taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Obviously the Jaguars. A lot of London games over the past, they were maybe going to become the team of London. Now down in Duvall, they're obviously building something special. Los Angeles spent the week in Baltimore and they were playing at Camden Yard. Camden.
- [106:09]
Ty Schmidt
Camden Yards.
- [106:10]
Pat McAfee
Yep, Camden Yards, which is where the Baltimore Orioles are. Matthew Stafford with cleats on just goes right on to the mound. Obviously it says Clayton Kershaw's last year. Well, let me go ahead and give it a go for the high school buddy as well. Throws a strike, an absolute strike. And we should know that Matt Stafford's going to do that. The sign that's right in front of them there says do not go on here with cleats. Okay? Just don't do it. He clearly has cleats on and he's doing his thing. But obviously the Orioles opened up their building for the Los Angeles Rams to stay on the east coast for this week before heading to London. They're heading out to London on Saturday just as if it's a normal game. This is the latest anybody has traveled to a London game in the history. We'll see how it goes against Jacksonville. For them, I would assume, AJ with some of their games, they're traveling five, six hours via plane every single week. That's probably how they're viewing it, AJ if you had to guess.
- [106:57]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, I would imagine. Yeah, they're treating it like any other week. Let's just, boys, let's not make a big deal of it. Let's get in town, win and go home.
- [107:03]
Pat McAfee
We're flying from Baltimore. It's going to be a six hour flight to London. If we were playing in New England or if we were playing any of these other games, it'd be four or five hours. Whatever it is, we'll be flying over like it's a regular game. Everybody acts cool. The time zone is obviously different. Let's figure that out. And keep it moving. We don't want to spend forever over there. We'll rather spend it here in a baseball. With that being said, give me the Jacksonville Jaguars plus three and a half in London against the Los Angeles Rams. AJ who do you got okay with.
- [107:27]
A.J. Hawk
That being said, I. I tell you what, give me the Rams. I like this Rams defense, that D line especially. And Matthew Stafford too much. So I'm taking the Rams minus three and a half.
- [107:35]
Tone
You could take them minus the Ram.
- [107:36]
A.J. Hawk
What can I get?
- [107:37]
Tone
You can get a minus three. And also, just so everybody knows, Puka is out.
- [107:41]
Pat McAfee
Oh, yeah, Puka has been ruled out. Shafter put a tweet on out on that earlier. And later, Liam Cohen, formerly of the Rams. You would think that maybe there's a little inside information to keep it close. Not saying the Rams don't win. They might. But I like the Jags plus three and a half. Raiders, Chiefs, old school rivalry game. The Chiefs minus 12 and a half. They're currently the favorite to win a Super Bowl. Patrick Mahomes, favorite to win the mvp. Obviously. Max Crosby's an absolute dog. Geno Smith has been a little bit turnover worthy. Pete Carroll said he always wins. They haven't. What do you think happens here, A.J.
- [108:11]
A.J. Hawk
This one, I mean, 12 and a half seems like so much, but if you. If you don't pick the Chiefs and you know they go on and win by 20, you're thinking, what's going on? I'm taking the. You know what? Give me the Raiders. I like Max Crosby. That dude just can't be blocked.
- [108:23]
Pat McAfee
Okay, here's some updates about the raiders from Ryan McFadden. For the second straight day, wide receiver Jacobe Myers Nito and Brock Bars did not practice. Las Vegas could be without its two top pass catchers. And I didn't tell you that until after you made your pick. I will take a cheese.
- [108:40]
Conor
Okay.
- [108:44]
Pat McAfee
I'll take that.
- [108:44]
A.J. Hawk
Give me that.
- [108:45]
Pat McAfee
Thank you. Yeah, that's right, A.J. let's not be getting too crazy. Philadelphia Eagles. Minnesota Vikings. Eagles favored by two and a half. Even though it feels like the world is collapsing out there. And the Minnesota Vikings. It's Carson Wentz or J.J. mcCarthy.
- [108:57]
Tone
Boys, believe it's Wentz.
- [108:58]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
- [108:59]
Pat McAfee
For a second straight day post by the Vikings, quarterback J.J. mcCarthy was listed as a limited participant in practice as Adam Schefter. Carson Wentz listed as full participant. So maybe we're about a week or Two out from J.J. mcCarthy coming back. Carson went's got to go. Who do you like, A.J.
- [109:13]
A.J. Hawk
Give me the Philadelphia Eagles here. Pat, it's too good. You get minus minus one and a half.
- [109:19]
Pat McAfee
We get him.
- [109:20]
A.J. Hawk
Let's do it.
- [109:20]
Pat McAfee
Okay, I like that. I didn't like that. Quy didn't know who Justin Jefferson was with a camera, but I did appreciate the way that whole thing went. I guess whenever he shook his hands and his hand just engulfed him. They. These are some big hands for a photographer. Oh, wait, this is Justin Jefferson. Great acting out of jj. I've seen him act in a Super bowl commercial and obviously everywhere he is is electrifying. What a great superstar for the league and for the Vikings. I'm happy they did all that. On that note, there's been a lot of negative stuff said in. Sirianni can pull all those kibbles and bits for the boys. Ain't that right, Ty?
- [109:51]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, a lot of people are even throwing more gas on this and saying, hey, guess what? If the Eagles. If the Eagles do lose this week, then maybe A.J. brown's headed out of town, maybe a handful of these other guys. So Sirianni is going to have the boys ready to go. And at the end of the day, O line, D line. How you know that?
- [110:09]
Pat McAfee
The Patriots, Boston. Connor's hoping for A.J. brown and anybody that's potentially available at the trade deadline. Let's go on a run. They might be the number one seed if the Colts lose. I got the Eagles minus two and a half. Saints, Bears. Who do you like, A.J. 60% on the Saints.
- [110:21]
A.J. Hawk
Remember, I will take the Bears at home here.
- [110:23]
Tone
Four and a half.
- [110:24]
Pat McAfee
I will take the. I would take the Bears as well. Patriots, Titans. Is there any different lines we need know? Baton.
- [110:29]
Tone
Patriots, titans. There is six and a half or seven.
- [110:35]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so I will take the Patriots minus six and a half in VRA's revenge game. AJ who do you like?
- [110:40]
A.J. Hawk
Yep. Give me Braves. Give me the Patriots.
- [110:42]
Pat McAfee
Okay. Miami Dolphins taking on the Browns. Any different lines we need there?
- [110:45]
Tone
Two and a half across the board.
- [110:47]
Pat McAfee
Okay. I will take The Cleveland Browns -2 1/2 against the Dolphins. Sorry about it, Gumpy. Is that a good pick or a bad pick?
- [110:54]
Kirby Smart
It's going to be wet and rainy and muddy in Cleveland, so just Dylan, Gabriel and Tua slinging it in the.
- [110:59]
Pat McAfee
Rain or running is what we' thinking is going to be happening. I think they're saying like 50 mile an hour wind gusts potentially on that lake there. I like the Browns in that situation. AJU as well.
- [111:07]
A.J. Hawk
Yep. Give me the Browns.
- [111:09]
Pat McAfee
Carolina Panthers. Obviously everybody's high on them because what they were able to accomplish last week. At the end of the game, down 17, they come back and win. Bryce Young looks like a bonafide superstar and I think they have weapons outside. Jets are ass but they were taking on Denver Broncos defense. That was incredible. What do you like, AJ and is there any other lines we can get tone?
- [111:25]
Tone
One and a half across the board.
- [111:26]
A.J. Hawk
Okay, give me the Panthers at one a half here, Pat.
- [111:30]
Pat McAfee
I will do the same. Colts have 82% of the money on them getting a point and a half as they head over to Los Angeles to take on this Chargers team. Jim Harbaugh has been fantastic on the microphone this week talking about Jim Ursay and Justin Herbert. Stephen Holder is reporting that Colts coach Shane Steichen says quarterback Kenny Moore will return on Sunday. Hell yeah. Great to have you back. Josh Downs, Charvarius Ward still at alongside Ashton Dulin. Wide receiver. That's a lot of wide receiver weapons, Don. And obviously Mooney still out from the pregame hit from last week. I like the Charger or the Colts getting a point and a half against the chargers. Don't love 82% of the money on them. Go ahead.
- [112:07]
Tone
AJ2, Pat.
- [112:08]
A.J. Hawk
Two. Okay.
- [112:09]
Kirby Smart
Yeah.
- [112:09]
A.J. Hawk
I will give us both the Colts at two points here. I've learned my lesson. I can't pick against the colts right now.
- [112:14]
Pat McAfee
82% a big number. Giants at the Broncos. I like the Giants getting seven and a half. Can we get any more points?
- [112:21]
Tone
No, but you could get less if you want the Broncos at 7. 8.
- [112:24]
A.J. Hawk
Give me the Broncos at 7 here then. Even though I do love what the Giants are doing. Give me Broncos.
- [112:28]
Pat McAfee
I actually will take the Broncos at seven as well. Washington Commanders Dallas Cowboys. Cowboys favored by one and a half at home. This is a Sunlight game Mike McCarthy wanted to talk about. We didn't get to it. Going to be weird shadows in Jerry world. Will that affect the Washington Commanders who aren't ready for it?
- [112:44]
A.J. Hawk
AJ Yeah, I think it will. Give me the Cowboys.
- [112:47]
Tone
You get them at Cowboys at minus one O.
- [112:50]
A.J. Hawk
Got it.
- [112:50]
Pat McAfee
I'll take the Commanders at what?
- [112:52]
Tone
One and a half?
- [112:54]
Pat McAfee
Cowboys coach Brian Scheimer said Trayvon Diggs had an accident at his home last night. He has a concussion now. He won't play Sunday. Probably hit something while he's walking through the house. What a nightmare situation that is. So I will take the Washington Commanders. And how many points can I get?
- [113:07]
Tone
One and a half.
- [113:09]
Pat McAfee
Okay, I'll do that. And then we got packers cards. Ty, what are your thoughts on Gannon maybe having a big time Game two weeks removed from slapping a guy.
- [113:16]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, it is certainly possible. Mat floor basically said, hey, listen, I know these guys are 2 and 4. Don't you dare underestimate them. We know what they can do. The packers have had like 800 different guys play offensive line this year, so hopefully you know, they'll be get a little bit of continuity. Six and a half on the road. I don't know, after a piss poor performance last last week, I kind of like the packers to bounce back.
- [113:40]
Pat McAfee
Okay, you like the packers to bounce back, A.J. do you?
- [113:42]
A.J. Hawk
Yep. Packers, my six and a half.
- [113:44]
Pat McAfee
I'll take that as well. And then Sunday, Monday Night Football, Falcons Niners. This Falcons team has become the bell of the ball. Bijon Robinson, potential MVP candidate that isn't a quarterback. And the Niners, they're still hurt. Who do you like? How do you like it, AJ I.
- [113:58]
A.J. Hawk
Like Falcons defense and Bijon. Give me Falcons.
- [114:01]
Pat McAfee
I'll take the Falcons as well. Getting two and a half on Sunday night Football feels like we agreed on a lot. Feels like we probably agreed with the public on a lot. Probably means we're going to have an ass score, but I know it's going to be a great time. Have an incredible weekend, everybody. We can't thank you enough for allowing us us to do this for a living. It's a great weekend of ball. Enjoy every single moment with your friends, your family. And then on overreaction Monday, we're gonna bring the hammer goodbye. Yeah. Hey, way to adjust there, boys. Way to adjust there, boys. Bring that thing at the end. It's never at the end. And I don't know why we went there, but I appreciate the fact that we did. Gumpy was yelling over here. Gumpy was absolutely yelling over here.
- [114:38]
Luke Combs
Done.
- [114:38]
Pat McAfee
He was going crazy, which. Which I'm very grateful for.
- [114:44]
Kirby Smart
You ever show up late to the game and your friends already saved your seat, your drink, even a plate that's looking out, that's having your back.
- [114:51]
Pat McAfee
And that's exactly what AT&T does with the ATT guarantee. They know staying connected matters. That's why AT&T has connectivity you depend on. Guaranteed. Or they'll proactively make it right. Just like that friend who takes care.
- [115:06]
Kirby Smart
Of things before you even ask. @&t. Connecting changes everything.
- [115:10]
Pat McAfee
Terms and conditions apply.
- [115:12]
Kirby Smart
Visit att.comguarantee for details.
- [115:16]
Ty Schmidt
Fellas, it's time to step up your grooming game.
- [115:19]
Pat McAfee
All right, I do this show three times a week. Every single time, I have to take grooming very, very seriously. Look back in the archives Guys, look back and see the awful mustache I was trying to trot out last spring.
- [115:36]
Ty Schmidt
I hate it.
- [115:37]
Pat McAfee
The other day I recirculated an interview with Drake May. I wanted to CGI it. I wanted to CGI the mustache out. I wanted to AI it. I couldn't. The mustache was there. And now I've got a nice little stubble, perfect length. Going to have this for the rest of my life.
- [115:53]
Ty Schmidt
Okay.
- [115:55]
Pat McAfee
Very, very, very important. It's a part of confidence. It's a part of looking good. It's a part of being on. On TV.
- [116:02]
Ty Schmidt
Manscaped is leveled up with the Lawnmower 5 and the Chairman plus two powerhouses.
- [116:08]
Pat McAfee
Built for unmatched precision, comfort and control. Whether you're cleaning up before a night out, preparing for a big meeting, or getting ready for game day, Manscaped has the tools to help you look and feel your absolute best. These aren't your old school clippers. They're engineered for modern men who take pride in their daily routine.
- [116:24]
Ty Schmidt
So upgrade your grooming gear and experience a difference.
- [116:27]
Pat McAfee
And now you can find Manscape landscape products at your local Walmart.
- [116:34]
A.J. Hawk
The Pat McAfee Show. I am A.J. hawk sitting in for Pat here at his desk in Indy. Feel good. Friday, October 17th. This hour three is going to be a good one. Boys football. It's what all the fuss is about. Pat, who do you have with you at that beautiful setting? Looks like some country music superstars, I think.
- [116:54]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, we got legends that are selling out Notre Dame and Wembley a couple times and Luke Combs and then a man who's about to take over the Entire Globe, a 25 year old who has banger after banger after banger at such a young career and has no idea, okay. That he's 25 years old and he's living a different life than everybody else right now. Bailey, Zimmerman and Luke Combs. Obviously, we're incredibly thankful that you stopped by, but also thank you so much for committing to do college game day. I know with schedules and everybody tours. We're very, very thankful you're here. Let's talk about it. You just announced a show tonight here.
- [117:28]
Luke Combs
Yeah, yeah, Georgia theater tonight.
- [117:30]
Pat McAfee
He just announced it this morning. Sold out. That's awesome. You got a world tour going on right now. My kind of Saturday night where you'll be at Wembley and also anywhere else.
- [117:39]
Luke Combs
Yeah, we'll be at the, at the Ball Stadium in Knoxville, doing Ames, Iowa State, BO doing. So we're doing. Yeah, two nights at Wembley, two nights at Slane Castle in Dublin, Murrayfield and Glasgow all over the place, man. There it is.
- [117:59]
Pat McAfee
Let's go.
- [118:00]
Bailey Zimmerman
Nice.
- [118:00]
Pat McAfee
We're all kind of. I do. I want to let you know, I did ask him beforehand about what information I should have. And he goes, I'm a dad, dude. You should ask somebody else. Shout out to Cappy right there on cue to have all the answers. Obviously an entire operation making Matt magic happen. And Bailey, we'll certainly dive into the world that you're in right now, But Luke seemingly was at your time not that long ago, brother. It feels like you've had a meteoric rise quickly. I. I think obviously at App State, whenever you came to college, game day, whenever we were up there, you were doing arenas at that point. And then you've kind of just continued to grow. How has it been on this rocket ship and how much do you still love what you do at this stage?
- [118:39]
Luke Combs
At the beginning, it's been crazy. When I was his age, I mean, I was in. I had just been in Nashville, hadn't signed my record deal yet, and I. Last time I played Georgia theater was at 26. So that would have been a year, a year from now. This guy was my last time I played Georgia Theater.
- [118:56]
Pat McAfee
900 seat theater, then Wembley, like you're the Beatles. Good for you, brother. Honestly, it's been fun to watch because you're a sports guy, so we appreciate sports people making it in there.
- [119:07]
Kirby Smart
Yeah.
- [119:07]
Pat McAfee
They don't suck with diving into that. Bailey, let's talk about you. Now. Obviously, I met you whenever you were opening for Morgan. Yeah. Then you just did an amphitheater tour. You're on your way to be able to do a range. You're in the middle of it. And I think the way we talked to him last time about how music industry has changed so much with what the writers make and how the business is. You're kind of growing up in this era of the digital era. How has it been and how much have you enjoyed the career thus far?
- [119:31]
Bailey Zimmerman
Oh, man, it's. I really have social media and digital to thank for my career. I feel like. Because without that, I tell everybody four years ago in like 20, 2021, I was living in my mom's trailer and I had never sang in my life and I just tried to sing one day.
- [119:50]
Pat McAfee
Music is awesome.
- [119:52]
Bailey Zimmerman
And I put it on social media, dude, and it just blew up overnight and I quit my job. And then all of a sudden I just did with Luke Combs and we just had a number one in four different countries and we're here on, you know, game day. And so. So it's like, it's. It's honestly been everything to me.
- [120:08]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah.
- [120:08]
Pat McAfee
I will say I enjoy the hell out of your brand new freshness and feel and appreciation of the entirety. How many moments has there been, like, opening for Morgan? I assume look in the mirror and say, what the hell is this? You crushed it, though, brother.
- [120:22]
Bailey Zimmerman
Oh, thanks, dude. I tell everybody that is one of my, like, the biggest pinch me moment was when I got the call that I was going on tour with Morgan, and it was just like, man, this is just like. This really doesn't feel like real life. It felt like just I was living in a dream and it. It's felt like that since. It's true.
- [120:39]
Pat McAfee
You nailed it, though. And you need to know that. Luca, do you talk to any of the young guy? You're OG now, dude. You got kids now.
- [120:44]
Luke Combs
Yeah, dude, I'm.
- [120:45]
Kirby Smart
Yeah.
- [120:45]
Luke Combs
It's crazy to think about. Yeah.
- [120:47]
Pat McAfee
Whenever you guys make backup Plan, which is a song, you were talking about being number one in four different countries or whatever, do you give game? What is the advice to kind of younger guys?
- [120:56]
Luke Combs
Yeah, I mean, I. I told Bailey, you know, when. When we met.
- [120:59]
Pat McAfee
I'm.
- [120:59]
Luke Combs
I. I try to be. Because I. I feel like there was kind of in our business, a little bit of a lack of, like, artist to artist conversations that were real open. So I always try to be like, hey, man, seriously, dude, like, if you call me, I'll pick the phone up. It doesn't matter what time it is. I've been there. I've been there. And, like, if you. If you need me, like, I. I needed somebody, and there were times when there was nobody there for me. So I appreciate being able to be that person for somebody else because I know how lonely it can feel. I know how strange it can feel. I know how unordinary, unnormal it is to be in the position that we're in. Especially when you're 25 years old or 22 years old.
- [121:39]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. And the creative mind is always something that's different than everybody else.
- [121:44]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
- [121:44]
Bailey Zimmerman
It really is something that, like, not everybody really understands it. So to, like, have him as, like, just somebody that I can talk to just to be about the certain things that others wouldn't understand. It's like, yeah, it's cool to have somebody in my corner, you know, and really wants to, like, actually help me when I go through the ups and downs of this whole, like, being famous or whatever.
- [122:05]
Pat McAfee
That's good team. That's sports crazy. He's baseball guy. We talked to him, he's a baseball guy. Baseball guy. Not. Not the biggest football guy. Getting into football as of like he said where he from. Didn't really get into football, got into baseball. And then obviously he did the college game there. JMU with the Joker. 30, 000 people there. Moxie. You heard tone right there. You just heard the. Oh, yeah, right there.
- [122:24]
Bailey Zimmerman
Y.
- [122:24]
Pat McAfee
That guy became a fan of you that night or that morning. Got your moxie, brother. Your absolute moxie was.
- [122:29]
Bailey Zimmerman
Thanks.
- [122:30]
Pat McAfee
So you need to know that. And before we send it back to the boys for questions for you, I need to ask you one of the last times you're on the show. The Carolina Panthers were like, the worst ever. Like, literally down.
- [122:39]
Luke Combs
They were down bad.
- [122:40]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. They were bad.
- [122:41]
Luke Combs
They were down bad.
- [122:42]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah.
- [122:42]
Pat McAfee
Owner was throwing ice on people. People.
- [122:44]
Luke Combs
Yep.
- [122:44]
Pat McAfee
Local buildings and stores were writing signs to the owner. I mean, it. It got bad. And you said, hey, I'd like to be proud to be fan one time in my life. How about now, bro? You guys are all the way back. How you feel?
- [122:56]
Luke Combs
So full circle, dude. The last time I was on, I was. I was pretty critical of the team as a fan would be. I'm no different than anyone else. So as you know, the. The devastation that hurricane Helene brought to the area of the country where I'm from. I put together. Me and Eric Church put together a charity show, which Bailey actually came and performed.
- [123:16]
Bailey Zimmerman
That's where I met Luke, actually.
- [123:17]
Luke Combs
Yeah. First time we met.
- [123:18]
Bailey Zimmerman
So I got his phone number and everything. Yeah.
- [123:21]
Luke Combs
We did it at bank of America stadium in home of the Carolina Panthers. So who I run into?
- [123:29]
Pat McAfee
David Tepper.
- [123:31]
Luke Combs
Yes. We had a great conversation. We talked for an hour. Chum it up. We chummed it up. We got along great. And at the end, he was like, just don't go. You know, I saw it. You know, I was like, God. I was like, God, we didn't. You know, I was just like, he saw it.
- [123:49]
Bailey Zimmerman
He saw it.
- [123:50]
Luke Combs
But you know what? We had a great conversation about it. We're in good graces, man.
- [123:54]
Pat McAfee
And you were. And you were speaking the truth and that.
- [123:56]
Luke Combs
I was speaking the truth. And it's a. Again, dude, I'm no different than anyone else, man. I'm a fan.
- [124:00]
Nick Saban
Okay.
- [124:01]
Luke Combs
I was literally in Charlotte yesterday. I got inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall.
- [124:06]
Pat McAfee
Let's go. Congratulations. Well earned.
- [124:10]
Bailey Zimmerman
Well earned.
- [124:10]
Luke Combs
So I'm there. I'm at the hotel. The kids are at the science center playing around. Everybody's getting ready. So I call up, you know, Dave Nelson.
- [124:18]
A.J. Hawk
At the team.
- [124:19]
Luke Combs
I'm like, hey, I'm in the hotel. I'm bored. Can I pop over to practice? What's going down? He's like, pop over to practice. So they're telling me when, you know, in the couple years previous, when they were. When things were not looking up at all in any direction, he was like, we have a phone line that fans will just call and just be like, you guys stink.
- [124:40]
Pat McAfee
He's like.
- [124:40]
Luke Combs
He's like, but those are like the best fans.
- [124:43]
Pat McAfee
Yes.
- [124:44]
Luke Combs
Because they're the people that actually care. I'm one of those fans. I just didn't know there was a phone number. Now I do. Yeah, Now I know there's.
- [124:51]
Pat McAfee
Instead of the phone number.
- [124:52]
Luke Combs
Instead of the phone number. Yeah, you and I. I don't have to now, dude. Cuz we're up big time.
- [124:56]
Pat McAfee
And Sepper, I think he has changed the way he has appeared. Pump.
- [124:58]
Luke Combs
Dude, they were so incredible for that whole charity show that we did there.
- [125:03]
Pat McAfee
Donated it. All right.
- [125:04]
Luke Combs
Oh, dude, they donated the work, donated the building, they footed the tax bill, everything, man. We raised 24 and a half million dollars that night. A lot of that was because of them. A lot of that was because of them, because guys like this showed up for us. But yeah, huge.
- [125:17]
A.J. Hawk
Huge.
- [125:17]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, that is huge. And you know what? Maybe the football God said, hey, you know what? Maybe this guy isn't the biggest, rudest owner of all time.
- [125:23]
Luke Combs
Dude, he's been great, man. He's been seriously so great.
- [125:25]
Pat McAfee
You've been great too. And you know what else has been? Always good, long, nice, cold, broke my heart.
- [125:38]
Luke Combs
Oh, it never gets old.
- [125:39]
Pat McAfee
You still sing?
- [125:40]
Nick Saban
We still.
- [125:40]
Pat McAfee
We still. Obviously you have to sing that every night.
- [125:42]
Luke Combs
I do. I'd sing it every night. I love it.
- [125:44]
Pat McAfee
You still punt the.
- [125:45]
Luke Combs
Oh, yeah, yeah, I. Yeah, yeah. I'll do a punt tonight. Big punt tonight.
- [125:49]
Pat McAfee
I feel like you got pretty good extension.
- [125:50]
Luke Combs
I'm gonna try to hit this. I'm a. I'm a limber cat, you know? And that wasn't it, you know, I mean, that wasn't it, but that was it, you know?
- [125:58]
Pat McAfee
You know what I mean?
- [125:59]
Luke Combs
Get up there.
- [126:00]
Pat McAfee
Okay. You punting any. Any cups on stage? What is your stage presence like? You think because Luke is a showman, if you have not been, this guy right here is going to give you everything he has on this stage.
- [126:12]
Luke Combs
I. I'm at least going to attest to that.
- [126:15]
Pat McAfee
Very sweaty.
- [126:15]
Luke Combs
I'm going to be very sweaty at this.
- [126:18]
Pat McAfee
And then there's, there's, there's symbols that he's hitting the out of that don't need to be hit the way. And he's doing full show. How about you, Bailey? What do you think your stage presence would be described?
- [126:28]
Luke Combs
He's got way more energy than me, by the way. He's like. It's like 10x me.
- [126:31]
Pat McAfee
He's 25, dude. Yeah, that's.
- [126:33]
Bailey Zimmerman
I would say stand comfortable on stage now at this. So standing still has. Has always made me super nervous because I think too much. So that's why I always am bouncing. I bounce around and I'm just like running and singing and dancing and trying to just like not be nervous. And that's the way I do it. I just run around and. Yeah, crazy.
- [126:51]
Luke Combs
Get the energy out.
- [126:52]
Bailey Zimmerman
I come in on a rope swing last year for tour.
- [126:55]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. That is awesome. It was sick. Yeah, it is sick. AJ's back in the Thunderdome. Has a question for you boys.
- [127:02]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, this is for both of you. Luke, maybe you go first. But from when you started, I guess your stage presence, you're performing like it's all about reps, I would imagine.
- [127:09]
Pat McAfee
How.
- [127:09]
A.J. Hawk
How much better are you now? I guess then when you. When you first started performing live on.
- [127:14]
Luke Combs
Stage for people, I think you have to think about it a lot less now, right? It becomes like muscle memory. Like anything, right? Like you just, you know what to do, you know when to do it, you know how to do it. And then there even becomes, you know, as when you do a tour, you know, the set is generally somewhat built in. I mean, there are spots where things can move around. You know, I'm not sure exactly how Bailey does it, but that's kind of the way we have like a fixed some points that we want to kind of hit and we can move things around in the middle. And so for me, it's even. Sometimes the talking points can be like, okay, when we get here, I know that after this song I'm gonna talk and for the next two songs, I'm not gonna talk in between. But then all that stuff becomes kind of pre programmed and it allows. Allows you to just go. And I think the. The craziest thing, I don't know if Bailey feels this way, but for me, like, the fans bring the signs. You know, it's like game day. Not as many as game day, but they bring the signs and they're like, bailey, you're cute. You know, whatever it is, Bailey, you're cool. You know, all that stuff. And I want. I see the signs and people. Sometimes people are real hyped. About the signs. I'm in the middle of singing Fast car, and it's like, there's already a million words I'm trying to. Like, I'm not ever remembering them.
- [128:24]
Nick Saban
Right.
- [128:24]
Luke Combs
Like, I'm not in my mind going, what's the next word? What's the next word? It's like when you start, like, a cassette tape, and it's going. And if. But if I look at a sign and start to read it.
- [128:35]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yep.
- [128:37]
Luke Combs
And I'm like, I don't even know where I'm at in the song. What song I'm in.
- [128:42]
Ty Schmidt
What.
- [128:42]
Pat McAfee
Where are we?
- [128:43]
Luke Combs
Even if I start reading the sign during a song, I'm cooking, dude. I'm done.
- [128:48]
Pat McAfee
No sign going forward, guy.
- [128:49]
Luke Combs
No, I love the signs. I just got to read them. I love. But I just can't read them until a song's, like, in between songs. I can read them, but during a song, I'm like, oh, man. If I start reading that.
- [129:00]
Bailey Zimmerman
I got it.
- [129:00]
Pat McAfee
I got it. Sign time is in between.
- [129:02]
Luke Combs
In between songs.
- [129:03]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Sign time for the Lutheran. Ideal is in between songs.
- [129:06]
Luke Combs
Ideal.
- [129:06]
Pat McAfee
Because if you do it during a song, you're potentially ruining the concert for everybody. So let's just correct. Let's make sure. And I want to let you know, I have the same problem. I'll be talking, and the brain is just kind of doing its thing, and then if I see something, like, something will pop up on this screen, for instance, and I'll see it, and all of a sudden, that is now just in the sentence, and it's like, that doesn't make any sense at all. Bailey, are you reading signs while you're out there? That you're.
- [129:29]
A.J. Hawk
I would.
- [129:29]
Bailey Zimmerman
I would say my thing that I've. I've. I've had is I'm singing a song, and everybody's singing, and then somebody's trying to, like, tell me where they. They met me and their story about why they love this song. I'm singing, and they're, like, trying to tell me that, and I'm singing the song, and then I'm like, it's like, during the songs.
- [129:48]
Luke Combs
Yeah.
- [129:50]
Bailey Zimmerman
Like, because I'm watching. I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, singing to them. And then. My cousin loved you, and I. I love this song, and my name is. And I'm like, dude, I. I can't have a conversation right now.
- [130:04]
A.J. Hawk
But you for sure, or you've got.
- [130:07]
Luke Combs
The in earth ears. Like, Pat's rocking the in ears, and they don't know you've got The.
- [130:10]
Ty Schmidt
In here.
- [130:11]
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
- [130:11]
Luke Combs
So they're like, oh, well, he can just hear me because, like, I can't see that he has something in his ears.
- [130:15]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yeah.
- [130:16]
Luke Combs
And they're like, this guy's rude.
- [130:18]
Pat McAfee
He's not saying anything. Yeah. I know he can hear me.
- [130:21]
Bailey Zimmerman
I feel so rude. I have, like, conviction about it. I. I'll feel like I need to go back over and be like, hey, I'm so sorry. I. I just can't hear what you're saying because I'm, like, trying to, like.
- [130:29]
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
- [130:30]
Bailey Zimmerman
Play the show.
- [130:30]
Pat McAfee
There's gonna be a lot of those moments where you're gonna feel like an asshole, and people are gonna be able to portray you as an. And then you just got to remember, deep down, if the full context was given, you're not an. I have these.
- [130:40]
Bailey Zimmerman
We're good dudes. We're all good dudes.
- [130:41]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. I mean, I hope so. I try to be, but the. I have these for game day, you know?
- [130:44]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yeah.
- [130:45]
Pat McAfee
So we go through a lot of crowds in game day. Same exact thing you're talking about.
- [130:49]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yep.
- [130:49]
Pat McAfee
Somebody comes up, wants to tell me a very good story. I know it's just by the sign of the way their face looks. Yeah. And I'll stop and tell them, thank you. They're talking right to my face. We're this far.
- [131:01]
Luke Combs
And you're like, oh, man.
- [131:06]
Pat McAfee
There's three people talking in my ear at that time.
- [131:09]
Nick Saban
Right.
- [131:09]
Pat McAfee
That are in a truck somewhere, and I can't see. But we feel like. But we gotta do it. We got a job to do, too. Yeah. People need to understand that, you know, for you, full time. How long have you been doing music now, full time?
- [131:20]
Luke Combs
Gosh, probably 13 years.
- [131:25]
Bailey Zimmerman
I. I did want to say, man, dude, I grew up. I think everybody did. But I was, like, 16, got my license. First song I played.
- [131:31]
Pat McAfee
Luke Long Neck Ass.
- [131:35]
Kirby Smart
Really?
- [131:36]
Luke Combs
Truly.
- [131:36]
Pat McAfee
Hey, maybe you should cover that. It feels like that's right in your go for.
- [131:40]
Luke Combs
Let's go.
- [131:40]
Pat McAfee
Hey, fast.
- [131:41]
Bailey Zimmerman
That's what I was. I was singing around campfires when somebody told me, hey, you. You can sing. I'm like, really? And I. I was singing Luke Combs, man.
- [131:47]
Pat McAfee
Hell, yeah.
- [131:48]
Nick Saban
Yeah.
- [131:49]
Pat McAfee
I'm happy to be here for this. It's pretty cool deal, this. Pretty cool deal.
- [131:51]
Bailey Zimmerman
You know, I'm trying to fangirl, but.
- [131:53]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, they're using his name for super bowl halftime show. This guy. Think about that.
- [131:58]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
- [131:59]
Pat McAfee
Like, how many musicians could do a Super bowl halftime show is what people say. And then your name got dropped into that. Do you know how old are you?
- [132:05]
Luke Combs
35.
- [132:07]
Pat McAfee
That's awesome, bro.
- [132:08]
Luke Combs
In my prime.
- [132:09]
Pat McAfee
Guys, here we go.
- [132:10]
Nick Saban
Here we go.
- [132:12]
Conor
Guys.
- [132:13]
Luke Combs
Look at Flacco. Guys. Look at Flacco.
- [132:17]
Pat McAfee
The icy hot bowl. It was the icy. The icy hot bowl, dude.
- [132:20]
Luke Combs
Let's go.
- [132:21]
Pat McAfee
It showed out, didn't it?
- [132:22]
Nick Saban
It was great.
- [132:23]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. He threw the ball 69.8 miles yards in his last throw. Speaking of miles. $30 off tickets right now with code Pat McAfee. You can buy Luke Combs and Bailey Zimmerman concert tickets and everything. It doesn't matter if you're a new or repeat purchaser. 30 off with code Pat McAfee at our friends at sea. They're going to thank that I owe them about 20 reads said that in a long time. They're going to be very thankful I did that tie. Yep, there it is right there.
- [132:50]
Nick Saban
Boom.
- [132:50]
Pat McAfee
Bat fee. $30 off for the boys. Now there are some restrictions apply, which I think are if they're less than 30 bucks. And then you guys need to figure out your fees. Figure that out. You're all trying to figure it out.
- [133:06]
Bailey Zimmerman
I just work here, man. I literally just work here. I literally just work here.
- [133:11]
Pat McAfee
Ty has a question for you back in indie.
- [133:13]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, for both of you guys. For what you're going to do tomorrow for game day. Like the performance. How. How much, like, will your prep differ for when you would, like, do a concert? Like, will you just kind of go up there and just rip that on the run or will you still have to like, kind of prepare like you would going into like a full set?
- [133:32]
Luke Combs
Oh, dude, I'll let you take this one.
- [133:34]
Bailey Zimmerman
Rip it.
- [133:35]
Pat McAfee
I would.
- [133:35]
Bailey Zimmerman
I would answer with rip it. Yeah, I'm just gonna wing it.
- [133:38]
Pat McAfee
That's where.
- [133:38]
Bailey Zimmerman
Honestly, I've gotten to this point right here, right now by winging it. So I'm just gonna keep doing that.
- [133:44]
Tone
It's like.
- [133:44]
Luke Combs
That's like. I don't know. It's like this. Would Steph Curry need to warm up to shoot a three pointer right at the house?
- [133:49]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yeah.
- [133:52]
Pat McAfee
Professional at the half.
- [133:54]
Luke Combs
You know, people say I got a Marcus Camby jump shot.
- [133:57]
A.J. Hawk
Oh, you masquerade.
- [134:00]
Luke Combs
Not that it's good. I just. It's just kind of a weird.
- [134:02]
Pat McAfee
It's just kind of a strange elbow out there.
- [134:05]
Luke Combs
I kind of go elbow out a little bit.
- [134:06]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Do you make it, though?
- [134:07]
Luke Combs
No, no. Ah, not at all. No.
- [134:10]
A.J. Hawk
You dunk?
- [134:11]
Luke Combs
Occasionally for sure, dude.
- [134:14]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. You guys can dunk.
- [134:16]
A.J. Hawk
Both of you. Congrats.
- [134:17]
Luke Combs
I can't. I can't, bro.
- [134:18]
Pat McAfee
He's got the gold plated. Air forces on right now. I don't know if those are easiest to jump. Yeah, I mean, he's. Honestly, I feel pretty. I feel pretty good in these.
- [134:26]
Luke Combs
He's looking. He's been watching track practice. I think he's like. He's ready to roll, I think.
- [134:30]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yeah.
- [134:31]
Pat McAfee
I think you should think of. Hold on, B. We're getting down on right now.
- [134:33]
A.J. Hawk
Sweet.
- [134:36]
Pat McAfee
Look at the. Look at the. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [134:39]
Ty Schmidt
Oh, hell yeah.
- [134:41]
Pat McAfee
I don't know if that's blurry or not, but that is looking good, though. Hey, look at the watch, the necklace.
- [134:46]
Luke Combs
He's. Look, he's looking.
- [134:48]
Bailey Zimmerman
That's what we first bonded over, you and me, was our presidential bands. Hell, yeah, bro.
- [134:55]
Pat McAfee
I appreciate it.
- [134:56]
Bailey Zimmerman
We really made it, man.
- [134:57]
Pat McAfee
Yes, we did. We made it.
- [134:58]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yes.
- [134:59]
Pat McAfee
We're standing in this building right here. I mean, you made it a lot more than me, for sure. And I'm going to try to get me back to center here, certainly a little bit.
- [135:08]
Luke Combs
I like it. This is nice, man. That's like the production truck. There it is, there it is, there it is.
- [135:14]
Pat McAfee
If you need anybody for your shows, I can certainly tell you. Wembley, get me on his sticks over there. Connor has a question for you boys back in Indianapolis.
- [135:22]
Conor
Yeah, boys. First of all, Luke, you know, go App State. Hopefully they're doing well. And it is good to see the Panthers are back, even though the patriots beat him 42 to six a couple weeks ago. Great game. Great game for us both, but thank you. One of our guys in here is a massive country music fan, and he said, hey, you don't ask this question, I'm gonna be real pissed. Both of you guys were with Big X the Plug, and he wanted to know what that was like. And also I want. Wanted to know, did Big X the Plug cut his teeth in Nashville to kind of get in with you guys and country music, because that's a big deal for some of these country music guys. Like, hey, did these people even get to Nashville to learn about country music? And. But what really was it like working with Big X the Plug? He was.
- [136:08]
Luke Combs
I feel like I'm like, offhandedly Mike, very limitedly responsible for the part of this thing. Not in any. In any official capacity.
- [136:17]
Pat McAfee
We're doing that. We love them.
- [136:18]
Luke Combs
So the Post Malone album, the F1 Trillions Getting Made, I wrote six songs on that. Records were there one night. And, you know, a lot of his guys have produced all kind of different stuff, hip hop stuff. They're producing this record and it was. It's like, late nights, you know, we'd write two, three, four songs in a night kind of thing. From eight o' clock till I'd be leaving at like two in the morning. Like, guys, I gotta go. I got kids. Like, we're starting another one. I'm like, I'm out. Like, I'm not. Like, my kids are waking up at 7, whether or not run another farm.
- [136:45]
Pat McAfee
Right now or not. So I got to go.
- [136:48]
Luke Combs
But so I'm sitting in there, they're. We're talking hip hop, and I'm like, got to hear this guy, Big X, the plug, Texas dude. Got to play it. So they play it. They're all getting the phones out. Who is this guy? We got to look him up, got to look him up. Next thing I know, they're hitting me up. Hey, Reached out to that guy. He wants to do something together. And I'm like, okay, so try to link up with him. He comes to my show in Houston a few years ago.
- [137:10]
A.J. Hawk
Great guy.
- [137:11]
Pat McAfee
Awesome, awesome, awesome.
- [137:13]
Luke Combs
Rocks the big guy look.
- [137:14]
Pat McAfee
Yes.
- [137:14]
Luke Combs
Which I'm a big fan of, man.
- [137:16]
Pat McAfee
Maybe you need to get a grill too.
- [137:17]
Luke Combs
You think I should go shirt off and grill?
- [137:20]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I've been.
- [137:22]
Bailey Zimmerman
I've been trying to have that shirt off thing for a while. I've been trying to tell you that, but you just won't listen.
- [137:27]
A.J. Hawk
Just have.
- [137:27]
Luke Combs
Just go full off. Just let it ride.
- [137:29]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, yeah, they would love it. I think you get that.
- [137:31]
Bailey Zimmerman
I would love it.
- [137:31]
Pat McAfee
You know, maybe like a half the body. That black tap, you know, just a full. Yeah, just a full inked out basically like this on this entire side.
- [137:40]
Luke Combs
I'll do the quarter.
- [137:41]
Pat McAfee
Like the quarter sleeve too.
- [137:42]
Luke Combs
Like the half short sleeve look. But no, he's great. All the stuff I did with him was done. It was done in town. He's been in Nashville a lot doing that. I'm not sure what Bailey's experience was like. He could tell you for sure.
- [137:55]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yeah, I feel like since he's from Dallas, Texas, he's like, already like, really country and like, is from. From that, like, background already. And then I had already loved his music. And I was thinking, man, I saw this interview where he was like, I'm gonna do a country project. And I thought, man, how cool would that be if he. If I did a song with him? Yeah, that'd be freaking awesome. And then like three months later, he sends me this song. And then like five minutes later, we had it done.
- [138:23]
Pat McAfee
Tell me how the process goes. When he sends you a song, do you the. You write or they already says like, hey, this would be the part that you would be on.
- [138:29]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yeah. So they had sent me a song that was already written and it had been written for like two or three years, I think, and I just cut the hook and it was already done. I think we messed with it a little bit throughout the thing. But like when he sent me the song on my phone, I had my vocal cut in like six minutes. I was like, yeah. In the studio, I was like, dude, I am not letting this. I love this song. Like, I've wanted to do this big X the plug thing for like a long time. So yeah, I just like jumped in and then I think that actually ended up being like the final thing we did.
- [139:01]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so let's talk about you knowing. You just listen to his music and he liked it.
- [139:04]
Luke Combs
Yeah, I was just a fan really, to be honest. And so then when we're in that post thing, I bring it up, everybody's looking it up. And then those guys reached out to him and they're all, you know, they're all legit in that production hip hop world. So when they reached out to then just said, hey, we would love to do something together. If you're ever around town, that's a.
- [139:24]
Pat McAfee
Cool community you guys are. Yeah, it feels like your business is a good community. I'm sure there's in it. I'm sure there's people that you.
- [139:30]
Luke Combs
It's like anything.
- [139:30]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I'm sure there's people that everybody hates. But from my understanding and the people that I've met, obviously in your guys's world through game day and through college football, basically being the connection feels like you guys have a great community. The country music's great. Like it feels like you guys take the festival serious. Like whenever, like CMA will have a fest or something or there'll be some country music, something. I mean, Morgan Wallen's standing my boots fest, whatever. Feels like you guys show up for each other in country. Do you feel that?
- [139:55]
Luke Combs
Oh, I agree. Yeah, I would agree for sure.
- [139:57]
Bailey Zimmerman
It's awesome. It's like the best part of country music.
- [139:59]
Pat McAfee
Is that that like that or is it your generation?
- [140:02]
Luke Combs
No, I think it's. No, I think it's always been like that. I think it's, you know, if you go see a country show at Bridgestone arena, you don't know who's going to be there. Cuz it's like I've done, I've probably played there six times. Times just from people going, hey, I'm playing Bridgestone tonight. Pop in and sing a song with me.
- [140:19]
Pat McAfee
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I'm like, okay. Holy.
- [140:25]
Luke Combs
They're screaming, dude. Yeah, they're screaming.
- [140:27]
Pat McAfee
Tone. Tone has the last question for you boys. Back in indie.
- [140:30]
Tone
Yeah, Bailey, Pat mentioned earlier when you got. You were with Joe Bros at jmu, I was like, that guy has way more pizzazz. I need to start listening him. So I just wanted to give you.
- [140:38]
Pat McAfee
A shout out on that. And then Luke, thank you so much show. But, yes, it was awesome.
- [140:43]
Tone
And then Luke, I just got tickets to Notre Dame, so I'm pumped for that. But I wanted to ask you about Lalapalooza. My daughter listens to that. To that. And the Alex Warren cover that you guys did together. It was awesome. Did you know that it was going to go as viral as it did?
- [141:01]
Luke Combs
I didn't. Honestly, I didn't. I think that my team. My team was really great about. About setting that up. You know, obviously I had heard the song, was familiar with it. I mean, it's such a massive song of the summer, Right. I mean, it was just such a huge tune and his first single and everything. And Alex is such a great kid. That's the first time I had met him was that day. And he was kind of closing out the other stage across the way before we went on and so slipped over, come in the green room, you know, played my bands in there. We worked it up with steel guitar and just kind of a different version than the version that he's playing. You know, I didn't want it to be like the same.
- [141:36]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, you don't want to rip it exactly.
- [141:37]
Luke Combs
Thing. Right. So we come out and I get home the next day and my team's like, have you seen the videos of the song? And it's like just like millions of likes on views. And I'm like, I just did not expect, like, not that it's not great, but I'm just. I feel like I'm not the. Like, I'm not the guy that gets social media going.
- [141:57]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. You know what I mean?
- [141:57]
Luke Combs
Like I said, you see me on the there.
- [142:00]
Ty Schmidt
What do you mean?
- [142:00]
Luke Combs
Fast car.
- [142:01]
Pat McAfee
You brought the entire.
- [142:02]
Bailey Zimmerman
This guy's literally Luke Combs.
- [142:03]
Pat McAfee
He's like, literally Luke.
- [142:04]
Nick Saban
Com.
- [142:05]
Pat McAfee
You go to Wembley, bro. What? Yeah, you are. You get the people going, bro. You get people going. On that note, maybe cover Baby Shark.
- [142:14]
Luke Combs
Now you're talking serious cash, dude.
- [142:16]
Pat McAfee
Kids, kids songs.
- [142:18]
Luke Combs
Yeah, you're talking big box.
- [142:21]
Bailey Zimmerman
I don't. Well, I. I know what Baby Shark is.
- [142:24]
Pat McAfee
Okay.
- [142:24]
Nick Saban
You're 25.
- [142:25]
Bailey Zimmerman
Not because I have kids though.
- [142:26]
Luke Combs
Cuz he was a child when that came out.
- [142:30]
Pat McAfee
I was born in 2000. This child, this child that's taking over the industry and this old ass man right here are both going to be on college game day tomorrow. He has a show tonight at Georgia theater. He announced this morning it sold out 900 tickets. Should be something special. Obviously our guy Bailey here is got an album tour coming out. He just dropped an album. Check that out. The dude is awesome. This. He's 25 years old.
- [142:57]
Nick Saban
He is.
- [142:57]
Bailey Zimmerman
This dude is awesome.
- [142:59]
Pat McAfee
He's awesome. He's are immaculate. He has no idea about the world. I don't think that's great.
- [143:03]
A.J. Hawk
That's good.
- [143:04]
Pat McAfee
I, I think that is a great. I think that's a good thing.
- [143:06]
Bailey Zimmerman
We like it that way. I like it that way.
- [143:08]
Luke Combs
I'll go PSA for Bailey Zimmerman right now. If you're a fan out there thinking about buying a ticket, you can know that if you buy this guy's ticket, he's going to appreciate it.
- [143:17]
Pat McAfee
If on that note, you should feel.
- [143:19]
Luke Combs
Good about buying a ticket to Bailey Zimmerman concert.
- [143:22]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, he'll put on a show and.
- [143:23]
Nick Saban
So will you, brother.
- [143:24]
Pat McAfee
And we thank the hell out of you guys for that. And I can't wait to see you guys tomorrow morning. Yes. Let's go. Maybe tonight.
- [143:30]
Luke Combs
Yeah, maybe tonight. Might need a shotgun guest.
- [143:34]
Pat McAfee
Nine o', clock, you know.
- [143:36]
Luke Combs
Might need a guest to come out.
- [143:37]
Bailey Zimmerman
Nine o' clock, shotgun start.
- [143:39]
Conor
Maybe start with shotgun start.
- [143:41]
Luke Combs
Shotgun start.
- [143:42]
Pat McAfee
Nine o'.
- [143:42]
Conor
Clock.
- [143:43]
Pat McAfee
Shotgun in.
- [143:44]
Nick Saban
On a Friday.
- [143:44]
Pat McAfee
Once again I would join.
- [143:46]
Ty Schmidt
I know. Yeah, we know.
- [143:48]
A.J. Hawk
We know.
- [143:48]
Pat McAfee
You.
- [143:51]
Luke Combs
May we get Kirby out in the visor. He can rip a shotgun down with us.
- [143:55]
Pat McAfee
Wait a minute.
- [143:56]
A.J. Hawk
If he does something special, call him up.
- [143:58]
Conor
Hammer Ole Miss if he does.
- [144:00]
Bailey Zimmerman
This is how it starts.
- [144:01]
Pat McAfee
This is how it starts.
- [144:02]
Bailey Zimmerman
This is exactly how it starts.
- [144:03]
Luke Combs
This is how all great ideas are.
- [144:06]
Pat McAfee
There's a chance both of these guys and he just went into North Carolina Music hall of Fame. There's a chance both these guys are in every music hall of fame whenever their careers are said and done. We appreciate the hell out of your time. Good luck tomorrow. Early morning obviously. I'm sure tonight if you're doing a shotgun start at 9pm you're going to be well rested.
- [144:21]
Luke Combs
Yeah, absolutely.
- [144:23]
Bailey Zimmerman
Oh yeah, we'll shut it off there.
- [144:25]
Luke Combs
Yeah, yeah, that'll be. We'll just come out shotgun a beer at the end of the show.
- [144:28]
Bailey Zimmerman
Okay.
- [144:29]
Pat McAfee
Ladies and gentlemen, Luke Combs. Bailey Zimmer.
- [144:35]
A.J. Hawk
Are they on tour together right now? Do we Know.
- [144:37]
Nick Saban
No.
- [144:38]
A.J. Hawk
Well, I mean, not together, but. Is Bailey gonna play or open for Luke tonight?
- [144:42]
Tone
Probably a chance.
- [144:43]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
- [144:43]
Conor
I would.
- [144:44]
Ty Schmidt
You could imagine, make that assumption.
- [144:46]
Tone
They probably might play their number one song together, potentially.
- [144:49]
A.J. Hawk
Hey, I know Bailey played. I didn't ask him. He played at Ohio Stadium. Ohio State. Oh, really? I think when he was open for Morgan a couple years ago, was that.
- [144:56]
Tone
The biggest oh of all time?
- [144:58]
A.J. Hawk
I've heard there's another person that said they got the biggest. Biggest. Oh, yeah.
- [145:01]
Nick Saban
Yeah.
- [145:01]
A.J. Hawk
I'm not sure. I don't know the person.
- [145:03]
Pat McAfee
Probably Rapid.
- [145:04]
A.J. Hawk
Probably. Probably has, but I haven't. I don't know the person that actually really claims that. I don't know who that person is.
- [145:09]
Ty Schmidt
No, I don't either. I don't know what you're talking about, Bobby. Makes sense.
- [145:12]
Tone
Luke's tour is doing. He's going to, I believe, Ohio Stadium, and he's doing Notre Dame and he's doing Oklahoma.
- [145:18]
A.J. Hawk
He's doing all the big college football stations.
- [145:20]
Ty Schmidt
Wow. I mean, he's going to Jack Trice.
- [145:22]
Pat McAfee
I don't know.
- [145:22]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, he's going.
- [145:23]
Kirby Smart
Yeah.
- [145:23]
Tone
He's going to Iowa.
- [145:24]
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
- [145:24]
A.J. Hawk
Why are we going to Kinnock? He could wave at the kids like before the, you know, intermission.
- [145:28]
Ty Schmidt
A lot bigger, too, but, you know, hey, I get it. I get it. Iowa State fans love Luke Combs just like everybody does.
- [145:32]
A.J. Hawk
Do they?
- [145:33]
Bailey Zimmerman
Yeah.
- [145:34]
A.J. Hawk
Who doesn't? Iowa State. Well, of course.
- [145:35]
Tone
But, dude, I got.
- [145:36]
A.J. Hawk
I like when you booed him the second he mentioned to Iowa State.
- [145:38]
Conor
Had to.
- [145:38]
A.J. Hawk
He probably thought you were booing him for a minute.
- [145:40]
Ty Schmidt
Maybe, but his instinct. I wasn't booing him.
- [145:42]
A.J. Hawk
I love Luke Combs. I would play this week. Sorry, Penn State.
- [145:45]
Tone
Yeah, Penn State.
- [145:46]
A.J. Hawk
Oh, my gosh. I did know that.
- [145:48]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
- [145:48]
Pat McAfee
At home.
- [145:48]
A.J. Hawk
Interim coach Bump, you think for Penn State?
- [145:51]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah. I mean, I'm a little worried about it. They've looked so bad, you know, that it's like at some point they have a lot of good players still. So you would think it would maybe go the other way. But, I mean, we heard Signetti say it yesterday. Hey, I was a tough place to play now at night, and they have a quarterback making his first start, which I think definitely bodes well for Iowa.
- [146:11]
A.J. Hawk
Grun. Grunk. No N. But no Grunk. He's from right in round Dublin. Owen Tangi right by me. About 10 minutes away from. He's a stud. Yeah.
- [146:20]
Pat McAfee
Is that a river?
- [146:21]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, there is the one tangy river.
- [146:23]
Tone
Runs right down Hoochie Coochie.
- [146:25]
A.J. Hawk
I mean, that's too. But There is no one. Tangy River. Yes, there's Owen Tangier River Road. Right close to where I'm at, but yeah, I don't know who's Penn State can hire though, for real.
- [146:35]
Tone
Terry Smith, he's interim.
- [146:38]
A.J. Hawk
I mean, he could. He has every opportunity to win it.
- [146:40]
Ty Schmidt
That's the first step.
- [146:41]
A.J. Hawk
What if he does win out? What if he wins out and then.
- [146:43]
Luke Combs
They have to hire?
- [146:44]
A.J. Hawk
I don't know. But that's a very 19 million a year.
- [146:46]
Tone
Like, that's a very, very important hire because you can't go. You can't fire a coach who's winning.
- [146:51]
A.J. Hawk
10, 11 games a year and win seven. Yeah, yeah. You can't even fire a coach.
- [146:56]
Tone
There can't be any drop off.
- [146:57]
A.J. Hawk
A coach has to know absolutely zero drop off. They have to come in and if he wins 10 games, that's a failure for them. You got to get to the.
- [147:04]
Nick Saban
Wow.
- [147:05]
A.J. Hawk
It goes to the playoffs and make a run.
- [147:07]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I.
- [147:08]
A.J. Hawk
But James Franklin last year was a couple plays away from being in a national championship.
- [147:11]
Ty Schmidt
Correct.
- [147:12]
Pat McAfee
That's wild.
- [147:13]
Tone
The names that, the names that obviously are getting thrown out. Our rule at Nebraska, Matt Campbell, Iowa State. And then, you know, like, there's a lot of people saying, like, hey, you gotta, you gotta at least call Saban. You gotta at least call Urban. You gotta at least call Marcus Freeman. Now, he's definitely not leaving there, but you gotta at least call him. You got at least call Lane. Like, you gotta, you gotta at least put out feelers too, because when you fire someone who's winning 10, 11 games a year, you have to make a splash.
- [147:38]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah. Hey, Pat, tomorrow on game day, live on set, you should ask Saban, like, hey, man, if Penn State calls, are you gonna entertain that? Are you going to at least answer the call?
- [147:46]
Pat McAfee
So Ms. Terry's here this weekend, actually. So everybody always, always tells me, like, hey, that question would be directed towards Ms. Terry first. And then so I did. I literally. She was in the back of the room as I turned around. I'm like, Ms. Terry, 20 million a year, 30 million a year, you get back into coaching. And she laughed and said something about a credit card debt and said, that's going to have to keep going. And I laughed so hard. I was like, that's the greatest answer I've ever heard. So I don't, like, I, I don't know the reality of that. And I think Coach Saban is loving his life being retired. He's still in ball because of game day, but I think he golfs a couple Times a week. You know, I think he doesn't have the pressure of having to wake up and know if his team's going to show up. I don't think he has to renegotiate with players every single. There's a lot of things that he has kind of mentioned. He's 70, what, three now? 73 years old. So, like, I. I think he enjoys retirement. I think he is enjoying retirement, and I think he does a couple speaking gigs a week around the country. I. I mean, he is things. Car dealerships. He's. He's living. He's doing his life right now. That's why whenever his name was mentioned that he was going to run the college commission or whatever, I was like, that's a lot of work. That's a lot of work for a guy that just gave up a lot of work for the first time in his life. You know, he was committed to ball for the last, what, 40, 50 years of his life. So I don't know if Saban's possible, but, I mean, maybe pat Kraft gives Ms. Terry a call and says, we'll give you an open check and we'll take care of every credit card for the rest of your life. Life, maybe. But then you start thinking about, like, Kurt Signetti, right? Like Kurt Signetti situation. Everybody thought he was going to get hired. And then Indiana goes. Nope, I don't think that's the case. I assume there's a couple coaches over the next few days that are going to be signing new deals. Yeah, I think. And it's. It's only going to be able to happen at the schools that have real backing and have, like, a real chance, you know, And I think that's what's so big about the Indiana deal for Kurt Signetti. It's like, that's 93 million to a coach. Okay, so what else do they have for players and for facilities and everything? They're like, we're very committed. They are very committed to everything. The president, Pam Whitten. Wooten. Ms. Pam, the president, okay. She is somebody I met whenever we were down there. Whitten. He's Pam Whitten. I apologize for getting that wrong. I got a chance to meet her whenever a game day was down there, and. And after I picked Indiana, I got a text from her, you know, that was like, hey, Pat, thank you for the belief in what we're doing here. We're very thankful, obviously, that you're in the same state as us and, like, a very positive thing. And she's like, we are very all in down here, both academically and athletically. And we think the athletics can fuel the other. And just thank you for believing in us, basically, is what she said, because I have since watching this entire thing. And this is just another way to publicly prove that they're all in and Indiana for real. And it's like this isn't just a, you know, a flash in the pan here in two years. They didn't get lucky here. It's like they are all in. They understand how special Signetti is in the evaluation process and getting the right guys and they got the boosters to be able to stick in there. So good for Indiana up into the right. But there's going to be some places that are going to get exposed for not going all in. And that's when you're going to see these coaches go to other jobs, you know, that's when you're going to see Penn State become very, very open for people if they're at a place that maybe isn't as all all in, which sucks, but it's just a reality of the business at this point. AJ yeah.
- [150:59]
A.J. Hawk
And you can't, you truly can't compete at the highest level if your team is. Your school is not all in. That's why we see like what VA Tech, they. They come out publicly committing what, 10 years, 200 some million dollars. And Sig even said it yesterday on the show, they also have money, like whatever the pool is to pay your assistance. That's a huge deal as well because I need a bunch of cash to bring in the best coaches. They're going to call, be my O and D coordinators, the guys that are eventually be groomed to be the next head coaches at big places all over the country.
- [151:26]
Pat McAfee
There's some programs that send us, you know, like full bag. We're very lucky that these schools give us stuff. I would like to let that be known. I would just like to let that be known. I'm very thankful for the swag bags that schools give to send to the Thunderdome or give to us the game day whenever we come to town and everything like that. And when people send stuff to us, there's normally like a presentation from some schools like, hey, here's a box with a light with a story, like a whole thing thing, you know, or like, hey, here's a suitcase that is like very expensive with our in it. Or like, hey, here's a Jordan bag with all this stuff in it. Then there's some places that are just cardboard boxes and they Send like a bunch of stuff. And you can tell that the thought is like, we're not spending money on bags. Okay. We're spending the money on players and we're spending the money on coaches here. Okay?
- [152:07]
Bailey Zimmerman
So.
- [152:07]
Pat McAfee
And then there's other places that are like, hey, here's a three piece suitcase luggage, and here's this. It's like, oh, they got these people have extra money. Money just laying around to send to a Thunderdome in Indianapolis, Indiana, hoping we see it in the mail. Not guaranteeing, just hoping that we see it. And it's like, it's a wild time in college ball right now. Indiana's for real, though. AJ Feels like the Big Ten's got a real one down there in Bloomington. And Signetti's a beast. He knew when he was on with us yesterday, right? You.
- [152:33]
Conor
Oh, yeah.
- [152:34]
A.J. Hawk
He had, yeah. Oh, yeah, 100%.
- [152:36]
Pat McAfee
I appreciate that. They texted me like four minutes before it got announced, publicly thanking me for having SIG on. And then, oh, yeah, also we're about to announce an extension. And then I go, can I tweet that? They're like, absolutely, we're about to announce it, though. So it was a race of me versus them and I got mine out. I think they got it out with a lot more information quicker. So I kind of missed the breaking news because I was maybe pooping at the time. But I am very thankful that the Indiana team is as good as they are, as welcoming as they are, and the way they play ball is cool to cheer for, you know?
- [153:09]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
- [153:10]
Pat McAfee
And entertaining. If you, you don't have a college, if you don't have a team, college football team. First of all, I think you should get into college ball. It's great. Saturdays every single fall, every single weekend of the fall. Obviously the sport of football is great. The environments are insane. But this Indiana team is a cool team to become a fan of. If you're just picking up a school, I mean, the underdog, consummate underdog. Now they're number three team in the country. They're not going to be surprising anybody at this point, but just like coming out of nowhere, becoming a team the way they've been built. Kurt Signetti's story about being a consummate a assistant coach and then in his 40s or 50s, I think his 50s says, I'm going for it. Drops down to like, IUP James Madison to become a head coach. And then his work at James Madison leads to his head coping. Head coaching job at Indiana. First time D1 head coach at the age of 60 or whatever. Like, his run has been inspiring. It is a movie and they're a fun school to be a fan of. If you're not just living in Indianapolis like we are, just in general, that's a fun place to kind of get behind. And there's not a lot of people that have jumped on an Indiana football wagon in a long, long time. Western Pennsylvania guy, West Virginia guy. I love everything about him, man. So I'm thankful to be in Indianapolis, but I'm also thankful for this entire college football run that we've been on here for the last few years, just getting baptized into all these places. So cool tonight. Two big games, Two big college football might have a national champion playing on a Friday night. This is abnormal now. It might have a couple national champions playing on Friday night, but nonetheless, number two team in America is playing on a Friday night. This is awesome. This is not normal. This is great. Louisville versus Miami. Miami at home, obviously. Down there at the Orange Hard Rock, they said it's a crazy, crazy atmosphere, especially when they're going. Let's assume Michael Irvin's going to be down there doing awesome. Some things tonight. On the sideline, Nebraska, Minnesota, obviously. We talked to Coach Rule just yesterday about, you know, what Minnesota is, what they could be and that problem they could have with them. But all these teams obviously have a chance going forward. But the number two team in the country playing on a Friday is special. Gumpy, I know you're all horned up for tonight.
- [155:14]
Tone
Yeah.
- [155:14]
Kirby Smart
Offensive line for Louisville stinks, so Bane and the boys should be able to.
- [155:18]
Tone
Run wild, as they say, at the Asylum.
- [155:20]
Pat McAfee
Crystal ball calls it.
- [155:21]
Kirby Smart
We're playing in the Asylum island tonight.
- [155:23]
Pat McAfee
A lot of confidence on ESPN there by national pundit Kyle Cathart. That might. That might motivate the Louisville offensive line. And on that note, let's get the hell out of here. A.J. thank you for traveling to Indianapolis, brother. We appreciate you.
- [155:37]
A.J. Hawk
Of course. Easy drive. It was a beautiful couple days for me going to that Bengals game and then just making the trip over here was perfect.
- [155:43]
Pat McAfee
Oh, you stayed the night in Cincinnati last night?
- [155:45]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, we did. It was awesome. For real. Kids have like a fall break thing, no Friday or Monday school, so. Yeah, it worked out beautifully. It was. It was a magical experience, honestly, in that. In that stadium last night with the kids. It was really cool.
- [155:57]
Pat McAfee
We appreciate you making the effort, brother. We're happy you had a good time. And congrats to the Bengals. Get a huge one. You were going to pick the Bengals regardless, because they were giving you tickets. Okay, now.
- [156:04]
A.J. Hawk
No, we didn't reach. We didn't talk to them till later, but they hooked us up afterwards once. Once they knew we were coming. But who gave you tickets?
- [156:11]
Tone
Them or eight.
- [156:12]
A.J. Hawk
Whatever. Seat geek. We paid good money for them. Trust me. We pay good money.
- [156:18]
Pat McAfee
30 off, though. 30. Yeah.
- [156:20]
A.J. Hawk
I use the code. Pat McAfee. I used it.
- [156:22]
Tone
That's all the kids. All the kids had Aaron Rodgers jersey.
- [156:24]
Ty Schmidt
They did.
- [156:25]
A.J. Hawk
Yeah, they did. They had Bengals. They were on the field pregame in Bengal sweatshirts and then they took them off and had their Aaron Rodgers 8 jerseys that people were yelling and screaming at him. As we're walking back to our. The hotel Hooday, looking right, like, right, my kids yelling. We're kind of on both sides here, pal. I'm all right with it.
- [156:42]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we like that. We like that that was happening to your kids. Obviously. Bingo. There's some parents that would get upset about that. You watching Hawker get chewed out in the middle of the street. Cincinnati, they're going to remember that forever. They're remember forever.
- [156:57]
Conor
AJ's not really finishing the story because he ended up curb stomping three people.
- [157:01]
Pat McAfee
That happened, but.
- [157:02]
A.J. Hawk
Nah.
- [157:03]
Pat McAfee
Okay, we do care. We do care. No, I. I appreciate the fact though, that Aaron played the way he played. I like the way Flacco played. And it feels like it's a good omen going into a great football weekend. If that's how it's going to go. Boys, great work in the back this week. You've guys done a phenomenal job. Way to go. Talk to table. Way to go, boys. Way to go, boys.
- [157:23]
Conor
You too, bro. Good luck tomorrow.
- [157:25]
Nick Saban
Yeah.
- [157:25]
Pat McAfee
Hey, another sport starting next week, boys. Let's not forget it. You know that trophy that's right there in front of Connor's about to kick.
- [157:30]
Nick Saban
Off.
- [157:32]
Pat McAfee
One half of the Hammer Double Cowboys ap. Tony, great work this week.
- [157:38]
Ty Schmidt
Thank you, brother Tony. You.
- [157:42]
Pat McAfee
Graphic design boys, the Think tank boys. We appreciate all your effort this week. Incredible work on all parties and all things, including Rushmore on X, which had another incredible episode drop on Tuesday, which was bands look for this upcoming episode on Tuesday. Dunkers. Very good.
- [157:58]
A.J. Hawk
Dominic Wilkins. I hope they talk about.
- [158:01]
Bailey Zimmerman
Find out.
- [158:02]
Pat McAfee
Yes. Yeah, he does get talked about. There is an obvious omission from this episode and I hope Ari and Ben and Shaq and Reggie hear about it. I. I do. I hope they do.
- [158:14]
Conor
They will.
- [158:14]
Pat McAfee
But it's a. They will. It's a great episode. It is a great episode. It's coming out on Tuesday. Shaquille o' Neal. Reggie Miller. Ben Persky, Ari. Emanuel Rushmore on X Full episode available only on X. Unless a Tom Brady fan club rips it and puts the whole thing on YouTube.
- [158:29]
Conor
There.
- [158:30]
Pat McAfee
The full episode is only available on X clips or everywhere else. It's a great show and I'm very proud of everybody that pieced that thing together. And on that note, let's have the greatest weekend of all time. Gumpy, why don't you come join me over here, buddy. Come on.
- [158:42]
Nick Saban
Go.
- [158:44]
A.J. Hawk
Where is it? There he is.
- [158:50]
Pat McAfee
What are these shoes here?
- [158:51]
A.J. Hawk
What?
- [158:52]
Kirby Smart
New bones.
- [158:54]
Pat McAfee
They are kind of far.
- [158:55]
Kirby Smart
They are pretty fire.
- [158:56]
Pat McAfee
They look super European, but that's kind of like your thing, you know what I mean?
- [158:59]
Kirby Smart
Yeah, I like them.
- [159:00]
Conor
Can't wait to get the Cooper dude.
- [159:03]
Kirby Smart
The lawnmower ones?
- [159:05]
Conor
Yeah. No cabs.
- [159:06]
Pat McAfee
Steph Curry ones.
- [159:07]
Kirby Smart
No, that's what Coopers look like too.
- [159:09]
Pat McAfee
Really?
- [159:10]
Kirby Smart
Yeah, they're tough.
- [159:11]
A.J. Hawk
That's kind of new balance thing right now.
- [159:13]
Pat McAfee
Maybe we call them the zero turn ones.
- [159:15]
Tone
Oh, I like that. So sick. Give me a pair.
- [159:18]
Pat McAfee
This the Z turn ones out there?
- [159:22]
Bailey Zimmerman
Hell yeah.
- [159:23]
Pat McAfee
All right, let's get the hell out of here. Boys, we're so lucky we get to do this. We're so thankful we get to do this. Let's try to enjoy every single moment, shall we?
- [159:31]
Tone
Hell yeah.
- [159:32]
A.J. Hawk
Absolutely.
- [159:33]
Pat McAfee
Bull rush. Thanks for the overwatch, brother.
- [159:35]
Kirby Smart
Love you, Bull rush.
- [159:39]
Pat McAfee
If you think you're gonna show up somewhere and shoot me, just know that there is a man who's got the binos out everywhere we go, okay? His name's Bullrush. And we're thankful for that.
- [159:51]
Nick Saban
All right?
- [159:51]
Pat McAfee
Have a great weekend. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change our life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three.
- [159:58]
Conor
Team.
- [159:58]
Pat McAfee
Goodbye.
- [160:00]
Kirby Smart
Talk about stepping up.
- [160:03]
Pat McAfee
It's time to level up your game. Introducing the all new ESPN app. All of ESPN all in one place.
- [160:10]
Kirby Smart
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- [160:14]
Ty Schmidt
The electricity is palpable.
- [160:16]
Pat McAfee
Step up your game.
- [160:17]
Kirby Smart
With no annual contract required.
- [160:19]
Pat McAfee
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- [160:22]
Kirby Smart
Level up.
- [160:22]
Pat McAfee
For more on the ESPN app or at stream espn.com Sign up now. Eight years ago, I blew my football career. He dropped it at the one yard line. Chad Powers has arrived on Hulu. I can play as Russ.
- [160:37]
Kirby Smart
I'll play as someone else.
- [160:38]
Pat McAfee
My name's Chad and last name from executive producers Eli and Peyton Manning.
- [160:43]
Tone
Remember, been wearing a prosthetic mask.
- [160:45]
Pat McAfee
This is acting and starring Glen Powell. He thinks you're a rubber chew toy.
- [160:49]
Nick Saban
Not rubber. I'm a man made of flesh.
- [160:51]
Pat McAfee
The Hulu Original series Chad Powers is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bundled subscribers. Terms apply. New episodes Tuesdays.