PMS 2.0 1446 - TNF Preview, Kirk Herbstreit, SMU Head Coach Rhett Lashlee, Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day, Texas A&M Head Coach Mike Elko, Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule, & AJ Hawk

Summary

The Pat McAfee Show 2.0, Episode 1446 — Summary

Date: November 6, 2025
Host: Pat McAfee
Featured Guests: Kirk Herbstreit, SMU HC Rhett Lashlee, Ohio State HC Ryan Day, Texas A&M HC Mike Elko, Nebraska HC Matt Rhule, AJ Hawk, Tony Dungy, Ty Schmidt, others

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Overview

This jam-packed episode sets the stage for NFL Week 10, with a special focus on the Thursday Night Football (TNF) matchup between the Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders. Pat and the crew break down NFL storylines, analyze college football's playoff landscape, and welcome several top college coaches to “feel the beat” of their respective programs. The show blends deep football insight, humor, behind-the-scenes stories, and some unexpected, very McAfee-style detours.

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NFL Week 10 & TNF Preview

Broncos vs. Raiders: The State of Both Teams

• Broncos (Favorites, -8.5/+9.5):

  • Sean Payton hand-picked the job for the resources and support—including the richest ownership in the league (Walton family).
  • Defense is historic in sack/pressure rate; offense led by rookie Bo Nix, whom Payton “couldn’t have drafted faster.” (01:20)
  • “Eight and a half point favorites on a Thursday night game in the division is obviously a big, big, big swing, but this Denver Broncos team is certainly capable of blowing out this Raiders team.” — Pat McAfee (03:31)
  • Continuing to develop identity post-Russell Wilson, big expectations.

• Raiders (Underdogs):

  • Massive overhaul: Tom Brady as owner, Pete Carroll as HC, Chip Kelly as OC, Geno Smith at QB; Max Crosby & Brock Bowers are stars.
  • Yet: “It feels like the Raiders just kind of lose. … They're almost just spinning their wheels until they actually find who they're going to go with for the next, you know, 10 years or so.” — AJ Hawk (15:10)
  • O-line and pass pro remain glaring weaknesses.

Key Stats (from Hembo):

• Geno Smith’s sack rate 7.8% (NFL avg 6.6%), pressured into sacks at 29.2% (NFL avg 21%). Broncos D sack rate 11.3% (highest since '06), pressure-to-sack rate 30.1% (highest since 2022 Eagles). (12:47)

Memorable Quotes:

• “This team’s defense, outrageous… this team’s going to win the Super Bowl. That’s what everybody was saying coming into the year.” — Pat (01:20)
• "You have to be good … they're almost just spinning their wheels until they actually find who they're going to go with for the next, you know, 10 years or so." — AJ Hawk (14:35)

[12:15] Ty Schmidt: “66% of the money is on the Broncos … they have been the much better team… I’m not surprised.”

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Kirk Herbstreit Joins (19:36)

(Voice of TNF and college football)

• Sheds light on both the Broncos and Raiders from production meetings.
• “Denver, they're in a one possession game every single week ... This defense is real. And by the way, this is all with Pat Surtain, probably the top corner in the league, on IR.” (21:50)
• Praises Nick Bonito and Jonathan Cooper (Broncos pass rush), Zach Allen inside.
• “Internally, the hope with the Raiders, with Pete and Chip, is you guys have no idea how big of a piece to the puzzle [Brock Bowers] is…” (21:50)

TNF Trend:

• First 5-6 games were wild, last two were blowouts. “We’re hoping for a good one.” (24:44)

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College Football Coaches—"Feel the Beat" Segment

[70:34] SMU — Coach Rhett Lashlee

• Fresh off a 2-year extension.
• SMU’s resurgence thanks to aligned support, Dallas recruiting, and Power 4 transition.
• “We’ve proven this year we can beat anybody and we can lose to anybody.” (72:56)
• Only one ACC loss; big Miami win, must win out for ACC title shot.
• Shifted from a run-first (Brashard Smith era) to a more pass-heavy approach with QB Kevin Jennings. Still values balance.

[79:03] Ohio State — Coach Ryan Day

• Reigning champs, #1 team, Heisman favorite QB (Julian Sayin), historic Matt Patricia defense.
• “You just cannot get comfortable and we cannot get bored with just the same old thing over and over again.” (80:23)
• Praises “Bloody Tuesday” practices for building toughness (83:43).
• On Julian Sayin: “His command of the offense and his confidence... I just like this command of the offense and his confidence right now.” (90:22)
• On lack of attention: “We haven't won anything yet. We haven't done a thing yet.” (91:57)
• Matt Patricia’s system is “a lot of fun” for smart defensive players: “He’s got that pencil and he’s coming up with new stuff … but the players are the ones that have to put it on the field.” (87:46)

[94:24] Texas A&M — Coach Mike Elko

• #3 in the country, undefeated in SEC, major defensive turnaround, highly-prized since Duke.
• “Undefeated in the SEC ... Marcel Reed has truly become the dual threat kid we knew he could be.” (96:32)
• On his label as a ‘defensive genius’: “We've had some weeks where we've played consistently really, really well … I still think we're trying to put it all together.” (99:35)
• Annoyed by nitpicking media: “Let’s just take a step back and let's enjoy the fact that we're winning.” (102:49)
• College Football Playoff committee gave them a #3 spot due to defensive stats, but Elko feels the team is peaking at the right time.

[147:36] Nebraska — Coach Matt Rhule

• Fresh off a 3rd loss and devastating QB injury (Dylan’s broken fibula).
• “You get into coaching and you want to have all these amazing moments, but these are the moments where you earn your stripes.” (148:13)
• Emphasizes program culture: “If you want to be taken seriously nationally … you need moments like this and you need to come through.”
• On new QB: “I'm with TJ. My goal this week is to be the best coach I can be for this freshman quarterback … and these guys that bust their tails for me.” (151:08)
• On playoff implications: “I care about no one else other than us.” (154:22)

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Additional NFL & Sports Topics

AFC & NFC Playoff Races

• BA (Bruce Arians) predicts all four NFC North teams may make playoffs — potential historic first (40:45).
• Discussion on Ravens being healthy and favorites to win AFC North; Kirk Herbstreit, a Bengals fan, voices pessimism about Cincinnati.

Fun, Shenanigans, & Notable Moments

• [08:03]: Pat’s night out in Nashville, stories about baseball players, hanging with Logan Webb and David Ross (“Grandpa Rossi”).
• [33:45]: Hilarious sidebar about oil tycoon (Cody Campbell), random Texas trivia, and Pat’s imagined future in oil.
• Rapid-fire pop culture and sports memorabilia bits (hockey, goalies hiding pucks in their pants, Ovechkin's 900th goal).
• [126:00+]: Unexpected breaking news—McAfee Show staffer Bailey (“Bill”) has a car crash into his house, prompting a live on-the-scene FaceTime update from Mitt.
• [119:10]: “Debone” stories (crew member’s country music fandom, post-show McDonald’s run, hijinks in the office).

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Quotes & Timestamp Highlights

• Pat on Broncos–Raiders TNF:
  “Eight and a half point favorites on a Thursday night game in the division is obviously a big, big, big swing, but this Denver Broncos team is certainly capable of blowing out this Raiders team.” (03:31)

• Kirk Herbstreit on Broncos D:
  “I don’t know if Nick Bonito and Jonathan Cooper … get the love they deserve. They’re probably playing at this point the season, the best tandem of any NFL pass rush.” (21:50)

• Ryan Day on keeping focus
  “You just cannot get comfortable and we cannot get bored with just the same old thing over and over again.” (80:23)

• Mike Elko on expectations:
  “There’s obviously a burden when you come in here. … If we spent that amount of money to make the change and you’re the guy that we picked, we’re kind of expecting results.” (101:33)

• Matt Rhule on adversity:
  “You get into coaching and you want to have all these amazing moments, but these are the moments where you earn your stripes.” (148:13)

• On Julian Sayin (OH St. QB):
  “When he decides to pull the trigger, man, that dude, he's got a live arm. It's fun to watch.” — AJ Hawk (91:19)

• Elko on media, perspective:
  “Let's just take a step back and let's enjoy the fact that we're winning and let's not just focus on the play in the second quarter that we didn't do the right way.” (102:49)

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Picks & Betting Segment

• [140:42] 66% of money on Broncos for TNF.
• Pat and AJ both lean Denver, but discuss stats/narrative-driven concerns about divisional blowouts and past primetime struggles.
• Last-minute switch—a “Universe Ball” flip has Pat wavering then re-committing to Denver with the spread.

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College Football Landscape & Playoff Talk

• CFP committee’s reasoning for rankings (defensive stats as separators).
• Discussion: Is Ohio State's dominance underappreciated due to lack of national conversation?
• Elko and Rhule both highlight how much parity and challenge goes into each win ("it’s hard to win!")
• Extended talk about the impact of NIL/revenue sharing in college programs, and the business side of CFB in 2025.

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Conclusion

This edition of The Pat McAfee Show delivers its classic cocktail: razor-sharp football analysis, candid interviews, and unpredictable tangents. The episode provides an inside look—direct from coaches—at the best teams in college football, a thorough setup for TNF, and a healthy dose of the irreverent, lived-in humor that makes McAfee’s show unique. Whether you're a diehard for the X’s and O’s or just want a laugh with sports talk, this episode brings it.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–03:45: Pat’s opening monologue, TNF/odds setup, Broncos & Raiders overview
• 12:14–16:44: Raiders reality check, AFC West landscape
• 19:36–28:45: Kirk Herbstreit on TNF, inside info from the broadcast booth, Broncos defense deep dive
• 70:34–77:14: Rhett Lashley (SMU) interview
• 79:03–93:16: Ryan Day (Ohio State) interview
• 94:24–107:45: Mike Elko (Texas A&M) interview
• 147:36–162:11: Matt Rhule (Nebraska) interview

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Memorable Moment:
A staff member ("Bill") races out mid-show after a car crashes into his house, prompting a live on-location FaceTime report, underscoring the show’s “anything can happen” ethos.

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If you missed the episode, this summary covers the major storylines, expert analysis, and enough of the signature McAfee energy and insights to carry you through the biggest news in football this week.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the ThunderDome on this NFL Week 10 kickoff Thursday, November 6, 2025. This show begins now.

[Tony Dungy]

Football.

[Pat McAfee]

It's magical. And Week 10 of the NFL season kicks off this evening on Amazon Prime. As we go AFC west battle between the Broncos hosting the Raiders. Now, The Broncos are 8 1/2 point favorites on ESPN BET, which is the current odds that we have here. I think that'll be going until about December 1st or so if we're to get an exact. And then you can also find that at nine and a half across Some other now, Geno Smith in this Las Vegas Raiders team with Pete Carroll at the helm. Obviously we had very high hopes, we had very high expectations because in Pete Carroll's words and in our eyes from watching Pete Carroll, Pete Carroll wins. That's literally what he does. Max Crosby, obviously outrageous. Brock Byers is a superhuman for this team. So coming into the year, we thought maybe Tom Brady's in the building, Chip Kelly's the offensive coordinator. This might be a brand new Raiders team. This might be the vibes that they need in Las Vegas as they launch hopefully back into super relevancy, especially in an AFC west that has the Kansas City Chiefs in it. Max Crosby's special talent so special that everybody hopes that he leaves the Raiders so they can play in big time games. That's kind of the state of the Las Vegas Raiders in the past 10 years. And then also this year, all of a sudden with how the outcomes have gone. And on the other side, the Broncos, this team's going to win the Super Bowl. That's what everybody was saying coming into the year. This team's defense, outrageous. This team's defense can lock down anybody. Sean Payton with another year with Bo Nix, we can assume that the offense is only going to get better. Remember, Sean Payton decided whenever he took the Denver Broncos job, could have took any job.

[Rhett Lashley]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Sean Payton could have taken any job. Now they had a trade for him, obviously, because the way it ended with the Saints where it just happened on like Tuesday, I'm done, actually, I'm out of here. I'm going to go do some Netflix stuff with Kevin James and then we're going to come back into coach, I'm going to do Fox TV stuff. But when he wanted to get back into coaching, I mean it was the Sean Payton tour, wherever the hell he wanted to go. Because everybody just kind of has the same thought about Sean Payton. This guy's a damn good ball coach. He's got Sweet shoes. He's got great moxie and a guy knows how to win football games. So he could have coached anywhere. And he decides to go to the Denver Broncos, which happened to have the richest owner in the sport and the Walmart family at, at the helm, and you think to yourself, well, why'd Sean Payton do that? Well, did he do it because he can pay coaches more money than everybody else? Yes, because there's no salary cap on the coaching market. So being able to keep the defense coordinator Vance around has just been something that's been special for them and they've been smothering other team. But also, if he wanted to move on from an $80 million dead cap with Russell Wilson, the Walton family said, yeah, you can do that if that's what you want to do. He does that. He hand picks Bo Nix to be his quarterback. He loved everything he saw out of Bo Nix. Whenever he met with Bo Nix, he thought to himself, this has got to be the number one guy in the entire draft. Got out of the car, told everybody around him, that's the guy that we want. Then when he drafts him to Denver, a lot of people say a little bit of a reach for Bo Nix here. He gets on our draft spectacular and says, couldn't have drafted this guy faster. Like, this is exactly who we want. So you just assume coming into the season with another year and an off season with Bo Nixon, Sean Payton together, that's only going to get better and the defense is going to continue to be their thing and they have this team's for real. Eight and a half point favorites on a Thursday night game in the division is obviously a big, big, big swing, but this Denver Broncos team is certainly capable of blowing out this Raiders team. And maybe Crosby just says no, and maybe he plays every position on defense which he could potentially pull off. You start looking at the rankings here, you. The Broncos had a little ebbs and flows. Have they gotten to this point this particular season? So they have obviously a high ranking total defense, their past defense, good. Their rush defense, good. Offensively, can obviously still move a little bit. They're in the middle of the pack, but they can run the rock, which you obviously always expect the Denver Broncos to be able to do. Just in the history of the Broncos, you always think of somebody running it well, and then on the other side, you got a lot of average and not good. So that is kind of what we're looking at this evening. Kirk Herbstreet will be joining us in about 16 minutes or so to let us know on you know what he's hearing from the inside as he's calling the game night alongside Al Michaels and Kaylee Harung on that Amazon prime lineup that we know is going to be spectacular and everybody's figured out how to do it. Remember, there's a little thing going on right now, obviously. Sure.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, there is.

[AJ Hawk]

Sure. Still kind of still going on. And maybe every day we wake up.

[Pat McAfee]

We think to ourselves, let me open my phone and find out some good news. ESPN bed's done. Okay. But that ain't what I. I thought what I'm looking for. That ain't what. That ain't what a DraftKings. Oh, okay.

[AJ Hawk]

That's good.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Congrats to them getting that done. Okay. What about. Nope, still going there. You know, a couple of years ago it was, I got to get Amazon prime so I can watch a football game. Now we're at the point where this is just normal. This is standard operating procedure for Thursday night during football season and tonight should be a good one. Even though it's an eight and a half, nine and a half point spread. And we're pumped. At football week 10, another round of important impactful ball is about to take place. And we can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. The second hour, we're going to have a full college football coaches feel the beat situation. We're going to go directly to these sources. We got coaches that are in multiple different situations and scenarios in the college football season. Joining us, Matt Rule joins us. Every single week. They get their third loss this past weekend at usc. Essentially ends their hunt for a national champion. He joins us, Rhett Lashley at smu, he just signs a two year extension. Obviously they have three losses, but they only have one loss in the acc. They just get a huge win over Miami in overtime this past week. They can still go on and win the ACC and get into the College Football Playoff yet again. You know, that'd be back to back years for Rhett Lashley's squad down there in Dallas. Then we have Mike Elko join us. Yeah. Okay. And this came together late, so we're so incredibly thankful that he'll be there. Texas A and M is undefeated. This is his second year there. Okay. Obviously he was highly, highly, highly sought after whenever he took Duke back to who they were, whenever he was going to go explore another job. Texas A and M, they move on from Jimbo Fisher, pay him like $70 million to get him out of there. And everybody says, hey, Saint M'S got a lot of money down there. They got a lot of money down there. Well, how do you know they got a lot of money? Well, they paid the last coach 70 million to leave. So if they have that amount of money to get a guy out of there, let's assume they have enough money to field a squad. And Elko, if you're going to give them the resources and you're going to be able to let his football brain and his assistant coaches kind of take over a program and run that thing, we all assumed it was going to work just from the very little that we knew about them. It has. They're undefeated. They're number three in the country right now. And when you think about where they were two years ago, three years ago, four years ago versus where they are now, it's special because that university Spectacular, I know everybody, like, kind of says, well, they're a cult. They're a cult because they actually do, like, dress like it and they dances like it and they have practice at midnight for it and all that stuff. And there's videos of them that come out. Hey, we're doing this. It's like everywhere is a cult. That is their style of cult down there. They are a great fan base down there at Texas A and M. I mean, it is spectacular, spectacular football town. We got a lot of cowboy boots. We got a lot of people walking far. And we got beers being drank, and we got good times being had. And we got a thousand United States flags.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Kind of around that. So sweet. I mean, it is. It is a great place. And Elko's got that place buzzing. And then we'll also be joined by Ryan Day.

[AJ Hawk]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Gabby I. State head coach, number one team in the country. Yeah. Reigning national champions, number one team in the country. Have made everything look rather easy. Okay. Have made everything look rather easy and rather dominant. And their quarterback, Julian Sane. Nobody's talking about him. He's odds on favorite for the Heisman right now. And, oh, yeah, you just got to fill in for Will Howard, who just transferred in here and won a national championship. And Julian Sanders says no problems. Carnell Tate's on team. Yes. Jeremiah Smith on team. Yeah. How's the offensive line going to be?

[Matt Rule]

Great.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. We're going to be able to run ball, of course. Okay. And our defense is going to be the best in the country, maybe the best in the history of college football. So that's the Ohio State team nobody's talking about. They're the number one team in the country. Have been for the entire season. And, yeah, they. They're a problem. So we got a lot of different coaches in a lot of different situations. We got week 10 of the NFL season kicking off.

[AJ Hawk]

Hell, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And then last night, I met some baseball people.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Talk to tables here at Boss Connor, at Ty schmidt. I met Mr. Logan. Logan Webb, dog.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Logan Webb, pitcher for the Giants. Handsome fellow. He's. He's pretty stout. Grandpa Rossi. Yeah. David, Chicago Cubs, also coach. He was there last night. We all went down to watch Ernest play at the Ryman Auditorium. And Ryman is the original home of the Grand Ole Opry. Elvis Presley's performed there. Harry Houdini has performed there. Everybody that's ever gone through Nashville has performed there. Earnest, who is from Nashville, actually named his son Ryman. Okay. Because how much he loves the place. So since Ernest was putting on a show there, I think all of us that were friends with him that could make it down there were like, hey, we'd like to go show you some love, Put on a great show. But the baseball boys, great chatting with them. Saw Hardy last night.

[Tony Dungy]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Hardy performed last night.

[AJ Hawk]

There we go.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a kid named Cheese I met. I'll tell you what, Cheese is flying at an altitude that we can all.

[Tony Dungy]

Kind of love that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Cheese has great, great vibes. Yeah. Nashville was spectacular last night. It was nice in and out. And Debone got a chance to get zipper burn, you know, like 1450.

[AJ Hawk]

Good for him.

[Pat McAfee]

We're sitting on Ernest's bus, okay. Before the show, and Ernest just has a guitar, and all these people are so talented. Another guy walks on. I have no idea who this guy is. Looks super cool. Looks super cool. Obviously, Debone sees him, and you see his eyes just light up. Debone is the biggest country music fan of all time. Some up and coming guy. Very talented guy. I would learn in a matter of moments. And, wow, this guy has so much talent. And Deebone, though, as soon as he walks on the bus, uncomfortable across from me, trying to tell me who the hell the person is. I don't know who it is. Then they just sit down. You got one guitar right to the right of Debone, somebody. It's incredible. Somebody standing right in front of them, and then they just start singing, and it's like, what do we want to sing tonight? They're, like, going through it, and Debone's just sitting there like. Like, literally a kid in a candy store. So last night was really cool. And thank you to Ernest and everybody for taking care of Debun.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, they treated him like they. He was one of their own. And I think he had a blast. We all did. But the baseball boys. World Baseball Classics coming up.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Coach Ross is coaching Team USA right there. He's a part of the stuff. Hey, we're trying to win that thing.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And this is good for. I don't want to talk about baseball right now because it's week 10 of the actual season about to kick off. Okay. But just chatting with him about the World Baseball Classic and who we have playing that's coming up in March, I think. Okay. Hey, baseball's up, I think, and Shohei and all them are playing, I think, for Japan. Right? Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean that. Yeah, they'll try to win it again. They're defending champs.

[Pat McAfee]

I want to let you know, on that bus last night and Ty, you're our baseball fan and savant here on that bus last night with Mr. Ross, Grandpa Rossi, Coach Ross, whatever the hell you guys call him in baseball. Manager Ross, whatever the fuck it is, Skip. Okay.

[AJ Hawk]

Grandpa Rossi is what a lot of people call him.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, that's his Instagram. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Pretty sick. He's pretty, I don't know, stropping for a long time. Yeah. He might have grandpa strength. He gave me a full hitting lesson, you know, on the Buster. Probably 35, 40 minutes of solid baseball.

[Tony Dungy]

Okay.

[AJ Hawk]

There you go.

[Pat McAfee]

No, that. I'm pretty locked in right now on what baseball is, and I got an entire hitting lesson on the bus, as other conversations were happening, was just me and David Ross by herself. And there's a bat right there. I just picked that thing up. So this what I'm trying to. This what I'm trying to do. He's giving me full lessons on it. It was. Baseball's been good to us. We would like. I would like to say to Grandpa Rossi and Logan, thank you for being so cool to me last night, because I certainly was like a little kid in there. So I'm like, I'm trying to squash the bug, Right? Yeah. Then we'll try and turn it. Rossi sends text this morning, goes, I don't know why I was telling you what to do. I have a career average of 222. Yeah, he sounded like an expert last night. Sports are amazing. One half of the Hammer Cowboys AP Tone is here. So shout out to Nashville last night. Shout out to everybody, but shout out to Amazon prime tonight. Thursday Night Football. Kicking off another week of NFL football now, two weeks ago, the biggest shite slate in the history of the NFL since 1970. Sorry. Since the merger this past weekend. Electricity all the way throughout tonight, eight and a half point spread to nine and a half point spread. What are the numbers saying? Who's betting where? And are we going to have another blowout on prime time? I thought we were in a good. I thought the NFL was saying we up. Is there a chance a blowout is coming tonight?

[Tony Dungy]

Tone?

[Ty Schmidt]

So the last two Thursdays were blowouts. The Chargers blew out the Minnesota Vikings and then the Ravens blew out the Miami Dolphins. Down in Miami last week. One week from today, I believe it was seven or seven and a half around. There was a. Was the spread last week. This week we are getting eight and a half to nine and a half with the Broncos. 66% of the money is on the Broncos, which is not a surprise for tonight. They have been the much better team, the Raiders, even though they they looked good last week, they took the Jags to overtime. They could not get it done. But overall the Broncos have been the better team. So I'm not surprised that 66% of the money's on the boys.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so everybody likes their uniforms too. It looks super cool. And we know that the Orange Crush, I believe is their fan base is a very Tonight should be scenes, I believe is how they describe this, especially because it is a divisional matchup. Let's go to some stats that Hembo sent over. Now we love whenever. Like there's this in detail of percentages on stuff, but Geno Smith, 7.8% sac rate. Okay. The NFL average is 6.6%, 29.2% pressure to sack rate. NFL average is 21% above on both those. How about the Broncos defense? How do they do on both those things? Well, 11.3% sack rate, which is the highest since 2006. Wow, that's a long. That's 25 years. Hey, they're getting to the quarterback at a higher percentage than anybody in a half a quarter of a century. 30.1% pressure to sack rate high since 2022 Eagles. So whenever you're talking about what the Broncos def. Is very good at, the Raiders offense is horrendous at. And that normally decides the game, that getting to the quarterback is normally what decides the game. The Broncos are built to do that and the Raiders, we're finding out throughout the season, are just not equipped to be able to stop that. Are we worried about this Raiders team? Like just like Pete Carroll. Right. We just assume he's going to be able to get it going over there. I think I Do naturally, because I respect Pete Carroll. Like, that is kind of how I feel like I respect Pete Carroll. But then you watch some of these games, like, I don't think Gino's a bad quarterback, but boy, great throws he's making that are going the other way. Yeah, these things are getting picked off and it's like he's still spinning it. It feels like they, they have enough potential pieces, but they just lose. It feels like the Raiders just kind of feels like the Raiders just kind of lose. Like, I, I don't want to put that in. Into the universe because it's kind of sad. It's kind of like a Jet situation, but it feels like especially with what the Chiefs have done, Chargers have done, Broncos have done, it's like it's going to be difficult to win over there in Las Vegas, I think, especially with just kind of the stink that kind of radiates from over there.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. I mean, because even when, you know, they had the, the car error and that ended. It was really like they didn't tear everything down and restart. They kind of, you know, mix and match things to kind of piece it together. But look at that division. Like you, you have to be good, you know, like they, they stand no chance unless they get a franchise quarterback. Like you said, Geno's not awful, but he's been throwing a lot of picks this year. And you know, that Bo Nix is, is young. You know, Justin Herbert is young. And then you have. Mahomes is obviously going to play for quite a bit longer too. So you can't just keep kind of like hoping, hey, maybe one of these years we'll hit the jackpot and we'll win the division. We'll get in the dance. Like, they're almost just spinning their wheels until they actually find who they're going to go with for the next, you know, 10 years or so.

[Ty Schmidt]

And Brock Bowers is just certified absolute.

[Pat McAfee]

Studs and Maxes on the other side.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, he's going to get his. And then they drafted Genti, who, when he has space, is unbelievable. But the problem is they drafted a running back before they had an offensive line, which is, which is an issue. You saw the offensive line pass blocking stats, the run blocking stats are not good either. So, like, they have some pieces, but we've talked about all the time, like, besides Max in the trenches on both sides, it's just not a good situation.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, I mean, I just think Pete Carroll sucks. I'll be honest.

[Pat McAfee]

That's Patriots fans.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, no doubt. But he coached in New England sucked. And then, you know, obviously the worst call in the history of the super bowl, you could argue, is throwing that ball. But again, that's probably not even his decision. My whole.

[Pat McAfee]

I think he had to sign off on.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, he probably did, which is ridiculous. But, you know, he probably didn't want Marshawn lynch to win mvp. You could ask Marshawn lynch about that. It sounds like he thinks the same thing. But when it just comes to the Raiders in general, I mean, you sign your head coach first to the new Brady ownership regime, to a three year deal. So Pete Carroll, you know, he's not there for the long haul. And then you would only really hope, not that they are a playoff team or anything, but that they're competitive and they haven't been. So it's kind of a question of like, what the hell is this team?

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, the quarterback too, a little bit.

[Tony Dungy]

Which is kind of Pete Carroll's decision, I think people would assume, just because Seattle Gino, with what's going on in Seattle, not a great look, but. And then if you just think about the team as a whole, like, they're basically on the brink of a completely new rebuild. It's the truth. They don't have.

[Pat McAfee]

And it's crazy. They've been kind of teetering on it for years. Yeah, to Ty's point where it's like he said, mix and match. It's like there's always like a carryover, like one piece carryover that one passes to the next. And obviously we're talking about this just strictly because it hasn't worked. Any one of those situations could have worked. It is not. And now it's like hard not to say. This seems to be a pattern now. Will the Raiders ever turn around? We shall see. And is this the Broncos division? Is this the Broncos division? You know, BA thought so, yeah. Bruce Arians is a big fan of this Denver Broncos team. He's a big fan, I think, of Sean Payton, so I think he has a lot of respect for what he's able to do. But Bo Nix, I mean, this dude's got the moxie. I love the cut of the Bo Knicks jib. We'll be talking to Kirk Herbstreit here in about three minutes or so. Good news. Sauce Gardner has cleared concussion pro. Yeah, Sauce is gonna be running wild in Germany. You know, know they head over to Bjorn Werner's hometown, our home country at least. And I think there's going to be a lot of Colts fans over there. I think it's going to Be great for the Indianapolis Colts. And the fact that also we get a chance to watch Sauce's first action with the Indianapolis Colts at 9:30 in the morning or whatever it's going to be is a great way to start our NFL Sunday slate, I think.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, was it the. Did the Colts in the Patriots play in Germany the last time the col. I mean, like, think of where the Colts were then to where they are now. Like, I think you, you might be right. Like, hey, if you're, if you're looking at taking a vacation and you're a Colts fan, like, this would be a pretty awesome situation to go to. And then obviously on the other side, like Atlanta, no one really knows what they are either. So this is a good get back spot for the Colts.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, why not? Colts, you know, in Sauce, go ahead and get your mitts on a few.

[Ty Schmidt]

He looks clean in that cut. Those colors too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he does. He looks comfortable, looks happy. And also given his first two jerseys he is giving away are to the boys that were crying.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, that's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Bryce and Trey, those old jets fans. Yeah, and shout. Colts making that happen. But shout to Sauce Gardner. And hey, got good news for you guys. You're Colts fans now. Yep. Sauce, give me two jerseys now. These look a little, a little bit large. Okay. I don't know if these are going to close, but we will certainly get you right size. And Sauce, I want to let you know, thank you for representing the Colts this quickly. Hey, welcome to the team. You know, obviously everybody's talking about the number two first rounders and everything like that. And A.D. mitchell, it's like, sauce, welcome to the team. If we win, nobody cares about anything. And Sauce is going to help everybody in the building do that is what everybody in the building has to say. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is the man who kicks off the NFL slate every single Thursday night on Amazon. He's also the voice of college football as he's been on college game day for 30 years.

[AJ Hawk]

I think.

[Pat McAfee]

Holy hell. I think it has been 30 years.

[AJ Hawk]

95.

[Mike Elko]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

And then he's obviously the voice of the biggest game Saturday night in college. He's voiced college football as well. Golly. Former president of Ohio. And he needs you to go. Keepyournetwork, Stockholm. Ladies and gentlemen, Kirk Herbstream.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Hey, how we doing, boys?

[Pat McAfee]

I hated that you posted that. I know you. I know you felt obligated.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I don't, I don't.

[Pat McAfee]

I know, I know, I know, I know, I know somebody told you and you felt obligated, you were trying.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Somebody told me, and I thought, hey, maybe this will help let people watch the shows. All I didn't really think about.

[Pat McAfee]

I know. I know what you're. You're trying to be a good team player, and you love ball just as.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Literally more than I thought. Hey, maybe this will help people be able to watch games today. That's how I thought. But why don't you just guide me on that shit?

[Pat McAfee]

Will you please ask me? Yeah, because, like, there is ramifications to all these things, you know?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know anything about it. I was. I thought it was cool that you put the whole show on your. On your ex thing. That's. I didn't know you could do that.

[Pat McAfee]

Neither did we. And the fact that that happened, I think that's setting up for. Okay, let's not even dive into that. There's a lot going on still behind the scenes. We would like the deal to get done. All of us would like the deal to get done.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Can you do that this Saturday? Are you going to do that again for three hours?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. We'll see if the deal. Hey, we'll see. We'll see where, you know, like, for the good of ball, we all would like this deal to get done, right?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I agree. I agree.

[Pat McAfee]

We would all like this deal to get done. So let's go ahead and get that done for the good of ball. And I assume, you know, politics, people will say, for the good of the world, too. We're just saying for the good old ball, which is good for the world.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's all we care about.

[Tony Dungy]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

That is what we would like.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's all we know. Yeah, we need it.

[Pat McAfee]

But let's talk about tonight, shall we? Let's talk about ball on prime 8:15 kickoff. Raiders at Broncos. We just kind of went through how coming into the season, the Raiders had such a fresh appeal to it. You know, Tom Brady's making decisions. Chip Kelly, fresh off a national championship, is back at offensive coordinator for an NFL team. Obviously, he's been a head coach before. Now he's just coordinator. He bring Pete Carroll in. Pete Carroll even said it, hey, I win games. You still got Max Crosby. Brock Bowers is special. Geno Smith becomes quarterback. It was like, hold on, this might be a brand new Raiders team. Brandon hasn't felt that way. Right. Similar outcomes, although you got different pieces there. And then on the other side, this Broncos team, Super bowl darlings coming into the season for everybody. Because how much everybody loves Sean Payton and I think how much everybody respects the defense that the Denver Broncos have. So they assume up and to the right super bowl going into the year. Broncos have lived up though. I think what everybody's saying. Raiders have not. You've talked to both parties now. What do you think are kind of the takeaways from both sides as we head into this Thursday night matchup?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I mean, you're all over it. I think the Raiders were like you said, with Pete going there, Chip Kelly going there, Gino coming over to call the, you know, to be the quarterback. And then you had enough pieces with, you know, if you think about what Brock Bowers, you could argue, I mean, he's technically a tight end. They really use him when they flex him out more as a receiver. And he's a tough matchup. If you play, man, I don't know what you're going to put on him. You know, corner safety. No matter who it is, you're. You're in a tough spot. Look at that, that catch right there. Yeah, he had three touchdowns last week. And I think a big part of that is he, he got hurt in week one, tried to kind of gut it out next couple weeks and they finally took him off here. He hadn't played in three weeks. Throw the buy in. That's four weeks until he came back against Jacksonville where he just lit it up. So I think internally the hope with, with the Raiders, with Pete and Chip is you guys have no idea how big of a piece to the puzzle that guy is for kind of build our offense around his skill set and give defenses a lot to kind of figure out where's the guy going to be aligned. And that really helps Genty and the offensive line and all the other pieces. So, so obviously they moved Jacoby Myers, probably you could argue their best quote, unquote receiver. But I think this is one of those Thursday night games. You're sitting there in the open like, how's this game going to be competitive? And it just ends up in the fourth quarter, one possession game. And by the way, Denver, they're in a one possession game every single week. I think they're five and two in one possession games, which is a really a credit to them and kind of their culture. Until I, I mean, I've watched Denver play this year, but when you're calling a game, you kind of peel it back a little bit further. I don't know if, if, if Nick Bonito and Jonathan Cooper, they're two edge guys, get the love that they deserve, I think they're probably playing at this point the season, the best tandem of any NFL defensive line and pass rush. And then on the inside, Zach Allen, nobody talks about. I mean, J.J. watt, obviously, when you have him on, you can talk to him about Zach Allen. I mean, he, he kind of got under JJ's wing in Phoenix or in Arizona and learned a lot about, okay, you're gifted, but here's some tricks to the trade, and he's taken that throughout his career, and now he's in Denver, and you throw those guys on the edge with him in the middle. It's a lot for any, any offense to be able to deal with. And Vance Joseph right now is dialing it up probably as well as any defensive coordinator. So this defense is real. And by the way, this is all with Pat Certain, probably the top corner in the league on the IR for the next few weeks. So they're doing it without him, and yet they're still playing at that elite level. So it'll, It'll be a good one. I'm hoping that when you call the game, you want a close game. I'm hoping that Brock Bowers and Ashton Genty get it going tonight and keep this one close.

[Pat McAfee]

It's been a couple of good Thursdays for you, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been really good. You know, big spreads going in, big spreads coming out.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Thursday Night Football, we had a good, we, we had a great start. Our first five or six were insane. You know, going down to the wire. Last two, not so much. So we're, We're. We're hoping, hoping. But this, this defense from Denver, and hopefully they stay healthy. They're getting Drake Greenlaw back. You know, he's obviously a thumper and a great player, so if they can get him along with Alex Singleton at those two linebacker spots, dude, with everything else they have around him, it's as good as there is, I think, right now in the NFL.

[Pat McAfee]

Hembo sent over some stats about just not good protection of Geno Smith either. SAC rate, percentage of SAC rate, and then what the Broncos are. Look at this stat down at the bottom, 11.3% sac rate. The Broncos defense, highest since the 2000 Saints. I assume you have numbers on that as well. But they get to the quarterback really good in Geno. Yeah, he gets. Got to very good too, by other teams. So it feels like the Denver Broncos struggle. Strength is a Raiders weakness. And as we know, this could be a, this could be quite a swing of the game, you know, because you. Oh, you first down, wreck. Then it's like second and 15. It's like, all right, now you're punting the ball, and what's going on the other side? Well, maybe Bo Nix will figure it out. And then all of a sudden, you're in a battle. And then all of a sudden, Kirk Herbstreet. Now Michaels are filling time in the fourth quarter. We hope that's not happening. We hope that's not happening. Now, on that note, Will Lutz, okay? Will Lutz, I think he's got three game winners this year. I think For Sean Payne, 14 or 14 of 16 under Sean Payton, him in those clutch kicks. Will Lutz, he has. I don't think his pants touch his knees either. So let's have a little respect, okay? Let's have a respect for this guy. All right? This guy. And I will say.

[Tony Dungy]

You didn't kill.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Kick, pull a shot of Pat McAfee up in his prime kicking field goals for the Colts or punting for the Colts. I want to see your uni. I want to see Adam's uni and how he looked. There's no way those were shorts, dude. They were not just covered up above the knee. Those were short shorts.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he came out afterwards and said it was a little torn more than I thought. And you don't really see. He said he didn't know how short they were until he saw it. And he was like, wow, those are. And too you. I would say, as somebody that did not like anything touching my knee, you know, I think that's. Most kickers, we don't want anything, like, kind of on top of our knee because of the amount of movement. I think those were a little high, but you gotta remember. Yeah, yeah. So I go, right. Look at you.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's perfect. That is perfect.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. We're old school, though. You know, me, we're old school guys. You know, we're old school guys.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

You got a little something going on with the laces. And I mean. I mean, you're. You're having some fun there, right?

[Ryan Day]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I got some sauce. I got some sauce.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

For sure. Yeah, absolutely.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's a good look.

[Pat McAfee]

The Sandow, I think, is his name. He great kicker kid out of Oklahoma.

[Tony Dungy]

Great.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, you got to have. You got to be good to have the amount of confidence that he has to roll out there with those shorts where they're at.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

You see the mean mugging on the back end of the kicks, too. If you could roll that, like, after he makes the kicks, he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that just happened. See if.

[Pat McAfee]

What.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Watch him after he makes his 55 yards.

[Pat McAfee]

This is just a photo. This is just a photo.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Just a photo. And I would say those are technically. Those are shorts.

[Pat McAfee]

Those are tight.

[Ty Schmidt]

Those are bike shorts.

[Pat McAfee]

That's great. Yeah, those are a little short. And he did come out afterwards and say, this one's on me. Yeah, those ones were a little high, a little tight. But he's an incredible kicker and he's a hammer.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I mean, he is for a little guy. He's. I don't remember how were they coupled from 55 and three over 50. I mean, he was crushing.

[Pat McAfee]

52, 56, 55, I think. And all needed. These are all needed. Every one of them. Yeah. 102,000 people. 102,000, you know, and everyone is in a. Yeah, that is big time.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Keep the dream alive with that leg. Keep the dream alive. They go to Tuscaloosa in a couple weeks, but right now their dream's still alive. That's a brutal schedule.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so for me in this conversation, and you obviously do a lot of college and now for the past four years been the voice of kicking off NFL schedules, which we are so incredibly appreciative of, it's hard to find good kickers because, like, think about how big that moment is for that guy. Every. Some kickers get like broken in college mentally because of the big moments. And then you got some guys that aren't in any games that matter at all.

[AJ Hawk]

All.

[Pat McAfee]

So it's like, how do you know when and who's going to show up? And that's why you go back to Vandy and you think, Tyler Huang, this kid needs get signed somewhere. You know, he stepped the kid to kid, kicked it in. Vandy, yeah. He was an absolute monster. Jonah out there in Utah, he snuck that one in Stanford. Steve didn't want to give it to.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

What was the final analysis I didn't hear this week? Did you guys get a good replay? From my perspective, I. But it came back in, I thought.

[Pat McAfee]

But you and me were standing in the same area, so I think we saw it go right like the first one, but then it kind of hooked back in over the upright and yeah, I thought it was good. I do appreciate Stanford Steve saying, nope.

[Ty Schmidt]

I actually ripped up the check.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Oh, my gosh.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I don't know. Jonah started celebrating too. That was a good play by J. I smell good.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Look at Stevie.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

And then he goes left, guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Right in that guy's face. He does it right in Jonah's Face. Yeah, right, bud. That ain't good. Right in his face. The whole place was yelling.

[AJ Hawker]

It was.

[Pat McAfee]

That was quite a scene. Those have become quite. Quite wild out there, Herby. I'm going say those are wild.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Oh, it's so much fun. You just never. We. We tried to, you know, affect them with the blockers. I was trying to get those blockers on the turf, but you were being so kind.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, no, no.

[AJ Hawk]

It.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Let's push them back.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, those kids getting blasted in the face, bro. We can't. Did you know it was going to be dudes holding that? I had no idea. I thought maybe we had rollers. Did you? Is that what you thought?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

They were just sitting there, like, turning away from it.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, they're going to get blasted in the face. It was all like, oh, we need to back this up a little bit here. Who.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Who were those lads? Who were those.

[Pat McAfee]

I genuinely have no idea. I. I have no clue who they were. But I'll tell you what.

[Tony Dungy]

They.

[Pat McAfee]

They had courage. Those dudes just sat right. They had.

[Ty Schmidt]

Steve just grabbed them out of the.

[Pat McAfee]

Crowd, said, hey, boys. Hey, boys. Need to go block this kick. It's going to be no good one way or the other. Either you walk it, or I'm gonna call it no good, regardless. But, yeah, they walked up there. The one kid had his face just right next to it, just like, sitting right here. I'm like, yo, bro. Like, I was a little worried. I wasn't worried for that, but I.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Appreciate you looking, but next time we do that, I'm gonna bring them in a little bit tighter, if you don't mind that. That's.

[Ryan Day]

That's.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's a little bit too easy where. Where we had them. I didn't think they. They really affected him much.

[Pat McAfee]

They can't get blasted in the face, though. These kids look like they were 16 years old. I mean, mean, that's.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sign a waiver.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, get him.

[AJ Hawk]

Sign a waiver.

[Tony Dungy]

Might help him.

[Pat McAfee]

All right.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I think it'd be good for ratings if they took one off. The would love that, right?

[Pat McAfee]

He's not lying.

[Tony Dungy]

That's football.

[Ty Schmidt]

Right in the gut.

[Pat McAfee]

Could you imagine me, this guy?

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Kids puking because it got hit so hard.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe this week, tune in, Texas.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I tell you, too many. Too many people are making it this year. I mean, holy cow. It's like every week they make.

[Pat McAfee]

I know. We got to start. It was.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

How much have you given out so far?

[Pat McAfee]

We don't need to talk about it. It's too much. Every time it goes through, it's just like, oh, my.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Is it too. Is it 2 million? It's got to. I mean, it's probably getting up near.

[Pat McAfee]

Has to be.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Has to be up there past 2 million.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Now they're preparing. Everybody's practicing. The Texas Tech kids practicing this week, which I respect down there. Got Cowboys, mascot, obviously named Larry.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yep, yep, he's there.

[Ryan Day]

He's ready.

[Tony Dungy]

Raider.

[Pat McAfee]

His name's Larry. Is that what his name is?

[Tony Dungy]

Lubbock Larry is kind of what I was thinking.

[Pat McAfee]

I know. Lubbock Larry is. Love it. Raider Red. Raider Red. Raider Red. Raider Red.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Raider Red.

[Matt Rule]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

That looked like that was La Ra Red. You can come kick for sure. Yeah, we certainly put you on the spot there. Raider Red. We'd love to see you. I think they're going to be. I think this is going to be pretty outrageous. I think it's going to be quite a scene this weekend, brother.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Oh, my gosh. They started camping out on Sunday night.

[Pat McAfee]

I know they love their ball down there. What a game.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

They love their ball Friday Night Lights. That's what it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, isn't Joey the perfect guy for that to coach there? Right? He's high school football coach.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah, high school coach who's now killing it in college.

[Pat McAfee]

College.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

We need Riggins to show up down there Friday Night Lights.

[Pat McAfee]

They got. They got a lot of money too, don't they?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Very, very active former player who's a billionaire that's he's making sure that the women's basketball team, the softball football, you name it, they're. They're all in.

[Pat McAfee]

What's he. Is he oil? Is he an oil guy?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's all I ever think or I think he's oil. Yeah, I think he's an oil guy. So you think about a young buck. A young buck like you like, he's a young guy who found a drill.

[Pat McAfee]

And he go ahead and pop that thing down.

[Ty Schmidt]

He made his fortune in the oil and gas.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God. He found one good rig out there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sold his company for $4 billion.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God. Good Lord, this man did it. Yeah. This is the same glory hole that Jerry is currently hunting. Once again, Cody Campbell. Cody Campbell. Hey, Cody. Way to go, man.

[Tony Dungy]

Boy.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Cody, Cody. Next thing you know, David Bailey left Stanford and is down in Lubbock getting after it.

[Pat McAfee]

Isn't that incredible? And then all of a sudden there's a what, a million dollar pitcher. Yeah, on the softball team. Everybody wants her. And then she literally Leads the team all the way to the World Series or whatever. Yeah, she is good for Cody Campbell. I like that. And good for him in that moment where he first heard that ring cough like any mammal would as oil started to flow. And then all of a sudden, it just was a pure, unfiltered, glorious, glorious road to $4 billion just piping out. It's scratch off. It's what they're doing. It is a scratch off is literally what they're doing. That's what Jerry's currently trying to do with this natural gas. He heard there's 100 billion.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Why don't you go work on a rig this weekend?

[Pat McAfee]

What do you think? I got meetings, brother. Yeah. What do you think? Scratch offs. I am. I don't go to gas stations anymore. Okay. Because when I go.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Remember we went to Montana, you were out there on the horses and you were. You're. You're becoming a cowboy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Why don't you. Why don't you. Why don't you work on the rig?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if I'm gonna work. I'm trying to figure out how to.

[Tony Dungy]

No, but just like send the other guy.

[AJ Hawk]

There we go.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe we do. Maybe we do send the other guy out to another covered in oil.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, maybe he makes these picks from the rig. That's not a bad idea standing on.

[Pat McAfee]

Top of that thing. The other rig Stanford Steve is on. Yeah, he's out there on the utter oil rig and he makes his picks from there. You said work on the rig. I don't think I'm going to be doing that. I will certainly.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

You and Cody. You and Cody go out to. To see where he hit it big. I think that would be a.

[Ty Schmidt]

Apparently had a cup of coffee on the Indianapolis Colts.

[Pat McAfee]

What year. Oh, boy. Is this. No way. This is Cody Campbell.

[Ty Schmidt]

You know, I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. I don't know. I don't think so.

[Ty Schmidt]

The 2008 season.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I think you're offensive defense alignment. I think. Think.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's move along. Holy hell. Am I in the oil scratch off business all of a sudden? If it sounds like I'm potentially get. I got my.

[Ty Schmidt]

I got my Big Country 2005 season. You weren't there yet.

[Pat McAfee]

No. Yeah, he's older than me. Okay. He's a little bit older than me, but I would. Cody, I'd like to learn anything that you're willing.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

You need to go. Go check out where he hit it big.

[Pat McAfee]

If I could become the Jerry Jones feeling the floor. I Think it's down here, you know, because they have like, all these rockologists or whatever they're saying it should be in this area here. It should be here.

[Ty Schmidt]

They do attack.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Legit. Yeah. All of that stuff. It should be here. It should be here. But then some of them nothing. Some of them nothing. People chasing that. You know, I used to watch. What was that show they went down to? The Gold Rush. You guys watched the Gold Rush show where they were trying to find gold?

[AJ Hawk]

Never watched it, but I am familiar with it.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I'd like to watch that. I'll watch that. Gold Rush.

[Matt Rule]

Oh, man.

[Pat McAfee]

They're. They're spending a lot of time out there and not really pulling much back, I'll tell you. But there is always the thought that this sweet nectar of gold is just going to come flowing out of this shit. And then you got $100 million. Every day they wake up thinking, $100 million. And then normally it's, we lost $45,000 a day. And then they go back out there. So this is the show. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, I don't know if this is the original cast. Is this the original cat?

[Ty Schmidt]

They were in the mountains a lot.

[Tony Dungy]

Adam Driver.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they went. There's another gold hunt one where they went down to, like, a jungle, like down in Africa.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's the one I saw.

[Pat McAfee]

They were getting in some. They almost.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

You watch Jungle Cruise Land man.

[Pat McAfee]

I saw Jerry Jones in Land Man. I saw one scene. He was unbelievable.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

He was really good.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he needs.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

In that scene.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he should act a little bit. All right, let's talk football. Suck football. Ty has a question for you. Kirk.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Herby, I know coming into this season, you were a big JJ McCarthy guy thinking that he was going to make the Vikings better than. Than, you know, when they had Sam Darnold. And obviously it's been a little bit up and down. His stats weren't great last week, but he, you know, led the Vikings to a big win over the Lions. With him being back now and allegedly 100% healthy, do you think the Vikings are about to go on a run with J.J. mcCarthy here?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I'm still. I'm still kind of bullish on what I think he's going to do, and I think it has as much to do with. With the system. And I mean, a guy hasn't played a lot of football. You think about the injury, you know, really this year, hadn't been able to practice a whole lot to be able to get the timing and the rhythm down so to me, what you're seeing right now is just glimpses. And eventually through more weeks and more reps and more opportunities, I think you're going to start to see the timing get better and better, the game slowing down for him, but you can see how the team responds to him. I think, Ty, that's the thing that I know you being an Iowa fan, when he was playing in Ann Arbor, it wasn't just him executing, it was how like, you know, see how he scores a touchdown, how you can just see whether it's a lineman, receivers, everybody's naturally drawn to him. And I think it's because he has a very selfless approach. And I think that goes over big in the locker room when you play that position. So I think this, I have a lot of respect for koc, the system that he makes for the quarterback, very quarterback friendly. And you look at the pieces they have around him. Yeah, yeah, I do. I think he'll get better every single week. And I think you're just seeing the beginning, beginning what I think is going to be a great marriage with, with he and KOC in that offense.

[Pat McAfee]

Why is he doing it? After a game in the locker room, he said he calls him nine. You know, that's character, nine. Not this part here. Whenever he's about to get the, the game ball, there's a video that I saw of him. He's kind of like bobbing back and forth. I think his tongue's going out there. And it's like this guy has like the competitive stamina. I think he wants to at least like his entire focus is on being a guy. I think like, that is kind of his mission since high school. It feels like. Of J.J. mcCarthy.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

No, I think that's true. Remember Covid? He left his high school team. I think he went down to IMG to play his last year because of COVID concerns and just wanted to play ball, just wanted to compete. We saw him early in his, if you remember, it was his freshman year. He was kind of playing a little bit of spot duty here and there. And then remember the sophomore year they gave starting an opportunity for both quarterbacks to win the job. He ends up winning the job and really never looked back as far as being Michigan starting quarterback. And I don't know, I mean, you watch all these quarterbacks, you always try to figure out what's the, what's the thing that makes NFL GMs and head coaches and scouting departments miss so consistently on first round picks. This JJ McCarthy class. You go back and look at top to bottom, now that he's starting to play, every single one of these guys is playing in that class. I mean, by the time it's all said and done, if they continue to play well, it's going to be one of the better classes we've ever seen. But they miss a lot. Right? So I think to me, repetitions like Brock Purdy had at Iowa State, huge. And then ability to process through those reps. Can you see it? Can you get the ball out? Do you have the ability to keep a play alive with your leg, legs? And I think he does all those things. And like I said, you go back to the KOC part of this. Aaron Jones, what he can do. I mean, there's just. JJ's, obviously, they've got a ton of weapons and I do. I think each week they're going to become a bigger story. As we get into December and January.

[Pat McAfee]

BA said every team in the NFC north is going to make the playoffs. BA said every team in the NFC north is going to make the playoffs. And if you start looking at schedules, it's like it is possible probably going to happen. Be the first time ever. That'd be the first time ever.

[Ryan Day]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

They are very good up there. You know, obviously it just used to be the Green Bay packers and then. And for a long time. And packers fans really enjoyed that, didn't they?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, it was. It was a great run about pretty much my entire childhood going up to, you know, when I was 25, 26 years old.

[Pat McAfee]

And just no respect really, for anybody else. Certainly not when the Lions were getting good, you know, and that was all happening, all Ty would say, okay. And then the Chicago Bears, since this show has started and me chatting with Ty Schmidt, a Green Bay packers owner, there's been three different times that the Bears are supposed to be good. And every single time, Ty goes, okay, it's the Chicago Bears. Let's all relax. But now it's like, wait a minute. Yeah, Chicago Bears might have figured it out. Lions definitely have it figured out. And the Vikings have the reigning coach of the year and Kevin o' Connell with a young quarterback that might be like, all of a sudden, this is a powerhouse of a conference or division for a long time, too. This isn't just like for a year or two, this seemingly next 10 years.

[AJ Hawk]

No. Yeah. I mean, I guess Goff is the oldest, but still, he's. It's, you know, he's got a lot of good years left in him. Like all the quarterbacks in that division are super young, too.

[Pat McAfee]

That.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Herbie, look at that. When you guys had the standings up. Look at that NFC at the halfway point. Like. Like you could make a case for a lot of teams. Again, a lot of it's going to be based on health, but look at that race that we have this year in the nfc and the quarterbacks that you have, I mean, that is wide open this year.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. There's the top seven for super wild card weekend as we currently sit. And then obviously there's lurking behind us, and then there'll be some division champions that kind of throw off the ranking of it all, and we'll certainly have some gripes going into wild card weekend, but then we'll have six fantastic games that'll launch us into a playoff run. There it is. Right around the corner, kind of.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, it is.

[Pat McAfee]

We got a lot of season left.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, we got a lot of season left.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

And I. I think it's great that in the NFL we have rules. If you tie, you know, there's different tiebreakers. And in college football, it's just subjective analysis. And that started this Tuesday night, and it just gets messy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. But they put their hats. You see them put their hats. They took.

[AJ Hawk]

Went to work.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I saw that. They took their hats off.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Did they sing their song this year or is that. Is that not happening?

[Pat McAfee]

Starting with 12. Count down the ones we don't know yet. But I just want to know, like, do they take the hat off? Because the hat is kind of creativity eclipse.

[Ty Schmidt]

They put their hard hats on when they go into the room.

[AJ Hawk]

Okay, cool.

[Tony Dungy]

So that's.

[Ty Schmidt]

They whistle while they work.

[Pat McAfee]

So they take off their casual leisure cap and they put on their thinking heart hard hat.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

I get their college game day orange hard hat.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

How much would you guys hate to be in that room? Because no matter what you do, you're wrong.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you mean like I. I would hate to be in that room. Okay. I didn't know why you're. You're talking about having one.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

If all. If all of us. Oh, they would have to make. Wouldn't that. Wouldn't that suck? I mean, no matter what you do, you're.

[AJ Hawk]

No way.

[Tony Dungy]

Be awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

Ty would want to do it. Connor would want to do it. Because they'll just sit in the fire. They're cool with it. Say, so what? Sally feel. It would suck, though. You'd never win. It's not.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Hey, hey, hey, hey. Oregon loses Saturday.

[AJ Hawk]

Don't get. Don't get too loud with it.

[Pat McAfee]

You think that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, it's getting real loud.

[AJ Hawk]

I know.

[Pat McAfee]

Why are you saying that? Why'd you say that so loud like that? This is very early. Putting that out into the universe. Ty really was wishing you didn't do that on a Thursday.

[AJ Hawk]

But I, I, Hey, I've been, I've been feeling like this since the Monday after.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I'm telling you, I'm telling you, we all love Dan Lanning, we all love the Ducks and their potential. But there's just something about certain teams at Iowa. When you go to November, the only blessing they have is it's not a night game, right?

[AJ Hawk]

No. 3:30.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

If it were a night game, it would be a given, it'd be a loss. But at 3:30, it's going to get dark in the second half. And I'm telling you, Iowa's going to be just typical Iowa. It's going to be ugly. It's going to be like 15 to 12, 12. You're going to wonder how the hell did we get to 15 to 12? But that's part of the fun with Iowa. We don't know how we got to 15 to 12, but it's going to be safety.

[Pat McAfee]

What happened? What happened? How did we get here?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

How'd we get here?

[Pat McAfee]

Actually, they bobbled the snap, the kicker picked it up, ran it in for a two point conversion as they were.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Trying to do an extra point, something wacky. And then they're going to be lined up to kick a game winning field goal. And, and it's, it's 15:13. It's 15:13. There's like 40 seconds to go. The crowd's going crazy. Here we go, lining up 45 yard right hash.

[Mike Elko]

Boom.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Nail it. Game over. 16:15. Iowa wins.

[Pat McAfee]

Iowa all of a sudden still very much in a college football playoff conversation.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Right in the mix.

[Pat McAfee]

And the Big Ten champions. Oh my God, the Hawkeyes with Granaski, this D3, Heisman winner, National champion.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Before winning with punting and defense. No longer winning with punting and defense.

[Pat McAfee]

No winning with just a quarterback that can't throw. But he can run really, really, really, really good. He can run really, really, really good.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

And look at, look at the, look at the fans. That's the difference the game.

[Pat McAfee]

Kirk's dogs going crazy out there. Now, Ty, he just took us to a fantasy land there on Saturday. And I don't know if putting that out in the environment, Dan Lanning heard that right there. Sure. Dan Lanning is running that to the team tomorrow morning, if I had to guess before they travel out to Iowa. Dan saying, hey, this is what the voice of college football is, how he was in.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I'm telling you, be careful. Just be. At the very least, they're either going to escape or they're going to lose.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what's going to happen at Penn State game. I had eyes on that game against Oregon, Penn State. Think about how much has changed since then. Yeah, think about it. That was an overtime. That was an over overtime. That was in overtime. So like, wow, that's just a, that's, that's what, four weeks ago, if you start doing the math here mid season, it's. That was a crazy night. Oregon, though, anytime Dan Lanning's coaching and we have the utmost respect, obviously might have the number one quarterback draft. I mean, there is a lot of good obviously with Dan Lanning, but Iowa is just a little bit different, isn't it, over there?

[AJ Hawk]

I'll tell you what, weather's not going to be nice. It's going to be windy. It's going to be raining, rainy. I have been feeling like this for a little bit. I, I really have.

[Pat McAfee]

So does it scare you now that Kirk has put this out?

[Tony Dungy]

No. No.

[AJ Hawk]

Because if, if they weren't taking Iowa seriously before this.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. He's saying, don't say it. You just said it. You said it.

[Tony Dungy]

Everybody, too late.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody's gonna hear it. We can't dump it.

[AJ Hawk]

And it's not, it's not coming from the team. You know, like Kirk's dogs will be ready. He's certainly not given any bolt and board material, you know, so we'll, so we'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, no. So CBS Sports just tweeted this out there to Mark Gronowski is a winner.

[AJ Hawk]

Well, that's just an undisputable fact.

[Pat McAfee]

They just tweeted the. CBS Sports just tweeted this out. So you got Herbie going, sh, sh. Gronowski's about to take down Oregon. Then you got CBS Sports saying, yeah, actually here's another thing.

[AJ Hawk]

Herbie said it.

[Pat McAfee]

Put it up. Here's another thing. 55 and 8. This guy. You, you want to see a winner when he's playing football, he wins in Dan Lenning. You hear what CBS Sports is saying now about the. This guy. Hear what Kirk Kirby saying. So much to draw from in such an inspirational motivation type game. Now all of a sudden it's just getting flooded over to Oregon.

[AJ Hawk]

It's okay.

[Pat McAfee]

What is that? What is Kirk going to be able to pull from? What is Kirk going to be able to pull from now?

[AJ Hawk]

He doesn't need any gimmicks he's not PJ Fleck. He doesn't need some row the boat, row the boat mumbo jumbo.

[Pat McAfee]

He do what he is for that. There was no reason for that.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Why are you taking shots in Minnesota?

[Ty Schmidt]

He always does.

[AJ Hawk]

Well, they love to, you know, chant I hate Iowa and stuff like that. And I don't think about him, but I thought that was pretty apropos because Kirk's just going to do what he has done every single game for the entire Kirk Fair. And hey, we're just gonna be tough, physical, play smart, don't get penalized. And we'll see, you know, we'll put the chips in the middle and we'll see how it falls.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

They just, they just, they try to lure you out, out into the fourth quarter, out to the deep end. They just try to. It's really ugly, really ugly.

[Pat McAfee]

It's gonna be hard to stay awake, see if they can.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's what they do. That's Iowa football right there.

[Tony Dungy]

Well said.

[Pat McAfee]

No explosives, no offense, no throwing, just hard. Nose owl football in November at home, waving to the children's.

[AJ Hawk]

That's right. They've been averaging 30 plus for the last couple weeks here. So, you know, we'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. We'll see. Bye week might change. Let's go back to the NFL. Talk about a team that might be back. Go ahead, Tone.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Herbert. You had them last week, the Ravens down in Miami. Now, the record is still what the record is, but they are the favorites to win the AFC North. What did you get vibes wise from the Ravens before that game and how do you feel about their outlook the rest of the season?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I probably like a lot of other people. The fact that they're finally healthy, not just Lamar, but all the pieces. Ricard. Ricard being back, as you guys know, it's such a big part of what they do offensively. I mean, they were favored before they won that game to come back and win their division, division. I know you're a big Steelers guy. They got a big win last week and it's really a two team race in that division. But I, you look at their schedule, what they have in front of them, if they stay healthy. I love the Steelers, hope they get there, but I, I would bet on the Ravens right now.

[Ty Schmidt]

You don't believe in your Bengals? You don't believe in your Bengals, Harry?

[Pat McAfee]

Good team?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

No, I don't at all. I, I, I, I'm a, I'm a, My teams take a rubber hose out on me and just beat Me into the ground. That's what they like to do, you know, that's. That's what they do.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but Joe Flacco, dude, Joe Flacco.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Had so been great.

[Pat McAfee]

Such a cool under 2 minute drive score. Touchdown to win that one. That was such a good drive.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

As long as there's more than 15 seconds, then you know what's going to happen.

[Pat McAfee]

Caleb, you knew it was going to happen.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Here's my, here's how my brain works. Touchdown. Great. How much time's left? No, that's game four. They lost.

[Pat McAfee]

No way With Caleb. Did you know that about Caleb? That's a real thing. Because like obviously Colson Loveland makes an incredible play in the Cincinnati Bengals. And here's some Caleb Williams magic that's obviously taking place in the NFL. That was also happening in college, which is why he was the outright number one guy.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

And then right here in my family room, I said hit the, hit the crosshair, hit the dig right, right here. Get in the field goal range. That's what I'm saying to Jake and Ty. Boom. I didn't. This is a bonus. That was a bonus to miss tackles. I just thought they tackle him, bring out the game winning field goal. But the bonus there with Loveland saying these guys don't tackle. So just keep running.

[Pat McAfee]

What's your Reds group text code?

[Tony Dungy]

Pain.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Pain.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, pain. Shout out to Cincinnati. Still doing it.

[AJ Hawk]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, you know what though? We all knew going into the year though that that was going to be a winning brain of footballs. You know, we all knew that that was how you win football games going into the season. Now there was a chance that you guys are going to change it all. Since today I was going to change it all. Hey, we'll pay two number ones because they both are incredibly talented. They both are exactly who you paid them to be. We're going to pay. A quarterback is going to be great and then, you know, defensively they'll figure it out. We'll get a stop somewhere. We'll get a stop somewhere in there and we'll just be able to beat these teams. And then whenever you think about BENGALS Defense ranking 630 seconds among 640 defenses in the span of 20 years.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Is that bad? That's, that's, Is that, that's, that's, that's so there.

[Pat McAfee]

I thought there has been worse.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I thought Sweet Lou was the problem. He. Where's he now? Over at Indy.

[Pat McAfee]

He came to the Colts. Yeah, we got. Yeah, yeah. We just got sauce too we just got Sauce and Moody and Jermaine Pratt. You guys know him. He was a good player for you guys. He's over here. We got the Forest, Buckner, Grove, Stewart, Laatu Lotto. He's got three picks, I think two bigs. Yeah. Lou Anne, Rumo just out there calling the shots.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

But yeah, it turns out he's still. He's a DC in the league still. Okay. Doing well. Doing well.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, he is. This is what he said about Sas Gardner and love the addition of Sauce. It gives us another Pro bowl corner. The guy's been a lockdown player his whole career and gives us the chance to match him and Ward Moody up to different receivers. Two super smart football players. I can't say enough about Sauce Gardner being on our team. We just elevate our whole defense. Luann Rubo is living like king over here. Paison King, Lou Annarumo getting all the pieces. They're spending money on defense. They're spending draft picks on defense.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

They spent two first, honestly. How's that feel? How's that feel to see your squad? Because I know you were last year, last few years, it hadn't been great with you and the Colts. You're. You're back. You're back and you guys are all together in harmony.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Happy. Enjoying this ball club. Is it. What's it feel like? Is it fun?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Week. I love the Colts. Yeah. I love the Colts. The team. You know, I love the Colts team. This particular roster. Doing a great job right now.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

How about the owner, Buddy, what's going on? The owner's taking notes during.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, you're talking about Carly. You're talking about Carly arse. Yeah, Carly's in G. Okay. That is how Carly's been on the sideline for years now. Okay. As I think it became more, I guess closer to the time in which they potentially take over over team, they obviously all started investing a lot more time in building, learning about things. Carly, since day one of getting into building full time, has been having full meetings and sessions on trying to learn the ins and outs of football that she wasn't able to learn from. She didn't play. I think she's lawyer by trade, so she obviously been around the Colts her entire life. Her dad had her around. She obviously loves the Colts and everything like that. But she didn't get the play. So she doesn't know the inside announced. So she thinks, and I think this was her original thought is I'm gonna have to hire people that are gonna have to do this and I don't know enough about this particular world. So she has gone head first in. You're talking, trying to learn as much as possible. And this is like, years now. This is like five, six, seven years straight of trying to, like, learn everything she possibly can and talking about Lou, Anna, Rumo. I talked to. I got a chance to talk to one of the big three here, Carla, and I'm like, what are you doing? You know, what are you doing? Everybody wants to know what you're doing. She's basically just charting what the play calls are, what the outcome is, and then she's checking out trends. At what times do you do what? Why do you do what? And she said Lou annorumo's play calls vastly different than what the previous defensive play calls were. He's got tags and ads and things like that. So as soon as she sees that, you know, she's like, oh, what's. I've never. What is this? And then she. She's able to talk to Lou. And then when she's talking to Lou, Lou's like, well, this is adding this to this. So it's like she is literally trying to learn football as fast and as great as possible. And I think, like, obviously you can mock her, because she does. She does not give a shit about what people think about how she dresses down there. I own the team, okay? I would dress however she was dressed, like Michael. She had this leather jacket on, leather pants on, these sick. Probably $10,000 boots on on the sideline with this entire thing, like, gee, you're talking about, like, an actual. She's got a lot of her dad in her, too, when it comes to that. Like, hey, I am who I am. But, like, it's all coming from, like, a good spot. And I think she knows, as do Kaylin and Casey, because they've been in the building and been talking to these coaches so much. It's like, hey, what do we need to go? Like, hey, we want to win a Super bowl here. This would be really cool for our dad. This would be really cool for everything. It's like, how do we go? It's like, you get us another big time elite defensive. We trust you. Let's go. And they're in. So I think it's all because of the information that she's gathered. Gathered that she's able to sign off on this type of decision, if that makes sense.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah, man. And you can see. It's cool to see that she's taken the time and not just this year, but kind of behind the scenes maybe we just didn't see the cameras weren't on her and we didn't realize that she's putting that kind of commitment in. But I would put them up as the biggest surprise this year in the entire NFL. Go back to August, what people thought of them and the potential. I mean, I mean, it's easy to look at Daniel Jones now, but when Daniel Jones left Minnesota, there wasn't a whole lot of people thinking that he's going to be, be the, the guy they thought maybe it'd be a competition with Anthony Richardson. But he's, he's been a huge story.

[Pat McAfee]

You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, that's Kirk. See you tonight. See you in Texas, brother. Safe travels.

[Mike Elko]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Kirk Herbstreit]

You ever show up late to the.

[Rhett Lashley]

Game and your friends already saved your seat, your drink, even a plate. That's looking out, that's having your back.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

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.

[Pat McAfee]

Or they'll proactively make it right. Just like that friend who takes care of things before you even ask.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

AT&T connecting changes everything.

[Pat McAfee]

Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.comguarantee for details. Football is awesome. And tonight on prime, we have an AFC west clash between the Raiders and the Broncos that we will all be watching. It's an eight and a half point spread on ESPN BET December 1, I believe, and then everywhere else. You could potentially get it at nine and a half as well, it's more than a one score game looking at it and boy, if it's another blowout, the NFL might start dancing Manson with a little bit of a danger with the fact that these prime time games have not been living up to any height or this could become an absolutely sensational battle. Bo Nix and Max Crosby and Geno Smith in the Broncos defense that has been heralded as maybe one of the greatest of all time. Al Michaels will be on the call. So it'll feel big unless it gets to a point where it's a blowout and Al Michaels will say what the hell will we do? And we will love him for that. And Herbie will be doing the same exact thing. What we do know is the pre show will be spectacular, the post show will run very late and a game will be happening in between those. Will it be a good one? We hope. Can it be ass? Certainly. Now we will talk about it for a little bit longer here and then we have a full boots on the ground. Feel the beat of college football coaches that we're about to start here in about eight minutes or so. We got Rhett Lashley joining us from smu, Ryan Day joining us from Ohio State, Mike Elko joining us from Texas A and M and then Rule joining us from. Joining us from Nebraska. We're about to hit it from all different angles. We're lucky to do it. The talks and tables here at Boston, Connor and at Ty Schmidt, 1/2 of the Hammer Cowboys AP Tone is here. And joining us live from an attic in Ohio is a man who's a college football national champion, a Super bowl champion, a Rodder cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawker. How you doing, Hawker?

[AJ Hawker]

Good. I'm looking forward to the old.

[Tony Dungy]

The.

[AJ Hawker]

What do you.

[Matt Rule]

We're.

[Pat McAfee]

We're what?

[AJ Hawker]

Feeling the beat with these coaches and everything. I couldn't think of it for a second.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, me neither. It took me a little bit to get there, but yeah, we got boots on the ground. We're feeling, feeling the beat, brother. And you know, you don't really know how things are going until you talk to the people that are there. And we're talking to four coaches that are in four different spots. Obviously Ohio State, reigning national champion. How's Ryan Day going to feel about that? Rhett Lashley has three losses, but only one ACC loss can still win the ACC and get in the College Football Playoff for two straight years. Matt Rule, obviously he's going to be looking at a different outcome this year as we build for next year in what we have with a quarterback that just broke his fibula, who out for the season and then, you know, Elko down in Texas A and M. What a genius this man is.

[AJ Hawk]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody calls him a football genius. And then going into the season, it felt like nobody just expected Texas A and M to be great. Beginning of the season, nobody expected Texas A and M to be great. And then all of a sudden it's like, I thought we trusted Elko and I thought we said they have all the money down there. So if they have all the money and we trust Elko, one thing leads to another. Texas A and M is going to be very good. Yeah. Undefeated in the sec. Marcel Reed, his quarterback that started playing last year, has only gone up into the right. They're a special talent. So I'm excited to talk to everybody here, A.J.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah, I think everybody's going to be great. But Elko as well, he's like one of the football genius on the defensive side. We don't see that a whole lot. We know they give a lot of respect to him, but usually it's those offensive guys that we want to crown as these like wonder kids that can figure everything out. But it's credit to Elko. Man, I love that guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, just wait for the question that Tone's going to ask Elko about his defense. Because College Football Playoff chairman came out and said, yeah, the reason why they're three is because their defense ass compared to Ohio State and Indiana. So now on that note though, they were talking about stats and they didn't say ass. They just said it was a separator between 1 and 2 in Ohio State, who has a historic defense. Indiana's defense, very good. A lot of continuity from last year's team and they've added pieces. They've only gotten better. But they said that the separator in wide Texas A and M was third as opposed to one or two. Two is because the defense wasn't as good. Now that is a stats driven thought because if you do eye test last few weeks, they figured it out early in the season though. Their defense was in Elko's world and I guess in any college football world, not good. Third down, red zone, not good. Which was abnormal for an Elko squad.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, they were giving up 20 points plus I think it was UTSA and then I want to say Nevada or something like that. And then they went to Notre Dame and gave up 40. So those first three weeks were not impressive. But since then, believe they are the number one third down defense in The SEC and red zone, they turned. That's what really turned it around for them. So they've been. Oh, and sacks. Sacks. They are like four or five in the, in the country. And sacks. So they're buzzing there as well.

[Pat McAfee]

So the stats tell the story of the entire season, but if you look like the last few weeks, it's like actually defense, they're back. That's Elco's bread. Bread. Bread and butter. So it's like we assumed it would come back. Can't wait to talk to all of them in Ohio states. Ryan Day, thank you for making that happen, by the way. We appreciate it. You utilizing your former presidency there and getting Ryan Day on the program. Nobody talks about him, bro. Nobody talks about. I guess I don't watch Big Noon. I don't get to watch it as much and I don't watch as many, like, Fox stuff, you know, because I just don't see it literally in my world that I'm in. I assume they're talking about Ohio State a lot over there on a regular basis because we don't. Nationally, it's just like Ohio State's number one team. Okay, next conversation. It's crazy that Ryan Day potentially can have that as a motivator for his boy.

[AJ Hawker]

It's almost a good. I mean, yeah, it's a good thing because it can always be a motivator for you guys think that they, you know, people don't value what we're doing and all this. But also like, why, if you're in the Ohio State's position, you don't really want them to talk about you. If they're talking about you, it's because they're freaked out because you lost or you barely beat a team that you should have won by 30. So I think they're doing what they need to do.

[Pat McAfee]

This was like the Boston Celtics a few years back. Yeah, they were just so good. Nobody talked about them. Then they win and everybody says, was it that impressive? It's like, wow, don't give this team any of their flowers. Which is what I'm talking about here. Like, Ryan Day's team here deserves flowers. They are pounding people. I mean, they. Matt Patricia's defense is maybe the best in the history of college football. Whenever it's all said, that is, they're on track to potentially break records to be the greatest of all time. And then Julian Sain's odds on Heisman favorite. So the number one team in the country, they had their odds on Heisman favorites quarterback, but not really Chatted about. So they can still act like they're the underdogs, which is crazy to think about and crazy how good that team is fresh off of a national championship where they lost a lot of pieces.

[Tony Dungy]

Well, I think you made the comparison either Monday or last week, but it's just like Georgia. I mean, Georgia the second year after Stetson Bennett won the first one and he went to win the second one, and they ended up going on to win it. But you didn't talk about them all year. And it's almost a good omen. It's like, okay, we're not going to talk about Ohio State all year. This is what's going to happen. They're going to run the table, and then they're going to run the table in the College Football Playoff, and then it's going to be, hey, now we're going to talk about Ohio State for six more months because they just went back. Back to back.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. But then as soon as the offseason starts, they'll say, ryan Day can't do it again. You know, it is a. It is a juggernaut over there for Ryan Day. It's like Ryan Day feels the heat. Can't win it, can't win it, can't win it. Then he wins it. Nobody talks about, okay, nothing to say now. Nothing is now we are nothing. Now. We got nothing to say. So I can't wait to tell Ryan Day that we noticed that that's happening. And he'll have to say, you know, we don't worry about that. We worry about what's going on. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But deep inside side, he'll be like, thank you for pointing out that I got killed for everything and now we're winning everything and nobody's saying a damn word about it. So it'd be nice if there was a little bit of six, seven here.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, there won't be.

[Pat McAfee]

It would be nice if there'll be a little bit of that. Okay, let's talk about tonight's game before we dive back into college football. Raiders. Broncos. AJ what are your thoughts on how this game goes or what these team stories are in your eyes? Obviously, I've broken it down a couple times. We've chatted about it. But. But week 10 is kicking off in the AFC west, and both these teams going into the season we thought were going to be good. I think one of them we thought was going to be great. That team has remained, as such, in the Broncos.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah, I think. I think the Broncos will continue to roll tonight. I think the Raiders, we always talk about Max. I love Max Crosby and how he plays. I think he's going to have an impact. But I think the Broncos, especially at home at night, Thursday night, big time situation. Sean Payton wants to put on a show. I bet he wants to put, put up a lot of points tonight. So I think Bo Nicks has a big night in this. I think the Broncos defense obviously continues to do what they do.

[Pat McAfee]

What does Vance Joseph's defense do that everybody else maybe can't do? Or why are they just so good? Is it because Vance has been there for so long and there's so much continuity and everybody kind of understands? Is that a huge piece of it or what are your thoughts?

[AJ Hawker]

I think that's definitely a big part of it. I was with Vance Joseph when I was in Cincinnati for one year. He was the DB's coach and I, I went to V advance all the time to ask him, like, little nuances of the defense and really, I love that dude. I think he's really, really good, but I think he's not. He's never going to over complicate things. They all know their job, they know what to do and they play well together. Like playing great defense is no secret. There's no secret sauce. It's 11 dudes running fast with proper leverage and being accountable to your teammates.

[Pat McAfee]

Just all buying. Oh, yeah, it's all buying. That's why, you know, you hear some. I don't know if they're scouts or coaches. I don't know who throw under the bus here for this. So I'm just gonna say football people say, you know, on defensive side, you're looking at that wonder, like, we don't want, like, I don't want super smart, independent thing. No, we don't. You know, we want guys to just, hey, when we're told to. I need you to sell out through both these guys. Jaws right here. You need to eat up these two guys. That is your only job. You are nowhere near gonna to make the play. You are. You have no chance of getting the tackle here. You're going to end up on your back. Actually, this is going to be a. This is going to be a painful rep, but if you do that, guess what's. Guess what's happening right behind you. Boom. We got a big time play. That is a lot of defensive football in the NFL. And if one person doesn't do that, it's like, up, touchdown. Okay. That is how we lose it all. So having everybody on the same page and if you can have super geniuses across the board, then you're. Now you're. Now you're real Willy cooking. But, boy, if you just got a couple independent thinkers out there, if. If one's wrong, we're all wrong. I think it's kind of the old narrative out there.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah, you. It definitely helps to have.

[AJ Hawk]

Even.

[AJ Hawker]

You don't have to have all super geniuses, but maybe two or two to three on a squad that can kind of make sure everybody's lined up. Those guys that may not be the super genius, but they may. Hey, you see that guy? Go kill him.

[Mike Elko]

That's.

[AJ Hawker]

You got to have a guy, like to line him up. You need to have some of the super geniuses make sure that guy's lined up in the right gap, man.

[Pat McAfee]

We had I. Special teams. Obviously, you're looking for those guys. You know, you were looking.

[AJ Hawker]

Oh, yeah. Especially old. Especially back in the day with the.

[Pat McAfee]

Wedge guys that are just down for the cause, man. It's just like, hey, I understand what it is. And, yeah, I got it.

[Matt Rule]

I'm here for.

[AJ Hawker]

Here for a good time. Not a long time. They know that.

[Pat McAfee]

Bingo. Yeah. AQ was the king of the wedge. He was actually the wedge. So he just had people running into him, and that was something. But the people that were running into the wedges, though, they were down for the team, man. They were down for the team, and they took great honor in it. And I'll tell you what, Coach, if you didn't show it, like, whatever happens in the next meeting, you were doing it a disservice. It's like, hey, you have a guy on your team here that is willing to just sacrifice his entire body so that we can maybe get a guy to make a tackle on a kickoff. Like, that is maybe something that's happened. Special brains, man. Special people, special sport. It's why we love football so much. We've been so incredibly lucky to kind of get dropped into the college football world, baptized by its tradition and its pageantry. And now it's time to feel the. Be another. Another Sega. Feel the beat. Another time of AJ Just not feeling.

[AJ Hawk]

The beat, per usual.

[Pat McAfee]

The beat.

[Tony Dungy]

I felt it.

[AJ Hawker]

I felt it. I just showed it in different ways, but I definitely felt it.

[Pat McAfee]

No, this is like when Wiz Khalifa asked you put your hands up, and you refused to put your hands up two feet away from him. You didn't put your damn hands up. So disrespectful. All we're asking for you do is feel the beat, you know, and normally we go to beat reporters because beat reporters are there and they have a better grasp on things. But now we're going to feel the beat. We're going to go boots on the ground with the actual coaches of these teams to see where they're at. Let's go directly to the source. Let's go to Dallas. Ladies and gentlemen, the head coach of the SMU Mustangs, R. Lashley. Coach. What's that a brand new car you just bought with that new extension? Geez, already going to the car dealership. Respect. Congratul hey. On a new car, Coach. Congrats on a new car. Right?

[Rhett Lashley]

Hey, appreciate it.

[Pat McAfee]

You earned that deal obviously down there last year. You go to the playoffs and I know how much you love smu. I, I got a chance to meet you in your first round with smu. Then you leave, then you come back as the head coach. Special place. Feels like you've always felt that way. Why is that kind of coming true with this particular run with you down there at smu?

[Rhett Lashley]

Yeah, I mean we just in our time here, like you said, back all the way to 2018, off and on and then coming back as a head coach. Dallas is a great city, it's a great place to live and it's all about timing. It just happens to, to get the opportunity to be the head coach here at the right time when you know the alignment here is great. Everybody is all in on us competing at the highest level and being the best we can be. And our program has been on the national stage before on that national championship level. It's just been a long time. And so with that coupled with move to a Power 4 conference, all the things we need, that's what, what makes it fun. And when you can recruit the area in Texas and Dallas, you're going to get some good players. So we just feel like we can keep building in here and that's, that's what makes it a good fit for us.

[Pat McAfee]

I feel like the donors and boosters are in a plenty and they're behind you, which is also a good thing in 2025. We don't want to act like that's not reality, but let's go back to this past weekend. Special, special moment for you. Go ahead, Con man.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, coach. What did it mean to you to see that, you know, goal post get ripped down? I mean, it was a massive overtime victory. It's not as if you haven't had huge wins before, but what was it like Saturday and just kind of taking that in after completing the up Upset against Miami.

[Rhett Lashley]

It was awesome. I mean, that's, it's part of the vision, what we're trying to build here. You know, I wish you could do it overnight, but it takes time. And you know, two years ago we won a conference championship. Last year we made the playoffs and you know, this year we're still in contention for an ACC championship. And we've gone and won at Clemson and now beat a team like Miami at home. And the most important part was a packed stadium. Ford Stadium was packed. It was loud. It was loud start, it was loud to finish. Obviously you saw the field just packed with fans and the goalpost coming down. That's what make college football special. And it's been a long time since smu. We've been in these kind of environments and to be back in these environments, be back in these games and to take advantage of these opportunities, I think it's just what gives us a lot of confidence we can keep this momentum going.

[Pat McAfee]

You just mentioned about still being in it. AJ has a question for you.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah, coach, I know you have three, you know, so called winnable ACC games here ahead of you guys, I guess. What's the message for your team to try to finish out strong, get back to that champion championship game?

[Rhett Lashley]

Yeah, we've proven this year we can beat anybody and we can lose to anybody. So, you know, we're gonna have to play really well to win up in Boston this weekend. If we can find a way to do that, we stay in the hunt. You know, we're playing meaningful games in November for the third straight year and that's a big deal. That's our goal every year. Then we'd get an off week and then, I mean, we got a top 15 team in Louisville that would be coming into Ford Stadium. And so just another great opportunity. We're in a different situation than we were last year. Right. Last year it was like you're in control, win to win out and go to the ACC championship game and maybe make the playoff as an at large, as we did. You know, we stubbed our toe on some games. Brand new team, breaking some stuff in. But now we're playing good football. If we can win these three games, there's a good chance we can get back to Charlotte. But we have to take care of what we can do and that's winning these three games. So our focus is a little different. Right. We're not having to worry about all these other distractions. Nobody's talking about us. We weren't ranked Tuesday night, but yet if we can win out. We'll be 9 and 3 and 7 to 1 in the league, and we can possibly be in Charlotte.

[Pat McAfee]

I love that, you know, all these things. Yeah. Tuesday night, smu. Yeah. Three loss. I don't think they dove a little bit deeper. Only one in conference. You know, we. We still very much in it. And the fact that if you win your title, you're in the dance, anything can happen. Right. Obviously, we feel that way. Did you learn anything last year from the playoff? Maybe. What type of team, what you need to be better at anything like that?

[Rhett Lashley]

Yeah, I mean, I think that whole experience will help if we are fortunate enough to win enough to stay in contention down the end of November and early December. You know, know the old saying, act like you've been there before. You can't do it until you've been there before. And, you know, last year was the first time we'd been on that stage in 40 years, and so. And all of our kids, obviously, so we had a good team last year. We had a team that could have played much better against Penn State than we did. Our defense played well, but we didn't. But I think that experience helped us this year. When we go on the road to Clemson and, you know, it's 80, 90,000 people, and they're flipping the lights on and off with five minutes to go in the game. Game. And we got to go on 11 play, touchdown drive to win the game. Or Saturday when it gets to the fourth quarter tied and then we get the ball down three with two minutes to go, we got to go tied up. Winning overtime. Like, just each chance we get to be in those moments, in those stages, we get better and better at it. So if and when we're able to get back to Charlotte or to the playoffs, I think we'll be better equipped for it.

[Pat McAfee]

Callous. A little bit of a callous team, which is always good news. Tone has a question for you, coach.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, coach.

[Ty Schmidt]

Last year, you guys were more of a running team with Brashard Smith, who's now on the Kansas City Chiefs. Obviously, he was awesome. This year, more of a passing team. Is that because Kevin Jennings is in his second year? Feel more comfortable that way, or is that just kind of how the team is built this season?

[Rhett Lashley]

Yeah, great question. I mean, we missed Brashard. I mean, that's almost 2,000 yards that went out the door, and he's playing pretty good for the Chiefs, so he was obviously a weapon for us last year. We've got some younger players, and it just the running game hasn't been as consistent as we'd like it to be this year.

[Ryan Day]

Year.

[Rhett Lashley]

We've had some injuries and at times we just haven't executed like we need to. And yes, we have Kevin Jennings, we have Jordan Hudson, Romello, Brinson, some really good tight ends. So, you know, like, Saturday was a good example. We could have ran the ball a little bit better, but we weren't going to win the game. And so we kind of had to let Kevin Aaron out. He threw it 44 times for 365 yards and it worked. But for us to win these games down the stretch, we're going to have to have more balance. But, yeah, I think Kevin being more experienced definitely helps us.

[Pat McAfee]

Are you guys still moving really slow on offense? Because I know that's what everybody says is how boring your team.

[Rhett Lashley]

Here's what's crazy. So Saturday, time of possession, they had 37 minutes. We had 22. That's a whole quarter. But when you dive into it, they ran 78 plays. We ran 70 plays. So our defense didn't really play that much more. That's how fast we were playing when we had the ball. And so, yeah, we like to play fast. We like a fast break offense in football and we like to throw it deep a lot. So hopefully we can keep that going.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we like to, what we like do to call electrify the people whenever they're watching our team. And it has certainly been that. Congrats on the new deal. You've earned it. And good luck to you and the boys the rest of the way.

[Rhett Lashley]

Thanks, Pat. Appreciate you guys having me on.

[Pat McAfee]

What's the chant? You guys have a chant down there? I forget what it was. I forget. Do you guys have a chant? I forget.

[Rhett Lashley]

I mean, they mainly just chant smu. SMU over and over and over. It sounds good when they're doing it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah, it certainly does. Now, Texas Tech and smu, very similar places, right? I've heard. Very, very similar.

[Ryan Day]

Very similar.

[Rhett Lashley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Ryan Day]

Dallas and Lubbock. Really?

[Rhett Lashley]

Really.

[Pat McAfee]

You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, coach Rhett Lashley. Yeah, I heard Dallas and Texas Tech, very similar places. Just same state. Just gotta be the same style of place. Hey, that Dallas place where they're at, pretty nice.

[AJ Hawker]

A lot of cash. A lot of cash.

[Pat McAfee]

All of the cash, I guess, you know.

[Mike Elko]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And a lot of those people live through the death penalty. You got all the old heads, you know, so there's like old heads that are very much like, let's go Ahead and get the boys back. And they got great facilities down there. I mean, they are set up for success. And the way Rhett plays, it's a fun team to watch. So, you know, you get a chance, kind of go on a run into place and you got booster and alumni support behind you. You're going to be in what we'd like to call prime college football position. We talked to AQ Shipley yesterday. Obviously, he's got no idea who Penn State's hire.

[AJ Hawk]

No, neither do they. I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa.

[Rhett Lashley]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

Just as AQ doesn't.

[AJ Hawk]

Well, yeah, I suppose.

[AJ Hawker]

Have you heard about aq?

[Pat McAfee]

Want them different name every time we talk to him, different name. He's learned about new guys. Have you heard about. Insert name here? I like him.

[Ty Schmidt]

Guy's always talking out of his ass.

[Pat McAfee]

Who, aq? Yeah, right here. Literally, like actually doing that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

On tv for the entire thing, which is certainly something. Rhett Lashley, though, has always been good to us. I appreciate the hell out of him. Speaking of people that have been good to us, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to feel the beautiful.

[AJ Hawker]

It's enjoyable to watch you guys do that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but you're supposed to feel the.

[Ty Schmidt]

Beat more enjoyable if you're doing it.

[AJ Hawker]

I think I do feel it, but maybe I'll show it one of these times.

[AJ Hawk]

You're right.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now is a man who definitely had to feel the beats because he has a soul, unlike AJ Hawk, national champion head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Ryan Day.

[Mike Elko]

Yay.

[Pat McAfee]

Coach, did you feel the beat?

[Ryan Day]

I. I thought it beat. I felt the beat.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, you did. I feel like you didn't feel the beat. All of a sudden, now I'm starting to think you didn't feel the beat. You said you saw the beat. It was first with your eyes, not with the ears. And the body. Your bones didn't just start doing this, Coach. That wasn't out of nowhere.

[Ryan Day]

No, not so much.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, I'll do the dance and I'll do the beat. Feeling okay? You hot guys just kind of not feel beats and just kind of look at them? Let's go. Let's talk about some beats, shall we? Of the college football season. You know, I do college game day on Saturdays. Pretty big part of the college football conversation, I'd say. We hear Monday through Friday talking sports. Pretty big part of the sports conversation. I feel like the only time we bring up your teams, we just say how dominant they are. Wow. Ohio State, so dominant. Let's go to the Next conversation, you're odds on favorite, obviously, to win it all. You have the Heisman favorite at Julian saying, nobody's talking about your team or your quarterback, and you guys are the odds on favor to win everything. How do you manage that with the team? And do you like that you aren't really the topic of conversation all the time, like maybe you used to be whenever it was negative and now there's really no positive on the other side.

[Ryan Day]

Well, I, I think it does and can have an effect on your team. I don't think that there's any question about that. And I think to act like, you know, the, the fans, the players, the staff members, you know, the recruits, their families aren't watching and listening, that's. That's being naive. So, you know, for us, I know it sounds cliche, and this is the message short that I've been talking to our team about is that, you know, we just cannot get comfortable and we cannot get bored with just the same old thing over and over again. And that's having a great week of preparation and then putting it on the field on Saturday, and. And that's it. And what we're trying to chase, I mean, is we want to be the best in the country. What we do, and we know that we have to play our best football here in the second half of the season. This is where all the good stuff happens right now. And, you know, I think it's, you know, people say ignore the noise when things aren't going well. It's the same thing when things. Things are going well. And so, you know, criticism and blame are all the same. And so you have to stay disciplined and focused on what really matters, and that's the messaging. And it's going to take, you know, a bunch of guys in this. This building right here to stay focused week in and week out. We got to do that again on Saturday.

[Pat McAfee]

Guys have been crushing teams, so much so that people are like, are any of these teams actually good? It's like, well, every Saturday we see some team drop their standard just a little bit. You guys have not done that at all. And we had the chance to chat with you before the opener against Texas, and we talked about, hey, you might be in the middle of a dynasty right now. You might be kicking off a dynasty right now. We have no idea. And you said that you actually, I think, had to talk to some folks about some ideas and opinions on after you're winning it, how do you sustain and how do you stay at the top? How has that been for you as a coach, like keeping the, hey, we can't get bored doing the same thing. Sounds like that is a message that you probably have been sending all season. Is there any other things that you're picking up on top of the world that you're at while you're trying to stay there?

[Ryan Day]

Well, like you said, it's, it's the same thing over and over again. And there's times where I think you have to adjust the message based on what your team is feeling or doing. But it's the same foundation and the same fundamentals that we start the season with, and that's not going to change. And so, you know, we, we really wanted to grow up this offseason. We knew we needed to mature. And there was a group of guys that hadn't played a whole bunch of football, but they saw, saw what happened the year before and I think they recognized the fact that it's a grind. Like what we're asking our guys to do is, is a year round deal. And it's not just, you know, from September to, to November. I mean, it's, it's year round and, and the grind that we're in right now, like this thing's going all the way to the middle of January. That's the goal. And so we have to embrace that part of it. So when guys walk in the building every day, like they have to enjoy being around each other, but we're on that field, man, it is a fight. And so Tuesday and Wednesday practice around here, like, you got to bring it if, you know, we call them bloody Tuesdays, man, like if you're not bringing on a Tuesday, I mean, you're going to get it. And so that's, that's where it goes and that's where you get better. And I think for us to play confident on Saturday, like, it doesn't matter who we're playing because we're competing against each other every day across, across the line from each other. And so, you know, if you could cover Jeremiah Smith or you can get open against Caleb Downs or you can block Kaden McDonald or you can get around Luke Montgomery, like you should have confidence on Saturday night knowing that the opponent you're going against, you know, is, you know, you know, maybe they're as good as those guys, but there's not going to be too many guys better. So that's, that's the confidence that we have to continue to build with as we go towards the end of the season.

[Pat McAfee]

That's how they described Alabama, you know, practice was much harder than the games. The second team was trying to beat the first team because they know that they're next and they're trying to put on. So then the games, you come around, it's like, is this team better than our second team that we were playing against? Probably not, to be honest. But on that note, prepared for any moment, and if you still suck, there's somebody ready for your spot. So it's a nice little motivation. I think they talked about it with the Miami teams way back in the day as well. Every dynasty basically has that culture and that mentality. That's sweet. I didn't know you were doing Bloody Tuesdays. That changes a lot of things in my mind. In 2025, you're doing bloody Tuesday, know that I'm on your side, okay? If we are, if we got a Bloody Tuesday call, that means, hey, we're still trying to be more physical than you, which is what you have to be to win in football forever and ever. Amen. Go ahead. A.J. hawk.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah, Coach, can you just talk a little bit about a couple of your linebackers? Sonny Styles, Arbel Reese. We're watching these highlights. We're seeing these guys all over the place. I guess. We know we. Sonny's played a lot in this. This scheme already in this system with the team. But with Arbel, did you know, I guess, the impact that these guys were going to be able to have this year? Did you.

[Pat McAfee]

Could you see.

[AJ Hawker]

Could you foresee it coming in training camp?

[Ryan Day]

I think one of the things that probably doesn't get talked about enough is when, you know, Matt came in, Matt Patricia came in, you know, he had to embrace the current staff and then the current players. And so our defensive staff did a great job, I think, of making the transition with, you know, some of the. Some of the new stuff that. That Matt's brought to the table. But when you talk about Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs, you know, they're the guys that are almost like coaches on the field. And when you. When you look at Sonny, I mean, he's wearing the green dot.

[Pat McAfee]

He's doing the communication.

[Ryan Day]

He started at safety and now, you know, plays linebacker. And so he sees it from, you know, from top down. And then when you look at Arvell, you know, he played linebacker, but also spent some time on the D line, came back to linebacker so he could do multiple things. They're versatile players, but in the transition of sort of a new terminology, a new scheme, you know, those are the guys that have been able to get guys around them. To play better. And I think that that's the sign of a great one, is when they make the guys around them better through the communication. But the versatility of all of those guys is what really, I think, what separates them and just how fast they're playing. Right now, you can just see there's just a twitch about Arvel, about Sonny, about Caleb. They're seeing it. They're anticipating and not reacting, and that's the key.

[Pat McAfee]

Matt Patricia also showcasing a good twitch, isn't he? You see him on the sideline? Looks like he's a little faster than he's ever been.

[Ryan Day]

Yeah, he looks good, man.

[Pat McAfee]

He.

[Ryan Day]

He's down some weight. He's, you know, moving around good. The beard looks good. I mean, he's. He's moving fast now.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, you're talking about yourself there, too, a little bit. You look good. Beard's good, too. All the same things you send his way, I think you could go ahead and send right back to yourself, brother. You're absolutely killing it on top of the world. Talk about Matt Patricia, though. His defense, you know, it was chatted about after Texas. You know, I think after the Texas game, everybody was like, hold on. And now at game day, anytime I bring up Ohio State, I have to bring up, like, giving up less than six points a game. Like, Illinois scored some, I think, late, and I think there was probably. Probably in a whole conversation about how that's not how we're doing it this year, and I assume the next week, I think you guys came out and shut them out. Wisconsin, I think, was the next week, and you guys gave up zero points or whatever. What is Matt Patricia's defense like for you to learn about, too? Is it vastly different than what the boys were doing in the past or. Why do you think it is? Kind of worked so well in college as we know him as an NFL guy.

[Ryan Day]

Well, Matt. Matt has such a Rolodex of years of going against really good offenses and then also having has, you know, this. This resume of. Of players that he's had over the years. And what you'll hear him say a lot of is, you know, Arvel's like, so and so. Or when I had Jamie Collins, he was like this player.

[Rhett Lashley]

And.

[Ryan Day]

And, you know, Ninkovich reminded me of this player. And so, you know, he. He combines some of these players that he's had in his past with the schematics of playing against, you know, some of the best, you know, quarterbacks and offenses that have been, you know, in the NFL in the last 10 to 20 years.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Years.

[Ryan Day]

And so when you combine all those things with a group of guys that, you know, my, my opinion have a high football iq, it can be a lot of fun.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ryan Day]

Every day when he comes in a building, you know, he's got that pencil and he's pulling it out and he's coming up with new stuff and these guys embrace it and. But they're the ones that have to put it on the field. I mean, they're all good plays. We all got good plays, but the players are the ones have to get it done.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And him being able to communicate with that generation, you know, like, like all we. We didn't know how it was going to go with Matt Patricia. We obviously knew him. I think we know him very well, have a lot of respect for him. We all appreciate the hell out of him. Obviously, the play call Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots is one of the most legendary defensive play calls in the history or defensive stands in the history of ball. But when it went to Detroit, how it went, and now he's going to college, especially with the Belichick stuff, how will it work out? It's been awesome seeing him smile, you know, it's been awesome seeing him enjoy football. You too, have you been enjoying it a little bit more this year? Year.

[Ryan Day]

Like I say, fun is winning.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, okay. Okay.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Fun.

[Ryan Day]

Fun is. Fun is kicking ass. I can tell you that, you know, losing is no fun. So that's it. But I will say this. Being around these players and these coaches is fun. Coming in the building every day is fun. And I think for, for this age group, it's important that when you walk in this building every day, if you're going to play all the way to January, these guys better like coming in the building because if they don't, it's not going to go very well. And so we have to. We have to figure out ways to like, drive them, push them, make them uncomfortable, but they have to like being around each other. And it's like that with the staff and with the players.

[Pat McAfee]

When you walk through that trophy room, what a hilarious flex. Not everybody's had a chance, obviously, to be in the Ohio State practice facility. We have been very lucky to be in there, have an entire day. There was six. I mean, yeah. So awesome. I mean, it was absolutely incredible being over there. Also took me to your. Some of your uncrustables. Had a couple of those. We appreciate it. We enjoyed some of the. The fruits of the boys labor over there, for sure. But like, as you walk into that facility. It's just a big trophy room and this thing's three, four stories high. It's all trophies everywhere. It immediately puts into perspective, I think, like, oh, yeah, we win around here. And I, I think that's a nice reminder, especially with what you guys just did. Like, this isn't new. This is what a Ohio State football is. And on that note, you might have your best quarterback you've ever had right now. Go ahead, Ty.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Coach Pat mentioned how no one's really talking about Julian San, although he is the odds on favorite to win Heisman and even at the start of the season, that was kind of the big question mark. Hey, we know how talented this guy is, but we still haven't seen it. Especially coming in for Will Howard, who had that many starts under his belt and that much experience. How impressed have you been with Julian Sane so far this year? Because if you don't really watch the game, games and you just look at the box scores, it seems like, you know, he's getting better each and every week.

[Ryan Day]

Well, he is, he is. I think his confidence is probably the biggest thing. I think you've always, we've always seen that Julian can make the throws. He has that innate talent. The ball comes out quickly, his mind works quickly, his footwork is good. He's. He's probably a little more athletic than he gets credit for. He's quick, but, but to me, it's been the preparation. You know, he had an opportunity to watch Will Howard go about it last year. What came with that, what came with last season and what a great opportunity to take a year to learn from somebody and then go now, now it's his team and the command he has, the confidence that the guys have around him that if they protect for him, you know, they know they got some really good receivers that are getting open down the field and then certainly in the run game. So I, I just like this command of the, of the offense and his confidence right now.

[Pat McAfee]

I think that's what AJ Isn't that what you said from watching the game live? You said it was first game. You really had a chance to be down there, there this season because you've had, you know, family and, and visiting stuff going on. You're like, he's a guy, he operates as a guy. Right, A.J.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah, I was on the field pregame, then I saw the first couple of series from the end zone and yeah, watching him, just everything like I told you, coach, I said on the show here, I watch all the little things, how he Comes in down the huddle talking to coaches. Yeah, he. When he pulled. When he decides to pull the trigger, man, that dude, he's got a live arm. It's fun to watch.

[Pat McAfee]

Good for you, Ryan. Hey, good for you all over there. Congratulations on a great start. Obviously, obviously, you've won absolutely nothing this season. Okay. Nothing. Number one team.

[Ryan Day]

No, that's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Number one team in the country, though. Hey, number one team in the country. This guy right here. This guy's the number one team in the country.

[Ryan Day]

Keep telling everybody, because that's what I'm telling. We haven't wanted a thing yet. We haven't done a thing yet. So we got a long way to go. A lot of football ahead of us.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. Tuesday night, I think I saw they crowned you guys. That's right. Yeah. This guy got the number one team in the country.

[Ryan Day]

Start with that crap.

[Pat McAfee]

You're the man. Ladies walking out. Ladies and gentlemen, National Ryan Day. Thank you.

[AJ Hawker]

He's starting to get up.

[Pat McAfee]

This is uncomfortable. We haven't won anything. No, no, no, no, no. You guys did. Tuesday night. They actually said, who you in? These are the winners.

[Tony Dungy]

Done deal.

[Pat McAfee]

These are. Look at them right there in the middle of the bracket in a very weird place. That's the number one team in the country.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Can they not. Couldn't they set that up differently just for now, you know, so it does it like this is what it's going to look like when it there. But yeah, the number one team in the country right here in the middle of the thing, it's like, all right, sweet. That's interesting dynamic. But on that note, Julian Sain's so good.

[Matt Rule]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I love hearing what he just said right there. His leadership, his command, his moxie is what drives the boys. That's very real when it comes to quarterback position, especially brand new quarterback for a team or brand new starter for a team.

[AJ Hawker]

AJ I think if he came in and just like stumbled out of the gates and lost the game earlier, just hasn't been playing well. Like coming off the year they had with Will Howard and all he done like, good luck, they would be calling for your head. Three series into the first game and.

[Pat McAfee]

He still has Jeremiah Smith and Cardinal Tate out there. So it's like what's what. So we know what the problem is. It's this one right here.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

This quarterback right here. Well, it's a whole new team, actually. We don't really know. We got to give them time to kind of find. Nope. Yeah, we just saw it in national championship. We just watched third nine, you remember?

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We'll hard threw that thing up. That's. We need Julian to do that. And he has beats Arch in Texas week one. Nobody talks about him. Then he just goes on to be dominant. 80% completion rate or something like that still there. It's like 80% completion.

[AJ Hawker]

He's not dinking and dunking it either. Like he's not just. Yeah. Throwing behind the line of scrimmage.

[Pat McAfee]

Deep balls, quick release. So he's got a little Dan Marino in there. He's got a little Danny quarterback. All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's go. Let's go to the great state of Texas with a team is undefeated in the sec. It's time to feel the beginning.

[Rhett Lashley]

That was a good one.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you feel it, A.J.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, he was dancing.

[AJ Hawker]

That was the best one yet. That was by far the best one.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I had to take my big country countries. Yeah. Upon this big seat because we got a man with a big brain. Ladies and gentlemen, the Texas A M football head coach. The number three team in the country, undefeated Texas A M. Maggie's my go go. I'll tell you what, that's a heck of an introduction right there, Pat.

[Mike Elko]

I appreciate you getting on a chair for me.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. No, hey, you know what? I did get on chair for you because of how big of a fan of yours I am. Did you feel the beat over there? Did it hit your bones at all? Did you? I was.

[Mike Elko]

I was dancing. You just didn't have the camera on it.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, okay. I knew that about you. Golly. I knew that about you. Okay. Speaking of knowing about you, I didn't know much. Okay. Before I get in the college football world down at Duke, I obviously get to meet you, your entire staff. You go over to Texas A and M, take the job, it's huge deal. Everybody says, mike Elko, good football coach. Mike Elko, good football football coach. Texas A and M has all the support that you could possibly want to be a good football team. Everybody assumes you're going to be good. Then going into this season, your second year, nobody's really talking about Texas A and M. Even at the beginning of the season, you guys have a couple good games. Nobody's really expecting greatness. I want to let you know because of how big your brain is. Okay. And how everything everybody has ever said about you is you're a good football coach. I expected your team to be great this year. And I don't want to, like, say I'm a super genius, but did you as well? You. You had to know that this was probably coming with this particular squad in the preseason. And how do you feel sitting undefeated at this stage of the season with everything literally very much in front of you still?

[Mike Elko]

Yeah, obviously we felt like we had a chance to take a huge step forward, and, you know, last year we had a really good first two months of the season, and we didn't finish it the right way. And I love the way our kids attacked the off season. I love the development that we had in the program. There was a really good feel for where the culture was and what guys were doing. And so we went into the season obviously confident that we could put things together and. And have a really good year.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

And.

[Mike Elko]

And, you know, it's a testament to the kids that they went out and did that. And obviously we've added some weapons on offense, and I think that's made a big difference for us.

[Pat McAfee]

Tell me about Marcel Reed. Obviously, we saw him last year a bit, but whenever you talk about executing the entire offense, it feels like he's very comfortable, very confident, and the boys seemingly love him out there. How could you not?

[Mike Elko]

Yeah, no, I. I think he's made a huge step. You know, I got kind of tired of answering the question in the offseason because it was the one everybody wanted to know, but we had seen it. You know, we had seen the development. We knew how hard he was working, we knew what he was capable of becoming, and we knew he could be the quarterback we needed throwing the football and running it. And so I think you see a kid now who can sit confidently in the pocket and go through his progressions and put the ball where he needs to go. And you also see a kid that you're showing in these highlights that when the play breaks down, he can go out and he can make things happen with his athleticism. And so he's truly become the dual threat kid we knew he could be. And it's hard to argue that there's been a quarterback better in big moments on big stages than him this year.

[Tony Dungy]

Hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Go ahead, A.J.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah, I think somebody coach that. That probably helps us with a lot of that.

[Matt Rule]

Your.

[AJ Hawker]

Your oc, Colin Reed. I know you're being. You're a defensive guy, but bringing in an offensive coordinator, obviously, huge high, huge hire. Yeah, my bad about that, Klein, but I. I would thinking about that higher as a defensive coach. What has that done for your offense? He's not. I know he's not a very old guy, and you bring him in there and he just hits the ground running. You guys are very balanced. Explosive offense.

[Mike Elko]

Yeah. I think obviously when you're the defensive minded guy, that's a really critical hire for you. I did a very similar thing when I got to Duke. I kind of locked myself in a room and I just study offenses and watched what he did at Kansas State. I thought he was really multiple and how he attacked people. I thought he did a really good job utilizing his personnel there and figured out he'd sit down and have a talk with them. And when we got together, we actually had breakfast in Colorado. I flew out the Colorado respect, spend time with them and we just really hit it off. We did. I think philosophically we're very much aligned in how we see things and obviously he's doing a tremendous job coordinating that side of the ball and then creating an explosive attack every week.

[Pat McAfee]

What'd you guys do? You flew Colorado? Smoke some weed? Well, you know, I don't know if that's really the cup of tea that.

[Mike Elko]

We'Re at, but we had, we had a good breakfast, Pat. We had a good breakfast. Mind out of the gutter a little bit, Pat. It's still early in the morning.

[Pat McAfee]

I know in my mind I'm heading to Colorado. Okay. I know where I'm headed. I know what I'm doing. Different. You're, you're a ball coach. Different, different.

[Mike Elko]

Different spots in life, Pat.

[Pat McAfee]

You and I right now, hey, maybe you and I go to Colorado one time though. You know, you do a little breakfast, I'll do a little smoke, you and we'll figure it all out. But I appreciate you taking that, knowing that that was the guy you want. That's why you travel to Colorado, go do that, selling him. And then now you guys obviously are reaping everything that you've sown from that offseason because you guys look special on the offensive side. There is actually some question on the other side. Go ahead, Tone.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Coach. I wanted, since you said you're a defensive guy, I wanted to ask you about this Tuesday, the College Football Committee chair, playoff committee, committee chair, whatever, whatever the title is. Mack Rhodes said Super duper. Super duper leader of the College Football Playoff committee, said that the difference between Ohio State, Indiana and A and M, when they got down to it, was the defense. That's why you guys were three and not one or two. Obviously the beginning of the season, you had Notre Dame, which was just a high scoring affair, but then you got an sec play and your third down defense is unbelievable. Unbelievable. Getting to the quarterback's been unbelievable. What has been the difference? And have you guys grown all season long on that defensive side?

[Mike Elko]

Yeah, I think so. And listen, when it comes to the rankings, you know, they have a. They have a really difficult task. You're trying to compare apples, oranges, and bananas all across the country. Nobody plays the same teams. Nobody has similar schedules. And so, you know, it's a good thing. Now the playoff is 12, and ultimately, at the end of the day, it's going to get decided on the first field. In terms of our defense, yeah, I think we've. We've grown each. Each week. I think we've had weeks where we've played consistently really, really well. We've had quarters where we've played really, really well. I still think we're trying to. To put it all together still at the level we're capable of, but, you know, we've got the leading sackman in the SEC who's swimming on the ground right there on the highlight just now. And, yeah, I think we've got a pretty good secondary that's gotten better every week. And so, you know, we just. We just look forward to continuing to grow and. And really become what we're capable of.

[Pat McAfee]

Of being anytime. We were reading the stats of your defense early in the season, it was like, well, Elko is going to get the defense. Elko is going to get the defense at some point. Was it as easy as just, like, figuring things out or, like, what is a change that you can make throughout a season to make a defense better?

[Mike Elko]

Yeah, I. I think, you know, one, the kids get more comfortable in what we're doing. I think, two, as the stages have gotten bigger, they've. They've, you know, elevated their focus level a little bit. I think confidence has grown a bit. Little bit. And I think they're playing at a better level. And, yeah, I think we've played complimentary football for the most part this year. There's been times where the defense has carried it, but there's certainly been times where the offense has had to step up and carry it as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Second year at Texas A and M, undefeated. You got four left. You got Mizzou at Mizzou, Then you have South Carolina, Sanford, and then Texas to wrap up the season. I know you can't be looking ahead or anything like that, but got to be excited that in your second year in a place that was willing to pay the amount of money that they were willing to pay to move on, that you've been able to deliver for them honestly. And I Hope you take a lot of pride in that, and I hope you share that with the boys down there for all the hard work that you've already been able to accomplish.

[Mike Elko]

No, for sure. You know, there's obviously a burden when you come in here, and, you know, there's. There's expectations that, hey, if we spent that amount of money to make the change and you're the guy that we picked, we're kind of expecting results, and, you know, two years in a row that we've put ourselves in position going into Nova November to be meaningful and be relevant. You know, we got to go finish it. And that's. That's been the mindset. That's been the focus every step along the way. We know we're talented team. We know have the. We have the ability to go out and play with anybody in the country, but, you know, every Saturday, you got to go out and prove it, and that's the world we live in today. And so we're here. It's November. It's time to go. It's time to go show what we're capable of. And we're excited for the big challenge we got on Saturday.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you're in a good spot. It doesn't sound like that sometimes, though. Tyler has a question for you, Coach.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Coach. Has the local media lightened up a little bit over the last couple weeks? I know a couple weeks ago, you know, you guys were still undefeated. Obviously, that's what fans like to do. They like to get all cynical and poke holes and everything when you don't win 100 to nothing every week. But now, after the most recent rankings and where you guys are at, are. Are things pretty good every single day when you're talking with people who are covering the team.

[Mike Elko]

Listen, media is the media. You guys are a big part of it, too.

[Pat McAfee]

It's. It's. Yeah, we are part of the problem. Yeah, no, no, it's. It's. Listen, everybody.

[Mike Elko]

Everybody wants to. Everybody wants to figure out how come this part's not perfect. That part's not perfect. I think the biggest thing that I've just tried to get our fan base and our media around is the fact that it's hard to win football games. And so we're doing things. You know, we won on the road against the top 10 team for the first time since 1979. We won in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1994. We're 80 for the first time since night. Like, those are long team times ago. Like, I was not, like, very Much into coaching at that point. And so, like, let's just take a step back and let's enjoy the fact that we're winning and let's not just focus on the play in the second quarter that we didn't do the right way and how that's going to kill us if we move forward and we keep making those mistakes.

[Pat McAfee]

I will say that second quarter play has come back to.

[Mike Elko]

I actually think I heard you. I think I heard you referencing that.

[Pat McAfee]

Just wait. I'm gonna start doing a little bit more research. Research on your poor ass second quarters now that I know that that is potentially where we need to attack. I appreciate, though, that you're keeping it all in perspective, though, through it all. And obviously that relationship with people that have been covering the team for a long time, they've been through this, you know, they've been through it a lot of times. They're expecting probably, which is once again why you're hired, to bring it in the way it is. And on that note, you talk about having a good setup down there. I've had an opportunity, obviously to be a part of a couple game days down there. Your credit crowd and your fans are so awesome. I mean, it is such a cool place, but also the traditions and the way you guys set things up might be tops in the country. Go ahead, con man.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, coach. Let's go off the field and talk about the game day kind of production of the whole entire thing. Do you think that the College Football Playoff would rank Texas A and M's walkout as number one? One of our guys? Gumpy always posts it. And it's basically the most elaborate electric walkout in the entire country, I'd say.

[Mike Elko]

Yeah, I mean, certainly gotta be up there. I think we're 10 straight games. We've had over 100,000 fans in our stadium. You know, the 12th man shows up and supports always. I think we've had more people at our Friday night midnight yells than a lot of people have in their home games. It is. It's a really passionate fan base. It's a great atmosphere. There's nothing like running out of the tunnel on Kyle Field. And, you know, it's just great to put together a season that these fans really deserve and can really get back behind. And, you know, we're. We're obviously focused on this week in, in South Carolina, Missouri, but it'll be great to get back home for South Carolina. It's been a while. It's been over a month since we've been home.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, the Place is gonna go crazy. Yeah.

[Mike Elko]

You like that song?

[Pat McAfee]

You can dance to that one too. I see you too. Hey, I see you two turning around, doing a little talk, a little bat on the shoulder and then you do your little skip. You know, you guys, your little, little skip, little run. Bringing it back. Old school it is. You can't walk down. You can't walk down the tunnel without.

[Mike Elko]

A little bit of swaggering. How you go about it, especially with the lighting.

[Pat McAfee]

And from what I heard some of the boys say last year while they're walking down next to you, it's like, I don't know how you're not ready to go win a football game by a thousand. The lighting, the songs, the. Just everything about it is special. And you talk about the midnight yell, you know, obviously that is easy to. For other teams to make fun of. It's like, hey, they're dressed weird. You're going through a thing. They're doing this thing at midnight. It's like these people are showing up for the game literally at midnight the night before so they can learn how they can terrorize your team on the thing. It is a, It's a special place and I love that you've embraced it all. And your walkout is, I don't know. Tennessee had a great one last Bama. Bama's got a six setup. Penn State, obviously with the white out, people will talk about football for a long, long time. Oregon was insane when I was up there. It's just a little smaller than everywhere else.

[Tony Dungy]

Texas Tech, I believe, has a pretty, pretty sweet one as well.

[Pat McAfee]

I experienced that this weekend. But your guys is awesome. And look at you. Hey. Hey. How are you feeling on the runouts this year? You know, you 30 some days away from your last run out. How are you feeling? We do a little knee drive, maybe get a full sprint like your dabo out there.

[Mike Elko]

Well, I, I don't know if I'm, I don't know if I'm going to risk pulling something like that. But no, there's.

[Pat McAfee]

There's an energy when you get down.

[Mike Elko]

To the bottom of that tunnel. Like there's an energy and an electricity in the air that, that really is. It's unmatched and it's, it's an unbelievable feeling. It's an unbelievable feeling leading that group out and, and you feel especially good when you know the group behind you is going to go out and play the way they're capable of and lay it all on the line and have your back. And so it's it's just. It's a really good time right now to be a fighting Texas Aggie. There's no doubt about it.

[Pat McAfee]

You got a special place down there, and they got a special coach. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Mike Elko. Appreciate you guys. Hey, how far are you guys from Lubbock, do you know?

[Mike Elko]

Oh, gosh, pretty far. Like, really far.

[AJ Hawker]

Big, big state.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Mike Elko]

Probably like four Northeastern states. I think we're like.

[Pat McAfee]

I think we're like eight hours. So you take. You take Rhode island, you take Delaware, you take Vermont, even Massachusetts. I think you're good.

[Ty Schmidt]

Seven hour drive like.

[Mike Elko]

Like, like New Jersey down to, you know, North Carolina. Carolina.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen. Michael. I won't see you this weekend. I won't see you this weekend. That was funny. About four northeastern states away.

[Tony Dungy]

I mean, seven hours. That. I mean, that is Boston to D.C. so he's not lying.

[Pat McAfee]

That's crazy to think about how big all of Pennsylvania. So West Texas is North Texas, right? Because that's. Lubbock is kind of.

[Ty Schmidt]

It feels like A and M's down here. Lubbock's up here.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah. They count that as a West Texas, I think, against a lot of this, too.

[AJ Hawk]

I think.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it's what Raider Red does.

[AJ Hawk]

That's right. Sort of Yosemite Sam's from. Not really, I assume.

[Ty Schmidt]

I thought he was from Yosemite.

[Tony Dungy]

I assume.

[AJ Hawk]

No, no, he looks just like Raider Red.

[Ty Schmidt]

He does look just like Raider.

[AJ Hawk]

Probably from down there. Yes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Y. Yeah, I foresee a lot of that.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my gosh. I'll make sure I do it good, though.

[Ty Schmidt]

Are you taking a couple with you?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I don't know.

[AJ Hawk]

Couple?

[Tony Dungy]

Six.

[Pat McAfee]

Six shooters. I mean, that's the thing. You gotta. You gotta check the state laws when you're traveling.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, Texas, you can do it.

[Pat McAfee]

Plenty of musicians have gotten in trouble with their tour buses, you know, because they have potentially been strapped up. And then all of a sudden you drive into a state and it's like, well, actually, your gun license doesn't work here. But it just worked like 20 minutes. Well, we're not 20 minutes ago. So we are now putting you in jail. For how long? However we want. So I think Texas probably be pretty good. If I had to guess, Indiana. Texas probably share some gun license stuff. Yeah, maybe I do. Take a couple of mine down there and just pull them out. Pull them out of my.

[AJ Hawker]

Absolutely, pull them both out. This what I call the air, though. Shoot it up in the air, though. Don't shoot it towards anybody.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you want me to go shoot it, too? So you didn't.

[Tony Dungy]

Right?

[Pat McAfee]

You said if I'm pulling it out. All right, let's get the one out of the back. Let's get the one here, and then let's actually unload these things. You're on the set. Could you imagine me on the set?

[AJ Hawker]

Be off, lights dropping, gotta come down somewhere.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that'll be crazy. Can't wait to get down there with them. Honestly, I've heard nothing but great things. And obviously the videos we have seen coming out of Lubbock in preparation for this weekend's game are special. And those kids have been practicing kicking. Looks like there are some guys that got some good shit kickers on down there that can be able to move it. Okay, let's talk about some news around the NFL that is phenomenally sad. Cowboys number 94 literally just scored a touchdown a few nights ago on Monday Night Football for the Dallas Cowboys on a block punt. Was found dead this morning. And obviously this is incredibly sad. Just had the night or the game in the moment. I assume that he's worked his entire life to have. And then the Frisco police and the Texas State Resource, I believe department, something along those lines, have put out a couple of statements right before, before we went live about an accident happening and then a chase and then him evading and then a search in an area and then him sending some messages to people that he knew that were potentially alarming. And then they found him pass away. So we would just like to let everybody know that we are so sorry that this happened down there in Dallas to the Cowboys, we are so sorry to the family, the friends, former teammates, former coaches of Marshall, especially after what just happened, happened on Monday. Every, everybody that has coached this guy, been a teammate with this guy, you name it, on Monday, after he scores that touchdown, say, this is our guy. This is our guy. So he literally just probably came up in conversation again for so many people, probably so many good memories being talked about, so many good stories, so many good. Everything happening just on Monday. And then here we are just a few days later and he's gone, and it's like we didn't know him. But this is certainly something like perspective, dude. Like, you never know what anybody's going through. You have no idea what's on, going, going on in anybody's life. And if you have the opportunity to maybe change the trajectory of somebody's day by just telling them, like, hey, hope you're good, let's go ahead and do that. That's like another reminder is what I saw from this AJ Hawk. Yeah.

[AJ Hawker]

Terrible things like this. Yeah, they, that's the only you got to take. The only positives they like bring should hopefully bring you together with the people you care about and you love and. Yeah, it's weird, man. It's, it's weird with all. Dealing with all of it as you get older too. It's, it's wild.

[Pat McAfee]

So.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah, I think it should. Perspective, you always talk about that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Perspective. Big. So rest in peace to him and his family and we are so, so, so sorry about that. Rasheed Shahid went into Seattle. He's the new Seahawks wide receiver. He said, I'm here to stay. I'm here to stay. He's a weapon. Sam Darnold can spin it. And now that you got Jackson Smith and Jigba and Rashid Shahid on the same offense, let alone all the other weapons, it's like the Seattle Seahawks go for from great to greater somehow. And they're in it for real. AJ Feels like the Seattle Seahawks make a big time statement that they are in it for real with Rasheed Shahid and he's feeling the same way. It sounds like.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah, it's good to see how he, he enjoys being there and he's, he wants to be there for a long time. Yeah. John Schneider, man, he just kind of quietly goes about his business and continues to make this team better and better. This route right here was awesome, by the way. I love watching this.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And you have to give him respect for the deep ball so he can cut those things off at any moment. So he, he can be a mid throw anytime he wants because everybody's got to give him so much respect for the deep ball. So it's like I'm excited to see what they do with him in that offense. Huge news in hockey last night, Alex oetkin scored his 900th goal. First player ever with 900 goals. Congratulations. OB OB Friend of the program, I guess we could say, cuz he obviously joined the program last year as he was in a middle middle of breaking the goals record. Now he's at 900 goals, first person ever. And he does it in a nasty backhand, obviously sneaking it past the goalie. OV Special. Very, very lucky that we've been able to watch his entire run. And I think he's nowhere near done. If you listen to him talk, he's going to be putting pucks in the nets for as long as he possibly can. Nick, this guy's the greatest goal scorer in the History of hockey. And he notches another resume builder, basically.

[Ryan Day]

Absolutely.

[Pat McAfee]

And he does it in un.

[Ryan Day]

OVI like fashion with a spinning backhand.

[Pat McAfee]

Pretty exceptional to do.

[Ryan Day]

And he's going again tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, okay. Oh, no, sorry. You're plateauing at 900 for a while. Ovi as the boys were celebrating. Remember, if you can watch an NHL game, do it. They're awesome. The sport's great and it's currently happening. And OVI is a goat. And we get a chance to watch him for hopefully the next 10 years. Years if he continues to drink his Diet Coke and the way he operates. We appreciate you all so much for allowing us to do this for a living. We'll make our picks digitally on YouTube, ESPN, Disney plus and TikTok Live. Hope you're able to find those. Obviously, with a lot of things going on in the world, we hope to continue to be a little bit of a distraction to all the bullshit. And a celebration of sports. We'll celebrate week 10 kicking off tonight. Tomorrow. Goodbye. Hi. Tonight's week 10. I was going to say should have went with it.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, it's still lies.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Title of the title of the day.

[Ty Schmidt]

You see what the blues goalie did?

[Pat McAfee]

What he do?

[Ty Schmidt]

He took a puck and hit it in his pants.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Ref had to come get it from him.

[AJ Hawk]

Classic banner.

[Tony Dungy]

Unbelievable. He's Canadian.

[Ty Schmidt]

But this was after, I believe he got caught and he had to give it back.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah. The ref comes up to him right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Ref comes over, gives him a little talking to him. Give him.

[Tony Dungy]

Need that puck.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, we're going to need that puck.

[Ty Schmidt]

No.

[AJ Hawker]

Why do they need it back?

[Pat McAfee]

Why he skate away so he didn't see him take it out of his pants. He's following you. Yeah. He's still there with you. Dude, I don't have it. What are you talking about? It's not me.

[Tony Dungy]

Oh, it's in the corner.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh. Oh.

[AJ Hawker]

How that get in there?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, there it was the whole time. He was going to keep that?

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah. Why does it smell like poops?

[AJ Hawker]

What was that?

[Ty Schmidt]

He was going to sell it on ebay for like a thousand bucks.

[AJ Hawker]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Not a bad play. He likes to get under the skin of the other team anyway.

[Tony Dungy]

He can.

[Pat McAfee]

Can.

[Tony Dungy]

He'll.

[Ryan Day]

He'll find any edge and he'll take it.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you hear the story about the guy that had the home run ball hit him in the leg while he was trying to buy some popcorn or something like that? Show his home run. No. There's a guy that was in Like a concession line homer bomb hits him in the leg, picks it up. 150,000. Yeah.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Pretty sweet.

[Pat McAfee]

Sweet. Yeah. I was reading the story about how much the auction people are like, yep, we will. We got to do this entire thing now. Because this entire deal, and it was just such a bomb that it made it all the way into the thing and just. Oh, nice baseball, sir. This ball. We now need your id we need to take a picture. Can I get my n. Your nachos? Nachos.

[AJ Hawk]

Come with me.

[Pat McAfee]

That is.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

That's crazy. Like, sports memorabilia. Remember Tom Brady situation from a few years back? Tyrese Halibur and Giannis, right? Didn't they have a situation?

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, Basketball.

[Pat McAfee]

Basketball was happening all this, you know, these memorable moments. That's why Cam Little, whenever we finally were able to debut the entire conversation, he chatted about how, you know, they want the. The ball or the cleats. I forget what they want. They want something. And he's like, I'm not giving them the jersey, though. No, they wanted the jersey. And he said, I'm not giving them the ball. He's like, you let the jersey go in all fighting, brother. Yeah. They'll put lights on at him. Look like you're a. They're going to make it look like you are one of the legends of the game. And Cam Little just g be like, yo, dude, that's my jersey right there. Yeah. Legit a 68 yarder.

[AJ Hawker]

Think about, he's going to beat it. Don't you think he's going to beat that?

[Pat McAfee]

I bet he would have for that particular kick. He would have for that particular kick. He's special talent. All right, let's get to a break on the other side. Let's make our picks. Let's wrap up story lines. I don't even want to talk about it. We almost lost Tai in a U ball incident.

[Mike Elko]

Oh.

[AJ Hawker]

So Debone was kick tipping. One kick, like tipping it with his foot.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's go to the footage. Actually, if we could pause the music so we actually have the footage. Foxy found the footage. And here's the moment. Obviously, Foxy shoots and. Oh, yeah. Okay. She kind of comes quick, quick. So we'll zoom it. Boom. He was nowhere near jumping in the air either. Remember, if you kick the ball, you have to be in.

[AJ Hawker]

You don't have to do that.

[Pat McAfee]

Because my first reaction was Debo trying to change the game a little bit. Trying to do that. Ty's first reaction. Reaction. Why the. Do you think you'd be able to pull that off. Almost died. Ball goes flying past head. U ball's getting good. U ball's getting good in here. Nowhere near jumping, by the way.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah. Don't you have to attempt to jump? You got to attempt to jump, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. If you're going to kick, it has to appear as if you're trying to be in the air. There might be a chance you're on the ground. But at least the thought was, I have to be in the sky. Because a kick is a radical move on the defensive side. It really turns the entire momentum. Momentum on its head. If you're able to pull off a kick, tip into some sort of tip in. On the defensive side, Debone has seen others attempted. Others are just a few people. Okay. People that have actually used their feet before, potentially professionally, you know, So D Bone says, wait a minute. I didn't know that was a move. Let me go ahead and just throw this thing out there. And to be clear, great ball contact. Yeah, it was. Yeah, he got. We've been in this Thunderdome for like three or four years now, and I've never seen any ball of any type ever hit the ceiling ever. Until Debone did that baby. T Bone had a big one last night at the Ryman. He had a big one. He was.

[Ryan Day]

I heard.

[AJ Hawker]

I. I heard. I could.

[Tony Dungy]

I could.

[AJ Hawker]

I could imagine his face as different people walk into the bus to the room, wherever it might be.

[Pat McAfee]

Play it cool. Play it cool. D Bone start sweating. I'm in the cake. I'm in the fridge. Anybody want a water? Everybody in there? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Debone. No, I'm good. Just act normal. Just take.

[Ty Schmidt]

I heard he ended the night well, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I mean, he, he's. He batted th.000. I will say. I will say the Debone bat a thousand. Looks so cool, too. He had his boots on. Oh, hell yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Did you hear what he had to do? What's that 1:30am when you guys got back?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

He had a calling. He had to go to McDonald's. He was hunky.

[Pat McAfee]

Come on.

[AJ Hawker]

They open 24 hours.

[Tony Dungy]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I thought with the night he had 10p.

[Ty Schmidt]

It gets better. He took a detour because Sarge was behind him. So Sarge didn't see him go?

[AJ Hawker]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

So he. He evaded Zarge.

[AJ Hawker]

So how'd you find out?

[Pat McAfee]

He told us today.

[Ty Schmidt]

He was lining up for a donut.

[Pat McAfee]

This morning and told us.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, but he had a tummy. He had a tummy ache after eating the McDonald's, so then he had to rub one out. And it saved this night. He said it was perfect.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't get to bed till about 2:15.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah. When I went on a deep dive. Page 50.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a lot of right.

[Tony Dungy]

But I don't know, man. That's what he does.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's get to a break.

[Tony Dungy]

On the other side.

[Pat McAfee]

We'll make a pick. We'll see if Debone's okay. Debone, come on. 1:30am we can't be doing that.

[Ty Schmidt]

He got off the plane, said, you know, it'll be perfect.

[Pat McAfee]

End this night, some McDonald's. I respect that you're in that stage of your life and I've been there before. We're just trying to. You tell you, Debone is just drink a water. Just chug of water. It's 1:30am Just chug of water. You'll be so uncomfortable, you won't want to eat. Just go to bed.

[Ty Schmidt]

You'll wake up in five hours and.

[Pat McAfee]

You'Ll have to piss. And then you're up for breakfast.

[AJ Hawk]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

And then guess what?

[AJ Hawk]

You can get McDonald's breakfast.

[Pat McAfee]

Cuz what he did, you know what he did? The 1:30 actually told. Oh, I can't wait for breakfast. McDonald's. He got McDonald's breakfast again. And me probably did.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Live your life, T bone.

[AJ Hawker]

I mean, he's gonna start driving out to like. Well, no, I guess if he admitted it, but yeah, if he's trying to, you know, lose a tail so people don't know that he's going to McDonald's, then.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's a lot. There's an update on the group text. 13 minutes out of my way, by the way. Had to. Oh, First Sergeant Garland.

[Tony Dungy]

Jesus.

[Pat McAfee]

It's unbelievable. I almost broke my neck on that plane last night nodding off. Had one of those. Oh, my God. It was late night, but it was worth it. And watching Debone like a little kid in there was pretty cool. Hell, yeah, that's pretty cool. Little moment. Obviously he knew every song that was being seen. This one hasn't been released yet. Debone singing every word. There's actually a couple samples that have been released to this song through the blah, blah, blah website or blogger or whatever. It's like, Jesus, you're awesome. You are awesome. We're in it. We were in the middle of it. Country royalty last night. Country royalty all over the place. And I'll say this, everybody crushed it. That was a great show. Like, it was a very, very good. There was emotional moments in there. There was in there. We were super country at one point, I mean, we, we were out there in the country one time. Debo knew it all. And that's why we love Bingo. This is Kevin Clark for manscaped Look.

[AJ Hawk]

Being a man doesn't mean skipping self care.

[Pat McAfee]

I do this show three times a week and every single time I do.

[AJ Hawk]

A little self care beforehand. Okay? Grooming, the hair, everything. You guys see it.

[Pat McAfee]

You don't wake up like this. You don't wake up like that. You got to do. You got to get the stubble going. You got to get rid of that awful mustache I had last spring. Listen, I tried. I thought the mustache over the, over the stubble was a good look, not a good look. It wasn't a good look. You have to learn that the hard way. Manscaped makes it easy to feel confident, clean, and ready for anything, whether you're at work, hitting the gym, traveling for.

[AJ Hawk]

Business, or heading out for the night.

[Pat McAfee]

The lawnmower trimmer gives you precision. The beard head edger keeps your look tight.

[AJ Hawk]

Need that?

[Pat McAfee]

And the grooming essentials smell incredible. Manscaped tools are built to perform, helping you stay sharp, smooth, and feeling your best every single day. Because real confidence starts with a clean cut and the right gear. Get all the manscaped products you need right now at your local Target. Ah, DSW Earth. Place of the humble. Brag. Here, the shoes are so good, no.

[AJ Hawk]

One would ever know how little you.

[Pat McAfee]

Paid if you didn't go telling everyone, everyone that is. And with never ending options for every style, mood and occasion, all at really great prices, we'll definitely give you something to brag about. So go ahead, stock up on fresh sneakers from your favorite brands or try those boots you always secretly knew you could pull off. Find the shoes that get you at prices that get your budget at DSW stores [e-mail] let us surprise you.

[Tony Dungy]

Football.

[Pat McAfee]

He is certainly majestic. And that's A.J. hawk. He's won a college football national championship and a National Football League championship in a Super Bowl. And we normally just talk sports, but we gotta break some news. A man who works here at the Thunderdome on a daily basis, who has many nicknames, but then just as many jobs around here. Who we Certainly love, Bailey McComas also is Bill and many other nicknames. He had to exit the Thunderdome very abruptly and in quite a panic as he had learned that somebody just drove into his house. So he has a car currently in his house somewhere. He. He just got a phone call and during the break, it was, somebody crashed a car in my house. So I gotta go.

[AJ Hawker]

Are the cats okay?

[Ty Schmidt]

That's hopefully not full sprint. Hopefully full sprint.

[Pat McAfee]

Full sprint out of Thunderdome. We hope his cats are okay. Tone does not speak for the Freudian.

[AJ Hawk]

Slip of the time.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. He loves these cats. That's AP Tone. The talks table here is at Boss Connor at Ty Schmidt. I have cats. I'd be very worried if there was a car. Potentially, you got cool cats sitting inside of the house.

[Tony Dungy]

Potentially.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't know that. I don't think he knows what it is either. And then as he's leaving, guess who fires up. Guess who fires up. Fire department right across the street. So it's like, we don't even know if they're heading to Bailey's. No, we don't even know if they're heading, but Bailey's running out of the Thunderdome as the fire trucks right across the street are going this way, the whole siren. So a lot of chaos out here. We'd like to let Bill know. Bowling for you, buddy.

[Tony Dungy]

Good luck, Bill.

[Pat McAfee]

Good luck, Bill. So it's tough to.

[Ty Schmidt]

Is that a vet?

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, we got caution tape out.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we got caution. And that was where the fire trucks were headed to, it appears. If he is okay, we hope everybody's all right, including the Cats and Bailey. Hey, Bailey, good luck. We love you, buddy. And you should feel pretty good about your knee drive. That was a pretty good run.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Out of the Thunderdome, through the parking lot to his truck, hits the gate, on the roll out of the gate, two cars behind fire truck as he's getting.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, if we know anything about Bill, he handles situations like this better than anybody.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. This is something he's very good at whenever there's a little bit of adversity.

[Tony Dungy]

Yep.

[AJ Hawk]

That's why we sent Mitt behind to assess the situation and make sure everything was okay.

[Pat McAfee]

We did send Mitt. We were hoping for potentially a drone follow because it is pretty near to here.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Drone following Bailey's car. Okay. As he's going, turning in. We got the. The entire fire, and then Bill getting out of his truck, hands on head. We got drone over top. That's what we were trying to do. Weren't able to get it on fast enough because once again, Bailey, from telling us he had a car hit his house to sprinting through the parking lot, probably six, seven seconds, if I had to guess. So we're proud of Bailey. We hope he's okay. We hope everybody's okay, including the Cats. And good luck over here, McComes. Good luck, Bill.

[AJ Hawker]

Mick, could Do. I thought Mick could do like a live hit. Like he's a local broadcaster. You know, they stand outside and we should actually face.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's FaceTime Mitchell. AJ that's a good call, actually. You know, AJ he could really paint.

[AJ Hawker]

A picture on what's been going on and give us some information.

[Pat McAfee]

We did have to tell him to definitely not be the second person to drive a car into Bailey's house, though. You know, whenever he was following Bailey over there, clearly told him like, hey, now you can. You can't crash into his house because Mitt's worst driver I've ever seen. Parker bad. Parker bad driver.

[AJ Hawker]

What if he did? What if he did?

[Pat McAfee]

We're trying to handle the situation as professionally and as court courteously as possible, but we need to get eyes on Bailey reacting to somebody driving into his house. Like we needed that for sure because Bailey does get a little fired up. He does get a little, you know, a little bit flustered, which is. It comes from passion, you know, that comes from his passion, obviously. But yeah, he. When he said a car drove into my house, I guess I have to go.

[Mike Elko]

I want to.

[AJ Hawker]

We need to know if it's a. If it was like a targeted attack or it was just a mistake.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if anybody's targeting Bailey McOmis his house with a car, but I mean, we don't know what Bailey's up to.

[AJ Hawk]

No, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

He's working out three times a day. I know. He looks very fit. Joining us now live for. From the scene of the crime, ladies and gentlemen, he is a member of Hammer Don. This is Mitt. Live from Mitt. How's it going?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yep, yep, great. We got a. We got a situation over here at the McComas property. It seems as if just high blood pressure. Guy had 198 and climbing, I think, and hit Bailey's house.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so guy potentially had a little bit of a diabetes situation, it sounds like while. While he's driving.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah, it is a very nice.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a nice Corvette over here.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I don't know if you can see it.

[Pat McAfee]

Is Bailey okay? Is the house okay? Is the driver okay?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah, Bailey is tracking to the cops.

[Pat McAfee]

The driver seems okay. He is going to. Oh, here's Bailey right now.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

We have an on scene interview.

[Pat McAfee]

Bailey, how's it going, buddy? It's going.

[AJ Hawk]

It's certainly going.

[Tony Dungy]

It looks like this guy had a really sweet.

[Pat McAfee]

Correct.

[Tony Dungy]

Completely spun out, took out my tree, which I was just manicuring that it was really in a good shape right now. And hit my electrical box and my garage.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, perfect. Perfect. Okay. Is he okay? Is everybody okay, though? Cat's good. Yeah, yeah, he's okay.

[Tony Dungy]

Cats are good. Everything should be okay. We'll see. The guys next door actually responded, so I got a escort directly to my house.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we saw you follow him. Yeah, we saw. We figured that was the case.

[AJ Hawker]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

We appreciate you. Happy to hear everybody's okay.

[Tony Dungy]

All right. Appreciate you guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you. Good luck, man.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's good.

[Pat McAfee]

M. Really good, dude. You should feel very proud of yourself. Look at you go. Investigator journalism.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Let's go.

[Pat McAfee]

Best hit ever, dude. Dude. Yeah, we call it investigation. You know, with Mitt. You're the best, Ladies and gentlemen. Got a really nice Corvette over here.

[Ryan Day]

Six is sick.

[Pat McAfee]

He had 198 blood pressure.

[Ty Schmidt]

So did go.

[Pat McAfee]

I heard an ambulance. Ambulance person say that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Right into the electrical box or. No, that's actually the meter.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Is it?

[Pat McAfee]

No, I mean, worst possible spot. Happy to hear everybody's okay, though, Honestly. That is a very scary situation. How about him manicuring his tree? I sure he is.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. Guys, doing Bill a favor. I'm sure.

[Tony Dungy]

That thing.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what the boy said immediately. The boys said immediately, hopefully. This guy just took this entire house down. That. That is what everybody just said.

[Tony Dungy]

It was so.

[Pat McAfee]

It was so sad. It was like, why do you think that this guy gets a new house? He's been through a lot with this house. You got a new photo here. Here's where the damage has been done. Oh, that's okay. You're good. That's good. Base. That's good. Sturdy home. He should be proud of that home. He should be proud of that home. Now it feels like there's probably going to be a lot of things that are going to have to get fixed just with that particular part there. Anytime you get a dent in something, normally that offsets like everything else. So, you know, the knee bones connected to the shin bone in a house, everything's connected. So whenever one thing is just like this, you got to fix. Oh, yeah. We got to fix this top one here, too. And this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one. How long is that going to take? Three to seven months.

[AJ Hawk]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. All right, Sweet. We got different people for different jobs. Bailey just added a whole new.

[AJ Hawker]

Oh, man.

[Pat McAfee]

You got to knock down the whole structure, build a whole new garage.

[AJ Hawk]

Unfortunately.

[Pat McAfee]

Bailey's the best person. Bailey, I'm happy you're okay. We're happy you're okay. But boy, you. This getting added to Bailey's life.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, man. Right before the holidays.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God. Boy happy. Everybody's all right. Y.

[AJ Hawker]

Could have been worse.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so we had stolen skeleton Halloween stuff. We got to the bottom of that. Had a car crash. We just had some lit investigation journalism from Mitt. I feel like we're really broaden our horizons.

[Tony Dungy]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Aren't we kind of diving into maybe we start doing some journalism? We did today. We talked to three coaches.

[Rhett Lashley]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Texas A and M. We talked to head coach Mike Elko. How we feeling? How's the team? How. How's everything looking? Journalism talked to Ryan Day, told him, hey, you guys won. Yeah, congrats. Journalism. Also told me he hadn't done journalism.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Then we talked Rhett Lashley, fresh off a new deal. They're still in. Everybody's wiping them off, including the College Football Playoff committee. It's like they can still win the ac. They got winnable games. I got winnable games coming up to get the ACC championship. ACC championship. Will they be able to win it? Beat Miami? So they can. You tell me they're able to do that. Let's go to one half of the Hammer Cowboys. Bubba Gumpino. Gumpy. Almost like you knew Miami was going to lose that game to smu and. And. And we're now at the nostalgia part of the season. Right. For Miami Hurricanes fans and I guess Dolphins fans and football season kind of over in October.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it was a hell of a run for Miami. Started off hot, but you saw those boys coming off the bus. They weren't winning that game. First game out of Florida.

[Pat McAfee]

Noon kick.

[Ty Schmidt]

We've been playing at night. Friday night in Miami.

[Pat McAfee]

Was never going to win that game. Sorry. Go.

[Ty Schmidt]

It was a good run. I mean, it was.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

You knew that early.

[AJ Hawker]

You knew that early.

[Pat McAfee]

That's why Herb street said it on game day. Because of how confident Gumpy was in his misery. He was so confident in his misery because, you know, Miami didn't control their own destiny going into last weekend. Okay, so they were like one of the only. There's only two teams, Georgia Tech and Virginia, that controlled their own destiny. And obviously that all changes, but Miami didn't control its own destiny even though it only had one loss. So it's like even if they win out, there's a chance that they still don't make the ACC champion. So does that mean that they're a two bid league all of a sudden? So then going into smu, it's like all Right. Just got to stack wins here, especially with the position that you're in. Who knows what can happen. And Gumpy just. Nope, this one's not good. This one's not good. Homecoming guy just signed an extension on contract.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're also very good against the run. And Carson Beck has not been playing very well. I mean, he threw a shitload of picks in that game against Louisville and. And it was more of the same.

[Tony Dungy]

At least he's not throwing his teammates under the bus. Oh, oh, he is.

[Pat McAfee]

No, that one.

[Ty Schmidt]

That one was chopped by a Georgia account. That was not the full answer, but.

[Pat McAfee]

There need to be context.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Things that you could question, but not that one.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he wants to win more in. But a lot of pressure on him going into Miami, obviously with the way it was going and it was great to be down there. Crystal Ball, I think is going to have that team in it for a long haul. They got got money. They obviously have the U, so they'll be able to go. But SMU's feeling the same way. All these schools that have a money, they're like, hey, we can do this. Texas A M, no different. Texas Tech, no different sm. All these Texas schools. Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A M, smu. It's almost like Texas, people that have money, like Ball.

[Ty Schmidt]

State, everyone's about to have a little bit of money, at least.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you mean by that? And North Texas too. Like.

[Ty Schmidt]

Like there's this. There's some schools in these big conferences that don't have a lot of nil money, but every team is at least going to get the TV money here in the upcoming years. So they're going to have.

[Pat McAfee]

When's that start? Did that get signed off on? I thought they kicked can down the road even more for that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Eventually it's happened.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what everybody said this last time. It didn't get voted through. Like when, let me remember, they said it was June or something like that or a July hearing or a May hearing. I forget the exact month. We had the exact month. And then that just came and went. Nothing was said. Then they said, no, we postponed it. Then it came and they're like, no, we're going to look into it again. And everybody was like, no, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. It didn't happen again.

[AJ Hawk]

They.

[Ty Schmidt]

They pro started the process of providing direct institutional revenue sharing payments to their student athletes on July 1, 2025.

[Matt Rule]

So it's already started.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, so we're already doing revenue share thing.

[Tony Dungy]

Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't think it's in. I don't know if it's in place for this season, but it's.

[Pat McAfee]

It started at least sounded like it. So this is like the weed business. Everybody got really good at growing the weed and being able to move the weed. Just waiting on the feds to legalize it.

[Ty Schmidt]

This is the start day of a new system where schools can allocate a portion of their revenue directly to athletes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

So it's already started July 1, 2025.

[Pat McAfee]

Is what.

[Ty Schmidt]

What it looks like. I could be wrong. The Internet could be wrong.

[AJ Hawker]

Does anybody know anything?

[AJ Hawk]

No.

[AJ Hawker]

In college football, I thought the rev.

[Pat McAfee]

Share thing was happening in the future. That's our already happening more conversation needs. Who's spending. What are the salary cap on who. I mean, we need to start knowing what salary cap is now.

[AJ Hawker]

That's the 20 million deal, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but that. I thought that wasn't in place. I thought that was kind of down the road. I didn't know that was happening yet. Because everybody's trying to get the max amount of revenue, remember, trying to come up with ways to generate more revenue. That's at least what not Ohio State's doing. Would never say that, but other schools are like, how do we get to max revenue? It was one of the reasons why Bill Belichick was able to go to North Carolina because they promised something along the lines of being at max revenue. Are they going to be good?

[AJ Hawker]

I was going to ask you, what do you think?

[Pat McAfee]

How.

[AJ Hawker]

How is the. Yeah. How are we going to look back on this first season for Bill at unc?

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, really loud, obviously. It was really, really loud. And they've been able to stay the course somehow. And they're just like still playing ball and getting better in winning games and still out on the road recruiting through it all. These people don't want to be here. They're not going to last for the full season. These guys stay. Obviously this is a failure. And then you got Lombardi and Belichick in tiny towns across the country trying to find some new offensive lineman that they can sign to their first ever recruiting class. Interesting stuff in the North Carolina Tar Heel football story, you know, because he is greatest coach of all time conversation. No matter what anybody wants to say, he's actually going into hall of fame this year. Probably congratulations to him being a semifinalist.

[Tony Dungy]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

On the coaches hall of fame fame, they changed the rule that it didn't have to be five years after you retire. We all think so that they could just put Belichick in because obviously in the NFL he is, you know, the guy and in it all. So I'm intrigued to see if he turns this around, if everybody will have respect for him, you know, and the loud that was would become the opposite whenever they win and can they win there? They think so because of the American amount of money and the revenue stuff. So we'll see. You're right, Tony. If everybody's going to have money, then there's a chance everybody can be competitive.

[Ty Schmidt]

So I chat GPT it.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

They.

[Ty Schmidt]

They had to opt into it. Most schools did opt into it and then started paying their athletes. Yeah, looks like it.

[Pat McAfee]

So. So West Virginia is paying school right now with revenue share. We're paying our athletes.

[Mike Elko]

Let me.

[Ty Schmidt]

Let me see if. Did w opt in.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't need to be targeting. We don't need to be targeting money. We say maybe which schools did. Which. Which schools. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Has publicly stated that it will fully participate in the revenue sharing.

[Pat McAfee]

It will fully participate. That's what I'm saying. The will in r right now you're saying is it happening right now?

[Ty Schmidt]

That's what I'm being told.

[AJ Hawker]

But then you still raise all this nil money next to it, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. West Virginia is starting to participate in NCAA revenue share sharing for its athletes while with the 2025, 2026 athlete athletic season as the target for full participation. A key partnership with Hope gas will help WVU meet its revenue sharing obligations. Specifically around $20.5 million. Hell yeah. The university has been generating funds through other avenues, such as Golden Blue Enterprises, partnerships with companies like Planet Fitness and Grant County Mulch and craft beer collaborations.

[Tony Dungy]

Oh, okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Best mulch is in time. Yeah. They also have that whiskey, I believe. Yeah, the whiskey. Yeah. It is pretty good. People are going to get creative. Okay. So we're just straight out of the revenue right now. So can we see salary caps? Can we see.

[Ty Schmidt]

You would think so.

[Pat McAfee]

Can we see how much people have left? Can we start seeing how much money is being allocated to what positions? Can we start. Can we start learning about the game a little bit here? Because everybody's talking about these guardrails. Feels like we have them a little bit here now and we don't have any of the information. We start pressing for that.

[Tony Dungy]

Well, you need saddle caps on every single sport then? Or do you need. Because is that revenue for all athletes?

[Ty Schmidt]

It's revenue for the whole school.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So 16.5 is the number allegedly for football. There's like a certain percentage. It was like 80%, I think, is what some people might do. But there was no rule that was made. So every athletic director was potentially going to have to make the decision, which is what they were worried about. Man, I thought we kicked this can down the road. I didn't know we were still doing that right now. Congress College getting better and better. All right, let's make some picks from tonight. H. Okay, let's make some picks for tonight. Raiders, Broncos, Broncos favored by 8 1/2 on ESPN bet until about December 1st and then everywhere else. You could potentially get it at nine and a half as well at least a couple hours ago. Is it the same story right now? What is the percentage on money on what tone days?

[Ty Schmidt]

It has not moved to 66% of the money is on the Broncos tonight.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, 66% of the money on the Broncos. You can get them at minus eight and a half. This is is at 8:15 tonight on Amazon Prime. AJ who do you like? How do you like it?

[AJ Hawker]

I think I. I maybe showed a little bit earlier in this program. I. I am leaning heavy. Denver Broncos -8 and a half at home tonight especially. Are we wearing. Do we know or confirm? Are they wearing these uniforms right here?

[Pat McAfee]

I do not know if they're wearing.

[Ty Schmidt]

They changed their Twitter header to that symbol so I was so probably either.

[AJ Hawker]

Way, give them to give that. Give me the Broncos tonight.

[Pat McAfee]

They want to pull on show. You know, they. They understand what's at stake here. Okay. This is prime time. We got a chance to look really cool. We saw what the Steelers did, a few prime time games. Let's not do that, okay? Let's look sweet out here and let's enjoy and celebrate the hell out of the football environment that we have. Much like you, AJ I feel the exact same way. There was a stat, though. There was some stat. I heard about something.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah. The Broncos have not won a division prime time game game since 2017. They've lost 10 straight to Division opponents in prime time. And also, just keep in mind, we do think the Jags are good. And you know, with Brock Bowers back, the Raiders are. They didn't look like. I mean, I let it off with I think Pete Carroll sucks, which I do.

[Pat McAfee]

But at this stage, Pete Carroll was obviously very good with Seattle, went to the Super Bowl. USC is pretty good. But they did strip that, I guess.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, do you believe this is too many points for a divisional game?

[AJ Hawker]

That's in the back of my mind. I'm not gonna lie. It's in the back of my head.

[Pat McAfee]

All Right. Plus nine and a half. Give me the Raiders. I'll take the Raiders plus nine and a half. No way. Broncos.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's a lot.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm not doing a lot of points.

[AJ Hawker]

In the division, though. That is.

[Pat McAfee]

That is a lot of points in the division. But look at the numbers that Hembo sent over about sack percentage and fucking how much they sack.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah. Does that include when Patrick Surtane's playing? What are the numbers just from last week?

[Pat McAfee]

We need more numbers. We're saying we need more.

[Tony Dungy]

That's just a classic stats thing.

[Pat McAfee]

There's always stats.

[Ty Schmidt]

They almost just lost to Dougie Bills, to be fair.

[Tony Dungy]

Well, that's what I'm saying. It's go football.

[Ty Schmidt]

Almost lost to Jackson, Dart and the Giants. Like the. The Broncos have a good record. They're not. They haven't been smacking people around.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, it feels like I'm starting to get a hint of. Yeah, I saw Bruce do a fool. Oh, when I go away from the raid. Obviously you got some stats drop here. Gumpy sounds like. Like he is cemented.

[Ty Schmidt]

He hates, with the passion of a thousand sons, Sean Payton.

[Pat McAfee]

Why he does never.

[AJ Hawk]

He does. It's just.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's not my cup of tea, to be fair.

[Tony Dungy]

To be fair to Gumpy as well. By far. And this was kind of out of nowhere, The Broncos fan base is one of the most insufferable on the Internet. I had no idea. I had no idea. Most disrespectful, respected team. Oh, we also have a six game win streak. It's like, all right.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you're talking about the post that you copy and pasted. Yeah, Somebody else did the stat you copy pasted. Say, is that right? And then they came after you. Is that what you're saying?

[Tony Dungy]

No, I'm not sure. I'm not. I'm not sure which one you're talking.

[Pat McAfee]

About, but you put a Drake May stat out and then.

[Ty Schmidt]

Or a Patriots, I think it was, leading the league in passing touchdowns, maybe.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, it was something. And then everybody's like, well, actually, this stat's wrong. This stat's wrong.

[Tony Dungy]

Oh, no. Okay, so it was from overreaction Monday. It was when I said they have the longest winning streak in the NFL with six games. And all the Broncos fans were like, oh, that's not true. We got six games. So they're okay. They're tied for the longest win streak in the NFL with the Broncos. And now all this other stuff because the Chiefs are still the favors to make it out of the east, blah, blah, blah. The Chargers, all this stuff. And you know, the Broncos, the team itself haven't really heard much. Like, hey, we feel disrespected. But boy, boy, these fans, they are the worst marks in the league.

[Pat McAfee]

They're passionate. They love the Broncos. They love. Remember Bronco Country. That's right. They've been through it. Brock Osweiler, I mean, there's a quarterback, he paid him a lot of money. Yeah. Paxton lynch drafted him high. I thought he was going to be a guy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, we all did.

[AJ Hawk]

Seven five have been through it more.

[Tony Dungy]

Than the Colts tell you that much.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, I'll tell you what. Colts started going through it whenever Payton just went over there and he just broke every record and won a Super Bowl. Yeah, he was really good over there. Still had it appeared, but boy, you.

[Tony Dungy]

Would think this is the first time the Broncos have been good in 200 years.

[Pat McAfee]

Give me the Raiders plus nine and a half.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[AJ Hawk]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

Universe Ball Raider, right now.

[Tony Dungy]

Go back.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's take the Broncos. Yeah, take the Broncos.

[Tony Dungy]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean that just. Let's see here. Actually, I didn't really give that one a good go. Dear football gods, please direct me to the pick. This will be for the Raiders plus nine and a half. Oh, that's a shame. Give me the Broncos.

[AJ Hawker]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Big time Broncos. Mine saying that football God spoke to me there. Lights, camera, action. AJ I don't know if you saw this.

[Tony Dungy]

I did.

[Pat McAfee]

I like that they sent it over. It's pretty cool looking, you know, cuz it's like sloppy but you can read it, you know, so it's pretty cool. Super artsy.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's mact, baby.

[Pat McAfee]

They took a picture, I think the Mac conference and posted it. And I'm mid blank like this. Thank you. Thank you, guys. That is Maxion.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, it is.

[Pat McAfee]

That's Max football and. All right, we're going to get out of here. We get an interview with Matt Rule. We're going to run from earlier today. Obviously we ran out of time in the feel the beat hour because, I mean, when you're talking to Mike Elko for the first time all season, he got questions.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, you do.

[Pat McAfee]

Ryan Day. We got to let him know his team's the best team that we've ever seen. 80% completion percentage for that quarterback. Holy hell. Defense historic. You guys are the best of all time. Maybe you stop playing. Just take the trophy now. Just. Why are we even doing. Stop, stop. He was getting.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm out of here.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm out of here. I'm done.

[AJ Hawker]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Nope. He Literally got up to get out like it was when coach Lou Holtz came in. Yeah, when Ty Lue walked in. And then Rhett Lashley, that was cool to chit chat with him. What if they do go on a run here at the end of the year and go to the ACC championship? It's almost like we maybe knew was going to happen. It's good shit. We love football. We can't wait to watch tonight. Be a friend. Tell a friend something tonight so it might change your life. We're in this thing together. We're pulling for you, Bill and House.

[Tony Dungy]

Good luck.

[Matt Rule]

Startling.

[Pat McAfee]

Multiple thousands of dollars are coming in repair. I'm sure insurance will get that right over to you. Yep. We love you, Bill. We'll be here to support you however you need. Let's have a night team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye. The head coach of the Nebraska Corn Huskers, Matt.

[AJ Hawk]

Cold.

[Pat McAfee]

All right.

[Matt Rule]

What's up, fellas?

[Tony Dungy]

What's up?

[Pat McAfee]

Hey. Everything over here is on the up and up. And we obviously send our positive thoughts and vibes to Dylan and everything you got going on. Fresh out of a surgery, I do believe, as a coach, kind of. How do you handle this week for your team? Obviously, massive, devastating injury. Massive. I don't want to keep piling on, but loss here in the Big Ten, it's like, how do you handle this week with your. Your team as the leader of men who still have games left and also still have a lot to prove, not only to yourselves, but the fan base, if that makes sense.

[Matt Rule]

Yeah, no, I think it's a great question, man. I mean, it's like you get into coaching and you want to have all these amazing moments, but these are the moments where you earn your stripes, right? Where you prove what you can do and you have to do a great job for your team. And so instead of feeling it, being in your own feelings, I think you have to really think about your guys. And so first you got Dylan. Devastating news. I mean, you know, you sit there, you think he. You think he's going to sprain his ankle. You know, he wants to go. He's out there, he's trying to hobble around. I said, you know, I said, buddy, listen, I love you too much to put you out here when you can't move. Get back home after the game, Pat. And they say, hey, you know, guess what? He broke his fibula. I mean, like, just the toughness of that kid to want to go out there and play. So you're devastated for him. You're devastated for your team. You know, we were in a great position. We had the lead, lead. You know, credit to usc, they made the plays down the stretch and then you wake up the next morning and you have to tell the guys like, hey, I know how disappointed you are, I know how much you put into this. But as a team, we have to rally around TJ because he's an excellent young quarterback and he's going to have his first college start as a freshman, going back home to la, playing a hot, hot UCLA team, coming off a bye. And you know what? We all have to be great teammates, man. We all have to just do a little bit more. We can't ask teammates to shoulder more than just, hey, just go play quarterback and have everyone else, the defense, receivers, the O line, the coaches, we all have to do a little bit more.

[Pat McAfee]

You talk about going back to UCLA and obviously everything you just said there is spoken like a great leader, which obviously you are in our T's and P's to Dylan and also hearing that it's a broken fibula and then him wanting to play through it, like hell yeah, dude, that is football. That stuff this quarterbacks have to show that and there's a lot to that. Don't. So I respect the hell out of him for that. You talk about the young quarterback going back to LA for his first start. You guys are, and I know you don't pay attention to this, but I'm going to give you a heads up. You guys go from having everything in front of you to now underdogs against UCLA in LA. How do you handle the travel? Because USC's first win over a thousand miles of travel was this past weekend. How do you handle the travel? How do you handle all the conversation? And now you guys are literally the hunters as opposed to the hunted with the underdog dogs. To ucla.

[Matt Rule]

Yeah, you know, one of the things I said this week in our press conference, and I mean it, like, if you want to be taken seriously nationally, if you want to, like, you know, we're a two loss team last week and we're not in the top 25 and other teams are. So if you want to, if you want to gain the respect of the country, then, then you need moments like this and you need to come through, you know, you need to go on the road with a freshman quarterback. Underdogs, everyone counting you out, everyone saying, well that was a good game last week, everyone. I mean, you know, last week we held USC's high powered offense to their lowest totals in A long time. And so there was a lot of good things that happened, even though the scoreboard didn't go out our way. And so you can just walk away and be disappointed. Kind of write the season off, and that would be pretty average. That would be like, what.

[Pat McAfee]

What.

[Matt Rule]

What we kind of been like here for a long time. And so, to me, we have an unbelievable opportunity to kind of change the narrative to. To begin to show tremendous respect for ourself. And once you respect yourself and start standing up for yourself, yourself, then people around you start to do it. Then nationally, you start to do it. So I've told. I've told us. I've told everyone around us, like, either you're with us or you're not. Like, I'm with tj. My goal this week as the head coach is to be the best coach I can be for this freshman quarterback and for these guys that bust their tails for me, make it all about our players, don't make it about ourselves. And I'm expecting the fans that show up. I'm expecting the people that support us and love us. They'll do the same. And this is a ch. Chance for Husker Nation to run. Rise up. And you know what?

[Mike Elko]

It won't.

[Matt Rule]

It won't get us in the cfp, Pat. You know, I mean, that. That's. You know, we lost by three to Michigan. We lost by four to. So we'll have to chase those in the off season. But right now, that's time to stand up for ourselves and go fight for what we want.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. There's still a lot that is possible for a team that is trying to build a program back to the greatness that it was. And I'm excited to watch you do that. You have a running back that I assume you will definitely be feeding that I got to meet at a WWE event. So much mock foxy, so much swag. Go ahead, Tone.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Coach.

[Ty Schmidt]

Obviously, with TJ Latif coming in, who is a true freshman, it would be nice to have an incredible running back, and you do in Emmett Johnson. He's already over a thousand yards for the season. I believe he's going for a top five, top ten historic rushing season in Nebraska history, which is insane. How nice is it going to be to have him just in the backfield to rely on with a true freshman quarterback next to him?

[Matt Rule]

Absolutely. I mean, he's. I think he's one of 2000, one of two people in the country to be over a thousand yards rushing. You know, this is. This is this Is this, this guy's an unbelievable example of what we're trying to do. You know, he shared time last year, he was a rotational player, and instead of leaving, you know, he just kind of hung in there, hung in there. And now he's gotten his opportunity and, you know, I, I, I've yet to see the first guy tackle him. I mean, he's unbelievable. Great vision, can catch the ball, but unbelievable in terms of making people miss and fighting for extra yards. And so that's kind of what I was saying about tj. Like, hey, everybody just do a little bit more tj, you just do your job. But emt go little bit more, which he will. Naia, Jacori, all these great players that we have, they're all going to do just a little bit more. Take the strain off of the young guy.

[Pat McAfee]

I loved E. Money and Viola's relationship. I like their handshake there at the WWE event. They were having a good time. Feels like the culture's in place for a while. Although this year, you know, maybe not a national championship here. Feels like you're setting a foundation and E. Money is certainly a guy for that. Now. What's wrestling the season look like for Nebraska? Well, I will Hawkeyes, Ty Schmidt has a question for you.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Coach. Is it weird being in a situation now with the way like the playoff is set up? We're obviously at this point, you know, like playing spoiler. That's what it's all about going down the stretch. But on the same token, you're also in kind of incentivized if teams in the Big Ten make it to the College Football Playoff, obviously, you know, we know the revenue share, like how, I mean, I guess, you know, obviously you're trying to win, you're not trying to lose. But is it, is it kind of weird that that is a reality? Kind of like a 6, 7, you know, situation where you want to play spoiler. But if, if the Big Ten gets four teams in, obviously you guys will reap the benefit of that as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Fascinating.

[Rhett Lashley]

Yeah.

[Matt Rule]

I care about no one else other than us.

[Ty Schmidt]

I last week.

[Matt Rule]

And, and you know what? And honestly, I think, I think, you know, you know, you're always going to hear me say, I think the Big 10 teams, the two losses are under underappreciated. You. I think I was having a heck of a season. I think SC is having a heck of a season and many more. So Michigan is at 7 and 2. So I look forward to, you know, I look forward to every game that we have a Chance to play. And that's kind of what I said before. Like, you know what, like we got to get in Nebraska where nationally like we're, we are respected and not just kind of dismissed. And so we have to win every game that we play and but I do think, I do think there's some really good teams in the Big Ten and we deserve, deserve four in. And you know what, it's kind of crazy when you look at it right now. You look at the rankings like this team's really ranked high, but they still have to play these guys. Like so many teams have to play each other.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh yeah.

[Matt Rule]

And it'll be really interesting following the, the CFP rankings as we go down the stretch.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Tuesday was the first one and obviously there's a little bias. They say, you know, in the south and then the Big Ten has the back to back national champs. If they were to get that again, how would that conversation dive into it? And then obviously last year, SEC travels up to Big Ten, Tennessee travels up to play against Ohio State, who had two losses. Ohio State had two losses, Tennessee had a couple losses. And we all know how that went in the ice cold. So there's going to be a lot of chatter around who gets in and who doesn't get in. But the Big Ten, to your point, coach rule. I don't feel like it gets as much respect. And will it next year? Will it the year after that? How long does it take and will that be the Nebraska Cornhusker's job next year to become the Stallions that people have been talking about in the Big Ten? Ty says, no, just know that Ty says, and he asked you that question because you know, Iowa beats Oregon this weekend. And then obviously some other stuff happened. You guys in Iowa, last game of the season, Ty's like, hey, for the good of the Big Ten, for the good of the Big Ten. That's what Iowa is pitching, you know, but it is, it's very, the 12 team playoff. Obviously better. More teams have a chance. But now it's like, well, how do they view the teams that deserve the chances? And it's like, man, college football is never going to be able to get it right. Never going to be able to get 100% right. But it's a beautiful thing. Con man has a question for you. Coach.

[Tony Dungy]

Yeah, coach. The coach that comes in the office into the Thunderdome every week, Bruce Arians always says, no risk it. No biscuit. And when you're going up against an interim head coach, it feels like there's no other coach that is probably risking it more because. Why not? Because of that. When it comes to game planning for a team like ucla, do you legitimately have to go over all the trick plays, all the type of shit that they could pull? And on the opposite end of that, similar to, you know, Ty saying, you know, playing spoiler, are you guys now just open up the playbook. Hey, let's think of everything and anything because at this point, let's just go out there, get the victory.

[Matt Rule]

Yeah. You know, I think. Well, I think every week, you know, you're going to do everything you think, you know, you need to do to win the game. What they've done is, you know, they faked three punts. They're faking punts against punt. Safe.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes.

[Matt Rule]

They've opened up the playbook. They've unleashed, you know, I think. I think Nico's a tremendous quarterback and they've unleashed him. He's running all over the place. And they're coming off a buy, you know, so USC was coming off a buy. They had two weeks to study us. UCLA is coming off a buy. And so, you know, as a coach, you just tell the guys, like, hey, we have to be alert for everything. And. And you can't play afraid, you can't play scared. But you do have to say to yourself, like, hey, we need to have. Have our eyes on our keys. Everybody has to be, like, locked in and focused at all times. And then we just know. I mean, like I said, Nico's one of the best quarterbacks in college football. I believe if you watch what he's done, especially in this run, he's been amazing and, and a lot of it, he's done running. He's their leading rusher. And so we are going to have to, have to have to account for him at every turn.

[Pat McAfee]

Nico broke three helmets against Ohio State. Yeah, three helmets. Now, obviously they lost, and it wasn't his best game, but he was getting dumped into the frozen and getting right back up like. Like nobody was really talking about this offseason with how everything went with Nico's story and the nil transfer portal. We want this. We want this. We go back to ucla. UCLA starts how it goes. Everybody's like kind of burying him, burying him, burying him in his situation. It's like we watched him up close and personal, take some, I mean, absolute shots and get right back up. So I got immense respect for him. I'm happy to hear you say the same thing. He's tough. Nico's much tougher. I think than anybody gives him credit for.

[Matt Rule]

Yeah, yeah. When he's running, he's not sliding. He's not running out of bounds. He plays the game like a warrior. He's a. He's an elite competitor. And I think sometimes we talk about quarterbacks, we talk about everything else, but I think there's something really to that. You know, guys will follow a quarterback, a leader who goes out there, who. Whether it's Dylan trying to play on a broken leg, whether it's Nico not. Not sliding. You're gonna. You're gonna play for guys like that. You're gonna sacrifice for guys. I respect the heck out of him. And so, you know, our guys understand, like, when we have to treat him like a tailback, he's not a quarterback. He's a tailback when he runs, and he's got great speed. And again, he's their leading rusher, so it'll be a major factor in our ball game.

[Pat McAfee]

Cannot wait to watch you guys execute. Good luck. This weekend against ucla. I'm heading down to Lubbock, Texas, for the first time in my life. What should I be expecting down there? I know you got a little history, a little Big 12 history.

[Matt Rule]

Well, well, you know, I was the one. You know, many, many coaches tried, and I was the. I was the only guy that was able to get Joey McGuire to leave high school coaching. And he came and worked for me at Baylor. I met him at. At an ihop. And he was like, who's this guy from New York? And by the time we were done, man, we were brothers. And he.

[Mike Elko]

He.

[Matt Rule]

He's one of the great, great, great coaches of LIC's A Cool Town. There's gonna be all kinds of. There's gonna be great vibes everywhere. You're gonna love when the game starts. Just don't get hit by a tortilla, you know? But.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, they banned those, Coach. They banned the tortillas.

[Matt Rule]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure on national tv, the guys aren't going to let one fly. But. But, but I tell you what, man. Like, he is. He is.

[AJ Hawk]

He is.

[Matt Rule]

You know, sometimes you meet people and they're so positive and they're so engaging. You're like, is this guy. He really is. Like, my kids used to walk in the building, Pat, and they would go see Coach Jojo before they came and saw me, because he has more juice than I got. So he's one of the best of the best, man. I'm so happy to see him. And then you know, Kalani Sataki is one of the good guys in coaching. So, like, this is two guys that I really respect immensely. So it'll be a great, great ball game.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, the Big 12's hot, right? I mean, there is. The Big 12's got a lot of shit brewing over there. You know, obviously Cincinnati loses to Utah, but Utah, BYU might be the Big 12 championship game. And then Texas Tech's like, excuse me, we're also in this thing. The Big 12 is cooking right now, and it's a special time in byu, Texas Tech. There's been people camping out since Monday to get in that game. They're camping out down there since Monday. This is huge, huge, huge game down there. And I think this is what the future is for Texas Tech coach. They got money, they got a lot of. They got backers. So I think that's, hey, we're good for the future, right? Isn't that kind of how we should be looking at this, especially with Joey Maguire? Your thoughts on him?

[Matt Rule]

Absolutely. Joey's a guy, you know, he's in the Texas High School Coaches hall of Fame, so he'll always be able to go mine all the small towns and find the unearthed gems. And now because of the commitment they've made financially, they can also go get the best players in the portal nationally. They can get five stars, our kids nationally. So there'll be a great combination of elite, elite, elite recruited talent. But also Joey's going to go find those guys from those small towns that, you know, maybe are underserved, under noticed, and he'll. Someone will call Joey. He's just the right person to go out there to West Texas and he's going to have that mindset, that brand that they have out there in West Texas. They're going to play football that way. They'll be exciting. They'll be Texas Tech, but they play defense and they're physical. So he'll do a great job there for a long time.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I'm excited to get down there and witness it and watch it and experience it. Said, you know, I, I learned about Elma Texas through the Big Green.

[AJ Hawk]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

I think we're going to be down there. All right. We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, head coach of Nebraska. Good luck, bro. We appreciate you.

[Matt Rule]

Appreciate you guys.