← The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
CFB's Latest Terrible Idea, Colts Pick Jones Over Richardson, and the Best Defense in the NFL With Booger McFarland
01:37:08
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- [00:00]
Ryan McGee
Foreign Today's podcast episode College Football Expansion for the Playoff did you hear about this? I did and I'm not happy about it. I'll ask Google McFarland about that again. Who he likes, who he trusts at the top of college football world looking at the rankings and then we get into some NFL stuff including his former team the Colts, some story time stuff with Peyton Manning and life advice. Enjoy. This episode is brought to you by Bleacher Report Football is back and downloading the Bleacher Report app puts you in the middle of the action. Make Bleacher Report your go to this season for the fastest breaking news alerts covering NFL and college football and don't miss a moment with highlights, scores and live reactions in the app. Get expert analysis on your favorite teams and the news that you want this season. Download the Bleacher Report app Today I have some thoughts on the new college Football playoff proposal. I was not going to be able to let this one go. You've listened to the pod before. So the newest proposal from the Big Ten, I guess it was between 24 and 28 teams. The media is working a lot with the 2018 model. So let's just run through what that would be, what that disaster would look like. The Big Ten would get seven auto bids. The SEC would get seven auto bids. The Big 12 and ACC both five auto bids each. Two auto bids for non power four conferences and then two at large bids. The committee would still be involved for what reason? I have no idea. Because they'd be spending all that time on seating and then coming up with a two at large bids. I'm not sure that's worth a weekly meeting. I don't think it's worth a weekly TV show. Reese Davis sitting there being like, all right, the second at large bid is number 24, Minnesota. Yeah, that just doesn't seem as compelling. So let's run over what we have here because there's a deadline of December 1st for a new agreement for the playoff and if they can't figure out something again, I don't. I mean it feels like really two people are in charge here with the SEC in the Big Ten, but it would stay at 12 teams. So apparently Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti worked on this idea with other Big Ten ads with Big Ten ads last week. Then they told the SEC about the proposal and then apparently all the other ads and conference commissioners around college football found out about this proposal when we did. I don't know if that's entirely true. CBS has reported that clearly there Were a lot of people that didn't know and that were frustrated. I guess we could also step back collectively and say, okay, whatever. The Big Ten threw out a proposal at leaked. Now we're all bitching about it. What's the big deal? It probably won't even happen. But I think it's worth bitching about because this is something that I've been doing now for years. Because it's like, all right, well, you want to change this? And now you want to change this. If this proposal, if we have a new version of this playoff system, It'll be the fourth iteration of college football championships since 1997. You know, I'm not telling you just the polls the next day and co national champs and all that stuff was great. I'm not telling you BCS was great. I was totally fine with 4. I'd rather leave a team out than feel like Everybody's involved.
- [03:13]
Booker McFarland
Totally.
- [03:14]
Ryan McGee
12, I don't like 28, I despise. And maybe that's why they leaked it. You know, sometimes it leaks. I get a little skeptical. It's like, oh, we're really upset this was leaked. And sometimes it's like, hey, make sure this gets leaked so we can hear what everybody thinks about this. I hope they are hearing the collective outrage, because this is college football that has a history of just terrible ideas. This is one of the dumbest ideas that I've ever heard. So when we went to expansion at 12, you know, my position when it was happening was before it even happened. I'm like, the way the conferences are structured now, you're going to be able to skate through an entire different conference experience based solely on the luck of the schedule and how much you want to schedule or not schedule out of conference. I don't think. And again, Indiana, this is not about you. It is about the principle about a team getting through a regular season where you're like, I don't know that they really did anything, at least against any ranked opponents. And now they're going to play for a national championship. Can you imagine what we'd be talking about with teams, the arguments that we would have between teams in the others receiving votes category. Let's look back at last year, the AP poll before the final season rankings. This is before you're going into the playoffs and everything. 26, 27, 28 teams. A and M, Louisville, Duke. I'm good. I'm good. I'm going to be okay if they're not in the playoffs. One of the other things that I heard is based on the success of the home field playoff games, the momentum off of that, they'd like to expand that, have 20 of these games be on campus. You're like, oh no shit. Home playoff games were going to be more exciting than going to Orlando. Let's talk about the seventh place teams. If we went to seven auto bids last year, the Big Ten, it'd be Michigan or Minnesota, both at 8 and 5, they'd be in the playoffs. The SEC, look, I know the Big Tens won the last two national championships. I think it's kind of funny that the SEC has held up the standard that when they don't win a national championship every single year, it's down. It's down for them. I don't know how long it'll be down. Do I think the Big Ten is actually top to bed, top to bottom, a better conference? Absolutely not. If you look through, I don't know how many years you have to go through this before you'd find the Big Ten being superior in this group. But if you go Teams 5, 6 and 7, SEC against the Big Ten, I don't, I don't even think it's close between those, those groupings. You may disagree and it's probably because you're a Big Ten fan. So if you look at the ACC, fifth place team last year, Louisville, Big 12, it's Baylor at 8 and 5. TCU was actually 9 and 4, but I think Baylor won the standings tiebreaker based on conference record. So a few more thoughts here. Why is the Big Ten getting seven? I could say who put them in charge? But nobody's in charge. That's the problem with the sport. And if I were running the Big Ten, I'd only be worrying about Big Ten teams, even though it sucks for the, the sport overall. So I look, I understand when Sankey says something. I understand when the ACC commissioner says, you know, I get the self interest, the driving motivation of self interest in survival or just going, how do we just dominate all this stuff? But if you're the Big Ten, you're like, is there a way we get seven of our programs in there every single year? Yeah, let's throw this one out there. And look, we'll get, we'll let the SEC have seven as well because they're pretty good. Maybe some ACC people are like, hey, five's good for us. The other thing that's really difficult about this is because, you know, I was going back and looking at like the fifth place Big Ten teams against the fifth place Big 12 teams. I think for a bunch of years the fifth best team in the Big 12 was better than the fifth best team in the Big Ten. That's generally irrelevant now after the Big Ten added four pack 12 teams. So when you add in an Oregon and then you start moving all these teams down and the fact that the Big 12 loses their two biggest brands in Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, I don't know how relevant it is. Even though I did the exercise this morning and going, you know, the Big twelves had a lot of seasons where it felt like they were really deep. Maybe not the national championship contender the Big Ten in the SEC have had, but you know, really deep seasons. Where would you want to agree to something where it's just automatically a less than or are you looking at it going, we are such a second class citizen in both the ACC and the Big 12 now that five's good for us? I don't know. But I do feel like college football ignores any long term vision. It also feels like they ignore the cyclical nature of sports. So there'd be some years in the Big Ten and maybe even in the mighty sec, you're like, who's the seventh team? Is there a quality seventh team that should even be in this? Would it be that one of the other smaller conferences and again, I hate even saying smaller conference in Big 12 and ACC where they'd actually have like a six team that was really, really good and they're just automatically not in this. Or I guess you'd say, hey, they'd get the at large and it doesn't matter. But it just gets back to the general point of like, why is a seventh team that's done nothing all season long still on a graphic on my television after the 12 regular season games. So all the years of yelling about this has, has led to. It's not an I told you so, but it's a lot like a collective bargaining agreement fight where when you agree to something that you don't like, which is a part of every negotiation for the most part, unless you're just so special you get everything you want. But that's very rare. But for the players going up against the owners, right? Whether it's hockey, football, baseball, basketball, when you're the players, you generally losing. We've talked about this before, it's just a matter of how much you lose. But a lot of times there's something that's asked for that you're like, all right, well maybe I can give this up now. But the real fear, the danger is, is that in Six, seven years. When you're at the table again, it's like, well, you gave in on this a little bit and now we're just going to take back a little bit more from that. Like we've, we've broken the seal on the idea of being able to give that up. And now I like, look, I'll just use a simple example. Long term contracts in the NBA used to be seven years. If you were that team's player and you were resigning, you get a seven year max and it's like, man, those are really long. Can we start to shave off a year here or there? And they did it, and now those deals are shorter. And whenever you start letting expansion just run wild like this, 4 to 28 would have seemed crazy, but 4 to 12, to 16, to 28, now and then you start to hear people be like, well, in the NCAA tournament, they have this many teams make. It's like, man, why do you want to do that? I'll also hear a lot of people say, well, you like the NFL playoff model? Actually, I don't. I've said that for years. I always think that it should mean something to be able to be invited to the tournament to win a championship in your sport. The commissioners in those other sports at least, whether it's NHL, mlb, NBA, NFL, even though they work for the owners, a big part of their role is preventing the owners from fucking themselves over and then fucking up the product. Long term, there just feels like there's much more long term vision. Now college football doesn't have a commissioner. I don't really know who he would work for if anyone would listen to him. You probably hope, if you're a commissioner long enough and you think of David Stern, where it's like, yeah, you're the commissioner and these owners are still cutting your paycheck, but you have enough power, you have enough juice over the years that you can push back on even the people that own these teams. That doesn't even exist. There's nothing in college football that even exists that way. The commissioners of the conferences, they're not partners. NBA owners, NFL owners, they have to figure out a way to become good partners for the good of the product. And we are in a place right now with college football where there is no partnership. I don't know that I've ever seen a league go out of their way, the leadership of the league in the wnba, to devalue one player the way they have with Caitlin Clark the last two years. It's pretty clear. You can read through all sorts of stuff. It seems like they go out of their way to try to devalue the impact of one player in a way that's helping a league financially in a way that we've never seen in the history of it. It's not apples to apples here, but college football is attempting to devalue its product. But I guess I can't hit you with the actual value loss in dollars because you're just going to say, like, oh, well, you know, if they expand this, it just means more money. Thank you, Adam Smith. I understand that. But at least the professional leagues understand that all the teams, at the end of the day have to find a way to be good partners in college football. It feels like the only partnership they really care about is the television part. So if you're hitting me with, well, it just means more money, you're being stupid, you're being naive, you're just too old school about all this. I think all of us that are reasonable understand that there's a limit to this, right? A hundred playoff games would be more money, but that would be ridiculous, right? Most of us say, well, that's, that's too many. There's an understood line. I don't know what that perfect number is. I know it's south of 28. I still think personally it's south of 12. But there exists this number that it's like, this is still special and it's still rewarding the right things. And if it's leaving out a few programs that are going to be upset, that means that it is special that you didn't get invited. This devalues anything feeling special about it. If you had this many teams and whatever that line is, college football, they don't break it. They put their head down, smash through it, only looking one step ahead. He is Booker McFarland. He joins us throughout the year. I love having him on a big part of ESPN's coverage of college football and of course played a bunch of years in the NFL. So a lot of different stuff that we want to do. I started this show today with just a rant about the latest proposal on College Football Playoff expansion. This coming from the Big Ten, 24, 28 team, seven auto bids, Big Ten SEC. I don't even know if anybody would even take this thing seriously. I certainly don't take it seriously. But I think just the overall vibe, the constant change and the expanding for more games and yet inviting lesser and lesser teams in a chance to win a national championship. I'm worried about this sport and it's just finding new ways to piss me off every year.
- [13:54]
Booker McFarland
Yeah, I understand that. I've definitely heard you speak before on it. Here's what I say. I think we've opened a can of worms, and I think a lot of people are trying to go down this rabbit hole and it goes all the way back to the bcs. Remember when we were doing the whole computer thing and everybody's like, yeah, this is stupid. Let's fig a way to get this committee. Then we get the committee, and then we go from four, and now we're 12. Is it going to be 14 this year? I just think that we're a society that's very greedy right now. And here's what I mean, because we got the playoff games last year. We got Penn State at home, we got Ohio State at home. We got. Who else was at home? We got Notre Dame at home. Like, we got these on campus games in the playoffs. And everybody saw the amount of money that was. That was created. Everybody saw how much energy was on their campus and the fan bases. And in an era where Inclus is like, the number one thing we're trying to do not only in sports but in corporate America, I just think we're infatuated with, like, how deep can we go? Basketball does 60. What, 68. Now they're trying to get to 96. Whatever the number is, who cares? Football is saying, okay, let's do some version of that. I don't like it. I was cool with four. I think it should be hard. I'm okay with 12, but if we start going past 12, maybe 14. I'm not even in favor of 16. I think we've kind of missed the mark. Like, at some point there has to be a cutoff. You can't include seven teams in the Big Ten and seven in the sec. Like, it just doesn't make sense. So I agree with you. Here's the one reason I'm not worried, Ryan. The one reason I'm not worried. I'll give you. I'll give you two. Two words. Greg Sankey, because I think he's the smartest guy in college football. And as long as he's the commissioner of the most powerful conference, the sec, I'm not concerned because I think Greg is always going to do what's right by college football. I trust him unequivocally when it comes to putting our sport in a position that it not only morphs with the time and changes, but it doesn't become gimmicky, if you follow me.
- [15:56]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I mean, I just feel like whether it's Petiti or Sankey, that the analogy I use is, at least in professional sports, every owner, despite competing with each other, understands there's a partnership and it's for the betterment of the brand. And I don't know that I've seen any decisions that are made by conference commissioners that are actually for the betterment of college football. It's about their programs in their own backyard or someone else's backyard. This arms race between the Big Ten and the SEC is leading to a lot of this stuff, because if I'm an SEC coach, I'm going, okay, so it was hard enough to get to an SEC championship game, and now we're going to add Texas and Oklahoma. Like, you know, now I'm supposed to. I'm supposed to talk to boosters every year about, like, coming in fourth, and I still might be a really good football team. And certainly there could be years of the Big Ten where, you know, I don't think you could compare 5, 6 and 7 Big Ten against the SEC. But now with adding in all the Pac 12 teams, Oregon strength, we'll see where Washington is. You know, SC should. You would think at some point we get back to prominence here. So it changes some of my big 10 sec comp stuff historically, because I have an open mind about all this. So maybe that's the case with Sankey. You could be more informed on that than I am. But it feels like answering to your geographical representation first and then to the sport second. And it's concerning because it keeps happening and each change, you know, gets us further and further away. I think, you know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe everybody's just still going to love it. Maybe everybody just cares about watching their team on a Saturday. Like, hey, I'm just a Wisconsin fan. Like, you guys. Figure it out. I'm going to be really happy to be in Madison on a Saturday afternoon because it's awesome, and I'll go to the game and I hope we win, and that's all that really matters. But the overall, the national version of this product, I just can't believe that we keep heading in this direction.
- [17:56]
Booker McFarland
Well, I agree with you that the conference commissioners have a responsibility to their affiliation as far as their conferences. I think you can look bigger and beyond that and say, okay, how does our conference or how does what we do stack up to the rest of the country? And it goes back to the Big Ten in SEC with this. Nine games and eight games as first conference games. I think Greg has a holistic look from 20,000ft while also understanding, let's just call a spade a spade. Traditionally, the SEC is the best conference in college football. Now, the Big Ten is one of the last two national championships, and they've gotten better. Especially when you add Oregon to the Big Ten, they've gotten a lot better. But I think when you look at it historically, Those are the 12 conferences in this country. Even if you're a Big Ten homer and you say, okay, we're right there, you still have to agree that the SEC is right there on par. And the reason I say they're going to do what's right is because they could take their ball and leave if the big tenant SEC said, hey, we're going to go do this thing and we're going to have two super leagues and we're going to split apart and do our own thing. The rest of you got Big 12, ACC. Y' all figured out they honestly could do that because the TV money would follow them. Okay? The reason I think they're not doing it is because they understand the bigger picture. They understand that the Big 12 matters. The ACC does matter. I'm not sure what's going on with the Pac, whatever you want to call it right now, whatever they're doing out there, but those Big Four do matter. And so I honestly think, while there is an allegiance to your. To your geographic region, Tony Petitti and Greg Sankey, I do think that they're about the bigger picture of college football, even though that picture has changed in the last decade. Like, it's changed dramatically in the last decade. And guess what? A lot of things in our life have changed, so we have to morph with kind of what's going on. We just can't take it too far. And I think they have the best interest of the game in mind. And then you got to factor in Notre Dame, which has always kind of been the eyeball sitting on the outside for everybody tries to include.
- [19:53]
Ryan McGee
Do you think. And again, this is a proposal. It already seems like nobody likes it. I think the Big Ten likes it because it guarantees the Big Ten seven auto bids. I don't know if they didn't want it leaked, I don't know if they did maybe want it leaked to see what the reaction would be to this. Do you think if the Big Ten had not won the last two national championships, they would be proposing this kind of stuff?
- [20:13]
Booker McFarland
No, I think the Big Ten is. It's kind of like when you're Negotiating with somebody, you always start. Even if you want 20 million, you ask for 40 and hoping at some point you settle down. Does the Big Ten honestly think they're going to get seven auto bids? Like, seriously, you can't name me seven teams in the Big Ten right now this year that are good? Like, we could have this conversation and debate it. I don't know of seven teams in that league that are. That I would say that are deserving to or that have the roster to play for a national championship. And I don't know if there's seven in the SEC this year until we see them play, to be honest with you. So seven auto bids in any league, I think is way too many. I do think, just like you and I would, if we go in the gym and we hit, I don't know, four or five or three, we'd be feeling ourselves a little bit, right? Like, if you're the Big Ten, I'd be feeling something. Hey, if you won the last two national championships, hey, I mean, you're gonna. You're gonna pat your chest a little bit, so I get it, but let's kind of be realistic also.
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Ryan McGee
Yeah, I think that's the right answer. I mean, I don't. I don't blame them for being like, you know, hey, there's a bit of a juice transfer here, by the way.
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Booker McFarland
When'S the last time that we hit 405 for three, by the way, since.
- [21:20]
Ryan McGee
We zero times, I've never.
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Booker McFarland
Have you had hit it one. Ever hit it one time?
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Ryan McGee
Never.
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Booker McFarland
Good, good. I was just checking.
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Ryan McGee
405.
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Booker McFarland
Yes, 405 pounds. In case you didn't get what I said.
- [21:37]
Ryan McGee
No, I. I know. What? I didn't think you were asking about an area code.
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Booker McFarland
No, I'm not talking about Oklahoma, by the way.
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Ryan McGee
That's right. 405. Good job.
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Booker McFarland
Yeah, exactly.
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Ryan McGee
That is good because there was a joke about Bob Stoops when he had lost a bunch of bowl games in a row, that his area code was 0 for 5 because Bob just got it done as soon as he showed up. And then. Wait, what the hell's going on with our program here? They love Bob Stoops right now. So let's talk ball. Do you have a national championship game already? Have you. Have you. Have you worked on it? Have you made any.
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Booker McFarland
Come on, man, like.
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Ryan McGee
All right, all right.
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Booker McFarland
We're just finishing. We're just finishing the second scrimmage portion of where team. We haven't even game planned for a game this week. Unless you're Iowa State and Kansas State. Here's what I'll say. I think there's a handful of teams that legitimately can win a national championship. Like if you, if you want to say, I'll phrase it this way, what teams have the fewest question marks? The fewest question marks. I think Clemson comes to mind because they have a veteran quarterback. They got a lot of guys on, they got a lot of answers on offense, they got a lot of answers on defense. Penn State, a lot of answers on offense, a lot of answers on defense. You got a returning quarterback. Those are the two teams that have the fewest questions. Outside of that, Ryan, when you start to look at the other talented teams, Ohio State, new quarterback. Lsu, can they play some resemblance of defense? Notre Dame, like quarterback situation there. Alabama, new quarterback. Georgia, new quarterback. Even though he played last year. Like if you just go down the list of the teams that are the most talented, Texas, Arch Manning, we think we know, but you really don't know like that. There are, there's a, an abundance of teams that have question marks. The team with the fewest question marks, the two teams that have the fewest question marks are Penn State and Clemson. Now, does that mean they're going to play for a national championship? No. But when you start to kind of, kind of 10,000ft this thing and you start trying to put teams in tiers and categories, if you do it that way, it kind of gives you, kind of lets you let you break down the country and see who's going to be good and who has an opportunity to be good and who's kind of going to, who's kind of going to surprise people. As far as those teams that could come out of nowhere, like in Oklahoma with John Matiere, if he's, if he hits, Oklahoma could be really good. Like there's some teams like that that could come out of nowhere and be really good. I'll tell you a dark horse. I'm going to give you one dark horse I know you didn't ask for. Here's my dark horse of the, of the college football season. South Carolina. South Carolina has an opportunity to, I think if they go 10 and 2 again, 9 and 3, or should I say if they backed up last year's season with 10 and two this year, I think it get in the playoffs. They might get in the playoffs with nine and three. South Carolina with that quarterback, it would almost be like, you know, making an all pro team like the first time you, they probably should have gotten in the playoffs last year, but they didn't get the benefit of the doubt this year. If they repeat that season this year, I think back back during last year with another season, I think they'll get in. So South Carolina is my dark horse.
- [24:44]
Ryan McGee
That schedule is brutal. You know, not to say that Virginia Tech's coming off the strongest season. A lot of injuries. So they open with them and then their SEC schedule over six weeks or these five games at lsu, Oklahoma, Alabama, at Ole Miss at A and M. And then I brought up the Coastal Carolina thing. Cause I know Canel has that tweet ready to go for November 22, but then they play Clemson luckily at home. If they were to go. See, this is where you got to ask. Okay, well does a three loss team that has three losses off of that schedule, do they get in? Well, it's. Again, who am I comparing them to?
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Booker McFarland
Yes.
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Ryan McGee
So I don't. We don't know that.
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Booker McFarland
See, that's why, that's why I say if you think about what they did last year and they were right on the fringe last year, if they do that again this year, I think they get the benefit of the doubt because the people in the room are only going to be humans. Like they're humans in the room. They're going to think about what they did last year, the momentum, to your point, the schedule, how tough that schedule is. You go nine and three with that schedule. I don't care which nine you pull, you pull out. Like they. They're going to get a lot of consideration.
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Ryan McGee
Yeah. And it does suck too, because I think their loss against LSU is one of the worst officiated games I've ever watched in my entire life. Life.
- [25:48]
Booker McFarland
Yeah, it was pretty bad.
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Ryan McGee
It was. Booker says with a big smile on his face. I. I think I rarely go that far. But even the guys on the call, I think it was Fowler and her street where they were. Or was it McD? I forget. I don't know if it was McDonald, McDon, Macar.
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Booker McFarland
I can't remember.
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Ryan McGee
Was it McDonough? Because it was a day game.
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Booker McFarland
Yeah, it was like a noon ABC game, I think.
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Ryan McGee
Yeah. So why would that be her Fowler. So I. McDonough's not afraid to let the officials have it over the course of broadcast. Probably more so than anybody. But that was, that was just. I mean it cost him a shot at the playoff. It cost them a shot of the. Granted it was earlier in the season, so they don't know that. They ended up closing really strong, winning a bunch of games the rest of the way. But I would love for the committee and I don't think they can do it. I think human nature is just. It's really hard for a group of people to look at one team that's 10 and two and another team that's nine and three and think the nine and three team is better than them. They don't look at schedules. They don't look at the imbalance within its own conference of the scheduling. I think it's a real, really hard thing for people to sit in a room and go, okay, but this team is actually better. Like, look at what they had to go through. So I don't know if South Carolina maybe off of the momentum because this is also a human nature thing. The momentum of last year and then being talked about and everybody knowing that Lenores has a chance to be, you know, I don't know if it'd be the top quarterback taken all overall, I still think there's some work to do. But he's just so much fun. Everybody seems to love the guy and he really came out on the scene last year. So staying, staying with that. Though let's stay with the quarterback stuff at the top because I don't even know what your. Your answers would be on this because of the unknowns. The Texas, Ohio State making their announcement that the. The younger recruits going to be playing saying Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon, Bama. So that's six of the eight we've done this before for. Is there one you love? Like, I'll just say I'd be a little shocked if just Arch Manning all of a sudden was average. That would be surprising to me. So I don't know where you are with him or if there's another young guy from that group, an unproven guy from that group that you actually feel really good about.
- [27:56]
Booker McFarland
So I think if you are a young quarterback, do you have a play caller that can put you in a position that's going to make some plays and do you have receivers that can catch the football? I think to your point about Arch Manning, Sark may be the like Sark is, is a. Is a play caller who has been able to morph regardless of who the quarterback has been. Think about when he was calling plays at Alabama. Think about what he's done. Now if you're Arch, you waited on this, okay. And a lot of people would say to Sark, well, if Archer's so good, how come he didn't play last year? Because last year's team was probably more talented than this year's and Sark would probably say, well, he wasn't ready. So with that being said, you got Wingo, who was a five star, recruited Texas, and now you got Arch. Now you got the playmaker, excuse me, the play caller. I think that combination is going to be really good. I like saying at Ohio State, and here's why I say that, Ryan is. Because everything coming out of Ohio State says this. This ball comes out quick, it's accurate, and it's quick. And the one thing I can tell you, even though Will Howard was big, he was a gamer, he came up from Kansas State. Will Howard I don't think is the pinpoint passer that Julian saying is it. Julian saying is. And if that's the case, to go along with Jeremiah Smith, Cornell, Tate, like those guys, they're going to be really, really tough to deal with down the field. Last year they ran the football a lot with Trevion Henderson and Quintean Juckets. It was physical, it was quarterback power. Sometimes it was rpo. I think this year Ohio State's going to say, you know what? We got the best player in America and number four, okay, as Vampel would say, just throw it to four. All right? Put him out there. You got to take and saying, hey, be accurate. Let's use what we have. That's the job of a coach, man, is. Is to take what you have and morph your game plan into that. I think their offense could be more explosive. And so I think those two scenarios are going to be two that could really, really, to your point, I have a hard time seeing them fail, but I think they could really hit a ceiling that we haven't thought before because of the explosiveness of the offense, because I think those two quarterbacks are going to be good from. From a throwing and a passing standpoint. Sellers, I think Sellers is a year away. I think Sellers this time next year could be viewed the way we look at maybe Arch this year or Club Nick or some of those guys who, who could be potential. I know Jeremiah McShay are infatuated with his physical traits and what he could be. I just think he's a year away from a development standpoint, and I think in the end he will wind up being that. I just think he's. He's not there yet.
- [30:26]
Ryan McGee
You know what I like about saying for Ohio State here? And I go back to two years ago when it was McCord and Devin Brown, number 33 there, by the way.
- [30:35]
Booker McFarland
33.
- [30:36]
Ryan McGee
Well, it was, wasn't it, because of Sammy Baugh. I think he had Said that's why I wanted it. So I immediately loved it. But they played that so hard all off season. Okay, Like, I do think that there's a point of victory spending too much energy on something that's attempting to be devious. We're just like, what's the problem with just saying, like, hey, this guy's gonna play? Like, I mean, break. But look, coaches just. Just obsessed with this idea that, oh, they're going to be wasting so many reps. Like, I think I get in an NFL week, you know, if they're two completely different quarterbacks. And I think probably us in the media overstate the importance of that. I guess I'm just so sick of everybody saying, like, well, they can't name it. Like, think all the reps they're wasting prepping for two different guys. And it's like, yeah, I don't even know whether that really even happens. But the argument for saying here is that, you know, he beats out a junior who nobody even knows. And they. They made the announcement, you know, they didn't toy around with it because it was very clear, like, once Ohio State broke the 23 season, it was McCord.
- [31:38]
Booker McFarland
Correct.
- [31:39]
Ryan McGee
So, like, they did it to mess with everybody because maybe they still thought it was close and Devin was just a different kind of player altogether. But once the announcement was because I was watching this going, are they going to do the exact same thing they did two years ago? And then it doesn't really matter. Maybe there's something to be said. And again, this is a positive spin on Ohio State's decision that we're mid August and we know and we're good to go. Because I just remember the obsession with that. Whereas if I look at, like, Ty Simpson with Alabama, he's been there a while, it looked like two years ago, they wanted to make the change to somebody that wasn't Milroe.
- [32:21]
Booker McFarland
Yeah.
- [32:21]
Ryan McGee
And he was never able to take it from him. And look, people are all over the place on who Milroe is or isn't. The draft guys had him QB1 after the Georgia game, and I lost my shit on Monday's show. Okay, like, all right, this is where you start. This is why the guy at home is like, these guys don't know what they're talking about. And I know those guys know what they're talking about. They're friends of mine. But I was. I was telling my friends, you're out of your mind on this one. So the reason I bring up any of that kind of stuff, and maybe this Is the Saban lesson. In all the times that I had access to Saban, would sit down and talk with him and why I love him so much is I asked about the Blake Sims decision when they had Coker, right? And it was. It was something he had talked about. He was like, it's. It's up to the coaches, but it's also up to the locker room, right? It's up to the locker room. And you will see how a locker room and the guys that matter how they respond to one guy over the other. And that might have been the Sims decision. And then it worked out, you know, Coker having to wait a year and maybe that was it, maybe the locker room, because Melrose just such a freak back there that it was. That it's not so much a knock. Like I'm kind of talking out both scenarios here. Was Simpson not good enough to overtake Milroe or did Milroe just own that locker room so much that it didn't matter? And that's what Saban was going to go with at least in 23, right.
- [33:43]
Booker McFarland
So I think initially that, and I know you've heard this, like, life is about relationships. And I think initially the relationship that Mural had and the connection he had with some of his teammates probably was the reason why that everybody wanted. Or the locker room, quote, unquote, it wanted Jalen Milro. But I think when you're Caleb DeBoer and you come in there and you gotta win, you get a feel for what's going on. Now Jaylen Miro starts now. You look at what's best for our team. Ryan Williams, in my opinion, is just as good as Jeremiah Smith, but he doesn't get the opportunities or he hadn't had the opportunity to play with a quarterback that can remotely get him to football on time.
- [34:23]
Ryan McGee
Just. Let's just jump in there. I think it's close to. But you think he's just as good as Smith.
- [34:30]
Booker McFarland
No question. I think he's just as good. They have different things that make them great. Smith. Smith's size is unreal. His size is his physique, his athletic ability to go up like, he reminds you of a. Of Calvin Johnson. Whereas, like, you look at a guy like Ryan Williams who's smooth, man, his route running to be that size like he was down in Tampa, like, he came down to do like a little prospect camp. And I saw him run like he's bigger than you think. Like he's 6 foot 2, he can run, he's got hands, he's Like a faster version of Reggie Wayne. And if you know how good Reggie Wayne was in Miami and how good he was with the coach, people who don't know, like, ah, nah, Reggie Wayne is borderline hall of Fame, like he should be in the hall of Fame, like that's what he reminds me of. Ryan Williams is that good and he hadn't had a quarterback that can get into football on time consistently yet. And so I think when you're Caleb DeBoer and you're making this decision right now with Ty Simpson, you're saying, okay, even though I recruited this five star guy out of Duncanville High School and Keelan Russell and he's the future because he's a dual threat quarterback who gives me the best chance to win right now. And I think if you're Ryan Williams and you're the receivers, you want the total opposite of what you had at Milroy. You want a guy that is not going to run, that's going to throw you the football so you can make a gajillion plays. And I think that's what Alabama is going with. Even though DeBoer, his guy is the five star from Texas and eventually he wants to play him. But to your point about the locker room and the playmakers, they don't want the QB running around no more. They want that guy that's throwing the football where these receivers can eat and make plays. And so yeah, they gotta. If you're the coach and you gotta listen to what the locker room is saying and you kind of get a good feel about where the team wants to go. And if you have the type of relationship with your best players, you just pull them in the office and talk to them like, hey man, like how do you see it? What's your thought process? Does the ball come out when you want to? Because the worst thing for a receiver and a playmaker, excuse me, a receiver and a play caller is a quarterback that won't throw the football on time. That is the worst thing because they both get frustrated. Play caller designs these great plays, receiver runs a great route and he just doesn't throw the football. So I think that's what they're dealing with in Alabama. I think Ty Simpson is going to play. The biggest issue I saw with Simpson when he finally played is the moment was a little big for him. Ryan, like it was a little big. Like he got happy feedback there. He looked like he was a little overwhelmed. And if he gets an inkling of that, you're going to see the freshman really quickly because he's been there since January.
- [36:58]
Ryan McGee
Did they ever ask you what you thought about quarterback while you were in college?
- [37:02]
Booker McFarland
Zero chance. Matter of fact, they didn't even ask me my opinion until. On anything football till, like, my senior year. I mean, I was. Dude, I was the nose guard they didn't care about. I thought, man, hey, go tackle the guy.
- [37:18]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, that's pretty much what I imagined. What about. What about in the pros? Like, you had some status a little bit.
- [37:28]
Booker McFarland
Fun story. I get traded to Indy, right? And we're having this conversation just about the team, and Ursay pulls all of us in the office and, you know, we're talking about things that make us better and leadership and all that. And I've only been there like a month or so or whatever, and I get it put on this. On this committee. And so I'm starting to feel a little bit empowered. Fast forward. We're in the playoffs and we're playing Baltimore. And if you remember that game, we're on the road. And within the first quarter of the game, Peyton has almost thrown like, three picks. Like, Ed Reed dropped one, Ray Lewis dropped another. And so nobody said anything to Peyton, right? Like you. Peyton is the hall of Famer. So I go to the sideline because I've kind of felt empowered. I've only been there for, like, four months. I said, hey, hey, 18. Hey, just so you know, hey, let's not throw it to them today because they can't. They can't score on us. He looked at me like I had four heads. I'm like, hey, just don't throw it to them. And if you remember that game, we beat them 15, nine, we kicked five field goals. They couldn't score on us. And years later, like, I think he finally realized I was right. But at the moment, he looked at me like, dude, you've only been here four months. We've been trying to do this for 10 years here in Indy. And you're telling me not to. I know. Not to throw it to Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. I didn't try to. It just came out that way. So that. That's my only quarterback advice I've ever given, and I gave it directly to the quarterback.
- [38:57]
Ryan McGee
I think he was right to look at you that way.
- [39:02]
Booker McFarland
So throw it to him. Like, come on, man. Like, it's like, they can't score. Why are we trying to force the football?
- [39:08]
Ryan McGee
Did anyone say anything to you? Did anybody on the defensive side catch you saying that?
- [39:13]
Booker McFarland
A couple people looked at me like, hey, like, what are you doing. I'm like, dude, first of all, I didn't care. They traded for me because I. Because they needed some help. So I'm already feeling empowered, but my personality really wasn't the guy to come in and just kind of do that. But once Mr. Ursay brought him in the office and kind of put me on the committee, I feel like I could say something then. And even at that point, I didn't until the playoff game when. Because this was the. This was the divisional round. We beat Kansas City, the first round. Now we're in Baltimore, and it's McNair and Jamal Lewis and Jonathan OG and Ed Reed. Like, it's the Ravens. Ravens. And literally, he almost threw three picks, like, the first quarter. And I'm like, nobody's gonna say nothing to him. Okay, I will. Hey, let's not throw it to them today, okay?
- [39:58]
Ryan McGee
What do you think about the Colts today?
- [40:03]
Booker McFarland
I think the Andrew Luck decision surprised everybody. I think Chris Ballard has tried his best to figure the quarterback position out. When you draft a quarterback like Anthony Richardson, he hasn't played a lot of football. He needs to play. St. Cycin is a coach that I think he was hired primarily on the. On the basis of what he did with Jalen Hurts quarterback who need to develop as a passer, who had great athletic ability. Now you fast forward. We're in this position now where Shane Steichen has to win because the Colts roster, Ryan is pretty good. Like, it's not a bad roster. It's not top five roster, but it's somewhere probably between eight and 12. As far as the amount of talent they have in that team. They got a lot of talent. Maybe you say they're 12, some people might say they're 8, but they're in the upper echelon as far as talent in the league. Okay, so now you have a coach who's got to win. So you put yourself in this position. Ryan, your Manhattan beach home depends on who you choose at quarterback. Are you choosing to develop a guy for the future? And when you may not be here, are you choosing the guy that you think may give you the best chance to keep that Manhattan Beach? I think that's what Shane Styking did today when he chose Daniel Jones. He said, which guy gives me the best chance to keep this view today? All right, I got to send the kid to private school. Mom likes driving the G wagon. Like, which guy gives me the best chance to do that? I don't think he trusts Anthony Richardson to do that. And whether you agree with him or not, you gotta trust the guy because he's putting his livelihood on the line, because it's whoever he chose, and it happens to be Daniel Jones. If they fail, he's fired. And so I respected the decision to choose you because he chose himself and he didn't choose the future of future that he may not be a part of. So whether you like it or not, it's like, I mean, tomato tomatoes, six in one hand, one hand, half dozen in another. I don't think either one are great, but he chose the one he thinks gives him the best chance to keep his job.
- [42:11]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, but I think you could also expand on that. He didn't just choose you to your term for looking at his own. You know, just the survival mode of any coach in this spot, but he's also giving everybody else a chance. This talent that you're talking about, a better chance. Because Anthony Richardson to this point has given us nothing. Like, there's nothing. I mean, you want to tell me? It looks really cool when he runs it in from first and goal from the five. Like, yeah, that's just awesome. But what I see is a team that never trusts him to throw down there. And it's like cool fantasy stuff that everybody told me about last summer. But there's, you know, I don't even know that it's that complicated of a decision. I'm not a Daniel Jones guy either. I think he. He looks the part. Like, it looks like a quarterback. There's throws in there where it looks really good. Like, if he had to play a quarterback in a TV show, he'd be like, man, this TV show is so realistic. But there's clearly limit on all the other stuff. But if. If you're comparing it to the body of work from Anthony Richardson on top of his inability to stay healthy. You know, I guess I'm. I'm just always annoyed by some of the Richardson coverage. Like, remember that throw where he doesn't have any base and he whips it 60 yards?
- [43:25]
Booker McFarland
Pierce or whoever. Was that Pierce or Pittman down there?
- [43:28]
Ryan McGee
Just a filthy, filthy play. And then it's like, yeah, he completed like 8 passes the rest of the game. And, you know, we all understand the physical part of it, but I don't know what you would necessarily be giving up by deciding to go with Jones. So it may be way less complicated than even about the survival instinct of a coach.
- [43:52]
Booker McFarland
Here's a question for you, and this is obviously a hypothetical, but this is just based on how you see football and what you see Going forward, I give you a three year window and you're the coach and you can have one of these three quarterbacks for the next three years. Daniel Jones, Anthony Richardson, Shadur Sanders. Which one would you take?
- [44:16]
Ryan McGee
I would take Shador and I have no idea. I mean, I'm not losing my mind over the preseason thing, but the preseason thing turns into something special, much bigger because of him and then also because of how he fell on draft weekend, not even draft day. So I'm Richardson's fourth on that list for me out of the three that you gave me. I've seen enough with Jones. But you're right, like if I'm a coach and I'm going, am I going to be here in three years? Daniel Jones, this isn't like late career Joe Flacco. All right.
- [44:49]
Booker McFarland
Yeah.
- [44:49]
Ryan McGee
Where. All right, I know what I'm doing. I know what my limitation. I know he's probably going to throw it to the other guys a bunch of times too, but maybe there's a way I can wiggle some kind of, I don't know, 9 and 8 season. Can I get a 10 and 7 season out of this? If the rest of talent is good enough. So of those three, Jones isn't good enough for me to go. Well, let's see what we have in Shador here because people have been wrong in this position forever. And so maybe there's. Because we know he's competitive as hell. We know that. No, I think he's up for it. I think he's up for the job maybe more than other guys are just because of his upbringing. And it doesn't seem like he shies away from any attention. But I'm saying it a second time. I don't look at that preseason game where he had a really nice preseason game and go, okay, this answers all the questions because we actually did this with Daniel Jones. By the way, where Giants fans wanted apologies after. After the draft reaction.
- [45:46]
Booker McFarland
Yeah, I would tend to. Tend to agree with you. I think human nature says, I'm gonna bet on what I don't know because I haven't seen it. And that's Shador. Like, I've seen Daniel Jones, I've seen Anthony Richardson, I've seen Kenny Pickett. I don't need to see that anymore. If you go to New York, I've seen Russell, I've seen Jamis, which is why people are starting to mention the Jackson dart thing. I think human nature says if you're the optimist and you have time, then you're gonna Bet on what you don't know to see what you have rather than continue going down this. Because the definition of insanity is do the same thing over and over. Like, why would I do Russell? Why would I do Kenny Pickett? Why would I do Daniel Jones? Why would I do these guys who, by now I think I know what they are and expect something different, if you follow me.
- [46:34]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, I'm really shocked. If Jackson Dart doesn't have multiple starts this season, you could pretend that, hey, Russell Wilson, it's steadier. His floor is higher than Jackson Dart's floor. I think last year, some of the blame on him for the Steelers falling off was totally misguided just because the defense fell off a cliff. But it's pretty clear. Like, I always look at the coordinators. I love watching the play callers after plays that don't work out. And maybe some of these guys are rehearsed enough. Like, Romo was the most rehearsed quarterback ever during a game. When he threw a pick, it was like somebody was in his ear. Be like, all right, camera two. And then he would look at the receiver and he would make. And so you would always think it was always everybody else's fault after a Romo interception. He was the best I've ever seen at it.
- [47:23]
Booker McFarland
He just said at the guy.
- [47:28]
Ryan McGee
He was like the safety who was supposed to be there for over the top help, who lets the corner get beat on one. One on one on a go route. And then he. And he looks back at the corner like, what are you talking about? Like, no, I'm. I'm down here, man.
- [47:42]
Booker McFarland
So.
- [47:43]
Ryan McGee
But I think there was a lot of times with, you know, not to, like, absolve Russell Wilson of any of the blame, but there were times where you would then see, like, what was going on on the sidelines, and it was like, all right, you know, this is. This is really the only thing I'm now defaulting to on any quarterback evaluation. What plays do they feel comfortable with you running in the red zone in third and long? It's the first Mitch. No, it's the Mitch Rubisky thing. When Nagy was there, it was like third and seven. It's like, oh, he's supposed to throw it to the flat and hope the running back makes a guy miss. Like, Jesus, they're scared to death this guy, he's their guy. And they're scared to death of even having this guy throw it anywhere down the field. So you could see that stuff with Wilson in the red zone and some of that Frustration, but I don't know that. Well, no, I'm saying defiantly, all of the blame for the Steelers falling off is not all on Russell Wilson whatsoever. But, you know, if he, if he were a steadier option, he wouldn't be on his third team in three years here. I guess you could say fourth team in four years if you wanted to.
- [48:47]
Booker McFarland
Well, I could push back on that and say this. He was never Sean Payton's type of quarterback. I think that's number one, I think.
- [48:54]
Ryan McGee
Kind of person either.
- [48:57]
Booker McFarland
Well, even better. Like, that's supporting my argument even more. And I think his limitations in Pittsburgh, like, he never throws across the middle of the field. Like he wants to throw outside and deep. And I get it. If you go back to when he was in Seattle, like he's five, 10, if you really want to be honest, he's never really thrown across the middle in his life because he can see. But he's not the tallest guy. So his limitations are what they are. And they have been that way for a long time. I just think as he's gotten older, they become more visible. We see them more. There's an exclamation point on them more. And I think when you get, when he gets to Denver, Sean Payton goes, oh, so you just like, we can't work the middle of the field. Like, we can't work the same in the tight end. Like, okay, and you have an entourage. You want to go east to West Productions? No, like, you want your own office spot. Like, we don't need that around here. Then he gets to Pittsburgh where Mike T is the total opposite. Mike T's is not going to have any of that. But the team isn't good enough. And he. And like him trying to move the offense and that wasn't as talented, was never going to work. And now he's in New York and you knew the moment the contracts were given out between he and James, who the starter was like, one guy gets whatever number 20 and the other guy gets four. They'll tell you who the starter is. And then you draft Jackson Dart. I think to your point, I don't blame a lot of what's in Pittsburgh or what happened in Pittsburgh on him. I blame Pittsburgh because when you go shopping for groceries, it's kind of like when you're in the fruit section and you, you take a piece of bad fruit and you put it in your basket and you pay for it and you get home, you're like, oh man, I didn't. Why did I get this? Well, you chose it. They chose him. So you can't blame him for what you chose. So I agree. I blame a lot of what happened in Pittsburgh on them for trying to take a square peg and put it in a round hole.
- [50:43]
Ryan McGee
What do you think of Rogers in Pittsburgh?
- [50:44]
Booker McFarland
Man, I'm optimistic. I got an opportunity to think it's going to work, and here's why. I know what it feels like when you get older and you, you, you, you go to a different team and you're motivated. Now, Aaron Rodgers is a different cat. Don't know him, never. Only met him one time. He thinks differently. But the one thing that I've been told by people there is he's motivated. And if you want to be honest, it's been kind of quiet. Like, it's been a little quiet coming out of there. Other than when he's. Since he's gotten there, it's been quiet. And I like talented teams that are quiet now. I know he's going to probably come on the McAfee show once the season started. Maybe it'll get some noise. I don't know whether that's going to happen or not, but I just love picture this. Picture this team healthy, okay? Picture this. They drafted the kid out of Pittsburgh, Harmon to go with Hayward and Highsmith and Watt. They got guys that can come out to the quarterback. Keanu, Ben, they got seven guys up front that can go secondary wise. You got Slay, you got Porter Jr. You got Ramsey. So now you got guys that you can say in some form or fashion, I can lock down three dudes. So if the Bengals come in there, I can match up on anything the Bengals can put out. I can match up on whatever the Ravens put out there. And we can drop our extra guy down to deal with Derrick Henry. I can match up on anybody. From a, from, from a linebacker standpoint, I love what Queen does with his ability to run defensively. People might say I'm crazy. If they stay healthy, I think they're a top five defense in football this year. Now, if that's the case on that side of the football, then the one question mark I have is the offensive line. Can the offensive line protect Rodgers and can they run the football? Because if they can do that, Priscilla, man, this team, because Mike Tomlin knows how to coach football. If they can do that 12 and 5, and then everybody will be like, oh, man, this is the greatest thing. I think they can get the 12 and 5. And if they get the 12 and 5, man, that means the defense is humming that Means Rogers is healthy. That means the offensive line is playing well and they will be a tough out come January.
- [52:55]
Ryan McGee
Who do you think has the best defense in the NFL then? Statistically terrific last season. Yeah, they give up 31 of the bills in the playoff game. I think there were some conversations around, you know, is it, Is it a bit schedule to be that good? You know, we're talking like Eagles number one. Opposing yards by pretty good margin. Number one in opponent's yards per play. Denver's number two. I'm certainly opposing yards per play category, so that would make you think that it's probably also opposing yards. Denver's defense last year felt like, hey, is anybody paying attention? Like, is anybody paying attention to how good these guys are? And then when you have kind of the one marquee event and it's the playoff game, and then, you know, you just no match. Your offense isn't going to be able to keep up with Allen running like that. But for you to say right now you think they're the best defense, that's. That just. I'm not telling you. They're, you know, I guess I don't really have a position other than it surprises me that that was your first choice and not Philadelphia.
- [53:54]
Booker McFarland
Well, here's the reason I say about Philadelphia, because Philadelphia, they lost a little bit when it comes to their rush. Milton Williams is gone, sweat's gone. So, like that rush is not going to be the same. I know Jordan Davis has lost some weight. He looks phenomenal. Can Jaylen Carter take the next step? Nolan Smith, like those guys, those young guys got to continue to go. I love what they did. I mean, I mean, you know, you're counting on from a secondary standpoint, you're counting on those guys to continue to progress because Slay's no longer there. They're still young. I think there's gonna. Not to say there's going to be regression. I just think it's going to be different for them this year if, if, if, if Denver's not the best. I'll take Denver. I'll take the Rams. I love the Rams young front seven. I like in this day and age. I want speed, people that can cover and people that can rush. I think Denver, I think the Rams, I love what they're doing there. Detroit depends on what happens with Hutch. I like, like Branch and Anzalone and those guys in Detroit, they're just so physical and so tough, man. I think Buffalo takes a step back this year. Defensively, I think Pittsburgh's defense is going to be really good. Baltimore. Baltimore has the ability to come at you in waves, man, because Ojabo, remember, we forgot about him. He. He looks. He looks the part. Ojabo, Matabike, Roquan, Marlon back inside at the slot. They can cover on the back end, Kyle Hamilton. Like that defense in Baltimore, it's going to be top five. So, like, those handful of defenses, I think are the ones that are. That are really going to be where you can say we can go hold A team to 13 points in a couple of weeks and give our offense a chance to win. Other than that, a good week for defenses is going to be 24 points. But there are some teams that I think they can lock down and by. Like, you're never going to be what we were or what this 2000, whatever Ravens were with 80. Like, you're never going to hold a team to nine points a game. That's not going to happen. But there are some teams that I think on a couple of week in and week outs, they can put up 13 to 14 points and hold a team, and they have the ability to do that. And I think those are a couple that I name.
- [56:11]
Ryan McGee
Last question. Let's just wrap it back up with college football. Is there a group among the projected title contenders that you don't like? That you're like, I don't see it. I mean, is it the Oregon turnover? You know, because I brought this up before, if you look at some of that continuity stuff like, they are. They are challenged. It's just a. It's a massive task for landing to be like, okay, you know, compete for the Big Ten again and be back in the playoff with so much turnover on that roster and another team that, look, they got a first place vote in the AP poll, which I actually kind of was shocked by.
- [56:46]
Booker McFarland
Yeah, it's always interesting when you have turnover at the most important position, and that's quarterback. Oregon. Oregon. If Oregon's going to win this year, they're going to have to be more physical. They get the young kid from. From Texas Decor and Moore, he's the number one wide receiver in the country. Like, you know, what's he going to be? I want to see it. You got a new quarterback out there. I want to see it. Oregon could be a team that. I'm not going to say I don't believe in them because I love Dan Lanning. I think he's one of the best coaches, but I got to see it. I think if you come over in the acc, people are starting to kind of Tap Miami a little bit with Carson Beck. I don't know if I see it. I don't see it yet. To me, there's something about Carson Beck that a few, even with the injury, if he was that type of a leader, I still think he would be at Georgia because you just get the elbow fix and you run it back. But they almost wanted him gone. So I just don't know if Miami, a year after losing Cam Ward, who kind of galvanized that entire team, is going to rally around Carson Beck. I'm interested to see what Georgia does. That's all I'm going say. I'm very interested to see. Offensively, Kirby has always been on the fence. Defensively, he's been tremendous. What's he going to be offensively this year? Because you can't go in and say we're going to hold teams in college football to 17 points like you got to score. And for whatever reason, that offense hasn't been as explosive as it should be or as explosive as the Georgia fans wanted it to be. And so is this a year where Georgia is not 11 and 1, 10 and 2. I need to see it. So I think those are some teams I'm not going to say I'm not a believer in. And then I think here's the one, Ryan, and it's going to sound very kind of contradictory because if you go back to the beginning, you said two teams that have who do I believe in? And I gave you two teams that have the fewest questions, and that is Clemson and Penn State. Penn State's biggest question is not on the field, it's on the sideline. You can't tell me that there's not a correlation between the amount of big games that James Franklin has lost and his ability to get his team over the hump. Like, I don't believe in coincidences. And if you go back and look at the. Like, I forget the record and I don't want to quote it like his record in big games, whether it's against Ohio State or top whatever teams is not good. And like, okay, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Like, like at some point he's got to get this talented team over to over the hump and it's not going to be week one, it's not going to be week whatever. He's got about three or four games this season where he's going to be able to prove whether or not he's ready to push the right buttons and get this team over the Top. I think that's the biggest question mark in college football is James Franklin because he's got one of the two most talented teams. I think Clemson and Penn State are the two most talented teams that have returning quarterbacks in the country, top to bottom. And so can the coach get the talent over the hump?
- [59:56]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, there's all sorts of bad numbers for Franklin. One and nine against Ohio State. Against top 10 teams, he's three and 16. And you know, it's to a point. I think it sets up really well for them this year. I feel better about him going into this year, even with everything that happened last year. Like, I just think, all right, these guys are coming back. I've already talked to Danny about this. I think he was right on it, that it's like, all right, maybe you have the certainty at Ohio State coming off the national championship. You know, Illinois is good. What's going to happen with Indiana? Can they even repeat what they did last year? Even though everybody really likes Mendoza, the transfer, California. I, look, I just, it's, it can't be defended. It can't be defended. How many times, like, the Penn State story is the same thing. Even though I do think last year was, was an improvement from all the other years where my argument against Penn State was like, all right, cool. So when you play any of the other teams that are actually as talented as you, you lose to them all the time and then you get your 10 wins against the other teams that are just, you know, mid to bad, Big Ten teams. I, I'm with you a little bit on the assumption that Gunner Stockton is just going to come in and get this thing rolling. He might be that. I mean, he, it looks like he's the kind of guy that everybody responds to. Maybe that was different than Carson Beck. I mean, look, I read an interview the other day, or Carson Beck was describing his tattoos and I was like, I was like, this might be the answer. Like, this might be the way to solve the mystery on where this guy's at right now. But Stockton and I could be totally wrong. Like, there's so many of these guys. Like, I can't talk about car from Notre Dame. I don't know enough about him. I mean, I know of more. I saw one of his, his high school things years ago when it was like, where is he going again? You know, And I, I'm aware of who some of the dudes are, but like, I don't have enough experience watching Gunner Stockton play to have a definitive thing other than in the limited time that I've even seen him play like everybody else that watched that game. It's like you might be actually limited a bit on offense there as well. And that's why, you know, even all the uncertainty, I'd rather have the Arch Manning Sark combo of uncertainty that you started this entire discussion with. I think you're right on with that one.
- [62:04]
Booker McFarland
I got a question for you because I'm always interested in your take because you're a big NBA guy. I never hear NBA people, analysts, pundits, and hey, Luka Giannis, kd, Steph shouldn't play in the preseason, but the NFL constantly wants their stars to not play in the preseason. Where do you come down on stars in their specific sports? Whether it's pitchers and spring training, whether it's whoever. Because the NFL seems to be the only sport, and I would argue relative to your sport in spring training, then you can have Tommy John injuries in the. In the NBA, guys can do ACLs and Achilles. Everybody says the physicality of the NFL, well, relative to the sport. I think each sport has their own set of injuries. But other sports want their guys to play NBA. Everybody plays in the preseason. You didn't play long, you don't play long, but you're praying you play in the preseason. Baseball, everybody gets their pitches in and gets their hits in. Why do you think the NFL constantly doesn't want anybody to play and then say, let's show up and we show up. We want everybody to be ready. Why is that?
- [63:12]
Ryan McGee
Because you're going to look really stupid if you're number one receiver, your best edge guy. Forget even about quarterback and the obvious one, if they get hurt in a preseason, everybody's going to crush you to deal with it. And basically now everybody's just copied each other out of fear. But I will never forget when John Harbaugh said this about the lack of hitting and he said, you know, it actually could lead to more injuries. And he got treated like Neanderthal for even suggesting that. And everybody that criticized him for that was so wrong. Because you have to hit to learn how to get hit. Yeah, and. And you know, I'm talking to somebody who did this for a living, but I do think the body needs some kind of contact to be ready for what kind of contact you're dealing with week one. So whatever injuries you're avoiding, I don't know if there's any study. I don't know if somebody would be manipulating the numbers to try to prove their whole medical theory that we saw with all the load management bullshit that happened with the NBA for years. But is there any arg. I think you have to be a little bit more tuned up as opposed to live action week one without anything. And maybe you're hitting enough in practice and certainly different teams run it differently. But I don't, I don't know if the value, I don't know if the upside value was there by not even giving guys series as opposed to just. It's never really been live and, and now you're in it. And I, I think even think like, look, it's such a coordinated sport where everybody has to be doing their job to get those live reps. Even if it's not a real football game, just the feeling of it. I imagine there's some benefit there. And it just seems like the sport is so worried of having a coach lose an important player in the preseason and the way he'd be treated for that decision, that everybody's just kind of coaching with fear now.
- [64:56]
Booker McFarland
Yeah, I think I would agree. And what I've always told people is this football is played with one thought. You have to have the ability, at any moment you can get your head knocked the hell off. If you don't have that thought, it's not really football. And the only time you get that thought is when you step between the white lines during a game. You never have it in practice, you never have it in a team scrimmage, you never have it in a joint practice. You only get that feeling when you step between the lines on game day. And you have to have that feeling to play football because you don't know how you're going to react when the guy can hit you and hit you in the side or the guy can. Like, you have to know that. That's why I think everybody's got to play, man. But I like, I found it funny that here's LeBron, 40 years old, he's in a preseason game. He may not play long, but he's in a preseason game. Like, I just find it. And he could tear an Achilles or an acl, like God forbid, but he could do it. And we never hear, why is LeBron playing in the preseason? Why is Steph playing? Because, like, guys have to play. But football we've become accustomed to say, let's bubble wrap Joe Burrow, let's bubble wrap these guys. I think the best teams play their guys. Andy Reid play their guys. We played a couple of quarters in the preseason. I think the Baltimore plays their guys. Even though I don't think Lamar's played, but most of their guys play. You have to play football to get ready to play football. So I just wonder where you came down on that.
- [66:24]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, and I think everybody's just copying everybody else. Let's check in again soon in the college football season. All right, man.
- [66:29]
Booker McFarland
All right. Looking forward to it. I'm going to come out there. I want to sit right there in one of those two chairs and look out over the water and just kind of just meditate. I want to sit right in one of those two chairs.
- [66:39]
Ryan McGee
Dude. I'll leave you the keys. There you go. Whenever. Whenever you need it.
- [66:43]
Booker McFarland
I'm coming. I love it.
- [66:45]
Ryan McGee
All right. My guy, Hood McFarland lead coverage of college football season throughout for ESPN. And, you know, we have him on all the time, so good seeing you, man.
- [66:54]
Booker McFarland
Always. Later, bud. You want details? Bye.
- [67:00]
Ryan McGee
I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [67:03]
Booker McFarland
What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.
- [67:17]
Ryan McGee
LifeAdvice. LifeAdvice. Rrmail.com. we've got Ceruti, who looks great, and we've got Worgon, who looks good for him. Whoa.
- [67:28]
Ceruti
Not. Not sure. I love that intro.
- [67:31]
Worgon
I don't either.
- [67:33]
Ryan McGee
It was so mean.
- [67:35]
Worgon
I think he looks good. He's got a good T shirt on.
- [67:37]
Ryan McGee
He's got a great T shirt on today.
- [67:40]
Worgon
I don't know what it means, but it's provocative.
- [67:41]
Ceruti
You know, little Jason Dominguetta shirt.
- [67:44]
Ryan McGee
Okay.
- [67:44]
Ceruti
Yeah, my guy.
- [67:46]
Worgon
I don't know who that is.
- [67:47]
Ryan McGee
How. How long's the list of your guys?
- [67:50]
Ceruti
I love them all.
- [67:51]
Booker McFarland
Love them all.
- [67:53]
Ceruti
All right, Thursday, George Costanza sleeping under the desk. Bobblehead night. I'll be there.
- [68:00]
Ryan McGee
You'll go for the bobblehead or.
- [68:02]
Ceruti
No, it's a Yankees Red Sox game.
- [68:04]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. Okay. So how do you feel about the Yanks?
- [68:08]
Ceruti
I feel okay. I think they have the easiest remaining schedule, so.
- [68:13]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, way to look ahead. Not like college football.
- [68:16]
Worgon
I'm not really. Not a big baseball guy, but, like, I just love that, like, every. Brian Cashman's had a job for, like, 25 years, and I swear to God, like, they want to fire every single year.
- [68:24]
Ceruti
Yeah, he can't lose it.
- [68:25]
Worgon
It's unbelievable.
- [68:28]
Ryan McGee
Reminds me of international soccer.
- [68:30]
Worgon
No, those guys get fired, dude. Jose Mourinho won the champion or no. What? He won the Premier League, I think, with Chelsea and then got Fired like six months later into the season. Lester, the improbable win. They fired Claudia Ranieri like the next year.
- [68:45]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, I should have. Should have said that differently. I guess I only know soccer is back for the US when I just see everybody saying that the coach should be fired.
- [68:56]
Worgon
So difference is they actually do it.
- [68:58]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, they do do it. But I mean, what's. What's Aaron Boone's popularity right now?
- [69:06]
Ceruti
It's not high. He got Delta shitty. Like Devin Williams suddenly can't pitch. What's he supposed to do?
- [69:13]
Booker McFarland
I don't know.
- [69:15]
Ryan McGee
All I see is everybody just hates him all the time.
- [69:18]
Booker McFarland
Yeah.
- [69:18]
Ceruti
There's just not many buttons he can push.
- [69:21]
Ryan McGee
I love him as a former Red Sox guy. No, he was always really cool to me.
- [69:28]
Worgon
That's true. I forgot about that.
- [69:30]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, we used to have him on. He told the tearing his ACL story. We started doing that story series on the radio show. I always laugh about that because an executive sent it to another executive is like, hey, are you hearing these things Rosillo's doing? And it was right towards like the end of whether or not I was going to stay. And then I went to him, I was like, that means that executive thinks I suck. He was like, yeah. I was like, well, I appreciate you putting in the effort. But as soon as I saw that email, I realized, I was like, oh, that means you're trying to be like, no, no, no, he's doing something good. Like listen to these things. These are.
- [70:09]
Worgon
Am I cooked?
- [70:09]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, these are good things. So instead of being like, oh, that's cool, he's sharing it with a higher up. I was like, oh, fuck.
- [70:15]
Ceruti
Actually, he's not that bad.
- [70:17]
Worgon
Build the case.
- [70:22]
Ryan McGee
Let's see. Maybe a couple info things. Hotel check in, checkout info from a gm. Is this from Cashman? Oh, a hotel gm. That makes more sense. Late email due to covering the overnight audit shift. Not a late night drunk email. By the way, we have one guy that is just wasted emailing us all the time now. Just email us, buddy. We're not going to read any of them.
- [70:50]
Worgon
Sorry, man. Create a Twitter account. Yell there.
- [70:53]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. Although we do appreciate the engagement. Can't eat off of it. Not this kind of engagement, but anyway, whatever. All right. Dear solo travelogue Goat. Speaking of, we have the St. Barts one that's going to drop Friday on its own. I think Ceruti, I'm sure of it. Ceruti likes it much better than I do. But I went somewhere and I taped. You're going to listen to it. So there you go.
- [71:20]
Worgon
I just think. I wouldn't say that. I just think people want to hear.
- [71:23]
Ryan McGee
You wouldn't say it's good.
- [71:24]
Worgon
Well, you know, like not every sequel is better than the original. You know, like some of them are. You know, it's, it's. There is a good story at the beginning that I think we need to play it because the story in the first episode is awesome. Does it tail off? Maybe. I don't know. Let the tail off.
- [71:38]
Ryan McGee
It definitely tails off. Definitely. That's why I told the story, because I was like, I don't know. The rest is going to go. If you want to know the history, the topographical challenges of Saint Barts, then that pod's for you. But there's not a ton of interaction. There's not a bunch I haven't tried. I even tried one night for you. I didn't even want to do it. I was doing it for the audience and I was like, this isn't happening. All right. So well balanced. Father to owner of a swimming pool with a great porch with great porch railings and the newlywed and new core guy. As a general manager of multiple hotels over the years, checkout procedures vary due to three reasons. All right, this is helpful for everybody. One, the member rewards guarantees. Example Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors and various small regional companies. Higher member tiers always force staff to prioritize them. That's also true if you have, I believe the Amex Platinum hotel size. I'm sure there's other high end credit cards that can get you an extended checkout hotel size under 75 rooms can be difficult to accommodate. All early check ins, late checkouts due to not enough options with room types the way the front desk agent manager feels. Unfortunately, poorly trained or motivated decision makers may decide to not do anything more than what they have to do. Also, if their shift ends before a guaranteed time, it may sound like the next person's job or problem. Yeah. So get those rewards up. You want to stay late. Another one here is pretty straightforward. Just a guy who wanted to let you know that he also does not wash his face. Serutti man. And he's, he's doing great.
- [73:16]
Worgon
I'll tell you what, I've got more reaction to that than a lot of things over the years. People are just dumbfounded that I don't wash. I mean I like shower. It's not like I'm not showering. I just don't scrub my face with.
- [73:29]
Ryan McGee
A bar of soap.
- [73:30]
Worgon
And I, you know, know if I'm not trying to like brag here, but I feel like I'm doing all right, you know, Be all right.
- [73:37]
Ryan McGee
This one is not on your side. 6, 2, 2, 10.
- [73:40]
Worgon
Shocker.
- [73:40]
Ryan McGee
Obi Obi Thompin is his comp. Without any Ovi top and without any athleticism. Longtime listener without too many life issues. Well, congrats to you for killing it. So I haven't had much to contribute, but I had to say something after hearing Surudi's atrocious skincare routine or lack thereof. All he needs is a good face specific wash you can use in the shower and a face moisturizer for post shower with SPF if he's going to be in the sun. Probably not. That combined with drinking a good amount of water every day and it'll be golden. P.S. hope to hear more about the soccer. Yeah, we did some soccer already before we even read this one. I think I'm with Ceruti on this one. I think there's certain people that can just get away with it. It's not like you're gross and disgusting. Looking at. We're just. When you left the hallways, we'd go, how come that guy can't get a washcloth or something? I don't know that people are using washcloths much anymore in general. That seems to have gone the way of the cowboy. But. But I do. Well, now we're going to get the wash. Big washcloth is going to be after us after that one. But I think I understand what you're saying. You don't need all the product and you're good to go. People looked at his face. He's got a good face.
- [74:53]
Worgon
Thanks, man.
- [74:55]
Booker McFarland
I.
- [74:55]
Ryan McGee
Handsome boy modeling school over here.
- [74:57]
Worgon
I do throw the occasional moisturizer on there. I don't have a facial moisturizer. My wife always laughs at me because I'll just use the, the, the body moisturizer on my face if my face feels a little dry. I don't have a routine. And you know, I'm one of those guys, hashtag blessed. I haven't really had acne problems in my life, so I just never. I just never redone it. And you know, I'm 30, almost 37 years old, and I just. Maybe one day my face will start looking like trash. But it doesn't right now.
- [75:26]
Ryan McGee
Okay.
- [75:27]
Worgon
People love that. So that's great.
- [75:29]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. Hey, his face.
- [75:31]
Worgon
Do you scrub your face? I guess it's different because you're. I mean, this isn't like a ball thing, but it's probably easier because you probably just wash your whole head and face. Right. And in one motion kind of wasn't you took a shot at work on so I feel like I could at least take a shot at you. It wasn't even a shot really.
- [75:47]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. What I said about Oregon, I don't like doing that but it was just in my head and it was too perfect and I thought the audience like there would get a couple people that would chuckle just because of the delivery of the whole thing and it was sort of unexpected. So I did that more for the a laugh. Although I don't I'll call Wargon privately after this just to make sure we're good. I've got a little product but I'm also around the sun a lot all the time. Boat guys exfoliate a little bit. You know, probably dry our skin. Do drink a lot of water.
- [76:14]
Worgon
I know that a bunch of yeah yeah.
- [76:17]
Ryan McGee
Love love to start the day with a big water. Are we going to read any emails today? Let's see. Okay, when can I stop the charade? This is from a couple weeks ago. Goes without saying. Love the pod. Ryan, thanks for all the great content. Deep dives, interviews, interest guests, life advice segment I I often find myself participating in my own head, reacting with what advice I would give or what I do in the email or situation. Not quite 5 11£200. Currently benching 205. Trying to get back to my peak of 245. Coming off a bit of a hiatus and building back up at age 45 is not like returning from a break at 35 and not even worth comparing to 25. So maybe I'll settle getting back to 225. No NBA comp to speak of is the only time I pick up a basketball nowadays is to play pig with my daughters. In my prime I'd like to say I was a little Lindsay Hunter type tough man. Lindsay Hunter will pick you up full court. He was. He was one of the best I've ever seen doing it. Decent, facilitator, driving kick. Okay, we got it. I have three daughters, 10, 8 and 5. They attend a private Christian school. We attend church regularly. I like aspects of the private school. Small class sizes, good community, strong relationship. The teachers staff are great people. Sending them to the school is a decision I was supportive of. I don't really have any regrets about it other than the lack of diversity, indoctrination of some world perspectives and dogmatic teachings, all of which I know comes to the territory. I've also agreed to go to church regularly despite my wife's understanding that I don't believe in any of the fundamental teachings of Christianity. Faith, personal God, divine intervention, Virginia birth, resurrection, heaven and hell, judgment day, et cetera. Again, I like the community aspects for my kids and I do like the teachings Christianity has in common with most other religions. Love, compassion, patience, peace, understanding, acceptance, forgiveness, et cetera. But I can't get down with the notion that humans are by nature sinful and because of this God sent His only son. Well, it is actually him somehow to earth at a specific time, although it seems rather arbitrary as a sacrifice so that all other believe in his this action and only those that do believe in this action can enjoy an eternal bliss while those that don't, even those that have never heard of the fairy tale, are condemned. Oh, we're going to get some people on this one. We're not going to read any follow ups on this, just for the record, are condemned to an eternity of horrible punishment in hell. So my question is this. When can I stop participating in this charade? I know I should keep up the act going to church, supporting the teachings encourage participation for my kids at their current ages. It wouldn't be great to throw this level of confusion at them. Although if you disagree, please tell me. But ultimately, can I get my Sunday mornings back? I can continue to grit my teeth, stay quiet while I listen to the same bullshit every week and bite my tongue when I hear ridiculous stories, flawed rationale and biases that are at times quite offensive. But I would like to hear from you fellas. When do you think I can start to rescind from the church going and have an open conversation with my kids? My current plan is to wait until they start to get naturally exposed to other philosophies, religions and diverse perspectives. Maybe late high school they'll be going to a public high school or probably most likely college and some real world experience as young adults. But I'm interested to hear if you gentlemen have a different perspective. I should mention my wife knows my perspective and knows how I view religion in general, in particular the Christian religion. She's done trying to convince me. We don't really talk about it anymore because the conversations aren't all that productive. I haven't brought up my desire to stop going to church because I don't think I'm at a point to really follow through with that again because of the ages of my children and their level of involvement with the church. Hope to hear from y'. All. Take care. Look, that's a pretty complicated one. I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't do with your kids when I don't have any. I think it's pretty simple. The first thing I thought of was like, and you brought it up with your wife, like what does she say? I mean she's going to be really against you bailing on church. I think your head's in the right place of like wanting your children to understand there's different ways to interpret a lot of this stuff out there. Five's probably young, you know, maybe 10 you can start hinting at some of this stuff. And I, again I, I can totally understand where you're coming from on, you know, I don't want them to be feeling as if there's only one, you know, one path or one understanding of a lot of the stuff that is pretty complicated. But ultimately you getting back to your Sundays, is it worth it? It sounds like your wife is super into this and I have plenty of friends that put their kids in Catholic schools despite not being super religious because they didn't want their kids in public schools. And it's usually friends of mine that live just outside of some of the bigger cities. So there was a lot of stuff with the public schools they just didn't want their kids to be exposed to. So yeah, non religious guys that are sending their kids to Catholic schools and I think they just kind of roll with it all. I don't know that they're going to church every single Sunday, but this feels like, although I don't say this often on the pod, this feels like because it's your daughters, because of the involvement in community, that your wife prefers you to go to this and continue with the charade. And if it's just that Sunday, despite your philosophical leanings, it's probably worth avoiding a much dicier situation at home to suck it up for a couple hours every Sunday.
- [81:26]
Worgon
Sounds like that decision was made way long, like a long time ago. And you just kind of have to stick with it, right? Because if you start bailing now, then your daughters are gonna start asking questions. It's gonna create problems with the wife, you know, you might lose some friends at the church scene. Is all that worth it to you? Probably not. And to answer your question about like when should you stop, like kind of feels like pretty self explanatory, like when they're like 18 and out of high school and they go away, you know, to college potentially and like they're not really like in your day to day life anymore. Maybe that's it. And you could say, hey, like, I've done this for 18 or whatever. Many years that we've done this with three kids. I'd like to not do it anymore. And then, then that's obviously between you and your wife and less about the kids. But I kind of feel like you don't want to. You kind of want to do it for the kids. Right. You want to keep going just to keep things like sort of normal for them. And then, you know, once they're in their teens, at least all of them, I feel like maybe that decision could be had.
- [82:19]
Booker McFarland
Yeah.
- [82:19]
Ceruti
And it sounds like the kids are going to a public high school. So it's not even until they're 18. It's till they're what, 14, 13. I think this is something that you say, you know, this is family time. We spend Sunday mornings together. You don't have to have like a spiritual experience every time you go. You're going to be with your family to support them. I did find it interesting that Ryan was a yes on this, but a hard no for the Call Her Daddy live show.
- [82:50]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. Because, well, they were my kids.
- [82:54]
Worgon
Yeah.
- [82:55]
Ryan McGee
My kids Call her Daddy private school.
- [82:58]
Worgon
If you had kids and they were big call Her Daddy fans, you'd be like, I guess I gotta go. Yeah.
- [83:04]
Ryan McGee
God is t. Yeah. Were you trying to get back at me for the opening comment or was that just a natural?
- [83:13]
Ceruti
I think it would have happened no matter what.
- [83:14]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think that that's a long term investment. This is a long term investment with his kids, community, the school, the whole thing. So it's not like a one and done. I mean, to me, the Caller Daddy show was. And again, it's like a date. Right.
- [83:27]
Ceruti
It was like Valentine's Day, I think.
- [83:29]
Booker McFarland
Right?
- [83:29]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. Right. It's like, I think, yeah, I could also not go to that. That night. You could do something else. Yeah. I do think sometimes in the relationship it's like, hey, to prove how much you care. I really want to go. To have you go to this thing that sucks that you're not going to want to go. It sucks for that person, not for the audience. Like, great job, everybody. But yeah, like this, this test. I don't think this is a test. This is about your kids education.
- [83:57]
Worgon
Actually, Worgon did bring a good point though. I don't know what. So I grew up Roman Catholic. I went to church every Sunday or sometimes Saturday nights, you know, 5 o' clock mass. Shout out to the 5 o' clock mass crew.
- [84:10]
Ryan McGee
Did you have to go Sunday. Did you have to do a double header? If you.
- [84:12]
Worgon
No, no, you pick one. You pick one. And we would do Saturdays a lot, actually, which was nice because I like, I do like my mornings, but I used to always, like, you know, you kind of get into your teens, especially your late teens. And then once I was in college, like, I started thinking of like, how many people here don't care or are just here because they're supposed to be. They think they're supposed to be here. And I think it's a lot. I think they just. It's a habit. It's habitual for a lot of people. And it's like. Some people, I'm like, my dad used to always say this. Like, he just goes there to just like have an hour to kind of just not think about shit. He just kind of like clears his mind a little bit. I don't know that he's super religious. He just clears his mind for an hour. So maybe look at it that way. That'll help you out.
- [84:47]
Ceruti
And I think that's fine too. I don't think you're like a bad.
- [84:50]
Booker McFarland
Yeah.
- [84:50]
Ceruti
Catholic if you're, if you're doing that. Like. But that's kind of the point sometimes.
- [84:57]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. This guy's mind isn't being clear. Clearly, though, he's, he's sitting there, he's, you know, he's battling the stories. I don't know how long.
- [85:10]
Worgon
If you're like, hey, my wife and three kids are going, I'm gonna sit this one out, guys. Like, I'm gonna pass like that. Just, I don't know. I feel like I'm not religious at all now. And I, I feel like that's a little awkward. Like.
- [85:22]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, it sounds like his wife still wants him to go. So do you do any creative writing? Maybe you can start outlining a show in your head or a book.
- [85:36]
Worgon
You know, Sunday morning you start figuring out, cooking up some parlays in your head. You know.
- [85:44]
Ryan McGee
We get an HOA. One religion right in HOA. 5, 10, 2, 10, 29. Player comp. Kyle Anderson. Kyle Anderson gets a lot because dudes aren't fast. Play at own pace. A little awkward, but effective in the paint. Decent three point shot, high iq, court vision. Passing is the strength. Recently moved into the first house with my wife. Classic single family neighborhood in a good old suburbia. When moving in, friends and family would always groan. We told them we'd have an hoa. It's a new construction neighborhood, so an HOA made sense. We're now looking to Install a backyard fence since we're getting a puppy at the end of September. The HOA states that homes can only have a white fence, I guess for continuity. But we want a black fence. Black matches the home better. It's just nicer than those white board or picket fence. Hashtag just my thoughts. Out of about 120 homes, there are two that currently have a black fence similar to the one we are interested in. They say you can submit a deviation request to hoa, so maybe that's what these people did. My question is just go forward with the black fence. Other homes already have one, so why would I risk the HOA explicitly telling us no when right now? It's only on paper. Better ask for permission than forgiveness. They can't tell us to take it down once it's up, right? Well, they could.
- [86:57]
Worgon
I was going to say no, they definitely can.
- [87:00]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. Do I knock on strangers doors and ask how they pulled off getting the black fence? That feels like a narc move. Like an undercover HOA agent asking questions about your non complying fence. Side note, fences are expensive. Stuff is expensive. But if I'm spending that kind of money, shouldn't we be able to get the black fence that we want? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what the other black fencers did.
- [87:24]
Worgon
I don't think it's weird at all to just like ask them. They're your neighbors, right? So just like, hey, I'm, I'm just moved in. My name is Steve. I like your fence. How'd you figure it out? How'd you get that approved? Like it's not that. Maybe, maybe bring a six pack over. Like, I don't, I don't feel like this is that weird.
- [87:38]
Ryan McGee
Hey, you want to watch the UFC fight this Saturday? Have severes and talk about your black fence?
- [87:44]
Ceruti
You definitely don't just like build this thing though. Like HOAs are like relatively serious. I mean, Ryan, you're the HOA guy here. Like we'll clear out for you. But like they can kind of like ruin things for you, right? They can just annoy the hell out of you.
- [87:55]
Ryan McGee
Oh yeah, they're annoying. Yeah, they, they profit on annoyance. So it's kind of. I don't know who started the whole thing, but yeah, I would probably just build it.
- [88:13]
Worgon
They're going to make you take it down though.
- [88:15]
Ryan McGee
Well, they're going to tell you to take it down.
- [88:19]
Worgon
I don't know. You just moved into this neighborhood and you're going to immediately just begin with hostility.
- [88:24]
Ryan McGee
I think when you move into an hoa, don't worry about their feelings because they're not worried about yours.
- [88:31]
Worgon
That's definitely true.
- [88:33]
Ryan McGee
So what are you, you're worried, what up? It's going to be dicey between you and the hoa. It's going to be dicey. There's no, there's no way to avoid it. If you're a man of free will, at some point you're going to go, fuck this. So that I would look at that relationship as there's. And I'm not here to repair it or preserve it.
- [88:56]
Worgon
What do they mean you? I've never been so. I don't know. So like, like, what are the. What's, like the worst case scenario? They can't kick you out of your house, right?
- [89:04]
Ryan McGee
They would just find you every week or something. And I didn't know I was being fined. I just moved in. And then the billing cycle, the way it worked all of a sudden was like, what the hell are these? Like, oh, you're being fined because when you did this. And it was totally wrong. It was totally wrong. And then I just was like, well, that's. I explained it to him. Million phone calls, couple emails. And then they just wiped out the fines. But they were totally wrong about it.
- [89:33]
Worgon
How expensive were the fines?
- [89:36]
Ryan McGee
I don't know, maybe like $125 a month or something like that.
- [89:39]
Worgon
See that's, you know, if you're paying that to have like a black fence, is that really worth it? Probably not, no.
- [89:47]
Ryan McGee
Because then they're going to hit you with like interest on the unpaid fines and every other thing.
- [89:54]
Worgon
I think you should just ask the people with the black fences, like instead of just like doing this on your own, just, just ask them how did you get this approved? They're going to be fine. They're your neighbors. It's not that weird. Talk to people and then try to go that route. And if the HOA gives you shit for it, then maybe you just say, screw it, I'm going to build my own fence and I'll just, I'll just take the heat for it. But I think why not at least explore the people who have done this somewhat legally.
- [90:19]
Ryan McGee
I wonder if there's any old Facebook book, like community stuff that you can look at there. Because I guess, I guess our catalog, I was not involved, but our HOA or our, I guess our little community had some sort of Facebook group that would just message about everybody non stop. And Sarah was on it. She was like, oh my God, you Should see what they're saying this week. And I was like, I don't, I don't want to see what they're saying. Sarah put in a brick patio that they came by and they're like, you have to take all of this out or something. Like, this is totally illegal. You can't do this. Like, I can't believe you did this and all this different stuff. And then they, like, lied about what was there pre existing. And she somehow had taken, I think she had taken pictures because she was trying to send it to the people to install the patio of, like, hey, this is what the space looks like. So whatever they said that it was that she had destroyed. We're like, oh, you took out trees. You did this. This is ridiculous. You have to take out the entire patio and then fill it back in the way that it was. And the way that they were arguing it was. It never was. And then she had the pictures and sent it to them. Was like, you're totally wrong and out of your mind on this one. And then they were like, oh, our bad. And that was it. So these are the people you're dealing with here.
- [91:39]
Worgon
As a quick aside, I will say there aren't many redeeming parts of Facebook these days, but those town groups, man, it is like crack cocaine. I cannot stop reading. The, the stuff people get mad about in the town chat is just outrageous.
- [91:55]
Ryan McGee
So I, I, My sister's on a Martha's Vineyard one because she still lives there and she is so addicted to it. She's like this, like. I think the Vineyard one is like a whole nother level, I'm sure, because you have this, this hybrid community where one's temporary and the one that's permanent doesn't make nearly as much money as the one that's temporary. It was nice. It was nice to be back on the Vineyard in the summer. I haven't been there in the summer in a long time. Although the traffic, I've never seen it that busy. It's outrageous. Then I made it up to the West Tisbury Farmer's Market after that big controversy. Just wanted to see how everything was after a noteworthy appearance. All right, I think that'll do it for today's life advice. No Kyle, who's back home and we're happy for him. So thanks to Ceruti, thanks to Oregon. Sorry about the start of this one. Just had to land. The line was in my head. And Jonathan Frias, we are back on Thursday. Freddie Gibbs at my house. We'll do some more football and then Friday. Yes, there was still a travelogue. Saint Parks.
- [93:03]
Ceruti
They were gonna name me Michael Jordan. My dad was like, I don't think he can live up to it.
- [93:07]
Ryan McGee
So they made me Michael. Jared must be 21 and older and present in select states. For Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 + in present D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling Problem Call 100 Gambler or visit rg-help.com, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit MD gamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is there. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New York.