Are the Eagles the New Chiefs? And Herbert Defenders, Stand Up! Plus, Todd McShay on Improved Indiana, Scary Miami, and More.

Summary

The Ryen Russillo Podcast — Episode Summary

Episode Title: Are the Eagles the New Chiefs? And Herbert Defenders, Stand Up! Plus, Todd McShay on Improved Indiana, Scary Miami, and More
Release Date: September 22, 2025
Host: Ryen Russillo (Ryan R)
Guests: Todd McShay, Ceruti, Kyle
Podcast: The Ryen Russillo Podcast (The Ringer)

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Episode Overview

This jam-packed episode sees Ryen Russillo break down a wild NFL and college football weekend, focusing on the Philadelphia Eagles’ miraculous comeback and whether they’re morphing into the league's next perennial power. Ryen also spotlights Justin Herbert’s jaw-dropping game-tying throw, questions around quarterback narratives, and brings in Todd McShay for a deep dive on surging Indiana, Miami’s ferocious defense, and a host of intriguing college football odds and ends. The show closes with the trademark “Life Advice” segment, tackling everything from youth sports to tricky wedding guest lists.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Philadelphia Eagles' Comeback: Are They the New Chiefs?

• Struggles and Turnaround: The Eagles were down 26-7 to the Rams at halftime, with the offense sputtering (34 total yards passing, several three-and-outs) and fans booing. Ryen admits to doubting Jalen Hurts and even “workshopping wild ideas” like: "Would the Eagles be better with Baker Mayfield or Geno Smith?" (08:00).
• Second Half Heroics: Jalen Hurts flipped the narrative:
  • Last four drives: 16/23 for 260 yards, 3 TDs.
  • Noteworthy play: Hurts finds DeVonta Smith on 4th and goal to cap a 17-play, 91-yard drive when it was needed most.
  • Defensive line dominance: Key 4th-and-1 stop and a blocked game-winning field goal attempt.
• Big Picture Take:
  • Ryen: “On a Monday where they pull out another game and their defensive line that they’ve invested so much draft capital in shows up in a big way... The Eagles remain undefeated. This is what the Chiefs did last year.” (16:55)
  • Caveats: Saquon Barkley is a shell of his former self. A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith are strangely low in targets. Something still feels “off” despite the wins.

2. Justin Herbert: Why the Defenders Stand Up

• Signature Moment: Chargers down late to Denver. Herbert, under heavy pressure—“His whole body is contorted, Benito all over his throwing arm, and he throws a 20-yard TD to Keenan Allen to tie the game.” (19:00)
• Defending the Herbert Faithful:
  • "That throw is why we defend him. We're not hipsters. We just appreciate beauty because that is one of the all-timers." (20:35)
  • Ryen acknowledges Trent Green calling Herbert the best QB in the NFL is “aggressive,” but moments like this keep the pro-Herbert segment strong.
• Best/Worst Win:
  • Best win: Philadelphia’s comeback.
  • Worst loss: Atlanta’s 30-0 loss to Carolina.

3. NFL Fast Takes

• Green Bay’s Ugly Loss: Blown lead to Cleveland; Jordan Love’s brutal interception (“So bad, it had to be a miscommunication. That’s the only explanation.”) (22:00)
• Cleveland’s rise: Stefanski’s Browns quietly boast elite home record vs. winning teams.
• Block Party: Field goal block madness dominated close games across the league.

4. College Football Breakdown — With Todd McShay (22:09)

A. Indiana Hoosiers: Real Power or Mirage?

• Ryen beams: “I’ve had this team’s back... This is a powerhouse out there in Bloomington.”
• Todd McShay on Indiana’s leap:
  • “Last year, best-coached but low ceiling. This year is totally different. The offensive line is better, defensive front is better. Got after Illinois, seven sacks. Mendoza, their QB, efficient with RPO—if he develops, watch out.” (24:00)
  • “I think they’re one of the 12 best teams in the country. Glad the AP put them at 9 this week.”
• Receivers and RBs: “Those receivers are fearless, nasty, catch everything... Kaylon Black averaged almost 9 yards per carry.” (25:45)
• Remaining schedule: Tough games vs. Oregon, Penn State, Iowa. Todd would “consider picking them” over Penn State.

B. Miami Hurricanes: Defense is BACK

• Miami jumps to #2 in the AP; Todd McShay hypes new D-coordinator Corey Heatherman:
  • “Discipline, violence, flying to the football—six, seven, eight hats every tackle. Like, this is an identity shift.” (29:44)
  • “Reuben Bain playing like a top-10 pick, Mesadore with 2.5 sacks, 20+ QB pressures vs. Florida.”
• Ryen: “This defense is so scary. It's a moist Miami night... you just feel it.”
• Upcoming: After a bye, a showdown at Florida State feels like “throwback FSU-Miami with everything at stake.” (33:05)
• Todd: “It's never really about the Heisman QB. The best dynasties—Georgia, Bama, Miami—are built on defenses like this.”

C. Texas Tech, Utah, and National Landscape

• Texas Tech: “Defensively, they’re elite. Will Hammond, a young QB, brings juice—could be a tough choice for coach Joey McGuire.” (40:09)
• Utah’s John Henry Daly: Ryen flags him as a breakout sophomore DE to track (“Just put him on the watch list!”).
• Todd’s rankings: He’d move Texas Tech and Indiana ahead of Texas, and “maybe” over A&M.

Other College Notes

• Oklahoma: “With five starting WRs out and that o-line? You can’t boo Jackson Arnold! That D is for real.”
• USC: Lincoln Riley returning to more run-heavy play-action; defense “not Miami/Ohio State-caliber, but improved.” (53:26)
• Quarterback Draft Class: Caleb Williams shines vs. Dallas, but Ryen cautions against getting over-hyped by one big stat line due to weak defense.

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5. Life Advice Segment (57:02)

A. Youth Sports Specialization

• Letter from a dad with a 6-year-old choosing between basketball (loves) and baseball/golf (has elite skills).
  • Panel: Let the kid play what he loves at 6—“At this age, just let him be happy & have fun.” (60:51)
  • Kyle: “If he’s really a Tony Gwynn at 6, that’ll still be there in a few years. Don’t beat yourself up about scholarships at 6.”
  • Ryen: “Install a home batting cage/driving range if you want to nurture the talent without the time commitment.” (63:59)

B. Cutting Down Your Wedding Guest List

• Couple struggles with 140+ potential invitees for a 120-person venue; family mostly on the East Coast, wedding in Portland, OR.
  • Advice:
    • Get family to softly poll older relatives for likely attendance.
    • OK to have a “B-tier” guest list—most people understand.
    • “Old people may surprise you. Sometimes it's their last ride. They'll show up and party!” (71:40)
    • Stagger invitations; older guests usually RSVP quickly.
  • Bonus: “Add something fun to your wedding, like a word search puzzle with facts about the couple.” (75:49)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Eagles’ comeback:
  “The thing that hurts detractors would say he couldn’t carry a team just throwing the ball in the air—well, he did exactly that. Those last four drives, that’s as good as it gets.” — Ryen Russillo (13:50)
• On Herbert’s throw:
  “We're not hipsters. We just appreciate beauty because that is one of the all-timers.” — Ryan R (20:35)
• On Indiana’s leap:
  “It's just different. Seven sacks... Mendoza so efficient. I think they’re one of the 12 best teams.” — Todd McShay (24:00)
• On Miami’s defense:
  “Every...time Miami makes a tackle, they rally to the football as well as any defense in the country.” — Todd McShay (29:44)
• On youth sports pressure:
  “If he loves basketball, let him play basketball. Don’t push a 6-year-old toward anything. He’s not going to hate baseball yet.” — Ceruti (61:28)
• On 'B-tier' wedding invites:
  “I don’t think the B-tier thing is as offensive as some people think... I’ve been on the B-tier end and have no problem with it.” — Ceruti (74:58)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Eagles-Rams Game Recap: 03:00–16:55
• Herbert’s Signature Throw & NFL Best/Worst Week: 16:55–22:05
• Green Bay/Cleveland & NFL Miscellany: 22:05–22:55
• College Football—Indiana & McShay: 22:09–29:00
• Miami’s Defensive Emergence: 29:00–37:40
• Texas Tech, Utah, & College National Takes: 37:48–46:00
• Oklahoma/USC/Washington Takeaways: 47:19–54:14
• Life Advice Segment (with Ceruti & Kyle): 57:02–78:54

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains Ryen Russillo’s signature blend of sharp analysis, irreverent humor, and self-deprecation. The dialogue is brisk, direct, and loaded with stats and pop culture references. Todd McShay brings NFL scouting-level detail to college football, geeking out on tape and positional development. Ceruti and Kyle keep the “Life Advice” section breezy, relatable, and unpretentious.

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Final Word

Overall, this edition of The Ryen Russillo Podcast packs in big-picture football analysis, niche insights on emerging teams and players, and the kind of life wisdom and banter that regular listeners love. Whether you're looking for who might be the new powerhouse in the NFL, a sneaky dark horse in college football, or some level-headed advice on sports parenting and wedding invites, this episode has something for every diehard sports fan.

Transcript

[Ryan R]

Foreign. We're going to dig into this sport called football. All right, so here's the deal. Eagles. I had my doubts. I started thinking all sorts of crazy second ideas. Some of them had a lot to do with Jalen Hurts and there were stats to back it up. And then the second half happened. So the Eagles find a way to win a game that almost no other team in the NFL could win. Is it our best win? We'll do best win, worst loss? I'll cover that. I'll cover Caleb's big day against Dallas a little bit on Green Bay's loss to Cleveland. I have to talk about that Herbert throw. And don't forget college folks. We love college ball. We love Saturdays. So Todd McShay loves Saturdays too. I'm starting with the Indiana Hoosiers. I've had this team's back. It's great that everybody is finally listening. This is a powerhouse out there in Bloomington. We'll do that. And the other games. Texas Tech Love Life advice What do you do with a six year old that has a choice to make? This is the Ryan Rossillo podcast presented by FanDuel, and the NFL is officially back. So if you're going to be in it, be in it with FanDuel. They've got the goods. Futures, live betting, SGPs, that same game parlays your way, bets. All of it. The app's clean, it's fast, and yeah, when you win, you get paid instantly. When. Which is nice because Sunday patience doesn't exist. So get your bets in, build something bold and make every game feel bigger. Download the FanDuel app or head to FanDuel.com Ryan R Y E N to get started. The ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 and older and present in select states or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem call 100 Gambler, visit rg-help.com call 888-789-7777 or 5 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut paid endorsement week three full transparency a little out of it today. Had some stuff going on at home. I don't want to get too into it and share too much, but as a lot of you know, I had to watch the Giants in prime time last night, so it was rough over here. Only two more primetime Giants games though. We've got a Thursday night or a Monday nighter, although there is a chance the NFL could flex them out again with the rules on flexing out games, the Sunday games, so only the Sunday games available to do that kind of thing. I kept turning it off. Yeah, after all the college ball, staying up late for Cal, usc, and then the full slate Sunday. A lot of fun stuff on Sunday. I was like, I don't know if I have it in me right now to watch this. But then I kept thinking, like, what if something cool happens? Maybe there's a Kansas City segment in here where it's like, geez, they're not really that good. You figure they were going to get that one. Although the first half you're like, are you serious? This is the best you're going to do? And then on the giant side, like, I like those guys in the front seven. What a waste. Neighbors usually does something cool. Andrew Thomas is back. And then of course, Russell Wilson. Red zone, Russ. It's not great. He's three of 16 now in the red zone. They try to run it sometimes with them. Doesn't really work. So it feels like that Dallas game was a year ago already. So anyway, let's talk about the good stuff. This episode is brought to you by Doordash. Look, winning every Saturday sounds great, but with doordash streaks, it's actually possible. Order every Saturday and you start to build up the Savings. Up to 250 bucks over the season, including $100 in DoorDash credits. And it's simple. Order game day food, drinks and snacks and you get rewarded. Just don't let the winnings go to your head. No need to go full mascot mode in your living room. Doordash. Order every Saturday. Build up the savings. Win every week. Terms apply. Promo period through 11:18. The Eagles down 267 after a sack fumble to start the second half. Jared Verse, just a beast. Young, also a beast. So many guys in this Rams defense in the first front that I like so la after the sack, fumble by Verse, who's just a monster all day. One play later, 10 yard touchdown and I'm looking at the halftime numbers. I'm thinking about hurts. I'm thinking wild things about Hertz. I may even share a couple for you now, but total yards at the half was 212 to 34. Passing yards for the Rams 97 Negative 1 Total passing yard for the Eagles offense. And then Philly after the opening drive. Td, four straight three and outs, then the turnover and third downs, it just felt like they had no chance whatsoever. Now granted, I remember when I used to boo third and forever screen passes or draws when my favorite team was backed up to, like, their own eight or ten yard line, like, you know, throw it to the sticks. What are we doing? Can't give these possessions away. I. I used to boo those decisions, too. I don't. I don't do that anymore. It's been a long time, but the Philly fans are booing this offense. It just looks terrible. I mean, the 25 version of Saquon doesn't look anything like the 24 version of Saquon. He was hit behind the line of scrimmage on four of his five handoffs in the first half. No.

[Todd McShay]

No.

[Ryan R]

Lane Johnson. But, I mean, come on, when you're talking about the best offensive line in the NFL, which is kind of how we talk about the Eagles in this roster in general, you're like, all right, well, he's awesome, and it sucks that he's out, but figure it out. It's the other guys. Again, wild segment ideas that I was workshopping. Would the Eagles be better with Baker Mayfield? Would they be better with Geno Smith? You'd probably say, the way they're designed. Baker, although he gave it everything, I don't know how he would survive the tush push. And I think Geno being outside for an entire season, playing in the Northeast, maybe not exactly the best fits. But, yeah, I was letting these thoughts creep into my head. And then Hertz ended up doing something that I think fairly. We've criticized being like, well, you're in this perfect situation. Remember, the QB tiers came out with Sando. It's like, you guys think nine is too low. You're mad about nine for this guy. And so, yeah, as I watched that first half, I'm like, they have these two stud receivers. They have this whole line. They've got Saquon, and they can't move the ball at all. Like, what. What is wrong with this team? And again, this is a team that we have massive, massive expectations for, them coming off winning a Super Bowl. So when it looks bad, it's not just, hey, they had a bad week. Maybe that's Green Bay's excuse, but with Philadelphia, you're like, how can it look this bad? And then, guess what? It didn't. The thing that I think hurts, detractors would say that. That he could not carry a team by just throwing the ball in the air. Well, he did exactly that because on the last four drives, he went 16 and 23 for 260 yards, three touchdowns, including hitting Devonte Smith on the fourth and goal from the four yard line to cap a 17 play, 91 yard drive when you absolutely needed it. And maybe that's a bit. I don't like to compare anything really to Ben Simmons because I think he is his own entity. But. But the only time I ever saw him hit a jump shot on the baseline where I was like, hey, that kind of looked good is because the shot clock was going down and he had no chance to think about anything other than just getting the shot off. And so I do think there's a lot of quarterbacks when you have no chance other than just trying to hit dudes all over the field just like, hey, you're getting your asses kicked. You have to throw the ball all over the place. I'm not comparing Jalen Hurts to Ben Simmons. I don't want to compare anyone to Ben Simmons. But you get the point is that there are some quarterbacks when it's like this is the only thing you can do now. You can't decide to not do these things because of the way you're designed, because of the defense. And more often than not, Philly's just going to line up with most teams and be like, we don't really have to do a ton of these steps. See the Kansas City game from just a week ago. So average depth of target charts doesn't matter. Time to throw stuff doesn't matter. It mattered when he needed a matter and with his arm he did just that. So then you have the defensive line part of this for Philadelphia because it's not just hurts. There's a fourth and one stop where Greg Olson's like, look, the Rams try to go for on fourth and one at Philadelphia's 46 in the second half. No chance. Greg Olson great on the call, great every single week, like it's just a bad, bad matchup. And then we saw that bad matchup play out again in a block field goal. And then the Rams changed their blocking personnel and Jordan Davis happened and they blocked the game winning attempt after Philadelphia had failed in two point conversion after the Smith touchdown. So looking to close it out where the Rams are like, I guess we're still going to get out of here with a win. Manageable field goal. Jordan Davis lines up with Carter over, I guess the replacement on the Rams offensive line blocks it, then runs it back. And then we had this field goal block fest happening to close the one o' clock window for the NFL games yesterday. So the Rams are kind of left there thinking, like, how did we end up losing this game? We can for the Eagles, at least on a Monday, because now it's turning into the things that are wrong with them don't matter because they're going to pull some of these games out. And a lot of that stuff happened with Kansas City last year. Like oh well, why does this keep happening? Well, they're just built different and again, when you have the quarterback it feels like you have this advantage in those spots. I don't know that the Eagles necessarily have that right now. I mean there's some stuff that just seems weird. We've already covered the Hertz part of it. Saquon a career low three and a half yards or 3.3 yards per carry, 3.9 yards per reception. It was 8.4 last year for Saquon. A.J. brown and Devonte Smith are 41st and 46th in targets among pass catchers in the NFL. But on a Monday where they pull out another game and their defensive line that they've invested so much draft capital in shows up in a big way in the Eagles remain undefeated Sunday should also be known as the Herbert throw day. The chargers somehow down 2013 to the Broncos at home, a Denver team. Well, how are they in this game? Probably because Nick Bonito also certain and then basically a 4th and 2 bust for 52 yards to Court Sutton than the JK Dobbins revenge series. Denver was 2 of 13 on third downs. They're now 27th in the NFL on third down conversions. So at no point, despite Bo Nix's really nice rookie year, he just never going to, you know, I don't know what he ultimately becomes, but this version does not scare me whatsoever. And then you're looking at Herbert who's getting a ton of pressure thrown at him. I believe it's the highest pressure rate he's ever faced in the start his NFL career. But with all of this going on, you're like how the hell are the Chargers losing this game Again? It was that Dobbin series and the one big bust that they had. So with 237 left down 7 second and 6 at the Broncos 20, this is the Herbert throw. This is one of the best throws you'll see from a quarterback considering everything that's happening around him. The stake of the game at that time. You know there's going to be stuff that maybe means more later on in the season. But to take you through what happens here, Tafonga beats his matchup in the pass rush. So he's all over the place, just flying around all day long. SC guy who Played played for San Francisco for a bunch of years. So he wins his pass rush matchup on the left side. So Herbert's right. So now Herbert's got to kind of avoid that. And then in the middle of all this stuff is big old Zach Allen who gets an arm on him and Herbert's able to get away from that and has to shift over to his left and he's trying to figure out how to get this throw off because there's no way he's going to be set up. There's no on platform thing here for Herbert whatsoever with this chaos around him. And then Benito, who's turning into one of the best defensive players in the entire league, gets like a contest on a three point shot on the shooting arm of Herbert, which would be his throwing arm, where he has to kind of get around this contest and get sideways. His whole body is like contorted. And he throws a 20 yard touchdown to Keenan Allen to tie this game up. And that's why we exist. This is why the Herbert defenders exist, because of this kind of throw. Now Trent Green during the broadcast said he's the best quarterback in the NFL. That's aggressive. But that throw is why we meet every week. That throw is why we defend him. We're not hipsters. We, we are people that appreciate beauty because that is one of the all timers. And then when they needed it again, they get the ball back. Game winning field goal, they go 43 yards. Herbert's 44 on that series ball game, best win is still probably Philadelphia worst loss. It could also be Los Angeles. Considering what was going on in that game. Atlanta losing 30 to nothing at Carolina seems like not a great time. It could have been the Bucks, maybe to a Jets team that they felt like they were better than most days or excuse me, at least on this day. Will McDonald, who we love on this podcast, another guy who blocks the field goal and then returns at a touchdown. So all this stuff was happening at the same time, including the block game winning field goal attempt by Green Bay. But you know what, we can't say that about Tampa because one, they won. And this is what they do. They've now won their three games with 59 seconds left on the game clock, six seconds left in the game clock. And then as time expires this past week, so Green bay, Cleveland, they're up three zip with three 3:23 left in the third quarter and then they score a touchdown to go up 10 nothing. And as I'm watching this game, and this is one of the main, like, focus because you're kind of like, what's going on in this game? What's going on in this game? Again, we all have our priorities. You're not going to sit there and watch every single snap is with as much detail as the stuff that you're focused on. And you know, as I'm watching it, I'm like, this game, this game will get sorted out. Like, this isn't really going to happen, is it? Third down, Green Bay could go up another score here. It's third and three at the 25 with 3:18 left and love throws a pick where it's so bad. I was going through some of the presser stuff so I wasn't able to find it, but Wicks has to sit down on that. It had to. There's. That's the only explanation for how bad considering game situation. You know, it's one thing if it's like fourth down and you're down and you're like, hey, I just got to kind of throw it. Because you see that happen. We saw that happen in the Dallas and Chicago game as well. But on this throw, it's low. There's defenders everywhere. Wicks is still running the route. So I don't know if that was all on Love, even though after scoring only 10 points and losing to Cleveland. But there's a lot of stuff that happened in this game and it's worth noting here that Cleveland now under Stefanski since he took over in 2020, is 13 and five at home against teams. The winning record, which is right there with Buffalo at 10 and 3 and Kansas City at 12 and 4. So those three teams best records at home against other teams with a winning record and it's Cleveland of all places anyway. So I don't know that that's the worst loss for Green Bay. It is obviously very surprising when it's a battle the entire time. You can't just go into pass rush mode like they've been able to the first two weeks. Cleveland didn't do anything offensively necessarily. So it's not like you're getting on Green Bay's defense whatsoever. But even having said all that, Atlanta losing 30 Carolina is the worst loss. Let's talk about numbers. Mason Graham, speaking of Cleveland and some trades here, he had a 43% pass rush win rate, which is an insane number. Defensive tackles usually average about a 9% pass rush win rate. He was at 43%. So when you had the draft day trade grades, when Cleveland moved out of the pick for Travis Hunter, Jacksonville Getting A's across the board, Cleveland getting boring C's. Well, they're probably very happy with Mason Graham as it looks like Hunter's already transitioning to defensive back if you look at the snap count stuff. But yeah, I mean, some of this Travis Hunter stuff feels a little bit early, but yeah, if you're trading up for somebody that's this dynamic and can change the culture of an entire society, you'd probably like to see a few more catches in there somewhere. So a little too early on that at least though, with Graham just having a spectacular day. Another number, Yaya Diaby. I guess it's not just Houston and their offensive line, although that wasn't a great game for them either. Eleven pressures yesterday on 30 pass rushes, 11, the most since week eight of 24. And let's talk Caleb Williams to close this one out. Four touchdowns yesterday, all thrown 10 plus yards past the line of scrimmage, including the flea flicker to luther, which traveled 62.3 air yards, the longest completion on the season so far. We also had a hang time of 5.1 seconds on that pitch back by Swift, by the way, Bears fans, Swift is an interesting player, huh? I think I'll just leave it at that. So there's a. There's a couple different Caleb discussions. He looked great yesterday. He looked great. It also looks like Dallas after allowing 4 and 50 yards of Russell Wilson through the air just a week ago. It seems like Dallas has kind of a culture defensively where it's like, hey, if you just get kind of bored covering somebody, don't even worry about it. Like we get it. Three plus hours commercials takes forever. You miss a few. I mean guys are wide open all day long. But look, at least Caleb's hitting wide open guys as opposed to the opening week, you know, accuracy issues that you saw against Minnesota. So I'll admit because of the Wilson 450 against this Dallas team, there were shades of like CAM Newton week two with New England when he threw for 397 yards against Seattle. And it's like Bill did it again. Belichick playing a different. He's just in a different league. And then you realize like Seattle had one of the worst secondaries historically. I don't know where they finished out the rest of the season, but the first half of that season there was a stretcher. It's like, do you realize how bad the secondary is as pre Seattle? And guess what? Cam Newton was not the savior and it didn't work out. Maybe some Kevin Cobb stuff in there. Although that was concussions. That's my guy. Everybody knows that. Matt Flynn, Week 17 of the 2011 season, technically a 2012 game at the beginning of the year when he went for a million yards against Detroit. Detroit wasn't a great defense that year either. But none of that really matters. None of that really matters because, look, it's fair to bring up. I thought it yesterday too was like, how excited do I want to get about this? Do I want to if we're going to rank stuff here, potentially rank the 24 draft class all over again, it's like, how many times we're still going to do this? Maybe a million times. Because if you run through it at least today, Daniel's hurt. Drake May good's good, decent amount of bad in there too. Pennix, that was rough yesterday. Rough. Bo Nix already at his ceiling. J.J. mcCarthy hurt again. Could the guy that was thought to be potentially behind all of these other quarterbacks still be in contention to ultimately end up being the best pick, as he was picked ahead of all of them? Again, that's just a segment that's under construction. That's not. I shouldn't even have done that. I'm not unveiling it. I'm just telling you I'm thinking about it a lot. The Ryan Marcillo Podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel is changing the way you live bet football, and it starts with Next Drive sgps. Now you can bet what's happening on the next drive. Will it end at a touchdown, a punt, a field goal? Then see the player stats you need, stack in player props and build your bet exactly how you want it. And every NFL game day comes with a profit boost you can use on your next Drive SGP so you can get more out of every play. Whether you're betting a drive, a player or the next big moment. FanDuel makes live betting feel smarter, faster and way more fun. Visit FanDuel.com Ryan R Y E N To download the app today and bet the next drive your way must be 21 and older and present in select states or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Opt in required bonus issued is non withdrawable profit boost tokens restrictions applied including any token expiration and the max wager amount. See [e-mail] gambling problem call 1-800-gambler or visit rg-help.com call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatincenetic let's do it. Let's get into some college ball. It wasn't the most loaded slate, but I think some really good stuff as far as the storyline. Todd McShay Jo McShay Show Ringer podcast has been great. Now in his second season here with the company, I want to start with Indiana. I mean, we could start with Miami jumping up to number two in the ap, which they fully deserve. We'll get to Miami second. But anyone that's listening to this pod understands my history. And it has nothing to do with the Hoosiers in particular. It's last year, you know, and getting into the playoff. Everybody's heard this before, so I'll just stop. But I didn't know what to expect with that Illinois game. You know, Illinois, like a lot of teams throughout the country, you win a nice bowl game like they did against South Carolina, they come back with Altmeyer, who started the season looked, I thought, even better. At least they played another power four in a non conference game at Duke. So I always try to give a program a little bit of credit for that, even if that was like a shaky start. And Duke looks even worse than, you know, with the hype that they had going in from the summer. Worse than people would expect. So in this game you're like, you know, you should have known probably the Vegas, like, why isn't this two and a half, three and a half. It's six and a half.

[Todd McShay]

Yeah.

[Ryan R]

I must really like Indiana. And that was like the first sign, but I just thought it was like a ton of points and then Indiana comes out and beats the shit out of them. So I know the first thing that happens, which I kind of can't stand is like, well, Illinois wasn't really that good. Who knows, maybe Illinois fought, but like to finally beat a team that's ranked and the perception of like in a big spot. Let's see how they respond with new personnel, new quarterback. That was, I think, about as impressive as anything.

[Todd McShay]

It was different, wasn't it? It was just different.

[Ryan R]

Like Cooper and Surat and the defensive lineman and then Mendoza on some big spots where it's like this guy's totally calm. So, yes, like, I feel different about Indiana finally beating. Even if Illinois is a fraud, it was such a humiliating destruction of another opponent that we think is going to be okay in the Big Ten. You know, that has a lot of good teams here kind of at the top and in the middle. Your take from, from that game and what you thought going in versus what we think now.

[Todd McShay]

I feel like I was one of the people Leading the charge last year, like Indiana is really good. It's one of the best coach football teams in the entire country. But there's a ceiling and the ceiling's lower than people want to think. And this is not a college football playoff caliber program.

[Ryan R]

Right now.

[Todd McShay]

When you looked at like the, you're talking last year, last year, like Ole Miss and South Carolina, like I'm like, get them on the same field, see what happens. This year it's totally different.

[Ryan R]

Okay?

[Todd McShay]

That offensive line is, is better. The defensive front is better and they lost was C.J. west to the NFL. But they're better, they're deeper. It's sacked Illinois seven times in that game. Felt like they were in the backfield the whole game. And offensively they've got a quarterback and Mendoza hasn't done much of the running thing and he's going to need to as, as, like as the schedule gets tougher. But just the mere fact that unlike Curtis Rourke last year, Curtis Rourke would do that RPO stuff and it's like, yeah, go ahead, tuck it and run. See how far you get. Mendoza can actually run and we'll see that as the season progresses. But he is so damn efficient with this RPO thing, man. And I do question and I want to see his development over the course of the year. Like if that first look isn't open, I think he starts to get a little, a little panicky. I think his feet don't always come with his eyes and all that. But there's a reason why Signetti wouldn't let him go to the Manning passing Academy this summer. There's a reason why he had to be around and like drilling him day in and day out. Even when Signetti couldn't be with him, like working on our system, what we do and we're seeing that efficiency. And you talked about the receivers. I thought the receiver group for Indiana was one of the most underrated groups in all of college football last year. And I think this year it's kind of the same. You know, we see those guys were.

[Ryan R]

There last year too. So it's, it's not like. Right.

[Todd McShay]

And we see the Texas's and the, and the, the Georgia's improvement at wide receiver we see especially you know, Ohio State, Alabama, we see those programs, right? And I'm not saying they don't have NFL caliber guys, although Surat is going to be like a, probably a third round pick somewhere in that range. But those receivers play that system so well and they're, they're fearless over the middle.

[Ryan R]

They're nasty. Like, they catch everything. They're looking to hit you towards the sideline. You know, that was the thing that I love.

[Todd McShay]

Six, two, six, three. Yes. And then the running back position, you got Kaylon Black averaged almost 9 yards per carry in this last game. Black and, and, and Roman Hemby, two dudes. And then, and then Kobe Martin winds up with 107 rushing yards. So they're like rotating guys and staying fresh. I don't know, man. Like, I look at that schedule for Indiana and I just watched a lot of tape on Oregon's offense and you know, and Dante Moore and I watched a lot of tape on Penn State's offense and Drew out. I think they can, they can pull out a win against one of those two teams. Like, I think they're that good. I think they're that efficient. And even if they don't and they're a two loss team and they're. I just, I think they're one of the 12 best teams. I, I'm glad, I was glad to see the A.P. put him at what, nine this week? Nine or ten? Was it 11? Okay, whatever it was. But I think, I think people hopefully are realizing that this is, this is different than a year ago.

[Ryan R]

Yeah. And I, I think it's, I just get tired of like every time a ranked team loses. And like, did we think Illinois was really the 9th best team in the country? Probably not. But like, did this thing go like this, this game that fans want to play, that how late in the season can you go with dismissing everything a team has done? And I was that way about them last year because it's like, hey, look, in the one game that it mattered, I thought they got their asses handed to them. And I thought they ran clocked for the Ohio State. Yeah, the Ohio State game. They ran clock to make it look better at the end, kind of understanding, like, you know, if this score looks maybe a little bit better, we're 11 and 1, then we're kind of into the playoff. And I'm like, that's the opposite of everything that, you know, Signetti says about his program. And look, he just, he let Illinois have it too, after the game too. He's just like, yeah, we took their soul. And it's like, wait, what'd you think? Did you watch the Duke tape? He's like, Duke was getting to these guys. Like, so we knew we were going to get to those guys. And I think that's the crazy thing because when west is gone, you're like, all right, they're just going to cycle through a bunch of dudes again. And Tucker's a beast. That sophomore that's been there, I forget his name now.

[Todd McShay]

Kamar is a player. I mean, they've got, they've got dudes.

[Ryan R]

Yeah. So I, I have way more hope. I don't know what I'm going to do. You know, am I going to have the balls to pick them against Penn State? I don't.

[Todd McShay]

I might. We'll see. Let's see where they are because that's. That one's late. They play Oregon as their next. Next. And then later in the season's Penn State.

[Ryan R]

Right? Or am I wrong? No, you're right. But like, it's the tricky one here is, is there some sort of letdown with the home crowd jumping up in the ap, the carryover from next year and like playing Iowa, where that game just feels like it's going to be a grind at their place emotionally, like the emotional week to week dips that you have with college teams. Or is it like, hey, you're, you're talking yourself into something here again, we're like, did you see the Illinois game? Like, right. Do you really expect Iowa is going to keep pace with what Indiana. Indiana can do there? So you're right. They have Oregon. It's right after the Iowa game. And then Penn State is late November, right? Or mid November?

[Todd McShay]

Mid November, yeah.

[Ryan R]

Okay, let's talk Miami, number two team in the country. This team was undone by its defense last year. So Cam Ward kind of carrying him, the tackling or the lack of tackling against Georgia Tech, the disaster against Syracuse at the end. And you know, we can talk about Carson Beck being a little bit cleaner, although momentum wise, that was a tough interception to throw after Flora had finally scored. But this defense is disgusting.

[Todd McShay]

What is it? The Broyles award for the assistant of the year? Like, I don't know if it's Will Stein, I don't know. But, but Corey Heatherman, what he has done. And I just like when I saw this, I didn't know a ton about Heatherman.

[Ryan R]

Okay?

[Todd McShay]

I didn't. I wasn't like studying Europe football. I wasn't studying like UMass, wherever he was. I didn't like have a real good beat on Maine's defense or Old Dominion. And I knew that he was kind of rising up the ranks at Minnesota. But then I like really looked at his backdrop, like a western mass guy, like lifer, kind of grinding it out. But it's discipline. It's freeing guys up to play fast but to play like very violent, but also to play within the constructs. And I was like, oh man. Even before the season started, I was like, there's good there. I think there could be something to this fit and to see how fast he's letting them play. But more importantly, like the tape don't lie, right? That's, that's the phrase ever. It doesn't lie, man. Like if you want to know the buy in of a defense, pause the, pause the, the, the coach's copy tape when the, when the whistles blow and look in that screen, whether it's tight screen or widescreen and tell me how many defenders are there. I'm talking six, seven, eight. Every fucking time Miami makes a tackle, they rally to the football as well as any defense in the country. And this is a defense that just didn't have that buy in a year ago. One man has come in with yes, better level of talent but, but like, is it that much better? And has made them play fast and play hard and when they, when they arrive, the violence that they hit with. And Reuben Bain, I'm not saying he's gonna be a top 10 pick, but he's playing like a top, top 10 draft picks so far this year. And he's playing with power and he's playing with motor. And I watch like Tory linebacker Mesadore along the defensive line with two and a half sacks leading the team.

[Ryan R]

Combined for 20 plus QB pressures in the game.

[Todd McShay]

Yeah, against Florida, like it's just insane and blay and like they, they've just got dudes who are playing at a high level. And so like I look, I look around the country and like LSU is different because their defense is better. Now can the offense, which is kind of the surprising, can the offense catch up? Michigan's defense is different. People didn't realize coming in the year except NFL scouts. When I looked at like preseason like the national and blessed O list and looked at all the defensive fronts across the country, Michigan had more guys in their defensive front, seven with high grades, like first, second, third round than any other defense in the country. And so like when you look at programs that are built to last this season, I'm looking at lsu, I'm looking at Miami, I'm looking at Michigan, even with a young quarterback, will continue to get better. Ohio State, like those are the programs. Georgia, even though they're not elite and they, they showed a lot of flaws against Tennessee, like they're going to keep getting better. So that, that to me is telling. And Miami, I knew they'd be better. I didn't think they think they'd be at that level. And Carson Beck, his plate has exceeded expectations even though it was not his best game this past week. This team's scary.

[Ryan R]

Then they get the week off and they're going to be at Florida State and Florida State, Miami is going to feel like it's supposed to feel. Yeah.

[Todd McShay]

Like I'm in the basement at Todd Klein's house, Portnoy's basement. Like watching the Florida State, Miami and like everything in the world's on the line. 3:30, Keith Jackson, like it's going to feel like that.

[Ryan R]

Right.

[Todd McShay]

Like when our childhood. And I know there's been a couple times in like the last decade where like the, the build up and the hype and all that, but we're all in the back of our heads like it's not, it's not there yet. This is going to feel. We know Miami is. It's going to be telling.

[Ryan R]

For Florida State, that game felt like a shift from. It's the Beck storyline. You know, it's taking care of Notre Dame, which, you know, Notre Dame getting right this week. There's even a Notre Dame defensive conversation. And I know, look every big time. Yeah. But you. That's not to say, well, Miami put up numbers against this Notre Dame defense. And now we realize for. I am not actually doing that. I think South Florida beating Florida helped Miami probably focus and lock in on that a little bit. And then this Florida team comes in and you know, the injury issues are more on the defensive line. So you're like, are they going to get just rolled here and they hang in this game and for it to be unbelievable.

[Todd McShay]

Florida's defense, Florida's defense deserves so much better than like it's.

[Ryan R]

But it's the violence. It's those short third and fourths where you're going. Even if Lagway completes this, he may lose a receiver for the rest of the year.

[Todd McShay]

Yes.

[Ryan R]

And there were plays you could see and it's like Flagway makes a completion, you're like, he caught it and now is this guy going to be out for four weeks once everybody from Miami is flying to the football? So oddly like the game that momentum wise, you're like, is this going to be some rivalry game and throw the records out and the injuries aren't going to matter. There was this window of this game being like how this is a game because forget what the score was, it was complete domination. It didn't look like Florida was ever going to consistently move the football in this thing and yet they get the ball down six. Yeah. And you're going this is going to be like a weird SEC conversation here with Miami. But then after Florida State it's Louisville, Stanford, it's SMU who's you know, I still think decent Q's, pretty good offense but now they have the quarterback thing. So I mean the rest of the way if Miami gets this, I mean it'd be impossible to think that they're not going to be in the playoffs.

[Todd McShay]

We always talk about the quarterbacks in college football and understandably so. And we always talk about the high, we get enamored by the high power offenses. But if you go back and look at like the history of like national champions and like the, the best programs even like the, the quote unquote dynasties or like the, the teams of the that era, whether it's going back like the Alabamas, the Georgias, the Ohio States, like Ohio State last year, that was defense man. Like yeah, they had the, they had Chip Kelly and they had the two headed monster. But it's like it's not really historically about the team with the best quarterback. That's like the Heisman and that's a lot of flash. It's the best like the USC run, the Alabama run, the Georgia run and most importantly for this conversation, the Miami run. When you think back to those defenses and the Warren Saps and the, and the Sean Taylors and the like, it was about defense for Florida State. Miami, Miami never had great, great quarterbacks, you know Kar. But it was the defense that was violent and then they had a few big time playmakers at receiver and they had great running backs. But, but that's when I watching this the last couple weeks of Miami's defense. That's and I don't do the you is back shit.

[Ryan R]

Like it's.

[Todd McShay]

I'm just not here for that. I'm just not like I, I can't.

[Ryan R]

We've done it a few times. I think there was a Jigori Harris. Yeah.

[Todd McShay]

Like I was like walking through ESPN with like the stats and info guys and like people producers walk around the use bag. Is they back? Let's have a conversation. Let's have a segment about is the U back? Like stop. Makes me cringe.

[Ryan R]

A lot of teams have been announced that they're back that were in fact not back. But whatever this defense is. I, I do love the point there though. It shifted from the back keeping this thing moving. Yes, we knew week one the receiver drop off of production is Totally not an issue. I don't even think about it anymore. You're like, they lost their six, seven, you know, guys in total past production. You know, as far as the receiving side of things.

[Todd McShay]

Yeah.

[Ryan R]

This defense is so scary. It's like a scary defense and it's a, it's a moist Miami night, you know, and you're just like, oh. Anyway, the game I was probably looking most forward to was Utah at home against Texas Tech. And so there's a couple different things to do here. Baron Morton, who's been pretty good, and this was a turnover fest. It was an ugly game early. I don't know if it's because it's a 10am local time start for it, but you've got turnovers all over the place. Tech felt like the better team. This is another team that feels like defensively they can rely on that side of the football. They haven't given up more than 14 points in any of their four games. They only give up 10 to Utah. But Morton gets knocked out. You get dinged up early. Then you saw his head hit on the concussion. And Will Hammond comes in, who's actually a big time recruit. I mean, he's not the overall guy, but I think. What was he? He was 14th in that Lagway Riola class. He's a four star kid. Bunch of different offers.

[Todd McShay]

Led the state of Texas in passing his senior year.

[Ryan R]

All of it. Yeah. I do feel like there's like a thousand kids though that I've heard at some point had led the state of Texas in passing.

[Todd McShay]

Yeah. But oftentimes they're Colt McCoy and, and, and they're. And they're Matthew Stafford and they're Baker Mayfield and their Kyler Murray and their Johnny. Johnny Football. Like, yeah, I hear.

[Ryan R]

I know what you're saying.

[Todd McShay]

And I questioned Texas high school football for a while. Like, is it overrated?

[Ryan R]

I'm not even doing that. I'm just wondering, is it broken every single year, this record, this all time yardage Texas record, or we.

[Todd McShay]

I don't even know if it was the record. I just think he led the state of Texas his senior year. But let's not digress.

[Ryan R]

I know more about Westlake than I've ever known about a place I've never been to. So there you go. And then what? Drew Brees, I think was maybe one too. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Westlake. Another Westlake kid. All right.

[Todd McShay]

So is that where Hammond's from?

[Ryan R]

Probably. I don't know. Are there seven West Lakes in Texas? Because I.

[Todd McShay]

There's like there's an east lake. I think there's a Silver Lake. There's a bunch of lakes.

[Ryan R]

Hold on, let's. If it ends. No, he's a Hutto. Yeah, I don't know. I don't even know. Puto Hutto.

[Todd McShay]

Can I advance this conversation for a second?

[Ryan R]

Take it wherever you want. Because I also think there's a very important Utah part of this too. So go.

[Todd McShay]

Okay, I just want to say this. I wouldn't want to be Joey McGuire right now and having to make this decision as the head coach because. And it's maybe. And I don't get the sense it is a decision. So I feel like I'm maybe like stirring up controversy like that offense with, with Baron Morton, who by the way, I just want people to understand. NFL scouts are like, he may be a day three pick. There's like, there's a lot of like. So he's talented. He's a fifth year guy. He's done, you know, he's, he's well traveled. He's grinded it out. He's a team guy, he's a leader. He was injured during camp and came back and like. But what happened when he was injured during camp was this Will Hammond cat was taking first team reps and Will Hammond got to start a game last year and finish a game and played pretty well. And Will Hammond has gotten better and better and the players on the team have recognized, oh, this guy's talented. We believe in him. If he's got to come in and play, then he comes in and plays and it's like, yeah, here we go. Like I thought in that moment, you know, they had the, he comes in, it was like a, here, let's run a quarterback draw. Let's get him, let's get him into the game. 30 yards.

[Ryan R]

Bang.

[Todd McShay]

I thought when Utah scored that touchdown, it was. I started watching the clock because I had already bought into Texas Tech before this and I'm like, of course, of course they're gonna have an injury and this backup quarterback's gonna come in and they're gonna play not to lose and all that. They actually put it on. They put their foot down the accelerator more, man. Which tells you how much they believe in him. And I saw that offense open up. You got to remember this is a defensive struggle. And Morton was not playing great. And Morton under threw two receivers and through two interceptions. And then you got, you got this, this Hammond kid who comes in and it's different. Yeah, the first pick, the first pick.

[Ryan R]

Was Tip, but It was also tipped because it was under thrown.

[Todd McShay]

Yeah.

[Ryan R]

So it was like a go route. And I don't even know if you can say hey, that's back shoulder because the corner has it completely sealed off. So it's tipped but not like off the receiver's hands. It's on the back of the defensive back. So at that point with Morton, I'm like, well he actually deserves a little bit of blame for that one. The second pick's just, you know, the receiver sealed off in the end zone. He didn't need that in that spot. But I mean it was just, look, it was, everybody was turning the ball over like crazy and we'll get to tamper on Utah side of this. But you're totally right. It felt like there was a little bit more juice to an offense which Morton apparently was in the locker room celebrating after the fact. That's like a great sign. But.

[Todd McShay]

So he's probably going to be ready. But like, but, but like Belichick had a tough decision to make.

[Ryan R]

I don't know.

[Todd McShay]

Belichick had a tough decision to make with, with, with Bledsoe and Brady. Right. And I'm not trying to like, I, I feel like I'm creating controversy. But it's not about the two picks.

[Ryan R]

I don't think it's about the two picks. No.

[Todd McShay]

It's about what this offense looked like with Hammond versus And I wouldn't care all that much if the, if the baseline and the foundation of this conversation wasn't Holy shit, Texas Tech is really one of the 10 best teams in college football right now. That defensive line is serious. That defense as a whole got after Utah's ass at 10am local time kickoff. That offense comes out and they've got weapons. They've got this Jacoby Williams who's the number two running back, who's a receiver as well. They've got this Cameron Dickey kid. They've got a two headed monster that running back spot. They've got Terence Carter who like I got to get to know a little bit more. I got to know what this guy's about because he looks like he's got the, he could stretch the seam. 17 catches at the tight end spot. Koi Eakin, Caleb Douglas who's averaging over 20 yards per catch. They've got dudes and I know that Matador, the Red Matador club put in a lot of money for this year and this is like this window is tight and now I've got a young quarterback who might be better and open things up. More than my fifth year guy that, like, I believe in and is our programs. Like, he's our program guy. That's a tough. That's a tough thing to navigate as a head coach.

[Ryan R]

There's a couple other games I want to get to before we have to let you go. So I'll just say Dampier. That was from where it started. Yes. That wasn't the UCLA game. Man, he was terrible in that game. And there's a lot of like.

[Todd McShay]

And he's got. He's got two first round offensive tackles.

[Ryan R]

Yeah. And for the two tackles. And I understand you could say, like, hey, against that D line. But you're. If you're talking about these tackles. And that was the matchup we're all anticipating. They didn't run the ball consistently. 3 yards per carry the whole time. And Damper just has some throws. You're like, dude, what are you. Is it boredom? Like, let me see if this works. Maybe, you know, some real. Like, is it boredom? Yeah. Because Raiola, who we've talked about, and you know that's a game that goes back and forth. And the Raiola throw on the touchdown where he's leading the receiver left to right, that turns into the end zone and he flips it just off of his hip. You're like, okay, well, this is. That's the throw that everybody falls in love with with this guy, but he also has some throws. You're like, like, are you too cold?

[Todd McShay]

Old bad habits die hard, don't they?

[Ryan R]

Yeah. So lost in this. I don't want this to get lost in this. I just hope you lock in. I know he's only a sophomore. Number 90, defensive end John Henry Daly for Utah just put him on the earnest. Did you notice? Because I was afraid. I almost texted you to be like, hey, even though Tech is putting it on Utah right now, I don't want your draft evaluation part of your thing. Just make sure you're still paying attention.

[Todd McShay]

That's why you're my college scouting director. There's no stone unturned with you.

[Ryan R]

So you've. You've said Indiana's a top 10 team. You've said tech is a top 10 team. Who are you putting them over then? If you were voting, like, do you think both those teams are better than A and M? Do you think both those teams are better than Florida State? Oklahoma?

[Todd McShay]

No. Men gives me shit about this all the time. I have like 14 teams in my.

[Ryan R]

Top 12 or something, like by selection Sunday a little bit.

[Todd McShay]

But go ahead. You got the AP Pulled up.

[Ryan R]

Yeah.

[Todd McShay]

All right. Go, go. Go through it.

[Ryan R]

Hot State 1. Miami 2. Penn State 3. LSU 4. Georgia 5, 6 through 10. Oregon, Oklahoma, Florida State A and M. Texas. Indiana is 11, Texas Tech is 12.

[Todd McShay]

I put Texas Tech and Indiana after this week ahead of Texas right now. So I'd have them what, 10, 11.

[Ryan R]

Yeah.

[Todd McShay]

And then, and then you wouldn't put check over a M. I, I might. We'll find out. But I, I might quarterback. Yeah.

[Ryan R]

Because I, I know exactly what you're saying because there was a little bit more juice to it. But, like, Morton has put up some really nice numbers and looks like they have the defense to go with it here for. So anything that you think is big picture that you took from Oklahoma's win in the Jackson Arnold Redemption. I don't really understand Sooner's fans booing that guy.

[Todd McShay]

Yeah. There isn't a quarterback in the country who, who with five starting, their five best wide receivers out and that horrific offensive line, a year ago, they could have had success. So you can bleep off if you're booing him. And that was an emotional game for him and I thought he played his ass off. He wasn't perfect, but he. You could tell how much that game meant to him by what he put in, poured into it. My takeaway is Oklahoma may not be one of the five, six best teams in the country, but they're certainly, when it's all said and done, they're going to be one of the 15. I kind of hope they're one of the 12 standing at the end because that defense is legit. They got a kicker, which I know who wants to talk about a kicker, but that UTEP transfer can kick, and that was a massive hole last year. And talking to Jim Nagy, who's now their general manager, that was a big get for them. And so you've kind of shored up your special teams to a certain degree. The defense is actually legit. When our Mason Thomas came back in that game the second half with fresh legs, it was almost like, yeah, fine, suspend me for the first half. I'm going to have. I'm going to be even like more fresh and violent and dominant in the second half. You're doing me a favor. And that last drive, when they, like the thing with defenses is, like, when you have an offense that's capable in a quarterback like that, you're going to be in a lot of situations where you need closers and that, like, look at the three pressures on that last drive. That's when I Was like this Oklahoma defense is real and Mattier didn't have his best game. But I promise you, if you were to give me a draft of every college football quarterback in the country right now, I'm taking Mattier for this season over every one of them. And especially fourth quarter tight game. And I'm doing it recognizing he's capable of screwing it up with the aggressive mistakes. But if I need a drive like, watch how composed he was and how in control he was. That 30 yard touch catch along the sideline for the first down they had to replay and they overturned it. There was a catch. What a ball. And then just carrying, he's like, I got this nine yard touchdown run. Like he's different, man, he's wired different. I think he's special. I'm fighting myself against getting overly excited and putting him in the first round, but I like, I'm not betting against this cat. I just. He's got something that's different and special about him that, that you don't see very often. So I think Oklahoma's that, that Red river game, like right now Oklahoma is the better football team. Texas probably has a little bit more talent and depth. But you give me mater versus what we've seen from Arch and I know Arch had a great game this past week and all and he's excited and he's pushing coaches and he's stepping on it and I'm glad he's getting it all out emotionally. I think he kind of needed like a game.

[Ryan R]

I understand people making fun of Texas and the social media part of it. First of all, 12 year old kids run these accounts. Okay? So once everybody just accepts that that's what's going to happen. That is Arch being shit on nationally and locally and just feeling good about himself for a few hours.

[Todd McShay]

And you know who needed to see that?

[Ryan R]

Even though I would agree, like you guys are going to flex on like.

[Todd McShay]

This Sam Houston State. Yes.

[Ceruti]

Right, right.

[Ryan R]

I'm like, I totally get where that criticism is.

[Todd McShay]

I do too.

[Ryan R]

But I, but I think everybody has to kind of understand, hey, can you imagine being that guy for a few weeks going from Heisman favorite. And of course ESPN used the mock draft that they could find him being the potential number one pick overall in 26 when they did a Texas broadcast where I think consensus has been that he's not the number one pick.

[Todd McShay]

Well, he's not in the 2026 draft. I've been trying to tell people since May he's not in the 2026 draft. Like I was down in Thibodeau, right?

[Ryan R]

Yeah.

[Todd McShay]

Anyway, yeah, I think he needed to get that out emotionally. And I think, I think finally people in his circle got to him. It was like, hey, you're not Eli, you're not Peyton. And I'm not talking about talent. Like, you're a different cat. Your dad's, your dad's a. The best kind of lunatic. He's like a stand up comedian. He's hysterical. You've got like, go be you, man. Go be a prick. If you want to be a prick. Go let it out. And I think he, I think his teammates needed to see, like, it's all, it's all good. So I'm excited to see what comes up, but my goodness, we haven't had a Red river like legitimately like this in a while. Like, legitimately.

[Ryan R]

Can you give me. Sorry, before we let you go, can you give me a minute on SC? Because they make it up 20 against Michigan State. I don't think Michigan State's a terrible football team at all.

[Todd McShay]

I think there's a sleeping giant in all of this.

[Ryan R]

Who sc.

[Todd McShay]

Yes. I think their defense is better. I don't think USC's defense is, is the caliber we're talking about with Miami, excuse me, Ohio State, Georgia, even like Oklahoma. They're not Texas Tech, they're not that level. But they're turning the ball over and they're getting pressure. Okay. And that it's better than it was a year ago. But you go back and study Lincoln Riley and everyone thinks of, you know, Baker Mayfield and Kyler and Caleb and just flinging around the yard and all that. The reason why people were getting on their private jets, head coaches across the, across the country and from NFL teams to go see Lincoln in Norman was the unique and physical schematic approach that they had to their run game that set up all the passing stuff. And I'm watching Mayava and I'm watching him and it's all the play action stuff. And I'm looking at that at Mayava, Jaden mayava, and it's 12.7 yards per attempt where everyone else in the country is like seven, eight, nine. And it's the nine touchdowns, no interceptions because they're like controlled. He's back to Lincoln is what made him special and what made Oklahoma special.

[Ryan R]

For a while there.

[Todd McShay]

And I'm watching the tandem and was it Wayman Johnson? Wayman Johnson, Jordan, sorry, Eli Sanders. 693 yards, 7 yards per carry, this team. And I'm excited for this week. We'll see you know, what is it? No, it's, it's. It's Illinois this week.

[Ryan R]

Right.

[Todd McShay]

For us.

[Ryan R]

Illinois at Illinois. See how Illinois games. I mean, they've got.

[Todd McShay]

But it gets harder.

[Ryan R]

Yeah.

[Todd McShay]

And then Washington's another one man. Damon Williams leading the nation in qbr. They get Ohio State this week. Like, those are two of them. Those are the two underrated teams in the Big Ten. But because of where they play and who they've played, nobody's talking about. But USC as a team, I think. I think is going to surprise a lot of people down the stretch.

[Ryan R]

How about that little love for.

[Todd McShay]

Yeah, you got. You press the right buttons. That's why. That's why you are who you are.

[Ryan R]

Yeah. You know what? Did almost no SEC this week, by the way.

[Todd McShay]

I don't, I don't want to talk externals with you because we're just not what we do. But I don't care what's going on in your life, professionally and personally. I'd have to have like a bulldozer or like an excavator come and remove me from your house in day three of the NFL draft.

[Ryan R]

I'm gonna leave. Yeah. There's a, there's a shoot here tonight that's not even anything with. With me. It's an horn. Yeah, but it's.

[Todd McShay]

But I'm just saying. So everyone's got all these questions and what's this and that. I will be there. I don't care.

[Ryan R]

Like, I may be downstairs this year.

[Todd McShay]

No, you're not. Then. Then we'll walk downstairs.

[Ryan R]

All right. You're the best, buddy. Talk to you soon. Todd McShay, the McShay Show. Make sure you check out their Saturday night recap. It is a must watch for college football fans. Thanks to this message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. If there's one thing I love about my Apple Card right now, it's how good it is for my wallet. No joke. I can earn up to 3% daily cash back on every purchase in any category when I use my Apple card with Apple Pay. Food, sports, travel, the list goes on. And this card is designed to help you pay off your balance faster with smart payment suggestions. When's the last time your credit card did that for you? Take control of your finances. Apply for the Apple Card in the wallet app on your iPhone. Subject to credit approval. Apple card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt City Branch terms and [e-mail] this message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. If there's one thing I love about My Apple card right now. It's how good it is for my wallet. No joke. I can earn up to 3% daily cash back on every purchase in any category when I use my Apple card with Apple Pay. Food, sports, travel, the list goes on. And this card is designed to help you pay off your balance faster with smart payment suggestions. When's the last time your credit card did that for you? Take control of your finances. Apply for the Apple card in the wallet app on your iPhone. Subject to credit approval. Apple card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and [e-mail] this episode is brought to you by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like needing an offensive guard, but getting an elementary school crossing guard. Sure, they're both guards, but who's going to protect your quarterback on the football field? You wouldn't settle for just anything for your team, so don't settle for just any insurance. When it comes to getting the help you need, State Farm is the real deal. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

[Ceruti]

You want details?

[Ryan R]

Fine.

[Kyle]

I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.

[Ryan R]

What's up?

[Ceruti]

I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.

[Todd McShay]

I have every toy you can possibly imagine.

[Ryan R]

And best of all, kids, I am liquid.

[Kyle]

So now you know what's possible.

[Ryan R]

Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. Our email address, lifeadvicermail.com We've got Ceruti and Kyle. What's good, guys? Yo, what's happening? All right.

[Ceruti]

It's St. John's for Kyle until further notice.

[Kyle]

Yeah, I just been sort of. No, it's been happening now. I'm just kind of go to St. John's Hat on Monday, maybe the Patriots hat on Wednesday, and I'll feel good enough to put the jersey on on Sunday again. Well, at least that's the loss, go.

[Ryan R]

Through the motions thing. That was a tough one. A lot of fumbles for your guys.

[Kyle]

A lot of fumbles.

[Ryan R]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Kyle]

I kind of wish I was in the house for that one, but I wasn't.

[Ryan R]

What's that mean?

[Kyle]

I was just out and about. You know, people who don't like watching Patriots win, so they were, you know, they were loving it. I wasn't. I had like, one. One Patriots guy with me and, you know, like, should we just pick a corner to stand in? Because I don't like all the energy that's floating around this bar right now. Every time there's a fumble, oh, there's another one. So it was like, you know, it was. It got rough towards the end.

[Ceruti]

That's funny, I. Because I. Yeah, like I would. I probably got caught up in the Pat's hate in the. In the peak of the dynasty. But I don't really care about them anymore.

[Kyle]

In fact, people love punching.

[Ceruti]

I kind of like them.

[Kyle]

I think they like punching down more now than they ever did.

[Ryan R]

I honestly. Yeah.

[Todd McShay]

Yeah.

[Ryan R]

A lot of scars there. A lot of scars people don't forget. Yeah, yeah, I know. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about kids. Should I steer my six year old away from hoops? Our guy just shared his name. I don't think it matters. 46 years old, 5 9, 160 pickup comp deli. Great vibes, could help you win, but never the most talented guy on the court. Have you ever almost died playing basketball?

[Ceruti]

I was gonna say that's a. That's a lofty comparison for a guy who nearly gave his life for a championship.

[Ryan R]

I have a six year old son who loves playing a wide variety of sports. He's been in a basketball league for the past year. We live in an affluent neighborhood where youth sports are already insane. At his age, he's a decent player, but more deli than LeBron. But he loves it and says basketball is his favorite sport. I love watching him with his teammates. Here's the dilemma. He's just naturally very talented at hitting balls with a stick. Whether it's a baseball at the park or the driving range. He turns heads with how well he hits for his age. I'd love for him to play multiple organized sports, but we simply don't have the time. Both my wife and I work and our daughter is in theater outside of school. Sounds like the way this kid's hitting stuff and likes basketball. Sounds like she was in theater. Dude. Shit's busy. It feels crazy that I even have to think about this right now, but at some point, do I need to push him towards the sports where he's clearly more gifted?

[Kyle]

Wow. As a selfish. Not selfish, but like a selfish move would be not doing baseball. Because just like that's like, that's like the most craziest travel sport I would say, right? Unless your kid's like, to the point in basketball where he's going to be jumping AAU teams every year and just trying to create super teams within the state or whatever. I just heard nightmares from, you know, baseball. Every year the kid gets older, you know, so if we're talking about who's got time, I don't know if you have time to Lean into baseball the way that it's currently happening in this country.

[Ceruti]

How old's the kid? Did he say? I forget.

[Ryan R]

Six.

[Ceruti]

Oh, man. All right, so I was going to ask like, if you, you know, where's.

[Ryan R]

The end game here?

[Ceruti]

Like if he's 12 and you actually see a path to like a scholarship or something. Okay.

[Kyle]

That's the nice thing about baseball is that you got to fill those scholarships out.

[Ryan R]

Right? Golf.

[Ceruti]

But six, I mean, at six, like, I don't know, I think you just get happy with whatever he wants to do the most. So I mean, you probably just got to sit him down and say, hey, you know, like we don't. This calendar's filling up. We got a lot of things committed to. Like, do you want. Which one do you like better? I would leave it up to him. I don't think you push a six year old into a direction to pick a sport that early. I mean, he might be good now at 6, but like, maybe he's like a little older than everybody else. Like I was one of the younger kids. Like I was born in November, so I was four when I started kindergarten and there were dudes in the grade behind me that were older than me and it's like, are you better than me or are you just a year older than me in the grade below me? That would always piss me off. So I would say just let.

[Ryan R]

Sounds like it.

[Ceruti]

No, still haven't forgotten to this day. But little guy, but he knows, like annoying.

[Ryan R]

It's like cool guys wants to close.

[Ceruti]

Stayed back on purpose. So you could be better than me at sports.

[Ryan R]

Sick dude. Dickhead.

[Ceruti]

So now six years old seems insane. Let him do what he wants to do. Whatever he's having the most fun doing, let him do.

[Kyle]

How could he be, how good could he be at 6 where like this is a real. And listen, I'm not saying, like, obviously no parent ever thinks their kid is ugly or not good or annoying or whatever. And I'm not saying that's what's happening here. But how good could he be at 6 where, you know, is he just making contact with the tee really? Well, like what? I'm just wondering, like, what kind of evidence does he have that like, we need to really be like hammering down on this?

[Ceruti]

Now they're calling him a young Tony Gwynn in the six year old circles.

[Kyle]

That's what I mean. Like, you know, just if, like you just understand the concepts and you can hit that thing off the tee. I mean, I'm sure as a parent you're like, overjoyed. You're like, look at all these. All these guys don't even. Can't even make contact. Like, I would just wonder how good it actually is for six.

[Ryan R]

Somebody comes up to him, he's like, what's his batting average of two strikes? And the dad's like, we may never know. I've got some evidence. Like, again, pushing any six year old into any. Like, they may not even know. Yeah, they don't. You know, he's not gonna hate this.

[Kyle]

For two more years.

[Ryan R]

Like, yeah, right. So if he loves basketball, I'd say, like, let him play basketball. I do think, like, at certain ages, parents especially, like with the first kid, they can kind of lose their minds about, like the scholarship path. Yeah. I'm not saying everyone collectively should stop thinking that, but it wouldn't be the worst idea that you've ever had. I'm like, well, let's push him towards this. Because scholarship stuff, the fact that you're checking in at 59160, like, you could sit there and say, basketball's probably not in the jeans. Yeah. Like, what's the wife clocking in at? You know, we get some numbers there. You know, basketball's a sport that limits a lot of people. That has, you know, that's why whenever I walk by like a Steve Nash, I think, do you know how insane it is that this guy is who he is and did what he did anyway? That's just a Steve Nash aside. But yeah, I mean, we could do that. But if he's having that much more fun, it sounds like you maybe need to install a little bit of a home batting cage slash driving range. So you're not traveling anywhere. Right. Is there any way to do some netting, some.

[Kyle]

That's great advice.

[Ryan R]

Some piping, Just set it up a little soft toss in the backyard and then a little tee box for him. And maybe because you're not driving him anywhere and it's always there, his passion shifts a little bit later on and then you keep him in the one sport because you're totally right. Like, it is. It was tough on all sorts of generations having to pick up the kids and everything. And everybody, as a new parent starts going like, was this what it was like? I remember a friend specifically once, he had a couple kids in youth sports. He was just like, I feel, I feel so guilty about how I treated my parents, knowing that they were driving me and my brothers around like this all the time.

[Kyle]

A lot of times it was town league, though, I think. I mean, you're trying. You're just kind of back in the day again. In the back of the day, were you guys leaving the county all the time? Like, oh, yeah.

[Ceruti]

Oh yeah. Baseball. I look back now and I'm like, I have two younger sisters. And I'm like, I'm sorry. Like you were, you were going to like, yeah, multiple counties over different states just to like watch a mid kid play baseball. Like, this is insane. Like I, I can't. Like, I feel bad. I wasted so much time of everybody and I didn't even like baseball that much. It was weird. I just played it, you know, I played football, all that stuff. And then it was funny because I went on. Once I got to high school, I was like, I was already playing football and I was like, I don't really want to play baseball, I want to play golf. I want to have my semester be much easier. So I just end up playing on the golf team for four years and the baseball stuff didn't even matter. I'm like, damn, I really wasted a lot of people's time.

[Ryan R]

I feel like the Northeast weeds out a lot of baseball. Passion for high school kids. Sure. You just love it, you're playing it constantly and then next thing you know, you're like, how cold is it? That first fucking aluminum bat sting down your hands in a wet March game and then no one's there. Nice description. Basketball, everybody shows up. Like, football's once a week. It's cool. Like, there's a coolness to being on the football team in high school. But I feel like baseball, there's guys that loved it and were good at it. Like, no thanks.

[Ceruti]

Feels like baseball. There's always that like one kid in your town that's really good and it's like, oh, man. Like, he's got, he can go. He got drafted like the 60th round by the, by the, you know, the guardians or whatever. And then everybody else is just bad. Like there's always the one kid in town. We had that kid. Although Southington actually had. Has a good baseball history. Shout out to Carl Bavano, shout out to Rob Dibble. But yeah, no, I think about that all the time with the baseball thing. So my, I mean, my daughter's three or she's about to be three, and she started dance class for the first time.

[Ryan R]

Seven ace.

[Ceruti]

Yeah, kind of. She's got another month left. Birthday's next month. But she, you know, our goal is basically like dance class. Don't cry. You know, if she doesn't cry, she just like participates. Like That's a huge win. And she did. And she's only three years younger than this kid. So, like, I just feel like it's at 6.

[Ryan R]

You really.

[Ceruti]

You really can't make any rash judgments about what somebody's actually good at. Unless you're like, Tiger woods and you're going on, like, the Tonight Show. Clearly, there's, like, a phenom thing there.

[Kyle]

Yeah, I don't think we're there.

[Ryan R]

Sometimes not only these Baker Mayfield of the Eagles segments that I workshop in my head, I'll think, like, what policy could you run on as president where everybody would go? Because, I mean, right now, it's a joke. Like, it doesn't matter what one side does. The other side will go, like, is that how you're going to do it? You're like, yeah. I don't know. This seems like pretty. Pretty high approval thing. Like, I always wondered if you could just run on, like, one issue and just lower the price of airport water.

[Ceruti]

That was like, the rent is too damn high, guy.

[Ryan R]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ceruti]

It's like, yeah, actually, rent is too high.

[Kyle]

That guy swept the nation. Yeah, that guy swept the nation.

[Ryan R]

I'm not great with maps. Like, if you try to get me in a debate and be like, where's this? I'm not going to know where any of it is. Tax stuff. Like, whatever, don't care. Like, let's just get the waters down. And so then I was thinking, could you come up with something like, hey, education may take a hit. We're going to raise taxes a bit. I'm not really going to pay a ton of attention to immigration, but what I need to do is I want to start subsidizing youth sports commuting. Like, would somebody say, like, what do you mean?

[Ceruti]

I think it would just be grifters that would be mad at you, you know, like, this. And this is every sport. Baseball, basketball, soccer's a mess now. Like, soccer's all paid for play. It's. And I feel like the only people that know that or that don't know that are, like, the grifters who are basically running these things.

[Kyle]

Oh, they know it.

[Ryan R]

I think they know it. I'm not even talking about. Cause, like, is there any way to be like, hey, do you have public transit only for kids in sports.

[Kyle]

Oh, nice. Just a bunch of vans driving around, those big, like, sprinter vans. Just big enough for a youth baseball team.

[Ryan R]

I feel like the optics of the vans, you'd have to do.

[Kyle]

We'll dress them up a little bit. Bright colors.

[Ryan R]

How's this work like other strangers come by in a van and picks up everything.

[Kyle]

Bright colors. I mean, you know, obviously not dark windows. We'll get those tints off the windows.

[Ryan R]

I think that's a wizard that they painted over. Okay, who should we cut from our wedding? 5, 10, 1 7. No gym stats. Can do a hundred pushups in 5 to 10 minutes. It's pretty good. That is pretty. Anybody tried to do that recently?

[Todd McShay]

No.

[Ryan R]

I know. Kyle, will you try this week? No. Is that.

[Ceruti]

I feel like 105 to 10 minutes. So 10 minutes. 100 pushups. 10aminute math.

[Kyle]

I wonder how long it would take me. I wonder how long it would take me. I really do. Because I mean I'm certainly not going to just. I wouldn't just bang it out there.

[Ryan R]

It's impossible.

[Kyle]

But like, I wonder how long it would take for someone to be like that one counted. That one counted. We're at 100. I really do wonder if I get to take as many breaks. Not like I'll go watch TV or something, but if I was like, I'm just going to lay here on the ground for a few minutes and I'll get back to it. I do wonder what it would take.

[Ryan R]

Van Pelt used to do them in commercial breaks.

[Kyle]

That seems like a great way to keep the energy up.

[Ryan R]

Honestly, fucked his shoulder up pretty bad and then couldn't get an MRI for ever.

[Kyle]

That's crazy. Just come back sitting. Sitting a little bit to the left this time.

[Ryan R]

Basketball Comp Year 3 Darko Milicich. If you know, you know. Wow. Who should we cut from our wedding list? Background Fiance and I are getting married in May of 26. Both grew up and went to college on the east coast, but live in Portland, Oregon. Having the wedding here. Met in Portland one and a half years ago on Hinge. These guys are just fast tracking it. Good for them. Many mutual college friends, but don't remember ever crossing paths in college despite graduating in the same year. Oh, wow. That's kind of wild.

[Kyle]

I think you should have had the wedding east, by the way. Just saying you got everyone that you're inviting is going to be from there. But whatever, it's your wedding. I guess you could be selfish.

[Ryan R]

Yeah, I think they can. The issue is we're facing a classic one. We have more people than we want to invite to the wedding that the venue will allow. The venue holds a maximum of 120 guests. After our initial list of guests we wanted to invite, we had 140 potential attendees. We still have not sent out any save the dates or winning invitations, but have asked our friends and families for their mailing addresses. About 90% of our families still live in the east coast. About 60% of our close friends do too. Furthermore, we pooled all the potential invitees into three confidence levels of how likely it is they will come. Low, medium, or high. Wow. I love their organizational skills. But after that initial pooling, we have 120 high medium invitees and 20 low confidence invitees. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Invite everyone. Surely 20 will say they cannot attend. The problem is that this is not a guarantee and the last thing we want to do is retract invitations from anyone. Additional context. Most of the low confidence guests are older extended family members. We don't think will want to travel across the country. But still, that's not a guarantee. You never know. Sometimes old people are like the last ride. Yeah. The last crusade going wild.

[Ceruti]

What's the worst that could happen?

[Ryan R]

Yeah. Yeah. I haven't been to a wedding since 78. Right. You know that's not a guarantee. One last twist. We realized we do have friends that we left off the initial list, including local ones that would surely attend our wedding. Realistically, we could extend the initial 140 guest list closer to 160. So what's the move? Invite all 140 and pray people say no. Only invite 120 and wait for anyone to decline. Then invite what is essentially the B team of guests. That just seems shitty. Invite all 140 guests. But include a caveat to the older family members on the east coast. We could potentially send them all a note that we will be out east a few months after the wedding for a smaller reception for the those that could make or that could not make the cross country trip. Option four, something else. Selfishly, we all want to send out invites to those who can't make it, so they might send a gift or cash instead. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks. And also, if you guys have any crazy fun or unique ideas from weddings you've attended, we're also very open.

[Kyle]

I think.

[Ryan R]

You hear, I'll let you guys take this one.

[Kyle]

You hear that? You hear that? 10% won't come. That did not happen for us. So you just can't, you can't bank on that. I mean, what I would do is like you say in a lot of.

[Ryan R]

Your family, it was 1% that didn't come.

[Kyle]

Yeah, it was you. But I think like, I think what you have to do is since it's both families start working, your parents, you know, A lot of times parents want to be involved somehow, you know, or they might be the money people for this wedding.

[Ryan R]

I don't know.

[Kyle]

But like, I think see if anybody's dad or mom is interested and actually quietly back channeling and seeing who definitely is not gonna go. Like, great Aunt Millie, talk to her kid and be like, do you know for sure she's not gonna go? We wanna actually get these numbers. Cause you can't do the retraction thing. You shouldn't do the. If they can't go, we'll let you know all that stuff. I think because you're not doing it back east, you want these people who you're inviting to be able to come if they can. So I'd say just try to go through the family. Try to have one person on each side of the family who's gonna make it. Be like, you know, it'd be really helpful for me at my wedding if you could just sort of figure out without explicitly saying to anyone, you know, you're going to make the trip or whatever, maybe they could even talk them out of going without actually doing it. Make it their own idea. Incept that.

[Ryan R]

Like.

[Kyle]

Yeah, it's a really tough time of year. Rainy over there in May.

[Ceruti]

Just send a check.

[Ryan R]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kyle]

And they'll be back like your whole. They'll be back in a couple months. And we want to actually. What if we could make this a really nice party and then that person who's getting, you know, disinvited can help with the party. But yeah, I'd say try to get some family members on the case so you can get those numbers to where they make sense to you.

[Ceruti]

That is a good idea. Most of my family's weddings now have become like mini family reunions too. So people do like to go. For the most part.

[Kyle]

They will make it fit in their schedule.

[Ceruti]

Yeah. And then there's always like a meetup the day after. It's like, man, we're really making the full weekend of this. But I think the other thing too is I don't think it's that big of a deal. You probably have to invite family first.

[Ryan R]

Right?

[Ceruti]

Invite all the family first, see who doesn't come. But I don't think the B tier list thing is actually as offensive as some people think it is. Like, I've been on the B tier end of some invites and I have. I have no problem with it. I just. That's how life goes. You just kind of understand it. Like, if you get upset about that, I feel like That's. That's more on you than it is on the wedding people. But like, they're already planning the wedding.

[Kyle]

They pitch it to you as you're the. Like, hey, good news. No, but you just kind of know.

[Ceruti]

No, you just kind of know based on the date. Like, I'm going to be honest. Like, do you think we were a tier for Worgon's wedding?

[Kyle]

I certainly wasn't.

[Ceruti]

I don't think I was either. And I wasn't even remotely offended by it. I couldn't go. I would have went, but I couldn't go. Was away that weekend. I don't care. That's. I was happy. I was invited to the wedding. Couldn't go. Sent a check. Awesome. Wasn't offended. And like, I think. I think we would be B tier Worgon guest list at this point. Right?

[Kyle]

I might have been C. Honestly.

[Ryan R]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ceruti]

Like, we're.

[Ryan R]

We should have been. I mean, think about it. We didn't even really say goodbye to them. So on top of everything else, he.

[Kyle]

Did have a crossword at his wedding. If you want something wild and crazy, they handed out a crossword for just like facts about them or something. Or like, it was Melissa and Mike themed crossword. So there you go. If you're looking for a funky thing to do.

[Ryan R]

How bad did you do on it?

[Kyle]

Oh, it wasn't a crossword. It was a word search, actually.

[Ceruti]

I think that's all right. Still.

[Kyle]

What is fun?

[Ryan R]

I don't remember. Especially when you thought it was a crossword. It must be.

[Kyle]

Yeah, I love a crossword, honestly.

[Ryan R]

Fuck off. Like, where are the clues, man?

[Ceruti]

A bunch of letters. What's going on here?

[Kyle]

Anyway?

[Ryan R]

Yeah, I always think it's like tough when it's a work thing and then there's kind of like this work dynamic. It's like I just started working with these guys and like, I just got engaged like during it and now whatever. I kind of like the east coast teaser, you know, hey, we are going to come out and kind of do this. But thinking old people won't want to travel versus old people that are motivated to do something that has a purpose. Yeah, I think that number is going to be a little bit higher than you would think. And you know Cerruti, the Italian part of him? I like that that's coming through there. It's like, look, family first. La familia. So, you know, you met some new guy at some brew pub in Portland. Eight months on the scene. He's a fucking a tier guy. Like, you know, it sucks, though, because.

[Ceruti]

That guy's probably more fun, you know? But you, you're just like, hey, this is kind of how it works. You got to invite who you got to invite. Um, yeah, I mean, our wedding became, like, partially a wedding for our parents, too. Like, my parents were inviting, like, their friends. It was just like, man, this is. This is. But again, you know, if they're. If they're footing most of the bill, it's like, what are you going to do? Like, I. I'm not going to push back on that. But we had. I think we had north of 200 people there. We had some. We had a good amount of ESPN people there, though, other than you.

[Ryan R]

Serene. And I know the deal for what happened there.

[Kyle]

It is funny, though, Ryan, you're right. People, they're thinking like, oh, my God, the great ants. They're gonna be so happy to bow out of this and we'll see them in a couple months. Where in their head, they're like, they think they're gonna rock your world by showing up and leaving the state for the first time in eight years or something.

[Ceruti]

That is actually pretty cool.

[Kyle]

It's like the most. It is cool, but it's the most opposite. You're thinking, that is going to be, like, a huge relief for them to say no. And they're like, I'm about to rock their world when I show up in Seattle or Portland or wherever, then start.

[Ryan R]

Banging out some cold water creek. Just decked out, head to toe. Double knits. Yeah. I don't think the B tier thing, you may not have to, like, it doesn't have to say B tier on the invite. You know, just stagger it out a little bit. And usually the good thing about older people is they RSVP really quickly.

[Kyle]

Yeah. So the earlier you send it out, the better idea you'll have.

[Ryan R]

Yeah. I would look at it as almost like a medieval battle.

[Kyle]

Two waves, the vanguard.

[Ryan R]

Right. Like, get that first out there early, See where you're at. See where you're at, numbers wise and then whatever.

[Kyle]

Then the cavalry.

[Ryan R]

Yeah, yeah. Like you're going to hit some of our men. Yeah.

[Ceruti]

Well, to tell you, that's weddings, you.

[Kyle]

Know, cost to do a business.

[Ryan R]

We have ancestors that lay claim to this territory. Yeah, they do too, though. No, doesn't matter. All right, that'll do it for the show today. Thanks to Saruti, thanks to Kyle, thanks to Jonathan Frias, Ryan Rasul podcast on the Spotify app and our YouTube page, and thanks for listening. Runners, to the pod.

[Todd McShay]

Bring your Spotify they were gonna name me Michael Jordan.

[Ceruti]

My dad was like, I don't think.

[Todd McShay]

He can live up to it. So they named me Michael Jarrett.

[Ryan R]

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