PMS 2.0 1461 - OVERREACTION MONDAY, NFL Week 13 Recap, MNF Preview, Adam Schefter, Marty Smith on the Lane Kiffin Situation, Kirk Herbstreit, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Summary

The Pat McAfee Show 2.0, Episode 1461: Overreaction Monday - NFL Week 13 Recap, MNF Preview, Lane Kiffin Situation & More

Date: December 2, 2025
Host: Pat McAfee
Co-hosts: AJ Hawk, Darius Butler, Conman, Ty Schmidt, Tone Digs
Guests: Adam Schefter, Marty Smith, Kirk Herbstreit, CJ Stroud

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Episode Overview

This special "Overreaction Monday" episode, fresh off NFL Week 13 and an explosive college football championship weekend, is packed with signature McAfee energy and humor. The crew breaks down the biggest NFL headlines, recaps crazy college football developments—especially the Lane Kiffin situation—shares personal stories, and welcomes top-tier guests with authentic insider takes. Raucous, candid, and immersive, this episode is a must for anyone looking to catch up on both the gridiron and the world surrounding it.

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Main Themes & Purpose

• NFL Week 13 Recap: Dissection of the Sunday games, key storylines, playoff races, and team drama.
• Monday Night Football Preview: Giants vs. Patriots, with a special focus on Drake May’s primetime showcase.
• College Football Turmoil: Recap of championship weekend, close look at Lane Kiffin's dramatic move, playoff implications, and the emotional impact on fanbases.
• Steelers Meltdown: In-depth analysis of Pittsburgh fans turning on Mike Tomlin, symbolized by fans booing "Renegade."
• Guest Insights: Reporter Marty Smith on the ground during the Lane Kiffin saga, Schefter with breaking NFL injury updates, Kirk Herbstreit with playoff breakdowns, and CJ Stroud on the Texans’ season.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. College Football Championship Weekend Hype & Local Vibes

• Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis:
  • Indiana's first championship appearance since 1967; huge excitement in the city; IU fans dominate the area.
  • “Indianapolis in the Big Ten championship will be outrageous. It feels like the vibe will be immaculate.” – Pat [01:39]
• SEC Title Game:
  • Alabama vs. Georgia showdown. If Alabama loses, will it hurt their playoff hopes?
  • Georgia rebounded after their loss to Alabama ended a legendary home win streak.

2. NFL Overreaction Monday: The "First 15" Storylines

#5 – Steelers Crisis: Booing "Renegade", Fans Turn on Tomlin

• Pittsburgh fans booed team tradition "Renegade" for the first time, underscoring deep frustration.
• Calls to move on from Mike Tomlin after 9 years without a playoff win, despite his legendary status.
• “Steelers fans, for the third time this season, playing good teams, are now losing by double digits—and they had the lead at halftime of all of them... The Yinzers are fed up. This is not the Pittsburgh Steelers.” – Pat [08:13]
• Tone Digs: “Everyone is now on the same page. Nine years without a playoff win is absurd. Three in the last 13 years is absurd. The fans are done.” [12:10]
• Darius Butler: “Sitting here, that fanbase... you gotta be embarrassed. Highest paid defense on the field, Hall of Fame names, and getting run over. That’s tough.” [15:34]

#4 – AFC Dominance with 10-win Teams

• Broncos and Patriots both hit double-digit wins, both in the AFC.
• Young QBs (Bo Nix, Drake May, Caleb Williams) lighting it up since being drafted; combined 26-1 record over last nine weeks.
• “Their defense is good enough to win a Super Bowl... O-line is so solid, they can beat you running or passing.” – Conman on Broncos [22:45]

#3 – Big Individual Performances in Losing Efforts

• Multiple players made highlight-reel plays/catches, but their teams still lost.
• “If you get a pick and dance but your team loses, we don’t care. You can’t even post it.” – Darius Butler [25:47]
• Chiefs and Colts called out for inconsistency; Cowboys and Bears received praise.
• Alec Pierce, Brock Bowers, Puka Nacua recognized for spectacular grabs.

#2 – Underdogs Barking: A Parity-Filled NFL Week

• 7 underdogs win outright, 9-2 against the spread on Thanksgiving/Black Friday.
• “Any given Sunday, this league has real parody.” – Darius Butler [29:43]
• Noted Carolina’s emergence, Bears’ statement win vs. Eagles, and the resurgence of the Panthers’ defense.

#1 – AFC South is a War Zone

• All teams except the Titans look formidable; Colts, Jags, Texans all in playoff contention.
• Texans, led by CJ Stroud, defeat Colts with help from questionable officiating, further tightening division race.
• “We’re in trouble, with our QB’s fractured fibula and the divisional games all backloaded.” – Pat [41:00]

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3. In-Depth: Steelers Breakdown

(Timestamps continue from above discussion)

• Fans & media discussing whether Tomlin's message is stale; growing chorus for change.
• Patriots as recent example of moving on from legendary coach; Bill Belichick analogy.
• “If Tomlin were a coaching free agent... he could have any job he wanted.” – Adam Schefter [54:49]
• Locker room discipline & lack of in-game adjustments highlighted as major issues.
• Defensive struggles and regression from historic standards ("32 consecutive games w/o allowing 100-yard rusher" now reversed) [15:57]

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4. Lane Kiffin Saga – On the Ground with Marty Smith

(Full segment: [67:19]–[79:41], continued throughout)

• Marty Smith embedded for the entire decision process; dramatic, chaotic reporting from airports and midnight meetings.
• “It was cold as hell... We bo-duke’d the van through a farm, bottoming out, ditched over the hill to catch Kiffin before his plane. This is the stuff you can’t make up.” – Marty Smith [76:04]
• Kiffin agonized between best-ever Ole Miss season and taking the LSU job.
• Staff negotiations (who he could bring with him) were a huge sticking point.
• “He told me directly, there was never any ultimatum to his staff. That's what Lane said.” – Marty [79:41]
• Pat, Darius, and Marty discuss the broken CFB calendar, complexity of decisions, and impact on playoff and program.
• “He loved Oxford. This is a man who changed his life there, got sober, found clarity... but when Pete Carroll tells you, your Dad would tell you to take this job, it weighs heavy.” – Marty [84:57]
• Kiffin admits: “It may not be the right decision. We’ll find out.” [77:47]

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5. NFL Injury & News Updates (Adam Schefter Segment)

(Timestamps for key points: [45:59]–[56:33])

• Daniel Jones (Giants): Hairline fibula fracture, decreased mobility, pain, but plans to play. [45:59]
• Sauce Gardner (Colts): Avoided Achilles tear, but calf injury—out for about a month. [47:20]
• Amon-Ra St. Brown (Lions): Ankle sprain, questionable for TNF, but tough enough to try. [48:49]
• Frank Ragnow (Lions): Doctors won't clear him; hamstring injury upon return attempt. [49:31]
• Justin Herbert (Chargers): Left hand surgery, status for MNF up in the air, depends on grip/ligaments. [52:08]
• Coaching Carousel:
  • Steelers not expected to fire Tomlin mid-season; if change comes, it’s likely mutual. [53:57]
  • Eagles not making offensive coordinator/play-caller changes despite slide. [55:46]

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6. CJ Stroud Interview: The Texans Are for Real

[117:35]–[132:22]

• Stroud authentically details concussion protocol, team health, and playoff focus.
• “It’s your brain. No timetable. Don’t mess around with it.” – CJ on missing 3 weeks [118:32]
• Praises Houston defense, rookie standouts Higgins and Woody Marks, and team culture.
• On “Stroud House” viral meme: “I’m not on there [Twitter/X], I asked them to delete it! It’s called the Loud House.” – C.J. Stroud [120:48]
• Reveals rivalry with Colts’ Zaire Franklin helps fuel his play rising to another level in divisional games.
• On supporting backup QB Davis Mills: “That’s my brother. I root him on. I put the team before myself.” [123:17]
• Discusses his call to Ryan Day after Ohio State’s rivalry win: “He’s the best coach in college football; he stamped himself.” [128:24]

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7. College Football Playoffs & Chaos with Kirk Herbstreit

[160:03]–[175:03]

• Deep dive on playoff committee process, possible chaos with upsets, and how conference champion auto-bids could create unpredictable scenarios.
• “I haven’t seen a team punished for losing the bonus game (conference championship). Unless it’s a blowout—like Wisconsin in 2014—usually teams move up or stay in.” – Kirk [160:21]
• Real risk ACC champion could be left out if Duke upsets Texas Tech. JMU, Tulane, and others could sneak in due to ranking/rules. [161:34]
• Committee must weigh “availability of key players/coaches,” so Ole Miss with missing staff may be knocked down. [168:21]
• Lane Kiffin could become a college football villain if Ole Miss is excluded after he leaves.
• Herbstreit on Thursday NFL: Praises emerging Bears, old-school running game, and the North division race.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Steelers Crisis:
  “Steelers fans, for the third time this season, playing good teams, are now losing by double digits—and they had the lead at halftime of all of them... The Yinzers are fed up. This is not the Pittsburgh Steelers.” – Pat [08:13]

• Marty Smith's Airport Chase:
  “We bo-duke’d the van through a farm across equipment, van’s bottoming out...” – Marty Smith [76:04]

• Schefter on Tomlin’s Future:
  “If Mike Tomlin were a coaching free agent, he automatically becomes the number one coaching free agent out there.” – Adam Schefter [54:49]

• CJ Stroud on Division Battles:
  “My boy Zaire [Franklin] is always mad at me and talking crazy… maybe that turns me up more.” – CJ Stroud [121:41]

• On Parity Week in NFL:
  “Any given Sunday, this league has real parody.” – Darius Butler [29:43]

• Kirk Herbstreit on the Committee:
  “I haven’t seen a team punished for losing the bonus game… Unless they get worked. I’d be surprised.” – Kirk Herbstreit [160:21]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Start | Notable Quote / Event | |------------------------------------|-------------|--------------------------------------| | Cold Open/College Football Hype | 00:00 | “Football. It’s magical.” – Pat | | Steelers Overreaction, Tomlin Out? | 07:34 | “Steelers fans… have had enough.” | | NFL “First 15” Headlines | 07:01 | | | Marty Smith/Lane Kiffin Reporting | 67:19 | “We bo-duke’d… through a farm…” | | Adam Schefter Injury/News | 45:59 | “If Mike Tomlin were a free agent…” | | CJ Stroud Interview | 117:35 | “It’s your brain. No timetable.” | | Kirk Herbstreit Playoff Scenarios | 160:03 | “If Duke wins, chaotic scenarios…” |

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Tonal Highlights

• Authentic & Relatable: McAfee’s detailed asides about growing up in Pittsburgh, his sports-fan perspective, and the “friend at the bar” tone pervades every segment.
• Humorous & Candid: Light ribbing between co-hosts, self-deprecating humor, and tongue-in-cheek commentary on everything from stadium naming to “AI memes” and playoff chaos.
• Passionate & Informative: Whether discussing the heartbreak of a fanbase, the pressure on a coaching legend, or the specifics of roster-building, every guest and host lays it out bluntly.

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For Those Who Missed The Show – Quick Takeaways

• The Steelers’ locker room and fanbase has truly hit a boiling point; change may be inevitable but not immediate.
• The AFC playoff race is wild—with young QBs shining and underdogs alive—so expect more surprises.
• College football's new playoff structures, transfer portal, and coach poaching have made championship season unpredictable and sometimes destabilizing.
• Lane Kiffin’s exit is an all-timer for drama, and the way it was covered (shoutout to Marty Smith’s midnight van chase) was classic only-in-college-ball theater.
• CJ Stroud and the Texans are legit dark horses in the AFC; Stroud marvels at rivalry games, team camaraderie, and the impact of leadership, all with humility.
• Kirk Herbstreit sees only more chaos coming in college football—watch out for oddities if unexpected teams pull upsets in championship week.

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Conclusion

Whether you’re a hardcore Pittsburgh Yinzer, a Lane Kiffin saga junkie, an NFL fan watching the playoff field take shape, or just love the drama and humanity behind the stories, this episode delivers. “The Pat McAfee Show 2.0” blends the locker room, the barstool, and the reporting desk in its best possible form—leaving you up to speed, entertained, and ready to overreact all week long.

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For More:

• [Check the full episode on YouTube/ESPN+]
• [Follow Pat and crew on social for further insanity]

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“Be a friend, tell a friend, something nice. It might change your life.” – Pat McAfee [202:08]

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble develop the Thunderdome on this massive overreaction. Monday, December 1, 2025 this program begins now. Football. It's magical and the weekend has so many stories that are captivating the entire globe. College ball has so much drama and controversy and great outcomes coming out of rivalry weekend, which is what college football is all about. Just a few days removed here from the championships, the conferen happening all across the country. Game day will be live from the SEC championship down in Atlanta in the convention center as Alabama and Georgia will fight for the SEC title. If Alabama loses there, will that loss be held against them? As you look forward to the college football playoffs certainly going to be a part of the story. Georgia has certainly been dominant since losing to Alabama at home in ending their 33 game home win streak. And then obviously the Big Ten is number one versus number two. Indiana hasn't won Big Ten Conference championships since like 1967 or something. They're undefeated and they just so happen to be from an hour and a half south of here. And the Big Ten championship will be hosted right here in Indianapolis, Indiana. The IU Hoosiers are obviously a fan base that I think is the biggest in the country. I think they have the most alumni that are active and donating or something like that in the entire country, most definitely in the city of Indianapolis. And the Hoosier basketball team is actually playing at like 3:30 downtown in Gainbridge field house as like a showcase event. What happens multiple times throughout the year and they sell it out every time because of how many IU fans live here in Indianapolis. So Indiana is in the Big Ten championship as the number two team in the country, undefeated, first time since 1967 in Indianapolis, taking on Ohio State Columbus, which is just three hours away, stone's throw. And their fans are the most. So Indianapolis in the Big Ten championship will be outrageous. It feels like the vibe will be immaculate. The stories are obviously in abundance and championship weekend is obviously going to be a big determiner for the College Football Playoff. And who's going to be in the 12 counting down to one. And then the NFL. Oh, don't look now, we got chaos happening. Underdogs are fighting and barking all over the place. And then teams that we thought maybe were shite a little bit earlier in the year and maybe found it in aren't shite. And not only are they going to be spoilers, are they going to sneak their way into the playoffs. And then tonight we have the Giants and the Patriots and the Patriots are Already one of the only two teams with 10 wins looking to get 11. They're the number one team in the AFC in Drake May is going to be bananas. We cannot wait to talk about it all. We have a pack shot. The toxic tables here at Boston. Connor and at Ty Schmidt, con man going into Monday Night Football. How do you feel now? There were years there where the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football was not something you guys were looking forward to.

[AJ Hawk]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

You thought maybe this was going to be an embarrassment for the Patriots. And obviously there's teams and fan bases around the country and around the league that their team doesn't even get picked for a Monday Night Football game. Boy, tonight is one another one for you guys to kind of put on a show. Is that how the Patriots people are feeling about it?

[Conman]

Yeah. Very exciting. Drake May. I mean, anytime you can watch him in primetime, it's great to see everybody to kind of, you know, watch him and say, holy hell, that guy is unbelievable. But, yeah, kind of the renewal of a hopeful rival. With the Giants, it feels as though May and Dart might be two quarterbacks of the future. Jackson Dart coming back after getting his bell rung a bit too many times. And, you know, maybe this is one of those kind of classic shootouts that you don't see coming that could turn into a fantastic game.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And Drake May, prime time in New England. We got another showcase coming from their fans.

[Conman]

Red jerseys as well. Throwback helmets.

[Pat McAfee]

Always doing it right up there.

[CJ Stroud]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I hate it. Who's doing a super duper bell thing?

[Conman]

The leader of the light. The keeper of the lighter of the lamp. The lighter of the lamp. Yes, the.

[Pat McAfee]

The one if by land, two if by sea ion, the opposite shore will be Bingo.

[Conman]

Paul Revere of the game will be someone awesome. And I definitely don't know who it is, but.

[Pat McAfee]

Are you overlooking the Giants? You don't even know who the leader of the Paul Revere light is.

[Conman]

No, no. This is not a Jets Thursday Night Football situation. This is a. Okay, we. We gotta take this one very, very seriously. But I'm assuming it's probably. I mean, why not Donnie Wahlberg? Where's Donnie Wahlberg? Can we get. Can we get Donnie Wahlberg up there? I mean, he'd probably be perfect or just some other slump. Not a schlub. But. Where's Bill Burr? Where's Bill Burr? Can we get Billy Burr?

[Pat McAfee]

Can we get him up on the lamp?

[Conman]

He might be, you know, standing on some high horse, but still.

[Pat McAfee]

Can we get rid the high horse? Yeah, over to the bell tower.

[Conman]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

It'll be perfect.

[Conman]

Yeah, he's basically Paul Revere already for one side.

[Pat McAfee]

What we were doing there is filling for the people in the back to potentially look up and find out the right answer. I guess there's been no announcement. That's even better.

[Conman]

You know who might be there? Maybe Kenny Chesney's rolling over there.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow. Maybe Kenny's. I mean, I guess he's gonna say the boys fall. Yeah. The entire thing. We could only hope for Monday night Football. And shout out to your Patriots, man, what a run. What a year. Congrats to everything. And obviously tonight, another showcase of the massholes who are a great fan base. Green Bay Packers. Don't look now. Holy hell, we're getting hot. Nice little holiday weekend for you. Iowa demolishes Nebraska. Willie C. Ran wild right into the pooper. That team got crushed by your Iowa haw. And the Green Bay packers look like they're a good football team. Jordan Love goes crazy. It's Toyota Thon.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

We know what that means.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly. Yeah. No, I mean, it was a fantastic weekend. You know, low stress. Starting with. On Thursday with the Packers. Like you mentioned, it's Toyota Thon. So, I mean, you kind of know what to expect from Jordan Love. But Michael Parsons is just the gift that keeps on giving. I mean, this guy every single week. Hey, is he going to dominate the game? Yeah, he is. You know, two and a half sacks once again, bunch of run stuffs, and then the cherry on top. Because after the packers game, I was good. I said, hey, you know, whatever happens in this Nebraska, Iowa game, I'll be okay. Because like I said, when we talk to Will Compton, I don't think about Nebraska at all. Rightfully so. Iowa goes into Lincoln, beats the absolute dog shit out of them like they have several times over the last 14 years. Kirk Ference has more victories in Memorial Stadium than Matt Rule does. So if you're a Nebraska fan, that one's got to be tough to stomach. And not only that, you got Matt. You got Matt rule through 2032, so that's something to look forward to. So if you're a Nebraska fan, it's okay. The sun might come out tomorrow. The sun does shine on the dog's ass every once in a while. So, yeah, it was great.

[Pat McAfee]

It was fantastic.

[Ty Schmidt]

Holiday week.

[Pat McAfee]

Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving. Coach Rule did not deserve that. Okay? He's got a lot of hurt players. There's a lot of rooms going around. Who's leaving now? One half of the hammer done. Cowboys AP Tone, you look fantastic. We will talk to you a lot here momentarily. Nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler. D Bus, we appreciate the hell out of you, you know, D, but Monday is big days.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

It is the biggest. The biggest, big extra. It is the biggest day because there's so much to talk about. There's so much overreact to. In these Mondays of this particular season, we've been trying to put together, like a scripted play. You know what I mean? We've been trying to, like, do this thing how everybody else does it. There's so many things to talk about. Let's go ahead and zero in on five of them. You remember, we've continued to do this.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, I think, you know, what are we. We going into week 14 about to wrap up week 13. I think we can. I think we can get better postseason form. Damn near.

[Pat McAfee]

But also on the flip side of that, I'm pretty proud that we're still doing it. True, this felt like something early that we were going to get sick of. And we just have continued to power through. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the first 15 driven by Ram. Here we go. You know, every hit the gas pedal on a Ram truck, you're going to hear. And that's what we're about to do. Through the top five headlines coming out of Week 13's NFL Sunday, Saturday, football.

[Ty Schmidt]

Thursday. Thursday.

[Pat McAfee]

You get it. Put the clock down, please. Let's get started. Number five headline. The jig is up. The boos are out. They finally had it. The Renegade. What was that all about, boys? Oh, yeah, it happened. Run it, foxy. They're booing. Renegade in Pittsburgh.

[Marty Smith]

Oh, no.

[Pat McAfee]

This guy's choking, almost dying.

[Conman]

It was cold, sad.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, mama, I'm in fear. Oh, the Steelers. They're booing their ass at home. I mean, that's happening in Pittsburgh. That's a time art tradition. Renegade plays. The entire city goes crazy. Babies at McGee's Women's Hospital, where I was born, over there in Oakland, are standing up in their little things, doing the thing. Oh, mom. That is what Pittsburgh's about. That moment, highlights of the defense just demolishing people. It has been symbolic of what the Pittsburgh Steelers are. Steelers fans, for the third time this season, playing good. Teams are now losing by double scores, double digits, and they had to lead at the halftime of all of them. Okay, so these Yinzers are going to these games. Some of these things ending real late last night, obviously freezing cold. You saw how cold every Yinzer was in the crowd. They have the lead at halftime in all of them. Seahawks 14 7. Remember that day. That was a long time ago. That was whenever we were talking about maybe the Seahawks. Yep, maybe the Seahawks. And then Green Bay packers they were down 7 to 16. 16 7. The Steelers are up. Green Bay packers go on win by two scores. And then Pittsburgh Steelers seven three and half seven three three points. This is good guy. He's good. His Pittsburgh. Josh Allen. This guy's ass. First play the second half Bosa says hey Aaron, break your nose, strip sack, have the whole thing. Game changes completely. Pittsburgh Steelers fans are sitting there wondering what the hell were we thinking when we bought into this team winning the super bowl this year. That is what Yinzers are thinking. That is what Pittsburgh Steelers faithful are feeling. And when Renegade's getting its ass booed, that's obviously problematic. And then you go to the end of the game. Pittsburgh Steelers fans are very good at doing things and that is unified chance calling for somebody's ass to not be around anymore. He did it to Tom on the list. Oh no, It's not good. We are from Pittsburgh. We've experienced this before. Our show has actually been a vehicle for Yinzers to get their points across to the Pittsburgh Steelers ownership and the Rooney family. Canada back.

[CJ Stroud]

Canada.

[Pat McAfee]

They were chanting fire Canada in Utah on the Capitol in D.C. at Pittsburgh Penguins game JMU. Once at JMU they were chanting it. 20,000 plus were chanting it. Whenever Yinzers find something that they're all unified upon and they've given up, they're going to let that be heard a lot. This chant started there and I appreciated Mike Tomlin's response. Mike Tomlin said, hey, listen, I share their frustration. Tonight was tough to watch. And it's like I appreciate Tomlin's answer. Coach Tomlin's answer. Coach Tomlin is obviously an incredible speaker and a good leader, which is why he's been who he is. But boy, Pittsburgh seems to be completely fed up with them right now. And I heard some things said earlier on the show on get up. Yeah, first take, Stephen A. He was talking about how any other nine years, no playoff win, you'd be gone. Especially in a city like Pittsburgh, which is such a football town. I think that was a very valid point that he made. Now, he did talk about con, the con artist of GM and he said there was no moves made. Actually, there was a bunch of moves made, which is why this year felt a little bit different at the beginning. Tone, I don't want to say you speak for all of Pittsburgh, but I do think you are a good representation of how Steelers fans could potentially feel about the team being that they are. You are a die hard of the squad. What are your thoughts and why do you think it's a boiling point at this? Because it feels like this has been lingering for what, four or five years?

[Tone]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

And then now it's like, we're done showing up for you guys to get your ass kicked and don't even play Renegade. Is that what they're thinking?

[Tone]

Yeah. Last night was the tip of the spear. The boiling point is, if you will, Everyone there, it's been. It's been split about, you know, the. The coaching staff changes, stuff like that. But everyone is now on the same page. I got a lot of texts last night and this morning.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, you okay?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Tone]

Yeah, I am. Like, because this is. Everyone's on the same page now. Okay. We can't have this anymore. Nine years without a playoff win is absurd. Three playoff wins in the last 13 years is absurd. Yeah. They've got 21 straight seasons without a losing season. That's really good, but it's not good enough when you're not winning playoff games.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but you put on a shirt.

[Tone]

You could put it on a shirt and you could say it. And the national media can be like, yeah, if this guy gets fired, he's going to have a job the next day. Which might be right. And Mike Tomlin is a great coach. He's a Hall of Fame coach. But sometimes the voice just. It runs dry in the locker room. I don't know everyone. No one's on the same page. Aaron is talking about people not showing up for meetings and film and stuff like that. TJ's talking about literally the same play that they've run over and over and over for the Bills, and they couldn't stop it once Joel and Edelman has come out and said that they know exactly what plays are going to be run against. Steelers defense. Jamar Chase has done the exact same thing. It just got to a point. I think it's got to the point with the fan base in the city that it just. This is just. This is not the Pittsburgh Steelers. You watch the product and it looks nothing like them. The fans are. Are done with it. Everyone is is done with it. We've all had enough.

[Pat McAfee]

D. But how do you think the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room feels? Cam Heyward obviously said he got kneed in his stomach and he didn't like how disrespected he was. He also probably didn't love that they did run the same duo play basically with James Cook and had the same outcome every single time. Crack, crack, seal.

[Conman]

Five in a row.

[Pat McAfee]

He's out. Yeah. There's five straight plays doing the same thing, and they're all very successful. Yes, it has been something I think a lot of Steelers fans have kind of been talking about with the defensive side of the ball, which Mike Tomlin came from. It's like the defense is terrible and there's no adjustments. And whenever they talk about being predictable and you got the players on the field know that is that kind of like, if I remember and you would have to correct me, you would be the person to correct me here. Legion of Boom. They played like the same shit, right? But you had to beat them. Yeah, that was kind of the case. Is that what the Steelers mindset is, too? And has it always been that way, or why do you think the Steelers are where they are and how do you think the players feel with all the outside noise about maybe this being the final time of the Tomlin?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, I feel like we've heard a ton of people, whether it be players, players or coaches, talk about in a positive light how, hey, these are the same blitzes. These are the same this, the same that. The Legion of Boom, they did their thing when the Broncos went on their run. You know that, hey, you just had to beat man coverage. Everybody kind of has their own staples, and they just get good at what they're good at. Now in this league, everything changes week to week. But if you look at these plays, these aren't like dynamic Ben Johnson type run plays or a bunch of moving parts. This is just lining up and running the ball down your throat. And that is the complete opposite of what you think about when you think about the Pittsburgh Steelers. You think about toughness, you think about physicality, whether that's on the offensive or defensive side of the ball. If you think about all the Pittsburgh greats, that's the first thing that kind of comes to your mind. Whether it's a guy in the middle or Jerome Bettis or one of these big physical guys, like, that's what you think. They renegade. Like, I still got PTSD from that shit. Been on an opponent, when that shit comes on, you know, okay, some bullshit's about to come. A strip sack, a pick six, something. So to see seven fans waving their towel when they go live with that, that was disheartening. It's Monday. Tone didn't even put his Steelers helmet back on the desk that we both go back and forth on. I feel Bummed out about him. But yeah, it's tough. And I know Tone's getting a lot more than I am, but I'm getting more, more messages saying I don't like people being out on Mike T. They threw the graphic up about the three franchises. I forget which three it was. I think Patriots was one of them. 20 plus years of not having a losing record. That is impressive.

[Tone]

That's a good graphic.

[Darius J. Butler]

It was a great graphic. But sitting here team that fan base, you almost, you got to be embarrassed to be a highest paid defense on the field. And Those have got T.J. watt, Cam Hayward, Jaylen Ramsey, Patrick. Like these are notable like hall of fame type names. So for them to be sitting in this Monday watching these same plays that we're watching, I, I, it's, it's, it's tough. It's going to be a tough meeting room for sure.

[Tone]

And it's tough because the fan base grew up on like the rush defense. And we talked about it last year when Derek Henry ran for 475 yards in the playoffs game or whatever. We grew up. They have the record. There was 32 consecutive games where they didn't allow a hundred yard rusher. 32 consecutive. And now it's almost every single game that there's 100 yard rusher. And that's just not who we are.

[Pat McAfee]

It's crazy right there. We got 90 rush yard 17. Third quarter statutes popped up while you're talking about it. And here's some more stats that aren't good for the Steelers. Hembo cooked these things up. Plus 16 is the margin of first downs between the Bills to the Steelers. Plus 31 plays. Their defense was out there a lot. Boys retired. 74 plays for the bills 43. Time of possession suite. And then that rush yards one there plus 191. The worst rushing margin for Pittsburgh in a home game since 1955. The fact that it's all happening in Pittsburgh.

[Conman]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

And the Injers are spending their life watching it. That makes it exponentially worse because not only is it these youngers and coach Tomlin knows that he's lived there for so long, 20 years, whatever the case, 18 years. So he understands it just as much. Those Yingers going home and they're talking to the neighbors. Okay.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Neighbors are saying sue went down there. You see what they did? Second half they just let him just run right over James Cook. Same exact. That's what we're saying. Tomlin doesn't know shit. And then they go to the next neighbor and Then they go to the next person they run into. Then all of a sudden the entire neighborhood feels the exact same way. And it's like all you need is just a couple terrible experiences back to back to back. And it's happened all year with them. I think you can. The Insers are a group that will kill for you actually. Like we'll actually do that for you. And on the flip side, we're done with you. Need you to go ahead and take a walk here. I think they've always been that way, will always be that way. And I think right now is the loudest that I've heard it as somebody I feel like is kind of tapped into the city of Pittsburgh and how they feel on things. There's always been a group that has been sick of the winning season. Shit. Sick of it. Sick of it. Sick of it. Sick of it. We get terrible draft picks. Great winning season. Let's get pick number 17. Let's get pick number 18. We can't really get anybody. Oh, we're not going to trade for anybody. Of course we're not. Oh, we're not going to move up. So we're going to get another mediocre player to add to our above average team and then we're going to steal some games and we're going to have a good time and we're going to renegade this thing. That's cool. There was a group of people that were like that like five years ago, four years into the lack of winning they that that started to. It feels now that it is at the. The biggest and most unified that it has been in the city of Pittsburgh. The Rooney family has to.

[Tone]

You would think so. You would think so. And a lot of people are really, really mad at ownership as well.

[Pat McAfee]

But you could trade coach Tom and. Right. Wouldn't that be a thing?

[Ty Schmidt]

You could.

[Pat McAfee]

There was a report that. What an old. Sorry, I don't know who reported. I apologize. I saw the headline. There's potential coach conversation, fresh new start things.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Jake Blazers there.

[Tone]

Yeah. Someone reported that there's an elder coach in the league who might for a change. But anyways, Baltimore and Pittsburgh are tied currently for the lead in the AFC north. And I. Every friend fan that I've talked to is like I wish we just would lose out if it means change rather than like hey, we're in the division fight. Nobody cares about that anymore.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a shame. Yeah, it's wild. Hey, they can go on run. No boys.

[Conman]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, start going to meetings.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Start Going to me? No, you need to get in and not out whenever I say.

[Darius J. Butler]

I thought he said he was at the meeting. That's what I thought I heard. I know they were on the wrong page as far as the check, but I thought he said everybody shows up to the meetings.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you're saying the way he delivered it was not condescendingly asking if everybody would start showing up to the meetings. You're saying he was saying everybody showed up to the meetings. They don't understand what the chat says.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. And we've had conversations for years about, you know, how Aaron Rodgers always changes Peyton, Drew, Brees, Brady. Like those are always moving parts. But maybe I misheard it.

[Pat McAfee]

Run it. When there's film sessions, everybody shows up.

[AJ Hawk]

And when I check through a route.

[Pat McAfee]

How do you fix it when you.

[AJ Hawk]

Do the right route?

[Pat McAfee]

You know, like.

[Conman]

John and I just.

[Pat McAfee]

Weren'T on the same page.

[Tone]

I checked to his in breaker and.

[AJ Hawk]

He ran out breaker. You know, John is a true professional, so I'm sure he's, you know, he's sick about that. But.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, I thr ball I.

[AJ Hawk]

Thought was gonna get hit by the wind and it was four yards over Roman, so I gotta make that throw. But you know, we have our meetings every week.

[Conman]

We have other opportunities outside of the.

[Pat McAfee]

Facility and look forward to seeing all the boys there.

[CJ Stroud]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So he was asked how he fixed the chemistry. He said, well, when there's meetings, everybody shows up. Interesting.

[Darius J. Butler]

He does look cool though with the back. Yeah, he looks like a Pittsburgh still quarterback.

[Pat McAfee]

Him get. I thought he was 6 and 6. I thought he was done with that wrist. Three fractures, the whole thing. He goes lands on his face, everything's busted. I assumed he hurt this one again. I assumed he somehow hurt this one again or whatever the case is. Then he comes back bandaged up, thing still taking the thing off, by the way, between everyone. He is and I think nobody talks about it. He is old school tough guy quarterback.

[Conman]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

That is how he views the position. Have to. He even likes taking hits, I think like that is a part of the entire thing. And he's been very anti any other rules. So him bouncing back as a 40 plus year old after having Bosa explode through his back and then dump him on his face. And then the worst possible outcome happened. I mean, that shows a lot of grit.

[Ty Schmidt]

It does.

[Pat McAfee]

And Pittsburgh Steelers fans appreciate the grit. Need to get some wins. We're done with it. All right, let's go to number four headline from the NFL Sunday slate. Tam 10 two teams with 10 wins, that's incredible. And they're both in the AFC, con man, the Denver Broncos, who are almost everybody's kind of Lombardi babies coming into this particular season with that defense, everybody returning, they might have the best defensive player on earth. And certain, well, he wasn't even playing for a while. They were winning. He was back doing the whole strap up on everybody. They're fantastic. And Bo Nixon, Sean Payton seemingly get the job done whenever they have to. A lot of close games, lot of close games. The stats coming out about them being in close games, one score games. I think they have the most one score dubs. They have the most three points or fewer wins. They have the most this point. Like they are the close game kings right now. Is that because their defense is so dominant and gets great stops at the right time? Is it because Bo, Nick, Sean Payton and the boys on the offensive side are so resilient and kind of mentally tough, they're able to get the job done? Who cares? They got 10 wins. The other team, Patriots tonight taking on the Giants, looking for number 11, both in the AFC. What does that tell you, con man?

[Conman]

It really just tells you that the top is very top heavy, if you will. You know the Broncos, yes, they're close games, but they win. I mean, at the end of the day, that's all that matters. Bo Nix, he's coming alive. I mean, he beats the Chiefs, goes on the bind, then he throws for 320 on Monday night Football. And yes, it's the Commanders, you can say, well, they shouldn't be barely beating the commanders in overtime. Marcus Mariota is a hell of a quarterback. I mean, we saw that last night. He led them down when he needed to. They had a third and 15 maybe, and they somehow got the first down. Terry McLaurin being back for them is massive. That's a fourth and goal absolute dot. If you watch the replay, two almost gets deflected. Perfect rub route. They almost have it here. But Nick Bonito, nope, that's the touchdown. The Nick Bonito two point conversion. He stops. And this is exactly why the Broncos are going to be in it at the end. You know, we Talk about the 10 wins in Bo Nicks and people want to throw shade on them and stuff. Their defense is good enough, enough to win them a Super Bowl. I mean, Bonito and Cooper off the edge, Moss and Certain in the back end. And then Alex Singleton, probably one of the better linebacker plays from the weekend was Alex Singleton hauling ass back to break up a middle shot down the to Zach Hertz down the middle. I believe it was a third and 10. But they're fantastic. And their O line, like that's the biggest thing for me. Like their O line is so solid they can run the ball and beat you, they can pass block and beat you. It's one of those things that, that they're a team that can beat you in any way on the offense and defensive side. 10, two, nine straight victories. There was a stat Bo Nix, Drake May and Caleb Williams from that draft class in the last nine weeks are a combined 26 in one, which is ridiculous. But I mean then tonight with Drake May, I mean it's one of those things where you kind of get to see the future in primetime. We had it last night and now we have it again. The Patriots looking to become the first team with 11 wins on the season there without their starting left tackle Will Campbell and starting left guard Jarred Wilson. So that will be the matchup to watch. You know, Brian Burns off the edge, Thibodeau out for the Giants, which is big, but Dexter Lawrence in the middle too. It's going to be a hell of a game. It's incredible to see that the young AFC teams are having this much success. Two game lead in the one and two seeds. But it's just amazing to be one of those teams there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you talk about the young quarterbacks too, Bo. Nick's obviously been in the same system here for a couple years. Caleb and Drake, new systems here. So they're only going to go up and to the right. The young boys are certainly playing Bears obviously in the NFC. Wow. Wow. They are for real. But the AFC, the two 10 win teams looking for 11 obviously have been dominant throughout. Let's go to the number three headline coming out of week 13 Sunday slate. Oh, big catches. Bad days. Oh no. Yeah, bad days. No, like ah, yeah, bad days. These guys take Ls but have highlight reel catchers. So you can't even really talk about it. You can't even celebrate it. If you get a pick and you have a dance if your team loses, we don't care that you practice the dance and people don't care.

[Darius J. Butler]

Can't even post it. No, I'm saying you can't even like post it.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly. Shouldn't just read the room a little bit. But on that note, there were some guys that had highlight real catches but their teams lost so we can't talk about it. Chiefs, Are they okay? I don't know. Hollywood's got the touch down in Jerry World Congrats to the Dallas Cowboys by the way. They got to be absolutely pumped. And the Chiefs, who are they? What are they? We don't know. After they beat the Colts, thought whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, they might be all the way back. Then they lose the Cowboys. It's like are the Cowboys the best football team in the NFL? The Chiefs still have it. We shall see. Indianapolis Colts on a two game slide. Don't love it. Maybe talk to CJ Stroud here later today. Alec Pierce, absolute weapon and a dog. Has become much better for the Indianapolis Colts this year on being a deep threat. A lot of moxie. I assume somebody's going to pay for him in a huge, huge way. And then let's talk about Burks. Burks baby. Number 13 in the corner, Marcus Barry Gota. Give him a shot one handed. How you doing now? People said he was a busty bunch and now he's got Mary Goda throwing him. Absolute Mosses over Mosses unbelievable catch.

[Darius J. Butler]

I mean Riley Moss that, that's as good as coverage you can have on that type of play. You just gotta look at your coach, look at the sidelines, say hey, they get paid too. Phenomenal catch on prime time, you know. Reminisces of OBJ on Sunday night.

[Pat McAfee]

I saw it. A 13 for 13 tweet from OBJ and congrats to the Broncos get a big time win once again. These are all losing teams, all these highlights. Speaking of Chargers do their thing that are Raiders. Brock Bars. Too big, too athletic, too absurd. This is an Ozdementalist type mind blower here. That thing should hit the ground. Great coverage yet again by the Chargers. Brock Bauer is doing special stuff since the day he stepped onto a football field. I'd assume. Darius.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. That's unbelievable. Once again there's nothing more you can do as a defender. Good throw by. Actually I can't even say good throw. Back, shoulder. You're putting it in a place where only your guy can get it. Just a phenomenal effort by Brock Bars.

[Pat McAfee]

And then friend of the program took an L. Hey Carolina Panthers. Good football team. Good football team. You know who's a good football player? Puka. Give me that. That's very reminiscent of the Odell Beckham Jr reach one handed snag as well. Having to battle off a hand in there and then bring it in and cradle to the body with the control to be able to keep it off the turf. That's an incredible catch by Puka Nakua who might be the next one. Honestly he might be the Next one. And whenever it comes down to it, two, three years from now, unguardable.

[Darius J. Butler]

Matt Starf, obviously he had a couple turnovers this game, but this is one of those situations where, hey, my guys out there, I'm gonna throw it up. Give him a chance to make a play. He went up there and made a play and this was a point in the game where you thought, okay, the Rams are figured come back and win it. But like you said, the Panthers are a very good football player.

[Conman]

Are we sure Puk is the same player though? Because he ran out of Bonds yesterday.

[Pat McAfee]

People are sending me a couple tweets about that. People were saying he was broke, he broke a tackle, little off balance, full speed, couple guys here, steps out of bounds. Then he comes back in though. I think he maybe just lost track, lost his balance. But there was people saying puka Nakua ran out of bounds. If he did run out of bounds, Puka, I'd like to let you know. Yes, let's do more of that. Let's do more of that. We don't need to pick up an extra three feet when we already got 17 or 20, brother. Okay, and if it's going to save it, let's do that. Now let's go to the number two headline coming out of the weekend, the dogs were barking. Ron Breaker gets a big win last night with division as well. Our Saturday night, obviously in Survivor series, the dogs were barking there in San Diego at Petco Park. But also first 11 games of this week, the Underdogs were nine and two. Okay, against the spread, obviously that would change as the favorites will go on to start winning down the stretch. But throughout Thanksgiving and obviously the Black Friday game, it was under the dog city. Why do you think that's the case? D. But do you think whenever we're celebrating a holiday and the entire world is watching and there's a turducken on the line and a pile on honoring Mr. Madden and everybody's going to be talking about it. Do you think it kind of. You can wipe out the record books, you can wipe out the matchups. It's going to be a battle. Why do you think underdogs had such a big time on the holiday?

[Darius J. Butler]

I don't know if it was one thing in particular. I feel like we always have that week or those couple weeks where the dogs just get to barking. This was definitely one of those weeks. Now the short, you know, the Thanksgiving and the, and the Black Friday games, we always know you can kind of throw. Yeah, throw everything out the window. You never know what's going to happen in those type of games. But it's any given Sunday in this league. I think this year is showing the NFL when it comes to parody. Like we're right up there with any other league.

[Pat McAfee]

Absolutely. Here's the quote from or the stat from HEMBO, actually. Overall, seven underdogs, one outright in week 13 thus far, second most in any week this season. All four underdogs on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, one outright. Carolina won as a nine and a half point underdog. Second large. They were 13 and a half a couple of weeks ago. Football team, they're a good football team. Man, they could surprise some folks.

[Conman]

Panthers are the only team to win games when they are more than a 10 point favorite. I think at one point they were or 10 point underdog. I think at one point they were 10 point dogs. Every other team is 0 and 14.

[Pat McAfee]

Panthers are 2 and oh yeah, the Panthers surprise folks. I guess it would be the gamblers that they're surprising because the sports books wouldn't be scoring it if they didn't think the Goblers would be doing what they're doing. I don't think a lot of people paying attention to the Panthers, they're kind of turning that thing around and they're for real. And if you give Bryce Young some time and the ability to operate, he's able to do his thing. And on the defensive side, there's seemingly Hungry Hungry Hippos out there. Turning Stafford over is a big deal, especially with the season he's having right now.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, Derrick Brown up front, he, he doesn't get talked about a bunch, but he's one of the best interior defensive linemen in the league. On the back end, Mike Jackson, he showed out. He balled out with the pick six. It's been however long now that Matt Stafford hasn't thrown the pick six. That's kind of used to be Matt Stafford's thing. If it was bad Stafford, it would be some fumbles which he had late in the game, some pick sixes. Mike Jackson sitting on that route. I think Sean McVeigh kind of took off and said, hey, you know, I wish I would have gave him a better play. But the most impressive win from the Dogs, I would say for me was that Bears win like we talked about the Bills running the ball down the throat against the Pittsburgh Steelers like they ran down the Philadelphia Eagles throw two backs over 125 yards. Just toting that right, right down the middle. And you watching the plays, you see the replays you see all the movement. And even though they're simple, you know, run, run game and run plays, all of the movement, all that eye candy for a defensive, defensive backs and linebackers, it's tough to be in the right spot, be in the right place. So Caleb Williams I don't think is even close to where he needs to be yet in the passing game aspect of it. But when they can run the ball like this and play defense, this Bears team, they're sitting in one NFC for a reason right now.

[Pat McAfee]

281 rush yards for the Chicago Bears and jacked Ben Johnson. That's the most versus the Eagles under a Nick Sirianni led team. Obviously they had 200 yard rushers, Manungai and Swift and 7017 first downs, which is the most by any team this season. So Chicago Bears kind of did their thing to the Philadelphia Eagles and you got a lot of Eagles fans going. We the Tush push, we failed. I mean we couldn't even do the push. This isn't what we are. This isn't what we are. This isn't who we're going to be. And we got to figure some things out over there. I don't know how they do it.

[Darius J. Butler]

AJ brought a good guy.

[Pat McAfee]

He did and got ball a lot. Two tugs.

[Conman]

That might be the strategy when you're playing against the Eagles. Let's at AJ Brownie and just stop the run. The Caleb Williams. Williams roll left. Touchdown to Cole Comet was so nasty.

[Pat McAfee]

He's a guy.

[Conman]

He is very, very like we talk about the Caleb like this is filthy.

[Adam Schefter]

Yeah.

[Conman]

In a bucket. Yeah. Are you kidding me?

[Pat McAfee]

Fade away running backwards and that's pull.

[Conman]

Commit like Colson Loveland hasn't even really gotten going yet for the offense. He had a two touchdown game already. But still like if, if he continues to go, the Bears are tremendously scared.

[Pat McAfee]

And Ben Johnson Jackson jacked. Absolutely jacked. I love seeing that. Free wieners for the city. I do believe because he went tarpless in the locker room, somebody wieners circle. I believe. I don't remember the name of the place. They're giving up free dogs for the city. If Ben Johnson was to go shirtless and he said give me one more week, give me two more weeks. I think you've been hitting it a little bit harder. Absolutely jacked. And I'll tell you what, every time you look in the locker room or you see anything miked up, what I try to see is these people like each other. Obviously you're gonna get good quotes, but my eyes always Tend to go to, like, how do these people feel, buddy each other. You can kind of pick up little toes because they're always going to edit the mic'd ups only give you what you they want you to hear. You're not really going to get much, but what you can see is how they interact. You know, there's brief moments of interaction. It's like, okay, they seem like they like each other. Oh, I don't think they like that guy. You can get that out of my cup. Ben Johnson, boys love him. Love good, better, best. Never let rest till good is better and better is best. And then bear on me, they have a whole thing, everybody's in. And if he has that culture set up, his culture is a winning culture, right?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't we all agree in football?

[Conman]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

The culture that Ben Johnson has established, we're going to be powerful, we're going to pound them, we're going to play great defense and also we're going to be smarter on offense and design people to be wide ass open. Oh, yeah. And we got Caleb Williams, who's a super talent. It's like if the culture has been instilled, there's like no stopping this train.

[Conman]

Right?

[Pat McAfee]

Isn't that kind of like the biggest thing? Can he get his culture in? Can he get his culture in? Oh, he lost the locker room. That's what happens when somebody can't get their culture, culture in. Ben Johnson is a hard ass, allegedly accountability driven, and he's got his culture in play already. And it's very obvious whenever you see all the mic'd ups and the cameras behind the scenes.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, and you gotta get results too. Especially in the big boy league, National Football League, you have to get results. And that's how you get the real buy in from the vets and the young guys. Because we've seen coaches go to certain places and try to be a hard ass and it not work. And I think mainly because it doesn't have the results. So getting these results and it shows you, man, whatever it takes, go and get your coach. Like it matter. Coaching matters. Go and get your coach. Obviously you have to have a quarterback as well, but go and get your coach, collegiate level, professional level, go and get your guy, whatever it takes, whatever bullshit comes with it, it'll be all right. Because those vibes in the locker room like that, that is just completely different of anything we've seen from the Bears since, you know, they went to the super bowl in Miami in 06 with Grossman running the show. But yeah, Go and get your head coach, get your quarterback. And it shows a lot that Ben Johnson obviously chose to go to Chicago, pair up with Caleb Williams. And now, like these guys, man, those are the vibes. That's what you miss. That's the type of shit you miss as a former player. Being in the locker room, that feeling after a game when all, you know, everybody was picking the Eagles, you thought, okay, Eagles are going to figure it out. They gave up nine points, seven points. And then to go in there, run the ball down their throat like that against a physical ball club like that, it's nothing better after that.

[Pat McAfee]

Special man.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah.

[Conman]

And to debuff Point, like, go and get your coach. And I mean, Tony, the only team the Steelers can really look to as far as moving on from a legendary coach would be the Patriots. And you can go back to the Andy Reid Eagles, sure, if you want to. But in recent memory of the Patriots, the Patriots made the decision to move on from Bill and then doubled down on their decision by firing Gerard Mayo after the first year. Like, sometimes you get the wrong guy, but when your right guy comes available to debuts point like Vrabel, like, you just have to make that decision. It takes a lot of balls from.

[Pat McAfee]

The owners and a lot, lot of gut sack to do that. Yeah, yeah. Because you're making a big say. You're changing the trajectory of everything.

[Conman]

And if that culture, you know, it stinks right away. And then you go to another culture.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, is the grass green or. Yeah, exact.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, well, and you know, like, Ben Johnson deserves the all of the credit, obviously, but him bringing in Dennis Allen to be having a guy who has been a head coach before. Because every week going into these games, all we hear about is how banged up the Bears defense is, is. And they go out and they do the same thing every week. They. They turn the other team over multiple times and there's no excuses. So him having the wherewithal to be like, yes, I will have the offense, you know, humming on all cylinders and ready to go, but I also need to get a guy who knows what the hell he's doing on defense and getting a guy who's been a head coach before, like, that was a massive move as well.

[Pat McAfee]

I agree. Congrats to everybody that was an underdog and had a great holiday. We very much love that. It showcases that our league, anything can happen on any given field. And Sean McVay was asked about those Panthers, did you guys not respect them? And he, he basically said, Carolina Panthers is good football, football team that's basically what he said.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

It's the NFL. Everybody's good. You know, there's a couple ball bounces this way. I wish I would have given a better play. What he wanted to say was, hey, let's go for Carolina Panthers to a football team.

[Conman]

Yeah. Bryce Young, youngest quarterback to 11 game winning drives was the stat yesterday for him as well.

[Pat McAfee]

All right.

[Ty Schmidt]

Here.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Congrats to them. That seemed like a lost cause. From top.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, my God.

[Pat McAfee]

All the way to the bottom of the stadium. Even their fake AI thing. The Panther that they had.

[Conman]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

It was the worst one of all time.

[Darius J. Butler]

I liked it. I liked it.

[Conman]

It was cool. But you really couldn't tell.

[Pat McAfee]

It was a gift. It was a gift. They just put on jumbotron. What are we talking about?

[Conman]

Similar.

[Pat McAfee]

They say, look to your right. It's in the stands. No, it's not.

[Darius J. Butler]

That was the thing. It was only, you know, it was good. A thousand people.

[Conman]

It was sick.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Okay.

[Conman]

You don't. Let's not act like you didn't pull that up.

[Pat McAfee]

Go make me one of those. That's a different time.

[AJ Hawk]

We can't. We can't.

[Conman]

That's relative. But to Lions reversing the curse with Daniels and Manning with doing the whiskey thing, kind of. You could make the argument with Tepper opening the stadium for the hurricane relief.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. With Luke Combs, Eric Church, Caleb. I forget who else is all down. Chase Rice. Chase Rice sold out stadium. He can have it. And also here's donation on top of it. And also this on top. It's like, wait a minute. Did the Grinch's heart grow three sizes?

[Conman]

Flip the whole thing.

[Pat McAfee]

It really did.

[Conman]

Remember when he was going into restaurants, like, hey, take that sign down right now. I ain't firing anybody.

[Ty Schmidt]

Smack the guy's hat off his head.

[Pat McAfee]

And then he had his ice. Yeah, the ice on the fan. I ain't doing this.

[Darius J. Butler]

Get the hell out of my face, Menace.

[Pat McAfee]

And he was a menace. He was an absolute menace.

[Conman]

And then he opened up the stage.

[Pat McAfee]

And then he said, you know what? Jeez, I got to step back a little bit. And he's, hey, everything he's ever done, he's had success. So it seems like that's happening right now. Number one storyline. Hey, listen, the AFC south, it just means more. Now, everybody understands that going into the year, that the AFC south is a juggernaut. The AFC south has Mount Rushmore of teams, basically. How many teams are in there? 4. Where would they go? Rushmore. All of them. Titans little problematic. They got to figure it out.

[Tone]

Maybe worst team ever could potentially.

[Pat McAfee]

They are exactly what we were just saying about the Carolina Panthers. And there's been some other teams that have been in this position since are Texans at one point were in this position. Whatever you're kind of doing too far off. Yep. They're seemingly heading that way potentially. But they got Tom Brady there so we assume that he will figure it out and everything like that. But the Tennessee Titans got a lot to figure out. Cam Ward I think has all the talent in the world. If you put nothing around him, will he ever be able to accomplish anything? We have no idea. But the people of Nashville are great football people. So like hopefully that'll come together because Nashville and football being great would be fantastic and has been fantastic. But they fire Vrabel. Vrabel now maybe coach of the year with New England lady doesn't even show up at the firing of the thing. I mean there's just a lot with them being bad. Jaguars though. Don't look now. Liam Cohen's got him rolling. Go football team. D' Ameco Ryan's Houston Texans, well, they just get a huge win. They get a huge win in the division. In a difficult place to play now the AFC south though. Everybody has to still play. Everybody. Okay. Colts still have to play Jacksonville Jaguars twice. We have to play Houston Texans one more time. Every divisional game for the Indianapolis Colts has come in the final quarter basically of the NFL season. Remember when we were the hottest team in the NFL? I do, yeah. There was no division games then. All the division games are right now. And guess what? Our quarterback has a fractured fibula, which I didn't even know what the it was and I looked it up. That thing's right here.

[Darius J. Butler]

Big one.

[Pat McAfee]

That's very. That's a very vital one. That came out of nowhere. Saw him on injury report. What's going on here? What's going on here? Nothing. No, all good. Okay. It'll be good. He's still playing. See him on injury reporter again.

[CJ Stroud]

Target.

[Pat McAfee]

What's going on here? Nothing. Nothing's going on. Then I see a video from Romeo Wood. He's doing.

[Conman]

Yeah, Big Ben can't even move.

[Pat McAfee]

Put him in a boot. What's he doing?

[Ty Schmidt]

He's all right. He broke his leg.

[Pat McAfee]

He'll be fine.

[Tone]

Well, at least you have AR as backup, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh no, his warming up.

[Conman]

Yeah. Well, at least non division games are the C yorks in the 90s.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, a couple cupcakes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah, it's easy. Road Here for the Indianapolis. Wow. I don't know if this was Roger Goodell or who was see that. We've been through enough. But on that note, it's a tough catch. Yeah. And listen, C.J. i mean this guy, I don't know what his problem is. He's throwing a bowl basically like this, 30 yards down the field, right on the money to somebody every single time. It makes no sense how good he is. Seemingly every time he steps foot into our building. He is everything that you would want your quarterback to be when he's in our building. Now our defense made some plays. Even guy interception did a dance. It was sweet. We did a lot of good things. Alec Pierce made some plays. But inevitably in the end, the Houston Texans beat the Indianapolis Colts. And it wasn't just the Houston Texans, might I add. It was also the refs. Okay? It was also the officials. Bullshit. Listen, they put ass in these officials are ass, okay? That is what these particular refs did. This is a delay game, okay? It's third and 15, obviously field goal range, so 16 13. We assume Kaimi Fairbairn will make the kick. Maybe. OK, so obviously a delay a game, so they should have had to play. Then we get a phantom defensive pass interference call. Okay, so play shouldn't happen. Okay, and now what? Oh yeah, pass interference on who? On that. And then the ref is literally standing right behind. And he had good eyes on this thing. I saw him. This is right down our thing. He calls defense pass interference. Obviously they get a first down. Okay, sweet. This should have been a field goal. Instead end around Collins. Touchdown Texans. All of a sudden it's 20 to 13. Right? Well that would be if they hit the extra point. Well, let's go to the ext point. Yeah, he misses it. Okay, so it doesn't even go in. And this guy. Yep, it's good, right? That's what we're doing. So this is all within a span of like four or five plays. So whenever you talk about an entire building just getting the. You suck chance out of them as aggressively as possible, you're talking about in this exact moment. It was absurd and it was back to back to back to back. And it's like the Houston Texans defense is phenomenal. Okay? Yeah, there are some Texans fans in there. The fans are also great. CJ Stroud out.

[Conman]

What the hell? Oh no. Is this real? They had to change the name Brandon Alvarez.

[Pat McAfee]

I do not.

[Tone]

Oh no, wait.

[Conman]

When they do that.

[Pat McAfee]

I told X they can't do this. I. I told. Hey, excuse me. This Is not allowed. AI Is getting out of control.

[Conman]

Oh, that's not real.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think. No, that's not real.

[Tone]

Okay, Were the cranes already going up when you guys were leaving yesterday to do this or.

[Pat McAfee]

That is not real. That is. AI. It is not, actually. Really? Brandon Alvarez said he took the picture right then. He said no.

[CJ Stroud]

Damn.

[Pat McAfee]

Pat responded to a pic I made. Oh, yeah. It's fake. It's not.

[Conman]

Oh, okay, wait. But did he make it in, like, with his. With his camera?

[Ty Schmidt]

He was the foreman.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

No, he was on. On the thing, and he was doing it because every time he wasn't in the helicopter. He did not. That is not. It's called the loud house. It is not called the Stroud house. I'm done with it. But this is what happens when CJ Plays against us, seemingly always wins. And with the Indianapolis Colts quarterback situation being what it is, we're in trouble because a big part of Danny Dimes's offensive contributions is the fear that he can outrun you, which he can. Hey, white boy. Got a little motion whenever he was running. Danny Dimes, you know, he kind of looks like a nerd, acts like a nerd, everything like that. He's big, strong, powerful, fast, bullet over rush yards, over rush yards every single game. He. That's a massive part of his game. There really isn't much fear of that right now. I don't think in Houston Texans number one defense, they. They. That was not the right team to have to play against with that. They are.

[Ty Schmidt]

They have Hunt.

[Pat McAfee]

They do Hunt. I actually thought a couple different times. These fans have to hate watching these games. Their defense is so good. This is ass. Like your offense. You're here for the offense. You show up, and your offense is going to be ass against this team. So you just going to sit there and be, all right, maybe next time. All right. This is getting kind of boring, isn't it?

[Darius J. Butler]

Boo.

[Pat McAfee]

We need to start doing some stuff. Boo. It's like, well, this Texans defense doesn't let you. They are very good. And the Jacksonville Jaguars very good. In the Indianapolis Colts. We're trying to hold on right now. We are trying to hold the hell on right now. We got a tough road down the stretch. Joining us right now, ladies and gentlemen, is senior NFL insider in Michigan. Man. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter. Shefty. Sorry we made you wait there. We apologize. Let's talk about Danny Dimes, shall we? I didn't know what a fibula was. I had to obviously Google it, ask where it Is that feels like a pretty important one to somebody who's pretty mobile now. Danny Dimes, fractured fibula. What do we know and what should we be expecting going forward? Forward?

[Adam Schefter]

Well, I think it's a hairline fracture and I think it compromises his lateral. You'll see that he has not been able to move laterally as much as he did earlier in the year and they're not calling as many plays for him to run as they did earlier in the year. And it seems to be an issue in that regard. Obviously, he's full participant in practice. Obviously he's going to play, but obviously he's not going to play the same way that he's been playing. And I think that that has impacted their offense some.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it certainly has. And also it hurts very bad, this type of thing. So obviously the amount of men toughness that he'll have to go through every single step, we shall watch as the journey to the AFC south championship rolls on. Sauce Gardiner, we lost him very early in the game. You know, I was actually with Tyrese Halliburton recovering very well. By the way, I just showed a one footed dunk last week. Tyrese Halliburton was in the suite, I know, watching the game. He's a big Colts fan, loves coming out. He saw the replay of this and obviously he's going through an Achilles thing right now. He goes, hey, that looked like. That looked like something, you know, he looked back there, calf something along those lines immediately upon it happening because that's kind of the mo of one of things. He feels like somebody kicks you from the back, they say. And then he got carried off. Now he's walking there. But when he was on the field, there was no pressure on his foot at all. So we were all very, very worried. What are we hearing with Sauce Gardner is obviously we. We're bummed out quick that we lost the number one out there.

[Adam Schefter]

Yeah, well, the good part is obviously it doesn't seem like it's his Achilles and the great Dr. Randy Moss diagnosed that right away. We were in our conference room watching the game games after Sunday countdown and obviously to your point, Pat, everybody thinks, okay, is this, is this an Achilles? But within minutes, Sauce was back on the field in a boot and with crutches. And Randy's like, if you tear your Achilles, you're not coming back out into the field. It won't be his Achilles and it doesn't look like it was. It looks like it's a calf injury. It looks like it's multiple weeks I think we may have seen the last of him for roughly about a month.

[Pat McAfee]

Roughly.

[Adam Schefter]

We'll see if to put him on injured reserve or not. Hey, the good part is it's not his Achilles because it was his Achilles. You don't even know if the guy's ever going to be the same kind of player again. Fortunately, it looks like a calf injury. Calves are not fun. And it looked like it was very painful. And. And hopefully he's back soon. And hopefully Tyrese Halliburton is back soon.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, well, I've been telling Tyrese the Pacers need them, so maybe we. Maybe we expedite this thing. I think we've won three games this year. Maybe.

[Conman]

Yeah, maybe. I think second last night.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Whatever the case. Yeah. Tyrese going to be back in good spirits. Nice to hear that. Sauce Going to be back for our playoff push here in Indianapolis as it takes place. Couple other injuries as well. Any updates? Go ahead, Con man.

[Conman]

Yeah, Chef D. Thanksgiving. Amon Raw went down early with an ankle. They have Thursday Night Football this week. What's it looking like for Amon Raw's recovery?

[Adam Schefter]

I would say most people would not be able to make it back for Thursday night Football.

[Marty Smith]

Football.

[Adam Schefter]

Knowing Amon Ra, I think he's going to wind up pushing to try to play on Thursday night. Now, whether he can do that or not, we'll see how the week of practice goes, and we'll see how he feels on Thursday. I don't think they're going to be ready to rule him out quick. Maybe they will, but I think he's going to give it a chance to be able to try to play on Thursday. I'm not telling he will, but this guy is very, very tough.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, very tough, very strong. I mean, seemingly built for everything. If he's able to bounce back that quick, I think we will all be impressed. There's tough. Go ahead.

[Adam Schefter]

Yeah, I was gonna say, you know, you're missing. If he doesn't play. If he doesn't play on Thursday night. No Amanra, no Sam laporta. All the injuries in the second, it's a. It's a lot to overcome for them.

[Pat McAfee]

Ragnow, I'll tell you what, Mar. Yeah. What happened today? Ragnow came in, and the doctors are like, hey, exactly what we said, like, six months ago. You just can't.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, you need to stay retired.

[Pat McAfee]

You can't do it, dude. We're sorry. Like, we wish we could, but the scans are coming back.

[Conman]

Lose my license.

[Pat McAfee]

The exact same as whenever you had Muscles. Your whole body is broken, Frank. And obviously the world respects the out of you for that. But it's like we can't let you back on the field. Just like last year we were dance. I mean, come on, Frank. You're too damn tough. We can't do it. Is that what happened? Is that basically how the whole story went with Frank?

[Adam Schefter]

I mean, like, he goes in there, they announce he's coming back, he wants to come back. And they go in, the doctor's not look, and they find a hamstring issue. Great.

[Tone]

Shredded.

[Adam Schefter]

Frank, you can't pass physical.

[Pat McAfee]

And.

[Adam Schefter]

And you know that. That announcement came about 15 minutes before Michigan. Ohio state kicked off in a weekend which the lions already lost the game on Thanksgiving day. So they lose Thanksgiving day, now you lose Frank Ragno. Not that he had him. I'm like, oh, I. I know how this Michigan, Ohio state game, the whole weekend for Michigan like that.

[AJ Hawk]

That.

[Adam Schefter]

That's how this. It's going for the state right now. I mean, I could have predicted that right away.

[Pat McAfee]

It was cold up there, man. It was cold up there. Congrats to ohi. Big time win. Big time win by state buckeyes. Hey, young team up there in Michigan. They can learn from this as they go forward. Foxy, you a little bit worried about these lines. Marin, you a little bit worried about what's going on? I mean, as shefty said, I was heading home for Thanksgiving. It's Wednesday. Ragnow's back. We're going to meet the packers tomorrow. The lions are going to be in the playoffs. We're going to go to the super bowl. Everyone is fired up for the best Thanksgiving of all time. And then we lose. Ragnarok out. And I'm not a Michigan fan, but I know a lot of people that went to the lions game on Thursday, spent their Thanksgiving at fort field, and also spent their Saturday at the big house. One of the worst weekends of all time for those people. So, yeah, it's been pretty tough over here. Yeah. Sorry to hear that about your holiday, if that's how it went. But on that note, the people in Ohio are living nice. People in Ohio were living very, very nice. And. And good luck to the lions as they continue to do this. Okay. Last big time injury. We don't know if you're going to have any updates, obviously. Quick turnaround. Go ahead, Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Chef D. Anything on Justin Herbert? We heard he broke his left hand and we just saw Rogers, you know, have a couple breaks in his left wrist and he missed a week. Obviously. The Chargers haven't said whether or not he's going to miss a game yet, but with their, you know, playoff positioning, they obviously can't really afford for Herbert to miss any time. Have you heard anything on. On that?

[Adam Schefter]

He's. Well, he's having the surgery today. He says he's going to try to play. He's treating it as if he's playing now again. He's gonna have the surgery. We'll see how he can get through the week of practice, what his grip on the football is like. I don't know if there's any ligament damage. I think that's a key question here. When doctors go in there, maybe they find some ligament damage or not. Hopefully not. Hopefully he's back soon. Yesterday he goes out and then comes back in with that giant, like, oven mitt on his left hand and finishes the game. That. That guy's a warrior.

[Pat McAfee]

Absolutely.

[Adam Schefter]

He's going to try to play next Monday night. We'll see if the surgery today allows that to happen. I think it's up in the air.

[Pat McAfee]

He's football guy, you know, Herbert's football guy. If he can play, he will play. Max Crosby and he obviously had their moment. Whenever he shoves him before yelling in his ear, Max says, did anybody fight Max?

[Darius J. Butler]

I think lineman ran over. I don't know about fighting Max.

[Conman]

I don't think so. Just walked off.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. I'm not getting into that. Max Crosby, though, what a menace. When you talk about menaces of all menaces. He's doing his thing. Love. Good AFC west football.

[Conman]

Oh, that was in his ear.

[AJ Hawk]

That's the first time.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Conman]

The whole thing. Yeah. Okay.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's a little Philip Rivers.

[Conman]

Yeah. He was screaming right at him.

[Pat McAfee]

92 yard touchdown. He's yelling in that defensive line helps after he helps him up in that entire thing.

[Darius J. Butler]

I like that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, there's a little heat there. We like that. There's a little heat. Yeah. I do love everything about it. Okay, let's move on to some big time stories that are obviously developing. Go ahead, Tone.

[Tone]

Yeah, Shefty. I'm not sure if you saw, but for the fourth time this season on primetime, in front of a national TV audience, the Steelers got embarrassed, Renegade got booed, and there was fire. Mike Tomlin, chance, is there any chance that there is a change in Pittsburgh this season? What are, what are the reads or vibes you're getting out of that building?

[Adam Schefter]

Tony? I've always felt like if a change ever occurs there, it's going to be because Mike Tomlin doesn't want to be back there. Mike Tomlin again. I know the people in Pittsburgh don't like it. Hasn't had the losing season and his 18 years as a head coach trying to make in a row. They also, they also. They also haven't won a playoff game since 2016. So it's both ways. Some people view it one way, other people view it another way. I could say if they didn't want Mike Tomlin there. And maybe the message is stale. Maybe he moves on like Andy.

[Pat McAfee]

Right.

[Adam Schefter]

Reed finds a new home. Andy Reid's time in Philly had run out. He went to Kansas City. We see how that worked out for him. Of course, he drafted Mahomes, but it worked out incredibly well. And the Chiefs obviously love having him. If Mike Tomlin were a coaching free agent, he automatically would become the number one coaching free agent out there. He could have any coaching job he wanted. He could have any broadcasting job he wanted.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yes.

[Adam Schefter]

So, I mean, you know, yeah, maybe the Steelers fans clearly really have had enough of Mike Tomlin, but I don't know that they're not firing Mike Tomlin. That. That's not going to happen. We're not gonna get one of these announcements that, that the Steelers have relieved him of his duties the way that we get from other teams.

[Pat McAfee]

Would there be a trade or anything like that? Would that be the conversation? And obviously Coach Tomlin would have to be the one that kind of says he's good with it. Yeah, Mike, Coach Tomlin whenever. This is just like the James Franklin at Penn State, but Tomlin actually won a bunch. Five, ten years from now, everybody, if there is a change, we're not saying that there is or we have any say in anything, or the Rooneys kind of do their entire thing. People will look back on Tomlin is super pot. Like Tomlin will be remembered as absolute hero in Pittsburgh at some point. But I think the Pittsburgh people like you mentioned, 18 years of winning season, they're like, we're done with that whole thing. We'll be excited to learn. Okay, we got to be quick here because we obviously pushed the first 15 too long debut has a question for you about another team that's thinking about change.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, we're staying in Pennsylvania with the Eagles, obviously, you know, defending super bowl champs, but it's been ugly. Couple games sliding down offense. Any changes coming at the offensive play caller with Kevin Patulo? He'll be out.

[Adam Schefter]

They. They've said no, they're not doing that. Everybody wants changes there too. I I think that, you know, Nick Sirianni probably has to get a little bit more involved in the offense. The offensive line's got to play better. There's probably a combination of factors, but Nick Sirianni said they're not planning to do anything like that. Diva.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, that's big news out of Philadelphia. Hopefully they're able to get rolling again. You know, when Saquon was gone, it was so much fun.

[Marty Smith]

It's cool.

[Pat McAfee]

It was so much fun. When Jalen was doing cool stuff, it was always fun. Now it just seems like there's drama over too much. A lot of distraction, but never distraction with you. Adam Schefter, we appreciate the hell out of you, brother.

[Adam Schefter]

Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Happy Monday.

[Pat McAfee]

You in studio tonight or what are you doing?

[Adam Schefter]

I'm sitting in my house right now. I'm gonna go to the doctors. I've been coughing for about a week. Every. With every cough yesterday, Greenie would move further and further away from me in the conference room every time I.

[Pat McAfee]

Good idea. You need to see up brother over there. Okay. Good luck. We're pulling for you. We love you. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Scheffer. Congrats to the Buckeyes, by the way.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

So good.

[Conman]

Good pick.

[Pat McAfee]

Good. Hey, felt good about it. Good team in the face. Fold hour two on the other side. Goodbye.

[Darius J. Butler]

This is Joe Button checking in this holiday season. Everybody is out here stressing, shopping, rapping, cooking. But me, I'm trying to kick back.

[Pat McAfee]

Watch some sports and go green on.

[Darius J. Butler]

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[Pat McAfee]

I'm talking two minutes tops.

[Darius J. Butler]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Darius J. Butler]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Darius J. Butler]

It's good to be right. Must be present in certain states.

[Pat McAfee]

Visit price picks.com for restrictions and details.

[Ty Schmidt]

This is Kevin Clark for manscaped the Holidays are rolling in. And if your wish list needs an upgrade, add manscape to make gift giving easy, fun and stress free.

[Pat McAfee]

Free this year. All right.

[Ty Schmidt]

I am a holiday guy.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm a Christmas guy, all right?

[Ty Schmidt]

And one of the things I've noticed.

[Pat McAfee]

I've got a kid now. So we're working a lots of family photos.

[Ty Schmidt]

And I gotta tell you, I do.

[Pat McAfee]

Not look very good.

[Ty Schmidt]

I got my PJs on in front of the tree the last two Christmases.

[Pat McAfee]

Each time I didn't shave beforehand.

[Ty Schmidt]

I probably because I wasn't, you know, you don't work on Christmas.

[Pat McAfee]

You don't work Christmas Eve.

[Ty Schmidt]

I probably didn't shave for like three.

[Pat McAfee]

Or four days beforehand that I looked bad, folks.

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't know. There's no way to sugarcoat I looked gross.

[Pat McAfee]

I did not look family photo ready. I got my nice PJs.

[Marty Smith]

We did.

[Pat McAfee]

We spent so much time on the Christmas tree and my face is undoing all the goodwill, all the cheer. It's not holiday. Holiday approved.

[Ty Schmidt]

From the beard hedger to lawnmower trimmer.

[Pat McAfee]

Manscapes, precision tools keep you looking sharp.

[Ty Schmidt]

Feeling confident and ready for every event and celebration all season long. These aren't just stocking stuffers.

[Pat McAfee]

They're upgrades for your daily routine. And right now at Target, you can.

[Ty Schmidt]

Save 20% on the lawnmower for and.

[Pat McAfee]

Three kits handyman and beard hedger.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hurry.

[Pat McAfee]

Supplies won't last.

[Conman]

Football.

[Pat McAfee]

He's the greatest. And we're so lucky that we get a chance to chat about. It's not. Not just me, obviously. The toxic tables here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. 1/2 of the hammer down Cowboys AP Town sitting right there. Tone, how the public do this weekend? Do we have the numbers on how the public did over the weekend?

[Tone]

I do, actually. 60% or more of the bets of the team.

[CJ Stroud]

Sorry.

[Tone]

Let me restart that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yep, yep. Hey, from the beginning. Hey, Tone out the public do this weekend. You got any books on that or anything?

[Tone]

Yeah, Pat, let me tell you about that. Teams that were getting 60% or more of the bets against the spread. We're actually five and four this week. That's our first winning week of the year, baby.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe, maybe we just try to keep that for like a good feeling.

[Conman]

Yeah, maybe I, I like where you're at. Maybe the Patriots take that song tonight.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't you do that.

[Conman]

Yeah, I think, I think that's a great idea. That'd be perfect. With the leader of the.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't you do that.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Who did the.

[Pat McAfee]

Who, who did the Yankees pitcher. Who. Who had that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Thank you.

[Tone]

You're right.

[Pat McAfee]

The pitch.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, Mariana. Oh, David Bednar.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. He's Pittsburgh guy, right?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Came from the Pirates.

[Ty Schmidt]

I haven't even thought about that.

[Tone]

Yeah, I was, I was gonna say you thought Curse of the Babe was bad. You take Renegade. You see what that curse does to you?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't believe.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, I don't know if he's gonna even come out to it anymore because that's the whole reason he did it, because he was thinking of, you know, James Harrison sacking Joe Flacco.

[Pat McAfee]

That Pittsburgh Steelers fans booed Renegade last night in the fourth quarter when the defense was on the field. A tradition that is maybe one of the best in the NFL. And we'll take. There's not a lot of.

[Conman]

And we'll take it with a. With a happy heart.

[Tone]

No, don't you have like living on.

[Pat McAfee]

A prayer or some.

[Conman]

We got. We got basically and.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Conman]

Don't you bullshit Jon Bon Jovi. Okay, let's calm down for a second. But we'll gladly take Renegade. And just like coach Gary Gaines says, ain't no such thing as curses.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, maybe the Loud House takes Renegade too. You mean the Stradha St. You need.

[CJ Stroud]

Didn't like that.

[Pat McAfee]

Nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler. I don't like that one bit.

[Darius J. Butler]

I didn't like that.

[Pat McAfee]

CJ has a lot of success in that building.

[Ty Schmidt]

He does he.

[Conman]

Look, has he ever lost?

[Darius J. Butler]

Four weeks?

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't think so.

[Pat McAfee]

He's on the feet. I don't think he's ever lost there. Yeah, he's pretty good. Yeah, he's pretty good. And boy, it's nice to have eyes on it because every time he drops back, you think this guy's got nowhere to throw the ball. This guy has nowhere to throw the ball. And then some. Somehow he throws it to a spot, it hovers, okay. Just doesn't go and just right in somebody's hand. He's unbelievable. And the way he walks is just so confident. Just so confident because I think he's a little duck footed, right? So his feet go out like that and he's a heel toe walker. So he has a natural sway because his duck feet kind of lead him to this thing. So his moxie radiates literally through every step that he takes. It's. He's a weapon. Weapon, dude. He is an absolute weapon. Collins, very good. Woody, very good. I mean, you talk about the defense, number one defense in the league. It's Like, I don't look, but it's called the Loud House. It's not called the Stroud House. No matter how many times CJ Stroud goes in there and has career days.

[CJ Stroud]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

We're kind of all done with that. You worried about the Colts?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, because of the Daniel Jones injury. I think that's. That's big. Him playing, him being a tough guy. Been out there is big news. But obviously you talked about his athleticism, his ability, extend plays. Yes. And then this schedule. Yeah, I see it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Good news.

[Tone]

There's another Duke quarterback that can run waiting in the wings.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Riley Leonard. I see him. He's big straw, strong. Strap it.

[Tone]

That was a. NASA went to the national championship.

[Ty Schmidt]

Remember that first drive in the national championship? 18.

[Conman]

I remember.

[Darius J. Butler]

And the last one, the team on his back.

[Conman]

Excuse me.

[Pat McAfee]

This guy's been in the lab here in Indianapolis with Shane Steichen, which is his name.

[Ty Schmidt]

Wasn't a whole lot of that today.

[Conman]

A lot of stinking.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now live from Anakin, Ohio, is a college football national champion with the Ohio State Buckeyes. Wow. He's waking up feeling much better today than he was for 2,191 day. He's a Super bowl champion. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. hawk. All the days. A.J. now you get a chance to say, I'm happy today, you know, because you guys finally beat Michigan. You did it up there in Ann Arbor. I'm happy for us, man. I'm happy we did it, you know, I'm happy we did it. H. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

It was a very smart pick, I think, that you made on College game day, obviously, with Hutch sitting right next to you. He was very good, actually, by the way. I appreciate him and. And his energy and how he interacted with you guys and everybody on the panel. But, yeah, I mean, you know, the Bucks went up there, took care of business. Here we go. We got Indiana next another week. Here it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Humble. We're going to win with some humility here. You know, I'm not going to. I liked Ryan Day saying. I've thought about what I was going to say in this press conference all along. Okay, I'm going to save those for another day, and I'm going to win with some humility here. I also appreciate him afterwards talking to coach more. Hey, you got to get your guys out of here, okay? We're not going to go on your shit. But this is not. This cannot. This is going to get bad if this doesn't happen or whatever. And then him actually telling the Boys. Nah, we're not doing that. I appreciate the fact that there was seemingly a little bit of an understanding, like, hey, we were supposed to win this one. All right? Now, we know it's the first time we've won this particular game, but we were supposed to win this one in our minds. In the national coverages, everybody's eyes, we're supposed to win this one. But Brutus maybe had one of the greatest mascot performances of all time. What a photo. What a situation. He's standing on his head during game day. Okay, that was.

[Conman]

That was sweet.

[Pat McAfee]

That was nuts. He's a bull, man. But, AJ I was happy for the state of Ohio. I was happy for the boys to get a chance to experience happiness in this particular rivalry. And I thought about you out there, bud. I really did. I really. Yeah, they had to do that in khakis, too. Shout out to Harbaugh. I mean, just the whole thing really, really good. But age. I thought about you guys. Dude, happy for you, genuinely.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, it was awesome. I thought even how it played out was great for Ohio State and moving forward. First off, AQ is FaceTiming right now. I'm not sure if he knows him.

[Conman]

On the show or what's going on.

[AJ Hawk]

But he's FaceTime my. My computer as we speak.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think we should think about answering that.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Can I.

[AJ Hawk]

Can I. Oh, just lets me end and accept, I guess. But I thought for Ohio State, how they played in, like, getting. Getting down early, throwing the pick early, getting like, hey, they haven't really been in that situation this year when things are really up against it and keep. People could panic and think, oh, no, what are we going to do? Is this going to happen again? And they just stayed calm, figured it out. Obviously their defense is off awesome the whole time, and then just pounded the rock the whole second half.

[Pat McAfee]

It was great vibes, obviously, in that stadium. Cold as hell, man. Cold as hell. And, you know, Michigan. Fox Sports is basically an entire Michigan lineup. You know what I mean? So going up there is. College game day is certainly fascinating, you know, because the drive in the train. So we get to see. I get to see a lot. Okay. I'm. I'm driving around the neighborhood to get to the stadium from where Set is to get to, and kind of through it all. It's such a cool thing that this happens, you know? Like, it is. I talked about the beginning of college game day. Rivalry weekend is like, what college football is at its absolute best. Like this. The passion, the actual genuine emotion and happiness or absolute Misery that comes from the outcome of these games, and that's been happening for generations and generations, is what makes college football so damn special. So it was awesome to be a part of. Now with all that passion comes some drama and controversy, ladies and gentlemen. Joining us now is a guy who is sleeping on Lane Kiffin's cot this weekend, ladies and gentlemen, a man who deserves every award that you could possibly give to an investigative journalist, a pundit, maybe, if there's a hair model, too, for sure. And also a man who's just cool as hell. Ladies and gentlemen, Marty Smith. Marty, how you doing, bub?

[Marty Smith]

Gentlemen, good afternoon. I hope you're well. Well, it's always great to spend time with you, and I'm not even sure what the hell my name is. I don't know where I am. Of course, the me. I just want to say this to America and beyond. The memes were incredible entertainment throughout the entire soiree. So thank all of you who understand AI. I do not. I have no idea what it is or how it works, but it kept me and the boys very well entertained throughout Saturday and Sunday.

[Pat McAfee]

I love that the Internet was your tag team partner through this because, boy, we are following your every step. You're in your hotel room talking about it. You were in the facility talking about it. You're at an FBO talking about it. You're pushing back meetings. You were saying there was a meeting. Now it's been pushed back yet again.

[Marty Smith]

Meetings. That's a fact.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yet again. So we appreciate you following it. Biggest story on, obviously in college ball right now, there's so many things that could be talked about on the field, but obviously, Lane Kiffin potentially leaving his school in the middle of the best run that they've ever had, and going to a rival school before the College Football Playoff became the story that captivated almost the entire thing. There was a lot of, you know, exposure, I think, to the flawed CFB calendar on when the transfer portal is, when the recruiting deadline is, when teams can go, when the playoffs are. So I think there's going to be some changes made from this entire scene, but we didn't get any of the changes for this particular situation. How would you describe what you experienced and basically the Lane Kiffin situation as a whole from your perspective, embedded in the middle of it? Basically, over the last 48 hours, I've.

[Marty Smith]

Tried to drill down on that pat. I've tried to think really intentionally about everything we just experienced because Lane is. Is an enigma. He's such a unique personality and I would venture to say, having been around him a lot, the personality that you see on social media is not always indicative of the person that he is. When you're having a conversation with him and you know, on social media, he's very flamboyant and boisterous and controversial and polarizing. But when you're talking to him one on one, he's much quieter and more introspective. And so going into this thing, with all of the growing groundswell of what is his decision going to be, the fact that Keith Carter, the athletics director at Ole Miss, basically gave him an ultimatum. All right, it's going to be Saturday. I got to know Saturday after the Edge. So I'm commissioned to go cover the Egg bowl as part of the broadcast and try to give some semblance of insight during the game, not just about the decision itself, but the person making the decision, who again, is a very complex man. And then the Egg bowl ends and I go over to Oxford. And then it got really interesting because there was this information coming in that the two sides were not agreeing. And the main crux of that was, as millions of you know, he wanted to coach this football team. And then there was some, some back and forth about if he does take the LSU job, who goes with him that's on the current staff at Ole Miss. And those were major sticking points. Those were. There was a lot of tense conversations around that between Keith Carter and Lane Kiffin. And then we show up Saturday morning, we do all of the shows and college game day and we're trying to give some insight. And I talked to Lane Clean for quite a while Saturday morning and he gave me what he could. And then we waited and waited, waited and waited. And I mean, we didn't leave there until. I don't, honestly, I don't even remember what time it was. I want to say midnight ish central, if I'm, I think something like that. We were there 18 something hours and with no resolution. And, and I don't know if you guys saw the clip from SEC Network. I mean, I texted him in the 8 o' clock hour around 8:45 or 6. And I'm like, bro, is there going to be a resolution tonight? Please God in heaven, tell me yes. People are putting AI on the Internet where I look like a damn Crypt Keeper. We got to do better now. We got to figure this out then, brother, you wake up Sunday morning and you still don't know. And, and I'll tell you, I, I think the only story that I've covered that was this type of news that might have been a little weirder was when Scotty Scheffler got arrested at Valhalla, which, by the way, they should have engraved an Emmy and handed it to Jeff Darlington immediately. That was the most brilliant reporting I've ever seen. And then I chased him down to the tarmac and interviewed him last evening.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you chasing him down to the tarmac is obviously special because Lane Kiffin starts it with, hey, I really like the way you ran through. I assume you had to jump through some stuff, hide behind some stuff.

[Marty Smith]

Oh, buddy. Let me tell you guys, this story is a hell of a story.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yes.

[Marty Smith]

So, all right. The. The Ole Miss meeting ends. A player comes out and yells, it's the P. Golding ass era. So we're all like, oh, hell. Okay, they've. They've made Pete Golding. Is he the interim? Is he the full time? What are we doing here? So we're all working our phones, trying to figure that out, and then I get a text from Lane, and he goes, I'll do your interview right now. I'm like, awesome. Where? When?

[Pat McAfee]

I'll do it.

[Marty Smith]

We'll go to your house. We'll go to the moon. We'll go to the airport. And there had been a lot of. A lot of information coming in that two LSU planes were landing at the Oxford airport. Airport in just an hour or so. Hour or 90 minutes. And I was still waiting to get this information from him on when we might do this. Nothing. Crickets. So I look at my guys, and I'm like, boys, we're going to airport. Like, my journalism antenna went up. I'm like, we're going to airport. So we go to the airport and we wait and we wait. And it was cold as hell. Cold. Cold.

[Pat McAfee]

And.

[Marty Smith]

And then I get a note from him, and he's like, we're on the way. Well, I knew, you know, you. All of you guys are big, private jet guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Marty Smith]

So I know you guys know this.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't get. They are. It is very nice. It is very nice.

[Marty Smith]

I knew that given the scene, which was bedlam, I mean, the people showed out at the Oxford airport for. Ready to tell my man Kiffin that he's number one.

[Darius J. Butler]

Thank you.

[Pat McAfee]

And thank you, Lane.

[Marty Smith]

I knew they were going to drive him straight onto the tarmac. So I'm trying to figure out how to get on the tarmac when I know that's against the law. You can't just walk out there. So I'm like, dude, where are they taking you? So he tells me this area, right? Not going to disclose the area. But I did know that it wasn't where I was, was. So I yell at my crew, I'm like, come on, boys, let's go. And I had been given at the Birmingham airport Thanksgiving night, this conversion van.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Marty Smith]

Now, y', all, this ain't no minivan.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no.

[Marty Smith]

This is like a 16 person.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah.

[Marty Smith]

It's like driving a loaf of bread. And I'm gonna tell you something now, I've been getting my balls busted constantly about that by everybody in the world for driving that loaf of bread. But you know what? God is so good.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, he is.

[Marty Smith]

If I didn't have that van in that chaotic moment where we're running to get Lane Kiffin, there's no way I can fit my whole crew, all the cameras, all the gear in one vehicle. But I had the loaf of bread. All right, so we all get in the loaf of bread, and Lane is basically giving me the play by play on where he is. And I'm. We're wheeling this van, right? And we take a left. And when we take a left off this highway, there is all these fire trucks that have blocked off the road. There's firemen blocking a road. Well, I said, to hell with it. We're bo duking this thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell, yeah.

[Marty Smith]

So there's a field that I drove around the barricade through all of this farm across equipment. The van's bottoming out. We're bombing this thing through ditches, over the hill and through the woods to this road. And then I mapped this van all the way up on top of the hill to the. To the tarmac area. And there he stood, laughing his ass. So he saw the whole thing.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll give you an interview.

[Marty Smith]

And he's on the phone and he's like, bro, you really are Scooby Doo. This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. But, yeah, I give him a lot of credit, man. Like, I. You know, when I got out of the van and the boys piled out with shout out to my crew. World class Luis and the boys killed it. All right? This is a chaotic moment where this man is going through a lot of emotion here, all right? He has made the decision to leave a team that he's led to the greatest season ever.

[CJ Stroud]

Ever.

[Marty Smith]

First time in 132 years of Ole Miss Rebel football that they have 11 regular season wins. They're going to host a college playoff game College football playoff game. It is the greatest era in the history of the program, and he's chosen to go to the enemy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Marty Smith]

So, you know, you. I asked him every question that I felt was pertinent in that moment, all the way down to, what does LSU offer you that Ole Miss? This doesn't. And I give him a lot of credit because he said, I don't know that yet. It may not be the right decision. We'll find out. But, you know, he. I think he said the job. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but it was basically like, let's go prove this. Right.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes.

[Marty Smith]

Something to that effect. And so he answered the questions as best he could. And it was a. It wasn't Kumbaya over there in Oxford. It was a contentious.

[Pat McAfee]

This thing. Anakin van, a sprinter van, a. A conversion van, was just rolling through, you know, fields to get up here. I mean, you got chaos over here. You got people chanting, telling you you're number one over here. You got the Internet exploding. You got, I assume, some sort of escort. Then you have a conversion van with fire trucks.

[Marty Smith]

There was no escort. Hell no.

[Tone]

For him.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah, you're right. There's no escort. How to get on.

[Marty Smith]

For him, there were. I'm sorry, I thought you meant for us. He had. Oh, yeah, he had legions of.

[Pat McAfee]

Of law enforcement, which is interesting to me. Yeah, yeah. Professionals, that is. Yeah. They're still doing their job. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Conman]

Unlike you.

[Pat McAfee]

Unlike you, like quitting on the team. All right, now we got some questions about the meeting because there's stuff coming out, and I don't know how much you know and how much you can tell. D, but has a question for you.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, I know you've been around the game for a long, long time, so it's kind of a two parter. How often does something like this happening? Is there any truth to the plane ultimatum to the staff? Like, hey, if you don't meet me on this plane, your job's not going to be there. We all saw the report from On3Sports. How much truth was that to that with Lane?

[Marty Smith]

All I can tell you, brother, is what he told me last night before he boarded that plane to Baton Rouge, because I actually asked him that exact question. How much of it being held up this long was due to your desire to take staff members from your offense? And by the way, I got home in the middle of the night and my wife goes, the first time you asked that question, it made no sense. And Lane even went, huh. So I Had to clarify the question.

[Tone]

So. Sorry.

[Marty Smith]

I was tired.

[Pat McAfee]

Sorry.

[Marty Smith]

He said to me, Darius, he said to me there was never any ultimatum, all right? That's what he said to me. So that is what I can tell you. I haven't been told by anybody inside Ole Miss that there was. So all I can do is tell you what Lane told me. Now, that's his side. All right? A lot of guys went, you know, I'm keeping tabs on who went with him. Charlie Weiss went. The guy that is, you know, calling the plays of Lane's masterful offensive scheme. His strength coach went. His GM went. So you're talking about key personnel.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Which then leads to. Which then leads to the, you know, the clause of the College Football Playoff, the fourth clause that says missing key components of your team that you had in the regular season and whether it was players like we had with the Florida State situation a few years back, and it says coaches as well. Coach Golding becomes the head coach. Good luck to him. Pulling for him, obviously.

[Marty Smith]

Great man. He's a great man.

[Pat McAfee]

It felt like everybody loved him. And he did have Connor pointed out on his ex account, but he did have the Southern eye. You know, a lot of eyes, a lot of confirmation talking, which is very positive. And it felt like the boys liked them. The standing ovation. And Mr. Butler here, you know, the ad, he's obviously in the middle of this entire story as well, because allegedly he was the one that was kind of talking to the team and talking to Lane about what he can do, what he can't do. I think Lane said to you, you know, like, some national media maybe think it's okay for me to coach my team or whatever. He has to live here, though. He's the ad, so he views it a little bit differently. It was hard for me to ever see them letting him coach his team. And I understood. Like a lot of people, I haven't been around college football or in the weeds of college football as long as others have. Obviously. Obviously. It felt like every OG college football person that I heard speak on, it was like, he has to go to LSU because they don't even have a coach right now, and they have a better recruiting class than Ole Miss has right now. So they'll have 10, five stars. The number one. This is the number one recruit in the country.

[Darius J. Butler]

As soon as he landed.

[Pat McAfee]

As soon as he landed, Lamar, I believe is his name, and I read through his Twitter account, and this kid, he committed to lsu. He said he wants to be known as the greatest Tiger of all time. Like, that's what he wants. He's from Louisiana, wants to be known as the greatest tiger of all, all time. Which goes to exactly what all the OGs of college football have been saying. It's like every recruiting class, you're going to have at least 10, five stars, at least 10, just because they want to be an LSU tiger. So, like, that makes your life a lot easier is what all these OGs around there saying. And in my eyes, I'm like, well, in the modern world, do you need that? Especially with how great you are in the transfer portal. And if you have the money to back it and you've built something so good and you're on a playoff run, this is the greatest year you've ever had. Maybe enjoy your greatest year you've ever had and there'll be, I mean, more jobs in the future. That's exactly what it seemed like all the OGs were saying. The OGs were like, no, but they should let him coach his team because he's a good coach. So they should enjoy this entire moment. It's like, yeah, but what about the transfer portal? What about the recruiting side, the signing day? Like, there's so many things that are all happening at the same time. I don't know if LSU would have wanted him coaching at Ole Miss if push came to shove, like, if they really wanted him to do that. So that just never seemed like a reaction. Reality type based opinion in my eye, in my eyes. But I don't know. The game is better as much as everybody else.

[Marty Smith]

It just goes back to the complexity of all of this, too. First of all, when all of this first started to gain steam, maybe a month ago or so, something like that, that he would. Right after, you know, BK got fired, Lane Kiffin's the guy. All right. And my opinion at that point was, okay, let's. Let's look at the personal piece of this. This is a man who genuinely changed his life in Oxford, Mississippi. What began, and I'll back up and just tell you kind of how he described it to me. He told me when Ole Miss won the outback bowl in 2021, he looked at the victory photos from that win and he said, man, I was so fat, I looked like one of them anaconda snakes that gets the food caught in his throat. And he said, I know I have to make change in my life. So what began as no red meat, no sugar turned into sobriety. And with sobriety for him came tremendous fulfillment and emotional clarity. All right, so what comes from that. The human condition says, when you have that fulfillment and emotional clarity, there's peace in your soul. And I don't care who you are. There's no monetary value that supersedes that. Now it's easy for me to sit here and say that I'm not the guy that's got, what, 90 or $100 million staring at me. All those five stars and all that training tradition. All right, so that was my initial perspective on why I thought he should stay at Ole Miss. Well, then you start to think about, okay, he's talking to Coach Saban, who loved lsu. Loved it.

[CJ Stroud]

And had.

[Marty Smith]

He never left there, probably full of rings. Probably. Right. All right. And he's talking to Pete Carroll and did I. Did I just. Are you guys still got me. I look like a robot, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah, you're good. This is good. It's kind of artsy, though. We'll say it's like shot like Oppenheimer. You know, one's one film on there.

[Marty Smith]

Yeah, yeah, it's good. It's good filters.

[Pat McAfee]

If he would have never left lsu, though, a bunch of rings down there. You're saying he loved it. He left. He took temptation in the league as opposed to staying there.

[Marty Smith]

You're saying, I see it as the prospect of potential being higher at LSU than at Ole Miss. And that's me speaking for him. So then you. Then he tells me last night, all right, I talked to Pete Carroll, who said to me, your dad would tell you to take this job. Your dad would tell you to take this shot. And I think he said it well, after the Egg bowl win, this isn't such an incredible opportunity to be wanted by LSU and.

[CJ Stroud]

And.

[Marty Smith]

And retained at Ole Miss, where you've built this amazing thing. But that doesn't mean it's not a hard decision. It's a really hard decision because as he told me last night, like, he loves Oxford and the people down there, you know, they have. They have every right to be up, upset everybody. That's a great fan base, man. And to be in this moment where you feel like you have this lightning in a bottle with Trinidad playing so well, with just. Just their. Their offense is incredible. Pete had the defense playing at a high level, and now he's going to be the man that's leading him into the college football playoffs.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And who knows how much they're going to be docked. Yeah. Like, that is the. It's really scary to think about. And I understand the anger coming from the Ole Miss fans and, you know, who Knows if any other jobs would have been available down the road after they figure out the whole CFP calendar lane having to be the one, you know, that kind of has to take this head on is wild. You see any changes coming? Has there been any chatter? You think about that, do you? That you've been hearing? Obviously, you talk to both sides in this situation.

[Marty Smith]

Yeah. In terms of the calendar.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. How do they change? Yeah. What do you think?

[Marty Smith]

I don't know. But this is an opinion. This is not a report.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Journalist hat on.

[Ty Schmidt]

You look at.

[Pat McAfee]

Pundit hat on.

[Marty Smith]

I think. I think you look at this, and when you have people like Coach Saban, who has been, you know, sitting right beside you, Patty, on college game day, being adamant that this is a broken calendar and nobody knows what he's talking about more than coach does. All right? And then I've seen folks like David Pollock, who his. I respect his opinion to the most esteemed level, having that opinion. I think that it will definitely. I will say it should. I think it should be looked at now. I will say this to you, too. I've had conversations with other coaches in the last. What time is it? 1:30 Eastern. Whenever I was hauling ass from Oxford to the Memphis airport last night to try to get home, I talked to a couple of sitting head coaches that were not in a position where their job was changing. Their opinion was that only affects 10 or 12 universities a year. And for those of those coaches that are entrenched, this current calendar gives them the opportunity to know exactly who their team is when they get to spring practice, and then when they get to June and beyond, which I found to be interesting, because I'll be honest, I was a little ignorant why this was such a huge deal. That's why I had these conversations with these coaches.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it's. It's fascinating because that number is going to far outnumber the group that is worried about it every single time. So whenever a push comes to shove, whose vote matters? This NFLPA stuff. Yeah, NFLPA stuff. The only reason why I'm comparing that is because you hear, like, a lot of the OGs, the guys who make all the money. Well, the majority of the players are like the bottom, you know, 2/3 of the roster that are kind of on turnover. So the NFLPA almost, like, takes their side on things. And all the OGs are like, Excuse me, this is not how this actually goes. But it's better for the majority. The majority of these college football teams are like, yeah, we would like more time with our team. To get into training camp, to get into the season. But that's why there's a pitch of, I think like summer leading into training camp for every. Everybody. But who knows who will outnumber who in the vote?

[Marty Smith]

If I were. Whoever makes that decision, I get. Is that the NC who makes that decision? Ncaa.

[Tone]

Good question.

[Marty Smith]

I don't know that answer.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's a problem.

[Marty Smith]

Yeah, but whoever. Whoever that is. Okay, Whoever that group of people is, they should get in a room with Nick Saban, with Mac Brown, with these guys there, you see on the screen. I just thought that was well said by coach. Right. And so it needs to be resolved where this doesn't happen again, at least in my estimation, because you put so many schools in a unique situation. All right? Everybody was waiting on lane. Florida was waiting on lane. LSU was waiting on lane. Ole Miss was waiting on lane. Auburn, all these schools were waiting to see who did what and thereby what coaches were available for them to hire. And as the. You saw. As the lane to LSU narrative got stronger and stronger and stronger to the point that all of us who were trying to break this story realized that, okay, he's going to lsu. That's when all the dominoes started to fall. Right? Silverfield goes to Arkansas. Sumrall goes to Florida. Florida, what am I forgetting here, goes to Auburn. On and on. Right.

[Conman]

Tomorrow.

[Marty Smith]

And it all happened just Colorado State.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Jim Mora. Colorado State happened before all this happened. Turns out that was out of the conversation.

[Marty Smith]

I'm not sure that that was really part of this equation.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, really?

[Darius J. Butler]

Sure. Been a big comment.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, Marty, we appreciate the hell out of you, man. Thank you for covering it all and thank you for giving us the inside scoop on how it all one down from your perspective, the two helmets over your shoulders class, that's why you're award winning. Driving the van through fields over R.

[Marty Smith]

I used my NASCAR experience and I just said, you know what, boys, if you, if, if you ain't. If, if what's. What's the line of what would D last?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah, exactly. Would have made the intimidator proud.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he certainly would.

[Marty Smith]

America 3 forever, baby. Let's go. Love you boys. Your first class. I love all of you.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, Marsmith. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Marty.

[Pat McAfee]

A.J. your takeaway from that conversation with Marty right there.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, I think we all thought that Lane was gone from the jump. I guess we said it last. I don't know what you were thinking. You. You have. You speak to him more than any of us, but I thought he was definitely Leaving, I thought he. It played out a little longer than I thought. I thought we'd have a little more clarity earlier on, but also like, did Ole Miss. Were they willing to match his contract that he got from lsu?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. That's all the information that I assume will kind of. Of unfold or we'll kind of discover here over the next couple days or weeks as we lead up. We assume that it was all pretty similar, which is why it probably took so long to kind of get everything done. Because if it wasn't, I think that would be leaked immediately. Like LSU has far outbid Ole Miss, which is exactly the story of why you go to LSU as opposed to Ole Miss. That was never really a part of the stories that are being talked about. Not that I know. And I think to your point, I was kind of hoping he would just stay at Ole Miss. I think I was hoping for one. One thing with everybody in the college football world telling me that another thing was going to happen.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, so like everybody. Everybody that I knew in the college football world that I like. Hey, quick question. Why is. Why is this happening? Because, you know, these people 30, 40 years literally entrenched in it deep, deep, deep. Why are 50 years actually some. Why is this being talked about the way it is? And then it's just like a bang, bang, boom, boom. And then there's like, here's an example of somebody sticking around whenever they're coaching window was hot and they decided not to kind of strike when the iron was hot. This is what they ended up having happen to them. This is this, this is this, this is this. And they're already saying this about him if he was to lose a game. Think about all that. All the drunk. So it's like they start laying out just like throughout the history of college ball. This is a move that is made by a coach in Lane Kiffin's world. But I was just hoping because it's a different college football now. You know, it's more of a business. It's more of like a build your team through transfer portal. And he's been great at that and he's so to close, close with this thing.

[AJ Hawk]

Coach Saban talks about that a lot on, on the show when he comes on on Friday. Like it's not like the regional situation to where hey, if you, if you grew up a certain place, you're going to this school like now it's. I think it's much more national recruiting as far as like obviously transfer portal and nil like, guys aren't as tied, I think, to their, like, hometown school.

[Pat McAfee]

And I don't want to take a shot at Oregon high school football. Okay, we think Oregon's going to be good, right? Yeah, yeah, we think Oregon.

[CJ Stroud]

Oregon.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's part of it, though. I know it is a different landscape, and we're still kind of early into it, but who have been the last 10 national champions? Like, what team? Like, we have good stories. We have teams that go on runs. But Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, la.

[AJ Hawk]

Destination jobs are there. D. But you know, like, where you wouldn't leave.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Like, there's only so many destination jobs where it's like, hey, you can't get pride away from a bigger school.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. So I saw an argument saying, like, hey, you could be the only coach, coach that did this or the first coach that did this at Ole Miss, as opposed to the fourth or fifth coach that had a great run at lsu. But if you're a coach, you have that opportunity to coach at the highest level. Most coaches, they want to coach the best players. Like, you coach in the NFL, you're going to get an opportunity to coach the best players and a draft, free agency in college, you don't necessarily have that chance at every place. Yeah, Texas Tech, Oregon, like, all these places, you're going to have opportunity. But if you go Ohio State, like, like, you're gonna get that chance. You go to lsu, you go to some of these univ. Like, LSU is not only that you're in Louisiana, but you're also the big dog in Louisiana. Like, there is no other competition. If you're in Florida, if you're in Miami, you gotta do a Florida State. You gotta do it. Florida, like, you gotta do that every year. If you're in lsu, you are the big dog in the hotbed. Like, you're gonna have the resources, the support. Like, it's just tough not to do that.

[Pat McAfee]

And that kid, number one recruiter. I wanna be the best Tiger of all time. Like, since he's a. I don't care who's the coach. I would like to be the best Tiger of all time. I guess what the OGs of college football say, it's a lot easier to sleep at night whenever. You know that. Like, you're gonna get recruits that are very, very good strictly because of their love of LSU or their family or their neighborhood or the community, wherever they're from, is just an LSU community. As opposed to at Ole Miss or maybe any other job that's out there that might be, like, one of the biggest perks of LSU is like, a loyalty to being a Tiger and everything like that. So if you listen to the OGs of college football talk, they say this was gonna happen. You know, life gets better if the money's the same, your recruiting is going to be better. But it's like, would have been sweet if Lane would have been so sweet. That would have been a.

[Tone]

And not have everyone hate you again.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah. And also, what if you win?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, but what if he loses, like, three out of the first seven next year? And then you're like, okay, he has.

[Conman]

To win multiple national championships at LSU to separate himself? Because, like, sure, he can go and win one how quick, too, but a lot of guys have already done that. And then look what happens to guys once they leave lsu. Is coacho doing anything? Nope. Less Miles.

[Pat McAfee]

He's not doing.

[Conman]

Brian Kelly's never going to coach again because of how it went at lsu. Like, we're talking. Talking about, hey, you win a national championship here. Immortalized Ole Miss, lsu. You win a national championship. Yeah, you're supposed to. They were saying there were fans out there at the FBO when he landed in LSU saying, sure, we're never going to lose again. Like, if they lose a game, people are going to lose their minds.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's the pressure coming with one of those jobs that you talked about. And the LSU plays at Ole Miss. And you know, Lane is already posted on his IG story. Some popcorn. I'm sure that is going to be electrifying, just like whenever you went back into Tennessee as the head coach of Ole Miss. Crazy stuff. Ole Miss feels like they got their guy in Golding feels like they're fully committed, which is awesome. And they have a shot at the College Football Playoff and doing something special that they've never done there before. Now, let's go to some overreaction, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, this is what these Mondays are all about. Hearing from the fans about how they feel about their respective teams. I put out a tweet. You know, on Monday mornings I say, good morning, beautiful people. We've arrived at another fantastic overreaction Monday. I would like to hear your thoughts. Go ahead and use the hashtag. I don't want to overreact, but. And let it out. And the best ones will make the show. This first one is about Lane Kiffin. This is from Chase at Chase Onx. You can find me on x. I'm Chase. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact, but Lane State University is returning to the pinnacle of college football. Somebody get Coach Kiffin a purple visor asap. Because this amount of Louisiana is unheard of in this state. With the loudest stadium in the country and five stars falling out of trees, Lane Kiffin could become the student who surpasses his master. Nick Saban. Hashtag Lane train, hashtag suck that T, D, B. Yeah, they're loving it down there at LSU. Now, that's the opposite side of the coin, A.J. you know, we see the middle fingers flying and to get the hell out of here. Then we see him land down there, dap up, and then he's driving outside and there, like, welcome home. Welcome home down there. That's college football to a tee. But it kind of goes to what we're saying. They're going to be expecting to win a lot quickly, A.J.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, that's why I asked her, like, how quickly does he have to at least, like, get to the national championship game, like, early on. We know that and that. But that's the thing. Like, you want the biggest job. He understands what he's signing up for. He understands the deal. And even though I heard. I don't know if it's true or not that his buyout might be bigger than or as big as Brian Kelly's. I mean, that's a. An interesting situation there with all they have going on. But, yeah, you got to win. You got to win every single game, pretty much.

[Pat McAfee]

Governor Jeff Landry didn't know that Lane Kiffin was potentially available. We know Lane Kiffin was going to be available.

[Ty Schmidt]

This will never happen again.

[Pat McAfee]

This one we're doing incentive, bay. Reason why, reason why you getting these jobs because you're so good? We'll prove it. You know, we'll give you all the money in the world. You were able to win these games.

[Darius J. Butler]

Have we seen the details?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, Jimmy Sexton's on that deal, so let's just. I've seen it. Yeah.

[Conman]

I think it's safe to assume those things.

[Pat McAfee]

I think. I think we know because Jimmy.

[Darius J. Butler]

Going into that negotiation.

[Pat McAfee]

Jimmy. I think Jimmy Sexton should go down as one of the greatest businessmen in the history of America. I would say good looks.

[Tone]

It's incentiviz. A million dollars per win. I think that's what it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, he's also getting money. I believe there's been reports. And that would be Jimmy Sexton football. You're picking up Ole Miss contract.

[Conman]

Right?

[Pat McAfee]

And then we're. Well, if I. Ole Miss football team wins. They're not. Thank you. That's incentive based that's my team.

[Conman]

That's why the bio we got to do with this.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. He's still the head coach at Ole Miss football on X, although he's changed his entire thing. I mean, what a fascinating situation. And the Big Deluxe is going to get to the bottom of it for sure. No questions asked. His name's getting mentioned a lot.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Mention a lot. I want you to know, should. He is.

[Conman]

Yeah, he's that dude good at his job.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he is a dog. He's an absolute dog. You know, there were some reports going on about how Jimmy Sexton would never let one of his clients go to LSU because of what's happening between Brian Kelly and lsu. And Brian Kelly is not repped by Jimmy Sexton, even though it was a nick, initially referred to as if he was his particular agent. Jimmy Sexton represents a lot of coaches and play. Jimmy Sexton is an absolute beast. He is a monster in the college football world. But the conversation was basically like, hey, this next deal is not going to be whatever. It's not going to be whatever. And Jimmy Sexton goes in there and says, yeah, it is. If you'd like to win, that's how it's going to be. And Jimmy Sexton said that that situation with Brian Kelly and the lawsuit and everything like that. This is me speaking, not Jimmy Sexton speaking. Jimmy Sexton would never let that get to that point.

[Ty Schmidt]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that thing would have been, all right, let's go. All right, all right, all right, let's go. We all got business tattoo. Because Jimmy Sexton's going to do business with these schools, like he's going to do business. Well, this is how these agents work. People are just finding out that some agents who are very, very, very, very good represent a lot of people in a similar field. It's like, it's not just college football where this is happening. There's weapons in a lot of different ways. Worlds that are kind of moving and shaking, and they got the backup, too, you know, and it's a different process now. It's a whole different conversation in there and, you know, do everything right for the client and all that. But Jimmy Sexton's a weapon. And I would assume him and Jeff Landry. I hope they film that. I hope they film that. I hope. Because how many gator hunts you think Governor Jeff Landry offered up?

[Ty Schmidt]

So many.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll give you three gator hunts.

[Tone]

That's a lot of gator hun.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a lot.

[AJ Hawk]

Imagine Governor Jeff Landry in that yoga. He's going to find like a yoga class for.

[Adam Schefter]

For.

[AJ Hawk]

For Lane. Can you imagine him? He's going to be there with them.

[Pat McAfee]

I wanted mock live Tiger on the sideline and Lane you want to like. Absolutely. Lane might ride out on a Tiger for sure. Oh I still wish he would have stayed a little miss for sure. Just another. Yeah I mean just you're this close right now.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean it is crazy that they're about to go into the playoffs and like their entire offensive stack gone. Like it's. It's insane.

[Pat McAfee]

Well and also it's insane that this decision had to be mate is when.

[Tone]

Did that call in place?

[AJ Hawk]

I mean how are they their strength coach left too. I mean what do you.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we talk but they got a backup strength.

[Tone]

Three sets of 12.

[Darius J. Butler]

Next guy up.

[Conman]

Next man up win a dad and Lacy too. Like, I mean maybe it's just me, but I'm assuming they're on the first thing smoking once this season's over. Where to lsu.

[Pat McAfee]

Like what do we.

[Tone]

If they like Lane still like they.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Reports were that I guess it was not great, you know, with the way it all ex because he didn't talk to the team but then there was reports he was talking about not toxic team crazy situation. Let's go to another overreaction, shall we? Around the football world. This one's from Nick Moraldo. Hashtag. I don't want to overreact, but these are my top choices for an ex head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Top left there a man who won a gold medal with a broken freaking neck from Mount Lebanon in Pittsburgh. Kurt Angle. Okay. And he obviously relies on the three eyes. Intensity, integrity and intelligence. Three things we don't have right now. Whoa. All right, sign me up. Okay. Okay. And he would wear obviously the singlet. Singlet every single week. And he is still that jacked. Okay. That is Kurt Angle football. Dan Orlovsky, top right corner. It does appear this AI. I don't know how accurate that's who you were talking about there. Coach Dan O. Yeah. Dan puts his name out there for.

[Marty Smith]

Any other job, so I might as.

[Pat McAfee]

Well just throw him in there too. How do you think him in Pittsburgh would do? Pretty good. Oh, we love him. He's so smart. He's got all the X's and O's.

[CJ Stroud]

He'd bring the eye candy.

[Pat McAfee]

The innovative offense that we've been craving.

[Conman]

Same way he said yesterday even though he shouldn't, he would take Pittsburgh ease over in second a second.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And maybe we'd hear yesterday coming out of his mouth, Pittsburgh. So maybe that'd be good for society. But also, he knows Dan. Oh, knows. You know who else knows? Debo? Is that an actual photo of him? It probably is, right? Yeah. Actually, I asked AI to make him more jacked. This is the second or third draft because it just didn't do him justice in the first one. So we told him, hey, you got to beef us up a little bit. He'll be jacked forever. And speaking of forever, Snoop Dogg, he's going to live forever and be famous for forever. Loves Pittsburgh Steelers. He has a bunch of baby Snoops that have come through his league who are now in the NFL pipeline. I think he's actually a coach, an actual football coach. Not bad there. Nobody's really thinking of Snoop Dogg to be the next coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers if they were able to move or were moving on. Good point.

[Tone]

He can connect the older generation of.

[Pat McAfee]

Fans with this young talent that he can relate to. That's right. The young talent is what we're looking for, aren't we? Pittsburgh Steelers, I hadn't thought about.

[Darius J. Butler]

They can all do.

[Conman]

It's so bad.

[Tone]

Offense, I'm put Debo on my list.

[Darius J. Butler]

Debo defense.

[Pat McAfee]

What's Kirk doing? Kurt's leading.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's strength. Condition all day. And Snoop kind of vibes.

[Pat McAfee]

Head coach, I guess.

[Darius J. Butler]

The head coach, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

OG Right there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, he was streets ahead. So you remember a couple years ago, he was basically like, Todd Haley sucks. Get this guy out of here. I remember Snoop doing that like, week in, week out. So this is, you know, this is nothing new for Snoop. He's ready.

[Tone]

Your voice there kind of reminded me of somebody. You did forget somebody there.

[Pat McAfee]

Nick, I love.

[Conman]

Yeah. Good call.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody's talking about juco champion. Everybody's talking about it. Certainly been brought up a couple times in the office. Hope you're good, man. Always fighting. All right, let's go to the next overreaction, shall we? This one is from score, two points. Farquad, Pirate Kane. Hashtag. I don't want to overreact, but Bryce Young just carved up the Rams like a Thanksgiving turkey. And now the only thing getting stopped this holiday season. Season, he's the rest of the NFC South. Price is up, son. Keep pounding this. This Carolina Panthers team's real good football team. AJ that's not an overreaction there. Good football team down there in the NFC South.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Don't you think people. I mean, I think this went over the Rams obviously, maybe solidified that a little bit to where people will Take them seriously. I mean, I think their defense, we know what they were able to do. And Bryce Young, I mean, I think he continues to like defy. Everyone just assumes like, I don't know because he got benched for a little while because he's not as big as these other dudes that maybe he's not as good. But man, he absolutely performs, especially when it matters. Like he is. He's not scared of the moment.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you think ceiling is this season dbut for this Carolina Panthers team and what do you think they're thinking going into next year? They're thinking of it. All right. I think that is where the Carolina Panthers fans mindsets are at.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, you got, I mean the fan base. You got a new regime there pretty much. You got a young quarterback who's playing himself into another contract for sure. So he's going to be the guy. It's still week to week, they're still such a young team, but they're finding ways to win. But every week we go into the game, we don't know what Carolina team we're going to get. And then everybody was crowning the Rams going to this one and they're missing Morrick who got suspended, missing JC who got banged up. So for him to come out and get. The home crowd was in it for T. Mac making big plays. You talked about Bryce Young making big plays in the biggest moment. Like there was some big fourth downs where Coker, he hit Coker deep, he hit McMillan deep. Like making big time plays, you know, dropping his nuts at the biggest moments in the game. That's what you want to see from your young quarterback. And then the other guys, Derrick Brown right there with the game saving strip sack. And this is one of those big dots right here on the big down the distance, right across the middle of the field. This is what you want to see from your quarterback. Making big time plays in high leverage situations. Weather was shitty. It was like all those different things. That's when you kind of find out who you are.

[Pat McAfee]

A team, the Panthers, a good football team.

[Tone]

Good football, Good football team.

[Pat McAfee]

They have a chance to be a good football team.

[Darius J. Butler]

They win a playoff game this year.

[Pat McAfee]

They have a chance to be a great, okay, playoff.

[Darius J. Butler]

They can win a playoff game this year.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, I think that is why people still don't know because it's fresh in your mind. Like a couple weeks ago when they get beat 40 to 9 to the bills and it's just like these guys are so unserious, they suck. And then they turn around and beat the packers at Lambo. And then we. They're just coming off that Monday night where it's like, how many opportunities did. And you know, the, the Niners didn't play great. But like the rant. It's just like, okay, the Panthers are. They're a year or two away and then they turn around and. And beat the Rams. So it's, it's, it is. It's tough. It's up in the air every week. But if they start to put things together a little bit, I think you are thinking next year for sure. Like we're. We're the best team in the NFC South.

[Pat McAfee]

I, I'm happy for the Carolina Panthers fans. They've been through a lot. Downer. They've been through a lot down there. Both the MLS team, the NFL team.

[AJ Hawk]

People forget how bad of God.

[Pat McAfee]

I think for a while it was bad.

[Conman]

So bad. So $2 tickets.

[Pat McAfee]

No, I think they were actually paying people. Homeless people were going and then they were worried they were going to have to pay taxes on how much they were getting paid to go to those games. That's what the homeless people worried about. They said, how do I do? I go to H and R block here. What happens?

[Conman]

Stop the construction halfway through.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God. They're bankrupt. At a town.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Dalton.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Thursday night football game against the Falcons where it was just downpouring. I think the final score was like six, three or three.

[Pat McAfee]

Nothing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Everyone was just like, you know what? Enough of this.

[Pat McAfee]

And then that. That store has the sign they change their words on. Basically says, yeah, David depere is ass cheeks, bruh. He walks in. Who's. Who's doing that? Who has the thing? That's me.

[Ty Schmidt]

Smacks his head off, turns around and leaves.

[Conman]

Bryce Young with his gigantic backpack.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh my God. It looked like he was in 9th, 10th grade.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was. Was the low point. Thielen talking about how sweet it was because they had a golf simulator and didn't really mention anything else. He's just like, we have a golf simulator here.

[Pat McAfee]

On that note, he has requested his release and it has been granted. He has now been released from the Minnesota Vikings. Carolina Panthers picked up a couple draft picks.

[Tone]

Yeah, they did.

[Pat McAfee]

Everything's kind of going in the Carolina Panthers.

[Conman]

It is no golf sim in Minnesota.

[Pat McAfee]

We'd like to say congratulations. They might. We don't know if anybody's playing and it doesn't seem like they're on any happiness over there right now. Now, congrats to Carolina Panthers.

[Tone]

Panthers are 60 against the spread after a loss 4 and 2 straight up. They are a good bounce back team.

[Pat McAfee]

And but after a win, not good.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh no.

[Pat McAfee]

That's the thing. They can't handle success. They're still kind of learning. That's why next year should be a real problem. Maybe people talk about them next year how people were talking about the Broncos going into this year. You know, everybody was kind of expecting the Broncos be good because what they thought they could be at the end of last season, especially with how good their defense is. It's like Panthers just did some stuff to Matthew Stafford and Rams that we had not seen a of lot a long time. And when Sean McVeigh was asked about it afterwards, Sean McVeigh was basically like, hey, Carolina Panthers, go football team. I think they they have the two biggest spread outright wins of the season. Thirteen and a half. That one was nine and a half. It's like this team on the up and right. Congrats Carolina people. All right, let's go to the next overreaction, shall we? This one's from Dustin Hundley at DH Sports Fan. He likes them all. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact, but Colts are done. Oh, no. It was a fun first two months of the season, but reality is set in and the lead in the division is gone. Now we have to go to Clonton next week to battle for the lead. We all know how that's going to go. Go ahead and hang the first half of the 2025 season AFC South Division winners banner and be done with it. Hey, Dustin, making a lot of valid points. I don't like the way you're turning this entire thing. Colts are in a bad spot. I mean, I'm just going to say it now. Houston Texans, it's a good football team, number one defense in the NFL. Obviously they are a good football team. We were supposed to be a great football team. Though in the past couple of weeks it hasn't been the case. Jonathan Taylor had a couple electrifying runs, but at the beginning of the season, obviously it was every single time he touched the ball. He was having an electrifying run. Danny Dimes a big part of his game, even though people don't really want to give him the credit for it. Is his mobility a big and now he has a fractured fibula. Okay.

[Darius J. Butler]

Hairline.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, okay. Shefty said Hairline.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, you know, it's fine. Hairline.

[Pat McAfee]

It's one of the most painful things that you can possibly have. So he's not going to be able to run as much, which is a huge part of it. And our defense, you know, without the Forest Buckner playing, it's been certainly something. Sauce Gardner is going to be out for the next month. I mean, it is gloomy days for the Indianapolis Colts. I think we'll be talking to C.J. straight out here in about 10 minutes or so. Can't wait to hear his thoughts on how the Colts are kind of doing and the new name for the Loud House, which I certainly do not love. But with the Colts and where we're at right now, I don't think like you can judge them because we don't know what they're going to be. We have no idea what they're going to be. Massive games on their huge the refs screwed us against the Texans, there's no doubt about that.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Okay?

[Pat McAfee]

The refs were certainly not on our side. There was a lot of bogus calls. That is the loudest I've ever heard. The loud loudhouse all decide that the refs were ass because the refs were ass. And then you get on the Internet, everybody's saying the refs are ass. And J.J. watt, Houston Texans Bull Ring of Honor member, says that was ass. So everybody says that the refs were ass. They certainly were ass. Okay? So I'm not going to say that that isn't certainly a part of it. But we lose to the Texans. Texans are getting very good right now. Jacksonville Jaguars playing very good football right now. We lost our last two after winning all of our first ones. Feels like there's a couple different trends happening in the A AFC south, and I don't like it. AFC south, it just means more. And right now it feels like we are less and everybody else is more D, Bud.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, and that's a tough stretch we got there. But I mean, if you ask me, before the season coming and going into week four 14, we're sitting at eight and four. Like, I'm not worried. We're in a good spot. We still got a chance. We control our entire destiny. It's on the quarterback. You know, how healthy is he going to be with the hairline fracture? You know, he's fine, right? Running straight forward. But the lateral movement is one thing you got.

[Pat McAfee]

What's wrong ISO you got to do.

[Darius J. Butler]

That in football every play. But kind of concerned about that. Then the Sauce Gardner thing, Shefty basically said he's going to be put on ir. So that's like a playoff return. That's what it sounds like to me. But we can figure it Out.

[Conman]

I mean, they're Dogs in every single one of those games.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, yeah, that's what to be. We like that. Especially with how the Dogs did this past weekend. I don't think so. Down there in Jacksonville.

[Tone]

Niners, Jackson, one and a half you'll.

[Pat McAfee]

Be at this week.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

Like that. Like that's what we're talking about in clon time. Going down to Duvall take on a very good Jacksonville Jaguars team. The AFC south is a problem. Okay? It is a problem. And everybody can be in there. We got Jags twice, Houston Texans, another time. I mean, we'll see how it all goes. All right. I feel like we really hit everything in these first two hours of the program live here on ESPN. CJ Stroud will be joining us in about 10 minutes or so. He's not joining us. He is joining us. I'll be joining us about two minutes.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, okay.

[Conman]

Oh, okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Nice. Okay, so we'll be talking C.J. strout here in about two minutes or so.

[Conman]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

This show on ESPN ends in about a minute or so. We'll also make our picks for tonight. Okay? And those picks are going to be good because AJ Seeing it right now. AJ Seeing the board. Four and two. Okay. On the six games that we picked.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, both.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, how about that? Okay, so we're doing pretty good here, pal. Now, there might have been a chance that make you pick now.

[Darius J. Butler]

Make you pick now.

[Pat McAfee]

AJ who do you like?

[AJ Hawk]

Patriots.

[Pat McAfee]

I like the Patriots as well. We'll take another tie. I'm okay with it. Commander should have done the same thing. Commander should have done the same thing. You know, they made the right decision for ball, which I certainly appreciate. But I'll do it. And we will continue, continue on ESPN plus, YouTube, Disney plus X, you name it. Tick tock. Live. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. Might change your life. We're back tomorrow. Goodbye. All right, we made our picks. I like what we did. I like what we did here.

[AJ Hawk]

What's the line again?

[Tone]

Seven if you're taking the Patriots. Seven and a half if you want the Giants.

[Pat McAfee]

On that note about lines, I believe ESPN bet.

[Conman]

Oh, really?

[Pat McAfee]

So.

[Conman]

Feels like the King is dead.

[Tone]

It's like they don't. They didn't deserve Taps.

[Pat McAfee]

I agree. That's why we stopped it. And that was not. That was a. Hey, good effort, I guess.

[AJ Hawk]

Thank God.

[Conman]

That sucked.

[Pat McAfee]

No, Geez Louise. I mean, it wasn't great. I mean, it obviously didn't work out well for either party, seemingly. And we'd like to wish everybody Good luck in that thing. Good luck, everybody. Well, I hope I'll still be able.

[Ty Schmidt]

To be seeing Green somewhere.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, we. We know Green will certainly be giving us some more money. Okay. With his parents pics. We know that's not Le Butt. Relax, please. What are you doing, Butt?

[Darius J. Butler]

It caught me a couple.

[Pat McAfee]

Seeing green, bro. We are seeing green. Yeah, Always. We appreciate Greeny dabbling in the. For sure.

[Ty Schmidt]

They hit it a lot of times.

[Pat McAfee]

Did it? Come on, man.

[Tone]

Is the other guy still going to.

[Pat McAfee]

Have specialties on the book? He needs to. Hey, listen, he just signed a new deal, right? Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Congrats, Other guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Other guy, head to other book. Love you, other guy. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who can sleep soundly knowing that the Ohio State Buckeyes beat that team from up north. Yeah. And also he came to Indianapolis and beat the team from Indy. Ladies and gentlemen, the starting quarterback for the Houston Texans team that can win the AFC south yet again, CJ Stroud. Yeah. CJ so how are you doing, dude? Great to see you back on a football field yesterday, man. You felt good to be back out there. Looked like you were spinning the ball just fine. Looked like you hadn't lost a fucking thing. You felt really good out there yesterday, C.J.

[CJ Stroud]

Yeah, yeah, I knocked off a little rest, man. You know, I had fun, bro, just being out there playing, you know, this sport that I love to play, man. So I had a great time and, you know, it was good to see you there and, you know, and your colors and everything. So it was fun. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I'm sure it was a great time to be there. You know, my daughter's first game, she had a blast. She was very excited to go watch this Indianapolis Colts team take on, you know, the AFC south rival Houston Texans. And we'll lie to her, whenever she's older, we'll say that we won that game. But she'll probably look up the stats and say, C.J. stroud doesn't really do that in Indianapolis. Let's talk about your team. You, obviously, coming back was a big part of the storyline. You missed three weeks, right? Was there questions like. Like that felt like a long time. We were very worried, and I assume you were as well. In the entire process. We was there planning for when you would come back. When was that kind of all being talked about? And did you just say immediately, you know what? I'll come back Indianapolis and ruin their lives? Was that a part of it?

[CJ Stroud]

Nah, it was really just a health precaution. You know, it's Your brain. So I mean, I'm not going to play around with that and take every precaution and just listen to the doctors and you know, our officials here to, you know, get the right, you know, feedback. But it's something that you really can't like have a timetable table for like if you hurt your wrist or like your ankle or something, God forbid, you know, that's a timetable. You can like timestamp that with something with your brain. You know, you gotta like really just take precaution and making sure that you're like fully healthy before you go out there. So, you know, I thought our team did a great job with that and you know, I'm just grateful to be back and be healthy.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay? We're grateful that you're back too. You're a special talent, dude. And while you were out and where your team is at now, you guys are poised to go on a playoff run. They big time run, obviously the defense, number one in the league offensively. Watching you spin it there was a couple times you can't see shit. I know you can't because where I'm sitting, I'm looking right where you're looking, hand in face. Yeah, right, Let me go ahead. 30 yards, this thing just levitates. Doesn't even drop right into a dime. You're outstanding, okay? You are absolutely outstanding. The offense is awesome as well. What is the messaging behind the scenes for you guys? Everything's available, everything's possible. Nobody really talking about the Houston Texans at all, I don't think. Throughout this entire season. What is your guys thoughts on how this season can be and where you are right now?

[CJ Stroud]

Yeah, of course, you know, we didn't start off, you know, the way we wanted to. You know, we lost, you know, five games, you know, in between one score. But I think, you know, other than, you know, looking down on ourselves about it, you know, it was a positive, you know, to fix some issues and we start winning these close games against these really good teams, you know, we'll be able to, you know, take the next leap to, you know, get to where we want to go and that's the playoffs and then, you know, go from there. So, you know, I thought, you know, yesterday was a, was a really good start for us, you know, at least for me coming back. And I thought, you know, we answered the bell against a really, you know, really good team with the Colts there, you know, who have really good defense and you know, been playing really well offensively. But like you said, our defense man has, you know, Been, you know, a rock and, you know, just the best in the league from. You know, I practiced against him, so I know how hard it is that go against him. But, yeah, I think, you know, if we can be able to play complimentary football in all three phases, you know, we're able to win a lot of games.

[Pat McAfee]

You guys get a tough way, a tough environment, and that's a really good team. Do you see what they're doing on the Internet? Did you see what they're doing? Did you see the picture?

[CJ Stroud]

No, I'm not on there.

[Pat McAfee]

Do you see this? I don't like this at all. I don't like.

[CJ Stroud]

Hilarious.

[Pat McAfee]

Is it C.J. is it. It's called the loud house, C.J. okay? It's not the Strat House, and I don't like to. They're doing this. This is what's happening on the Internet right now. You said you're not on the. I asked X to delete it. Okay. Just know that I'm trying to clean that up.

[AJ Hawk]

Did they do it?

[Darius J. Butler]

Did they do it?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if they got around doing it yet. I'm not happy about it. But it does feel like you play great football there every time. It's an honor to watch you and. Geez. Houston Texans all the way back. Go ahead, A.J.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, C.J.

[Pat McAfee]

Obviously.

[AJ Hawk]

It's actually about the Stroud House that we just saw this picture. What is it about? Like, you seem to play very well inside the confines of Lucas Oil. What is it about that you have good sight lines. Like, good.

[Ty Schmidt]

Like.

[AJ Hawk]

Like. What is it? It seems like you just now, obviously you play well all the time, but whenever you come into the. The Loud House, as Pat likes to call it, you seem to do, you know, take it to another level.

[Pat McAfee]

It's the name of the place.

[CJ Stroud]

Yeah. I would just say, like, the level of focus, you know, maybe goes up a little more just because it's a divisional opponent. And, you know, my boy Zaire, you know, he's always mad at me and he always talking crazy so that maybe turn me up just a little bit. And so I know he's gonna hear this and he's gonna hate it, but, you know, after the game, we're always cool. But during it, me. Me and him go at it pretty good, but it's just all the competition. So, you know, I think it. It turns me up a little bit more. And I think, you know, my old line hears it, and they want to play harder. So, you know, it's just a division rival, you know, in, in those games, you know, you're going to be talking back and forth and, you know, having words for one another and I think maybe that, you know, turns us up. But yeah, I just try to, you know, just be focused every play, you know, go one and O every play and, you know, take it from there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, let's let him sleep. Maybe we gotta play you guys again. We gotta play you guys again. It's gonna be, it's gonna mean a lot. And let's just let C.J. stroll bed. You got this moxie about you. You know, you're duck footed and you go heel toe. I was watching you walk because you're right in front of our suite while there was a touchdown happening on the other side. You had a full set, you're by yourself. You're over there just having your time. That O lineman comes running over to you. Your walk is just that filled with aura. I mean, you are, you're franchise QB brother. It is, it is cool to watch you kind of do your thing. Now let's talk about the quarterback position and everything that you've gone through this year. Go ahead, D bud.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. On that note, being a franchise qb, obviously you were banged up and you had to kind of watch the game from a different perspective. You used to being out there. What's that relationship like with Davis Mills? We call him Dougie Mills, but what's the relationship like with him off the field with you guys?

[CJ Stroud]

That's my brother, bro. Like he's, he's been a really, you know, great leader for me coming into the league. I thought, you know, coming in, you know, fighting for the same position, you know, he always showed me love still and I try to do the same and he's made me better. I feel like I made him better. And you know, we, we have our QB dinners that we do, you know, and we, we handle out. His wife, you know, is a really good friend of mine as well. And his family, you know, I meet them, you know, every time they come to the games and so, you know, that's my brother, man. I always support him. I always, you know, root him on. And I just think it's funny that people ask these questions now just, you know, because he's, you know, had, you know, some really good games and you know, it's something that, like I root that on. I want, I think he's a starter in NFL, you know, and I think, you know, he's proven that, you know, in these, these couple games that he's played. So I just Think it's funny how people, you know, can try to switch the narrative to make it seem like I'm like, some guy that's like, oh, no, like, you know, like, I saw.

[Pat McAfee]

A photo of you in the locker room. They saw a photo of you in the locker room. Everybody was happy but you. Okay. Everybody was happy. Yeah. I'm telling you, I seen it with my own eyes. I'm prime. You can see.

[CJ Stroud]

You can see one photo, but look at the whole thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, no, it's 20, 25, CJ. We're not doing that. I saw one frame. That guy's not happy.

[AJ Hawk]

Still can cuss, too, in that frame.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't think about the lights in that entire thing. Yeah, it was a narrative, though. It was a narrative. Yeah.

[CJ Stroud]

It's all good, man. Some things in life, you know, I try not to respond, you know, and just let my, you know, let my, you know, private life be my private life. And I thought, you know, me and my teammates, you know, I think they, you know, know how much of a leader I am and how much, you know, having that C on my chest means to me. And that's not when it's always good for me, you know, and that's when it's good for the team and it's sometimes not great for me. I got to be happy because that's, you know, more important than just my selfish and my, you know, personal desire. So I put the team before me anytime, man. And if that's, you know, me not playing because, you know, it was a Thursday night game and I was just super happy that we got the dub and it helps me out. I get to play hopefully more ball, you know, as the season goes on.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but I saw a photo, so. Oh, yeah, I don't need to hear it. I'm happy you cleared that up, though. That's good. And Dougie knows that you're happy for him, and that locker room knows that you're happy for him. Feels like you guys have a great culture down there. On that note, Connor has a question for you.

[Conman]

Yeah, cj. Yesterday and throughout this four game win streak, Jaden Higgins and Woody Marks have really come alive. Two rookies, Nick Casario once again in his bag. How. What have you seen from them as the season has gone on? Just developing as a wide receiver and a running back and their contributions to the offense during this week. Win streak.

[CJ Stroud]

Yeah, I always remember my rookie year and, like, being thrown in the fire and kind of just thinking of, like, time on task, you know, it's like, some things, you know, are better when you just get thrown in the fire. You have to figure it out. And I thought, you know, they've. They've figured it out pretty early. So, you know, Woody has been an anchor, you know, in our running game and, you know, has created a lot of, you know, big, big time running plays for us. And then on top of that, you know, Hig is out there, you know, and he's. He has a lot on his plate, block walking and, you know, running routes. And I thought he's done a great job of that and, you know, clean body language and, you know, it hasn't been overnight. A lot of conversations that I have with those guys. Just, you know, being that I was just a rookie, you know, two years ago, you know, just shows that, you know, like, I understand, you know, what they're going through. And I think the main thing is, like, confidence, you know, with that, being a rookie, you know, you can keep your confidence, man. It's the same game we've been playing since we were 10, 11 years old. It's just, you know, at a different scale. So the confidence that you bring each and every day, you know, and the preparation, you know, all, you know, adds up to, you know, how you play on Sundays.

[Pat McAfee]

I forget who said it, but somebody said I was telling people that I was the best in the world about two years before I was, you know, and that's like a. That's like a perfect mindset for professional athletes. Basically. Even if they're outside, humble, you know, inside there is a belief that they're real. Like, that's what separates, I think, the professionals from every everybody else, the great from the good. I think he's in between the years. Confidence is such a big part of it. Confidence comes from a lot of work, though. You don't just wake up.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You got to work your dick off.

[Darius J. Butler]

And once you put it out there, you know, a lot more people are going to be looking at your. Waiting for your downfall. You to stop waiting for your. Oh, okay. You know, so that's a part of it.

[Pat McAfee]

That happened to you, dude. That happened to you a little bit. You know, you got me a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going. Yeah. You've battled, though, which is why we appreciate the. The hell out of you now. Speaking of battling, it's been a long time since the people of Ohio have had a chance to be happy. Go ahead, Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, C.J. obviously, you know, your. Your boots to the fire right now trying to make it to the playoffs, but I think I saw that you called Coach Day after the game against Michigan. Obviously, you know, that rivalry, how important it is more than most. What'd you think about that game and how happy were you to see. See that Coach Day finally got that Michigan monkey off his back for the first time in 2191 days or whatever it was?

[CJ Stroud]

Yeah, man, I'm just so happy for him, you know, somebody who, you know, I consider, you know, a brother of mine, a person who I look up to and somebody who, you know, is instilled confidence into me and, you know, made me, you know, feel like I was the greatest thing since sliced bread when I played for him. So just to see, you know, his hard work pay off, to see how much he puts in and our other coaching staff, you know, to win that game, to finally get that done, man, it's just. I just think it's super cool for Columbus, you know, for the state of Ohio. And I think he just stamped himself as, you know, best coach in college football. And I've been on that. Just the mind that he has, not just offensively, but as to run a program, especially there where everything is so critical. You know, I thought he's done a great job. And you talk about class and, you know, you know, doing it the right way and not looking ignorant or. Or like a fool after you win, because we could have did that. But to have class and, you know, to still have fun with it, though, and not disrespect anybody, you know, I thought that was super dope to see. And, you know, I'm just. And I'm super proud of Julian, man. Like that dude, that kid's a baller, you know, Cali kid and, you know, processes the game the right way, has a heck of a touch, you know, a heck of an arm. And then, you know, the beast on the outside and up front, you know, they're playing well then like us, they probably best defense in the country. So I just think, you know, they're playing off cylinders and, you know, I think everything starts with Coach Mick, though, if Coach Mick is the reason why, you know, we moving guys up front while defense tackling the way they are while Julian throwing that ball in the strength staff. So I think just think all that coming together, you know, when you get.

[Pat McAfee]

That dub, yeah, it feels like very comfortable being a dynasty too. Ryan Day feels like the way he's moving, he understands what life is like at the the top. Never satisfied, continuing to motivate, understanding the situation. Him talking to Coach Moore afterwards when they're shaking hands. Hey, we're not going to plant the flag or anything, but you need to get your guys out here. There's going to be some shit. Basically is what Ryan Day said. We're going to win with humility. There was a stoppage of it all and then afterwards in his press conference when he said, I've thought a lot about what I would say at this exact moment right now. I'm going to save those for another day. We are going to win with humility through at all fell. What do you think you would have said?

[Darius J. Butler]

I wasn't here. Yeah. 2191.

[Pat McAfee]

I had cops outside of my goddamn house. Okay. Two years cuz our own fans were coming after me for not winning this game. They potentially had our signals. Remember that was full comp. The amount of, the amount of things that he could pull from and what his personal life was. I think everybody that has ever met him is happy for him in this particular moment. Except for Michigan people, obviously. You called him, is that right? We did hear that. A little bit of a rumor. You called him. What was the messaging and what was the conversation like?

[CJ Stroud]

Yeah, I just told him how much, you know, I'm proud of him and just, you know, just to see the smile on their faces and you know, to finally get like you said, get that monkey, you know, off our backs was just dope. And I was really just raving about the play calls, you know, like I told him about, you know, it was a play that I, that I ran my whole career there that, you know, I seen them run. And we scored on to Cardinal Darnell. I was like. And I text Coach Key the tight ends coach. And then I, when I talked to coach Day, I was like, man, I seen where that play was and then the one Brandon and scored on, on the, the motion. I thought the motion was super cool. The timing to get the ball snapped, you know, in the perfect element where they thought we were going to the flat and he breaks it across the face on the slant. You know, I thought it was super dope and a great play design by, by Coach Hart, so. And I just, I really was marveling about, you know, the play call balls. But I thought overall they played great and yeah, that conversation was, was well needed. I ain't talked to Coach Day in a little minute, so. I mean it was good to see his face.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell yeah. Good to see your face too, dude. Just not in our stadium. Stop it. Yeah, enough of it. I don't like what they're doing on the Internet. I Don't like that. I don't like your name on our stadium. But Jesus, you guys are really good at football.

[AJ Hawk]

Good football team.

[Pat McAfee]

And it seems like you're about to be good for a long, long time. Thank you for hanging out, brother. Have a great, great day.

[CJ Stroud]

Appreciate you guys, man. God bless y'.

[Darius J. Butler]

All.

[Pat McAfee]

Bless y', all, too. Bless you, too, man. Hey, bless the Texans. All right, see you, dude. CJ Str.

[Conman]

Yeah, they told us.

[Pat McAfee]

They literally just told us. Hey, he's got somewhere to be.

[Ty Schmidt]

Like.

[Marty Smith]

This.

[Pat McAfee]

That's saving. Yeah, exactly. All right, let's get to a break on the other side. We'll cover all the stories we didn't talk about, you know, because we hit that first 15. Did you hear the first 15? The Jays up. The booze are out. They finally had it. Did you hear that?

[AJ Hawk]

I did, but I also listened to Kaboli and Mack do their postgame podcast, too. I think Caboli said Trey Essex called in. It was actually a beautiful show, but I believe he. Caboli thinks Tom would have one more year in his deal and he thinks they mutually part ways after next season.

[Marty Smith]

Season.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Close.

[Conman]

Almost there.

[Pat McAfee]

Another season.

[CJ Stroud]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

What that was on camera.

[Darius J. Butler]

We saw you do that other winning season.

[Marty Smith]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

The jig is not up. Boozer out.

[Ty Schmidt]

Reload this next year.

[Pat McAfee]

Just it's run it back. Karen, Roger.

[Tone]

It's similar to AQ and James Franklin. Like, after it's done. I'm going to be very, very thankful for everything that he has done here. It's just, you know, sometime 18 years. Long time.

[Pat McAfee]

Long time.

[Tone]

Someone you got to go to college. You gotta spread your wings, fly, buy.

[Pat McAfee]

Some, leave the net offs.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe some Zins. Yeah. Maybe serving the military.

[Tone]

Marty throwing that Zen right in the middle.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Had to do it. Had do it.

[Ty Schmidt]

I'm so tired.

[Pat McAfee]

You would not believe. How about him driving his van? We those conversion vans very readily, readily available in the rental car department. We've learned I'm in one of those at least once a weekend, I think. Great seat. The seat is like the southwest window seat right there next to the door. There's one right there. Always try to snag. That's where you got to be. But you can't fit a lot of people. And you can toss a lot of what we have learned. Yeah, it's a big tosser to the back couple rows vehicle. I'm doing that with the cameras. Check some dime boys.

[Darius J. Butler]

I hope he recorded some of it. I said behind the scenes that would be great.

[Pat McAfee]

Like he was driving yeah. Fast. He was driving. Texting.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Driving like Boduk.

[Pat McAfee]

He said he did. He said I bow duke that thing.

[Tone]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

What a legend. I didn't know we were going to get the whole behind scenes story. Did you know that when I asked the question?

[Conman]

No, I'm glad we did.

[Ty Schmidt]

I'm glad he did though, for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

We're about two and a half minutes into that thing. I'm like, okay, we're about to learn this in the whole thing here.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And it. It was the biggest story.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh yeah.

[Conman]

By far.

[Pat McAfee]

And Marty's just right there in the middle of Oxford, Mississippi.

[Tone]

You imagine. Well, imagine if he was there all those days and then he didn't get that interview.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

What's going on here?

[Ty Schmidt]

The hell.

[Pat McAfee]

What are people doing here? What is this?

[Ty Schmidt]

High winds. It sounded like. I don't know what the hell that was.

[Pat McAfee]

Where'd that come from?

[Conman]

What?

[AJ Hawk]

Who's that?

[Ty Schmidt]

Jesus.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Come.

[CJ Stroud]

Come on.

[Pat McAfee]

I was talking about this. You guys heard something?

[Conman]

Tornadoes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Gale force winds or something.

[Tone]

Maybe ice fell off the roof. Tends to be the.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah, the sliding of the.

[Conman]

I thought someone just crashed into your office.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe. I mean, who knows? Yeah, especially with the way that parking lot was this morning.

[Ty Schmidt]

Phone confirmed snow falling off the roof.

[Pat McAfee]

Bone, don't stand under it. Could have killed him. These things get dangerous. Yeah. You have a dome. It looks cool. It's like, hey, the dome looks cool. Sweet. Let's put some rain X type stuff. So nothing. You got to get trapped on that. Well, when it's freezing cold, windy, and there's moisture, there's going to be isolates that kind of stick to the dome. And then they're going to slide. And then those things are coming right down.

[Ty Schmidt]

Projectiles.

[Conman]

Yeah, that's scarab.

[Pat McAfee]

Just like this.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, you're right. Bowen. Don't be standing right at night when you open the door. He's got to sprint out to get get some clearance from the building.

[Pat McAfee]

This is just like back in the day when we were kids and there's a sniper and D.C. they're telling us to walk zigzags. Did you guys get that?

[AJ Hawk]

We're getting chased by an alligator.

[Pat McAfee]

Same thing.

[Marty Smith]

Yeah.

[Tone]

Had a Jack Frost situation.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll tell you what. I think we all beat it. So we should be pretty pumped about that, right?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah.

[Conman]

Legit. Hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

That was a real worry.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, you are right though. If you don't have ice melt yet, go get that some. Because I saw about 10 people slip next door. No, no, no. Worse way to start your Day.

[Pat McAfee]

Dropping that.

[Tone]

A bruised tailbone.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Dropping off the kids.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Luckily none of them were holding their kids, but I saw that and I was like, I'm holding my daughter. I better really kind of dial it in.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Shuffle, shuffle.

[Ty Schmidt]

Goddamn. Kevin McAllister's house out front there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You gotta shop. The thing is with the ice, you gotta actually almost try to slip. Control the slip while you're on it. As opposed to. Try not to like a control. Controlled burn. Exactly. It's like whenever you're white. White wall rafting.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

And there's like a rock or something supposed to lean towards it, go into it, because it'll shoot you away from it on us. You just gotta embrace the slick. The slippiness, if you will.

[Tone]

Same if you're driving, turn into it.

[Pat McAfee]

Bingo. And also put that thing in neutral because drive is going to give you a little bit of powder to the tires. You don't want any of that.

[Tone]

Ain't that the truth.

[Pat McAfee]

Drop that thing in a neutral there on the ice.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay. You got a lot of range in this. So you say go into the rocks.

[Tone]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. When you wiw rafting. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

And let that current do that a lot.

[Conman]

D butt.

[Darius J. Butler]

I did it once, actually.

[Pat McAfee]

I've never done it.

[Darius J. Butler]

North Carolina.

[AJ Hawk]

Me either. Sweet.

[Pat McAfee]

I've never done it, but I've heard the metaphor a lot. You know, this is just like whenever you're white wall or river rafting, you got to lean towards the problem actually to get you away from the problem. You got to face this thing head on. That's where I've learned it from. I've never actually gone out there. Cuz I heard you could die.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And I don't really like.

[Tone]

Depends on the category.

[Darius J. Butler]

What? Can't you.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

If you lean into the rock and you just bang your. Your head off of it, then you'll die.

[Conman]

You got a helmet on.

[Tone]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. But if you do, if you do go unconscious underneath those tides, I do believe that is a lot of death.

[Tone]

It's tough to breathe under there.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. It's a high percentage death.

[Pat McAfee]

So I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna live with the metaphor. I'm gonna act like I did it.

[Tone]

You ever seen River Wild? Great movie. Helen Hunt.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Conman]

What about without a paddle?

[Pat McAfee]

I've seen that actually.

[Conman]

South Korean.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Dad Shepard.

[Conman]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a good movie.

[Tone]

A little different than River Wild, but yeah.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

David Strathearn.

[Pat McAfee]

You gotta run wild out there. Kevin Bacon. All right, let's get to A break. Remember, the salt doesn't help after the ice.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, it's got to come before the ice. Yeah. And if you just like go throw a bunch of salt on top of the ice, you're just gonna waste all your salt.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Really?

[Pat McAfee]

We paid for a double salting here today on top of, of the ice.

[AJ Hawk]

So you guys got a lot, a lot of ice. You have snow as well?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah, snow. There was a covering of everything, and then wind kind of changed that. So then there was like a tornado. A lot of winds. High winds this weekend. And then after that there was a little precipitation. Ice. Just like sheets of ice like this thick. Across a lot. Across a lot of stuff. Very scary. Very, very scary. But it's not black ice because it doesn't blend in. You definitely see that it's ice. So you're almost much like, oh, okay. You gotta embrace the slick.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Gotta embrace this.

[Tone]

There was a 100 car pile up on Terre Ho about an hour from.

[Darius J. Butler]

Here a couple days ago.

[Tone]

Did you see that?

[Darius J. Butler]

I saw it on the Internet.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Scary.

[Tone]

The wind, it was very windy.

[Pat McAfee]

The wind with the snow, with the ice is really quite a. You know, it. It really gets you because it spreads it all everywhere. It's like that. What's that thing called? The Arctic Blast? Yeah. Polar vortex. Polar vortex, yep. Pittsburgh. I don't know how we live there with the snow grip. The hills like this. How's anybody make it?

[Tone]

Good sports team at that time.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, used to renegade. Used to come on in a car when you're going up a hill like this, this is what's happening. The car in front of you made it three quarters of the way way. And then dumbass comes down. They're on the side. You lose her. My turn. Oh, mama. That's what's happening. Idiot. Next person. Two wheel drive car. Let me go ahead and give this a go. Gotta give it a good run. Full speed right back. That's, that's. That's what Renegade used to help people get through. Now they're booing it in fourth quarter when defense is on the field.

[Conman]

Sad.

[Darius J. Butler]

Good old days.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Should have known. We ran them first time.

[AJ Hawk]

First time it's been booed.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Do we know there might have been a lack of response? Maybe not as enthused a couple times, but I don't think just an open.

[AJ Hawk]

Nope.

[Pat McAfee]

This team doesn't deserve this boo. Right? Yeah, Right, dude. Coca Cola for the big. For the small, the short and the tall. Peacemakers risk takers for the optimists, pessimists for long distance love, for introverts and.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Extroverts, the thinkers and the doers for.

[Pat McAfee]

Old friends and new Coca Cola for everyone. Pick up some Coca Cola at a store near you. Shopping is hard, right? But I found a better way. Stitch Fix online Personal styling makes it easy. I just give my stylist my size, style and budget preferences. I order boxes when I want and how I want. No subscription required.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

And he sends just for me pieces.

[Pat McAfee]

Plus outfit recommendations and styling tips. I keep woodworks and send back the rest.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

It's so easy.

[Pat McAfee]

Make style easy. Get started [e-mail] Spotify that's stitchfix.com Spotify.

[Conman]

Football.

[Pat McAfee]

He's magical. That's AJ Hawk. And congrats to him. And he's Ohio State Buckeye. AJ Tell me how you feel about this Ohio State bucket Buckeye team. Maybe one of the most dominating runs a college football team has ever had. They roll into the Big Ten championship this weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana to take on the Indiana Hoosiers, who haven't won a conference championship since like 1967 or something like that. In football, obviously it takes place in the state in which they represent. There's Hoosiers fans everywhere. Buckeyes fans are insane. Should be a magical weekend. Hot. How do you feel about your buckeyes, A.J. hawk?

[AJ Hawk]

I feel pretty good about where they are. I mean, obviously we knew they had to go go up to Ann Arbor and win a tough one. This is, I mean these, the, the views and the clips from this game will be shown forever. Obviously the snowfall and what Brutus was doing on the sideline in the end zone was, was awesome. I think, you know, it'll be one of those games we look at years down the road. They took care of business, but had a big test with, with Kurt Zagnetti and the old Indiana Hoosiers. I think it's going to be an awesome onew matchup. I wish you would be there and see the hoopa, you know, with the game day set. But I'm sure you'll get there later on in the playoffs, hopefully.

[Pat McAfee]

Are you going to come over for the game or no?

[AJ Hawk]

I don't know yet. I'm trying to figure that out.

[Pat McAfee]

We'll get you a bird. Come over. We're going to be there. We're going to go to it. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think it's going to be a. I can't wait. My expectation is this is going to be an insane invite. Like I think it's going to be an outrageous environment because Hoosiers fans, good fans, they only get a chance to do it for basketball games, though, for a long time. You know, obviously they've shown that they will be football fans. They are football people, naturally, in Lucas Oil, which a lot of Hoosiers would call their own home, you know, and then Ohio State Buckeye fans always travel, always very loud. I mean, it should be electrifying in the city of Indianapolis. And yeah, I'll be heading back from the SEC championship college game day morning and go into that for sure. Yeah, it's. The city's going to be shut down for this thing. I mean, it is going to be outrageous. And I think what Mendoza and that Indiana offense can do, not a lot of teams in the country can do. It's the original reason why I picked Indiana over Oregon is because I had been forced to watch this Indiana Hoosier team being a local here. And I've seen it. And it's like, this Mendoza guy operates like a Sunday quarterback. This guy's an NFL quarterback. They got talent all over the place. They're able to protect him. It's like. And it can run. It's. This team is a good team. And your defense can be dominant, which your team certainly has been. But Mendoza has been able to be good against those types of teams because he can also read, which is what your defense can do to offenses. So it's like, I think the game's going to live up. I think the game's going to live up to the environment that it's going to be played in. And I think it's special. I think it's very, very special situation for both these teams. Age.

[AJ Hawk]

I can't wait to hear. I don't know. You think Kurt Signetti will be a little more subdued this week leading up to it, or you think he's going to be, you know, he's going to be very boisterous and talkative, if I had to guess.

[Pat McAfee]

He told us earlier in the season that he doesn't have to do that anymore. He said he felt like he had to do all that to make sure everybody believed. Like he. He feels like he had to come in there. He said the first four hours I was in the building, I realized that we got changed a lot of people, people's a lot of everything around here. Opinions, ideas. We gotta build this program up, basically. So he says that that decision was made strictly because of the lack of belief in the program that he felt immediately upon arrival. So he started Talking his shit. Fuck Ohio State. Fuck Purdue. Fuck Michigan. Yeah, this is what we're doing in this entire thing. And then now he said he feels like people believe in him. And I think that's real. I think we do believe in the Hoosiers. And I think that's why Saturday night is going to be glorious here in Indianapolis.

[Conman]

I mean, what the president AD said to you last year, when game day.

[Pat McAfee]

Went there, we are fully aligned. We are fully president, I think, from Georgia AD from, if I recall right, alignment from football. Places like, very much understand what football can do for entire university. What sports can do for entire university. University. And they're embracing it. And obviously, the Penn State job opens up. Indiana immediately goes, hey, you want to stay here? Yes. Here's a new deal for however much, 100 million. We'll keep you here for the next six years. Like, they are very much all in on it. And the Ohio State Buckeyes are in the middle of a dynasty, you know, so. Yeah. Special.

[AJ Hawk]

Physical, physical game. That's why I thought the Michigan game was cool, because it was very physical. And I talked to people that were there in this, in the stadium. They said, like, every play, even if it's not on camera, like, there's dudes 20 yards down the field kind of going back and forth, kind of pushing, shoving after every play.

[Conman]

There's.

[AJ Hawk]

It was rivalry game. It's very, very physical. There's a cutup, too, of Kazmic, the tight end. The dude was blocking his ass off, putting dudes on the ground. There's like five, six, seven clips with this guy just finishing dudes all over the field, landing on top of them. It's just. It was one of those games is how it's supposed to be.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, can you tell me a little bit about. Obviously, Jeremiah Smith's unbelievable. He was one.

[AJ Hawk]

What a move, the defensive holding there, right Debut.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

What a bucket shot there. From Julian saying to Tate. I mean, you know, this. This Ohio State team has been beating everybody's ass. I mean, that's what they've been doing. And Texas, actually, Sarkeesian came out. Week one, we lost seven by seven to Ohio State. We've all seen what Ohio State has done to everybody. It's like since jump, this Ohio State team has been understanding that they have to be great in their experience, expected to be great. Now they got the Michigan game out of the way. Now it's like full focus on what this entire season. They feel more like a machine, I think, than any other team at this Point.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. I would be interested to hear AJ's thought if he is afraid of any. I guess drop off the emotional. Now you finally got this Mr. Monkey off your back. I know this is a huge game you defending national champs. But now after getting a win like that, it's the first for this group obviously any, any fear of. Of a fall off facing this Hoosier team?

[AJ Hawk]

I don't think so. I think they feel probably. I mean Ryan Day I think is. He is on those dudes every single day. Like he, he is highly, highly motivated to the rest of them. I think now they think all right, cool. Like now our season begins. Like what we've done was cool, like whatever. But now we are here to do what we set out to do. This is what we want to do. We plan on going undefeated and win a national championship. And that's all out in front of us.

[Pat McAfee]

Here are the odds to win the national championship as we sit at this moment with DraftKings. Ohio State plus 160. Indiana plus 425. Georgia plus 800. Oregon plus a thousand alongside Notre Dame in Texas Tech. Hey, that's a good football team. Now that we're talking about Texas Tech.

[Conman]

Hey, do they play as we.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a good football team. They need I think to get out of the Big 12. I think. Oh God. I think Texas more SEC. They feel right. West Texas. But if you really zoom out and move over, you can say they're a part of the southeastern part of the United States of America. So the fact that Sankey has not invited Texas Tech into the SEC is disgusting. For those people down there in Lubbock, probably. I don't. It's exactly what it is and they know that. But if you guys get invited to go over there, you guys should go on over there, improve just who the hell you are.

[Conman]

How's BYU not in the Mountain West? They're in the mountains.

[Tone]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm okay with BYU hanging in the Big 12.

[Conman]

Okay. Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Especially with some of the rules trying.

[Conman]

To pick it up. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

But Texas Tech, we need them out of the Big 12.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

We need them. They beat the out of the West Virginia Mountaineers.

[AJ Hawk]

I saw some clips.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they pot. I mean just in good football team. This is a football team. That's a good football team. And I don't think nationally there's a lot of respect for him because it's brand new. Like Texas Tech is brand new. But like one of the people, let alone high school coach loves ball quarterback, high school. His dad's high school coach loves ball. They embrace Texas. It's like the people, the Double Eagle and Buddy beach, okay? The people that are kind of behind this entire thing who took a shovel out and they won down there and they found it, okay. And they certainly. They have it and they play ball in the trenches is where they play ball. So it's like we want the best D line and we want the best offensive line. And it's like you got Patrick Mahomes too. Who's there to get brand new stuff from Adidas and recruit. Whenever you talk about weapons and everything like, it's like they have. They're. I think they're just getting started. I don't think it's. I think they are a real problem for as long as that shit's out the ground and that shit's going to be in the ground for a long time. And that is how. That is how I think Cody Campbell and Dusty Wobble. Buddy beach, okay? And these boys, I think that's how they view it and I think they're all aligned. Like hey, when we're good at sports, everything's better around here. It's a very family oriented part of the country, I think, and of the state and it's like family sports. It's like that's everything they love and it's like they view that as their team. And to have one of the main drivers of that be a trenches guy, it's like he knows he. This guy gets it. This guy really, really understands where they.

[Tone]

Spent this offseason too.

[Pat McAfee]

All of it. That D line. We got no points. We. We play four quarters against it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Tone]

Saw. Let's go football team.

[Darius J. Butler]

It sucks to have to tweet that out.

[Pat McAfee]

Final.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Why do that?

[Darius J. Butler]

I don't. I don't know.

[Tone]

Does it everyone.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That's cuz they want engagement.

[AJ Hawk]

I think you don't have to.

[Pat McAfee]

You want engagement, they want.

[Ty Schmidt]

Right.

[Pat McAfee]

Look man, these people have wrong. Not all these people. Not West Virginia. Certainly not. Okay. Certainly not in West Virginia. But you know these social media people, they got the wrong. You know they got the wrong goals. You know they're. Sometimes their goals aren't. This is not what I'm referring to. If you. You know, this one is not what I'm referring to. Although that's not a good word.

[Conman]

Should just lie. Don't 30 nothing.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Cause you could just say you stopped tweeting.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Last we saw this, this tweet. I actually posted this two hours ago. It's just one out. You're not a stadium B, sorry about it. And then you can even quote, tweet that and say, sorry, delay on the tweet. We'll see you next week then. Bang. Now you're getting actual numbers as opposed to just saying we're ass cheeks. Look at this. And look at this.

[Conman]

Seven touchdowns.

[AJ Hawk]

Or just say like, hey, the boys fought hard and were unable to get a victory. And don't play. Put the score.

[Conman]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Good game, Texas.

[AJ Hawk]

Texas.

[Pat McAfee]

Although we weren't able to get on the scoreboard this week, we will certainly attempt to in the future, you know.

[Ty Schmidt]

Or just text Tex. Go football team.

[Pat McAfee]

That's all it needs to be said. And also, maybe even Texas Tech should be banned from the Big 12. That's. Yeah, let's go. They need to be banned. Go to hell, Texas Tech. Yeah, that's what they. The posts need to be. Texas Tech team. I think it's going to be good for a long. So is West Virginia, though. Okay. We're finding our hard edge. It was lost there for a while, but it has been found once again. And that's an offseason run. We're not losing our coaches to Colorado State, so I don't want to hear anything.

[CJ Stroud]

Not yet.

[Ty Schmidt]

Has Kevin Bron decommitted yet?

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa. He know we need him.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay?

[Pat McAfee]

And enough with even putting that in the universe, okay? Tim Brown's boy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, yeah, exactly. He's not letting him decommit.

[Adam Schefter]

Maybe.

[Darius J. Butler]

Maybe post that. It's post Kevin Brown.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

How.

[Ty Schmidt]

There you go.

[Pat McAfee]

West Stream football.

[Darius J. Butler]

They forget the future.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom.

[Conman]

On the next season.

[Pat McAfee]

And it's him. And they have a transformation from his photo shoot that he had where his quads were out and his jaw and then it goes into his pads right here and. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

What if Lane comes out after him?

[Pat McAfee]

What the are you doing? Why are you doing that? Mike, why are you doing that? We don't need that. I'm sorry.

[AJ Hawk]

My bad.

[Pat McAfee]

G. What are you doing? Why are we even talking?

[AJ Hawk]

Like, not. Not Elaine. Like, LSU doesn't want.

[Pat McAfee]

Like.

[Tone]

Yeah, he's.

[AJ Hawk]

He's where he should be. He's going home.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you. Yes. I kept you off the screen, though. I didn't want him to get sweated. You know how State was one of his final three. We do not need anything here. This is a big deal for West Virginia. I think it's being proved every single week. You know, when we go out there showing promise, showing a chance, and we run into a team that is there right now. This is where we are trying to get to in Texas Tech, I think they're going to be there for a while, man. They got football people with the money. As opposed to like, I think Cody Campbell, if he really wanted to, I assume he could have got into the scout scouting, NFL world, you know, he's one of those types of guys. I think he could have got in there, loves ball, knows ball. Just so happened to take some of his ball money and go start a company, you know, back Texas Tech.

[Tone]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

And boy, we hit it and then we did it again and then we. Holy shit. Did it again and then we did it again. And they, I think, view themselves as football people how they want it to look. And then you add in Mahomes, it's like, like, that's a problem, dude. And that fan base is crazy. Yeah, they are a great fam. That's got to get. I assume that's only going to get bigger.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Who else in the Big 12 has those kind of, you know, that kind of alignment that they have right now?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, it's. And I. Yes. I don't know whenever you give that question, but whenever you talk about the alignment, it's like, this is what every college football team would. The money people are football people. Because everybody's like, hey, the money people can't be telling a football people what to do. It's like, well, the money people are football people. It's like, okay, Mahomes. You think he knows his. Do you think you can maybe. These guys, they know ball. Like, it's a. It's quite. They need to be banned. They need to be banned.

[Ty Schmidt]

Them also understanding, like, hey, we need to get better on the offensive and defensive line and like kind of changing from the gimmicky that they used to be where like they just go out and throw for 750 yard. Like, you can't just beat every team 56 to 40, 49. So them understanding, like, even with Mahomes being there, like, no, we have to do this the right way. And then you see when they actually do do it the right way, it's like, oh, wow, these guys are pretty good.

[Pat McAfee]

This is Cody Campbell's tweet. Love you, Red Raider Nation. Love you, Joey McGuire and every single one of the incredible group of guys you coach. Now, let's go get a Big 12 championship.

[Darius J. Butler]

Big game for the next 10 years. So nobody's gonna get in our way. Sweet road to the play playoffs. They ain't leaving. Why would they?

[AJ Hawk]

No, they'd be so stupid to leave. They're in a Beautiful spot.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, right. What, what are you talking about? What are you guys talking about right now? We talk about the Big 12 being a cakewalk to the playoffs.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yep.

[Conman]

Y.

[Pat McAfee]

Little do you guys know Clemson ACC.

[Darius J. Butler]

Situation for the next day?

[Pat McAfee]

No, I don't think so. I would, I think that is not accurate. Here is championship week as we look ahead. Congrats to these teams potentially winning the first championship of the year. This is something that every team looks forward to, has their sights on. It's talked about in the building throughout the entire year trying to win your conference championship. All these teams will have the chance to do as such. That Georgia, Alabama game obviously down there in the SEC will be a spectacular one in Atlanta. A lot of questions about if Alabama loses this game, would that be held against them in the College Football Playoff committee then? I've heard Herb Street, I think, say that he's heard that if you make the championship game, you can't drop anywhere, but you could maybe go up or something.

[Tone]

I haven't seen that rule.

[Pat McAfee]

Me neither. I, I have not either. I think he heard from somebody, maybe a committee member. I, I, let's, can we FaceTime Herb Street? Can you please face down her?

[Darius J. Butler]

That'll be three losses room.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tone]

Have you seen it?

[Pat McAfee]

So then he goes, they go into the three loss committee, the three loss crew. And then there's a lot of conversations about all that. Yes, exactly.

[Tone]

Who's ranked higher than Duke, who's that? JMU and both of those American teams. So if there's a situation where Duke wins, ACC might be left out of the College Football Playoff.

[Conman]

Come on, Duke.

[Pat McAfee]

Which would be insanity, obviously. That'd be a huge conversation. Alabama or Texas getting into.

[Tone]

I hope not.

[Pat McAfee]

The playoff would be a huge conversation in Alabama. Potentially getting punished for losing in the SEC championship would be a huge story because then you would hear every person that's ever been involved with the sport say, so these championship games are not good to go to. So Oregon is not going to the championship game. So they just get to hang out. They won't add any other losses and they're in a great spot. Is that kind of the thought of what we want in the future? And then you think about Alabama. If you win the SEC championship, though, all of a sudden now you're in a much more primo position. Georgia stays in, I think regardless.

[Tone]

Yeah, I personally, I think that teams that are in, in this conference championship this weekend would be the Oregon, Indiana, Texas Tech, Georgia and Bama. I think no matter what happens is because you can't take. I don't think you can punish Alabama for losing it.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who is always, always in the middle of most conversations about ball because he kicks off NFL weeks on Thursday night on prime with Al Michaels. He is the face of college game day, which I am lucky to be a part of nine to noon. And then he calls the primetime game every single week on abc. Ladies and gentlemen, friend of the program, former president of Ohio, Kirk Her Street. Herbie, thank you for coming on. I hope you had an incredible morning thus far. I hope you had a great weekend. Question for you, Were you the one that said. Because I was just thinking aloud here. Alabama, obviously, if they lose in the championship game, will pick up a third loss. Then all of a sudden everybody's like, whoa, they'll get tossed into the three loss group and then maybe they missed College Football Playoff, which then leads into people saying, well, you don't want to make your conference championship game. What is the conference championship game even mean? Didn't you say that you heard something about not being able to drop in ranking if you're in the championship game? Unless it's a blowout or something like that? I, I forget. What was that you that said that? And if it wasn't you, what are your thoughts on that situation?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah, I, it, it probably was me in one of our meetings. Let me pull this over. Probably me in one of our meetings with.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, I like that.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Game day. You know, I mean, it, it is a. Is this working?

[Pat McAfee]

Is the mic we can hear you for sure. I don't know if you're going through the mic or not, but it looks cool.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Okay.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Oh, maybe I'm not going through it, but, but, but you're right. The, the, the meeting we had, I was, I was. Because I've been told this. It's not my opinion. I just been told that if you go into a conference championship game and unless now Wisconsin, I think in 14, got blown out by Ohio State, 59, nothing. And that that flipped everything. Ohio State went way up. There were two spots behind and ended up going up. But I, I haven't seen, I can't remember a team that had to play a bonus game that then got punished for playing in that game. I mean, Alabama went to Athens and beat Georgia in the regular season and now they're going to play him a second time. We all know how tough it is on a second time. So I don't know, unless they get worked. I'd be surprised. And we don't even know what the really the rankings are until tomorrow night to find out whether or not how far ahead are they of some of these other teams. Have you guys broken down Duke potentially winning yet?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Tone just kind of led into it a little bit about maybe the ACC champion not having any representation in the top five or top highest ranked conference champions.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah, it's really confusing because for me anyway, the top five conference champs, champs, I think we all get locked in. Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12. But in this case, if Duke, who's 7 and 5 ended up winning, you're not going to move them up over the American winner, Tulane in North Texas. So that champion is automatically in and you're if jmu, who I think has a chance to get into the rankings this week, they're 19th this week into coaches and AP pollute. But if JMU wins their conference championship game, they would go in. And if Duke beat Texas Tech, you could have jmu. Let's just say Tulane, if they beat North Texas, ACC out. If BYU beats Texas Tech, Texas Tech's not out. So you have BYU in, Texas Tech in. Now you start eliminate. Where do you start eliminating teams? Think about that. Byu. Count on for me, byu, Texas Tech, SMU or I mean, I'm sorry, jmu, Tulane. And now you got the Big Ten champion, let's say Ohio State, Indiana. Whoever wins the losers still in Oregon is going to go in. So if all kinds of chaos. We haven't even gotten to Notre Dame yet. And how many did we have? We haven't got to the SEC yet. How many you have left?

[Pat McAfee]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And Notre Dame would be 8.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Oh, I mean, think about what's left now. Think about what's left. Georgia, Texas A and M, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Alabama, Vandy, Texas, Miami, Utah. I mean if that happens, you, you, you have. It's, it's completely and utter chaos because going by what you said, you got to put Notre Dame in. Well, then who are you going to leave out?

[Pat McAfee]

I'm telling you, Notre Dame. Hey, I don't like it, Kirk. I don't think any of us like it. And it was kind of the reason why you were talking the way you were talking on Saturday about Lane being able to coach his team. Like, and obviously there was people that got very upset with you saying that. Like, hey, the reality is that's just not going to work work out for any party, yada, yada, yada. But I think what you were thinking of is if Lane's not There and his other coaches that are going with him aren't there. What is this team going to look like as opposed to what they worked for all year? That is the world you were living in, right? Is that not.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I, I, I was looking at it from a player's perspective and, and a unprecedented season in the history of 122 years of ole Miss football. I, I wanted them and whether it's Lane, if Lane has to go, Keith Carter said he's got to go. Okay, I'm a year. That's his decision. That's fine. Can Charlie Weiss Jr stay? Can Joe Cox stay? I mean, you imagine Ole Miss preparing. You got. Joe Judge is one of the few offensive coaches that's still in Oxford and everybody else is in Baton Rouge. So this chaos, and I'm not saying it's Ole Miss's fault. We talk about the calendar. Ole Miss had to make a decision. And I, I, I respected their ad, basically said, listen, you're either with us or you're against us. If you're out, you're out. Goodbye by but it really puts this Ole Miss team that's enjoying a season that we've never seen, I would just love to have seen kind of like what T. Lane's doing. John Sumrall is going to Florida. He's coaching in the conference championship game in the American. If they win, he's coaching in the playoff. I think, you know, that maybe they decided it was a different set of circumstances going from Tane to Florida. I get that. But I just thought maybe if they went around to the play players, especially the leadership council, and said, hey, guys, this, this sucks. I mean, it is what it is. Do you guys want Lane and all these coaches to stick around? Do you want to do it without him? And if, I don't know if they did that or not, but if they did and the leadership council said, to hell with him, get him out here, I'd be like, okay, that players made that decision. Let's go with it. But I don't know if that happened. I have no idea. I just know Ole Miss made that decision and, and I'm not like jumping up and down saying, how dare they? I just, I wish for their sake they could have stayed intact, made a hell of a run. They, you know, maybe they'll, maybe they'll circle the wagons and, and play with a pissed off attitude, you know, that, that Lane left. I'm, I'm sure, like the example I used this morning with Joey was West Virginia lost Rich Rod to go to Ann Arbor. They had to go play Oklahoma. You were on the team in Phoenix or in Tempe or Glendale. No one thought they'd have a chance against Oklahoma. And I don't think Elmer Fudd could have been the coach that day for West Virginia. And they would have killed anybody. You guys were pissed off at the world, and maybe. Maybe that'll be Ole Miss, you know, on the. On the. If they get into the CFP and they make a run, maybe they'll be mad at the world.

[Pat McAfee]

Hopefully, it'll. It could unite them and they get going. You know, we had Pat White, Steve Slayton, Noel Devine, Owen Schmidt. Yes. Reynard, Tito.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

You guys were.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

You would have beaten anybody in the country that night.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And the issue is if. If some doofus makes a couple kicks, you know, before that, we do beat anybody in the country, which we're still living in. And we're trying to get back to that, obviously. But to your point, we went through Coach Rod leaving to go to higher grounds. You know, he went to Michigan, a job that you have to take and stoops out believe from Oklahoma, said we were hoping that we would get a better team or something like that. Like, they said something along those lines, like, team's not even good enough. Bill Stewart, who was our head coach at the time, he was tight ends and special teams coordinator. Beloved.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

No one really knew him. No one really knew him on the outside world.

[Pat McAfee]

Beloved by the locker room, obviously. Been around a long time. And the way he talked that whole week about how bad everybody thought we were ass and all this stuff. It was. It was a cool week for us. It was cool week for me. I had to battle a lot of personal demons, obviously, but it was. Yeah, we beat shit out of that team. It was. It was a cool thing to watch our team respond that way. Maybe Ole Miss will do that. That was one game. If you want to make it to the. You have to win multiple games. And there's a lot that goes into it. And obviously with the timing of the transfer portal in signing day and you're with another team and we have our team who's going to be talking to the people. It's. What a nightmare. And I think we've all talked about the calendar but being crazy and hopefully they'll be able to change that. But I don't know. This was crazy how it all went down there at Ole Miss and to the point that you're talking about, about BYU, Texas Tech, JMU, Tulane, 2, 3 from the Big Ten, Notre Dame, Georgia A&M Bama Ole Miss. Is that who you put in there? Remember the clause that they have in this thing. Could you imagine how bad Lane Kiffin would be hated?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Oh my gosh.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh my God.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

But they're.

[Pat McAfee]

They're have to get it.

[Tone]

I don't think Notre Dame's.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

And by the way guys, none of those weigh more heavily than the other strength of schedule head to head comparative outcomes of common opponents. And then you know, it's not just because it's down there at number four. It's. It's availability of. Of key players and coaches. And I don't know how there's no way the committee Ole Miss finished the year strong. I mean think about how they blocked out all the noise and went out in the egg bowl and it's trick. We all thought that was a tricky game.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh my God.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

The committee cowbells the rivalry Ole Miss.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh my God. The committee doing that would be the biggest heel move.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I just don't think it's even. I don't think they can do that.

[Ty Schmidt]

But what. What if they. They're at 6 right now. What if they move them down to 11 and they go from having a home game to having to go on the road like even that people are going to be.

[Conman]

Did they drop.

[Ty Schmidt]

Drop them already one spot?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tone]

Oklahoma on that list.

[Ty Schmidt]

You had to.

[Pat McAfee]

Nope. They're making it because Oklahoma's there. So then you're saying Notre Dame drops out.

[Tone]

At least there's a. There's. I can't remember the list. There's like.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I don't know who dropped.

[Tone]

If that's the situation. There's a chance where like Notre Dame, Miami, Vandy. Trying to think of who the other two lost.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Utah, Utah, Texas two.

[Tone]

Only two of those teams can get in. So it's. It's gonna be.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

No, I mean you're talking about having three spots and you're talking about seven or eight teams that are worthy of having an argument to.

[CJ Stroud]

To be.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

To be in there. And by the way, you know, I don't think anybody signed up for. You know, it's great to see these underdogs and that's a lot of fun. But how is Miami of Florida the year that they've had? Why can't a tiebreaker be.

[Tone]

Yes the.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

The CFP rankings? Like how is Miami the best team in the ACC and they're not even going to Charlotte. It makes no sense to me like how Duke at 7 and 55 is going to play Virginia who's had a Great year and a hell of a story. But how is Miami not going? Why can't the tiebreaker be the CFP rankings? It just makes no sense to me.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, there's a lot of things that don't make a lot of sense in college ball, but we're still going to watch it and we still love it. The controversy, the drama, the atmosphere, and the meaningful football that is on its way for college football. We're pumped that we get to be a part of it. See you down there in Atlanta. A brother.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

See you guys. Have a good one.

[Pat McAfee]

Indianapolis brother is going to be insane here.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I'm coming back for the second half after I call the sec. I'm gonna fly up to Indy to watch from the sideline. You guys going to be in the suite?

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. You're coming through for real?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah. I'm gonna fly out and catch you. I hope to be there by halftime.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Come on. It's gonna be.

[CJ Stroud]

What time?

[Tone]

What.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

What time's your game? What time's that game start? Do you guys know?

[Conman]

Eight.

[CJ Stroud]

Eight.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Oh, definitely. My. My game. I. I think. What time's my game?

[Pat McAfee]

Three or four?

[Marty Smith]

Four.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Oh, is. Let's see. 7:30. 7:30. Airport by hopefully 8. 8:30 at the latest. In the air by 9:30.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Is there an FBO near downtown?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, 15. 15.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

All right, so I'm there. I'm there. Worst case, by 10.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, we'll see you then. Cannot wait for that. Should be a good time. They're going to shut down this city for this game. The Hoosiers have a basketball game at 3:30 in the afternoon. Afternoon. Ohio State obviously travels in bunches. I mean, it's gonna be.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

It's gonna be a scene.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, it is. It's gonna be insane here. We can't wait to see you here as well. Ladies and gentlemen, Kirk Herbstream. Oh, Kirk.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Ohio State, man. Ohio State. I see you're wearing your blue shirt like you were wearing your blue suit on Saturday for. For the boy, you know, for your boy.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Wear blue. How many gray or blue makes the eyes pop?

[Conman]

Yeah, those baby blues.

[Pat McAfee]

And you got those baby blues. You were told early you wear blue. Those sucker.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Is Ty still mad at me? No, I was complimenting his athletic ability.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, I was more mad about the Iowa stuff. And then. I'll tell you what, Kirk, after they just beat the absolute out of Nebraska, you feel good? Yeah, I feel great.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Packers 1 on 30, get Thanksgiving win. You're feeling good.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly. I'm a good spot right now.

[Pat McAfee]

How are you Good. How was.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I love you.

[Pat McAfee]

How was the Black Friday game? Did you enjoy that?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Loved it. Absolutely loved it.

[Pat McAfee]

There's going to be more of those, right? Bezos is going to be spending more on those, like super duper holiday games.

[Conman]

Oh, yeah, Yeah.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

I mean, it's my fourth year there and they, they've had four of them. I think the last couple years people have kind of caught on to them a little bit more because you're, you know, you're used to the Thanksgiving games. But Black Friday, it was a blast. Bears are really, really good, man. They're fun, old school eye formation, run it down your throat, play action. Caleb is much more disciplined, playing great defense. They're going to be, they're going to be a factor. You look at their schedule. I. It's going to be a, it's going to be a fun matchup in, in the postseason with really, that, really the division. Kansas City or Green Bay? Detroit, Detroit and Chicago. All three of those teams. Dude, I got Detroit, Dallas, Thursday. I don't think either team can afford to lose that game. That's a huge one Thursday.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Dallas might be the best team in ball right now, so. Which is such an interesting part of the Dallas Cowboys story because there's a chance they can't make the playoffs. But we'll be calling them the best team in ball and Jerry Jones will run with that all off season. That'll be, that'll be an entire off season of not making a playoffs. But still, best team in ball. You sell it. I mean, that's what we do. That's what, that's what we are. You saw us, we're electrifying, too. You want to buy a ticket to see this Dallas Cowboys team, That's what you want to do. And next year it's going to be a different story. It's going to be a different story. Can't wait to watch you on the call. Hey, did you see the photo before we get out of here, you saw a photo of your boy lined up with his team, protecting the logo.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Did not. Did not.

[Pat McAfee]

You'll be proud of your boy. You'll be proud of your boy. He's standing there in the line. There's a photo of Ohio State guys in the crowd at the big, big house. And then there's. Okay, then there's a bunch of Michigan guys, like in a crew, allegedly, they're like protecting the M or whatever, you know, so it's not happening. And you'll see in the one photo, number 15 Herb street right there. On the right side. And I was, like, standing with the boys. I like it. He's in the back. Would like, you know, maybe we move up to the front there. But I do appreciate that in that entire thing, and I appreciate the out of that rivalry as a whole. I like.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Oh, it's so good. So much fun. Those colors on the field together. I, I, you know, I can't get enough of that, obviously. And I'm old school. Love that. Ohio State, clean, old school, original whites. Instead of doing something crazy. I love the look of both the teams, and Ohio State was dominant. You got to just. Ohio State's defense, I'm sure AJ Talks about them all the time.

[Pat McAfee]

What?

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Matt, Patricia. If he doesn't win the Broyles award as a top assistant, I'd be shocked. Their defense, what is it, eight points a game through 12 games that play right there kind of felt like a turning point. Point. And of course, people argued about this one. I don't know if it would have mattered a whole lot. You know, him bobbling the ball there. Some people wanted that to be a touchback. But Ohio State, just so many playmakers, played with good discipline. And I was in the tunnel when the two teams are there, there, there. Is that what you're talking about?

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. You see 15 right there. You see 15 there he is.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Yep. Yep. I'm going to show you some texts that Wink sent me over the weekend that you, you'll appreciate and, and, and like, but because he was with with him every week this year down on the scout team. Imagine being a freshman quarterback, and Wink Martindale is your defensive coordinator. You're learning from and competing against and really, really, what a, what an opportunity to grow, you know, as a young buck. Oh, yeah, he had a great year doing that.

[Pat McAfee]

Good for old Chase. All right. We appreciate the hell out of you, man.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

All right, dudes.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, kicker. All right, let's get some overreactions. Oh, Erin Andrews said she had an overreaction for us. Was that about her getting misquoted? Basically out of context?

[Ty Schmidt]

I would assume so.

[Pat McAfee]

What an absurd thing to happen. I can't believe those people did that to her. Wait, that's what they do? No, that's kind of their entire thing. That was fucked up. Erin Andrews, OG in the game. She's given a lot of time of her life to football.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

She was doing the games in Morgantown whenever we were playing. Whenever I was playing there, I assume a couple Yukon games, probably playing against Us, if I had to guess. But you're talking about just like serving time to football and like always seemingly loves ball, never like anything else. So to be like Aaron Andrews, this lady is a.

[Ty Schmidt]

She's potting because she can't go home to her family on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't like that anybody like bought it though. Cuz EA is always like, can't remember.

[Ty Schmidt]

Who quote tweeted it too. And it was like, definitely someone who should have known better.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, a lot of. A lot of people should know.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yo, EA is like a.

[Ty Schmidt]

She's a positive force part of the institution.

[Pat McAfee]

She's. She's positive force for ball. I like getting quoted out of context though. Is a crazy thing that happens on the Internet these days. And there's going to be people that just run with that narrative for the rest of their life. They're never going to be corrected and that's okay. Can't wait to run into them in public. That's always an enjoyable time. On that note, let's get some overreaction, shall we? This is what Monday is all about about. Put out a tweet that says, hey, listen, why don't you let us know how you feel about your football team. Let them all out. You will not be judged. No, you'll actually be celebrated. All you got to use is. I don't want to overreact, but we had some good ones earlier. I don't know. I don't know if we need to keep doing that on ESPN because it holds back the limitations of what we're able to put up there. Ty had like a couple different options that we had to pull. Yeah, had to pull because those things are just plastered right on screen. People walk through the airport, especially with the delays today.

[CJ Stroud]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Jesus.

[Ty Schmidt]

That says like eight times.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that even a yeah. So we had dial it back but shout to the overreactions making it onto ESPN and shout out to you for participating. This became a trending topic. This from Dave Krat @DaveCrat99. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact, but the Chicago Bears are the number one team in the nfc. The Bears thought they will live in darkness for eternity, but a stallion showed up and changed. Changed everything. Green Bay, get ready to meet your new dad. Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Bear, shout out to Chicago. They do have a guy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, big time.

[Pat McAfee]

Certainly have a guy. I think that's. That was my tweet. After watching that game and then seeing him shirtless, it's like, oh, Ben Johnson's a guy like that is they certified at this point. So quick into his head coaching career, so fast turnaround. And then he's also stunning, still jacked. So I got massive respect for what he's done. AJ and we talked about it earlier, he's put his culture in, which I think is the hardest thing to institute.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I feel like he's gotten his culture kind of set pretty early, earlier than expected earlier in the season. I mean it was doom and gloom for a little bit throughout. Remember all the like the mistakes they talk about during training camp, him restarting practice and we, I remember we took it as a good thing. Say, hey, no, Ben Johnson's not messing around. He's holding these guys accountable like he is. He's letting them know that the standard is very, very high here. And I feel, feel like, man, how many wins do they have? What eight of the last nine?

[Pat McAfee]

Something like that?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, whatever it is like they. This is not what it looked like the first couple weeks of the season, I think. And the fact that Caleb's playing so well and Ben Johnson, I mean great coaches, they kind of cater and they craft things. They put their players in position to make plays and how they can run the ball, man, like this is. That's something that travels. And the good thing is what they play the packers two times still in the rest of the season. So we will truly get to see who really. Who runs the North, I guess.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Who runs the North? Who's the shirtless coach of the North? It's Ben Johnson forever and ever. And Swift's nickname was Philly is what they called him. So going back to Philly playing against him, I thought he would have a big day. They go for 281 on the ground, which is obviously the most that a Sirianni led team has ever given up. A lot of people talking about Chicago Bears just bullied the Eagles, basically. Yeah, bullied Eagles. And it's. That's exactly what Ben Johnson wanted. We spent all the money on the offensive line. As soon as he gets there there just like this Texas Tech team basically. As soon as he gets there, hey, what do we need to fix offensive line? I want all the good offensive linemen that are available right now. How much we paying? Whatever the fuck we need to pay for it. It's like that's, that's as soon as you get there, knowing that that's the right move. And then if you get Caleb to buy in which he has seemingly and then the rest of the team, it's like, golly, it's magic what can happen to a place. Chicago's alive again.

[Conman]

Yeah. And you mentioned the offensive line. Someone put out a great kind of encapsulation. Encapsulation of Joe Tuney and his entire career. He basically was part of the end of the Patriots dynasty. Unbelievable. Best guard in football. Then he goes to the Chiefs, you know, wins two or three, whatever the hell it is. And now at the Bears, I mean, he is kind of the prototypical guard you would want, especially for a young quarterback. Just because, I mean, you guys have talked about it. Having a vet on that offensive line is so huge. Like, Darnell Wright's great. I think he's in his second or third year, so not really a vet like Joe Tuni. Just being there, helping him out is huge.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Here's the tweet you're referring to. The Patriots drafted Joe Toney in 2016. He won three AFC championships and two Super bowl titles. New England hasn't won a playoff game since he left. And then he joined the Chiefs for four years, won three more AFCs and two Super bowl titles. Now he's joined the bears and they're 8 and 3, 9 and 3 now. And on their way in Kansas City. Obviously, feel the loss without him. Wild turn of events.

[Darius J. Butler]

And obviously a guy like that is going to have the impact he has on the field, but the impact that he has in the locker room and things we'll never see, like, that's. That's priceless. Like, it's guys who don't get the credit outside the building, but they know we know what kind of guys they are inside the building. So for them to turn this around with, because all everybody talked about is how they built this team with the first round picks, a wide receiver, and you get a quarterback like Caleb Williams. Can't even win in Chicago in that type of weather. And to see him come out and bully teams and now at this point, what, five games won in November? That's when we talk about real football starts in the NFL. And then they're getting healthier on defense. Their backers will be back at some point, but Nick and Kyler Gordon back, getting Jalen Johnson back, which when he's in his prime, he's one of the best corners in the league. So, I mean, Arrows only up for.

[Pat McAfee]

The Chicago team, the Bears, the kings of the North.

[Conman]

Oh, no.

[Ty Schmidt]

We'll find out.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

They play the packers two times in the next three weeks. Weeks. And I think this is the game on Sunday, will be the most impactful Bears packers game since like 2013. In the last week of the season it was winner take all for the division. Like there. There hasn't been a Bears packers game with this much juice in 12 years. Which is crazy. But that's the way that, that's the.

[Conman]

Way it should be.

[Pat McAfee]

On a collision course of rivalry greatness for the next 10, 15 years. Can't wait to watch. Let's go to the next overreaction is from Phil Huser. They call him the Hughes hashtag. I don't want to ever react, but the Eagles are dead. Their brain dead head coach and dumbass offensive coordinator lost them not only the one seed but are not going to lose the NFC East. These couldn't scheme Jerry Rice 2023 all over again. Generational offense ruined by these dopes. A lot of that coming out of Philly.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, a lot of that. People are sick of Sirianni as well and the Patulo stuff. I mean this has been going on since week two. And as you can imagine, you know, when Sirianni came out and said, hey, we're not making any changes, Philly fans were pretty calm and normal.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the huge certainly said, okay, yeah, we're not doing anything. We like our guys, huh? Is that what we're doing? Well, we're about sick of it over here. Now Sirianni, unless he is making a full change, cannot say anything negative publicly about a coach in his staff. Now if he makes the move and decides to move on from Patulo, then I think he could say something publicly. But watching the Eagles the way they are and the way they got beat up, you know, I think I saw Orlovsky or somebody say earlier today, like the way the defense is playing in Philly is as if they understand that the offense is shite. And it's like you can break them basically. And I think I saw cj GJ maybe.

[Conman]

Yes, because he's on the Bears now.

[Pat McAfee]

I think CJ GJ said I told you they fold or something like that. It's almost like the Philadelphia Eagles are waiting for a reason to not win a game, you know, and it's like I think that all goes back to the vibes around it. So much drama, so much controversy. I don't know how they were able to win a Super bowl in it all. But if anybody can turn around, I guess it would be Sirianni in this Eagles team. Good luck to them. The Bears are for real. Let's go to the next overreaction is from Mitchell Cantley at PHX Streeter okay, sick. Hashtag. I don't want to overreact, but Detroit's flash has burned out in the pan. This season is a rapid. Next year will be even worse. Another new offensive coordinator, another offensive line rebuild. Limited draft picks. Bottom third and cap space vets departing. I don't know, man. But 23 was their only shot. Foxy ass in cheeks.

[Tone]

Oh, no.

[Pat McAfee]

Across the whole border. What's going on up there? Dude, I don't agree with this overreaction. Okay. This year, yeah, it's going to be tough to make the playoffs. We can probably only afford to lose one more game and we have some tough ones coming up. But with all that being said, I think next year, easier skin schedule guys will be healthier. Mcdc will hire an OC so he doesn't have to be oc. I think that's a big deal and I think we'll be a. Okay. We still got the dogs, we still got the players. We're still young. It's just been a tough year, tough schedule, the whole thing. I'm not. Not losing all hope yet.

[Darius J. Butler]

But you sound bummed out.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm definitely bummed out. This weekend was a kick in the.

[AJ Hawk]

Sound like you're trying to talk yourself into that opinion.

[Pat McAfee]

Foxy. Yeah, you read that from somebody else and now you're trying to buy to it or what? No, I just. I try not to lose a lot of hope. But Thursday we get our ass kicked by the Packers. We got to play the best team in the league in the Cowboys and then we got to play the best team in the NFC in the Rams. I mean, this is. It's. It's not looking good right now. Sorry. It was fun to go around. Just glad I'm not a Michigan fan and had to eat that one too because there was a lot of people that are Lions fans and Michigan's fans. That's tough. Yeah, they. They caught a little one tour there. Michigan State. Now go green. No white. Pat Fitzgerald era. Here we go. Come on, boys.

[Ty Schmidt]

I might be the best hire.

[Pat McAfee]

The coaching cycle.

[AJ Hawk]

Why no one else clapped?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, there's a lot of things. There's a lot.

[AJ Hawk]

Feels like a good hire. It was a good hire.

[Pat McAfee]

I think it was a great hire. As soon as I saw it come across the algo, I was like Fitzgerald. I forgot he was available. Available. He just got done with a lot of things about a lot of things. I think he's on a revenge tour. And also, hey, what they said about me. Me. What is kind of his run right now. And he won games in Northwestern. I don't think they had a lot of guy, you know, like I think.

[Conman]

Bunch of Big Ten champions.

[Pat McAfee]

From what. Yeah, exactly. From what I've been told too. Michigan State does have some money behind it. Yeah, exactly. I think it's a great fit, underdog, chip on the shoulder, everything Michigan State represents. And then allegedly there's even more money coming. But who knows? Maybe Michigan State runs the Big Ten now.

[Tone]

They might.

[Conman]

I mean unfeeling basketball right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh really? Hey, hold on though. Who is the team that beat the. Out of everybody. There was a. A college basketball team that won by 30. Michigan.

[Ty Schmidt]

Michigan is.

[Pat McAfee]

They look. For real. They look good. They were the first team ever to beat three tournament teams from the season before by 30.

[Conman]

Damn.

[Pat McAfee]

To start a season I get. I guess they won by like 41. By 35 and one by.

[Ty Schmidt]

They played Gonzaga in like championship of whatever like Thanksgiving week tournament. And it was in Ken Palm, you know, which is what a lot of people use for like the best basketball teams in America's ran. Vikings. It was the highest ever non conference one. And they beat Gonzaga by like 40.

[Conman]

What?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they're killing.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

Holy.

[Pat McAfee]

They're killing everybody right now.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, very good.

[Tone]

Big Ten is a problem. Iowa's good.

[Pat McAfee]

Michigan State's good.

[Tone]

Michigan's good.

[Pat McAfee]

Illinois is good.

[Ty Schmidt]

Indiana, Purdue.

[Pat McAfee]

Is Indiana good? Yeah, they're undefeated. The Big Ten is a wagon. They're undefeated. This guy. Yeah, of course he is. His boy shooting the ball. Really?

[Ty Schmidt]

His boy's a good player.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he is. We didn't get to see a lot of him at West Virginia last year. Funny how that works out. Guy.

[Conman]

How's WVU at hoops?

[Pat McAfee]

I think we're bopping a wood.

[Conman]

Bringing it. I think Russ Hodges boys got him. Got him going in the right.

[Ty Schmidt]

And Rick Patino's boy, just his team, Xavier, they came in and beat West Virginia and they stink. But outside of that, they look good.

[Pat McAfee]

West Virginia, we lost again.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Xavier handled them well.

[Pat McAfee]

That's the thing. We're still trying to find who. I get it. We got good recruits coming in though. We had the highest, highest ranked crew in the history of basketball. Basketball coming in. Kevin might go over.

[Tone]

They're six and two.

[Conman]

Okay. Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

And we're trying to get better by March. They say January.

[AJ Hawk]

Don't you play like one double A teams the first like six or seven games? No, usually most squads do about any of that from what I've seen.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know about any of that. I don't Know about any of that.

[AJ Hawk]

Huggy Bear back. They need Huggy Bear. We know that.

[Pat McAfee]

It's January. February is all. No, we're talking about the West Virginia coach right now. And his last name is H. It's January, February, April. It's a new one.

[Conman]

Not Merill.

[AJ Hawk]

Look forward to it.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. That's his name. Geez. Let's get to the next. We beat the out of pit. I know that. 7149 PIT.

[Tone]

Beat Ohio State on a buzzer beater.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh. Ipso facto, West Virginia would run the Big Ten. Okay, now that we have everything.

[Darius J. Butler]

Understood, come on over.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, we need Texas Tech to get out of the Big 12. We need them.

[Conman]

Take them first.

[AJ Hawk]

Just too good. Too much money.

[Conman]

Then smart money.

[Pat McAfee]

Not just money. It's like. I know. Calculating Young.

[AJ Hawk]

Young people with money as well, too. That will continue to give as you keep winning.

[Pat McAfee]

And they. Yeah, they build up their suites. Their sweets. They get. Their sweets are the nicest sweets I've ever seen. Brand new. They want to come to the games.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're also very good at basketball. They are, very.

[Pat McAfee]

And softball. They spend a million bucks. Yeah, they. They would like their sports. Yeah. National championship.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Kennedy.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. N. Kennedy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Every game. She no, Dog. Dog lost in the finals. She's back there, right? I think so. Yeah.

[Conman]

They've been to how many haven't they been like three straight elite eights.

[Pat McAfee]

On that note, Crooks. Crooks just went crazy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Conman]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Crooks just went absolutely crazy. Look out for the cycle loans. Winning it all this year. If she's going to continue to do the stuff that she does on a basketball court, I don't know how anybody stops her. Honestly, I have no idea how anybody stops her. You can't stop her. She gets the rock and she just goes and does whatever she wants and ends up in a bucket. It ends up a bucket. She's a weapon. Who they're the odds on favorite to win national championship?

[Ty Schmidt]

I doubt it.

[Darius J. Butler]

Hell no.

[Ty Schmidt]

South Carolina.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you talking about?

[Darius J. Butler]

No, I love Big Bob, but you got Sarah strong. We got dogs at Yukon.

[Pat McAfee]

Yukon, you guys. Your coaches got a car?

[Tone]

15Th.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[Tone]

They're 15th in odds to win the 90.

[Conman]

Like that value, anything can happen. I'll take that.

[Tone]

Connecticut's the favorite.

[Conman]

Where's fair?

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Tone]

South Carolina. Texas.

[Ty Schmidt]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's get to another ever reaction, shall we? It's pretty hashtag. I don't want to overreact, but I've had it with this Steeler team. I'd rather be Tortured in North Korea prison where my teeth were ripped out one by one than watch another snap of this sad sack of a team fire Tomlin and coaching staff into the sun. Not the moon. No, the sun. Now, I do assume that pucking pretty here Buck and Prinny here will much like tone have positive thoughts about coach Tomlin if there was to be a parting of ways in some time to pass. But boy, these Steelers fans are sick of punting on football season basically is what they're doing. They look forward to and gear up the football season and then within the first three weeks of the year, they know if their team can win a Super bowl or not. And for the last 10, it's just been like, nah, we can't. And I think they'd like to enjoy the fall. They'd like to see a little bit of change. I don't want to speak.

[Tone]

I would like to enjoy the fall also. These showed some bright spots in the first month of the season. So it made it worse. We thought, you know, maybe the team can do it, maybe they'll get better. Nope, they've gotten worse every single week.

[Pat McAfee]

Leads at halftime at home against a lot of teams, but they lose by double digits to Seattle Seahawks, Green Bay packers, and now the Buffalo Bills with the lead at half. You got yinzers flocking down there. It's hard to get down there. We got tunnels and hills, traffic. I mean a lot of of to get down there. They get all the way down there in the cold get in that stadium and his team loses by two scores at least. Yeah, right.

[Tone]

They run the Same running play 20 times for 260 yards.

[Conman]

That was asinine.

[Darius J. Butler]

So disheartening.

[Conman]

Josh Allen was laughing.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't run. Run again. Josh Allen was laughing.

[Conman]

He was laughing on his touchdown. I mean, it was like one of the most disrespect like non Pittsburgh things. I mean, he's in the end zone laughing like that is just not what any of us even kitchen.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh my.

[Conman]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. He's cooking bacon in his underwear in Pissburg.

[Tone]

H. I used to be a fan of his up.

[Pat McAfee]

You used to be a fan of who?

[Tone]

Josh Allen. He reminded me of seven.

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[Tone]

Any more Seven more than any do any like that.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Tone]

Okay, well said.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's get to the next one, shall we? Change the ways. This is From Salvi at salvi93.go bills.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hashtag.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't want to overreact, but the Bills just ran through the steel curtain like it was a tissue paper table at a Tailgate. Old man Rogers was nearly driven back to Ayahuasca town. Let the Bengals come and get declawed, then off to Foxborough to get our fucking chain back. Hashtag Bills Mafia. You feeling good about the Bills after the ass beating they just gave to the Pittsburgh Steelers? I think I am.

[AJ Hawk]

I think that was. Was like a morale builder. Big confidence boost for the Buffalo Beals team. They really came together. Anytime you have success running like this. Yeah. Especially when you don't have to get all. You know, you're not throwing anything crazy at him. You're not trying to trick them. You're just pretty much letting them know, hey, we're running right here, pal. You got to figure out a way to stop us. And when they could not stop you. Yeah, I think that's the thing that not only your O line, but your whole team kind of gains a lot of confidence from.

[Pat McAfee]

Congrats to the Buffalo Bills.

[Tone]

They're two starting tackles.

[Pat McAfee]

We're out.

[Darius J. Butler]

Just.

[Tone]

Everybody knows that, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So they're only gonna get better.

[Darius J. Butler]

Demoralized. But no, Bill. Bill's. I don't think they scare anybody at the top right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa. So what are you saying about the Steelers, huh?

[Darius J. Butler]

Well, we've been saying for the last three, three and a half hours, they absolutely stink. But the Bills, you got Josh Allen, but I don't think that's it. Yeah, you're not gonna be able to run the ball down the throw. You know, the Broncos, the Patriots, like, you're not gonna be able to do that.

[Conman]

The other team that they mentioned in that overreaction, the Bengals, if any, anything, kind of feeling pretty good about the Bengals, they just forced Lamar into four turnovers. It was insane.

[Pat McAfee]

On that note, here is another overreaction from Carly Stallard. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact, but Joe Burr is back. It's December 1st, and Joey B. Is 18 and 4 in his career in December. Don't look now, but the Cincinnati Bengals run the table and sneak into the playoffs, especially with the Ravens and Steelers both being ass. Who the. You know, Joey Burrow as a starter. Eight. No, his last eight games.

[Tone]

He's good.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. He wins whenever he's playing. Now, the Baltimore Ravens, we all have a lot of questions about and why this season has gone the way that it's gone and where they are and all that type of shit. We will certainly be talking about that this offseason, but with the Cincinnati Bengals still having a shot at this whole thing and Joey B. Given the answer that he gave before. It's a kid's game. We get paid a lot of money to do it, so I'm going to go do that. Most relatable thing we've heard from a starting quarterback in a time. Long time. Joey looks good, D. But now none of us believe that the way their team is built, they can actually win in the playoffs. But if they were able to make it, I think that'd be a hell of a story coming out of Cincinnati this year.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's kind of the same situation we were in last year at this point in the season, they had to go on a run. Their playoffs basically started now, and they can't lose. And that's just a tough spot to be in as a team, especially with how their team is constructed offensively. Every. Even when Burrowing was out, they were going to put up 30, you know, plus points. But whenever Burrow is taking snaps and Ja' marr Chase is out there, they got a chance to beat anybody on any given Sunday. Don't have faith in their defense, but yeah, one of the best quarterbacks in the league whenever he's healthy and out there taking snaps. So they got a chance week in and week out, especially in this division where nobody kind of. I don't know what's going on with Baltimore. Like, their office just looks.

[Tone]

They stink.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, they. They. They stink on both sides of the ball.

[Adam Schefter]

They're just.

[Darius J. Butler]

Just not who we expect him to be at this point in the season. Lamar doesn't look the same for whatever reason. Very, very concerned with kind of everybody right now in the AFC North.

[Pat McAfee]

Joey B. Can spin that thing. Oh, yeah, Louise. He can spin it. And it's just like without missing a. Like he's been out.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

On his back. And it's just right on cue. And to your point about last season, he's been expected to be perfect down the stretch and he has been. That's that December football talk that Carly was chatting about. Crazy stuff. Good for the Bengals. Who's ruler of the jungle going for A.J. you going to rule the jungle? Maybe. How?

[AJ Hawk]

No, I don't think so.

[Darius J. Butler]

I mean, they did.

[AJ Hawk]

Did they win when Speed was there or. No. Was that when Joe Bur camp?

[Tone]

Yeah, they lost. And then he went and watched MLS.

[Pat McAfee]

Game and they lost to 0 for 2. He had a tough run in Cincinnati.

[Darius J. Butler]

He was good in the ring, though.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if you saw ring. Yeah, he was front foot.

[Tone]

He was at war games.

[Darius J. Butler]

He should have been.

[Pat McAfee]

He should be. Yeah, he's good. He's good at basically everything. I'm pretty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Is he the mask man?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, we don't know. Actually, I think I know who the masked man was just from looking at it. I think I know that person. I think I know him pretty well.

[Tone]

Did Cena have a coed match like that?

[Pat McAfee]

No. You guys asked be by some women, though. Yeah. Okay.

[Conman]

In the ring.

[Pat McAfee]

Badass women, though. Let's not get crazy here. Yeah, duh.

[AJ Hawk]

Was it not a real match last time?

[Pat McAfee]

He got hit by a T bomb Rodriguez.

[Conman]

Oh.

[Pat McAfee]

Then he took the rocks. Pop rocks from Roxanne Perez. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. I mean, he can't be doing that speed either. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what happens whenever you mix it up with the judgments. And then Morgan came and kicked him in a wee wee. She called him John Wiener afterwards.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, that's not right.

[Conman]

That's clever.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but she. It is clever. She got him. I mean, she did one of these. It's my last po. Holy. Thank you. You live. And she. I don't think so. We. We know. She backs up.

[Tone]

Did the fans love that?

[CJ Stroud]

I'll tell you.

[Pat McAfee]

Big pop Dominic Mysterio, once again, the IC champ. And what? Yeah. In San Diego, Petco Park. 48,000.

[Darius J. Butler]

I did see EO sky off top.

[Pat McAfee]

With the great spot. It is a good spot. It was interesting how it all came together, you know, because when you go off the top there, as somebody that has been a part of a war games match, boy, it's not just the top of the cage. It's also where your head is, you know, because it's where your eyes are. So cage is how high and then your head is up there. I'll tell you what, looking down looks a lot further than you thought it was going to when you were standing up there and standing on the ground looking up there. Couldn't imagine. I mean, craziness. Absolute crazy.

[Darius J. Butler]

Those people in the ring, like they.

[Pat McAfee]

Were days for so long. Yeah, they were. Well, you kind of get hypnotized by the whole, you know, that's kind of how it all goes.

[Darius J. Butler]

Good, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Good work. Let's go to the next ever reaction, shall we? Calling Groom at Colin Groom. Hashtag. I don't want to overreact, but Matt LaFleur is in his bag, bullying his way through the NFC north, and he's doing it from his barber's chair. The packers will finish the season as the number one seed in the nfc. Hashtag, never a doubt. Ty picks all these overreactions. Why this one for the Green Bay.

[Ty Schmidt]

Packers Just because, you know, a lot of people have been on the floor the last several weeks, even when they've been winning. And I thought Thursday, you know, he, he coached to win that game. Like they were very aggressive on fourth down. Like they kind of needed to bully the Lions to do so. And Diggs has been talking about it. I basically want to do whatever I can and make sure that Jeff Halfley stays the defensive coordinator of the Packers. So anytime I can give La Flor all the credit for them winning and none of it to Jeff, to Halfley, I'm going to continue to do that.

[Pat McAfee]

That's smart play. That's an ownership move. That's what you are. You're an owner of this packers team. AJ they got obviously the Bears a couple times down the stretch. You think the packers showcased on Thanksgiving that they can be a team that can actually win a Super Bowl?

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, absolutely. That's why I think almost because we had a lot of great games yesterday. Like, you forget about what these guys did on Thanksgiving Day. But yeah, this was, this is one of those things we talked about. This could have been a little turning point for the Green Bay packers this year where they kind of put their foot on the gas and don't look back now.

[Pat McAfee]

Jack White and Eminem, great. Absolute domination of a halftime show. You know, a lot of people might not know all of Jack White's work or all of the White Stripes work. And then you realize when you're watching it, this guy's a fucking rock star. Yeah. Will he be entertaining? Yeah, the fucking rock star will be entertaining. I think it will. And the fact that he's acting, actually playing, you know, the fact that he's actually playing, actually singing. And I like the way they set it up with the tight crowd, active crowd. Obviously this is Eminem directing it and producing it and then him coming out to. Till I collapse off of the cadence Call. That's from one of the mixtapes, I think, from way back in the day. I think it was perfect. I think it was absolutely perfect. And set the tone, you know, for what halftime shows can be. Post Malone in Dallas, I think, you know, having to follow Jack White and Eminem is certainly not a great spot to be in. You know, Post Malone, obviously. Platinum certified, absolute beast. Didn't have as much. Didn't have any guest appearances, didn't have any surprise drop ins. And then Little John, anybody. I saw him in the morning at the Macy's Parade. Yeah, I saw him at the Macy's Parade.

[Darius J. Butler]

Didn't see him.

[Pat McAfee]

I Think they had him up on like. Like, you know, where you walk out and there's like a landing area in a stadium.

[Conman]

I don't know, like right behind the goal post.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. It felt like he was up on one of those as opposed to on the field. So, Joe, let him explore the space. Let him explore the space.

[Darius J. Butler]

Catalog.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, he turned up the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. He turned it up. He showed up in there and literally everybody, even in your living room. You had to Mackenzie. My daughter started. Then K Pop girls went.

[Ty Schmidt]

The demon hunters.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Huntricks or something like that. They're good at getting demons and singing.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Catchy tunes. Dog loves it. All right, last one here from Sleepers Chiefs. Hashtag. I don't want to react, but the Chiefs are dead. Until. Or not. After we beat Houston, win and look great, lose and look pitiful, nothing makes sense. Nobody knows what the hell is going on in the league. The AFC is wide open and we might miss the freaking dance. I don't even want to be around anymore. All right, on that note, that's football, baby. Let's watch tonight. Who do you have again?

[AJ Hawk]

Patriots.

[Pat McAfee]

Me as well. D butt.

[Darius J. Butler]

I'll go with the Giants. They'll cover.

[Pat McAfee]

I like that. D butt. Boys, great work. Let's enjoy the hell out of this. It's December. It's meaningful football time. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to be a part of your life and for doing this for a living. You're the greatest people on earth. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Goodbye.

[CJ Stroud]

Hi there.

[Darius J. Butler]

Surprise.

[Pat McAfee]

30 for 30 presents.

[Darius J. Butler]

Booyah.

[Pat McAfee]

Can I get a witness from the congregation?

[AJ Hawk]

You can't stop authenticity.

[Pat McAfee]

Booyah. Stuart was a gift. Exactly like you saw him on camera. Off camera. He dialed it up 10%. Can you imagine the impact of young black boys and girls looking at that going? I feel seen.

[Marty Smith]

He changed the culture.

[Pat McAfee]

He changed sports.

[AJ Hawk]

Booyah.

[Pat McAfee]

Presented by modelo. Premieres on December 10th at 9pm Eastern on ESPN. Talk about stepping up.

[Marty Smith]

It's time to level up your game.

[Darius J. Butler]

Introducing the all new new ESPN app. All of ESPN all in one place. Your home for the most live sports and the best championship moments.

[Ty Schmidt]

The electricity is palpable.

[Pat McAfee]

Step up your game.

[Darius J. Butler]

With no annual contract required. It's the ultimate fan experience. Level up. For More on the ESPN app or at stream.espn.com sign up now.