Chiefs Go Down, the AFC Hierarchy, and Rookie QB Future Rankings. Plus, Two-Loss SEC Teams Vs. Indiana With Todd McShay.

Summary

The Ryen Russillo Podcast – Episode Summary Title: Chiefs Go Down, the AFC Hierarchy, and Rookie QB Future Rankings. Plus, Two-Loss SEC Teams Vs. Indiana With Todd McShay
Host: Ryen Russillo (The Ringer)
Guest: Bill Simmons
Release Date: November 18, 2024

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1. Introduction and Episode Overview

In this episode, Ryen Russillo delves into the pivotal Week 11 NFL matchups, analyzing the Kansas City Chiefs' surprising loss to the Buffalo Bills. Alongside Bill Simmons, they explore the current AFC hierarchy, evaluate rookie quarterback prospects, and scrutinize the College Football Top 12 rankings, particularly focusing on how two-loss SEC teams stack up against Indiana. Additionally, the episode touches upon noteworthy events like the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight and concludes with personal anecdotes and listener emails.

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2. NFL Week 11 Highlights

Chiefs vs. Bills: A Major Upset

At [00:11], Ryen expresses enthusiasm for Week 11, highlighting the Buffalo Bills' victory over the Kansas City Chiefs as the standout game:

Ryen Russillo [00:11]: "The Bills giving Kansas City their first loss. It's kind of easy to forget."

Bill Simmons concurs, emphasizing the significance of this upset in the broader AFC landscape.

Analysis of Mahomes' Performance

The discussion shifts to Patrick Mahomes' performance, noting his third game under 200 passing yards this season:

Ryen Russillo [05:45]: "Mahomes, by the way, Buffalo doing this without key players like Keon Coleman and Dalton."

They debate the Chiefs' offensive struggles and question whether this loss signals a need to reassess AFC power dynamics.

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3. AFC Hierarchy and Playoff Implications

Current Standings and Future Outlook

Ryen and Bill dissect the AFC standings post-Week 11, considering how the Chiefs' loss affects playoff seeding:

Bill Simmons [35:38]: "The six right now seems very clear cut. Buffalo, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Chargers, Houston."

Ryen adds that teams like Cincinnati and Denver, despite their records, may not sustain their momentum long enough to disrupt the top six.

Playoff Predictions and Team Evaluations

They debate potential playoff matchups, contemplating Rematch scenarios like Chiefs vs. Bills and questioning the depth and resilience of teams like Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

Ryen Russillo [36:48]: "Would you pick Pittsburgh against Baltimore in a rematch in the playoffs? No, I can't get there either."

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4. Rookie Quarterback Future Rankings

Ryen and Bill assess the prospects of rookie quarterbacks, discussing talents such as Caleb Jaden, Drake May, and others from the recent draft class.

Bill Simmons [52:32]: "There are a lot of encouraging signs with Caleb, Drake, Bo Nicks, JJ, and Penix. It's exciting to see their potential."

They express optimism about the future of these rookies, acknowledging that while some may face challenges, they hold promise for the league's next generation.

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5. College Football Top 12 Rankings and SEC vs. Indiana

Top 12 Rankings Breakdown

Ryen presents his College Football Top 12, challenging conventional rankings by prioritizing the strength of schedules and team performances over mere win-loss records.

Ryen Russillo [24:10]: "Number one Oregon, down 136 at Wisconsin in the third quarter... The Ducks stay undefeated and they stay at number one."

SEC Two-Loss Teams vs. Indiana

A significant portion of the discussion critiques the inclusion of teams like Indiana over SEC contenders despite Indiana's impressive 11-1 record.

Bill Simmons [60:14]: "How in the hell is Penn State in Indiana better than Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, Tennessee?"

Ryen argues that due to scheduling imbalances exacerbated by conference expansion, Indiana's record doesn't accurately reflect their true standing compared to SEC teams that faced tougher opponents.

Ryen Russillo [61:28]: "The in-conference imbalance is so stupid right now that you're going to have Indiana actually, like when you watch them, I don't go, God, they stink and they're just getting lucky."

They debate the fairness of current ranking systems, suggesting that committees need to adjust evaluations based on strength of schedule and actual team performance rather than superficial metrics.

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6. Special Topics

Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul Fight

Ryen briefly touches upon the high-profile fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, discussing fan reactions and the authenticity of the competitors' performances.

Ryen Russillo [73:35]: "Did you guys watch Tyson? Jake Paul? Yep."

The conversation highlights skepticism about the fight's credibility, comparing Tyson's boxing legacy to Jake Paul's celebrity-driven participation.

Life Advice and Personal Anecdotes

Towards the latter part of the episode, Ryen and Bill share personal stories, including experiences with fraternities and navigating social interactions. While these segments provide entertainment, they diverge from the main sports discussions.

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7. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The episode wraps up with reflections on the AFC's depth, the evolving landscape of NFL teams, and optimistic outlooks on emerging quarterback talents. Ryen emphasizes the importance of adaptability and strategic planning for teams aiming to secure playoff success.

Ryen Russillo [72:32]: "The committee has to kind of show its cards early here."

Bill concurs, underscoring the necessity for ranking bodies to recognize and adjust to the current season's dynamics, ensuring that deserving teams aren't overlooked due to systemic biases.

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Notable Quotes

• Ryen Russillo [00:11]: "The Bills giving Kansas City their first loss. It's kind of easy to forget."

• Bill Simmons [35:38]: "The six right now seems very clear cut. Buffalo, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Chargers, Houston."

• Ryen Russillo [61:28]: "The in-conference imbalance is so stupid right now that you're going to have Indiana actually, like when you watch them, I don't go, God, they stink and they're just getting lucky."

• Bill Simmons [52:32]: "There are a lot of encouraging signs with Caleb, Drake, Bo Nicks, JJ, and Penix. It's exciting to see their potential."

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Final Remarks

This episode of The Ryen Russillo Podcast offers an in-depth analysis of crucial NFL and college football developments, enriched by insightful discussions and expert opinions from Bill Simmons. Listeners gain a nuanced understanding of the current sports landscape, playoff prospects, and the future stars poised to make their mark in the league.

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Note: The above summary excludes advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content segments to maintain focus on the episode's primary discussions.

Transcript

[Ryan Russillo]

On today's episode, we are getting into week 11 of the NFL. My favorite week of the season, I think so far. An awesome battle in Buffalo. What it means for the Bills to take out Mahomes and hand them their first loss. Also, why does Pittsburgh keep figuring out a way to take care of Lamar? Got that one wrong. We'll do some of that stuff with Mick Shea as well. My College Football top 12 buckle up and we've got life advice and a breakdown of the Mike Tyson Jake Paul stuff before life advice. Enjoy. This episode is brought to you by Chevy. Great football teams are built by having the right capability in the right positions. It's the same with great trucks like the Chevy Silverado. You start under the hood with four powerful engine choices delivering massive towing capacity. Then you've got available onboard technology that gives you extra peace of mind while towing. Finally, the rugged, purposeful design of the Silverado screams grit and determination just like a winning football team. Visit Chevy.com to learn more. Okay, a great week 11. That was awesome. Action all the way through. Headline games, big time quarterbacks all the way through last night's game with Cincinnati and Los Angeles. But let's start in Buffalo. Best win on the slate easily. The Bills giving Kansas City their first loss. It's kind of easy to forget. I'm sure Chiefs and Bills fans haven't forgotten, but it's just a nice reminder that Buffalo actually gets Kansas City in the regular season. They beat him at KC 23, 22, a 3820 win in Kansas City in 21. But that's four straight wins. But it just gets overshadowed by all the losses in the playoffs, 20, 21 and then last year in 23. So fourth and two at the KC 26. Bills are up 23, 21 and that's kind of the game you have to go for it. I remember Chip Kelly coming to us, I think in one of those like conference car washes where I remember when the SEC sent up all their coaches and the other conference commissioners I think called ESPN was like, why are you guys doing this? I was like, well, it was the SEC's idea. Do you guys want to come? And they're like, yeah, I guess so. And then all the coaches are miserable. They had a fly to ESPN in the middle of the summer. Anyway, Chip Kelly, I don't even know if it was that interview, but it was early on when he got things rolling at Oregon and they were more aggressive on fourth down. They certainly weren't the first team to do it. And we asked Chip about it and he had said, and he's explained it other times too where basically throughout his coaching when the other team would line up to go for it in fourth down, they would be bummed out. So then the byproduct of that is, well, if we're disappointed when they're going for it, why are we not going for it all the time? So now everybody goes for it and I'm sure the numbers would say 4th and 2, add the 26, go for it, just take control of the football game and Allen ends up running in for the touchdown. I'm not as fourth down obsessed, crazy aggressive maybe as everybody else is now, but in this case against Mahomes, you have to do it a lesser quarterback, somebody average or below average. I think going up 26, 21 and having them make them drive the entire length of the field for a game winning touchdown is something I would want my defense to be able to stop against a quarterback that I just don't have that much respect for. Clearly Mahomes is a different category. So fourth and two lined up like the way they did it. They actually moved Allen out a little. So it gave you perhaps some kind of pass look and let him get into space and then he just runs the thing in. Game winning touchdown. So let's look at a couple different things here with Mahomes, by the way, Buffalo doing this without Keon Coleman and Dalton, Canadian and a tackle making his first career start. Mahomes now his third game under 200 yards this season. He gave you nothing on the ground, which is usually part of the Kansas City frustration where you think you're containing Mahomes containing the passing game, which just continues to not really look the way we would expect it to look. But last year's like the ultimate lesson in ever doubting these guys. But the leg part of it from Mahomes, not a factor. Yesterday he only had two games under 200 total passing yards all of last season, 0 and 22. And it's been a month with Kansas City where you have the Denver game where they probably should have lost overtime against Tampa, who's, you know, a good team, you're going to have to fight with them. But Tampa's down a ton of guys and that game ends up going to overtime when they give up the late touchdown to Baker, which was an incredible drive for them. Granted, the Raiders game was a one score game, but they were up 27, 13. So it's a month with Kansas City where you're like, okay, there's still the One seed. But I don't know if this means we have to reset the rest of who we think is the best in the afc. I mean, I'd probably pick the Chiefs again if they're playing the Bills in the playoffs because it's just the Mahomes factor, all of this. But when you factor in what we also saw with Baltimore or Pittsburgh yesterday, it, it maybe is this stretch here post week 11 where I mean, I don't even, I don't even believe it as I'm saying it, should we all be more open minded about the possibilities in the afc? All right, so there was also a theme of like if not today, when approach to some of the outcomes of this, certainly with Seattle and San Francisco, that we'll get to Chicago never being able to beat Green Bay, lining up for the field goal, having it blocked. But you know, if Lamar's not going to get Pittsburgh yesterday, then when's he going to get him? On Friday I brought up his record, which I'm sure a lot of, you know, 1 and 3 now, 1 and 4 all time against Pittsburgh. And when you think of how long he's been in the league, we went through it with Scheele on Friday. He's had injuries where he's missed games against the Steelers, he had a COVID test where he missed a game against Pittsburgh. There was also rest at the end of seasons for that last week divisional game where Baltimore didn't want to play him. So there's just not as many results there. So going into this and look, I was wrong. I figured, hey, they'll get them this time. If it's Russell Wilson against Lamar Jackson, I'm just never going to pick Russell Wilson. And then, and then it happens. Lamar finished 16 to 13 at one point he was 10 of 27. He had only three rushes for 21 yards. There was a 15 yarder in there until he put together some numbers for that last touchdown that they desperately needed. Yes, there were a couple of drops. The Zay Flowers drop was huge at one point. But I don't think Lamar was necessarily bad. Even though you look at the box score and think, well, this is not what you expect from what is now to this point been kind of the undisputed MVP for 24. I thought it was a lot of coverage stuff from Pittsburgh. Whenever I look at quarterbacks struggling, you know, part of it can just be pressure and feeling like he has no time. I don't think that was the case. Pittsburgh wasn't going to blitz a lot, but you don't want to blitz against Lamar. It's a big time contained thing where you don't want to get so upfield with your pressure where now he's just dicing you on all the lanes and the line of scrimmage. It's those moments where you can see the quarterback is in between decisions and that to me is coverage scheme. And maybe there is something to this with Pittsburgh just understanding and being able to go up against Lamar in a way that other teams aren't as familiar. It's a bit of like the unbalanced schedule in baseball where a really good pitcher is just not going to be as effective against the team. He's going up four or five times. So in this case, Lamar would kind of roll out and then he would look and you would see that he'd want to pull the trigger. But he knew it wasn't really a great throw. And I think that's really where the credit belongs in this game because it wasn't Pittsburgh's offense at all. You can also say Baltimore had other reasons to give this one away. They fumbled the opening drive, a 28 yard field goal drive there for Pittsburgh. Tucker misses two more field goals from 57 or excuse me, from 47 and 50. He's now 16 to 22 on the season. This is a guy who's 90% first career. He's like in the 70s, low 70s I think this season. He was one in five on field goals, 50 yards or more last season. So this is a continuation of some concerns with Tucker where now it's just, I mean Ravens fans know this. You'll be watching these games. You just feel entirely different about a dude who was just automatic. The other thing too is he's only 34. I know he's been around forever, but you're thinking like is he just done at 34? I also saw something else this morning that said all of his misses, but they had said five of his misses, not the six, that they're all left. And this is something I've never even heard of because I'm not your kicker guy. But when your left is a right footed kicker, that that can mean you're just overcompensating. Here's not as strong and then you end up pulling this stuff. I don't know. Anyway, the point is, is that when you look at the numbers here for Baltimore, the kicking thing is an issue all season. The penalties are a huge issue all season. 12 more yesterday. They lead the league in penalties per game at 8.4 and they're still last in the NFL and passing yards allowed. Now I was the guy yelling, saying don't fall for that. I actually thought the secondary was pretty good yesterday. But the quarterback, the opposing quarterback resume was a big reason why that number has been so bad. But if you go back the last month, yeah, the borough game was in there where he puts up a ton of numbers against them. But they've also faced Jameis Bo Nix and Russell Wilson and they've had some injuries, but welcome to the NFL. But that number is still really alarming. So that's three things there that they need to be figuring out here as they try to ramp up and escape the afc. But this Pittsburgh result resets a bunch of different things. Russell Wilson, we can play the hey, they won. So he's good deal here. But it was the six field goals by Boswell. And something that I think prevents me from putting Pittsburgh in the converse like I feel whatever the fake tier stuff we all come up with is whatever tier Pittsburgh was in before this game, I have to bump them up to another one. But I don't really know what that means other than I'm just taking it more seriously because of how great this defense is. But there's definitely some stuff with Wilson. If he's going to hold onto the ball long, it's usually going to be a problem. The interception in the red zone was inexcusable. He can't, he can't throw that ball. I know there's an argument to me that a huge tight end in Washington is supposed to make a play on it. I don't know when you look at the all 22 on that throw, like he's throwing a pop up, hoping that the rebounder is boxing out to be able to catch it. That's just too much risk for what was waiting for him. With three points on the board and Wilson is now 7 to 24, 29% in the red zone. So because of the quarterback depth in the afc, which is just absurd, I guess I wasn't taking Pittsburgh serious enough. I guess I take them more serious today, but it's just tough to stack Wilson up with those other guys if he's facing them in the playoffs. But as I doubt Pittsburgh for whatever reason, I still believe in San Francisco, which after yesterday's result makes me think I should stop. Pittsburgh's a three seed. San Francisco is that dangerous 10 seed that everybody's always talking about, but I figured they'd get in because of the division. But if you look at it today, the Niners are now in last place in the NFC west with a 1 in 3 division record. Arizona's only played two division games. I don't know if that's good or bad. It's a good division. There's no doormats. The Rams find a way to stay competitive. And finally Seattle gets this win against the Niners, something they have not done in a while. This is the Niners third loss to a division team leading in the last two minutes of a game. It's the first time that's happened in the NFL since 2001. They've now allowed, I believe, 36 points because I think the stat came up at 29 before Seattle scored the game winner. They've given up 36 points in the last two minutes of games this season. It was the second worst and then I think it was the worst. But then Cincinnati, what happened to them is that we'll get to here in a second. So I think that's the second worst number in the NFL. That's so many points in the last two minutes with a team that has this kind of defensive personnel. So you can blame the defense for these late collapses. It's also partially on the offense because they get the first down on the penalty when they're up 17, 13. Then they go, well, it's not technically three and out, but you get the point. They don't get a first down on the next three plays. So they punt. And then Seattle of all teams goes 80 yards on second and 13. Geno runs it for 16 and then runs it again in for the 13 yard touchdown. The Niners front was gassed. I'm not going to get into like, hey, you got to leave in a spy on Gino, I guess because he had just done it. I'm a little surprised they weren't looking for that. And then Gino, you could see when he looked left and saw the coverage, man, coverage, he's just like, I think I got this. Runs it in and here we go. San Francisco, granted, no Kittle. I think their actual tight end was like an offensive lineman that they activated. Bosa leaves the game and it's the first win for Seattle. And Gino against San Francisco, they had been 06 and then Gino had been 05 against him. Last thought, when the Chargers were up 24 to 6 at the half last night against Cincinnati, I kept thinking like, do I need to take the Chargers more seriously the way I'm taking the Steelers more seriously? From the rest of the season on, we know that the Herbert game plan has Changed with Harbaugh there, 699 attempts two years ago. That's 41 a game. He's on pace for only 471 attempts this year, so he's down almost 14 attempts per game. They're number two in turnover margin. The defense that we probably don't put in that elite class, despite the fact that they were 13 points per game allowed, best in the NFL. Now it's like 14 and a half. But they couldn't move the ball in the second half, which is probably like, even though they've revamped everything, they're doing great in turnover margin, great in scoring defense. The offense is still a middling offense, which seems weird with Herbert. And you know, I didn't know if the first round pick, Johnson, the receiver from tcu, was going to be a guy, but he's been better. McConkey is clearly good. Like they're figuring some of this stuff out and J.K. dobbins being healthy. But it's just such an alarming second half that all these moments where I had like, do I need to start thinking about the Chargers, like, as a really serious team here? And then it all kind of went away as Burroughs put together a DVD season's worth of highlights on all the throws and all the ridiculous stuff that he's doing in the second half. The other part, when you look at the Chargers offense, you sit there and go like, that's four spots ahead of Kansas City in yards per play. But some of the defensive numbers, and I think these are fair. Like the opposing quarterbacks they've gone up against. Minshew, Bryce Young fields early, Bo Nicks, who was great yesterday. That touchdown throw to little Jordan Humphrey was nasty. They played against Spencer Rattler and Jake Hayner in the same game against the Saints. Jamis and Will Leviss. So the Chargers D has played four quarterbacks that have been benched at some point this season, but last night's the best win of their season. And Cincinnati is Probably the best 4, 7 team I've ever seen. Okay, let's hear from Oregon here. Let's get this stat in stats to impress people. Josh Allen was 0.9 yards away from the sideline on his 52 yard throw to Shakir since Allen came to the NFL in 2018. Allen is 6 for 7 for 118 yards and three touchdowns on throws within a yard of the sideline. The rest of the NFL on those throws is one of 16. That's from next gen, so get mad at them if you think there's somebody that was like a yard plus away. All right, this is supposed to be an award, but I, I can't, I don't know that I can really think of the perfect way to phrase it. You could also say this tweet is doing a lot of work. If you had not heard, Carl Weathers died this year on February 2nd. Men's Health. Their Twitter account is making sure that you know this. Yesterday they tweeted out that he died again and that's the fourth time that I've seen they've. They did it when he died. They did it in September, they did it in October, and they did it again yesterday. I think they deleted it again yesterday. I know they deleted the one in September. I think the October one is still active. And you could argue that they've been right every time they've tweeted it. I guess I'm just confused why they keep doing it. Potentially, if I really wanted to reach you could say, okay, I'm going to give the Carl Weathers Men's Health Tweet award to the Dallas Cowboys. Like another segment of like do we have to keep updating on where the Cowboys are? I don't even know if that necessarily works. I guess it would be something that we already know and we don't know why we're being updated on it. So maybe I'll save this one for later. But I mean, Jesus Christ, men. South get your shit together. The NBA is back in. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook wants you to catch all the action because right now FanDuel is giving everyone three months of NBA League pass. All you have to do to catch every tip off and buzzer beater is place any five dollar bet on the NBA. All right, couple things I want to get to here. The Rockets are 10 and 4. The Rockets are your 3 seed in the west today. The Rockets are one of the best shows on league pass. If you get some league pass you can check out some Rockets. You could say, hey, it's a schedule, stupid. Detroit, Washington. Have you seen how intense Detroit is lately? I bet you haven't. Have you seen the activity of Bilal Kulabali? Probably not, but back to back against the Clippers on a Wednesday and Friday and to tap it off a 143 point performance at Chicago on Sunday. I love Rockets basketball. I also love that the Raptors stink. They have the worst record in the NBA. I know Scotty Barnes has been out. I guess you're the only team that's been hurt, but it's very specific to the over under preview pod where Raptors media and fans who are their own element of annoying decided to say that I did not know Ball and I was a casual for taking the under on the raptors. They are 2 and 12 trending towards the under. So the next time you get a hunch on who is going to win or how many points a player will score, you can watch your picks come to life live. Just visit FanDuel.com Ryan R Y E N to get three months of NBA League Pass courtesy of FanDuel make every moment more with FanDuel official sportsbook partner of the NBA must be 21 and older and President select states are 18 plus and President D.C. after a three month free trial, the full price of league pass will automatically be charged monthly. Cancel anytime. No refunds. Terms, restrictions and embargoes apply. Limit one per customer seat [e-mail] gambling problem. Call 1-800-G GAMBLER or visit RG help.com okay, this is my college football top 12 and as a reminder, I'll do the bracket when the bracket actually matters. But looking ahead to what the bracket could look like, I'm not thrilled with this. My top 12 right now is a result of the adults looking at what's happening in college football and being like, let's be serious about the experiences that Power 4 programs are having. All right, number one Oregon, down 136 at Wisconsin in the third quarter after Wisconsin field goal, the rest of the Wisconsin offensive possessions punt, punt downs, an interception by DJ Uyangalay to seal it. He's a stud. Fourth quarter jump around landing, had the Ducks jumping around. Not phased, not worried about it. What does it say about the Ducks? You know, I don't know. I think every great team has a couple of these games every season. The fake field goal though, when you're asking your holder to break one 10 yards to the left as opposed to taking the points. Not sure how I felt about that one. But the Ducks stay undefeated and they stay at number one. Number two Ohio State down seven nothing against Northwestern. They just roll. Will Howard, now a 24. Five split on touchdowns, interceptions, completing 73% of his passes. All right, number three, Texas. The Arkansas game was a little weird. Texas was 4:15 on third down. So after we felt great about their offense against I think a decent opponent in Florida despite the record and they put it on him, they did not do so against Arkansas, which I also think falls into the decent opponent category despite the record. But the defense was Great in this one. Defensive lineman number 95, Alfred Collins for Texas. Just an absolute game record. So I've got Bama number four and let me get through four, five, six and then seven and then maybe you'll understand where I'm coming from here. So after the 2417 loss against Tennessee, they beat Missouri 34, zip. But again, that was with Mizzou's backup. And then they trounce lsu. I know because I was there. So they've got wins against Georgia and lsu. I think that matters and I think that's more impressive than what other teams have done behind them. At number five, I have Georgia. It's not so much about the head to head because I should probably have Georgia head of Texas. But with the extra loss, not really sure what to do here. But let's look at what we're really comparing here when we talk about Georgia and Indiana. Georgia is eighth in the AP and the coaches poll. Georgia has played Clemson, Bama, Texas, Ole Miss, Tennessee, who they beat 31:17. Number 11, Javon Walker is my hero for Georgia. What he did on the last position against Nico and again it was a competitive game. Tennessee's up, but Beck finally put this last month behind him and just had a moment in that game where it looked like he had just turned things on and started looking like a guy we're used to or we expect to see all the time. So if I look at Georgia's fifth toughest opponent, is it Clemson is that tougher than Indiana's toughest opponent? Who is who? Washington, Michigan. Here are the records of the opponents for the Indiana Hoosiers. Michigan 5 and 5. Michigan State 4 and 6. Washington 6 and 5. Nebraska 5 and 5. Northwestern 4 and 6. Maryland 4 and 6. UCLA 4 and 6. Oh, I'm not done. Out of conference. Charlotte 3 and 7. The Western Illinois Leathernecks 3 and 8. Florida International 3 and 7. I'd argue Georgia playing Florida is tougher than anyone Indiana's played and that might be their sixth toughest opponent. I could even get weird with Kentucky. Maybe they're the sixth toughest. Maybe the seventh toughest opponent for Georgia is tougher than anyone Indiana has faced. If you want to argue about Washington, I'll allow it. That's fine. You got me. You got me. So then the five toughest opponents for Georgia are tougher than anyone Indiana has faced. I don't care about the record when it's that ridiculous. I'm over all of it. I'm over the expansion, completely changing what teams are doing and I think we have to adjust for that, and I think the committee should have to adjust for that. If you're telling me that I'm biased, I would tell you that you're right. But I'm going to be biased about a team like Texas who played in the fucking playoff last year. I'm going to be biased about a team like Georgia who's put together some incredible seasons. Now, does that seem kind of unfair? Sure. But what's your bias? I just want somebody different who hasn't played anybody. Your bias would be, hey, they're undefeated. Why are they undefeated? Have they played Clemson, Bama, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas? Oh, they're undefeated. No, they're not. So I'm at a point of the season where I think this is where I'm going with it. Normally the one loss to two loss, the cost of a loss thing that I've talked about for years. Look, it should matter. 10 and oh versus 8 and 2. Yeah. Well, if everything's expanded and everything is different, like, look at the Big 12. Arizona State is 8 and 2. It is an incredible story. They're in third place. BYU loses that one to Kansas. That had trap game. I don't even know if it's trap game. Kansas has been playing better. Colorado, who I was totally wrong about because I thought it was a carryover from last season. After the Nebraska loss, I'm like, they can't block. But you know what? They might have the number one pick at quarterback, the Heisman Trophy winner, and Travis Hunter. Tons of studs all over the place at wide receiver and, you know, like, they still can't run the football. So I don't know that they've solved all of their offensive problems, but it doesn't look like Shador is going to get killed at halftime every single game anymore. But how is this happening? Well, Arizona State hasn't played byu, they haven't played Colorado. They can't play themselves. They haven't played Iowa State, they haven't played Baylor. Kansas State, who is in sixth place in the Big 12 standings, is the best team that they've played inside of the conference. And you could play the same game here with Colorado. So what's happening here with expansion is we have teams even into mid November, skating through the easiest parts of their schedule. Indiana has played none of the top seven teams in the Big Ten. Granted, again, they can't play themselves at the end of the season, and we're going to find out against Ohio State. But when they finish with Purdue, Indiana is going to play seven of the eight worst teams in an 18 team Big Ten. This is what we have now and we have to be fair and how we adjust. There are preconceived notions about teams that are right and wrong all the time. But I will go with explainable bias than unprecedented bias every single time. Number seven, Penn State. See above. Number eight, Notre Dame. I could put them seven, but the loss is much worse than Penn State's loss to Ohio State. But they are killing everybody. Their last competitive game was September 28th against Louisville. Number nine, Ole Miss. Number 10, Tennessee. Doing it. Number eight. Or excuse me, number 11, Miami. And you know what? I'm going with SMU. That was a tough win against Boston College. Making a quarterback change. But Boston College, as you know, two months now, they've been in the they don't suck category. So I have SMU and Jennings slinging it all over the place as the 12th team in my top 12. He is the host of the McShay show on Ringer and Spotify, his live college football recap show on Saturday nights. And he joins me most Mondays at St. McShay. What's up?

[Bill Simmons]

How we doing, man? How was LSU? I never get to talk to you after that.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, I know. Well, I mean, we talked about me jumping on the phone, so I don't know if that's a zinger right out of the gates.

[Bill Simmons]

No, it actually wasn't. I, I, I lost interest in having you when the result got out of hand in the second half. I actually, if you'd, I just would have ignored the call.

[Ryan Russillo]

Okay, good. Now I don't feel bad because I was playing it out being like, it's going to be really hard. Win or lose. We know how Louisiana is. Yeah, it was going to be really hard to find a place to just break away for like a 10 minute phone hit two nights in a row. Yeah, boy. Yeah. So there was a omi filet from Brandon Landry that he was like, you have to, he was like, you can't order anything else. I'm making you get that. And so we did a whole like.

[Bill Simmons]

20 minutes on, on building the perfect trip to Baton Rouge. And I based like most of it off of Brandon sent me a text that was like that long and.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, well, I miss, I miss the foam cup days where they just let you foam cup it wherever you went and then if you walked in, they would, it's just, I don't know, different deal. And obviously we're rough in passing and Rafinos, it's not the Same thing. And now that Brandon has the supper club and everything, but, yeah, whatever. So look, that game sucked and we'll just, we'll get to some college ball here, but I want to start with the NFL because I thought yesterday was awesome. And you know, Allen on the fourth and two decision makes all the sense in the world. You can't give the ball back to Mahomes when you're still not even up. You know, they would have only been up 6. But what did you see from. Yeah, no, that's why. That's where I want to go right here. So just take it.

[Bill Simmons]

I was saying to myself as I was watching the game last night, okay, it's. It's 23, 21, fourth quarter, they get the ball back, the bills do it753. And I made a mental note to myself, okay, how do we attack this differently than in the past? And what's the mistake that, that everyone makes? My mindset in that moment was you got to assume seven for Mahomes. So, so really the scoreboard says 23, 21. Let's take this drive. And it like, there has to be a mindset, a believable mindset. It's really 28, 23. We're down five. A field goal does nothing for us. It's not about chewing clock. It's not. This drive is. We've got to drive down and win the game. And I, and I'm not saying that I've talked to anyone in Buffalo and that was the mindset, but if you can enter that drive with that mindset, that's where you need to be mentally. And the results kind of indicated that they had that kind of mindset. I mean, you, that's why they dropped back to pass eight of 12 plays on that drive. Okay? That's why the ball was in Allen's hands. 10 of 12 plays, he ran the ball twice and eight drops the pass. And they only handed the ball off, I think by my count, only two times in that drive. So this was not a drive about chewing clock. And yeah, they didn't race to the line. They, they between plays, they, they ate up some, some time. But the mindset was, if we don't score here, we're losing this game. We're down five points on this drive. And so that's why kicking a 43 yard field goal in that fourth and two, it wasn't an option because you got to score, you got to score six to win the game, if you have that mentality the whole time. So, and that's why Alan takes off and scrambled and put it in his own hands on that fourth and two play. So I just, I thought the mindset was right. They'd been burned before. In situations like this, you see team after team when you try to just, you know, run out the clock and let's get three more and four some more, they have to score a touchdown to win. It doesn't work, not in big games, not in those spots. History tells us. I just, I love the aggressive mindset. I love that the entire drive was about. We're down five and they, that's how they attack.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, you're right on the carries. Ty Johnson had the first on that entire 12 play series and then they went forward on the third and two and he gets stuffed and then Allen runs it in for the touchdown. Is there a matchup specific thing? Now granted, it's, it's worth reminding people no Keon Coleman, no Kincaid. And you're going into that game and this is why some of these quarterbacks are just special. They're just better than everybody else. Like I look at Burrow last night and go, oh my gosh. The thing I always hit on the problem solving. Okay, here are the problems that present themselves the first 30 minutes of football game. Now you have to solve all of these problems and get back into the game. And that list is like maybe five or six guys to do it all the time. Allen is clearly in that group. But to have those guys out and you know, maybe it just. And it also like on top of everything else, this was supposed to be this Bill's reset year financially with some of the decisions that they made, remember?

[Bill Simmons]

And did they miss their window? What are we doing?

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, I mean, you're right. Like it would have been the end of whatever this version of the window is to only be reinvented. Probably two more windows because of Alan's age and his ability. Right. So it's not like this permanent closure of a plan, but maybe of this.

[Bill Simmons]

Window, maybe it's going to take another year or two to get, get back to where we need to be. But yeah, if they had been 9.

[Ryan Russillo]

And 7 and Allen still has like a good year but you feel like the defense is a mess. Like, okay, well they're just going to have another one of those years where instead I'm left with thinking about Kansas City and maybe a bit diminished Baltimore, maybe it's just a Pittsburgh thing. I was really starting to think like, do I need to love the Chargers more? I still love Cincinnati even though they're four and seven. Right. And then taking Pittsburgh more seriously despite not feeling the quarterbacks even on par with any of these teams. Like, do you. I think it'd be a lie to go definitively today. Buffalo is the best team in the AFC when we've seen the regular season not be mirrored in the playoff when these two teams match up against each other. But there's, there's something to be said about holding Mahomes down again and this, this carryover, this regular season stuff with this offense where it's just like we all feel like idiots thinking that maybe this doesn't happen for the Chiefs because there's just a lot of regular season offensive stuff that makes you wonder when they go into some of these other quarterback matchups. I'm not there yet. But this is just a tremendous win for a Sunday where it's like, hey, this is going to be tough on Allen. And he, he had an answer.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, without those two guys, too. Without your security blanket at tight end, without your young receiver who you kind of. You come to expect that he's going to make a few big plays and, and, and certainly someone you have to account for defensively. Yeah.

[Ryan Russillo]

Right. And it's not like, it's not like Keon is like Nico Hollins out here, but it's.

[Bill Simmons]

No but he's, but he's somebody else that you have to, that you have to account for. Kansas City is, it's the hardest because I look at Kansas City, it's like they could have lost three other games, you know, and, and, but we've seen like, even last year, I remember talking all last year, like, I don't, I don't think this is the team. I don't think, you know, man, they're struggling. And you look at DeAndre Hopkins, is that, you know, will that continue to improve and will he continue to, you know, provide more for them offensively? Xavier Worthy was a big factor yesterday. Like, they clearly are trying to get him more involved and provide some more explosiveness in the offense, but they're not there yet. And so, like, if you're a pessimist and you're saying, you know, they're not going to three Pete, you have plenty of evidence for that. Right. But if you're a realist and you're, you're saying, all right, this is a Chiefs team that in the last couple of years has not played their best ball, sometimes in the middle of the year or early in the year, they get better down the stretch. They always play their best ball in the playoffs and find ways to win. And if, you know, if Mahomes is out there, how do you bet against them? And I still, I see areas where they can improve offensively. I really do. And so you, you kind of have to trust that they're going to. With that play caller, with that signal caller like you have to trust that they're going to. But it's easy to look at that game yesterday and be like Buffalo without two significant pieces on offense is the better football team.

[Ryan Russillo]

I think Hopkins is already been really good for them. I know they had the super uncharacteristic competitive. Every time Hopkins, it's a 50, 50 ball, I just assume he's going to win. He loses one of those where he actually thought he maybe had had it, but the replay clearly showed it was incomplete. But he had two. He was great against Tampa. He had the huge play on the third down on the field goal drive to go up on Denver. So I mean to me, even at diminished Hopkins, considering just how they've tried to figure this receiver position out and now the injuries that they've had on top of everything else with Rice going down, to me, he's already paid some dividends here. But they're 19th in yards per play. As I say in the open for the Chiefs and yet it's their first loss. So what are we really talking about? But it's been a lingering month of kind of like man, are they. I mean it comes back to the Mahomes thing. But like, all right, let me do it this way. I don't even know if you're gonna, if you, if you say Buffalo's the best team in the afc, I can't say you're wrong. They just won the head to head. But it's, it's like sometimes that question is just stupid, right? Because it's like, well who. Who cares? Oh, okay, fine, Buffalo's the best. Then what, like what's the gap? I would wonder like who's third for you now? Is it still Baltimore?

[Bill Simmons]

Even though I actually, I'm glad you asked this. I went through and it's, it's not normally at this point and obviously things can change. But what are we. Is this week 11, I think in the NFL still week 11. And so, but 11 weeks in, I think it's really clear cut who the six are, you know, and so it's Kansas City or Buffalo at one, but that takes up your one and two spot after that. Pittsburgh, Baltimore. You got to go Pittsburgh 3 over Baltimore after, after watching that, that Win. But you know, I get. They're three and four and then to me it's the Chargers in Houston are 5 and 6 now. Denver's the best 4 and 7 team in the history of the NFL.

[Ryan Russillo]

You mean, you mean.

[Bill Simmons]

Sorry, no, Cincinnati. Sorry. I had Cincinnati and Denver is the next tier. I was just looking down to make sure I had every team covered. Cincinnati is the best 4 and 7 team in the history of the NFL.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, I, I can't believe we're making the same joke. Because I said the same thing.

[Bill Simmons]

No, you didn't.

[Ryan Russillo]

Minutes. Yeah, because, I mean, I'm kind of kidding around, but like when I look.

[Bill Simmons]

At, I mean, kind of not. And then if I was Houston, the Chargers, like, I, I wouldn't want to see Cincinnati in the playoff. But, but, but the six right now seems very clear cut. And because Cincinnati's four and seven, it's, I mean, they're going to have to go on an epic run to, to get into this thing and get ahead of one of those top, one of those bottom teams like the Chargers or Houston. I just don't, I don't see it happening. And Denver looks really good right now, but I don't have a lot. I don't have faith that Denver is going to continue. They're just, they've been inconsistent. So. Yeah, that's where I stand. The six teams are very clear. Buffalo, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore Chargers, Houston.

[Ryan Russillo]

In my mind, would you pick Pittsburgh against Baltimore in a rematch in the playoffs? No, I can't get there either. I don't even know if I'd pick Buffalo in a rematch against Kansas City.

[Bill Simmons]

I mean, think about how close that game was. 12 penalties, three turnovers, and, and they still had a chance to tie it one play at the, at the very end of the game. But I am, I'm worried about two things with Baltimore.

[Ryan Russillo]

Okay. I'm worried about, okay, this is the Lamar stuff. Let's do it.

[Bill Simmons]

In a game against that level of defense, is the precision as a passer there. Will it ever be there? Okay.

[Ryan Russillo]

Okay.

[Bill Simmons]

And then number two. And this is a wild one. And I, I don't know how to evaluate it. I think it's more mental than it is physical a lot of times. But what the, what is going on with Justin Tucker, man?

[Ryan Russillo]

He's. I don't know if he's done. I mean, he had a bad year a few years ago and then came back and had like a career year.

[Bill Simmons]

I mean, he was literally his, the, the Raven's second best asset a couple Years ago. And for, and for several years it was Lamar and then Justin Tucker in terms of assets, and now he's, he's a flat out liability. I mean, we just have to call it what it is. He's an NFL kicker who's missing. It seems like every week there's a miss.

[Ryan Russillo]

Two.

[Bill Simmons]

Two misses in this game. In a two point game.

[Ryan Russillo]

Well, you're right. There's. I don't have anything else to add to that other than I wish I.

[Bill Simmons]

Could evaluate like his, you know, his plant foot or like the swing of his hit. Like, I, I just, that's not who I am. It's not what I do. There's 22 other positions. I'm a lot better at evaluating, but.

[Ryan Russillo]

How much tape do you watch on kickers before the draft?

[Bill Simmons]

None. And I, I, I tried to for like the first seven years of my career and I made a firm decision. I planted my flag. Like, I got too many other positions to worry about. I'll, I'll call Joe Tess, I'll call Mike Black. I'll talk to some people in the league like that. I just, I, My energy is not going to be put on kickers and punters.

[Ryan Russillo]

It's just not loop from Arizona. Lot of leg. There's, there's me helping you out this year. That position, the. Tucker.

[Bill Simmons]

Are you worried about Lamar? Like, it feels like this is yesterday. Felt like the playoff game that we're used to seeing where the Ravens are the best team in the league. Are they the best team in the league? Is this the year and Lamar's MVP and then yesterday happens? Or am I just.

[Ryan Russillo]

Here's what I. Because I think all of it's fair, right? I think Lamar has been good enough now that a regular season game like this, some of these guys, we just constantly update their fucking legacy every single week and.

[Bill Simmons]

No, I understand that.

[Ryan Russillo]

I'd like to think that there's a.

[Bill Simmons]

Group talking about this year in a bubble looking towards the playoffs. We're now in the second half of the season. It's concern if, if there's any concern with this team, it's okay. We got to play a damn good Chiefs defense. We got to play a damn good Pittsburgh. Like what. You're going to run into one, if not two of these types of teams in the playoffs. And are you. I'm just saying, like, if there's concern, that's the concern. Right?

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah. Because he's a bit like the hardened embiid of the NFL where he puts up these absurd regular seasons and coming off the playoff loss last year and the MVP momentum, you were like, sometimes you wonder like a voters will hold him to a higher standard. And yet it felt like it was pretty unanimous. Unanimous for him throughout the entire season. You know, it doesn't mean that the MVP race ends after the 10 weeks or starts up here again after week 11. But on the playoff thing versus the regular season, you're right. I mean QB rating isn't exactly the greatest stat ever, but he's a hundred in the regular season. He's in the SE Low 70s in the playoffs and we've already been through all this stuff before and it's all going to be brought back up again. I thought the coverage had more to do with yesterday's results in limiting him and just an offensive game plan. So I didn't feel like he just had this game.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm just saying this offense with Lamar is the like is so dangerous. It's so explosive. They like they've been dominant the vast majority of outings, but it seems like every once in a while they run into this. And in Mahomes, Mahomes runs into this almost every week it feels like with that Kansas City offense. But there's. And again he, he orchestrated a, what could have been a game tying drive at the end, you know, and that is what Mahomes has been doing for a while, for two seasons now with the defense carrying them kind of not, not great on offense, grinding through, finding ways to win at the end. And had they gotten, excuse me, they gotten the two point conversion and gotten into overtime in one. We, yeah, we probably wouldn't be talking about this but the, there's, the warning signs are still there a little bit. I don't know.

[Ryan Russillo]

All right, there's. So there's two. I have like a final thought on it. But let me just ask you this because this is the part of Lamar regular season stuff where I go, okay, he had a bad week. Like he's been good enough that I don't think we need to keep doing this this many years into his career. And there's a list of quarterbacks where I just, I think Burrow has a bad game. Every now and then the TV guys would just be like, you know, I thought Joe Burrow was really good and you're just like, yeah, because he's awesome. Like just enough. Herbert was a big guy on social media where it just felt like he was always really high in the rankings and you. He would have the bad game and then it was like, oh, everybody's an Idiot that likes Justin Herbert. And I think maybe we're through that a little bit too. And we have been with Lamar for a while, but on the playoff part of it, and I. You just hear like, okay, if you're prepping for him, like with the precision of a playoff prep week, you know, you can talk about how much you game plan and all the things you want to do during the regular season, but clearly you crank it up another level and you have all this tape and you go into that playoff matchup. Is there something about the preparation for him in a playoff game that's led to his. These. These sub Lamar numbers that Pittsburgh is doing in the regular season? I don't know if that's something that you can see or football people that you talk to, share and that Pittsburgh's essentially throwing him the playoff defense that he struggled with.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, I mean, it was a.

[Ryan Russillo]

But.

[Bill Simmons]

But that's who Pittsburgh is almost every week. I mean, if you watch them.

[Ryan Russillo]

Right.

[Bill Simmons]

I mean, that's their physical, their discipline.

[Ryan Russillo]

Probably the better way to say it then.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, I mean, that's just so that. So I like. Yeah. May. Could Pittsburgh dial it up a little bit more in terms of the preparation for a playoff game? I guess. Could Baltimore dial up what they're trying to do offensively and get more creative and have a, you know, more of a playoff? Yeah, I guess. This is a huge game and I. Both teams come in prepared and, you know, and I. And I watched a little TV this morning. Like everyone. Derrick Henry should have been more involved and he fumbled and I'd get some. But like, at the end of the day, this thing's going to go as far as Lamar takes them. And this may. Maybe there's some. Maybe it's good to have this game and build off of the. Go back and study this and build up. Okay, what can we do? This is more recent. What can we do that would be different next time around against not just Pittsburgh, but a defense of this alibi?

[Ryan Russillo]

You know, it's funny because on the game plan part of it, I felt like Pittsburgh was throwing the football too much in this game. And it's. It's just some of this stuff now that we've seen in this league where, like, I thought that was the perfect example of a game. It's like, I know everybody just dropped backs and frozen the entire time, but why can't Najee Harris get more carries? I think when I wrote it down, he'd had only nine. And the way the game played out at the end, they Got him the ball a little bit more. Clearly he's splitting up some of the carries. He's getting two thirds of them. Jalen Warren looks pretty good. Yeah, he does. But I just thought like naji 2 weeks ago is doing enough. Where you look at some of these games and how they're playing out and I'm like, what, like why, why would you not. Why would you take the, like, take the ball out of Russell Wilson's hands here a little bit? But maybe they just don't like the matchup. They don't like the numbers. And they also look at this Raven secondary that's gotten lit up by a bunch of really good quarterbacks this season too, saying like, actually we don't like game plan wise. We think their weaknesses in the back end. Although I thought the Raven secondary played one of their best games of the season yesterday. So let me, let me ask you this because you brought up Denver's defense, you brought up O Nicks. As we kind of sift through the AFC a little bit here, this is just an exercise, right? I thought Caleb was much better yesterday. I didn't like that he was run heavy in the first half because I feel like even though it's working, the rest of it has to come through. I thought he made some really like some of his best throws of the season. We all know that Jaden Daniel's probably dealing with his rib injury, which diminished some of the output per play. Some of the numbers you want to look at here. Drake May, I thought, looked really good yesterday.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, he keeps progressing, man. I'm, I'm. If I'm a Patriots fan, I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing with Drake May. Like this is the per.

[Ryan Russillo]

The perfect.

[Bill Simmons]

No pressure on him getting a little bit better every week. Get him ready for year two. There are a lot of encouraging signs.

[Ryan Russillo]

Dynamic between what he is capable of and what Mack Jones was doing. Even though it was like statistically a nice first season or whatever. I completely agree. You know, I kind of gave you shit when you said you went to the game and he'd only dropped back like for seven attempts before he had to leave the game. I think you were at the jets game, right?

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, and I told you I was. There was something about the way he was playing and the energy of that offense. I was encouraged. Then Berset comes in. It's like, oof.

[Ryan Russillo]

Well, I gave you a hard time just because I felt like there couldn't have been enough play. Now I understand what you were saying. All right, so I apologize to you, my friend of two decades because seeing him even in a loss against the Rams, there's just, it feels like you're going to be able to do more with him. So this is all a good thing because when you look at six quarterbacks going in the top 12 picks in the 24 draft class and I'm doing the draft stuff with you, I can't help but look at the history of going well. The funny thing is in three or four years like three of these guys are going to be terrible. What I would suggest to you is that we still have Caleb Jaden. Okay. Drake May. We've got Knicks now. JJ and Penix haven't played. JJ Sir. Penix just not playing because of Atlanta. I thought that Denver win yesterday was maybe the best win as far as just sheer domination. I think Knicks, you know, they were winning games or winning game of the defense. He's probably my least favorite of the guys that have played. Okay.

[Bill Simmons]

But he looked, here's what I would ask today.

[Ryan Russillo]

Man, he looked, he looked really good.

[Bill Simmons]

Good.

[Ryan Russillo]

Are all 4 alive for like in 3 years this guy will be the best of all of the quarterbacks from this class. So it's really kind of like a Bo Nicks question or maybe a Drake May question. Are you open, you understand what I'm saying here? Are you open to the idea?

[Bill Simmons]

I actually do.

[Ryan Russillo]

Eleven weeks in that it's still all four of those guys that are playing are in play to be the answer to that question three years from now.

[Bill Simmons]

I think if you're being fair and you take a step back, I think the answer is yes. And I would not like no one would have got. And it, it sounds like you're crazy. Like Jaden Daniels, his ribs are injured and you saw what he did in the first. Yeah, he's awesome man. He's awesome. And if I had, if like if we're taking odds right now for Colin Fanduel, like who's going to be the best quarterback in three years? He's the heavy favorite but he's also like the system didn't change from College to the NFL. Right. He played 56 games or whatever it was and Bo Nicks had more game experience but like so he was set up for, for early success, exceeded expectations. No rookie quarterback should have the success he should have. But like I'm not closing the book on Caleb by any stretch. If Thomas Brown can come in after one week, I don't know if it was Thomas brown or the 30 minute pow wow with, with Tom Brady pregame that, that sparked a totally new but you know, like a fresh look on Caleb Williams. And I say that tongue in cheek obviously.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah. But I don't was do you think Brady was just loving on him the way a national broadcast just loves stars?

[Bill Simmons]

I have no idea what that conversation was, but it wouldn't shock me if it came out that like Brady's got a thing br. I mean we all have our certain thing. Brady's got a thing with like not playing rookie quarterback and is passionate about it and, and like believes in developing rookie quarterbacks. And I think he, I think he takes it almost personally. What happened to Caleb this year with, with a system that wasn't getting the most out of him was not putting him in a position to succeed and build his confidence as a rookie. And I'm not saying a, a true, like true serum. I, I, I'm not saying anything like it didn't change their game plan after six days getting ready for this game or But I do think that Tom will be was kind of took a little bit of a mentor role in terms of like here hey, we need to focus on this mentally. This is who you are. But and, and I don't think it hurt but you know, I, I think in his, in Tom's mind I want to go talk to Caleb and the and some of the staff about like what I'm seeing, what could be different and all of that but, but give a lot. Give all the credit to Thomas Brown for, for recognizing like you finally got to see. There's a great stat on Sunday Countdown. I think Rex Ryan actually did it. Maybe it was something else I'm not sure of. Caleb is like fourth or fifth in the NFL when he gets the ball out under three seconds and was dead last in the NFL after three seconds. And so you saw in that game. I'm not saying that they worked off of that conclusion, but they're seeing the same thing and watching the same tape. Let's, let's get, let's make the read quick. Let's get the ball out. If it's not there, stop drifting. This ain't usc. Stop drifting and floating and hoping you can make that, you know, highlight real throw. It's not happening at this, this level and maybe rarely will learn down the road like when to take those chances and do those things. But now it's climb and take off. You're a good runner. You're a good athlete and you saw that the most rushing yards he had in his career so far.

[Ryan Russillo]

And so I Don't care about the rushing though. I, I think it's always just a little frosting on the cake thing with any of these quarterbacks.

[Bill Simmons]

The fact that he was mind. Yes, it spoke to his mindset.

[Ryan Russillo]

The one throw yesterday where Brady was like, okay, this throw here. And it felt like. And again, the broadcast is always going to be favorable to the characters that are on the screen. They're not going to shit on these guys. It's just not going to happen.

[Bill Simmons]

So you can't ever expect Brady polling for him. No one was. Didn't you.

[Ryan Russillo]

That's, that's the point.

[Bill Simmons]

I totally agree. Like after watching that pow wow for half hour, however long it was, and then truly listening to the broadcast, it felt like Tom was like, there it is. That's what we talked about. That's what. Or that's, you know, that this is what he needs to be doing. Based off my film study, based off of what we've seen, based off knowing who he is, you could, you could feel it through the screen that he was like identifying the things that he knew coming into the game that had to change and that when it happened he would like there, there was more energy in Brady's voice throughout that game. By the way, is Brady getting better?

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Bill Simmons]

Brady's been bringing, I think he's pretty good now.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah. So you know, he's the first for. Everybody's such a first impression guy. Emphasize third impressions. Okay, I got you, brother.

[Bill Simmons]

But anyway, to answer your question, I think it's a. I love, I mean this is what I do for a living. The fact that we're 11 weeks in and the answer is yes to your question, like could three years down the road are these four first round quarterbacks that were thrown in the fire, is there a chance that any one of them could be the best when it's all said and done? Like, I love that and the league should love that. We've got, we've got Mahomes, we've got Josh Allen, we've got Lamar, we've got Burrow, we, we've, we've got this tier and none of them are old, but they're kind of reaching that whatever phase, that, that second phase of their career, you know, they're in that second phase. And so to know that there's a group underneath that's, that has a chance to be successful and could be four more guys and we'll see. What with jj, we'll see with Penix, that's exciting, right?

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah. This is a positive, this is It'd be great.

[Bill Simmons]

Positive.

[Ryan Russillo]

It'd be great if the league went 6 for 6 on these first rounders here because I know how much you like JJ as we went through last season and you kept. I was like, man, Tommy, get done with some of those episodes of like you really, after doing the tape on him, like him way more than maybe is presented. Like you're finding the things that are really special about him that are maybe harder to see because there's just not that much opportunity because of what kind of offense Harbaugh was going to run and Michigan just didn't need him to do the things that some of these other quarterbacks were asked to do. And, and look, I'll tell you, like, I still think Penix threw the best ball out of all these guys.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, I agree.

[Ryan Russillo]

But there's certainly issues too with moving him around and everything, but maybe him sitting around. So I think the thing is that it's a huge positive that we're even here, that it doesn't feel like there's a disaster of the four.

[Bill Simmons]

And can we just talk about how special of a. Like an afternoon if you're just an NFL fan and you're not, not necessarily rooting for one team, like to go from 4:00, 4:25 kick, whatever, Buffalo and Kansas City, I think 4:25. And to watch those two quarterbacks battle again, right, like that's, that's become one of the great rivalries in terms of quarterback versus quarterback in the NFL. And, and then like, all right, you take a quick break, I grab some a quick dinner, come back. Football, America's going. Now we're on to Sunday Night Football and to watch the laser show. That was the nightcap. Like, dude, like Herbert was phenomenal. Burrow had all the answers. Burrow turned things around. That game was over. To see him in the second half, like you talked about, like a problem solver and to do what he does at the elite level in the second half of that game. Special Herbert, though, like I listen, I've always loved Herbert. Physical tools. I was worried about Herbert, that we would be here in year, what, five, wherever we are and that these would be the results. Because where was the winning? Can he care? Herbert has taken his game to another level. And the reason I say that he's always had the arm, he's always had the mobility, he's always had the physical tools. I see a guy now with the like that mental confidence and the trust in what he's doing and the belief there. I mean he was awesome. In the first half, like, you were looking at him like, how was there? How are there three, four other quarterbacks in the league that are better than this guy, right? Then he goes, what is it? He was like 0 for 7 for a stretch, I think, in the game, like, and they couldn't move the ball.

[Ryan Russillo]

In the second half. It's not a great offense. I, you know, they're using them less and everything. But I understand kind of what you're building towards here.

[Bill Simmons]

Like, but then, but what, but what didn't happen. Happened in the past was, was the bouncing back and you know what I mean? Like, and, and to bounce back from that and to answer his own, you know, solve his own problems and to finish the game where they. I don't know, I just, I thought it was a. Another stepping point for him in his development and his progress. That's. I don't want to make too big of a deal, but the biggest point is, honestly, for what, seven, eight hours to watch those four quarterbacks play at that level and to do some of the things that they do, like, even Mahomes, man, like. And, and I was. Was it Romo on that broad? I think it was Romo. He. He made the point. As I was watching it, I thought the same thing. And he said it. And I don't like to admit, you know, whatever, but like, there was a throw in that game. I think I even wrote it down. Yeah. Six minutes remaining, third quarter, just a swing pass, nothing to it, right? But to watch the, like, the little detail in his game go back and that it was six minutes left in the third quarter and to watch his eyes down the field, negotiating the safeties, looking to see what was there, but not to come off of it like this, like over 1001 throw it, the quickness, the snap decision and the snap throw, then to come to know where your outlet is. I think it was a running back down the right rail, probably a 5, 7 yard pass. Nothing to it. But to do it that quickly and to have those safeties, to have kept those safeties back like that was the, Those are the little things he does at the highest, highest level that you just, when you study this enough, you just appreciate those things because not a lot of guys do that, have the trust in the receiver, know where the outlet is, and don't even have to really look and can snap that ball off and create five, six, seven more yards at the end of the play. When for a lot of quarterbacks it would have been 1,001 throw, pick up you know, the five yards, maybe one after the catch. To watch that for eight hours yesterday, it felt. It was just awesome. It was awesome to watch.

[Ryan Russillo]

I loved it. It's probably my favorite Sunday so far. Yeah. Because like, I'll doing it, you know, with the 12 hours on Saturday. I'll admit there's some of those Sunday matchups where I just. The fumes are kind of like kicking up and you know, but the funny thing is, even with that score and I started prepping up some of the college football stuff, I was like, you know, this is going to be one of those NFL games. You're like, okay, how do we have a game here? How do we have a game again? Because you just felt like with Burrow and the weapons and how about them on the fourth downs, like T. Higgins, like fourth and two. I know they missed on it against Baltimore, but they were like, whatever. We're just going right back to it. Single coverage with him. Because Chase is this double team magnet. The AFC is loaded. The AFC is loaded. We didn't even mention Stroud. And they're all young and it's like there are going to be teams. There are fan bases. And it's not like this is new because it can happen without this, but there are fan bases right now in the afc. It's like when you don't have one of these guys, you're not going to win a playoff game for like 15 years.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Ryan Russillo]

Period. You're just not. You're not going to get through this group. And you may think that sounds ridiculous. Like go through footballreference.com and look at team's encyclopedia page and go year by year and see how crazy and how often you'll see a franchise with a decade long gap in between playoff wins. It's. It's way more prominent than you would think. And when I think about a have not right now in this conference, you're screwed. All right, I want to talk a little college ball here as we finish. All right. So we don't need to get to a ton of stuff, but I had a moment on Saturday after the Georgia win. Started looking at the resume, started looking at the rankings. I do my rankings before I look at the ap, but I knew that I would be different.

[Bill Simmons]

He made me sick.

[Ryan Russillo]

Okay, go ahead.

[Bill Simmons]

Sorry.

[Ryan Russillo]

Well, the audience has already heard this, so I'm just presenting the theory to you. So I don't want to repeat necessarily everything so they hear the same segment, the same podcast. But I have Georgia ranked ahead of Indiana.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, I got no problem with it. I, I sent a text to our. Our team yesterday. How in the hell like in. In what world is Penn State in Indiana better than Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, Tennessee? I just don't see it. They're just not. And I get it, like you resumes and records and all that stuff, but they're just not. They're not South Carolina. I asked Fanduel the other day. South Carolina, you're loving Fanduel today.

[Ryan Russillo]

All right.

[Bill Simmons]

I mean I also, I mean, let's just be honest. I absolutely buried.

[Ryan Russillo]

I don't know if like they're going.

[Bill Simmons]

To be able to pay the bills this month for sponsorship on. On our shows. Just buried them.

[Ryan Russillo]

But you've been doing well. Yeah, I've been doing pretty good too. Yeah.

[Bill Simmons]

Georgia, Georgia and the under buried them. My nine star play of the week now. I mean it's not my thing necessarily, but. But I'm hot right now. I won the. Won the pool last two weeks, so. But anyway, my point was I asked Fanduel about it.

[Ryan Russillo]

Looks like you bought a hat.

[Bill Simmons]

South Carolina is what, six or seven.

[Ryan Russillo]

In the sec as far as. What are we talking about?

[Bill Simmons]

Whatever you want. Like teams that have a chance to get in sixth or seventh, whatever it is.

[Ryan Russillo]

Let's.

[Bill Simmons]

South Carolina is not one of those top four teams and they. And Indiana was favored by three and a half on a neutral site.

[Ryan Russillo]

So yeah, they're seventh. They're 19th or the seventh SEC team ranked.

[Bill Simmons]

Right. And that's the seventh.

[Ryan Russillo]

I love South Carolina. South Carolina is one of my favorite teams to watch on Saturdays.

[Bill Simmons]

I agree.

[Ryan Russillo]

Zoo game was incredible. I don't even have it in the open because I know ultimately nobody's really going to care. But I. Every time South Carolina is on, I make sure I like, don't just treat him like an afterthought because I love watching that team play football.

[Bill Simmons]

Same here. Same here. So I just don't see it with Indiana and I don't see it with Penn State. I don't.

[Ryan Russillo]

My problem is that with the expansion that I think people need to be a little braver in the committee room about this and be realistic about who teams are playing. We used to care about out of conference. The in conference imbalance is so fucking stupid right now that you're going to have Indiana. Actually, like when I watch them, I don't go, God, they stink and they're just getting lucky.

[Bill Simmons]

No, they play great. You couldn't play a better ball with what they have.

[Ryan Russillo]

Right? This is not about watching them this season because when you do watch them. They are impressive. The problem is, is that I think Washington's the toughest team that they'll have played. We'll find out against Ohio State. But what I'm saying is if they lose to Ohio State, they better not get in over some of these two loss SEC teams.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot. There's actually not a lot of ball left in terms of, like, significant. There's Texas, Texas A and M and the sec. Other than a massive upset, there's not a lot of, like, resume left to be filled out in the sec.

[Ryan Russillo]

Okay, well, the Texas and the Texas A and M game is still significant because then it leads to, like, what would happen if Texas were to lose that one, you know?

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, no, it's. I said outside of that game. That game's usually significant.

[Ryan Russillo]

Sorry.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm hugely significant to me. So here, here's the problem. You got Big 12 is going to get in their champion. You got. The ACC is going to get in the champion. Currently it's of, you know, the conference champion of, of the non power four, the highest rank, which would be Boise State. Right. So those three.

[Ryan Russillo]

Do you think Boise State's better than Tane?

[Bill Simmons]

I haven't studied a ton of Tulane tape this year.

[Ryan Russillo]

They're kicking everyone's ass now.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, I see. I mean, I, I see that, but I'm, I'm not here for a Tulane, Boise State conversation right now.

[Ryan Russillo]

You know what?

[Bill Simmons]

I can come back to you. I can, I can come back to you if you.

[Ryan Russillo]

No, but you know, what you did is you answered the question. The way you should answer is that, yeah, we're. If you haven't done it, that I don't want to hear the answer.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Ryan Russillo]

So there you go.

[Bill Simmons]

All right. But my. What, What I have done and what I feel strongly about is, so those three are in, you know, for certain. Two are in from the, from the Big Ten. Right. And probably three having a fourth in from the Big Ten limits. Now you're. You can only have four in from the sec, Right?

[Ryan Russillo]

Well, it works. So let's do the math quick, because I did it with Booger. And it's funny when you start adding them all up, like the spots start going away. So you got four from the SEC, four from the Big Ten. You've got ACC, Big 12. You're a 10. Notre Dame is 11.

[Bill Simmons]

Notre Dame. Yes, Notre Dame.

[Ryan Russillo]

Right. So Notre Dame gets overlooked in all this stuff.

[Bill Simmons]

So, so here's my question. It boils down to this. Should a fourth Big Ten team be in over the fifth SEC team. Now, if A and M gets beat handily by Texas, then maybe it's an easier discussion.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, but your 4 sec would be Texas, Georgia, Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, Ole Miss or Tennessee.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, that's five right there.

[Ryan Russillo]

That's five. If Indiana's 11 and one, it's not Indiana.

[Bill Simmons]

How do you leave one of those teams out? Who are you leaving out? Tennessee. We're in Arkansas and hung tough with Georgia the other night. Tennessee beat Alabama.

[Ryan Russillo]

We're on the same side. I just don't know because, like, you're applying previous. Like when I would think of the four teams and I would think of, you know, that second loss is really a deal breaker, but the schedules were far more balanced. They look at the Big 12, look at how Arizona State and Colorado and BYU, you know, it's a different scenario after they lose to Kansas. Colorado. I've already done my, you know, confession on it. You know, I thought they were going to stink again after the Nebraska game. We've covered it. But at the end of the season is you're looking at those standings and you maybe aren't locked into the Big 12 and you're going, how does Arizona State control their own destiny? Well, look at who they've played and who they haven't and the fact that the Big 12 team, the winner of that conference, can get one of the four seeds. I don't like this. This is my point. I don't like this. I like things where people get left out. All right, I'm going to tell you a story. Maybe it's a little mature. Maybe people aren't going to like it. Fresh on the campus of Vermont, figuring you're not good enough to play a sport. You want to make fun of me for joining a fraternity. I totally get it, all right? I have no connection. I don't respond to the emails asking me to donate, but I kind of knew where I wanted to be and where I didn't want to be. And you start asking around and I only picked one. And I was like, if they don't pick me, then I don't want anything to do with any of this anyway. And they were like, well, there's this other place where you only get haze for like a weekend. Pledging is like, you show up to a barbecue on Friday and they do, like a hike on Saturday.

[Bill Simmons]

Of course they hike at Vermont. Yep.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, right. And then on Sunday, you just. You're just sort of in. I was like, just anybody's in. And you only get haze for like three days because some guys are like, dude, this hazing thing might suck. I was like, yeah, it might, but. And then I was like, well, what's, what's the place? The place that I want to join? What's their deal? They're like, it sucks. Like, you're going to get hazed and you're going to go home for Christmas and you're going to get hazed again when you come back. And then once you're actually like a brother, but you're a freshman, it's basically you just hazed again. You've not really fully accepted until maybe halfway through your sophomore year. And then if we regret even inviting you in, then we're going to make it even worse that we made a mistake by giving you a bid. And it's just going to be really mean for the entire four years. And I was like, well, I want to do that one because that one sounds like it's tougher.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, you earned it.

[Ryan Russillo]

I want to get. I don't want to meet guys on Friday and call them brothers Sunday night. Anybody can do that. I want the tougher one. I apply the same thought process to the College Football Playoff. There shouldn't be this, like, nah, that's cool. And I, I thought you were going to disagree with me a little bit more here, but maybe it's because I think we watch. We do a pretty good job of watching all of these teams from all over the country. And that's another thing too, is like, what's the point of watching for three plus months if you can only go, well, that team has less losses?

[Bill Simmons]

I'm, I'm okay now that you're, now that we got the fraternity story out.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, sure.

[Bill Simmons]

And you've proven your toughness yet again.

[Ryan Russillo]

Might have been better in a monologue.

[Bill Simmons]

Did you get it? Did you get into that fraternity?

[Ryan Russillo]

I did. And we got hate so long because we got in trouble and then.

[Bill Simmons]

And you guys still brothers today.

[Ryan Russillo]

I'm probably closer with a bunch of the guys that quit, but yeah, I'm.

[Bill Simmons]

Okay with the, with the Boise State getting in or Tulane if, if after studying the tape this week and we talk about it on Monday that, you know, but I'm okay with with there. We should represent the non powerful.

[Ryan Russillo]

Fine.

[Bill Simmons]

Okay.

[Ryan Russillo]

Okay.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm okay with that. You know what? Now that you talk about it, why should an ACC champion get one of the top four seats? Why should, why should a Big 12 champion get one of the top four Seats? Top four teams in the country should get the top four seats, period.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, it's not going to happen because I mean, look, the last time they did this when the conference commissioners and all the school presidents and the ads, like, why did we set a system up which guaranteed to jam up one conference when we had the good old Power 5, right. Why did we sign off on something where as we all looked at each.

[Bill Simmons]

Other in the room, they're guaranteed to get into the, into the.

[Ryan Russillo]

I'm talking about, I'm talking about the four team version that we had. Right. Like the expansion of the four team. The first thing was, why would you. And my thought was, cool, I want someone left out. I would rather leave someone out.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah.

[Ryan Russillo]

Than invite more people in that don't deserve it. And 11 and one Indiana will not deserve it over one of these two loss SEC teams. Considering the opponents.

[Bill Simmons]

What if it's over time?

[Ryan Russillo]

I don't care. Okay? You played one team out of 12. You lost. And you're gonna, you're gonna match that up with what Tennessee's had to go through, what Georgia's had to go through.

[Bill Simmons]

I totally agree. I totally agree.

[Ryan Russillo]

It's a completely different season this year.

[Bill Simmons]

I'm not saying every this year based off of what I'm seeing and the fact that Ole Miss beat Georgia. Ole Miss lost, you know, games. They should. Kentucky and lsu. Right.

[Ryan Russillo]

Who are we talking about?

[Bill Simmons]

Ole Ole Miss. I'm just kind of going through like Tennessee.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, the Kentucky loss was really bad.

[Bill Simmons]

Alabama beat Georgia.

[Ryan Russillo]

Georgia, they should have won the LSU game, but whatever.

[Bill Simmons]

Yeah, but my point in all of this is if you, if one of them doesn't get in, you argue. Yeah, but they beat that team, had that. You know what I mean? So like with all what you're saying.

[Ryan Russillo]

What you'd be doing is you'd be going, if you get lucky in your inner conference draw, play no one out of conference, then you can have a really nice record with never beating anybody and you will be rewarded for that. So again, these arguments that I've had in the past because the Big Ten schedule has played out this way to like help a Penn State, right? Where it's like, okay, you're going to lose to Michigan and Ohio State, you're going to smoke everybody else, the other division stinks, you're not going to play anybody at a conference. Awesome. I guess you're good now. This makes it even worse because of expansion, because of completely different schedules within the same conference. And so you'll be setting a precedent. And again, it depends on what the rest of the field is so it doesn't mean, hey, in 24, this happens. So in 27, this has to happen here. As we know as things play out, you're like, okay, this is actually an option. But when I look at the ACC, Big 12 part, and I'm not saying I want like South Carolina in the playoff, I just think the Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee. And when I see the AP rankings, I go, you guys need to do a better job. You need to be honest about what's happened this season and not just focus on the record.

[Bill Simmons]

It's a big, it's a. And I said this on Saturday night in our post game show, in our live reaction show. While it's only, it's just the third, this is the third week of the, the rankings reveal right on Tuesday night. But it's, but this one's critical because it's going, you can't, you can't rank all these sec. First of all, where do you rank them? You know, I saw on the AP, Ole misses ranked ahead of Georgia, which, and, but my point is how they're slotted in the SEC is one, one thing that if now that you go on and, and Georgia's playing somebody inconsequential and then Georgia Tech, like, there's nothing that's going to significantly alter a lot of these teams in terms of what, what happens down the stretch. So where they rank them here, outside of A and M in Texas, where they rank them here is probably kind of the grouping, if you will, of all these SEC teams. So that's the first part. The second part is Indiana is different, but with Penn State, like you got to set up, you got to set a precedent here. I think make Indiana go beat Ohio State to get ahead of these SEC teams, make them do that. And does a one lost Penn State team with the schedule that they've played deserve to be ahead of these five or four other SEC teams that aren't Texas?

[Ryan Russillo]

No.

[Bill Simmons]

You know, so to me, this is a very important ranking reveal, if you will, because the committee has to kind of show its cards early here.

[Ryan Russillo]

Well, I don't know why it would change all that much unless they have this moment that I had on Saturday night and Sunday night where I was going through it being like this is just this imbalance schedule thing has changed what the experience can be for some of these teams. And it's going to keep happening because these leagues are so big. All right, you can check out Todd on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturday night college football recap. So, yeah, man, this has Been awesome. The shows on Saturday are great, so make sure you subscribe to those and we'll talk to you again soon. Thanks, Todd.

[Bill Simmons]

All right, brother. Talk to you.

[Ryan Russillo]

You want details?

[Kyle]

Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.

[Ryan Russillo]

What's up?

[Saruti]

I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.

[Ryan Russillo]

I have every toy you can possibly.

[Bill Simmons]

Imagine, and best of all, kids, I am liquid.

[Kyle]

So now you know what's possible.

[Bill Simmons]

Let me tell you what's required.

[Ryan Russillo]

Life advice. Life Advice, rr, gmail.com. let's get to the emails, but first, did you guys watch Tyson? Jake Paul? Yep.

[Saruti]

Yeah, I did.

[Ryan Russillo]

That's Kyle content right there. That's like that center of the.

[Kyle]

Yeah, I'm a huge buffering guy.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah. What do you mean?

[Kyle]

I'm just kidding. Just the buffering. Mine wasn't that bad, really.

[Saruti]

Yeah. You know, I. Because I've been having Internet issues here, and I saw everybody complaining about it. It was, like, definitely not awesome. But I was able to at least kind of, like, see. I didn't know if I was, like, way behind everybody else. I kind of tried to stay off Twitter, although it didn't really matter in the end.

[Kyle]

But, yeah, it turned out it didn't. Yeah, I just had to keep, like, backing out and going back in because it's, you know, it's like, oh, he's got him in the corner. And then it's, you know, I don't know if you guys watch Silicon Valley, but it was very much like that when they launched the Nucleus thing. If you didn't see it, then never mind.

[Ryan Russillo]

It was a lot like when they launched Nucleus. Kyle, great. Great call back there. Thanks. That was a good episode. I didn't have that much of a problem either. I just saw everybody losing their minds on Twitter and I thought, oh, I guess maybe in la we were in a hot zone, or.

[Kyle]

Yeah, we were getting throttled. I don't know.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, maybe just lucked out a little bit. I would say a few things here before we get to live events. I was rooting for Tyson. Yep. I do wonder, like, who around my age would be rooting for Jake Paul? I just can't. I have.

[Saruti]

Do you think I would be rooting for Jake Paul?

[Ryan Russillo]

If you're younger, rooting for Jake Paul. I understand. If you're my age, rooting for Jake Paul. It's like, is Kid Rock your favorite rapper, too? Like, I don't. I don't like. Do you really love the end of Hoosiers? So I just would wonder what. So I I thought Jake Paul was going to win because I think it's really hard to fight when you're 58. I would also say that everybody that I know that thinks that Tyson just took the check and didn't care and didn't want to fight because his workout videos were so much better than the actual fight are the same people that believe, like, literally everything. I think one of the biggest problems I had with bitcoin was that once I'd read about it and understood and I was like, okay, that makes a lot of sense. But the people that I knew that were the most passionate about it were people I wouldn't let, like, fold a shirt. You know, it was just. It was some of the worst people that I've known that I'm like, I wouldn't trust this guy in anything, even though I understand the bitcoin part of it. But if this guy's so into it. And then of course it's that, oh, Tyson threw the fight. And I'm like, well, did. Why? Why do you think he threw the fight? And then it keeps getting back. Like, people are posting his workout videos and this isn't like I'm fucking Chuck Norris over here, but I'm just telling you, like, throwing combinations in 10, 15 second videos is a lot different than actually getting in the ring and then having to worry about getting hit. And you could even see with Tyson, like, he would have moments where he would kind of forget that he could use his footwork and then he would, like, do something and then it's like, man, this is exhausting. So I was, I was just rooting for Mike to not get knocked out. I'm thrilled that he got paid, but I don't know if I'm going to.

[Saruti]

Do for some reason. We got an ass shot, which was.

[Ryan Russillo]

The Mike Tyson ass Chaps. The Crying Jordan guy tried to like. And I was like, dude, I think this is over.

[Kyle]

Are you going to tune in for Jake Paul versus Jimmy Carter next year or what do you think, Helen, to sell?

[Saruti]

I don't want to do this to you, Kyle, but that is straight out of the Brian Curtis overused Twitter joke of the. Of the night.

[Kyle]

That's where I got it from.

[Ryan Russillo]

Wait, Kyle, were you rooting for Jake Paul?

[Kyle]

No, no, I was rooting for this not to happen, actually.

[Ryan Russillo]

But it was sad.

[Saruti]

I was sad. I was. I felt it was sad watching it.

[Ryan Russillo]

I hated it. Yeah, I watched it, though.

[Saruti]

I was kind of excited, though. And then as it's happening, I'm like, ah, man, this is this is, you know, just to, just to back up, though, the Tyson hitting, you know, just hitting some guy's hands and hitting in the gym. Is that what's. What's more believable? That or a Ben Simmons summer workout video?

[Kyle]

First thing that jumped into my brain.

[Ryan Russillo]

So did you see the Ben Simmons video? Him missing every single shot in pregame war?

[Saruti]

I did. 0 for 8, right?

[Ryan Russillo]

Yep.

[Saruti]

Not great.

[Ryan Russillo]

He was making him difficult on himself, I would say. Like, he wasn't just step backs. Yeah, yeah, he was. He was trying to do some high level stuff if you want to maybe save Ben Simmons a little. But I think we all like people. Like, even if we don't like fighting, we like to watch fighting. Like, if a fight happens, you're going to want to watch it. If a fight video pops up on my feed, I'm probably going to watch it. I don't like watching the ones at school, and I don't like watching, like, people jump a dude. You know, where like a barbecue gets.

[Kyle]

A little out of hand. You're like, well, where's this going?

[Ryan Russillo]

Oh, Max Kellerman said it and I reminded him of it, and he forgot that he'd even said it. I thought it was one of the most astute things I've ever heard is that we're all fans of fights. We're all fight fans, whether you think you are or you aren't. Because if a fight happens, you're going to not watch it. So this was certainly the curiosity thing, but I. We'll see. I mean, I can say I'm done. I certainly wouldn't have paid for it. And since you're like, most people already had Netflix, it's like, all right, whatever, I'll throw this on. It was like, perfect timing because the NBA games are finishing up, even though, thank God, I got to watch Aaron Fox go for 60 and Anthony Edwards just closed that absurd overtime game out. So I would have been pissed if I'd missed that or I would have just gone back and watched it. But I didn't. I didn't like any of it, even though I'm not mad that it happened. How about that?

[Saruti]

Did you see the women's fight, though? That fight was.

[Ryan Russillo]

That was cool.

[Saruti]

That fight was great.

[Ryan Russillo]

Fight. Yeah.

[Saruti]

Her eye was just hanging out. Down, man, she got hosed on that. I thought. I thought she got. I mean, I was reading some people don't think so, and they had the scoring closer, but I don't know. Those headbutts. I'm not a boxing expert, so you can tell me. I'm an idiot. But, like, Taylor kept getting her head up into her and I'm like, this seems illegal. This seems illegal. You shouldn't be able to do this. Because clearly, like, her cut wasn't from a punch.

[Kyle]

Was that guy her dad at the end or just a trainer? But he was very like, dad, like. And he's like, now mind you go. But he came with facts. And he was like, look at all of her fights. He's got a history of a puzzle. I was like, wow. That was. You know, whether or not that's admissible in court definitely got the people thinking. I think so.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah. That went on forever. But I think Netflix was pumped because they were just like, let this guy cook. Yeah, yeah, get an hour. Some people are wondering if.

[Kyle]

How much more Rosie Perez can we get?

[Saruti]

What was Rosie Perez do? What was going on there?

[Ryan Russillo]

I don't know. I love when Roy was like, I don't think he has it anymore. We're like, no, shit.

[Kyle]

I don't like.

[Saruti]

Roy and the play by play guy are arguing about whether or not Tyson's biting his gloves or he's got, like, a mouthpiece issue. And the guy's like, roy, I don't want to be disrespectful, but I. I've done a ton of research. Tyson does this, and they're just having an argument on the broadcast.

[Ryan Russillo]

I didn't know it was Rosie Perez for like an hour.

[Kyle]

I was like, it can't be. That's just gotta be me thinking, I know everything. I was like, this isn't fucking Rosie Perez. There she is. Oh, my God.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah. Then they had Cedric the Entertainer at the desk, and people were accusing him of doing a LeBron Godfather recap where they're like, how many Tyson fights have you been to? And he was like, oh. And they were like, which one? He was like, a lot of them.

[Kyle]

There's so many. Yeah, which one should I choose?

[Ryan Russillo]

And then he said the one where he bit the guy's ear and.

[Kyle]

Oh, the one everyone knows.

[Ryan Russillo]

He. Maybe he was just tired. I don't know. I don't. I don't know what happened. But look, all I can tell you is that Saturday was much more enjoyable. Jon Jones, Stipe. Although I think Stipe retired in the first round after about 10 of those elbows. And then he lasted long enough, and then it just. I don't know. I felt. I put it this way, I felt sad for Tyson in a different way and sadder for Stipe in a more respectful Way. How about that?

[Saruti]

I just. I just love seeing all of the. Because all over my Instagram and Twitter of like the Jake Paul, you know, Disney video stuff.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah.

[Saruti]

What he looks like now and the transformation. It's nuts, man. It's. Because I don't. I'm a little too old for. I don't really. I didn't see them on Disney Channel. I watched Disney Channel growing up, obviously, as most other people did, but so they're not really in my world, but. So I didn't realize that he was like. I didn't realize what he looked like originally.

[Ryan Russillo]

I had no idea it'd be like Jared McCain becoming Lee Haney. So. All right, tough reference there. Some of you guys. Some of the older guys got that one.

[Kyle]

I got half of that one.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah.

[Saruti]

Bodybuilder.

[Kyle]

Okay, Fair.

[Ryan Russillo]

Nice work. Nice work, Suruti. Okay, Couple emails. Let's go. Cute neighbor, 25, 6 foot, 165. What's that?

[Kyle]

That's exciting, isn't it? New neighbor moves. It's like, wow, losing love.

[Ryan Russillo]

A cute neighbor. Been down that road. You ever date anybody in your building? Ceruti's too rural. What?

[Saruti]

Never had been a building before. What are you talking about?

[Ryan Russillo]

When did you live in an apartment, bro?

[Saruti]

West Hartford. Early in several.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah.

[Saruti]

What are you talking about?

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, but those West Hartford, like, how many units are we talking?

[Saruti]

I don't know. Probably north of 20. I don't know.

[Ryan Russillo]

20 units? Yeah.

[Saruti]

South Main street, dude, come on. You know the deal. Walking distance to the center. It was a good time. It was the most financially stable I've ever felt in my life.

[Ryan Russillo]

I know, it's funny when you can have moments of being younger, but, like, I remember I wasn't raking it in during the end of my run in Vermont, but I wasn't worried. Like, I knew I could pay for whatever needed to be paid for. I think my rent was 300 bucks. And, you know, it was food and expenses and whatever. It wasn't exactly hammering any. Any funds. Right. But I just knew. And I knew where the money was coming from. And then to be broke after was really tough. So it sounds like. Did you go through a phase where you were actually more broke, but in theory more successful?

[Saruti]

No, I mean, it just.

[Ryan Russillo]

Maybe I'm talking about myself here. Yeah, never mind.

[Saruti]

I would just say you have less things to worry about financially, you know, like my. I had a $600 rent and I went out three, four days a week in the center and I was breaking even and I was feeling great. About myself. Like now it's like, hey, what am I putting in retirement? Like, you know, we got kids, daycare. Like we're doing all right, but it's just like there's more to worry about.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, right. No ETFs back then. All right.

[Kyle]

I did your neighbor, by the way. I just remembered in college, it was a secret though. And so she would wake me up at like 5 in the morning on like a Sunday. Like you gotta go. And I was like, all right, this is getting a little old. So I think, I don't think I would be the one who stopped it. I don't remember how it stopped, but I just remember like a few Saturdays and Sunday mornings it's like five. She's like, you gotta get out of here.

[Ryan Russillo]

I'm like, fuck. Like walk across.

[Saruti]

They didn't want people in commune to know that you guys were, I don't know, she didn't.

[Kyle]

Like our friend groups were like, I don't know, like, I mean they intersected but like, you know, they were a group of girls, we were a group of dudes. But like we were. We shared like the same big driveway. It's like, you know, the weird college town layouts. I just remember I got tired of waking up at like 5 in the morning and you know it's cold in Potsdam, so that's an early wake up call. Yeah, not good.

[Ryan Russillo]

She said you were in a daycare, but I started thinking they were hair kids. I don't there all the time. What is this 24 hour? All right, let's just get to this email because we spent so much time on this other stuff. Pickup comp. G.G. doome, a mid tier shooter with extremely high IQ, excels in team oriented play. Maybe not good enough for the highest level, but can contribute providing great overall vibes. While coaching the JV basketball team last year, I crossed a 16 year old up during practice and he had to sit out three games because of his sprained ankle. Badass. I know. All right, well this guy really gave us some backstory. My dilemma starts with this and also the most obscure basketball competent history of this exercise. Don't try to outdo it because it's probably going to be less fun. My dilemma starts with this. I recently moved to a large a large Midwest city in the heart of downtown. I've loved living here despite the lackluster attempts of finding a reliable friend group who I can just chill with. On any given night. I am a runner. Shout out to myself. 35709 marathon time. Last month. I've attempted to find cute single girls at run clubs like every other single 25 year old do this summer. I'm a solid rural 8 out of 10 in a city 6 and a half. I know my constraints. Skinny, partially lazy eye, big nose. But I also know my strengths. Caring, compassionate and can seem interested in any conversation by asking high quality follow up questions. This guy's intense, self scouter. Can you be a rural eight with a lazy eye? Rural eight?

[Saruti]

Well, you just called me rural, so I think so.

[Kyle]

What else is it like? What is like cool scar? Maybe that could, that could boost you a little bit. Strong.

[Ryan Russillo]

Okay.

[Kyle]

Barrel chest?

[Ryan Russillo]

I don't know. I don't know the answer.

[Saruti]

If you're like kind of skinny and tall. Runner, RIP too like some girls like girls like that would be cool.

[Ryan Russillo]

Okay, moving on. I quickly discovered that when moving into my apartment in August, I have a really cute neighbor. Let's call her Maria. I struck up a 30 second conversation with her a couple of months back and found out she recently moved here and is in med school. I saw one of her. I saw her one other time in the elevator and she was on the phone, so obviously I didn't say anything. Maria isn't just another cute neighbor. She's somehow effortless, effortlessly charming and has a med school vibe that screams future sugar mama. Which as a teacher I need in my life. Good for you, dude. Yeah, I mean this guy's just ripping through the honesty.

[Saruti]

He's got a five year plan.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, the next 30 years. All right. In mind. I planned exactly how I was going to retrieve her number for months. Ask her how she liked the city, how med school is going and casually ask to get coffee and then get the digits. That took months to plan that out. Yesterday I went in the shower, dude, I saw her in the hallway. Asked her how she liked the city and how school's going, just like I planned. She was genuinely interested and asked me a few questions too. I ended the nerve wracking conversation with quote, if you ever want to grab a coffee, let me know. She smiled, chuckled, parentheses, I swear she's into me and said quote, sure, I'll knock on your door. While pretending to knock. Solid interaction, right? Wrong. I forgot to ask her for her number. I would say everything up to that was all pretty good. I mean, unless she's just. If she was an actress, I'd be like, you're in trouble. She just played out a scenario where she's giving you a soft no, but yeah, that seems kind of good. It's specific, right? Sure. I'll knock on your door. Pretend to knock. Now I am stuck in this bizarre limbo. I promise that when I say this, if we go on a date, I will fall in love. Or maybe I already have. What's the play here, guys? Do I play the long game and wait for her to knock? Go full rom com Hallmark Christmas movie and ask for sugar. Ask for sugar for the cookies I am baking. Do I leave a note on her door that doesn't scream serial killer?

[Kyle]

No.

[Ryan Russillo]

Every move feels critical. But I also know the risk. If she's not into it, it's eight months of hallway awkwardness. Still, it's worth it. In short, do I risk it or wait it out and hope for a door knocking Christmas miracle? Well written email.

[Kyle]

You're on your back foot here, right? You left, you left it up to her. And that's like everything else is basically a double text at this point. Unless, like a lot of time passes.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, double text.

[Kyle]

Kyle, you know, she was. You're like, you let me know. Which, you know, if you, if you, if you want to steal that deal. That's really not like, you know, it's really not the move. So I don't think you can leave a note. I think if like, way more time has to pass before you go knocking. Like, I locked myself out or I, you know, do you have sugar? I mean, don't do that one.

[Ryan Russillo]

But like, does anyone have sugar anymore?

[Kyle]

Yeah, mine's like a big, like hard rock of stuff. I think I need a new sugar when I eventually need sugar. But I think, yeah, I don't, I don't know, you might just have to catch her out. It can't be something where you're going to her door. It can't be that you might have to like catch her as she's leaving and you're like running or. I don't know.

[Ryan Russillo]

But.

[Kyle]

Yeah, any of this, any of this clever shit, she's going to see right through and be like, oh, fuck, he's weird. I thought we were okay. You know, you don't know if she was into or she sounds like she's super nice. And if you just left it open as like, whenever you're ready to go have coffee with me, let me know. And she's like, great. Never going to be ready, like. So I, I don't know. I think you may, I think you're just on your back foot here and you just got to hope for the best or wait for long enough and then you can maybe ask Her. But you don't want her to think she's got a problem on her hands. If this happened like three weeks ago and she hasn't knocked on your door yet and you're like, you think you're all out of time waiting. You're like, whoa.

[Saruti]

Oh boy. Yeah, I agree. I would not do anything that is forward whatsoever because it's just going to get even.

[Ryan Russillo]

This is her safety.

[Kyle]

Safe.

[Saruti]

Yeah, can't do that. I think this is kind of creepy. But your intentions are good. But can you just kind of like be around and just try to catch her? Like hang around the elevator, you know.

[Kyle]

Like do your warm ups right outside the building, Right?

[Saruti]

Yeah. You know, like doing it maybe. Maybe like you said, you like running. Just run around the building a bunch of times and hopefully you catch her in one of the loops or something. I don't know, like, I just make it seem kind of accidental and like, oh, hey, like, you know, because again, like the door thing, you shouldn't approach a door ever.

[Kyle]

I've got a super thick door. I don't know if you've knocked or not. I can't really hear much of it.

[Ryan Russillo]

I was curious, the hardware you have here on your eye socket thing, where'd you pick that up?

[Kyle]

What's the zoom?

[Ryan Russillo]

Oh, that was, that was stock. I haven't talked to the super. Well, look, there's a fine line between creepy and the beginning of a wedding toast. So it's like the classic, oh, the girls just wanted to go out tonight. It's like, well, who approached you? It was annoying. And then it's like, well, when the right guy approaches, you should be like, oh my God, this is awesome. So, you know, people have to talk to each other at some point or none of us would be here. So I'm all for kind of Ceruti's theory. Just be around, get the reps, get those reps in. Check your mail seven times a day. All right. I don't know what the front of your building's like. This might be a little too aggressive. But since she's in med school and maybe has a deep seated desire to take care of others, you could clean up a little bit. I mean, you're going to have to put in the time. You're going to have to be like the night's watch and just be in areas constantly hoping to run into her again. All right? And you don't want to say, hey, how about that coffee right away, right? You'll know. You'll know on the second interaction. If there's sincere interest, and I hope that there is, because I really thought that email was well written, even if I, I don't. But that's, that's just what's going to have to. I remember. Here's, Here's a lesson that my father taught me long, long time ago. My father started out as a humble bricklayer and then, you know, promoted to Dex, pressure treated. And he got an addition one day and that was huge, really big, big deal for our family. And I don't know, I was working for him as I did all those summers, and we were sitting in the truck probably eating meatball subs and I was like, dude, can we, can we get out of here? You know, we're just parked. We're just parked in my dad's red, cherry red F150 in this parking lot of this place. And I'm just like, can we go? And he goes. And he had signs, right? He had his builder signs, magnets that he put on the doors of the truck. And he was like, I got the addition, the biggest job I've ever gotten. Because I just was sitting in my truck waiting and somebody walked up and was like, hey, are you local? And he's like, yep. Started bullshitting, went over, did the estimate. The addition was huge. It was a big, big deal for our family that my father got an addition. And it was just being present, it was being in the eye line. And you have to do it. Like, if you really, I mean, granted, sounds like you already want to marry this chick. You're going to have to invent ways to be in the common areas. And if you're in a colder Midwest city, time is running out.

[Kyle]

I could see him in January. Like, hey, do you think, like your water pressure changed in the last couple weeks? I don't know. I feel like something's off because I.

[Ryan Russillo]

Was just saying, like, you could clean up like out front if there was more. But then it's like she might be like, oh, this guy's like total hippie. And I don't, I don't want to do this, but if it's Chicago, you know, you have like a couple weeks before you. The other thing outside.

[Saruti]

You need. It took you a month to develop your first plan. You need a plan, like for when, when you do inevitably see her, like, and you kind of try to slow play it, play it cool. Don't be like, hey, what about that coffee? Like, have something to say, have something to like suggest to her that's not too forward, that isn't the same coffee thing over and over again. Like, have a plan again. Because you don't want to just, like, be like, okay, here she is. What do I do now? Oh, no. Like, rehearse that.

[Ryan Russillo]

I think he'll have a plan. But you're right. I mean, rehearse that.

[Saruti]

Yeah, yeah, that's. Yeah.

[Kyle]

Well, you don't want to end up on your back foot again because, you know, you could have gotten the answer to this that day. Maybe, you know, it's like, oh, give me your number and I'll, you know, we'll figure this out.

[Ryan Russillo]

Maybe by the way, the building thing, especially in, like, a major city, you're just going to have to get over it. There's maybe ones that go south. And yes, if you were to date and then break up, it's way worse. But if you just. She doesn't have interest in you and then you're worried about that awkwardness. Honestly, at least this seed has been planted. We don't know if it'll grow or not. But, you know, looking back at early days of your boy, sometimes the best stuff that I could do would have it go horribly wrong in the beginning. But I had something unique to build off of. There was a unique experience that then could be laughed about. And then all of the awkward, like, I don't really know this person. I don't know. I don't really want to tell the story. It's kind of embarrassing.

[Kyle]

Sometimes it's good to trust your instincts.

[Ryan Russillo]

I was pretty young. I mean, I was really young. Maybe the next contract. It's not that. It's not. It's not that bad. It's just sort of embarrassing. But I. I do think, like, oh, no, you know, I asked her for coffee and actually the second time through, it didn't go that well. And whatever, she didn't really like me. So now I'm gonna see her recycling every now and then, and it's going to be awkward. Who gives a. Like, you'll get over that stuff. All right, we get another one here that we got to do Quicker. Quicker. Caught in between two words like Lamar, I drop back. Girlfriend's brothers being an 511 145. Don't max often, but bench about 135 squat. 250, maybe more. I would say definitely more at some point. Can't think of a basketball comp, but it's probably some eastern European guy who can throw dimes and runs the fast break so aggressively it annoys the other team in pickup here's the situation. In my mid-20s in about a million person Midwest city, my girlfriend and I have been dating for two years. I love hanging out with her family and her two siblings in including her 15 year old brother who's a freshman in high school. Like most 15 year olds who play football at a smallish high school in the middle of the country, him and his freshman football buddies can be little. The younger brother has a girlfriend that everyone hates. My girlfriend's mom hates the younger brother's girlfriend. It has caused issues. She really sucks and was banned from coming over for a while after yelling at his girlfriend's mom. Or my girlfriend's mom I guess. Yeah, that would make sense. My girlfriend's mom. Who the yells at somebody else's parents? Fifteen white kids.

[Kyle]

I'm kidding.

[Ryan Russillo]

Only white kids. That's crazy. I cannot fathom being 15 and yelling.

[Saruti]

At like someone else's mom.

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, somebody else's dad or mom. The younger brother has a girlfriend that everyone hates. My girlfriend's mom or we already read that line. Ryan the brother needs to break up with her, but he won't. It doesn't even seem like he likes her. On top of that he's been texting other girls in his social circle. He was texting one girl for a while and almost broke up with his girlfriend but then decided to just ghost the other girl he was texting out of the blue after leading her on, he's still with the awful girlfriend. My question is, do I try and talk to my girlfriend's brother and explain that he's being a little and needs to treat the girls better, not lead them on and probably needs to break up with his girlfriend or just let him learn on his own. I am worried about him becoming a bad person and treating women terribly, but he's probably just a 15 year old and a shit. Thanks. P.S. more baseball content. The streets love the fantasy baseball draft episodes. Well, obviously 23 took it out of me because I didn't even get. I planned on doing 1 in 24 but I was still tired from the 23 one. I would put this one firmly in the bucket of who fucking cares. Yeah, why is this your fight?

[Kyle]

This guy, like, I mean it's nice he might wake up at 19 or 20, you know what I mean? But that's when you have to start holding people accountable. As long as there's no violent crime involved. It's like you weren't even like I'm not even talking to that guy anymore. Like just the difference between 15 and like done with high school and maybe a year or two of college under your belt, just. You just become nicer to everyone in your family, usually your friends, stuff like that. So, yeah, you're right. Who the fuck cares? Like, you're talking to a wall. It is what it like, you know, dude's priorities.

[Ryan Russillo]

Who did you listen to? Right? Like, who did you listen to when you were 15 that wasn't a parent? And some of you didn't listen to your parents either. Maybe it was an older brother. Maybe it was Craig who stayed back and used to bring in car magazines to lunch saying, I'm going to get this Jetta when I get my license. You're like, craig can do anything. So I just don't know that there's many people, especially, like, if he's a little bit more on the alpha side of 15. You said he plays football. He's got all of his buddies. Chicks are certainly in him. This kid is feeling himself in a way that he's never really felt himself before. So even though you get along with him and maybe he looks up to you a little bit, I'm just telling you this is likely a massive waste of your time and I think your heart's in the right place and that'd be cool. And maybe pull. You can try it once. You can try it once. And he's. You want to talk? Low retention levels. This is like reading a book in a foreign language. Like, it's just not right.

[Kyle]

I'm trying to think, who was I, like, tuned into, like, outside of, like, oh, this guy's an adult. I should listen to him. It's probably like, my buddy's older brother who is like, fresh out. That guy knows what the fuck he's talking about. You know what I mean?

[Ryan Russillo]

Yeah, right.

[Kyle]

That guy. I'd listen to that guy. But maybe counselor of my buddy's older brother who's just like, you know.

[Ryan Russillo]

You would listen to a guidance counselor.

[Kyle]

No, I'm saying I'm trying to think as opposed to those guys I have beef with. My guidance counselor called my parents that I was hanging out with. Bottom of the barrel dudes got a big trouble.

[Ryan Russillo]

Well, that means he had high hopes for you, though. That's actually a compliment.

[Kyle]

I know, but we had beef the whole rest of high school because I was like, man, you really jammed me up here. They're asking where I am. Come on.

[Ryan Russillo]

He was trying to give you some guidance. Yeah, well, you know, as I say it, though, I mean, to your point, Kyle, we're probably, I think, men or boys. In this case boys, two men. Maybe you're super impressionable by that older guy, you know, that isn't a family member and you might want to. But I think when it comes to this, like, if girls are hitting this dude up left and right and they're going to break up. So that's the other part of, like, who cares? Good luck. All right, that'll do it for the show. Thanks to Orgon, thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Saruti. Check out our YouTube page and subscribe to the Ryan Russell podcast on Ringer spot. Must be 21 and older, present in select states. For Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18+ and present in D.C. gambling problem, call 1-800- gambler or visit rg-help.com, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text Hopeny in New York.