← The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
College Football Conference Picks, Best QB, Breakout Players, and the Title Picture With Danny Kanell and Bruce Feldman
02:07:11
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- [00:00]
Ryan Rossillo
Foreign.
- [00:11]
Danny Cannell
Let's talk some college football. We are loaded today. The contenders at the top. The uncertainty with quarterbacks who do that with Danny Cannell. We'll go through all the conferences with him. I'll make an SEC joke at the very end. Bruce Feldman on who he likes the most and his Penn State. Ready to do this? He doesn't think so. He likes another team. We'll handicap the rest of the conferences the same way we did it, but a little different information. We'll go over his freaks list a new quarterback and a new spot that everybody's excited about and sifting through the puke bucket stories. We've got life advice and just an update on life. So Rudy's back, Wargon's here. Somebody had a kid, somebody got engaged, somebody got married. I mean it's wild, wild, wild crew. So enjoy. Excited for college football season. An incredible opening week past week zero. But we do have a nice matchup for week zero. So let's talk with Danny Cannell. Let's talk about the season, get some thoughts from our guy, former co host and now of course with Sirius XM every morning 6 to 9 Eastern and CBS. So the AP rankings are out and you know, look, there's a little bit of a chance change of order with what came out from the coaches poll here. But if you run through it, dk, you know, it's crazy. Like six of the top eight teams, it depends on what you want to define as a question at quarterback. But it is like there's a lot of assuming going on with a lot of the guys behind center even with the pedigree that they have. And it feels like that's kind of a good place to start for these teams contending for a national championship.
- [01:47]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah. That's why I really think this season is setting up to be one of the more entertaining seasons we've seen. I think it was 2016 was the last time this many different teams received some sort of vote in the top 25. And I was going back because in the last five years it's been, you know, Georgia in 24 received 46 first place votes, 23 Georgia had 60 first place votes. It was almost unanimous. Before that it was Bama 54. And the most we saw was three in the last three seasons. Now we've got double that. And I would say you could even make a case for Notre Dame with their schedule with Bama, with the guys they haven't coming back that they could have received a vote. But it is because there's so much there's so much uncertainty about the QBs and I do think as we're sort of, we're getting past the COVID years when you had 24 year old, 25 year old quarterbacks that you knew exactly we're going to get even if they did transfer. We still got a couple, there's still a few, but there's a lot of guys that have almost zero playing experience and we're just banking on them working. You know, Ohio State's a great example. Now we could talk Arch Manning all you want, but he's another one. But like at Ohio State, Julian saying the assumption is hey, he's, he's going to work because he's got Jeremiah Smith on the outside and you kind of trust Ryan Day with what he's done with quarterbacks. And yet it feels like that competition might be one of the more real ones with Lincoln Keenholtz his backup. Like so there, there's just a laundry list. Gunner Stockton at Georgia, like I know he came in and he was a spark plug at Georgia when Carson Beck went down and his teammates rallied around him, but he hasn't played a lot of football. Dante Moore at Oregon, again, if he beats out Austin Nova, sad. He could be really good. But what if they struggle like Alabama? Ty Simpson, they just named him the starter, which I think is a good sign that they named him this early. But he's been Mr. Potential Guy his whole time there as a former five star, you know, had kind of opportunities to win out the job. Couldn't do it. Like I think he's going to be good, but there are just so many questions up and down the board. Didn't mention Notre Dame with CJ Carr stepping in. Almost every, you know, school that is in here outside of Penn State and Clemson have pretty big question marks at quarterback.
- [04:04]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, I was looking at the Big Ten and this is a really interesting note, but they have eight quarterbacks that are going to be starters. Well, actually because Ohio State has two of them. So I guess it'd be seven projected starters that at some point during the recruiting process were top 25 in the ESPN 300, which is the most of any conference. And you know, saying maybe just terrific because Ohio State in the past has been able to just kind of plug somebody else in. I, I think Alabama has been able to do that in the past. I'm glad you brought up Gunner Stockton because even though Georgia may not have the elite NFL talent on defense that we just assume that they're always going to have, there's so much depth. The transfer portal part of this becomes way too exciting. It's never, it look, this sport has never been. It's the hardest sport to figure out year to year because of the turnover. And now when you factor in just the amount of movement and the lack of continuity with some of these teams, like I'll be sitting there looking at Arizona State going, all right, well what's going on? Like, oh, hey, they got that freshman from Alabama, receiver. And then you just see like transfer from Alabama and you, you get more excited than you probably should. And I don't mean specific to him, but like you'll look through and be like, oh, wow, they got a Clemson guy, they got an LSU guy. Like there's, there's this one player that transferred like big time. I don't even want to dog him or anything, but it's like big time recruit, big time program that he was with, he's at another huge Power 4 program. And it's like you realize that guy never played. He never played, but it looks really good on paper. So look, some of these quarterbacks, it's just their time. I'd say saying at Ohio State, like, he fits the profile and there's probably a lot of assumption there. I probably worry about Heartline a little bit, but maybe with a year with Chip Kelly that'll, that'll make it better, you know, than, than it was the first time that he was the OC there. But having said all those things, that, that's why I kind of get back to like Clemson in Penn State. It's like, should we all be more bullish on Clemson and Penn State because of club Nick who's the projected number one pick, and Aller who's projected to be a first rounder. And I'll say it, I feel way better about Aller going into this year than I did last year. Just. And I know it was a new OC and it's the second year, but at least I saw some things last year from Aller that I don't think I saw in 23.
- [06:22]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah, I go back, I thought when he played USC out there and he had a couple big 4th down conversions, one he tucked it and ran and made a couple nice throws. I thought that was going to be like his game that you could look at and say, there's the difference. Now it didn't work out that way. You know, he was kind of a little bit up and down after that.
- [06:41]
Danny Cannell
The Oregon game was enough for me. Even in a loss. I'm telling you, there Was that play that he made on the 4th and 10 or so, 4th and 11. And you can, you can beat me up for saying, oh, it's just kind of one player or whatever. There was the USC game, the Oregon game, you know, the Minnesota game. There's, there's just more there that I felt like he, he played the position kind of scared in 23.
- [07:05]
Bruce Feldman
I totally agree. He's, he's been a game manager, he's been a check down Charlie a little bit, playing safe. And I remember talking to this back on our show at ESPN when we would talk about the risk reward dynamic that every quarterback kind of has to figure out of, you know, when. Cause I would personally rather have somebody who's a gunslinger and dial it back. It's a little bit harder to get guys to take chances. And I feel like that's where Aller has kind of struggled to figure out, all right, it's okay to throw an interception. I think he had a couple interceptions in the USC game. But I was totally okay with it. I was like, hey, at least he's throwing the ball down the field and he's taking some chances.
- [07:40]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, it's real.
- [07:41]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah. So like. But I, but I was actually okay with it because I was actually like, all right, like, because we kept referring the touchdown interception ratio, which is really good. But you got to have some sort of, some sort of recognition that there is a time and a place when an interception is okay. You might have a one on one shot down the field that you can take it. There might be times when you try to squeeze it into a tighter window and it just doesn't work and you do get picked off. But you, but the thing is you have as much talent around you, you know, nine, ten games of the year that if you just play it safe, you're probably going to win those nine or 10 games. But it's the difference games, the games against Notre Dame in the playoffs, the games get Penn State or, excuse me, Ohio State or Michigan. Like, the better competition is when he's got to step up. And I thought he took a step forward. I still have a little bit of reservation for him. Like, if you asked me who I was more confident in, I would say I'm more confident in Cade Clubnik having a better season as a whole. In large part, he's got a way better receiving core that we know about at Clemson where they did go hit the portal and brought in three guys, because that was a big narrative last year, was that Draller didn't have Anybody to throw to. And then of course it doesn't help when he doesn't complete a pass to a wide receiver in an entire game in their loss to Notre Dame. And he does lose Tyler Warren too. Like that's a big void in that offense that somebody's going to have to account for. He was such like a weapon that they used. But I think you make a really good point about year two of Andy Colton, Nikki. I think that'll be big for him. So as far as his comfort level and kind of knowing when to stretch the field, when to make the right checks and call to that big play, if he's got the opportunity, the defense is giving it to him.
- [09:18]
Danny Cannell
So if you look at the Franklin resume, which Penn State fans know really well, last three years 34 and two, is a favorite 27 and oh in favor by at least six points and Owen six as a dog. This is a Penn State team getting first place votes. You like them better than every other team in the Big Ten.
- [09:38]
Bruce Feldman
I do. So I'm buying into the hype somewhat. But I do think it does feel like now or never for James Franklin. Like I don't know if there's going to be a better opportunity for two reasons. One, the collection of talent they have coming back. Right. They have Drew Aller coming back. They have K Tron Allen and Nick Singleton in the backfield. They do have a defense that returns a bunch of guys that can get after the passer denied. Dennis Sutton should be the next in line to be that next Micah Parsons, Abdul Carter, if it's not him, maybe a Zariah Fisher. They bring in Jim Knowles like to to really bump up this defense and take it to the next level. So they've got all these returning pieces.
- [10:17]
Danny Cannell
Their man taking him away from Ohio State on top of everything else.
- [10:20]
Bruce Feldman
Exactly. So and so their mantra is what you want to hear. It's what we heard from Michigan, it's what we heard from Ohio State, the last two national champs is we're bringing guys back to do something special. So they've got kind of all these pieces, but I think even more importantly the fact that we're talking about Ohio State question marks. Both coordinators, you know, they're having both new coordinators, new quarterback. A lot of that defense is gone. They don't have the backfield that they had last year. Oregon, they don't have the veteran quarterback. The other top contenders in the Big Ten have massive question marks. Michigan is kind of vulnerable right now because they're in this kind of Weird spot where Sherrone Moore is trying to get his legs and prove themselves as a Big Ten contender. So all around the Big Ten, you've got these question marks. You've got Penn State with all this certainty. I just really worry about James Franklin. Like, if he can't get it done this year, I don't know if it's going to get any better. Like, it's just going to get more challenge for him to try to, you know, beat those teams that have equal or better resources than he does.
- [11:18]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, the defense. There's some nitpicking we can do with any of these teams, especially when we're talking about, you know, they're number two in the ap. I mean, they flipped it on the coaches poll. Uh, so they're, you know, in the AP's eyes, the second best team in the country coming in here behind Texas. And the receiving part of this is just, it's. It's too. Too much of the same story. And so, you know, their leading receiver, that's not Tyler Warren, last year's an Ole Miss now, and they bring in a Troy guy, Q guy, and an SC guy, and we'll see. I mean, that's the thing with the transfer portal is just because it's new. And I say this to myself constantly, as we've already covered it. There's just too many times where I look at the portal, I was like, oh, okay, well, they're good. And like, if you had to go grab that many guys at that position, that's a massive assumption. Once again, just go, all right, we added all these new dudes to the transfer portal, and we're going to be really good. And you'd have to be around every one of these programs day to day to truly understand through the spring practices and everything in the fall camp and feel like, hey, we're really good at this position. But it's a mistake that I know I'm guilty of kind of making and trying to stop myself. Unless I know the player really well, I'm like, okay, I've already seen this guy play all the time, and he'll be a good fit here. He's a stud or he wasn't used the right way there. But Penn State has to figure that out. They have to figure out guys getting separation. Because now with Warren being the safety blanket there and a guy who do everything for him, I mean, that's the difference between them whether it's winning the Big Ten or making a run at a title game.
- [12:41]
Bruce Feldman
So I do think that Colton Nikki was really good at scheming up plays. I think he's got a very creative mind. That's what he did with, with Tyler Warren. Like we saw him play like eight different positions. He caught a touchdown pass after he snapped it to. Like he's got a creative mind. So I think he'll get those guys separation. I think you bring up a really good point though because I think there's also been a trend in the portal where I think the first couple years people were trying to figure out what the real money was like. And so they might have played hardball and let some players walk. But now if you get a player from an Alabama or from an Ohio State or from a Georgia, it's almost like a buyer beware because all of those schools could afford to keep them. So like, what is the player? Is there something wrong with them? I think it's a little bit different with quarterbacks because there's only one ball. Like, I get it, like, you're not going to keep that many QBs. You know, it's just guys want to start, they want to play. But a lot of the positional players, I think the better players are being retained. Like, and I think that was evident in this year's like transfer portal rankings. There weren't quite as many players that was just like, oh, that guy's like a surefire home run. There were a few, but I think it. The talent was diluted a little bit because the teams were keeping their better players.
- [13:56]
Danny Cannell
Okay, so we're talking better players. And if you go to ESPN and look at Mel's latest mock draft, Clemson has three of the top six picks. They have five first rounders. The receivers should be terrific. After what it felt like a dip. Based on what our expectations are for for Clemson receivers, the running back situation seems to be fine. I mean, you know, maybe they're not built defensively the way they always have, but I like Klub, Nick. I don't know. I mean, it's going to be kind of ridiculous whenever you're the preseason team and again, they're not number one. But you know, it's like, hey, could they go 16? And oh. And you're like, who gives a shit, right? It doesn't matter. All we have to point to is Ohio State losing that Michigan team and going, all right. It's probably the best thing that could have happened in Ohio State. I know they never feel that way because of how kind of like out of whack that rivalry can be. But that felt like whether it was Herb street on the broadcast when they just house Tennessee and Tennessee taps out in that game, it felt like I loved the way they talked about that game because it was very evident that Herb street being so close to the Ohio State program was like the way they talked about Day and the way they talked about these kids. It was very personal for him. And some people may not like that on the broadcast, but I thought it was great storytelling because it was, it turned things around. So basically it speaks to like the greater point of like I don't, I don't like maybe somebody goes 16 and oh, but it doesn't, it doesn't matter. And Clemson, you know, is the clear favorite in the acc. But do you think that there's, there's a gap between them and the other title contenders that you would have on your list?
- [15:29]
Bruce Feldman
I don't, but I know some people do. Like they were oh and three last year against the sec, right. And they got dominated by Georgia early. They lose at home to South Carolina. But I thought one of their best games was against Texas in the playoffs like I thought and I thought that was one of Kate club next best games. But their defense was really weak against the run and that's where I think they will get better. You mentioned a couple of. So the three first rounders. One of those club Nick.
- [15:55]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, he's the number one pick.
- [15:57]
Bruce Feldman
And then it's TJ Parker and Peter woods, right. For the defensive line. So I think, I think the defense will be better again. Another move along the coordinators. Tom Allen comes in, who I loved him as a head coach in Indiana. He was at Penn State. Like I think he's got a really good track record. I think players love playing for him. They, they kind of did the same thing they did with the offense when they went because Dabo is loyal to a fault, right. He, he elevates from within. He doesn't like to go outside. He takes care of his guys. He went outside the program to get Garrett Riley. It took a little bit, it was a little bit bumpy early, but now it's starting to work really well. I think this was a really good move for him to go outside the program to bring in Tom Allen. So I think they're there. I think the question mark is probably along the offensive line, which is really good for Clemson. But how are they and we'll find out against lsu. But I think they absolutely have the talent, the pedigree, the roster to win a national championship. I'm a big fan of Kate club Nick. I don't know if I love him at the NFL level just yet, but, but if he backs up what he did last year and finishes the season the way he did, I think he'll absolutely play himself into that position where he's a top 15 pick. I think we just give out so many top five quarterbacks like, oh, he'll be a top quarterback in the NFL draft. I don't, I don't know if he's got like the upside potential that they kind of look for in top tier arm strength. He's not the biggest guy you would ever meet, so maybe he can bulk up a little bit in the process and impress. But I think he's, he's the quarterback I trust the most coming into the season in college football. Even more than Drew Aller.
- [17:33]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, I like him better than Aller, but you know, I was looking at Bill Conley stuff from ESPN and I just like the way he kind of goes about all of his conference previews and you know, he dug into some of the offense and you probably do this for any kind of team. But again with the standard is we're talking about you as a potential national championship winner. We're going to be a little stricter. There's some drop back numbers and what club Nick averaged per drop back that are pretty bad nationally off of last year. And there's some defensive stuff. I mean what they did last year is historically bad based on their standards. So you know, we could get into that first Georgia game, but I mean, you know that feels like 10 years ago, not just a year ago. So I, I look at that conference, I look at the NFL talent and you might be right, just trying to be dismissive, but it feels, it feels like if you're being dismissive of them, you're just kind of trying to prove some sort of point. And I don't know if that's an ACC thing or not because the rest of the acc, it's what it's three ranked teams. Louisville's probably thought of as the fourth team with that running back tandem. They bring in Moss, who I liked when he, I thought he got hosed at SC last year. So the rest of the acc, I don't, I mean I know it's your conference, but is there anything else that we need to look at or anyone that you think is capable of surprising at Clemson?
- [18:56]
Bruce Feldman
I mean it wasn't feels like a long time ago at lsu. Excuse me. Louisville did go into Clemson and push him around a little bit. That game was probably me the most stunning outcome of last year's schedule when Louisville had that win. So I think Louisville's a team that's a Friday night game. They're at home. They kind of feel like they beat them last year. They feel like why not us again? I mean it is like I do think there is a very, it's a very valid reason why Clemson is such a heavy favorite. Like I do think they have the best roster in the acc. They don't play Miami in the regular schedule. You kind of have to do talk yourself into could this game be competitive. Georgia Tech's a team I really like. I do think Brent Key, their coach, he is, he loves being physical trying to turn into an ugly fight. I think Haynes King is an underrated quarterback but I mean Clemson will probably be at least a touchdown road favorite in that game. It is noon which you know, kind of goes against. You almost want to play that game where there's a little better juice where you can get up for it. But I, I smu another one. Like you have to kind of talk yourself into it. Florida State is a massive unknown as far as what they could be but I'm not looking at that game as really a hiccup and I so I don't think so. South Carolina, you know they did get lose to him last year so that one's a potential slip up but I've got them winning the ACC pretty comfortably.
- [20:19]
Danny Cannell
We need to spend a little time on Miami just because they bring him back. I mean it's, it's, there's, there's a bit of a parallel to like Carson beck going into 24 and the way he feel about Klubnick and then back and depending on which game you want to pick. I mean the Alabama game, I know they came back in it but it was you're like what's wrong with this guy? Like what happened to him? Because you could see in 23 when the light went off for him where he was just more confident he was stepping into throw you were seeing him like okay, this is why this guy is this big recruit. This is why somebody's talking about him potentially be the number one pick overall. I mean the O line looks great. Running back situation should be fine. Receivers probably, you know, too much turnover to just pencil in a lot of certainty. There's but we're still talking about a preseason top 15 team.
- [21:02]
Bruce Feldman
I am really torn on the cane so I did a for the COVID 3 pod we had bold predictions. Right. Make your bold predictions. Which if I'm going to be bold I'm going to make a bold prediction and take it as that it's kind of like a one off, like could you make this case? And I said Miami's going to miss a bowl, like, and that was my bold prediction. I don't predict that to happen, but I do think we were, we were chat before this, before the show. I think Miami is one of the widest variants of teams that you could have because if it all comes together, they could win the acc, they could be a playoff team that wins multiple games. Like, they've got a pretty good defense, They've gone to the portal, they bolstered up a lot, they've spent a lot of money. I think Mario is a coach who can, you know, I know he gets plagued a lot and he gets criticized a lot for in game play calling, but I do think he usually has an offensive line that's one of the best out there. And I think this Miami team is no different. Carson Beck is the massive wild card for me because last year Cam Ward was such a dynamic difference maker for that team. I mean, he really put him in some rough spots because of some of the boneheaded picks, but he made some heroic plays last year that helped them go 10 and 2. Their defense was the big liability. I think their defense is going to be better. But Carson Beck, so I think he was a top five again, we mentioned top five picks like in the preseason two years ago. I guess before last season he was on everybody's top five NFL draft choices. And then it kind of falls apart. There's two reasons I'm worried about Carson Beck. One, he's coming back from this elbow injury that's pretty significant. Like, is he going to be the same throwing the football? Does that have any sort of lingering effects on him? I don't think it is. I think he's been totally cleared. There's an intangible factor that I worry about with Carson Beck that I just don't know because Cam Ward was not only was a great player, he was an alpha that players wanted to play for. Like they were ready to go to war for him. What was concerning for me was when Carson Beck went down last year and Gunner Stockton comes in and players are like, oh, we're going to play. We're not going to miss a thing. We're going to be better. They were almost excited to have somebody different under center again. Georgia let him walk out the door. Some of that could have been because of the injury, but they could have kept him. Some of his decisions off the field. I mean, life is a, is a series of IQ tests and he's failed a couple of them like, and just like stupidity stuff that maybe it's you right off to immaturity and we've all done knuckleheaded things and maybe that was something that I would have done back in the day, but there's just something there that if it comes together, it could work. And by the way, his season when he played great, he had lad McConkey and Brock Bowers, two guys who were tearing it up in the NFL. And without those guys, he was pretty pedestrian and tried to force the ball too much and, and he definitely does not have great weapons at wide receiver considering how much they lost last year.
- [23:45]
Danny Cannell
I love the Big 12 this year. So let me run through a couple numbers for you. Preseason polls for last year. SEC was, Georgia was picked to be first. Oregon was picked second, Clemson was picked second. Okay, so those are your winners. So we're talking about either picked first or second in the preseason. Arizona State was picked to finish 16th and they make a playoff run and a, you know, make some noise in a scary game there against Texas. So then when you look at the odds on favor right now at the time when I wrote this down, Kansas State was plus 550, which were the longest odds for a conference champion preseason pick since 2008. The odds this morning are at plus 600. It's wide open one score games depth in that group at the top, the most continuity of any of the major programs. If you want to just go power four conferences, the Big 12 has the most continuity and it, it feels like there's four or five decent picks here, depending on which team you like.
- [24:51]
Bruce Feldman
Big 12 has the best collection of quarterbacks too, coming back. And I don't think it's close. Like with really good resumes, they may not be first first round NFL talent, but they've got guys that just across the board, they go deep with guys that are like 25 touchdowns to 30 touchdowns with between five and 10 interceptions, like 3,500 yards. Like you can just go down the list and see them. And what's interesting is I don't know if you saw this, Brett, your mark at Big 12 media days. They banned preseason polls from the media like almost every conference media because he was like, hey, we thought it really hurt Arizona State, the perception of them. Maybe they're a higher ranked team at the end of the season if everybody didn't think they were going to suck coming into it. And they were Wrong. And did it matter? I don't know. They got in like that's all that matters. Like, and they were guaranteed that spot because they won the Big 12. So I do think it's interesting. This is clearly the most wide open conference you could go for. I do think there's a tier of how far I would go down, but it's pretty deep. And I wouldn't be shocked if anybody came out from the bottom half. I do. I don't think you'll see another Arizona State story. I think Kenny Dillingham is a really good coach. I think he's guy that's kind of built with a young energy that's kind of leaned in to today's player with the Portal and with Nil and being very open and honest with that. Like, yeah, you've got, you know, Scott Frost returning. You've got some, you know, reunions taking place. I think they might take some time. So I don't know if there's that turnaround story this year, but I mean, the highest win total I think is eight and a half. So like the, the odds makers are predicting this thing to be just absolute carnage, which isn't good. Like they're, they're promoting themselves as the most competitive concert conference, which is great for entertainment purposes. It's not great for getting multiple teams in the playoff. So I think they're only going to be a one big lead again. And I think they've got maybe one of the most interesting storylines in all of college football. It's what Texas Tech has done by spending all of this money to go get a roster. I mean, they have the number one transfer portal class. I know these players aren't playing, but they just tied two top players from the class of 26 and 27. Like they're looking for the future. They're spending money all over the place. They've got the best roster on paper and yet they haven't contended for a Big 12, you know, conference championship. Mike Leach did it once before that. It was like in the 60s. They just have not been a very competitive program. And does it work? Like, can you buy a roster that in one year can compete and win a championship?
- [27:24]
Danny Cannell
I like their quarterback, Morton. I feel like he, you know, he's had the shoulder injuries, you know, he won the bowl game mvp, the Independence bowl, you know, a couple years ago, I think. And you go through the numbers as I just kind of like do my August prep and get ready for the season. It's like, okay, he was a four star he's been there, he's put up some big numbers. They went all these years of just putting up so many yards because of Leech and everything they had done down in Lubbock for such a long time. But him throwing for 3,000 yards in a season is the first time a Texas Tech quarterback had done it since 2017. So the transfer portal class, there's so many people. There's also a ton of guys that are not necessarily, like, from the P4 programs, too. So I don't know enough about the group of five guys in the transfer portal to start going like, okay, all these guys are terrific because there's. I don't know how much of the conference power ranking stuff we're going to do, but we should talk about it because you and I just constantly just beat it to a pulp every time we talk about it. But one of the things that I thought was interesting and, like, how the SEC not winning two of the, you know, the last two national championships and being held to a standard where it's like, oh, you didn't win two national championships. Like, okay, well, Jesus, like, you got to win it every single year forever to still be considered the best. But that part of the conversation is that maybe there is more parody. Maybe the SEC dominance run is over or it's cyclical and it was bound to happen at some point. But part of the reason for this happening, and trust me, let's go back to Tech here in a second, is that the transfer portal is going to even a lot of things out. And then when I go through the transfer portal stuff, as I did through the last couple weeks, do people realize that, like, LSU's getting other teams best players? So the portal part of it was kind of sold as all these SEC teams that were stacked with NFL talent, well, they're just going to lose players and it's going to even things out. And when I was looking against the stuff again the last couple of weeks, I was like, there's a lot of guys going to these schools, too. And so for Tech to grab as many guys as they did, it puts them on the radar. I don't know that that puts them ahead of Arizona State. I think I like Levitt better than Avery Johnson at this point. I loved that kid last year and he gets his top receiver back after an injury. But instead of maybe spending more time on Tech in the rest of the Big 12, where are you right now with the idea that the portal is actually thinning out the top end talent?
- [30:05]
Bruce Feldman
So I think it has Spread it around some, because as. As. As much money as programs do have, there still is a limit. Like, you can't. You can't keep everybody. You can keep your best players. So where I think it's impact is sort of depth that becomes more of an issue. And like, if there's like, I think at Alabama, Georgia, historically, and even the last, you know, decade where they've sort of been the most dominant programs in the game, you've seen, like, they. Without the. And I think some of this has to do with the freedom of movement, like, as well, like the transfer portal being open + nil, where you might have guys that you could have as a backup and they're sophomores and they're kind of waiting for their opportunity. They don't want to sit out a year, can pay them a little bit, and then they're happy and they kind of come to their time. Now I think there's players that are hungry for playing time and they want to play right away. I think that's happened with Georgia. A couple of guys that have left the program. Jermaine Johnson goes to Florida state. Marvin Jones Jr. Is bounced around a couple times. There's some other Alabama players, you know, Justice Haynes, like, there's other players that have kind of moved around the Power 4 level, but I think it's. It's prevented those teams that really were able to just hoard all the talent, but it spread it. But I think a lot of it, to your point, is spread through the sec, which kind of brings them down where they don't have this dominant team and there's a lot of really good football players, which is what they're saying. Like, this is the deepest it's been and the depth of the league is really, really strong, which I would tend to agree with. But it's kind of like the Big 12 in a way, because they don't have that team that's won the national championship.
- [31:45]
Danny Cannell
Who'S one of the. Yeah, you know, it does. It does make sense. So I, I'll follow up before I ask the question again that I just asked. I just, like anything I needed, I need more years to see how this is all going to play out. It would have to be like a five to seven year thing where it's like, okay, this is really different now. But I couldn't help from kind of chuckling with the message that was being sold as Michigan and Ohio State win national championships as like, oh, it's a transfer portal. And it's like, okay, but like, what the Fuck. Like eventually somebody else had to win national championships, okay? Eventually another conference had to win back to back championships with two different teams. Like, it didn't have to happen at some point. And then I think not just in sports, but it's very much human nature is like when something happens that's a little bit different, it's like, okay, well, let's come up with all these reasons why it potentially happened. When I would argue a lot of times it's like, well, sometimes things happen. It doesn't mean it's necessarily a thing. Because when I look at the SEC and whether you like Texas with the skill guys, the running backs, you know there's going to be turnover. Their offensive line, you like the front defensively, you know, I think there's some Bama talk, there's some Georgia talk we do here with lsu, but LSU has everything you'd want. Except are all these new guys in the secondary just going to work out? Because it was a disaster two years ago. It improved somewhat, but it was still a problem for him last season. And you can just tell because in some of the transfer portal rankings, they're one, in Tech is two. Depends on who you want to like. Let's just face it that these are amongst the top rated groups of transfer acquisitions. But that part is kind of like, that part feels like it's not brought up enough. It's like, you do realize, like some of these other top programs are also picking off P4 guys and then bringing them in. It's not just an exit strategy here for all the talent. And that part of it I don't think was. It's just something I paid more attention to this summer because when Michigan and Ohio State were winning, it's like, oh, well, the SEC is just losing all these players. I was like, I don't know that that's necessarily happening. Maybe some of the depth stuff. And then to your other point, it's like, maybe some of those guys are leaving too at any P4 program because they're like, holy shit, I'm not good enough. And then it's, you know, not knocking North Carolina, but like, it's like, hey, I was at Clemson and now I'm at North Carolina. Or hey, I was at Ohio State and now I'm at Northwestern. You know, it's, yeah, like, okay, there might be, there might be a reason. Again, I wasn't even trying to use those as specific examples other than it felt like the North Carolina transfer portal, like those guys, the frequent flyer miles, it's just ridiculous. When you're going through and keeping track of that. All right, so let me get back to that original question then. Who do you think is winning the sec?
- [34:35]
Bruce Feldman
So I just actually did some picks today. I. So I'm going with Alabama, actually. One of the things I actually really liked was the. Ty Simpson was announced the starter today. As much as, you know, Jeremiah Smith has kind of caught so much attention for being this. And he was incredible. Like, he's probably going to be the number one overall pick in two years because he still has another year of eligibility after this one. Ryan Wilson was really good for Alabama, right? I mean, he was kind of a superstar freshman as well. That goes along with him. Jeremy Bernard, the receiver that came in from Washington, that followed Kaylin DeBoer there, is really good. And I think as long as Ty Simpson, like, I don't think he has to play, I don't think he has to be a Heisman candidate. But as long as he can kind of manage the system, the offensive line should be freakishly good. I think this offense will be a little bit more of what Caleb DeBoer wants it to be. And the defense, I think, is absolutely one of the top three in the sec. So, like, I feel like this could be one of those years where. And I also think they've got sort of that mental edge that they were lacking last year. There was sort of this uncertainty about Caitlin DeBoer. He was so much different than what Nick Saban was offering as far as intensity. He's Mr. Laid Back. He's given reporters his numbers. Players are talking about, oh, we need to be on time, like what this was happening in Tuscaloosa. But I think they had to figure out, like, all right, this. He's going to treat us like grown men and give us some freedom. We can't take advantage of it. And I saw that happen last year where that's how you have a letdown game against Vanderbilt. Like, they had no business losing to Vanderbilt. And I think those that loss in the Oklahoma loss, I guarantee you Caitlin, Deborah and his staff will be reminding this team about the entire season. So I think Bama is going to be at the top. I don't say it with a ton of confidence because I do feel like this is a league that a lot of different teams could win. I'm not going with Texas because I just. I almost have a principle on. As good as he might be, I still think it could be a little bit bumpy for Arch Manning. I still think he could struggle, you know, and there's the thing about Texas though. Their schedule is very, very manageable for like, how do you predict them to lose some games? But I think they might lose a game that we just don't see coming. And maybe it's not even Arch Manning's fault. It might just be, you know what, they're kind of getting more into the, you know, they've been told how good they are and they're, you know, they just have one of those slip up games that you don't see coming.
- [37:00]
Danny Cannell
South Carolina schedule is tough to talk yourself through that in comparison to the other teams as well. You know, I talked about South Carolina last, but last year because I loved watching them play. Like I always was, like, hey, South Carolina's on. Like, let me make sure I get them up on the screen. Whether it was sellers, whether it was the edge guys. But it's such a brutal schedule and I may, I may bring up a note on that one on the way out. So, Bama, I'm a little surprised because I. Look, it's not just the four losses. It's not the last loss that in the regular season where, you know, I know all the shit that I get about it was like I wasn't arguing Bama in after the third loss. Like I didn't even like him as much as South Carolina. Then they lose the, you know, Illinois bowl game and whatever that meant. On all of our debate about, you know, the playoff expansion and kind of just saying, hey, if we go to 12, we're going to have some of these teams that were arguing up where the schedule with the expansion of the conferences has never been more imbalanced. And I think there's just a very human nature thing when a team's like say 10 and 1 and the other team is 9 and 2, people just have a hard time believing the 9 and 2 team can be like miles better than the 10 and 1 team. And now the teams are, look, they're clearly going to go to 16 because of the money involved in all this. Like this is a group where at the end of the year it's hard for me to find a lot of sympathy for any of those teams. But this is where the schedule part of it I just don't think has become enough of. We've only had one year of this again, I need more years to understand the trends and how this will work. And when it's a playoff committee, then, you know, it's different people all the time too. So you can't really predict it year to year. As much as you can. But there does seem to be something with human nature where I don't think, especially last year with how some of the rankings were coming out, it was very clear the committee did not, they didn't really care about digging into, realizing how imbalanced some of the schedule experiences were for some of these programs.
- [38:59]
Bruce Feldman
So who would you have left out? Because I thought they got it right, like, and I think you've got it.
- [39:04]
Danny Cannell
I'm fine with it, I'm fine with it. But I mean, look, this turns into.
- [39:07]
Bruce Feldman
Indiana concert, clearly there's different schedules. Clear. But like also like if you just don't lose to Vanderbilt or Oklahoma one of those two games, you're in, if you're Alabama, same thing with Ole Miss, like if you just don't leave to lose to Kentucky, who was a two win team at home, you're in. So like all the teams that were there that they were making the case again, they did have that loss that just was the backbreaker for them. And it's one of the reasons I'm upset about the rush to go to 16 because I thought, I thought 12 was really entertaining. I thought it valued the regular season. We saw the conference games matter because Clemson had to win that to get in the playoffs. And if we go to 16, I think we run the risk because I've always been, you know, as long as we've worked together, I've been like, we need to expand, we need to expand. And the arguments against expansion I think come true if you go to 16. Because if you go to 16, a lot of those losses I just mentioned, those regular season games, they will become completely irrelevant. Conference championship weekends will become completely irrelevant because all the teams playing them with 16 teams will just be automatically in. So they, you know, technically they're playing for seating or home field, but I don't think it's going to value as much. I wish we would just do a year or two more years of the 12 team for exactly what you're talking about. Like, let's see how this plays out. Let's see how the data unfolds, what we learn from it before we rush to 16 and diminish some of the things that have made our sport really special.
- [40:34]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, I mean, to your point, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Alabama, they're all in last year. So then you lose that Oklahoma game.
- [40:41]
Bruce Feldman
It'S no big deal.
- [40:42]
Danny Cannell
You lose that Florida game, you know, you lose those games, it's like, oh, it doesn't even matter. And I'll say it again, because they said it last year but during the Ohio State Michigan broadcast and it's like, this is for everything. And I'm like, it isn't. It isn't for everything. And it's still a great game and it's an unbelievable upset and the fact that it's been four years straight for Michigan and you know, again we've already covered this but to say, hey, this means everything, it's like doesn't. It doesn't mean everything. And now we're going to go to 16 teams and we're going to have some fucking eight and four teams screaming that they got left out. Sorry to swear, but I'm passionate about it. Give me who do you think is the best quarterback in college football?
- [41:21]
Bruce Feldman
I think I said it before so I'll give you a couple. So Cade Club Nick's the one I trust the most. I think he'll have. I think he'll be the best college quarterback this season. I'm glad you brought up Sam Levitt. I think he's an absolute stud. I think he's going to take even more of a leadership role over that team because Cam Scott scatter. Boo. Like he was the emotional leader of that team and what he did without Jordan Tyson, their receiver in the championship game and in the playoffs, I mean he went toe to toe with Texas and had a really good game there. So I think he takes another step forward. But it's interesting you mentioned some, like there's a couple quarterbacks and some teams. One of them you mentioned, like, what do I do with South Carolina? I think the Florida Gators are nothing. Like how do I predict what the Florida Gators are going to do? Ole Miss is one that has a young quarterback in Austin Simmons who I think is going to be a breakout star for all those three teams. Like if their quarterback reaches stardom where they're as good as like the ceiling, which is very hard requests. Like I don't think that any of that's going to happen. South Carolina could absolutely be 10 and 2. Like he is that special. He took over the end of that Clemson game single handedly by himself and willed them to a win with some of the runs that he made Latin that game. DJ Lagway is a physical freak, except that he can't stay healthy. Like that's a major concern for me is why it's really hard for me to handicap the Gators. If I knew he was going to be healthy for 12 games, even with their schedule, I think he could lead them to 10 and 2 possibly 11 and 1 if he's healthy, but I don't know. And then Austin Simmons, I do think Ole Miss is kind of getting disrespected a little bit because they lost.
- [42:50]
Danny Cannell
I like, by the way, at what.
- [42:52]
Bruce Feldman
Point are we just going to trust Lane Kiffin to be what he is, which is kind of consistently a 9, 10 win team potentially. Like. And he's done a really good job with quarterbacks historically. Like if Austin Simmons is, you know, he's a guy that graduated high school at 15, like he's already got his college degrees, only 19, like two sport athlete, which I love about him. Now he's focusing just on football. He's got some insane physical traits. Like if he steps up, Ole Miss could be a team that we're not talking about. So those are just a few of the quarterbacks I really like. Kind of for different reasons. Some just the upside, freakish talent that we're seeing. And then I do think cade club. Nick's like the best college quarterback this season.
- [43:33]
Danny Cannell
Give me the quarterback in a new place that you're most excited to watch.
- [43:41]
Bruce Feldman
I think I'll be a homer. Give me some Tommy Castellanos talking some trash out there, calling out. I have no idea what he's gonna do, but I do.
- [43:52]
Danny Cannell
Did you talk to him before? He said that about Bama not being able to stop him. I was like, canel must be like nil in this dude or something.
- [43:59]
Bruce Feldman
No, absolutely not. I would have recommended the opposite. Hey, just keep your mouth shut. Why would you kick that Hornet's nets Hornets nest that's coming into town. But I do feel like we've heard so many times. And this is why I'm a little bit nervous about it. Like, Gus Malzahn, he's finally got his quarterback. Like, he doesn't look like a quarterback. Like he's not 63 or not 6, doesn't have a cannon, but he can run.
- [44:22]
Danny Cannell
Benched at bc he was kind of fun.
- [44:25]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah. I mean, and he almost beat Florida State twice. He beat him once two years ago when Florida State was undefeated in the regular season. He had him on the ropes. Probably should have. And I guarantee you that's why Florida State likes him. They saw him in person twice, like shred their defense.
- [44:39]
Danny Cannell
I like it, by the way. I mean, last year was an absolute disaster at the position. I mean, it was. It was as disastrous as you can have for a team that had any kind of preseason expectations. I mean, it's like historic stuff to end up at 2 and 10 based on what people thought of him. So I'm, I'm very much for it. The Malzahn relationship. And you know, it's funny with Gus Malzahn too, because it's. If this guy were 28 and it's like, hey, we got this guy. Everybody, like, oh my God, we've got like the next dude. And think about Malzahn's track record. And it's like, ah, it's like indifference because he's lost a couple head coaching gigs. And I, I think we're like, way too dismissive of coordinators who've had awesome runs. So I, like, it makes a lot of sense for Florida State to do all of those things. But I do think it's worth reminding people that as much fun as Castellanos was, it was like. It also didn't end well there either.
- [45:28]
Bruce Feldman
Right. The other one that I'm really curious to see now, I work with Dusty Dvorak. He's a Sooner. He lives in Norman. But everything you've heard about John Matier and I loved him when he was at Washington State, like, he can play, but can he play against the sec? He comes with his coordinator, which again, I think that that relationship is really key, that he doesn't have to lear entire new system. His guy knows what he wants to do. Their defense is going to be a lot better. But like, can he shred the sec? I don't know.
- [45:57]
Danny Cannell
All right. But then there's also the news of Matier and everything that's going on today too. I mean, so I don't know what's going on with some of the, we'll just leave it vague. And some of the, that's his welcome.
- [46:08]
Bruce Feldman
To the SEC moment for me. Like, the minute that you didn't scrub everything you had, including Venmo, which who keeps their notification, like, who keeps your transactions public in the first place is beyond me. I think it's going to be a nothing burger. But the ncaa, like, they can. Oklahoma already said they've talked to him. He assures him he hasn't gambled on him. Like, of course he's going to say that first off the bat. I hope it's not. I don't want to see anybody, I don't want to see anybody's career, like, sent off the tracks because of some stupid bet that he placed in 2022, which we don't even know if it's real. Like, this could totally be a Texas or an Oklahoma State fan that just Photoshop something and it just runs like wildfire. We have no idea.
- [46:47]
Danny Cannell
Who knows? I don't, I don't know. Mine's Beau Prabula in Mizzou. If he can hold off Sons of Sam Horn and I'll. I was texting with somebody this morning. I go, I am so guilty of just loving the little, little splashes of Beau Prabula at Penn State. But I don't even know if he's going to win the Mizzou job.
- [47:05]
Bruce Feldman
So that's the rumors coming out that he's struggling there. I don't love that he bailed on his team.
- [47:11]
Danny Cannell
Yeah.
- [47:12]
Bruce Feldman
Remember he left Penn State before the playoffs.
- [47:14]
Danny Cannell
Yeah.
- [47:14]
Bruce Feldman
I don't love that. But it's today. I can't blame him. There's millions of dollars at stake.
- [47:19]
Danny Cannell
Okay, Variants last thing here, swing teams. So I think you touched on it there with Notre Dame. I mean, this is another team just because of the CJ Carr, although Lloyd Carr's grandson. Incredible, incredible legacy story of him. Just.
- [47:35]
Bruce Feldman
I had the widest variance teams. I had Miami because I really like teams that are expecting to be championship contenders that might fall short of it. I do wonder if they throw in the towel kind of like we saw with Florida State last year. Like especially when you're transfer portal heavy, you get a bunch of hired guns like they're not there because they love the tradition of Miami. So that's one reason I think they could be a wide variance game. They could win the acc. But if it doesn't work out against a very tough schedule, they play Florida and Notre Dame in the first month of the season on a road trip to Tallahassee. If they start 2 and 3, I don't think is likely. I worry about a quit factor. The one for me is usc. I think people are kind of sleeping on usc. Last year was not great, but they were very competitive in the games. They like Jaden Mava because they didn't go out and get anybody else in the portal. I like some of the changes Lincoln Riley made in the off season. He fired his strength conditioning coach like they were kind of soft and that's been a, you know, you know, kind of his knock as Lincoln Riley as head coach, that he doesn't have very physical teams. Strength coach is one of those ways to build it up. So I think USC is one of those high variance team. If Jaden, my eight is good. I kind of look at the history that Lincoln Riley's had with quarterbacks. They had a lot of close losses last year. You flip a couple of those, they could be a playoff team.
- [48:51]
Danny Cannell
I Have Michigan and Florida kind of the same category of they're both ranked. You know, Michigan's offense can't be worse than it was last year. It was just atrocious. And they've got Underwood. But then, I mean, he hasn't played where Lagway is. I mean, look, if he's right, I think he's in the conversation of, like, best quarterbacks in all college football. But then you go through even the camp injury list, like, I was looking at it this morning, I was like, that's four different injuries, and he's still not ready to go. And of course, Nate Beer is like, hey, he doesn't have to play tomorrow. That's it. That's. That's pretty much it. I do want to leave you with this one last thought before we say goodbye to you. All right. Yep. I just want to remind you, and like Joel klatt, when it's November 22nd and South Carolina is playing Coastal Carolina, and you guys tweet all your bullshit about how, you know, a few of these SEC teams play these teams towards the very end, I just want to remind you specific, even to South Carolina, I can do this. A lot of different teams, they'll have come through a stretch where they play number nine, LSU, number 19, Oklahoma, number eight, Alabama, number 21, Ole Miss, and number 19, A&M. They're all not going to be ranked necessarily the same way. That's five games in six weeks. They'll play Coastal Carolina, and then they'll finish with Clemson. So, you know, you guys do it every year, and it's like, you know, it's too bad that they couldn't play Purdue and have that ninth conference game that Big Ten fans wear like some cape of achievement. But I'll do.
- [50:22]
Bruce Feldman
You know what I'll do.
- [50:23]
Danny Cannell
South Carolina specifically, who, by the way, opens with Virginia Tech on top of everything else.
- [50:29]
Ryan Rossillo
So.
- [50:30]
Danny Cannell
And I know, you know, people like, why do they keep playing these other Power 4 programs? That's weird.
- [50:35]
Bruce Feldman
I got a bounce like 30 seconds. But I will let you know, as long as all Those teams aren't like 500 now outside the top 25, they're all preseason top 25. I won't say a peep. But if all of a sudden we see all those teams banging up on each other and they're just like everybody else, you will probably hear from me and Joel. I got live tv.
- [50:56]
Danny Cannell
I gotta go on, by the way. I know I'm gonna hear from you guys. I was trying to help. I was trying to help. It's August. It's gonna happen in November. You're the best. Thanks, Danny.
- [51:04]
Bruce Feldman
See ya.
- [51:07]
Danny Cannell
This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn. I love this time of the year because of the NFL draft and all the conversations around it. But you know, when you're an NFL owner, you gotta make sure you're aligned with your gm. I think everybody thinks that they are. That doesn't always work out. If you're a gm, you're trying to figure out, does this player who's talented, does his talent fit what we're trying to do? And by the way, will the coach I've hired or maybe inherited, will he optimize the talent of a player that doesn't fit the scheme or what he's trying to do day to day? Really? All cool, complicated, fun sports stuff. But it applies to kind of the everyday business world. Just like those GMs, small businesses like yours need to build the strongest team possible. Well, better hire. Start with Smarter Insights. And LinkedIn has the data to help you make the best hiring decisions. LinkedIn gives you candidate insights you can't find anywhere else. Which is why 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours of posting a job. Post your job for free@LinkedIn.com Ryan R Y E N that's LinkedIn.com Ryan to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Keep it going with college football. And joining us from Fox Sports for a big noon kickoff and the athletic, it's Bruce Feldman. What's up, man?
- [52:24]
Ryan Rossillo
Good to see you. We're almost at that time of college football. Can't wait.
- [52:28]
Danny Cannell
Yeah. So let's just start with some simple stuff. At the top, who do you really like? Who do you look at? Is there one team? I know it's a weird group at the top, some uncertainty and everything, but is there one team at least for you, just talent alone and, and have the vibe around him going into the year that you feel great about?
- [52:43]
Ryan Rossillo
I'm pretty excited. I feel like I was a little on the front end of buying in on Clemson this year. I know that people had kind of got off the dabo bandwagon the last few years. I liked how they finished. They were competitive against Texas. I thought Kate Klubnick played really well in the playoff game. They have finally for the first time in probably four or five years, the caliber receivers they used to have when they were playing for national titles outside, they got three big time guys that, that I think are difference makers for club Nick. And then defensively they have A bunch of guys who are going to be first round guys next year. And you add Tom Allen who comes in to take over the defense. They were kind of out of sync all last year. That really held them back. I think they're going to be way, way better and really fierce. They got two elite defensive linemen led by Peter woods who has a chance, I think not only to be a top five pick, he could be the first pick in the draft next year. Super explosive interior guy, played both inside and out last year. I think Tom Allen's going to cut those guys loose. They have obviously a huge opener. LSU comes in there. That's two really talented teams with real playoff shots. But I like this team. I think that I think they have a chance to win it all.
- [53:54]
Danny Cannell
Do you have more confidence in picking lsu, Clemson or Texas, Ohio State?
- [54:00]
Ryan Rossillo
I have more confidence right now, I think in lsu, Clemson, you know, you have the factor of as good as LSU is and they're really talented. Brian Kelly's lost all of his openers at lsu. That's a really tough place to play. I feel like with Texas and Ohio State, I like Texas a little more long term this season but they do have to replace four star, four offensive linemen up front. It's Arch's first real big start. I know he started two games last year but nothing like he's going to see in Columbus. To me that's kind of a wild card game. Whereas I, I feel like you have big home field advice, environment, edge with Clemson and I, I think they have. They're a national title caliber team and I think they're going to be ready to jump on them out of the gate.
- [54:48]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, LSU's lost their last five openers. Going all the way back to the Mississippi State game with Costello. People thought he was going to win the Heisman after 600 passing yards. So it's right. It's lost in Mississippi State, it's lost to UCLA where they weren't.
- [55:01]
Ryan Rossillo
I think we were at the UCLA game. I was doing that as a sideline reporter. The Coach o Leach game. Coach o Chip Kelly game. Fascinating.
- [55:09]
Danny Cannell
I know it wasn't, it was only four years ago and it feels like forever ago. Then back to back Florida State and SC in Vegas last year. So I think I've been to three of them. So maybe, maybe it's my fault I won't be making it to Clemson for this one because that opening weekend is so stacked. Is there a team in the top eight top ten that you see in both the coaches poll and the AP and the way everyone's talking about them that you're like, I don't see that.
- [55:34]
Ryan Rossillo
I'm curious to see how it goes with Oregon this year. I think because of the track record so far of plugging in new quarterbacks and new, new, new guys. I think Will Stein's one of the best offensive coordinators in the country. He's proven that, you know, in, in a relatively short time. Dante Moore, we saw him a little bit now. He was a five star quarterback recruit out of Michigan, went to ucla, played a little bit struggled, but he was a true freshman. I know from the people I talk to at Oregon, they're very excited about him. I just think they were at such a high level. You lose Evan Stewart, who I think would have been their best outside guy, he's going to be gone for the season with a knee injury. Now they do have, I think a breakout guy to watch for this year is Kenyon Siddiq. He's one of my big freaks list guys. He is a super explosive tight end who ended up kind of breaking through a little bit late last year in the Big Ten title game against Penn State. I think he will be a go to guy for them. But they've been, you know, again, the way they finish. I don't know if they're, I would have them at the back end of the top 10. And to me, I think you're given a lot of, I don't know, I'm not as sold on them right now. I think they're good. I don't know if they have the, you know, again, I need to see a lot more from Dante Moore this year to see that they can be a real national title contender.
- [56:59]
Danny Cannell
It was Stewart out now and if you look at the continuity rankings and the turnover year to year, which again, continuity is, is a tough goal to achieve in today's world of college football. But depending on, you know, which number you want to look at, especially with barely anyone coming back from this offense, it's one of the best offenses in the country. Last year the number that I had as 104th nationally and 16th out of the 18 teams in the Big Ten. So you're right, it's, I mean, is as great as Lanning has been. I mean it's, it's an incredible run very early on there and what they did last year up until the Ohio State game where it just was disgusting in the first half. It's, it's, you know, maybe he's on the short list of guys to get the benefit of the doubt, but that is replacing a ton of people. And I know there's so much turnover in the sport today, but, you know, there's just certain brands now. And we've seen this forever. We've seen it forever in college football with the AP rankings and that kind of stuff. But that's asking a lot. It's asking a lot of Will Stein in this offense and a quarterback finally getting his chance to be like, okay, pick up or just keep this thing going in the way they've had it going. It's. It's going to be. I don't know if it's surprising is the right word, but they're just. There's so much more unknown with them and comparison to the other teams where it's like, maybe just the quarterback is different and you feel good about everything around it, like, say, Obama or, you know, Texas is a perfect example of that. I know you talked a little bit. You had a piece on Arch Manning where, you know, his grandfather had said, hey, he's coming back for 26. On top of everything else. Do you have any read on what kind of year you're expecting for him now that it's his job under Sarko?
- [58:38]
Ryan Rossillo
You know, everybody I, I trust inside the Texas program, Ryan raves about him. They rave about his football intelligence, about his athleticism, about his ability to connect with teammates. He's got a good arm. He's got everything you want in an elite quarterback. The only thing he really doesn't have is real playing experience. Right. You know, he played a couple games last year. I think the hype is. Is insanely high. And look, we're all part of that, especially us. You know, the, the story I did, it was really about how his parents, Cooper and Ellen Manning, raised him as being the next Manning, but also, like, you know, Cooper's two brothers who are obviously great NFL quarterbacks, they were Archie's son, too, but they were not raised in, like, a social media era. So now every time Arch goes somewhere on campus out to eat, somebody's filming him, you know, and that kind of thing. And everything I've heard is he's dealt with it great. But you're talking about a guy with such a, you know, if he doesn't go out and light it up against Ohio State again, we don't know what Matt Petrush is going to do on defense. He's, you know, new defense coordinator. He obviously is very smart. He'd been in the NFL around Belichick a long time. He's got a lot of players, including probably the best defensive player in the country and Caleb Downs and some elite athletes at linebacker. Those are big chess pieces. And a new offensive line for, for Texas. There probably will be some growing pains. I. But he does have Sark and Sark's a really good play caller. I'm. I'm fascinated to see because I think, you know, from talking especially to Cooper, his dad, they are going to be really patient with him. They're not rushing into anything. They don't. Money's not a concern. You don't have to chase NFL money as not a business decision. It's a development decision. Again, I think we saw last year with Ohio State playing 16 games. It's going to be a long season. They may struggle a little bit at times. I think he probably will. But everybody I've talked to is so effusive in who he is and what they think he's going to be. I don't want to say he's a can't miss. You can't put that on anybody, especially a college quarterback. But I think he's going to be outstanding. I would bet on him this year.
- [60:55]
Danny Cannell
Now that we've had a few years with the Portal and you know, technically it's like six years, but it feels like it's been ramped up in the last few years. And I don't know if Nil is part of this, but I don't know if we're in a settling phase of this. But you talk to so many coaches and people that are day to day with this pro with these programs. What is your understanding of. Maybe their understanding of how this landscape, which changed so rapidly is, I can't call it more predictable, but them maybe just understanding what this is, this new version of the sport, because in the very beginning it just felt like a free for all.
- [61:34]
Ryan Rossillo
And I think it's to some degree still that, you know, the coaches I talk to, there's a lot of moving parts here, right? And so one of the things is, you know, some of the coaches I talked to have been very adamant. They hate when it comes up about money. Who's getting paid what. You can't pay some new guy more than your starter. And then it's like, you know, I, I know one head coach in a, in a, in the Big Ten told me was like, you know, these guys are lying to each other about how much money they're making, you know, and it was like that screws up the locker room. They are very, very protective of that. Then there's other layers of this, you know, like we both talk to a lot of people in this inside the sport, you know, and you have a, a player, they're in the, in the, in the pros, they're making, they're giving 2 or 3% to their agent for commissions. I talk to coaches now where it's like some guys are getting charged 30%. It's like insane. So you, you're, as a coach, they're trying to juggle all of this as it fits into roster management and ego and entitlement and all this stuff that comes with it. And I think it's still, they're still figuring it out. And the teams that they feel like have the best locker, locker room leadership are the teams that are going to have the best ch. I don't think it's a coincidence that like Signetti got off to a fast start in Indiana because he brought a bunch of guys who had been with him from James Madison. So they were transfers, but they knew who he was and they knew what he was about and he knew them and they knew each other. And I think that's the part like Texas Tech is going to be fascinating this year. They brought it, they upgraded the roster. It's a lot of guys who, you know, when I saw a bunch of them this summer, they all said all the right things, have big personalities, have been a bunch of different high level programs, got a lot of experience. It's great at this time of year. How does it work, you know, if you lose a couple of games, how does this kind of come into play? Because we've definitely heard stories of coaches saying, yeah, the locker room was a mess because of this. And maybe that's a coaching cop out, but I do think that's part of the reality.
- [63:37]
Danny Cannell
You do. The freaks list. It came out recently, it's up on the Athletic. It's a must read for college football fans. It's funny too. Like, didn't and didn't you have to kind of delay it a little bit because it was so popular?
- [63:49]
Ryan Rossillo
Yeah, I mean, one of the coaches, Jeff Traylor, the head coach at utsa, this is a few years back, he was like, hey, when's this thing going to run? And usually it had been running in July and we ended up moving it back to early August in part because Traylor was saying, hey, I got a guy. He is, he definitely belongs on the freaks list. He's, he's ridiculous. You know, a six, four corner, super long arms, you know, jumps 11ft. He's going to run in the four threes like crazy numbers. But if, if you put him out there, I think they were worried he was going to get poached by somebody else in the summer. That guy, Tariq Wallen ended up testing every bit of what trailer said the Seahawks took him. He's been a really good corner. He like broke out as a rookie. And so there are those guys under the radar. And what's been really cool about freaks, especially in like the last five or 10 years, I hear from all these NFL scouts and personnel, people who are, who use it as a great source because they're always finding out about somebody and what's going on in the off season. And I think because the strength coaches and all the staffs have been so on board with it that it's really grown into something much bigger than I ever imagined.
- [64:56]
Danny Cannell
And it's one thing to make the freaks list. And then there's always kind of the guy that's held in this rarefied air of like a freak among the freaks. So give me a couple names of players where you can just tell the strength guys, the coaching staff, they just kind of roll their eyes talking about somebody that's this special on their team.
- [65:17]
Ryan Rossillo
Yeah, I mean, Kaden Proctor's numbers. So he's a 6 7, 366 pound left tackle at Alabama. Huge recruit coming in. Strength numbers are crazy. He's, you know, bench presses 535, squats over 800 pounds, power cleans over 400 and those numbers are all amazing. But again, he's almost, he's 366 pounds. I was, you know, going back and forth with Calen Deboer and then his strength coach sent me more numbers and it was the jump numbers and the fact that this guy vertical jumps 32 inches, which you know, doesn't seem like that much. You know, there's plenty of guys on that, on a football field, probably, you know, a half dozen on a given play who might jump that. But he's 366 pounds. I went back to the NFL combine. There were five receiver wide receivers at the combine this year who didn't jump higher than that. Some jump less than that, including Lajante Wester, who's 160 some pounds and he had like an 85 yard punt return for a touchdown in an NFL game this last weekend. You know, it's crazy to see a guy that big who can jump like that. And there's a handful of guys out there. You know, you mentioned, we mentioned Dan Lanning he was in the sec. He's been around a bunch of elite athletes. When he's talking about AMARI Washington, a 340 pound defensive tackle, you know, who vertical jumps 36 inches and hits almost 21 miles per hour, that's mind blowing even for a guy like that.
- [66:40]
Danny Cannell
After Texas, between Bama, Georgia and lsu, who do you like the most?
- [66:46]
Ryan Rossillo
After Texas, between Bama, Georgia and lsu in terms of. In the sec?
- [66:53]
Danny Cannell
Yeah.
- [66:53]
Ryan Rossillo
Or just overall?
- [66:55]
Danny Cannell
Well, I don't know. Do whatever you want with it.
- [66:57]
Ryan Rossillo
You know, I, like I said I really like Clemson. I think this team is pretty loaded, you know, I don't know, I'm going to be hesitant to buy all the way in on Penn State, you know, they're loaded with freaks list guys, you know, I think both coordinators are outstanding. Now you add Jim Knowles on defense to what Andy Kotelniki does offensively. That was a great hire for James Franklin last year. Drew Allers, very talented. I know everybody there talks about how fast a processor he is. They love him. He's got everything. It's just, and it's unfortunate that I would say it this way but like, because I feel like I'm given the benefit of the doubt. Some other guys who, we really haven't seen it yet in a big moment either and because we've seen him, you know, maybe not do it when at the most critical moment. And I think it's because it's Penn State where they've gotten really close but haven't gotten over the top in a while. You're. You're sitting there kind of reserving judgment. I think they did upgrade the receiver room a lot, which was key, especially without Tyler Warren there who they leaned on so much. You know, Trevor Pena was a really good receiver. He's a pretty explosive slot at Syracuse who comes in there. I think he's going to be really good. They should have a as good a chance as anybody to win the national title, you know, and it's just, I don't know, I feel like it's maybe in part because I feel like I've been, you know, so much on the James Franklin bandwagon since his vanity days when he was winning at a place nobody ever gets close to winning at. And he did really well at Penn State. And now all of a sudden you're like, okay, they got to take that next step, that next step. Maybe this is the year. I don't know. I mean, you've seen plenty, plenty of aller. Are you ready to say hey, this is a team that's going to win the national title though.
- [68:42]
Danny Cannell
Same thing I said to Danny earlier. I, I feel way better about aller going into 25 than I did 24. So.
- [68:48]
Ryan Rossillo
Okay, that's. Yeah, but, but do you like, what percent chance would you give them to win the national title this year? Over 25%.
- [68:59]
Danny Cannell
That seems a little high. But you know, Michigan is a massive, like they're ranked in the top 15, but it's like that's a massive assumption. Okay, it is.
- [69:10]
Ryan Rossillo
You got a new quarterback, you got an offensive coordinator that we'll see how it goes. And the skill talents way less than what Michigan has. And the O line's not as good.
- [69:19]
Danny Cannell
So, you know, we covered Oregon and you know, I guess Ohio State could take a step back. Two new coordinators again, you know, post ship, it's heart line, no Trayvon and.
- [69:33]
Ryan Rossillo
No crunch on Judkins. I think that's going to be the drop off Chip runs it, you know, really knows how to run the football. You lose those two running backs who are elite, I don't think they have any back who's going to be close to as good as either one of them.
- [69:46]
Danny Cannell
Doesn't Penn State have to figure this out once? Like, I know it's a very easy thing. Like I could sit there and you know, over the years when I was probably a little bit more anti Penn State and it wasn't. Again, it's rarely ever specific to the team, the personnel or the coach. It would just be like, oh, here we go. You're going to win your 10 games. You're going to complain that you don't get enough respect. The two teams that you play that are any good, you lose to them every year and I'm supposed to take you seriously? I think there's enough to build on from last year and beyond Ohio State looking at the other contenders in an expanded Big Ten. Look, Indiana has a chance with Mendoza to. But you know, a lot of that was scheduled based last year. Illinois. That's an awesome win against South Carolina at the end of last year, you know, and Baila's smartly using the momentum off of that, you know, to kind of build on this year. But it's. There's also some stuff with Illinois from last season where you're like, they get destroyed against Oregon. It didn't look like they were ever going to convert a third down against Penn State when they scored seven in that case. I just remember watching that whole game and it probably got me off Illinois a little bit Too much where it's like, okay, you put together some nice win here. But there's also a bit of, if you look at how their season played out, it's like, was that really a 10 win team or they just get a bunch of breaks? And that just seems so dismissive. So I don't even really necessarily like doing that. But there's some luck rating stuff if you want to dig through it, that Illinois is a rather lucky team. So the grander point that I'm making is that this does line up for Penn State if Ohio State is, is struggling to put it all together based on the standard or having to basically get back to a national championship game. So I, I do think Penn State has a real chance at this. And I, I think too many people just look at Franklin's resume and go, oh, whatever, that guy's never going to win anything. And it's like, I don't know. I, you know, I would have, I would have believed that I would have been the guy saying that a couple years ago. I'm not saying that going into 25 about Penn State.
- [71:47]
Ryan Rossillo
And look, some of the guys who won national titles in the last five or six years, I mean, for a while people were like, is Kirby going to win one? You know, and then he obviously did because. And then he won two. Coach O won one last Ryan Day one, one last year after everybody was ready to give up on him six weeks earlier.
- [72:06]
Danny Cannell
So I, I just think it. We get really weird about coaches, which is its own thing and, you know, whether you want to turn it into a Norvell conversation where it's like, last year was a disaster, but, you know, if Travis doesn't get hurt in 23 and you know, they put together such a great season and you know, look, the committee leaves him out, which, you know, in the moment. I understand the debates around it, but I think the injury to, to Jordan had a lot to do with that as well. And then he goes to intent. It's like, okay, well, this guy can't get it done. It's like he just proved that he can get it done. It's a bit like the Brian Kelly conversation too, where, all right, well, you know, hey, he's not going to win a championship at Notre Dame. Well, making the playoff a couple times is pretty good. It's, you know, back then when it's four teams, it's, it's something that's really hard to do. So I, I'm, I'm with. I think we're so dismissive of Coaches at some of these programs or after two or three years, like, oh, well, this guy's never going to get it done. I mean, look, Daba was the only dude even able to. I don't want to say that he's competing with Saban because ultimately no one will put together a run like Saban did. I don't think that's ever going to happen again. But he was the only one, you know, who was able to get two against him in the national championship game. And then Dabo takes a downturn. It's like, all right, maybe because he's not bringing any transfer guys. You know, it's like, hey, should we move on from this guy?
- [73:26]
Ryan Rossillo
I just don't like the on Dabo. It was interesting. I remember doing a fine bomb interview the morning of the national title game in 2020, at the end of the 20 that season. And I think the question was, if Clemson wins tonight and they were playing lsu, Clemson wins tonight, does Dabo become the best coach in college football? Because that would have given him three, and he would have beaten the team that beat Alabama. And maybe then all of a sudden the feeling was, all right, not that it's passing saving by, but obviously LSU beat them, came back to beat them pretty handily. And then Clemson started backsliding, right? And then obviously the transfer portal thing became a thing. And it seems like he's gotten it back doing it his own way. But that. You're right. I mean, look, people wrote off Jim Harbaugh in a big way. You can say, you know, it's Connor Stallions. It's more. Way more than that. I mean, obviously that team. That team was really talented. He knows how to coach football. You see it here with the Chargers, like he saw with the 49ers. Like, he knows what he's doing. He may be crazy, but crazy sometimes works within a. With football. And I think that's a hard thing. Sometimes we outsmart ourselves and how we evaluate these guys. And a lot of it is fit. You know, Coacho won a national title because he fit really well at LSU and with that team and with the dynamic and how it comes together. For all we know, you know, Drew Aller, I know he's supposed to be really, really smart. He may be the perfect thing for them, you know, and maybe it did take. You might be right, you know, because now he has. Last year, I think they're more primed to win a national title than anybody else in that conference, including Ohio State, because you have a quarterback question mark and two New coordinators, and maybe the, you know, the dynamic is a little off. I don't know. I mean, if there was a year when. When Penn State's going to win a national title, it is this one.
- [75:25]
Danny Cannell
Big 12 covered it with Danny. It feels wide open. It might be my favorite conference as far as, like, going in to how competitive, you know, I don't know if we're going to get as lucky as how competitive the conference was, how it went down in the last couple weeks, you know, the BYU loss, you know, Kansas State's the favorite here. I loved Levitt, like, watching him at Arizona State and going, dude, this guy is, like, full of himself in the best possible way as a young quarterback. And, you know, they get through, what, five and two the first seven games, you're like, oh, this is kind of weird, you know, considering Arizona State was supposed to be the worst team, and then they ended up, like, just trucking teams towards the end. And again, I'm not saying that they were doing that to Texas because they ended up losing in the playoff, but they made a game that I didn't think was going to become like, okay, all right, enough of this. This isn't going to be competitive. And it kind of felt like that way early on. And then next thing you know, they're still in it the whole time. So do you have a strong feeling in a conference that feels like they're as much parity at the top as any?
- [76:24]
Ryan Rossillo
No, nobody has a strong feeling on it. You can talk yourself into teams, but it's. It's. So there's so little margin for error between the different teams, probably from like 1 to 12. And I think last year, I remember, you know, on our own podcast, the Audible, we did this thing where we ranked how many teams we thought actually had a legit chance to win the conference last year in the. In the Big 12. And I think Stu had like eight, and I might have had 11. And neither one of us had Arizona State. And that was the team that ended up winning. Right? So I like Levitt. I think he's a really good fit for them. And kind of the. The vibe of asu, I think there's some gunslinger vibe. You have it with Kenny Dillingham, who's a great fit, the young coach there, who's from there. You know, obviously they lost. Scatter Boo. And I think a lot of that edge that they had, they were feeding off him. Right? You know, I'm the toughest guy in the field. Everybody kind of knows it. After the first couple Snaps and then they kind of have that swagger to them. I don't think they're going to fall back. But I, I, the team I, I kind of like is Iowa State. And Rocco Beckt, you know, is Anthony Beck's kid. And he didn't, he got his, probably more his mom's height than his dad's size, but he's got a real, he's got a chip on his shoulder. And from talking to him this summer and talking to some of his teammates and talking to Matt Campbell, I think he's the guy who helped reestablish the culture there. They went from having the best season they'd ever had in program history. You know, five or five years ago, they finished number nine. And then it kind of lost its way a little bit and they backslid and he got, he helped get it back. I think Campbell had to shake up the staff and they have that kind of, kind of ethos about them right now. They did lose two really good receivers, but I think they have some guys in that room who are good players. And they have a dominant defensive lineman and Dominique Orange, who I think will be a top 50 pick, you know, in the draft. And he's a guy that, you know will be a problem for teams and you have to, you have to scout around them. They have a tough game in Week 2 against their arch rival, Iowa. But if you were asking me a team that I think will win the Big 12. I like K State, I like ASU, but I really like Iowa State more than them. And in part because I would ride with Rocco Beck on this one.
- [78:50]
Danny Cannell
Okay. You like him better than Avery Johnson at Kansas State?
- [78:54]
Ryan Rossillo
I do, I do. Avery Johnson's faster and he's, he's going to be more highlights guy. But I just think in terms of the fit there, you know, like they're ranked, I want to say like 22 or 23 in the preseason polls, I think they're much better than that.
- [79:08]
Danny Cannell
You got anything? Speaking of freaks, you got anything on Lincoln Cure? The tight end, the five star, the only five star recruit in the history of Kansas State?
- [79:17]
Ryan Rossillo
Not much. The biggest freak they have there is their, is their quarterback. I mean, the guy, the guy runs like the wind, you know, but like, in terms of that, no. So I'm coming up empty on that one.
- [79:31]
Danny Cannell
No, I know I put you in a tough spot there because I know that's a little early for a guy to be popping up on the freaks list. All right, let me share just concern. So this time of year when I'm going through all of the articles and all the prep work. I'll notice because I used to read everything. And then I started going, I need to be a little bit more selective about my time because so much of it felt like August propaganda. And I don't want to make this about Raiola at Nebraska, but I read a piece, whereas I was getting through it. It was hitting every single one of the cliches where I was like, he's like another coach on the field. And I was like, was this a story? And you understand this, too. Like, if you're hit up by an SID or program, I imagine sometimes you're thinking, hey, is there a story here? Or are you just wanting me to throw together, like, 700 words on how awesome this guy is to pump him up before the season starts? And Raiola, look, everyone in the country wanted him, so I shouldn't make this about him. So it's a broader question on the stories that maybe you're pitched or that you're even reading. And so I know this feels a little negative, so maybe I don't want you to be specific about it, but I think you understand what I'm saying. There's just so many times where I'm reading about the new coordinator, this guy's coming in, and they say the same thing every single off season. And I'm like, is this specific? Am I supposed to feel better about this player? Am I supposed to feel better about this team or this coach? Or is this just that part of the season where everybody's thrilled with the uncertainty?
- [81:00]
Ryan Rossillo
You know, me and a college football writer buddy of mine used to have a joke, and what I would call it was the puke bucket story. Because when Mike Stoops first got to Arizona, there was, like, five different stories about There were puke buckets all over the practice field because they were working so hard. So on the cliche front, there has never been a defensive coordinator hired who is way less aggressive than the guy he followed. He could have followed Jolie Dunn, and he's going to make Jolie Dunn look like read and react guy. That's just. People do not want a passive defensive coordinator. You know, it's like, by the way.
- [81:40]
Danny Cannell
It'S always aggressive but simpler.
- [81:43]
Ryan Rossillo
Yeah, we're going to have him play faster. You know what? What makes it simpler? It's easier for me to get you off the phone to tell you something in five seconds to say, hey, you know, it's. They're going to play faster. Okay, that sounds great. You know, that sounds great. And you never know what's going to work. The thing I learned over time is that so much of how well a new coach works out is who he follows. And I'll give you this example. We got to Nebraska. This is not Riola related right now. We got to Nebraska right after Scott Frost had gotten. Got fired. I mean, it was that week we were doing Big Noon, they were playing Oklahoma. And I talked to one of the guys on staff. Remember, Frost brought most of his UCF guys there. And I was like, let me ask you a question. Why did this. And I was totally wrong on Scott Frost. I thought it was going to go great in Nebraska. Obviously, I got that way wrong, as did a lot of my colleagues. And I said, why did it bomb here? And it worked so well at ucf. And this person said, you know what? When we got to ucf, we were replacing George o', Leary, who was a big asshole, but he was a good coach. He was tough on them, but he was like really, really hard on the players. We loved up the players that were good players and they responded. When we got here, we placed Mike Riley, not an asshole. People liked him, treated good. And it was almost like the fire we never. There was. We never kind of fixed it because we were kind of more like that. And I think that can be an oversimplification. But that became the story I ended up doing for the Athletic about who follows who. Just like talking to players at Texas A and M. When Kevin Sumlin got there first season, he got there, yeah, he had Johnny Manziel, bang. They finished in the top five in the first time in 50 years. But a big part of that was he took over for Mike Sherman, inherited a bunch of good offensive linemen. Sherman could really evaluate that and had a really good savvy, experienced, sound locker room of veteran players. And then someone came in, more of a players coach, cut them loose. Those guys responded, they took off. Then by the end of it, you know, four years later, you had a bunch of guys who. Around who, you know, played with Johnny. And it was kind of the discipline part was already. Was not there. So it just kind of was a little bit run amok. And they didn't have that same kind of balance. So so much of it, I think, is. Is how it all fits together. And I think that's the part that sometimes you lose sight of with all the things where you say to yourself, why was that guy so good here and so bad over there? Well, sometimes it's. It's out of There it's, it's a little out of their control.
- [84:27]
Danny Cannell
That was good. All right, give me a new quarterback in a new spot that you're excited about. That feels.
- [84:32]
Ryan Rossillo
The more I.
- [84:32]
Danny Cannell
It's not just somebody new. It feels real that the excitement is on.
- [84:37]
Ryan Rossillo
The more I hear from the guys down at Miami is Carson Beck is going to feel like the guy who NFL scouts thought two years ago could have been a first round pick in that loaded first round. You know, it's back from the elbow surgery. The Miami guys rave about his football smarts and his accuracy and his quick release. And on top of that, he's got a really good offensive line because Crystal ball, that's. This is his group. That's what he's been building for. Jordan Lyles is a breakout guy to keep to remember. He's a running back who everybody who comes through there was like, man, they got a big time back. It's been a minute since Miami's had one of those. They used to have him, you know, all the time. 20 years ago. It sounds like he's in that mode. But last year Beck was without, certainly without Brock Bowers, but also without lad McConkey. He really pressed. They didn't have a guy who was going to, who is going to give defenses problems and kind of a go to guy. I don't know if he has anybody special out there. C.J. daniels had been good at Liberty, really good at Liberty, pretty good at lsu. He's a, he's a guy that I think they're really counting on. They like what he's done. They have some dynamic young receivers, but I think it's. Everything I've heard about how Beck is operating has been really impressive. And again, Shannon Dawson was the offensive coordinator who was really good. When Cam Ward got there and went from being a fifth round projection to the first pick in the draft. I'm not saying Carson Beck will be the first pick in the draft, but I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up as a top five pick. I think he's going to have a really big year.
- [86:13]
Danny Cannell
Okay, a couple rapid fire ones to finish here. I'm putting you on the spot. Who do you think ends up ranked higher? Number 12, Illinois. Number 13, South Carolina.
- [86:27]
Ryan Rossillo
I think number 12, Illinois. You know, both teams have really, really good quarterbacks. I just think that the schedule is a little heavier. At South Carolina, you lost. I mean, they have one great defensive lineman. They had a bunch. They lost. I think the defense was really good. I just think they may take a Little step back just because they were so good up front. I'm not saying they won't be good, but I think that's the part where I think they take a little step back.
- [86:51]
Danny Cannell
Okay, let's see. SMU's preseason 16 or Oklahoma preseason 18.
- [87:02]
Ryan Rossillo
I'm gonna take the Sooners. You know, like, I know there's rumblings about the John Matier situation. I feel like he's got a little bit of Baker in him. He comes with a really good offense coordinator in Ben Arbuckle. I think they're going to be explosive. Jay not will help in the run game. I don't know if so much of it in my head was Kevin Jennings looks so over his skis at Penn State with the noise and everything. I think they're going to take a step back. I don't think they're going to fall apart, but I think they're going to. I don't think SMEs going to be a top 25 team this year.
- [87:38]
Danny Cannell
Okay, last one. Preseason 23, Texas tax A. Preseason 24, Tennessee.
- [87:44]
Ryan Rossillo
I'm going to say Texas Tech. Tennessee lost a ton from last year and they lost Nico. And it wasn't like Nico was a superstar last year, but again, it was his first year as a starter. They lost in, you know, a high level running back, three offensive lineman, the top three receivers. That's a lot. And then the quarterback situation, you're bringing in a. You know, whether it's Joey Aguilar, I mean, he's. He's also got to learn on the fly. I do not think they're going to be a top 25 team. I just think almost every position room they have is going to be worse off than it was last year.
- [88:17]
Danny Cannell
Do you want to pick the Pac 12?
- [88:23]
Ryan Rossillo
I don't know, man. It's like, I don't want to say, does anybody care? Because that's not fair.
- [88:28]
Danny Cannell
You know, I hate it, by the way, I. This isn't. This isn't even. I hate when I go through this stuff and I'm looking at standings and everything. Sometimes I have to like double check, like, who's in the accident. Whenever I see the Pac 12 and I just see those two teams, it makes me sad.
- [88:42]
Ryan Rossillo
So, you know, like, for whatever it's worth, you know, like, Jimmy Rodgers is a really good coach at South Dakota State. He goes in there, you know, you got Zevi Eckhouse, who. Who is actually looked good against Syracuse in the bowl game. He played at Bryant, which is an FCS school. I could See them being decent, you know, like he's a good coach and I just don't know, you know, like, I give them credit, whatever. They had played Syracuse really hard because they were so depleted in the bowl game. And I feel like stuff like that kind of. Kind of translates, you know, can again. They're not going to be a top 25 team, I don't think. But I think they're going to be pretty competitive, you know, because I think he's a good coach and I think what they have, they can work with. It won't be like a team loaded with. With NFL draft prospects, but I think they're going to be going to surprise a few teams.
- [89:33]
Danny Cannell
Bruce Feldman. Check out the freaks list the athletic, and you'll see him every Saturday on Fox throughout the season. Thanks, man.
- [89:40]
Ryan Rossillo
Appreciate it. My pleasure.
- [89:44]
Bruce Feldman
You want details?
- [89:45]
Danny Cannell
Fine.
- [89:46]
Kyle
I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [89:50]
Bruce Feldman
What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the south fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible.
- [90:02]
Kyle
Let me tell you what's required.
- [90:04]
Danny Cannell
Look at this group back together again. We have Kyle, east coast Kyle, who's outside. Ceruti doesn't age. And honestly, a little disappointed that as soon as we pulled up the video, Worgon closed out.
- [90:19]
Ceruti
Yeah, thought about it.
- [90:21]
Danny Cannell
So Ceruti just alpha'd the out of work.
- [90:26]
Kyle
I did first off.
- [90:27]
Ceruti
I did not do that. And now people are gonna be mad at me because they're gonna think I push Worgon out of his spotlight, which is not true. Worgon's welcome whenever he wants to be.
- [90:33]
Kyle
Wargon's like trying to feed a deer or something, you know, just. You make one sudden move and he's out of here.
- [90:37]
Ceruti
Yep. He's quick with that button on the camera, but I don't know. Sounds like things went well. How you doing?
- [90:45]
Danny Cannell
How are you doing?
- [90:47]
Ceruti
I'm good. I appreciate. I appreciate you saying that I look good because I feel like I haven't slept. Dropped a ton and, you know, the bags are getting there a little bit. I've thought I've looked at some, like, under eye treatments. I'm like, do I.
- [90:55]
Danny Cannell
Should I go that route?
- [90:56]
Ceruti
Do I look like kind of like a haggard old man these days? But I appreciate the compliment. I'm good. I'm good to be back. It's been a cute a couple months. You know, I miss the boys. We're all, like on the east coast today. We're all wearing black this is like a very. Like we're in unison when we'd even talk about this beforehand.
- [91:10]
Danny Cannell
Yeah. Is that a new shirt? What is that brown?
- [91:12]
Ceruti
Target.
- [91:14]
Kyle
True story, Big fellow.
- [91:15]
Danny Cannell
Nice.
- [91:16]
Ceruti
It is, yeah. Yeah.
- [91:18]
Danny Cannell
I love. So Rudy, just maxing out the 401k at 24 years old, getting a shirt from Target. Kid number two. So is the math the real thing? Kid number one and then kid number two is like 40 kids.
- [91:31]
Ceruti
Everybody's asked me that. Yes, I would say it's infinitely harder from one to two. Like, but you don't really know. It's funny, all the old man things that they tell you about, like life. Like. Like life advice literally of like, oh, you know, it goes by fast or, you know, the jump from 1 to 2 is crazy. It's all true, but you don't really listen to it in. In real time until it happens. And you're like, yeah, all right. I guess the old man was right. But yeah, you look back now and you're like, man one baby, it's like. It's cake. We had like. My parents were watching our two and a half year old a couple weeks ago and we just had the baby at night. I'm like, this is nothing. I could do this.
- [92:06]
Danny Cannell
Wow. This is nothing.
- [92:07]
Ceruti
I know.
- [92:08]
Danny Cannell
How. How about you, Kyle? Anything to update us on any rabbits?
- [92:12]
Kyle
No, still four. Somebody did get stopped. Our caregiver from WAG got stopped. We're using a lockbox situation on the first day that we had them come and that we have like a new security. And he's like, you can't be doing this. And I'm like, well, if this doesn't get solved, I guess problem solved ultimately, right? I mean, have to get like, maybe that, like car. That car smell gun and change its smell when we get back. But no, I think it'll be fine. I don't think they're going to starve to death. But I had to. There was a moment where I was like, well, if he can't get in, then they cut the lockbox. There's no keys.
- [92:46]
Danny Cannell
I guess.
- [92:47]
Kyle
I guess that kind of. That's that, but I think. I think it'll be resolved.
- [92:52]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, that'd be crazy. I think you almost reported yourself to whatever rabbit services exist. It probably is a few groups.
- [92:59]
Kyle
We're working on a solution. We're working on a solution. We're circling back.
- [93:02]
Danny Cannell
There's no early flights booked back. Because that's what it sounds like. Yeah.
- [93:08]
Ceruti
Kyle's not here to do that.
- [93:09]
Danny Cannell
No.
- [93:09]
Ceruti
No.
- [93:10]
Danny Cannell
Would you get divorced before you Fly back early and cut off a Potsdam hang for rabbits and their safety.
- [93:16]
Kyle
You know, some of these things you just. You just don't even want to have to think about. So I'm just going to take a pass. I'll take the fifth.
- [93:22]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, that's good. It's good. Smart. What else? What else? I don't know really. What else to update?
- [93:29]
Kyle
Well, Wargon had a wedding, I guess, even though by the fact that he's hiding.
- [93:33]
Danny Cannell
But yeah, jump back in. Wargon, anything?
- [93:39]
Bruce Feldman
I'm here. Yeah, it was, it was. It was great. I mean, Kyle was there. We got like awesome weather. I thought like, everything went pretty well. Happy with it. Kyle, what are your. What are your thoughts on it?
- [93:52]
Kyle
I thought it was great. I had no idea it was a Jewish wedding. I walked in and then you had set me up with some boys. Well, I didn't know where to sit. I didn't know. I had no idea Wargon was Jewish. I guess we don't really get into that sector of our lives on this podcast. But I walked in with your boys, who I didn't end up sitting with, which I didn't love. Got a lot of dudes I got to know and then all of a sudden they're a table away. But the wedding was great. The food was good. But I walked in and I see a bunch of people with and yarmulke sitting down and I'm like, oh, are we on the other side? They're like, no, dude, everybody's Jewish. And I was like, oh, my God. And I never saw the chair thing before. Very responsible breaking of the glass. There was like a nice thing covering it. You know, I always wondered what that was about. I asked a couple questions that I was always wondering about and got some, some answers. Really nice service. And. Yeah, I got nothing else to say.
- [94:43]
Ryan Rossillo
I did.
- [94:44]
Danny Cannell
You were afraid of being segregated is what you're saying.
- [94:48]
Kyle
I just didn't know if it's bridegroom side thing, it seemed like. I mean, I couldn't tell who was who because, I mean, I was kind of the lone wolf there just from this, from this crew.
- [94:57]
Danny Cannell
How was he as a lone wolf at your wedding? War gone.
- [95:01]
Bruce Feldman
I thought he was good. I think you probably did the reception a little early, but then you caught up with us at the after party, right?
- [95:07]
Kyle
Yeah, you could call it that.
- [95:09]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, you could call it that.
- [95:12]
Kyle
I put in like four hours, though. I put in a good four. Four hours, I think.
- [95:15]
Danny Cannell
Yeah. Yeah. Wait, I FaceTimed in. Yeah, yeah. Quick face. You did.
- [95:20]
Ceruti
Wow. I Didn't even do that. Damn.
- [95:21]
Danny Cannell
I mean, it wasn't part of the. I don't think it was on the. The order of events or anything like that, but day of.
- [95:28]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah, like, right before the speeches, Kyle walks over with, like, a phone.
- [95:31]
Danny Cannell
Yeah.
- [95:31]
Kyle
In hindsight, that was probably not the right time.
- [95:34]
Bruce Feldman
Like, shirtless on a boat.
- [95:35]
Kyle
He is shirtless.
- [95:36]
Bruce Feldman
He's like, dude.
- [95:40]
Danny Cannell
Anyway, it's a good gesture.
- [95:43]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah, no, it was a good time.
- [95:46]
Danny Cannell
I turned 50 and went to Saint Barts, so congrats on that. Probably not. Not as exciting as your updates. Yeah, like, Saint Barts. Don't think I can retire there, though, so, you know, just crossing it off too slow. Just a lot of it is speculative. Retirement destinations. That's kind of what I'm focused on here. There will be a travel pod. I think it's easily the worst of. I've ever. It's the worst one I've ever done. So.
- [96:11]
Kyle
Is that when you're going to tell Mike, like, just don't listen. Like your. Your fantasy baseball. You're like, man, just where the file and just put the new one in front of it.
- [96:18]
Danny Cannell
I don't. I've listened to strong enough. Okay.
- [96:23]
Ceruti
I mean, yeah, I wouldn't say there's a. There's a good story at the beginning that makes the whole thing kind of worth it. So.
- [96:29]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah, maybe dip out early. If you're listening.
- [96:33]
Danny Cannell
We'Re proud of our retention rate here, Wargon. True. So. So. And then as far as.
- [96:38]
Ceruti
I think that was more of a Kyle joke, but yeah.
- [96:40]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, I got it. I don't know. I. I was. I was bummed out about it for, like, two days. And it's like, hey, guess what? Next year you're gonna be 51, so what the are you doing? And it was great. And I got over. I started thinking of it that way, and I went like, what do you want to do? You want to go through the list of all the things that you thought you'd be doing? You want to ignore the list of the things that you've done? Like. Like it's going to happen. There's nothing you can do about it. And, you know, it's just the way math works. I did see a tweet from somebody saying 25 years ago, dudes that are 50 today were 25. So, like, get on your grind or something. And I was like, wow, that speaks to me. Like, math, mathematically just. Yeah, the math is just crazy on that kind of stuff.
- [97:23]
Ceruti
Is that the same guy that broke his hours, his days up into like six hour intervals and just multiplies on himself, you know.
- [97:28]
Danny Cannell
A lot of grinders out there. Yeah, I can't keep track of them. You know, the, the amount of guys on the grind. Somebody else tweeted something like, my dentist, I had. There's probably plenty of people that have heard this joke, but guy was like, my dentist told me I grind in my sleep. And I told him, thanks.
- [97:43]
Kyle
Yes, timeless. Timeless.
- [97:46]
Ceruti
In fact, so that I gotta. I've been doing a lot of. We're taping our like premier league preview on the soccer pod today. We'll just drop.
- [97:52]
Kyle
Nice plug.
- [97:52]
Ceruti
Listen to it.
- [97:53]
Kyle
Nice.
- [97:54]
Ceruti
So I've been doing a lot of like YouTube research, watching videos and there's this ad that I got like a million times. This just like.
- [97:59]
Danny Cannell
I know which one you're talking about.
- [98:00]
Ceruti
Dude, where he goes, if you make 150k, I can get you ripped in three days. And it was just like, whoa. You start off with like a salary figure that's kind of like, whoa, whoa.
- [98:09]
Ryan Rossillo
Who?
- [98:10]
Danny Cannell
I don't know. It's unbelievable because I'm the same thing, like looking at any. I've seen him 12 clips in a row where he's just. And he's. He is jacked. Like, congrats. But it's just fucking leave it. Where's the setting for guys that are okay with their shirt off that make more than 150k? Like, is there a filter that YouTube, like, what do I need to do here to have this guy stop yelling at me about whether or not I want to take my shirt off? I gotta be honest with you, I do kind of love this. This weird. I would never go to one of these things. I would never have any of these people on the pod. But this whole new mode of, hey, are you good at sales? Oh, you're kind of good. Take off your shirt. And this is why you suck at sales. So it's a bit like.
- [98:53]
Ceruti
That's like the Shane Gillis thing from Tires. You see season two, right? That was season two, I think.
- [98:57]
Kyle
Yes, that's what it was.
- [98:58]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, season two was great. But remember Tom Cruise and Magnolia Saint? Suck my big. Never mind. I'm not going to say the entire thing, but that was so ahead of its time and now we're kind of in it right now I'm expecting one of these guys to steal my whole counting your reps in reverse thing. I mean, it's just so good. And now people are starting like, we're getting a lot of emails on it going, oh my God, this is, like, a complete unlocking of my full potential.
- [99:22]
Kyle
Could that be ip? Could you, like, put that down as, like, a patent?
- [99:26]
Danny Cannell
If some guy is up there selling cars and telling people to take their shirts off from Plano, Texas, and then they use my thing, expect words will be exchanged. Yeah, yeah, right.
- [99:37]
Ceruti
Mail will be on your way.
- [99:38]
Danny Cannell
Because there was a comedian that took my. I think that the bottom line scores for men's and women's basketball should be in different colors. And a comedian took that. But whenever I presented it, people were like, well, that's sexist. And it was like, happy. We'll take. The guys will take the worst color. Give us periwinkle. Give us mauve. I don't give a. Just make him a different color. I'm sick of every year. I mean, it's been going on decades for me. I'm like, duke is down. What? Oh. So, yeah, I said that on the air with the radio show years and years ago, and then a comedian decided to use it. So, yes, if one of the guys that has sales conferences who yells at people for having a little bit of chub around the midsection, decides to start talking about the unlocking of our mental barriers by counting in reverse for reps, words will be exchanged. All right. Yeah. But on the math of turning 50, it was funny because then I started thinking about it. I was like, when I was 20, and those peak, like, 1H20, the peak years, but also kind of the worst years. And then I thought, well, my dad was 50. And now, like, I. I was like, you just turned 80, actually. And then I was like, all right, let's get out of this headspace. Lasted a couple days. I was kind of proud I was able to move on.
- [100:53]
Ceruti
Dude, speaking of, you have some kids and you start doing the math about, like, high school and, like, how old am I going to be when she graduates? Like, what's the. Like, am I going to be like, am I gonna be, like, a total loser then? Like, what was my dad like when at that age I thought my dad was cool, but was he. But, like, also, I feel like. I mean, this isn't new or anything, but it feels like people are just sneaky, younger looking now. Like, when my dad was that every.
- [101:15]
Kyle
Guy who gets older ever, though, isn't that.
- [101:17]
Ceruti
No, I know. Yeah. Like, you know, who knows? Like, you know, exactly. Like, kids this generation are going to look like they're like, you know, 20 years old. They're 40. But I'm like, my dad also had a big Old, thick mustache that made him look a little bit older. But I'm like, I don't know, do I? 37. Like when I'm, I'll be 50, around in my early 50s when she graduates. Like, what am I going to look like then? It's like kind of like a weird life freak out moment of man, that's kind of crazy to think about.
- [101:40]
Danny Cannell
You don't have to worry about looking old. You're gonna be fine.
- [101:44]
Ceruti
Thanks, man. Well, you don't look.
- [101:45]
Danny Cannell
Life advice. Sorry.
- [101:48]
Kyle
I remember that.
- [101:49]
Danny Cannell
Life advice. Rr.gmail.com. let's read a couple of them. All right, what do we got fellas? 5, 10, 160, 33 years old, no impressive gym stats, but can rep out 50 push ups. Discuss amongst yourselves if that is not working. I think anybody trying to accomplish anything like that is terrific. A lot of guys doing zero push ups. All right. And I, I see him in these YouTube clips all the time.
- [102:12]
Kyle
See one zoom.
- [102:15]
Danny Cannell
Hashim the beat. I'm not tall or Tanzanian, but I love yelling Hashim in the face of my 10 year old neighbor when I block his shots. He has no idea who he is and I get the sick joy out of seeing the confusion on his face. About two months ago, I received a random Facebook message from a person that went to my high school. He was two grades above me and graduated with my brother. Let's this person, Dominic. Dominic used to be in my brother's friend group until he started down a different path in life that you will see below. I've not spoken to him in about 15 years, so I was surprised to see this message. It started off very topical with the lines of like, how are you thinking about the old times, etc. I asked him something like, what are you up to? And get the response. I am in prison. Turns out Dominic was arrested after a raid on his house that found some illegal things. At this point, so many questions are going through my head. How are you messaging me from prison? Do they allow you to use Facebook in prison?
- [103:12]
Kyle
My guess is no, but I think there's phones in there anyway.
- [103:15]
Ceruti
No, don't think it like the, you know, they go to the computer lab, right? It's not like whatever their version of that is.
- [103:20]
Kyle
Yeah, I mean, don't they like monitor. I guess they could monitor your chats. I thought it might be something like con chat or something. Maybe they have their own service, I don't know.
- [103:27]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, yeah. I mean, how are these, how are these women meeting these guys in prison that they're marrying so, you know, whatever.
- [103:35]
Kyle
Yeah, I've been out the game for a while. I really had to keep in touch.
- [103:38]
Danny Cannell
With anyone in prison, so I really don't know. Yeah, I mean, what was it? There was the rumor that Little Wayne was listening to ESPN radio non stop on some sort of device while he was in prison. He's like Mike and Mike got me through the day. Anyway, am I doing something illegal by messaging a person in prison? So this guy's worried about it. I give him a response to somebody like, keep your head up, you'll get through this. He then asks if I could help him with something. And now I know what he wants. I'm sure you've already guessed it. Money. He asked if I can send him money to his Cash app. At that moment I know there's no chance they're letting prisoners use Cash app. Again. None of us know the true like what the rules are or not. I imagine maybe different. Different levels of incarceration. Maybe have different access to different things. I freeze. I just don't respond, hoping he will just forget about it. But Dominic is persistent. I finally respond back with an excuse that I don't have any spare income, father three bills, etc. He states he understands and then the conversation is over. Turns out Dominic still needs money. I then get a random text message a few weeks later from a 310 area code which we all know is Los Angeles. If you look at the link, you can see his current location is nowhere near California. It's our boy Dominic reaching out again for money to his Cash app. At this point, I block the number and block his Facebook. I know I made the right call not giving him money to a random cash app. I have no idea who's managing the account. The money I will send more likely be used for illegal things. My concern is this. Dominic's been to my childhood home. My parents still live there. Probably overthinking this, but. But will our boy try to retaliate on them when he gets out?
- [105:17]
Kyle
Wow, dude, you're so far down the list of people he asked. Like this, this guy coming out of left field. You are so far down the list, he's been told no by so many people. At this point you're just a name on a list. And if he is coming to see those people, I think you'll probably get a heads up by somebody else he visited. I think you're totally. You're totally. He's just, he's throwing shit at the wall here. I don't think he's Going to take.
- [105:38]
Danny Cannell
Any of this personally. Great jail instincts, Kyle, because it's exactly what happened here. He also wondered if he would come hunting him down. The answers are probably no because I also found out to Kyle's point, he has messaged 75% of our high school asking for money as well. Would still like to hear your thoughts.
- [105:58]
Ceruti
He's in the Class of 06 Facebook group. Just like firing out. He's got to go find me.
- [106:05]
Danny Cannell
Kyle nailed us one. There's. You say no and you don't feel bad about it because you have to think of the other person like too often. Well, because it makes sense, right? You think of how we feel and then we. If you have a massive imagination like our emailer here, you start playing out all these different scenarios and that's fine. I mean it's not like a criticism or anything. Maybe you watch a lot of movies but you know, the other day somebody asked me for money on the street and if you're young and have nice sneakers, it's fucking 0% chance you're getting any money from me. Like able bodied. Now we could get into the whole thing. There's a lot of mental health issue stuff that's super unfortunate. Don't know how you solve it. Not really interested in getting into a long form discussion on that. But to just package everything into one category feels extremely insensitive and unfair. But when you're like an able bodied dude in your 20s with really nice sneakers standing out of a, outside of a fucking CVS at one in the morning giving me the stare down, asking for a couple bucks, I look forward to saying no to you. Okay? And I think what you always have to do because whenever you make eye contact with that person, it's kind of the worst thing ever. You know, it's like, oh shit, now I made eye contacts and now they feel more comfortable. Think of that person on that end of the transaction. Much like our guy Dominic here. He's just spraying the infield here, all right? He is, he is only hitting up as many possibilities as he possibly can. So when the guy outside of CVS gets turned down, he doesn't remember you in 10 minutes because he's asking everybody else. So it's an important thing to remember that even though you don't have this interaction at all, I wouldn't even say very often at all, you're going to be thinking about it more. He's already moved on to all like he probably forgot that you've blocked him, you know, like, sure, the number might not Go through. But he's not sitting there thinking about you. Especially when you back it up with your own data that you've acquired that he's asked 75% of your high school for money as well. So there's no reason to feel bad or play out all these scenarios or you're in trouble.
- [108:15]
Kyle
That was an easy one.
- [108:17]
Danny Cannell
I think it was.
- [108:19]
Kyle
It's getting hotter by the second out here, boys. I mean, I don't know if you guys are feeling. You're not feeling the same sun, but holy shit, your sun was like behind the trees when we started. No, because I'm moving. I'm like slightly moving. Anyway, we're halfway done, right?
- [108:32]
Ceruti
Ten more minutes, we're good.
- [108:33]
Danny Cannell
Okay. Yeah. All right.
- [108:35]
Kyle
I'm not rushing.
- [108:37]
Danny Cannell
Use my wife's razor. Hey, fellas. Six foot 180, former D3 soccer guy. Hey, Seruti. But still played morning pickup hoops to this. Still play morning pickup hoops to this day. Player comp Joachim Noah. All the feisty hustle, defensive rebounding, but with none of the heightened talent. Hope it's not too feisty because a non offensive Noah in a pickup game is. Is a lot, but all right. I just had the best shave of my life, exclamation point for context. I'm not an overly hairy guy, but I have to trim the face and neck probably once a week to keep looking clean as I have a forward facing job and overall if I let it go, it wouldn't look very good until I made it a few weeks. When no shave November rolls around, I usually get a bit of a head start in mid October and it makes for a strange one to two weeks before I can make a stash halfway look halfway decent. I do use an electric shaver mostly now, but have also used traditional razors in the past. My wife and I have been married four years in September. Two kids eight, ages two and three. She works nights on the weekends as a nurse, so I usually am on dad duty during the weekends. Last Saturday I was able to get the kids to bed and had to jump in the shower quickly after a long day of bug spray, sunscreen, and just general sweating chasing them around. I needed to shave anyway, so I grabbed my wife's razor she keeps in the shower, went for it, paused for a split second, but ultimately just went for it. First reaction was how smooth and nice the gels that come along with a female razor felt got out. Was delighted with the results. Quick, efficient and comfortable. A few questions for the gang though. One, should more men be grabbing for women's razors at the grocery store. To me, the comfort was a level above my traditional male razor experience. More importantly, two, was this a strange move or a violation of my wife's hygiene items on par with sharing a forgotten toothbrush on vacation? Am I overthinking this? Or given what she uses that razor for, am I outing myself as a weirdo and should have never written this email? Finally, three. Do I tell my wife? Let's. Let's go with the married guys on this one for me.
- [110:37]
Kyle
My wife will grab my deodorant, so I feel like she owes me one if I'm ever in this situation. Yeah, she'll grab it sometimes. And I'm like, all right, what are you using? I'm. ° I use ° I buy the two pack 48 hour joint.
- [110:49]
Ceruti
So it's like a men's scent. Interesting.
- [110:51]
Kyle
Yeah, I'm a. I'm a straight.
- [110:52]
Danny Cannell
You ever set a timer when you put it on and be like, I'm not, not doing this again?
- [110:56]
Kyle
No, dude, I'm thinking, I'm thinking the little asterisks for like a, you know, 56130, like that type of guy. So I think that's usually like when you.
- [111:04]
Danny Cannell
You dig into any of 56130, that's.
- [111:06]
Kyle
I'm just thinking. Or, or maybe you do it by BMI or something. But I always, whenever I see one of these things that's good for this amount of time, I'm like, well, that's, that's not for the average bear. I don't.
- [111:15]
Danny Cannell
So 72 unit. You're like, no way.
- [111:17]
Kyle
Like, whatever, Just walk by. Yeah, let's just. We get past lunch. But, but I, I use a straight razor anyway and I. I'd submit maybe, maybe you should try that too. But dude, you're not a weirdo. I mean, it's 20, 25. People are. People are using all sorts of things for all sorts of things. So whatever, man. If that's. If that's what you found, that's cool. I mean, it's cool that it's in the show.
- [111:38]
Danny Cannell
Are you suggesting our guys. Are they them now? Because he, you know, because every. It's just all on the table. Pass. You pass twice an episode. Maybe I think you could do that.
- [111:56]
Ceruti
Yeah, yeah, pass whenever you want.
- [111:59]
Kyle
I was looking at my contract the other day. I think I can.
- [112:01]
Ceruti
Yeah, listen, it's a free country. I have a lot on this. I have used my wife's razor before. They are really nice. I mean, they have. Yeah, they have like the bars like above and below, you know, with like the nice lotion thing. But it's. The problem with that is. And they look someone.
- [112:16]
Bruce Feldman
I have.
- [112:16]
Ceruti
It is. But I only really. So I don't. I haven't shaved my face in probably 15 years. Like with an actual razor. I usually just use like, like the, like the low trimmer, like the zero trimmer around here or whatever. But I'll do like some touch ups around the mustache because you kind of get, you got to get angles and stuff. You know, the beard line a little bit and it's a nice feeling. But those razors are more expensive. I'm pretty sure those razors are way more expensive expensive. So like you're getting upcharge for buying a, a female woman's razor. So I don't know if it's actually worth it for you maybe just buy a bar of soap. The other thing is I'm also very confused. Yeah, go ahead.
- [112:53]
Danny Cannell
Can I just add to the pricing thing real quick because I'll never forget there was some discussion somehow on the air that I had had during kind of like the fill in stage of the radio thing. And, and it was fascinating to me because we were on the air and it was like, well, no, because this is this. And I was like, well, what's going on? And then it was like, well, just like with women's hygiene products, they're priced higher as a sign of how misogynistic society is. And I was like, can we get back to the fucking NBA off season maybe?
- [113:34]
Kyle
So I, I don't know.
- [113:34]
Danny Cannell
I mean, is it, is it priced based on demand? You know, I mean, I imagine there's certain things that men really like that maybe are priced higher for men just because they, the market knows that we're more likely to pay. So, you know, look, I'm sure somebody can send me a ton of links or whatever, but kind of like a.
- [113:50]
Ceruti
Female dip, like a female Zinn be more expensive than a male one. You know, it's like an almond.
- [113:57]
Danny Cannell
Yeah. But based on what we're saying is that if they had had females in compared to men's desire for it and the men's zinn would always. But it would be a different color.
- [114:06]
Kyle
There you go.
- [114:06]
Danny Cannell
Yeah, I think the packaging would be a little bit different for your college. Good luck getting in California. Here, here's the, here's the question though. To your point, are those razors actually more expensive because there's more going on in those razors. Would they hold up, right? Would they hold up to a man's face with such regular use.
- [114:31]
Kyle
But you think it's a, it's a larger surface area and we're back and is more. The demand is more. Right. So Rudy just says, he's like, I only use a little. Like I don't need to make sure I'm, I'm all, you know, squared away. Whereas, you know, when you think about if it's a leg raiser, you know, summertime, that's kind of a top notch. That's a high priority. Usually you don't leave the house if you're not quite finished with that. Whereas a dude might just be like, you know, it is what it is.
- [114:56]
Ceruti
It's a good point. More surface area. Yeah.
- [114:59]
Kyle
Probably more frequent use.
- [115:00]
Ceruti
I've never been more confused about what like. So you said you use a straight edge, Kyle? Yeah, like, remember like, you know, growing up, it was always like, oh, this thing's got five razors and it's got this dip setting that like three maybe. But now apparently. Yeah, now that's apparently terrible. So I straight up stopped shaving my face because I would get all the bumps on my neck and I'm like, I'm just not doing this anymore. So I just didn't do it. That's why I haven't done it since. I haven't gone back. But apparently like I was using like a three or four, you know, razor little contraption thing instead of just using a straight edge. And maybe that's why it's better now. So I, I'm, I'm just, I'm confused about the state of what I'm supposed to use in the razor anyway.
- [115:33]
Kyle
Straight edge could be a little scary.
- [115:35]
Danny Cannell
You know, I know that I'm ready for that.
- [115:37]
Ceruti
Yeah, I need a tutorial, watch a YouTube video or something. But yeah, you actually take like, you put it in like the little thing and just like.
- [115:44]
Kyle
Do you make one thing? I got some, I got some clear, clear gel and I just, you know, man, that's.
- [115:50]
Danny Cannell
Oof.
- [115:51]
Ceruti
I don't know if I'm ready for that Worgon.
- [115:53]
Danny Cannell
You ever use your wife's razor?
- [115:57]
Kyle
Hasn't really had enough time to use his wife's razor.
- [115:59]
Bruce Feldman
I straight edge too. I'm with Kyle.
- [116:01]
Kyle
Let's go.
- [116:03]
Bruce Feldman
I don't use the wife's razor. My concern is hygienics there. I'm kind of of the mindset, like if it's touching your face, it really shouldn't be touching anywhere else. So that would be my bad role.
- [116:15]
Danny Cannell
With sharing it's just a. We don't have to apply that just to razors.
- [116:20]
Kyle
Yeah, so you're definitely not a five Washcloth.
- [116:23]
Ceruti
Yeah. Towels.
- [116:27]
Danny Cannell
Dental vlogs.
- [116:27]
Bruce Feldman
Straight edge, gang.
- [116:28]
Danny Cannell
Okay. All right, let's. Let's sneak one more in here. The boyfriend of an old fling has requested to follow me Guys, Huge fan of the POD events. Past few days have my mind in a pretzel NBA comp and be Anthony Bennett. No disrespect to him, but I'd consider myself fairly athletic. However, I was blessed with no basketball skill whatsoever. So whenever I do play the occasional pickup game, I severely underwhelm. Feel free to change the girl's name. Or not. I don't really care. I guess you don't care, man. We'll change it anyway. Anyway Last night, doing some bedtime Instagram scrolling, I received a random Instagram follower request from a guy I'd never met before in my life. We did have one mutual friend, a girl, let's call her Debbie, who I had a fling with over a year ago. After doing some quick digging, I realized my new Instagram follower is now the current boyfriend of Debbie. This all seems not like a huge deal, but I won't lie when it says it has me kind of rattled. For context, my thing with Debbie lasted maybe two months, but in no way what I considered serious or that we were official. We matched on hinge, went on a handful of dates, things seemed to be progressing towards a relationship when she decided to drop the news, she didn't see it going further. Side note, she does silently this info on me right before we went to go see Dune 2 and due to my unwillingness to waste I spent on the tickets and my excitement to see Dune 2, I made the decision to still go see it. We then had to sit there awkward through the entire movie like she didn't just crush me. Looking back, I may have played that wrong. Why couldn't she just not go to Dune 2 with you?
- [117:54]
Ceruti
Yeah, you should just tell her not to come.
- [117:57]
Danny Cannell
Yeah. Yeah.
- [117:59]
Kyle
Take a little bit of your power back.
- [118:00]
Danny Cannell
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it looks like somebody's waiting an extra day to see Dune 2. Yes, I was upset about it for a bit, but after doing some self scouting on how I can approve for my next relationship, I got it over and moved on. It's now been a year and a half and I have no interaction with this girl whatsoever. Barely thought about her until Mr. Boyfriend dropped me a follower request out of pure curiosity. I accepted, thinking he might have something to say, but nothing. Wow I even sent my own request to follow him as an attempt to match his move, to which he accepts. I'm now locked in a stalemate of what the hell is going on? How does he even know about me? Is he trying to intimidate me somehow? Is he somehow threatened by me? Maybe your athleticism, who knows? And he hasn't seen you play pickup yet. The list in my head is the reasons why he would feel the need to follow me is endless and I've yet to come up with an answer which kind of is bothering me. Maybe this was his game all along. It was not like I was a serious boyfriend of hers that she might bring up when asked about previous relationships. I'm self aware enough to realize this email may sound insane to a normal person as they would probably just move on. My curiosity is killing me, so my question is do I forget about it, be normal? Or do I try to figure out what's going on? Maybe message him asking what's up? Or even message Madison asking why he followed me and even create some drama in their relationship. It could add to some excitement in my everyday life. Question wow, he's got a bunch of stuff here. As far as I can tell, they've been dating for some time now. Also, I can tell she started seeing him sometime after she was seeing me, so no overlap. I and the couple have no mutual friends. Debbie and I still follow each other on Instagram. Zero interaction. Since she ended things, I consider the ending between us to be normal. It ended because she didn't view where I currently was in my life job to be sufficient enough for her. Wow. I'm not proud to admit it, but I did send her a follow up text a few days after it happened explaining my feelings and confusion to which I received no answer and dropped the issue entirely. I will also admit she did first post him. I might have tried to check out his page to see if she upgraded, but that was months ago and left no trace of me checking him out. Personal opinion here. The jury's still out on if she did in fact upgrade. All right, I would not reach out.
- [120:14]
Kyle
I think I know what happened here. I think he did a thorough scrub of what's going on with her while she was taking a long shower or something and probably looked through her dms even though it was eight months ago or whenever it was and probably just wanted to keep tabs on you, maybe watch your story. Who knows, maybe he's. Maybe he's got trust issues, but I think that's probably what happened. I don't think he uses whatever thing you got to pay for to see who looks at your profile. Like, I don't even know if that's even real.
- [120:40]
Danny Cannell
But. Yeah, is that real? Is that real people can see if you look or something. People used to post a story.
- [120:48]
Kyle
People used to post it. Like one person unfollowed. It used to be like you could tell who unfollows you, which, you know, I guess it's just an automatic thing. And I'd be like, really? That's. And the only price for that is you have to post about it or an automatic post anyway. I don't know if that's. If that's real or not. Like, to actually see who's viewing what you've got going on.
- [121:06]
Danny Cannell
But.
- [121:07]
Kyle
But maybe if you're like a business account. I don't know.
- [121:09]
Ceruti
But feels like a LinkedIn thing.
- [121:10]
Danny Cannell
But.
- [121:10]
Kyle
Yeah, but I, I think. I think it's probably just this dude has taken an abundance of caution. Maybe he's got a little trust issue thing and he probably just wants to keep tabs on you. I wouldn't message her, especially saying how it ended with basically you being like, you want some more information and she doesn't. She didn't want to answer you. So if you just come back into her life, even though it's like, you know, something a little fishy is going on with your new boyfriend, adding me for some reason, I think. I think the stakes are low and I think he's probably just, you know, little Sherlock Holmes of a dude and you got nothing to worry about because you haven't really had any contact.
- [121:43]
Ceruti
Yeah.
- [121:43]
Ryan Rossillo
Is.
- [121:44]
Ceruti
Does he just want you to know that he's. You're in his, you know, you're in his periphery. Like, you.
- [121:49]
Danny Cannell
He's.
- [121:49]
Ceruti
He's on your radar. I don't, I don't even know, like, what. And if you. I would ask her because what's the.
- [121:54]
Bruce Feldman
What's the.
- [121:54]
Ceruti
What's the worst that could happen? Like, he's clearly, like, snooping around. It seems like he's clearly snooping around. He's. He knows something must have happened between you two.
- [122:01]
Kyle
You.
- [122:01]
Ceruti
For you to be like, what's the deal with your boyfriend following me? I think that's a totally legitimate question. If that gets him in trouble, that's kind of not any of your problems. So. And it's. And it answers your question. So I, I don't actually have an issue with you reaching out to her.
- [122:12]
Kyle
Yeah. I'd leave it until he around.
- [122:14]
Danny Cannell
I. I would just. I wouldn't reach out to anybody and be like, hey, you're in. You're in their head, bro.
- [122:19]
Ceruti
Do you send him a dm? Be like, sup? Just the eyes emoji.
- [122:25]
Danny Cannell
Just the eyes. You do a power. Like just go through 20 of her pictures. No, that's always the move. It's just like 20 straight likes. I'm going to take catalog page. Yeah. 2013 picnic. Love it. Yeah, that's what you got to do. I mean, he's reaching out to you. He's already kind of like, honestly, that's pretty soft move on his part. And I love the follow up. They'll follow you right back. Obviously you dig her a little bit that she had the power move ending it. I mean, you're right in. It's the email that it doesn't really matter. But to get caught up on all of this for your own entertainment, the fact that he had to follow you, I think is that's the win. Just take the win and you're good. And go see Doom 2 again. Go see it without that emotional strain because that's going to get in the way of you enjoying storytelling.
- [123:12]
Kyle
I got to get to. I kind of missed.
- [123:14]
Danny Cannell
There's a lot of movies. There's a lot of movies over the years where I'm like, how come I didn't like that movie that I was like, oh, I remember I went, went to that movie. I didn't even like the first Austin Powers because the person I was with at the time, it was just back and forth, very hostile. It was just bad, bad deal. And I was sitting in the movie and I'm like, this movie sucks. And then I think I watched a year later, I was like, this movie's great. And that's what can happen. All right. Remember, if it can touch your face, it shouldn't touch anywhere else. Thanks to Ceruti. Thanks to just being back in the mix. Kyle, Oregon of course, and Jonathan Freest. Ryan Rossillo podcast. You can check us out on YouTube, of course, a video now on the Spotify app and of course part of ringer Spotify.
- [123:51]
Bruce Feldman
They were going to name me Michael Jordan. My dad was like, I don't think he can live up to it. So they named me Michael.
- [123:56]
Ceruti
Jared.
- [124:10]
Danny Cannell
Foreign must be 21 and older and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 + in present D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit MD gamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is there. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text Hopeny in New York.