← The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Eagles and Ravens Going in Opposite Directions. Todd McShay on Ryan Day’s Ohio State Future and the Final CFB Playoff Spots. Plus, Van Lathan Went to Frolic Room!
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- [00:11]
Ryan Russillo
Week 13 in the NFL Phillies Big win in big two months how they fixed almost everything in Philadelphia what another loss means for Baltimore Pittsburgh's big day. Taking a look at Kirk Cousins and Matt Eberfluous out in Chicago. I've got my College Football top 12, but Todd McShay is going to stop by and we're going to talk about his thoughts on how Ryan Day probably can't come back to Columbus. That seems crazy to me. We'll take a look at Texas, some of the SEC arguments for the last team in, if there even is an argument. A little Miami. So a lot of different stuff that we're going to do with that. Van Lathan stops by Pre life advice. We still have a shorter life advice, but Van Lathan hung out with Kyle. I don't know, we just wanted to recap it this episode of the Ryan Rilla podcast is presented by State Farm Bring home a win with an affordable price when you bundle home and auto with the personal price plan. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. This episode is brought to you by Duluth Trading Company. From what I've seen over the years, if you want to up your game, then settling for average shouldn't be an option. Duluth trading Outthink, outsmart and outdo average with every piece of men's and women's gear they build. It's why they fabricate fire hose pants to be especially tough, pack their bibs full of pockets and make sure buck naked underwear feels barely there. It's all about innovating ingenious gear that you just won't find anywhere else. Shop online or in store today. Visit duluth trading week 11 let's run through it. Let's start in Baltimore. Philadelphia with the win, they're now 10 and 2. They've won eight straight games. They're the 2 seed in the NFC. They've now done something statistically that almost seems impossible in today's NFL. They've surpassed the Ravens. They're the number one rushing offense in the entire league and they're the number two defense and opponents yards per play. Let's review. When they went to the super bowl, they were number one in that category. So that meant they gave up the least yards per play of any team in the NFL. The year they went to the super bowl they were 25th last year. They have fixed it. Whether it's coaching, I think the depth and the draft picks coming along because it's clearly a difference. They lose Brandon Graham with a triceps injury. Blankenship left last night's game. Quinon Mitchell left. You could tell that it was the kind of thing that just probably hurt where he got hit on his leg and then came back into the game. But the draft picks on defense are making a huge difference. My guy Nakobe Dean is actually playing Jalen Carter looks like he's going to be the game wrecker that everyone projected that he would be when he came out of the draft and obviously fell for for a bunch of reasons. And then Cooper Jean, you know, look between Jokic, Luka, now we got this corner. The Southeast text threads are on fire right now. A.J. brown, another number for you when he plays. The Eagles never lose, at least not this season. He's been in nine games and the Eagles are 9 and 0. If there is a Super bowl tier of teams, if you allow me to tier here for a second, I think it's clearly Detroit, Kansas City, Buffalo and Philly. And then I do think there's a line to those next teams. Jalen Hurst completed 11 passes yesterday and they beat the Baltimore Ravens at their place and it was a tough game. Like it it they I think Philadelphia went over an hour and 10 minutes of real time without a first down. But then when you factor in all of Baltimore's issues, which I'm going to get to right now, it's still a game that Philadelphia's be they're a lot they can have that much of an offensive drought in a game against that kind of opponent on the road and still get out of there with the win. And they're the hottest team in the NFL. I think it's a really just it's a good reclamation is not the right word I guess redemption, but it feels a little too basic for this. But there's just a redemptive arc of this entire Philadelphia thing of super bowl appearance. Same team comes back, great record but we feel kind of weird about them. Last year then they lose a bunch of games. They lose a Tampa in the playoffs. The off season stuff with Sirianni, it's all connected. New quarter. They just like there's no way he's going to make it to the season. They lose the Tampa Bay, it's it's bad. It's bad and now it's really good for two straight months. Let's talk about Baltimore A little bit. So if there was a tier one, tier two thing, I've probably had Baltimore in tier one the entire time. I don't know if I can do it anymore at 8 and 5. Pittsburgh's in it. Some would have Pittsburgh in tier one. Totally understand. We'll get to them. Minnesota, Green Bay, that's fine. But I just feel like it's kind of those four teams where you feel really, really good about it, even if Kansas City finds just new ways to win every single week. So Baltimore's 8 and 5. They're the sixth seed in the AFC today. The defense, I was banging the table going, don't worry about this past defense. Don't worry about these numbers, because look at the quarterbacks they've gone up against. Well, the numbers are still bad. And it's not even because of Hertz yesterday throwing the football. They were number two in that opposing yards per play stuff that I was talking about. Right. With Philadelphia, their defense was number two in that. I just think it basically cuts through a lot of nonsense and tells you who's great and who isn't. This year, The Ravens are 18th in opposing yards per play. Right. They're 25th against the third down. They're 31st against the pass. So as bad as all of that is on a defense that you just pencil in, like the real thing used to be, okay, you know, the special teams and defense are going to be really good. I think it was fair at times to go. Is there a way to beat Lamar that we've seen in the playoffs, but then he wins another MVP last year, he would still be my MVP this year, which I'll get to here in a second. But Lamar is doing everything and the other pieces aren't carrying their weight. Like carrying their weight would be a compliment to what those units are doing right now for Baltimore. Tucker misses two more field goals yesterday and an extra point. He's four or nine field goal attempts, 50 plus. He's a 89% career field goal guy. He's 70% this season. The deep ones. This is a carryover from last year, 50 plus. He was one of five. So when you combine what the defense is doing and what's happening here with Tucker, Lamar, for this season in 24, is entering that Matthew Stafford kind of Herbert with the Chargers, maybe even a little Matt Ryan at times, where it used to drive me crazy in the way we do anything where everything's just wins and losses and all the quarterback stuff, you turn on the tv, you watch shows on Monday, if the Quarterback lost. He's not that good if the quarterback wins. And then it's like the quarterback can do nothing. And some of those TV shows would be like, you know what, he just made the plays you needed to like actually had nothing to do with it. They like 14 points on defense. In this case, Lamar is more impressive than he's ever been because he's not even coming close to getting that kind of support. Now Mike Sando, who we love, we have on all the time, he has a bunch of things that he uses and tracks and there's this quarterback betrayal index where if you have great quarterback play considering like what this quarterback brings to you every single week, and then subtract whatever the defense is doing or not doing in this case. Same with special teams. Back to Tucker, like the gap for Lamar is like all time stuff right now. The support that he's getting between special teams and defense is 29th in the NFL and yet he has been. I'm not saying he is the best QB in the world the way we do with basketball, but he's having the best season. Have you gone and looked at his three interceptions for this year? Go back and look at those. They're like all not his fault. And I'm not even saying like he was great yesterday. Sure. I think you can find a couple throws here or there that you'd like to have back. Clearly this, this shell coverage stuff that Philly was doing, I think we were also seeing it in the game. I don't know if Pittsburgh was doing the exact same thing, but just looking downfield and trying to find these throws and you've got Aguilar dropping balls. Zay's obviously their most consistent guy. Andrews is like been back in a big way now and I know that Bateman was down, but Lamar is doing more than you would need. And a Baltimore team because it's just so well run like they would never be that bad collectively in the other areas of football and they just have been now. And you know we're talking about 13 games results. I don't know what to do with the kicker. The crazy thing with a kicker like Tucker is you can talk about the history, what he means of the franchise and how automatic this guy has been. But with kickers, if somebody's this bad and costing you, I don't know if you can say the seven points absolutely cost in the game, but then Baltimore's not going for fourth and eight with four plus minutes left in their own side of the field. The Pittsburgh game definitely feels like you Know, that's one Baltimore's leaving going, we should have had this one. So we can go through the games individually. Say, what was the record supposed to do? You know, sometimes you can get a little too generous with that and it can be misleading because the defense, again, has also been such a disappointment. But the way I look at it right now with kickers is Tucker can have all the history in the world, but there's probably a guy right now not kicking somewhere that's a safer bet than he is. And I don't know how you go into the playoffs with him. Okay, Pittsburgh, as I talked about the tearish part of this, why did I not have Pittsburgh in as a team? Now, if you pick him to win the afc, I think that's a bit of a stretch with what's in front of them. We saw Buffalo just dismantle a San Francisco team. That, by the way, did you see that number on the defensive starters? Three people that were named starters in the super bowl against Kansas City. On the defensive side of the football, three started last night's game. So the 11 guys that started the Super bowl, three started last night. And our guy Fred Warner was limping around a little bit. McCaffrey, the knee injury, I mean, it's just a mess. And San Francisco fell apart in the snow last night. All right, so if you were picking Pittsburgh to get past Kansas City, past Buffalo, I still, I'm not there yet. And I would probably pick Baltimore in a rematch in the playoffs if that's what happened, because I don't know if they can win a shootout. However, yesterday won a shootout, an absolute shootout with Cincinnati. 21, 21. 20 minutes into this game, it looked like it was going to be like the best game of the entire weekend. Pittsburgh gave. Giving up those 21 points in 20 minutes just doesn't happen. They've only given up 20 points in four games total this season. But they're playing Cincinnati's defense. I cannot imagine what it's like to be in the quarterback room with the offensive coordinator and prepping a game against Cincinnati's defense where I guess you would just tell your quarterback, hey, here's the deal. Here's what they do. Every time you drop back, there will be someone open, throw it to that guy because it's a free for all. So basically the game's over. On the second borough fumble, Nick Herbig, another one, by the way, just Pittsburgh just has another edge guy that is stepping up big. Second year kid out of Wisconsin, Russell Wilson throws for 414 yards in this, the most he's thrown in a game in seven years. So, Ken, Pittsburgh win a shootout. They did yesterday. And Wilson, you know, I was really watching him in some of the drives and the difference between when he screws around and when he gets the ball out immediately, there's a difference. Like, if you can get him. And granted, it's great doing it up against Cincinnati's defense, which I don't quite understand how they're this bad. Maybe it's the lack of pass rush outside of Hendrickson, because I still feel like there's guys in the back end that I like from them, but maybe I'm just wrong about it. So Wilson, ball out quick. His accuracy on those throws, no freelancing, no letting Russ Cook stuff. It works. And then bringing Pickens in where there's just more deep ball trust, which might be the only thing I would trust George Pickens with was a deep ball throw. There's just a lot to like about where it's been. However, let's hit the Q Oregon stats to impress people. This isn't even a stat to impress the people. This is a chart to impress even more people. There was a chart that was out today that was basically talking about quarterbacks excelling at creating plays outside of the pocket. So basically, the definition of it was, you know, once the original call is over, beyond the first read, and now it's freestyle time. Wilson's the worst quarterback in the NFL based on this chart. Doing it, and the frequency with which he wants to still do it is higher than a lot of quarterbacks. And no one is less productive than he is. I mean, Will Leviss is ahead of him for this, so I don't know if he still wants to do that. Chart would tell you that he wants to do it. He didn't have to do it yesterday. He can't run the football anymore. 20 carries, 27 yards. But if it is within the first or second read, the deep ball gambles, which I'm totally fine with. But if it's all the quick, accurate stuff, he's really good at it. And he had a lot of throws yesterday where it was. It was snap the ball, get the ball out, move the chains, keep it moving. But I still don't think I'd pick him to win the afc. Okay, this is an award for Kurt Warner, who I'm afraid to talk about quarterbacks. We've talked about how Jeff Schwartz, like, if you mention something about O line, you're like, oh, is he going to get me on this? Did I have. Did I have the protection Wrong Kurt Warner for quarterbacks, like, I'm worried, you know, like, oh, I can't believe against cover two, you would do that. It's like, dude, that's not cover two. That's a. You know, you're just like, damn it, I tried. I even watched the All 22. I tried. Well, this is the I hope Kurt Warner doesn't get mad at me award, because I watched a good chunk of the Atlanta game yesterday, went back and watched Kirk Cousins picks. I don't think he has it physically, and they showed a breakdown of, like, the mechanics of his throws earlier this year before the Achilles injury. Coming back from that, which is to be understood versus throws at Minnesota, I thought Minnesota, Kirk, in that final year is the best I've ever felt about him. He clearly, if you've been listening to this pod, is not my favorite quarterback of all time. Still think the contract, like, I kind of get it. Quarterbacks, franchises, a lot like, relationships where you're like, man, I just keep getting treated like I'm just going to date somebody nice. I even care if I'm attracted to him. I'd like her to not steal my stuff. I think that's what happens with quarterbacks. You're like, all right, this is way too expensive. And he's coming off an Achilles, and we know the limitations, but it's better than what we've been doing down here. So if you look at the picks, though, they're really alarming. The first one, he double pumps but throws it into coverage. It's always a bad sign when the interception is picked off by a place player facing the line of scrimmage, like, coming back to face it and you're just, you know, it's like center field a little bit. The second pick was the pick six. I don't know if it's the route by one where it's this weird double move and he's never turned around. But if you watch that throw, Cousins gets nothing on that throw. And it's not a deep shot. I mean, it's kind of one of those torque throws where you're going across the field, so you got to get it out there. There's nothing on that pick. 6. 17, 17, 3. It's third and goal. They've got backed up at the Chargers. 13. He throws a pop up into the end zone into three guys. That's the worst of them. That's the one that I can't make. Like we were doing the Rosilla point assignment of Interceptions, that's the one I would assign the most points to. And then the fourth one, it's fourth and 12. They had to have it. I don't blame him for that one. You got to get the ball out and you could even talk like there was another throw, though, even at Drake. London, who I don't know if he had the best game. There's some stuff where he may have cut off a route and hoes Cousins. There's another one where he drops on the right side. But the throw, the throw itself and the lack of velocity and how much it looks like he's trying to get into these throws, whatever, they're six and six. They're the four seed. They could be the three seed. Because Seattle takes care of the jets against an Aaron Rodgers who continues to just. He's not going to be the answer. That's not. Breaking news. He now has more interceptions this season than he has had in 11 other seasons in his career. Okay, the final thought on all of this is Eber Fluss is out. Chicago. I watched the game like a lot of you did, surrounded by loved ones on Thanksgiving Day. So Detroit beats him. We already know that Caleb was 5 of 15 for 34 yards in the first half going into that disastrous last drive. He was 14 to 2208. Three touchdowns lit it up. Back in. I think the Caleb headline for this year is you got to feel really good about everything you've seen from him, despite everything that's happened and that Eberflusse is not going to be there. I'm not a huge fire everybody guy. I hate the play calling Monday shit. Because a lot of you just do the same thing every single year with every single coordinator. Play calling, play calling, play calling. And a lot of times it's like, maybe your team just isn't that good and there's not magical play callers going to come and solve it. However, the Bears. The Bears convinced me in a bad way. Like, yeah, I think it is. I think it is the coaching. April has had some weird moments this year with the challenges. I think he ended up 05. He had the two in the Houston game. That didn't make any sense. Then there was like a game after that where then he didn't want to challenge because everybody's like, what are you doing in the Houston game? And then he challenged Jordan Addison play, which was right in front of him. And then he said, well, I had to challenge it. It was explosive. It's like, well, or you don't use your challenge on It. So he had not built up a lot of equity with me paying attention to it again back when I used to be a Bears fan and super locked into all this stuff. But if we go to the infamous play, that'll. No one's ever going to forget it. He's never going to forget it. I mean, that's going to be like a weird Eber Fluss moment into like what the rest of his career is. Because everyone is watching this one game on Thanksgiving. They're watching you out there with your rookie quarterback. You get backed up on the penalty, he gets sacked. It's third and 26. There's 36 seconds left. The clock now after the sack. Under 30 seconds in running. They're likely not going to get the first down, but they're still close to field goal range. But they wanted to save the time out to set up the field goal because they've had their own field goal issues this season with Santos. So. I understand all of that. But as you're watching Caleb trying to get the play to everyone and granted the snap took too long. He was back there at like 13 seconds. And then this 13 seconds to 6 seconds moment is when Caleb probably deserves the most blame that you could give him. But I saw a lot of. Well, it's actually more on Caleb. No, it's not. You want to blame Pyatt. We can blame Pyatt, but it's a really small slice of cheesecake. The rest of it is on the head coach. Can you imagine? Just picture right now, think of all the great coaches that like, all the coaches that have been in the NFL, whether they're active or not coaching right now, but all the great ones that you can picture right now on the sideline watching this fucking disaster happen right in front of them with a rookie quarterback and just going, man, I need the timeout for the field goal. You're. You're watching it. I can't fathom the good coaches that I can think of right now and picture just standing there going, whatever, like, we need it for the field goal. You call the timeout at 30. You don't want to. You're probably not getting the first down, so you can't like run up and clock it. I don't think you're going to convert the 3rd and 26th, but you're going to have to say, hey, everybody knows what the play is. We're coming out. This is the play. Maybe give them two plays at least. There's now 30 seconds and yeah, it's going to be A mad scramble to set up the field goal, which isn't ideal, but you know what's a lot less ideal is just watching 30 seconds run off and then once the ball is snapped, Caleb has to throw it towards the end zone because it doesn't really matter anymore. Balls incomplete. Ball lands. Game I rarely like. If I were in local radio, I wouldn't want to be the guy being like this guy has to be fired. Hebrew flu. There was no way he could be the head coach of this team. This week the NBA is back in FanDuel. America's number one sportsbook wants you to catch all the action because right now FanDuel is giving everyone three months of NBA League Pass. All you have to do to catch every tip off and buzzer beater is place any $5 bet on the NBA. Okay, here's what I got for you. So light slate tonight was looking at the odds and going into it I was like oh, I wonder how big that number for Minnesota Lakers would be. Like hey guess what, they're smart. They're on it. It's Lakers plus eight. So that would be the only side I think I would go unless I want to go Nets plus seven and a half. I didn't want to pick a favorite so then I started digging up. I was like, find something for everybody. Find something that you like. How about two or more made threes? Jalen Johnson is minus 110 on two or more made threes. He has for a full month of November. Okay, out of all the games he's played, he's only not made 2 in 3 of what is this, 14, 15 games here he touches the ball a million times. So there you go. Jaylen Johnson Two or more made threes minus 110 and also just a fun guy to watch. So next time you get a hunch on who is going to win or how many points a player will score, you can watch your picks come to life live just visit fanduel.com Ryan Rye and to get three months of NBA League Pass courtesy of FanDuel, make every moment more with FanDuel. Official sportsbook partner of the NBA must be 21 and older and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C. after three month free trial, the full price of league pass will be automatically charged monthly. Cancel anytime. No refunds. Terms, restrictions and embargoes apply. Limit one pass per customer. See terms@sportsbook.fanduel.com gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler or visit rg-health.com this episode is brought to you by State Farm. State Farm helps you score an affordable price when you choose to bundle home and auto insurance with the personal price plan. You can choose the insurance coverage that fits your needs at a price you can afford. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. We're going to do a deeper dive with McShay, but I'm going to give you my college football rankings. My top 12. Again, the bracket will be different. We'll do that in the final week. All right, so Oregon number one, Texas number two. They beat A&M 17 7. But it was 461 yards at 248. Two red zone turnovers. The seven is only off of a pick six. I thought this was a pretty dominant performance with some really costly mistakes from Texas, and I feel like Texas fell into the. Well, if you're doing this to this team schedule, why aren't you doing it to Texas? I don't understand why I took any shit for this. But if a team brings back the third most returning starters in the SEC and their NFL quarterback and their coaching staff and a couple nice transfers, I'm going to think that team is good. I will think that team is forever good. I don't care where in the country that they play, but from a playoff to that, returning all those people. So I just thought Texas felt a little bit like Justin Herbert. Like, you watch Herbert, can you watch that Cincinnati game that we saw in primetime with Justin Herbert and because the team would lose, like, oh, I thought this guy was good. Like, just, just so we're clear here, like, you watch Texas all season and you think they're okay. You watched Justin Herbert this year and you were like, not this year because it's different, but all those years when he was putting up numbers and super talented and making throws like he did against Cincinnati. And you're like, so just so we're clear, you watch him and think, me, I don't. And I don't with Texas. I have Georgia third. They played Clemson, Bama, Texas, Ole Miss, Tennessee. Eight overtimes against Georgia Tech. Not great. It would have been nice if they put it on Georgia Tech to be more worthy of this number three ranking. Carson Beck for a half there was, was kind of a mess again. Tate Ratledge pulled him aside after third and whatever incompletion that went into the dirt and Tate like kind of grabbed him to be like, I don't know what he was saying to him. Again, I'm not buddies with him, so I'm never going to find out. But it's not ideal. But I think it's also not ideal to not reward a team for playing those five teams and ending up 10 and two and in the SEC title game. All right, Notre Dame, I could put him two, but it's a little tougher for me to do it. I think I really like them. You could say they have four ranked wins. Navy, Army, Louisville am. Only army is still ranked. But I thought that USC game, like when Penn State went out there and won, I thought that was a tough afternoon of football and they can just gash you. Notre Dame put 270 on the ground against SC, seven yards per carry. Number five, Penn State. They're third in the AP. The committee likes them. And I don't think the committee cares about schedule that much. I mean, the committee had Miami ahead of Georgia yesterday. I might be entirely wrong because there's a lot of guys on Penn State I really like. So from a talent standpoint and watching Penn State enough be like, oh, there's that guy, there's that guy. Like, there's some dudes that I really like. And that's why the spread against Oregon's only minus three and a half. Tennessee at six. I have Ohio State at seven. It has been two days and I cannot believe they lost that football game. We will discuss more of the McShay. They're seventh in the AP, eighth in the coaches. They have SMU ahead of Ohio State. I think that might be reaching a little. I don't love SMU at 8, but, you know, stop me. You've heard this before. This is another one of these scheduled things that's really weird. They haven't played Clemson yet. They will now. Miami Q or even Georgia Tech. And Georgia Tech with Haynes. King is actually pretty good. Like that's, that's a. You know, that's in that tier of. We're not allowed to say they're good because they have the losses. But when King plays like that's a. That's a decent too good football team, well coached and a tough kid at quarterback. I have Arizona State 9, 3 ranked wins, but not really, really what you want to focus on is ranked wins after the season. But even then, like, everybody's just creating whatever they can to argue their side of it. Boise 0 rank wins. Don't love it but they competed with Oregon probably when Oregon was at its worst. But whatever. Like what else am I supposed to do here? I guess I could do Indiana here. Others have the Indiana was ninth in the AP and the coaches we'll get to Indiana. I've got South Carolina 11. I know it's three losses I'm and I have been since the Oklahoma game. I'm not going to argue Bama to be in others will. I would probably have Ole Miss over Bama but I have South Carolina even though the head to head with Ole Miss was a disaster. But I think I could do this and if it's standings that's fine but if it's a committee of people talking things out and going what about this? What about this? South Carolina's loss to LSU sucks because they were absolutely I don't do the ref thing very often. They got screwed by the rest in that game three different times. One of the worst officiated. They couldn't get the numbers right when they kept calling the penalties out like it was Fowler and Herb street were just like what is what's happening here today? So if you were in the room trying to go who do we like? And look, the South Carolina Clemson game is a tossup. Clemson position to kick a game tying field goal ends up with an interception that's tipped But I like Lenora Sellers better than I like Milro so I might even like him better than Jackson darp. So number 12, I've got Indiana. Do I think they're one of the 12 best teams in college football? It's a massive I don't know. Now I'll give them this. They destroyed the teams they're supposed to be and there was no like. Well, there shouldn't have been a letdown after the Ohio State game. But yeah, we've said it before. There's a lot of really weird schedule stuff that's happened this year with the expanded conference. The Power four spreads nothing more than three and a half points. Oregon is the biggest favorite minus three and a half against Penn State. Texas is minus two and a half. SMU is a two and a half point favorite against Clemson and Arizona State's a two and a half point favorite against Iowa State. Which tells you kind of like that is this year. You're like, I don't know. Let's see what happens. This episode is brought to you by Chevy. Great football teams are built by having the right capability in the right positions. It's the same with great trucks like the Chevy Silverado you start under the hood with four powerful engine choices, delivering massive towing capacity. Then you've got available onboard technology that gives you extra peace of mind while towing. Finally, the rugged, purposeful design of the Silverado screams grit and determination just like a winning football team. Visit Chevy.com to learn more. We've got Todd McShay, host of the McShay Show. It has been really good. I don't know if that means I thought it wasn't going to be great, but it's been even better than I thought. Which then feels like a backwards compliment. Yeah, well, we're both. So we understand. We understand.
- [29:38]
Todd McShay
I had my concerns too. Let's be honest.
- [29:41]
Ryan Russillo
It's. Well, look, we have specific things that I want to get to. We're going to do just college because we're going to have so much NFL later on to close the season. So I just felt like there was so much to talk about with what's happened the last couple. So we're just going to do it again here. I cannot believe. 48 hours. Well, a little less removed from Ohio State losing at home to Michigan. I cannot believe. Wasn't that wild game. Michigan throws for what, 60 plus yards, 62 yards in that game. We can get into the missed kicks and all the stuff and. And like there was a interception off there for a little while and the first seven for Michigan is. Is off that pick. And. But I can't believe after losing three in a row and watching Michigan all season being like they've gone through all the quarterbacks, they can't figure it out. No offense there. We can talk up rivalry too, you know, like, hey, it. And that's certainly a factor in all this stuff and stuff we've seen the last couple weeks, but my God. So you come out with a heater. You think Ryan Day, like, is done.
- [30:41]
Todd McShay
Prior to. Prior to Saturday, I thought it was all nonsensical noise. Right? Like, look at his record. 47 1. I think he was against all other Big Ten opponents not named Michigan, what he's been able to build with this program, who he is as a coach. And you look at the last couple losses to Michigan, like somewhat understandable losses, right. To really good Michigan football teams. But Saturday was different. And it just can't happen. It just can't happen. When you are clearly the better team, when you've raised the money for the $20 million roster or whatever it is, this is your year. It can't happen. Okay. And so it becomes the kind of the tip of the iceberg and it's kind of like a divorce, right? Like, both parties may be wonderful people, they may be wonderful parents, but they just don't work together anymore. That's kind of how I view this. Right? And I'll say this. And you know how much respect I have for Ryan Day. You know, my history going back to Richmond versus New Hampshire, like Chip Kelly, how much respect I have for Chip. And we're both, obviously, you know, have personal relationships with Chip. But beyond that, and I'm able to look beyond that, like, as an offensive coordinator, you're. You're not going to be able to find a better head coach, offensive coordinator, wide receiver coach, combo than what Ohio State has right now. But I also understand this, and this is the most important part. Neither party is able to move forward together in a productive manner. That's, to me, the most important aspect of this. And that's why I mentioned a divorce. Like, when you have two great people, two great parents, but they can't function any longer together. And that's Ohio State, the university, the community, the boosters can no longer function together with Ryan Day and his staff. And it's a. It's like the 14th biggest city in America. But it is. It's a small bubble when it comes to Columbus and Ohio State football. And with the noise and I'm sure, the absurd death threats and how it affects Ryan Day's family and all the pressures that go along with that position, Ryan Day no longer is able to function at the highest level that he can possibly function, remaining as the head coach of Ohio State. So when I come out and say, barring a national championship, I don't see how there's any chance that Ryan Day continues to be the head coach at Ohio State. I say it because I just don't think it can function any longer.
- [33:34]
Ryan Russillo
Look, a year ago, when this stuff was happening, after they lost in Michigan two years ago, I think that Michigan loss of the previous three was the one. I was like, how did they lose two years ago? Now that's completely trumped by what happened this weekend. And I had done a video. Like, I felt like there were a lot of parallels where Harbaugh wasn't beating Ohio State in the beginning. They were actually a little closer, I think, than people were giving credit for. They have the terrible Covid year. But Harbaugh brings all that attention upon himself. I think he dialed it down a little bit. My point was always, like. Like, why does everybody want Harbaugh fired? Like, Michigan's totally fine with him. Then that should be all we need to do. Like what then? Be careful what you wish for. And then the same stuff was happening with Ryan Day. This one's inexcusable, though. Like this. Now this changes. I'm. I'm not saying fire Ryan Day today, okay? They still won the national championship.
- [34:20]
Van Lathan
Okay.
- [34:20]
Ryan Russillo
For Christ's sakes. So I'm not saying that, but now I'm far more willing to understand the frustration, which I think at times is, like, completely misguided to. I'm with Ohio State fans, like, imagine Saturday going, how did it happen? Again, I don't understand. Like, look, I'm not play calling guy, because I know there's a ton of stuff that's going on that I don't understand. But, like, Ryan Day got super pissed at Lou Holtz for saying this wasn't a physical football team. The way they called plays last year on short yardage situations. Told you that they didn't love the way they blocked that stuff. And I know they're down the offensive lineman going to this matchup, but if you're down the offensive lineman, I didn't understand why there was a commitment to show that they could maybe push people around.
- [35:05]
Todd McShay
That was my biggest frustration.
- [35:06]
Ryan Russillo
That was the, like, Howard wasn't good, the pick is disastrous. The kick, I don't understand. And I'm saying this is like, because I don't understand it. Why was there such a commitment to be like, we're still going to ground and pound these guys, Especially like that side of the field where they were dealing with the turnover.
- [35:23]
Todd McShay
I think it was an inability to accept that we're not going to win this by being more physical and shove it down their throat. I truly do. And you listen to every. Every interview after games, it's always about the physicality and how Ryan Day is proud of how physical this team is. But. But they go out and they recruit all these Ferraris on the outside. And so, like, it's. It's okay. It's okay to utilize those weapons. But for some reason, and I think it was just the mentality coming in, that we're bigger, badder, stronger, more physical than Michigan this year. We have. We have to not only beat them, we got to beat them at their own game.
- [36:06]
Ryan Russillo
But, yeah, but on the D line, if there's one thing that we knew about Michigan this year, it's that you're not. You're good everywhere else against them.
- [36:14]
Todd McShay
So you self scout, right?
- [36:15]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah. Yeah, right.
- [36:16]
Todd McShay
You self scout and you look at Michigan, you say, all right, Will Johnson continues To, to not play. So their best cornerback is out. Our best player, our best player is Jeremiah Smith. And arguably our second best player is one of our other top five, seven players in this team is Amica Abuka, the other wide receiver. And they, with four minutes left in the first half, they had a combined four target. And so it clearly was this mentality inside that bubble that we are going to not only beat them, we're going to demoralize them and we're going to do it our way. And now I get it, like you brought in Will Howard because you know, Chip's always, I remember asking Chip like 15 years ago, what. Give me your. And I forget who their quarterback was at the time, but give me like your, your what you're looking. Yeah, well, give me, give me the guy who like you would want. What are you looking for in the quarterback position? He said Rajon Rondo, you know, he's a Boston guy and that was the Celtics point guard. He wants a mobile quarterback. He wants someone to distribute and he wants, he wants that in his offense. And so they bring in Will Howard and Will Howard has an element of that because of his good decision making in the run game, his run ability. And they don't trust him as much as a passer as they do in operating their run game. They bring in Quinshaw Judkins, they pair him up with Travion Henderson. This is going to be the year. But you go into game week preparation, you say, okay, we lost two Week 1 starters on the offensive line. We're not the same group up front that we expected to be. And if Michigan has won and I think they had one personnel advantage, especially with Colston Loveland also out at tight end. Another first round Michigan has two first round prospects on that team. Two. Well, no, that's a lie.
- [38:12]
Ryan Russillo
No, 55 is a.
- [38:13]
Todd McShay
Sorry, sorry. Yes, they're defense outside of the defensive tackles, and that's my point, outside of the defensive tackles, they have two first round prospects and neither were in the game. Okay, Loveland and Will Johnson are out. And so you sit there on Sunday of last week is your game prepping and I know the game prep has gone on all year, but you're looking at your personnel and you're looking at their personnel and you say, okay, Michigan's got one advantage in this game, personnel wise. Their defensive tackles against our beat up offensive line. But, but they just continued to run their head into a brick wall. I, it didn't make sense to me.
- [38:48]
Ryan Russillo
It still doesn't make sense. I Can't believe you know it's one thing if they had won three in a row against him. Took them lightly. Go in looking ahead. Hey and all this kind of stuff. But I mean there's no. You lose three in a row to them, they win a national championship. You do all this stuff this summer. I think Jeremiah Smith might be the best player in college football. I mean he is could be such a stud at receiver and you know look, if nothing else is working. I know this sounds stupid but it's like is it worth it throwing to him once every resetting of the talents just like let's see. Because we're probably going to get a PI half the time anyway. Screen.
- [39:27]
Todd McShay
Yeah A vertical shot whatever it is.
- [39:30]
Ryan Russillo
So after the game and credit to Fox by the way for staying with the fight and all of the stuff which led the flag and you know sometimes you can see a network get out of something and it pisses you off. And I know what I would have to say if I were doing play by play. I'm never going to be a play by play guy so I don't have to worry about it. You have to admonish it. You know there's no place whatever I'm an entertained as shit. I love it. I love watching that stuff. Not saying it's right shouldn't happen after every game. Although I think these kids have so much hate going on as kind of semi public figures in some case massive public figures that there's this release in a way because of how they're. They're connected to so much shit talking that I think that's some of what we're seeing. But then I saw a lot of just piling on Ohio State because they lose the football game where which I understand but here's what I don't understand. If you're Jack Sawyer and those guys are going to do to your field because you lost, you're just supposed to let them do whatever you want. So him grabbing the field and then criticize grabbing the flag on the field and then after that like I, I don't. I, I think there's a lot of people that were criticizing Ohio State no matter what happened. And if they had just let Michigan do this and throw this party and throw the flag into the ground over and over again. Nobody then that would have been used against Ohio State too to be like these guys didn't even show any fight and being disrespected. So I, I know it's not.
- [40:53]
Todd McShay
I like we can't complain. We can't complain about nil and transfer portal and there's no loyalty to your college and it's not like it used to be. And be like the grumpy old man, Right?
- [41:08]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah.
- [41:08]
Todd McShay
And then watch Jack Sawyer have so much pride that he's not going to allow that to happen on his field. Here's what. Here's my greater issue in it. Did you watch Sark when Texas went to plant the flag? And I know it's different because Michigan is the one that planted the flag, but did you watch Sark, how quickly he picked up on that, how quickly he ran over to midfield and how quickly he got his players away from midfield so a fight did not break out?
- [41:35]
Ryan Russillo
I did see it, and it was impressive that his kids listened to him that quickly. Like, they went to do it, and as soon as he ran over was like, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. Like, everybody. Not to say that. Like, there'd be other coaches where a hundred kids would be like, whatever, coach. I don't care. But I also think that Michigan, Ohio State, things different than Texas.
- [41:55]
Todd McShay
No, I, I agree.
- [41:56]
Ryan Russillo
Even. Even with the A and M history in Texas, because there's a ton of history and I'm not being dismissed. The Michigan, Ohio State one is just really, really nasty.
- [42:05]
Todd McShay
I got it. But if you're Ryan Day, man. And, and, and I think part of the reason why Sark was so.
- [42:10]
Ryan Russillo
It's Day's fault.
- [42:12]
Todd McShay
I'm not saying. But. But you just talked about Fox in the broadcast and how great of a job they did. They also did a great job. And part of it was luck, just the timing of it, but they happened to pay into Ryan Day at one point, and he looks at an assistant who's running by and says, what happened? Well, what happened was you were. You guys were over by the band, getting ready to do what you unfortunately have to do even after a loss. And you sing the fight song or the team song, whatever it is, which.
- [42:38]
Ryan Russillo
Has to be the worst time in college athletics.
- [42:40]
Todd McShay
I was. As they were lining up. I'm like, they really got to do it now. But. But you see a bunch of your players, like the vast majority of your players, go racing over to midfield, and then you ask five minutes later, what happened? Like, what did. And I get it. His world is crashing down. He's worried about his family, his future. I can't believe, like, he's. He's absolutely in shock. Like a traumatic shock. Right? But at some point, you. You got to take. There's institutional Control like you're. You're the captain of the ship. And so I don't know. And I'm not blaming it all on day. I'm just saying it just. It felt like very unfortunate timing where he's saying what happened. And then you watch Sark like eight hours later. And with. It's the same thing that's on the line. Sark is. Is motivated by doing the right thing, but also highly motivated by the fact that, all right, if this happens, we're looking at suspensions if a fight breaks out. And that could affect us either in the SEC championship and, or in the playoff. And for Ohio State, like, I don't know if there's going to be suspensions that are, that are handed out, but if there are, it's not going to be in the Big Ten championship because they're not playing in it. It's going to be in the College Football Playoff.
- [43:54]
Ryan Russillo
Okay, I want to talk Texas a little bit because I think SEC Hardo and all of the SEC and the conference is very political. No, but I just. I just think it's all political. Like no one's ever changing their mind. And the cost of eggs is going to be either something that's bad or good, and everybody's just going to be full of. Yep. So when Texas is coming to the sec, SEC Hardo is like, oh, good luck. Good luck lining up against these guys and all that kind of stuff. So that was stupid. You know, the SEC Hardo, who doesn't think any of the bowl losses ever count because players declare for the draft, but then they'll run around like crazy when they beat the Big Ten in some of the matchups. Right. So that stuff is really annoying. So I know that Texas fans had to do that. I think sane people looked at Texas going, okay, they're probably going to be pretty good. And you could do a little of the scheduling stuff where there's seven SEC teams that won nine games this year. Texas is one of them. So you take the other six, nine win SEC teams, Texas played one. Like, again, Texas SEC experience is not even close to what George's was. But I thought that was a dominant win. I thought they were a good football team all season. But the other side, the anti SEC Hardo, let's say that's the phrase. Just to keep it simple here, would suggest that Texas coming into the SEC and winning it immediately is a knock on the sec. And I thought, well, I guess if a new team comes into a conference and wins it in the first year, like what does that say for the conference? Now, granted, the SEC is held up higher, so therefore it's held to higher standards. So that maybe it's more damning there. Do you want to run through who won the other conferences off the top of your head?
- [45:30]
Todd McShay
Do I want to run through who won the other.
- [45:32]
Ryan Russillo
Who won the Big Ten?
- [45:33]
Todd McShay
Oregon.
- [45:35]
Ryan Russillo
Right. Who won the Big 12 in the regular season?
- [45:40]
Todd McShay
Is it BYU?
- [45:41]
Ryan Russillo
It's Arizona State.
- [45:42]
Todd McShay
Oh, Arizona State.
- [45:43]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah.
- [45:43]
Todd McShay
Arizona State. Yeah.
- [45:44]
Ryan Russillo
Sorry, the accent. Do you know who won the acc?
- [45:49]
Todd McShay
Smoo.
- [45:50]
Ryan Russillo
Smu. Four teams all first year.
- [45:54]
Todd McShay
I never thought about.
- [45:55]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah. So the counter would be again. Well, the SEC is the one everybody talks all this about. I just never really quite understood. I didn't think. I didn't watch Texas being like, yeah, they'll be bad, but I think weirdo SEC guy probably was in some prideful way. I don't have more on that. That was just a point.
- [46:14]
Todd McShay
Unless you have more, it's actually a good point. I hadn't thought about it, and I didn't look at it universally in the other conferences. I do think, yeah, it's political. I get what you're saying. And I think. I also think the same SEC Hardo who is saying, wait till Texas has to play this SEC schedule and they can't hold up week in and week out is now saying, well, look at Texas. There are another great team in the SEC and we're deeper, better conference. Than everyone. So, yeah, I mean, it's always going to be pitched at that angle. Yeah.
- [46:47]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, that's it. That's it.
- [46:49]
Todd McShay
I'm glad we touched on it because.
- [46:52]
Ryan Russillo
SMU has a little scheduling thing going on here, too. Like, SMU. I already mentioned it in the top 12 thing, but if you go through, like, the top ACC schools, they didn't. So sometimes I wonder, like, did we have a playoff result where it was like, who had the easiest time in their now ridiculous, completely unfair schedules? But anyway, I love Notre Dame. I think I finally. I think I finally got there with it. I don't know because I saw.
- [47:27]
Todd McShay
I was texting with Pollock yesterday and I think he's. He's in a similar boat. I think it's been hard to gauge how good Notre Dame is. I think they looked awesome early. They got a, you know, big win against A and M. They. Then it's like, oh, gosh, it's just. It's not going to be a good year. Poor Marcus Freeman. Like him. But is. Is this going to work with the Northern Illinois loss? And then they. It feels like they've steadily gotten better and better as the season's progressed. My argument is, and it's not even an argument, I guess my trepidation with Notre Dame right now is when I look at them, two times they had to face opponents that had good weapons and a good passing game. I think maybe not just two, but in two occasions, Louisville and usc, this secondary, which is really talented, but they lost Morrison, their first round cornerback.
- [48:27]
Ryan Russillo
Right.
- [48:28]
Todd McShay
Are they. Are they. When they get into a playoff against a really good passing team, what's that going to look like? So that's question number one. Question number two is, can they pass rush at an elite level? When you start to look at Tennessee and Georgia and South Carolina, if they get in, and Ohio State to a lesser degree, but they have talent up front.
- [48:55]
Ryan Russillo
What about Oregon's pass rush?
- [48:58]
Todd McShay
Good. It's good. Not elite, I would say.
- [49:00]
Ryan Russillo
Okay. I'm just trying to think of it like, do you like Oregon's pass rush still more than Notre Dame's? It sounds like.
- [49:08]
Todd McShay
Maybe slightly. I don't think there's a huge difference. But. But Penn State's got a better pass rush. I'm just saying, when you combine, okay, couple times against really good passing teams, and maybe it's pass rush and secondary, you know, together. And I think there's a lot of good talent in that secondary, but they've struggled. You can't deny that. They've given up a lot of yards. Okay. Now they had the two interceptions late and. And they stepped up when they needed to, but USC passed the ball very successfully. Right. And then the other thing is, on the flip side, the other side of the ball, the weapons concern me. Like, do they have explosive weapons on the outside? And the answer from every tape I've studied is, no, they don't. And a quarterback who has gotten better as a passer this year in Riley Leonard. But. But they're not. They don't scare you on the perimeter. And I looked this past week and their top two leaders in receiving are the tight end, Mitchell Evans, and Jeremiah Love, the running back. And so while I think they're a very, very good football team, absolutely deserve to be where they are at this point, considering what they've gone through. They, you know, and a lot of. There's been carnage everywhere else, and they've continued to kind of gradually rise up, and I think that they're capable of beating a lot of teams, not all teams. But how. How great are they is because. Because Pollock said he legitimately could see them winning a national Championship. That's where I differ. I can go a long way in terms of how good they are and I could see them winning a game, maybe two games. I don't know that they're a national championship team because of those three areas that I just touched on. Yeah.
- [50:47]
Ryan Russillo
I think I just love the O line. I love the running backs. Even though one of them went.
- [50:52]
Todd McShay
The running backs are outstanding.
- [50:54]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah. And I think Riley Leonard's been really good. And then the running part of it. I think there's a toughness with them. I think the resume, like again, it depends. It's back to the politics thing. Like however you want to shape it, which we're experts and like I can see the bullshit is soon as it's. It's posted or it's like well in common opponents this or whatever and like.
- [51:13]
Todd McShay
One win against the currently ranked current opponent.
- [51:16]
Ryan Russillo
Right, right.
- [51:16]
Todd McShay
But you're going to see people.
- [51:19]
Ryan Russillo
Pushing, pushing that they have four and it's just not going to be true. I just think I, I loved that in that game against SC when they needed to be physical. And I'm not even talking about the pick six like at that point like SC is trying to do whatever they can so the score ends up making it a little. Well, se got a late one anyway. So it ends up looking. Because it was a competitive football game and I know by the way, part of it.
- [51:44]
Todd McShay
Terrible beat.
- [51:45]
Ryan Russillo
Terrible. You didn't deserve that. You didn't deserve that.
- [51:48]
Todd McShay
I mean, I gave it out to all my FanDuel friends. We're trying to take down FanDuel each and every week we've been on a run there. It's a seven and a half point number. They're down seven, covering, driving, going in. And you give up. I want you to think about it. You're covering and you got a chance now to go tie the game.
- [52:08]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah.
- [52:09]
Todd McShay
Or maybe winning it. If you go for two and. And all of a sudden you throw 199 yards worth of two pick sixes in the last few minutes of the game. That's a bad beat.
- [52:22]
Ryan Russillo
I gave out Notre Dame. I needed it bad. So what are you going to do?
- [52:26]
Todd McShay
You feel good about that?
- [52:28]
Ryan Russillo
Well, I don't know. I don't know if anybody should feel like. Should be running around. I needed one though. Look, I. The other thing with Notre Dame's offense and that O line, they're the number one. They're actually number two in all of college football and yards per carry, but they're the number one if you include them as A power four. I know they're independent, but like if you put them up there with the, all the other big boys, they're the best yards per carry. And it's, it's by a fairly wide margin over Kansas State, who's number two. And you're right, I'm not picking to win a national championship. We could rip apart their schedule like I've ripped apart other team schedule. I'm arguing against the idea they have these four ranked wins because it's not really all that accurate. As you pointed out. Army's the only one there. And I definitely like Penn State's defensive talent, especially with the Morrison injury. More so than I like Notre Dame's defensive talent right now as well. I mean, look, there's a lot of Penn State games where I'll watch and be like, there's just a ton of dudes here that I do like. Yeah, I do like on this team. So it's been different maybe than some other Penn State years. Okay.
- [53:25]
Todd McShay
I didn't see that game.
- [53:26]
Ryan Russillo
Who would you pick? Penn State or name right now? Ooh.
- [53:32]
Todd McShay
I think I've been unfairly hard on Penn State. I just don't think that they're at that class. I don't like when, when.
- [53:42]
Ryan Russillo
No, it doesn't sound like you think the Irish are either. You know, it kind of. It feels like a tier two situation for you.
- [53:47]
Todd McShay
Yes. Yeah, they're both in that, in that tier two and like maybe like seven, eight spots down. In terms of the teams I think that are better than them. Notre Dame. Penn State. Notre. I'm going to take Penn State slightly. Who do you got?
- [54:08]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, I think I'm going to go Penn State even though I ranked him behind Notre Dame in my rankings, which probably doesn't make any sense, but there you go, the last SEC spot. It sounded like you were pushing for South Carolina. I put him. I put him in. The Ole Miss head to head thing is a tough one to get past. I do think it's okay at this point of the season when things are really, really close. If you just go, hey, guess what? I think this team is better. I like this team better. After the 12 games, I feel better about this. Lenora Sellers, the stuff he does, it gets a little dangerous. It can get a little wild every now and then, but my God, and the way he'll get free from everybody and then you think you have the angle on him. It's not Lamar stuff because there's still nothing ever like Lamar in college or even really the NFL. I'LL never, I don't know that I'll ever see anything like that again. But Lenoris will get this angle on you, and then he has this extra burst where now all of a sudden you're like, what the hell is going on? On top of the pass rush and everything else. Maybe South Carolina is kind of this underdog pick here. I, I would go, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Alabama. I am so over the Milro experience with Alabama that I, I. You will not hear me argue for them, even though it looks like the committee still likes them more.
- [55:24]
Todd McShay
Yeah, I guess I'm confused because I just assumed after the loss at Miami's out, but I have them out. I see Heather Dennis come on and be like, I don't know what everyone's talking like, Miami's still in, and I don't know how the hell if you're the committee member that you want to put that defense. Listen, I'm an NFL evaluator first and foremost. I'm dying.
- [55:46]
Ryan Russillo
Hell, yeah.
- [55:47]
Todd McShay
Yeah, baby. I'm dying to see Cam Ward against, you know, a college football playoff defense. Sure, it's. It will, it will help the evaluation. But I, But I'm also a college football fan and want to see what's best. And I want to see the best 12, too. I can't live with, with allowing. Not allow. I can't live with, with giving the Miami the. The honor of being in the College Football Playoff with that defense. That defense is atrocious.
- [56:22]
Ryan Russillo
They're so bad on defense.
- [56:24]
Todd McShay
They were up 21 nothing. You blink your eye like, two quarters later and they've given up 35 points. You almost have to try to do that.
- [56:34]
Ryan Russillo
I hated my Guy Restrepo fumbling, too. I hated that because he's been one of my favorite players this year. I have no issue with Miami, but I think it's funny. And credit, credit to Heather Dich, because she got all sorts of. When she was suggesting that, hey, this SEC team may not be out or a three loss, like, all it was is, we have to do a better job of, like, you know, what this could look like at the end. And the stakes being raised these last couple of weeks where, you know, I think it was kind of ridiculous, like during Michigan, Ohio State, when they're saying, like, everything's on the line, you're like, except it isn't because Ohio State's still going to be in the playoff. They're going to lose to Michigan and they're still going to be in the playoff. Now, what you tell me to Tell me to shut up is that everybody's watching Georgia, Georgia Tech in a game that nobody would be paying attention to with Georgia, two losses. So I kind of lose the argument on, like, the excitement part of it, because there's more stuff that actually matters. I just think it's ridiculous in the years where it was lsu, Bama facing off against each other, meaning, like, this team, whoever wins this game, that team has a chance to play in the national championship. And if you lose, it is over. I like those stakes. I like the Michigan, Ohio State stakes being different. I don't like Ohio State losing and being like, oh, whatever, two laws. It doesn't matter. We're just back into the playoffs. So we've already heard that rant from me. But Dinwich, I thought, got all sorts of heat for going like, hey, have an open mind about a couple of these different things. And now she's doing it with Miami when the same thing's happening with a different team in a different conference.
- [58:00]
Todd McShay
My, my. Here's my issue, though. If Miami's out, then. Then we have a great discussion. Alabama, South Carolina. I don't think it's Ole Miss, but some people will argue 4 Ole Miss. I don't think you can finish the season that way. Have the losses that they had and still get in. Okay, so for me, it was Alabama versus South Carolina. I'll come back to that in a second because I'll make the argument for South Carolina. But I want you to understand, if Miami's still in, I think if my math is right, it's a moot point.
- [58:30]
Ryan Russillo
Yes.
- [58:31]
Todd McShay
Like Oregon, Texas, Penn State, Georgia, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee. Then you throw. Keep Miami in the mix. Then the. The winner of smu, Clemson is in as the ACC champion. Indiana apparently still in. Like, in what world? Indiana and Miami deserve to be in the College Football Playoff, and some of these other teams don't. But, like, that's the world we're living in. Based off of last week's College Football Playoff rankings, we'll see what happens.
- [59:00]
Ryan Russillo
I have Indiana over Miami. I had them 12th, but it doesn't.
- [59:04]
Todd McShay
Matter what you have. I have Miami out. I'd like to see Indiana out, but they're both getting in according to what the rankings were last week and what Denich is now saying, and nobody has better insight into all of it. So those are the teams. That's 10 right there. Okay. Then you got Boise State is going to be 11, or I guess UNLV is a possibility if they win that championship. And then the 12th spot will be the Big 12 champion. Right.
- [59:32]
Ryan Russillo
Well, the way you know, I'm kind of going off of the ap but like if you look back, I mean the committee really liked Miami. They still had him in front of Georgia, which I think is so brutal.
- [59:44]
Todd McShay
Like how Georgia 7 in Tennessee.
- [59:47]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah.
- [59:48]
Todd McShay
Yeah. So I just, I just laid it out for you. If Miami's in, there's no discussion about Alabama, South Carolina or Ole Miss. There isn't. There's not enough room.
- [59:58]
Ryan Russillo
I don't know if Bama's going to win based on what the committee's been doing here. They're going to like Bama over South Carolina and they're going to have the head to head to point too. And that's totally fine.
- [60:08]
Todd McShay
And I'm a two point win. Head to head over South Carolina. They also have one spot in the strength of ranking edge over South Carolina in South Carolina's favor though they lost to Bama by only two points in Tuscaloosa in a game they were, they were dogs. But three touchdown dogs and that was eight weeks ago. Okay. They have the slight edge and strength of schedule. South Carolina does over Alabama. They have no ugly losses like Alabama does with Vandy. And more importantly the blowout against Oklahoma. The LSU loss included terrible officiating that could have changed that game. And quarterback, we forget that Sellers was out, was injured in that game in the first half. And most importantly South Carolina, we're trying to get in the best teams right now. South Carolina is the hotter team, has played better, better down the stretch and two ranked opponents they've beaten in the last three weeks. So if Alabama gets in, it's because of the brand, period.
- [61:09]
Ryan Russillo
No, they'll say the head to head. They're going to say the head to head and they're going to say that they don't Alabama. I mean honestly, the Oklahoma loss is.
- [61:16]
Todd McShay
But even like when you talk about like FanDuel and all these places and Las Vegas, you give three points, it's like it's, it's under. You give three points for home field advantage. They lost by.
- [61:28]
Ryan Russillo
No, I understand, I understand. I, I am with you on South Carolina and the fact that they had to go. A little Robbie Ashford experiment during that LSU game should be even more credit towards South Carolina. But based on the way the rankings have been going, they're going to say Alabama won the head to head and maybe they still like Miami enough. Miami being in over those SEC teams to me would be a joke. That's where I'll sound like an sec. Apologies. All right. I want to.
- [61:57]
Todd McShay
He doesn't have a win over a ranked, currently ranked opponent.
- [62:00]
Ryan Russillo
No, I know. I'm not asking for why the AP dropped him to 14. And when you start doing some of the strength of record and all that stuff, like Alabama is still number four in the ESPN FBI. I mean, give me.
- [62:12]
Todd McShay
Yeah, I don't know what.
- [62:13]
Ryan Russillo
What that is. Yeah, I credit anybody for trying something a little different or whatever, but, like, Alabama was number two and then they dropped to four and you're like, so you're going to start citing some of these things. All right, do you have early liens on the championship games? Can we make that quick without, like a full breakdown? Because I know you're going to do a full breakdown on the McShay Show.
- [62:35]
Todd McShay
It scares me that FanDuel has got only a three and a half point spreading. I'm not even talking personnel. Like, obviously, Oregon is the much better football team in my mind. And I think most.
- [62:46]
Ryan Russillo
You think it's just because it's an indie.
- [62:48]
Todd McShay
I think it might be because it's an indie. Because the whole. I'm guessing Penn State's gonna be better represented.
- [62:56]
Ryan Russillo
The Ducks travel, though, so it's not.
- [62:57]
Todd McShay
Like, you know, but that, like, I was expecting six, six and a half, right? And nine out of ten times when the line's like, they're begging you. They're begging you.
- [63:11]
Ryan Russillo
Begging you to take the Ducks.
- [63:13]
Todd McShay
They're begging you to take the Ducks. Right? So that game scares me.
- [63:17]
Ryan Russillo
Same exact thing. Like, I thought it'd be six and a half, maybe six. And then I was like, God, what about the rematch? Is there a chance? George Is just an awful matchup for Texas.
- [63:30]
Todd McShay
Yes. But I don't think you're going to see. What was it? 10 sacks, 15 tackles for loss, 4 turnovers.
- [63:38]
Ryan Russillo
Like yours got a break in the game. You don't see that a lot. It wasn't that he was bench. We're like, we're just going to give you a break.
- [63:43]
Todd McShay
It was a men. It was a mental health break. It truly was. If you want to break it down.
- [63:48]
Ryan Russillo
Like, if you want to have a cigarette. Quinn.
- [63:50]
Todd McShay
It was like HR walked into his office and was like, listen. Yeah, grab a cigarette. There's the couch. Take a mental health break. We'll come back to you and, you know, in a day or two and you'll. You'll resume your duties here in the corporation.
- [64:05]
Ryan Russillo
I don't. I don't. It's hard to watch that game and be like, yeah, I'll Pick the other team this time. But Carson Beck continues like if you want to make the argument against Georgia be like what are you actually backing? And I'm like, well, I'm backing that they went.
- [64:18]
Todd McShay
Let's not forget Carson. Beck threw three picks in that game and was not very good. Carson is a hell of a lot better. More confident.
- [64:27]
Ryan Russillo
You think so? I didn't think he was that great against Tech. Did you? I mean I think he second half.
- [64:33]
Todd McShay
I did second half I thought he was really good. I thought he was really good.
- [64:36]
Ryan Russillo
First half I was like what is going on with this guy?
- [64:38]
Todd McShay
They're a team that they, they like to play one half of games. I can tell you that much.
- [64:43]
Ryan Russillo
Is there anything to. It takes you a while to recover after that.
- [64:47]
Todd McShay
I'm interested to see. Do we see more of Arch in this game?
- [64:51]
Ryan Russillo
Yes.
- [64:53]
Todd McShay
Mensch on our show the other night made a really good point. Tim Tebow vibes when Arch comes in go back to that Chris Leak freshman year. There's a certain level of like energy, his mobility. I think and I think we saw it in this, in this Texas A and M game. I think we're going to see potentially a little bit more of him against Georgia and designed. Not, not like you know, because not. I mean it could be because you were struggles if he struggles again the second. Second time around against Georgia. But I do think there's going to be a little bit more Arch in this game.
- [65:31]
Ryan Russillo
I would agree. I think you better bring it out and show it and I think we already saw maybe the, the. The teasing part of it against A and M to have Georgia thinking about that. Do you have. Do you have anything on Sam Levitt the freshman? He's got a gold chain on in his profile pick on ESPN.com so that's all I need.
- [65:51]
Todd McShay
You love the picks.
- [65:54]
Ryan Russillo
What do you mean?
- [65:56]
Todd McShay
I don't I feel like I always see on. On your X feed you always like you know you'll pop up some weird old pick of somebody.
- [66:05]
Ryan Russillo
Well that's the Kobe Dean fedora thing which is try to like because Nicole be Dean was the kind of guy I was like he's not going to be good in the NFL because he's undersized because he was probably one of my favorite Kyle took him a minute. I was nervous but it did take bit but I mean he was just so good. But sometimes it just size but it looks like now things are going to work out for him. No I feel like when it's Sunday night or Monday Night Football or Thursday Night Football. I know everything I need to know about a player's personality, the way they introduce themselves. Okay. I've said this for years. Like, I can tell exactly. You know, there's a reason why they kind of hang.
- [66:38]
Todd McShay
That guy would be everything.
- [66:39]
Ryan Russillo
Right? Right. I mean, like, the more sauce you throw into that, the more difficult I think you would be as a roommate. But if you're a freshman in Arizona State. Right. If you're not wrong, if you're a kid out of Westland, Oregon, and you find a way to get a gold chain in your profile pick. How do I pick against you?
- [66:59]
Todd McShay
Yeah, he's been playing well.
- [67:02]
Ryan Russillo
Okay. What about smu? Clemson?
- [67:06]
Todd McShay
I can see Clemson winning that.
- [67:08]
Ryan Russillo
That was the only one spread wise where I felt like, what's the number in that game? If you're getting Clemson plus two and a half, you kind of have to.
- [67:15]
Todd McShay
Yeah.
- [67:16]
Ryan Russillo
Okay. All right, let me finish up here. That. I know you're going to do a much bigger breakdown. We were going to do a full conference championship game breakdown here. I just was. Was trying to get into McShay's head a little bit about the early liens. All right, let's throw a scenario at you. Okay. Because I've seen this one out there on the Internet. It's crazy. If you look at the standings right now in the NFL and you go league wide, there's a lot of work for the Bears to end up with a number one pick. They're four and eight. There's a bunch of teams with two wins. There's a handful of teams with three wins. Saints, Cincinnati. So it's not likely that the Bears, even though with a difficult, tough, redundant, difficult remaining strength in the schedule, it's not likely, even with all those things, they would end up with a number one pick. However, we don't have any rules here. If the Bears were to get the number one pick, Shador's on the board. Maybe it even means you get Dion. What would you do?
- [68:10]
Todd McShay
I don't think you're getting Dion. I would. Depending on the information you have and everything that leads up to the draft, I'd probably draft him and get rid of intention of making Shador my quarterback. I've got my guy. And the difference in talent level and the future of those two is it's hard to overstate. Okay. I really like Shador. Best pure passer. I think he's got a chance to be a solid pro, but Caleb's got a chance to be special still. And we've seen a lot more glimpses in the last few weeks than we did earlier in the season. I draft him only because now I've got the leverage, because Prime, Coach prime is absolutely going to dictate where Shador goes. No question in my mind. He's stated it. He's leaning into it. He's tripling down on it, and it will happen. So if I draft him at number one, no matter Chicago or Jacksonville or whoever it is, if I draft him at number one now, I'm in control. Now I dictate not where he goes, but what the price is going to be. And if it's Chicago or any other team, I'm looking at this year's draft. And it's not like the last couple years where there's a clear cut, top five, top seven players or clear, you can get pretty close at pick six or seven or eight, what you can get at number one. And so I take them trade to the team that Coach prime is designated for, Shador. And now I'm going to get a boatload of picks because I have the leverage. And if you want them, you got to come and pay me to get them. That's what I would do.
- [69:53]
Ryan Russillo
I'll give Shador this man the better.
- [69:55]
Todd McShay
Answer than you expected. Admit it.
- [69:59]
Ryan Russillo
I think I really wanted to break down, like, the idea that some people would be like, would Shador be a better prospect than Caleb? And I can't fathom.
- [70:06]
Todd McShay
Well, I answered that.
- [70:07]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, you were definitive that there is no. There's no one that does evaluation. Well, can't speak for everybody, right? I mean, somebody would maybe gray Shador.
- [70:15]
Todd McShay
I haven't come across anyone who sees the same future for Shador as they see for Caleb. And that's not. That's not even that big. It's not like a knock on Shador necessarily. It's. It's more of what. What everyone thinks that Caleb can become.
- [70:29]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, yeah. And I would agree with that part of it. And, you know, another thing for sure, you want to talk about doing it on your own, they're still the third worst rushing team in college football. Like, you never have to worry about it. And yet he's still putting up these numbers. And if it weren't for Travis Hunter, I think Shador would have a much better chance of the Heisman. Like, maybe. Maybe even the favorite.
- [70:52]
Todd McShay
He's been awesome this year. He really has been.
- [70:55]
Ryan Russillo
Look, I felt like the beginning of the year, I was saying the same stuff from last year, and I went, h, this isn't happening. And then they completely turned it around, completely turned it around. And they deserve a lot of credit for that. But I would agree with you. I, I think some of the theoretical kind of fun stuff of like, what if the Bears end up with the number one pick? You take Shador and then trade Caleb and it's like, why would you want to get rid of Caleb after everything that you've seen him go through this year and how well he's played for really good stretches here in the second half of the season? All right, you can check out the McShay show on Spotify. Ringer podcasts three days a week, Saturday night recaps. You guys would be going all night then after all the conference championship games Saturday. Correct. All right. Yeah.
- [71:37]
Todd McShay
Fired up. I'll call you to see if you want to join again.
- [71:40]
Ryan Russillo
No, I'll jump in. I'll jump in on that one.
- [71:42]
Todd McShay
All right.
- [71:43]
Ryan Russillo
All right.
- [71:43]
Todd McShay
I got them locked in.
- [71:44]
Ryan Russillo
Spice it up. All right, let's go. Talk to you soon, buddy.
- [71:47]
Todd McShay
All right, my man.
- [71:52]
Ryan Russillo
This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. Choosing the right credit card can be tough. But I've got some good news. You can stop searching. Try Apple Card. It's easy to use and even easier to pay down your balance with no hidden fees ever. Listen, the sports calendar is full and the holidays are basically here. It's an expensive time of the year. An Apple card is great for earning daily cash back on all of those purchases. That includes getting gifts for your family, getting tickets to a game, and even buying that ugly sweater you'll only wear once. So apply for an Apple Card today. It's easy. Just go to the wallet app on your iPhone. Subject to credit approval. Variable APRs for Apple Card range from 18.74% to 28.99% based on creditworthiness rates as of October 1, 2024, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City branch terms and more@apple card.com before we get to live advice, let's just say the community there was for those that care, there was an incident this weekend which was positive. It was a positive. So let's not mislead. We've got Saruti, we've got Kyle. We have Van Lathan who are always excited to have join us and Kyle and Van had the frolic room hang that the Internet could not stop talking about. So let's, let's start with this. Kyle. How did it start? How did the rendezvous start?
- [73:21]
Kyle
It started at Thanksgiving. We actually like a couple weeks before this. I forget why. Bandwidth. Oh, we were watching Football a couple weeks before that. And he was like, you know what? I'm going to Frolic Room. And then Bill kind of got a whiff of that. He was like, I'll go. I was like, all right, we'll see. And then I realized I had something to do that Saturday. And then I saw Van at Thanksgiving and he was like, concrete, we're doing this. I got a little nervous. I texted him the day of. I was like, big day. He was very responsive. I'm like, this is happening. And he showed up at 2:30. I showed up at 2, no big deal. And we stayed there until like 9:30. It was like a seven hour hang.
- [73:53]
Ryan Russillo
Wow.
- [73:54]
Kyle
He bought the whole place. Wing, stop. It was. I refilled my jukebox credits like three times. I probably spent like $60 on the jukebox, but it was all worth it. Priceless.
- [74:06]
Van Lathan
Okay, Van, so let me tell you something. I had a fucking fantastic time at Frolic. I gotta be honest with you. Okay, I will say something, Ricilo. You are kind of like the abominable Snowman of Frolic. Like you people, there's rumors of you, but people aren't sure. You know what I mean? Like Moby Dick type of situation. People aren't sure. There's rumors of you. I went to. When I sat down, I came in there, I sat down, and Kyle starts introducing me to all of the cast of characters. There was a white girl in there that started crying within five minutes of me sitting down.
- [74:42]
Kyle
She got a hair pit trigger on her cry.
- [74:43]
Van Lathan
Yeah, about something that happened in the bar years ago. Nobody cared that she was crying. I was trying to console her and everybody else.
- [74:52]
Kyle
I was trying to tell you, man.
- [74:53]
Van Lathan
Like, Kyle's like, she cries. Don't worry about it. The bartender was like, ah, fuck you. Everybody was like, she's crying. Then the gigantic Boston bouncer comes in and starts sprouting like pro Trump stuff at me. I'm like, bro, not today. Have some wings. He goes and he eats the wings. And then we're all together. I met. And let me tell you about real quick. Let me tell you about the diaspora. At first Frolic, I met a Nigerian person, an Asian dude, Regular whites, Southy Boston people, Louisiana born, African Americans. Everybody was there and everybody was just getting drunk and watching the game. I met another guy, the USC dude that talked to. We were. I was. I'm going back. Me and Kyle left. We were so fucked up. I'm going back. I had fun at Frolic. Frolic is my new haunt.
- [75:52]
Ryan Russillo
Right.
- [75:53]
Van Lathan
It's I got a haunt. I've never had a haunt before. You know what I'm saying? Baton Rouge, you have a haunt and then they get shot up. But here, I don't think that's going to happen at Frolic. But like, at Frolic, it was dope. I had a fun time. Ryan, what's your hesitation?
- [76:08]
Ryan Russillo
It's not that I don't love dive bars because I love them. It's just our schedules don't always align and like, Saturday is a perfect day. Like, there's no way I could. 2:00. I mean, Indiana, it doesn't happen at 2:00. Down the street from me, you know, so I'm. I'm a bit. If it's going to happen, it's usually very, very late for me. I'll be like, all right, it's on. I mean, the one time I was that end of town, I was at, I think I was in like a part of Koreatown and it's one of my favorite dive bars in LA up there. And then I just hit it, Kyle. Up I go, hey, I'm in the area Frolic Room right now. I'll go. And then Kyle's just like, dude, what are you, 11:00? Like, what are you nuts? So 11:00am Maybe.
- [77:01]
Todd McShay
Yeah.
- [77:02]
Ryan Russillo
So I was just like, it's not, it's not going to happen. Um, well, so yeah, we went to.
- [77:08]
Kyle
St Shane Gillis afterwards and Bill. I don't know who. Whose idea was. It was Bill's or Ryan. We're like, should we go to the Frolic Room? And I think it was like 10:30. You could feel the vibe shifts in there as the, as the sun went down. It's just different, right? Like you would have been fine van with Frolic if we showed up at 7:30. It's been dark for two hours. But there was just nothing like that 2:00. You know, it's still bright outside.
- [77:29]
Van Lathan
That's.
- [77:29]
Kyle
I just didn't want his first impression to be, you know, the, the shift change. You know, you don't get Troy or anything. You get those, the guys in the, in the bow ties. It's just different.
- [77:38]
Van Lathan
I'll tell you one thing about. Yeah, Kyle, go ahead. That I realized about Frolic as well. There's another reason why Kyle wants people to come to Frolic. Kyle is the mayor of Frolic. No, no, don't bullshit the people like Kyle.
- [77:55]
Kyle
I'm not even on the wall. I'm not even on the wall.
- [77:58]
Van Lathan
There Kyle is. It was everything was revolving around Kyle. Kyle was connecting everyone. People were coming in. They were paying homage to Kyle. Like, they would walk by, but they would come and stop. Like, you ever see one of those old mob movies where you walk in Vito's club and you let me go say hello to Vito real quick. And, like, people were coming in and they were saying, what's up? To Kyle? And then going to the end of the bar. This is kind of a situation where Kyle is the man. I understand why he wants people to come. I had a great time, though. I ended up having, like, deep conversations about my dad. Like, once I get drunk, I become everybody's friend. I'm like one of those drunks. I was around meeting new people. I might have got a real estate agent out of it.
- [78:43]
Kyle
You got G checked by a cowboy guy, didn't you? A little bit. I think you came out of it okay. But he was like, what's the fucking story here?
- [78:50]
Van Lathan
Yeah, he tried to come over to me and ask me about the cowboy hat. There is a part where you're in a bar and there's a little thing in the back of your mind. It's like, don't get fucked up in the Frolic Room. All right?
- [78:59]
Kyle
Yeah. This guy's like, well, I'm from Utah. Like, I'm a real cowboy.
- [79:03]
Van Lathan
Yeah.
- [79:03]
Ryan Russillo
And I'm, like, living in LA at the Frolic Room. All right, thanks, Rip.
- [79:07]
Van Lathan
But, you know, I get that the hat is controversial, so it's like, whatever. But I had a fun time. Bottom line, Frolic. If I was gonna give it out of the 10, I'm gonna give it 9.5 out of 10. The only reason why it's not a 10 is. Cause they ain't got no food. But I had to provide the food. But I really had a fun time at the Frolic Room.
- [79:24]
Ryan Russillo
Much easier. Much easier place to work. And no food service, though. So I think Frolic Room deserves even more credit for that, for not pretending like, all right, we're going to do food. So I saw a pig. Was that Blade? Was that Blade your trainer, Kyle?
- [79:36]
Kyle
No, no, no. Blade's a white guy from. From Vermont or.
- [79:40]
Ryan Russillo
Fuck.
- [79:40]
Kyle
I always get those wherever he's from.
- [79:41]
Ryan Russillo
Up there.
- [79:42]
Kyle
I think it's. Oh, Maine. No, no, that. That was. That's my trainer. That's a Nigerian guy he was talking about. That guy actually got fired because he just wouldn't show up to work on time, and he would just constantly lie about it. But then another bouncer was in the hospital. Just kind of getting old. Stuff. So they brought him back for the night shift. So I never thought I was going to see him again because I'm really not there after the shift change. But, you know, me and Van weren't.
- [80:03]
Ryan Russillo
For the long haul.
- [80:03]
Kyle
So it was like, you know, five hours into the hang and I was like, oh, my God, it's you. And then we hung out.
- [80:09]
Ceruti
Van, what's the beverage of choice at the Frog Room? What were we drinking?
- [80:13]
Van Lathan
We were. We were on the old fashions, baby. We were on the old fashions. And let me tell you something. Let me tell you something about the Frolic Room. They do not care about over serving you heavy pores. They look over and they see you don't have an Old Fashioned. And the next Old Fashioned in front of your Troy is on. You need. You want another one?
- [80:37]
Ceruti
Dangerous.
- [80:37]
Van Lathan
You want another one? I said, troy, this is my.
- [80:40]
Kyle
Say yes twice. He stops asking.
- [80:42]
Van Lathan
Yep. I'm like, this is my. Cause he came over and he put it there. I was like, abrah, can I have some water? This is like. I was like, can I have some water? Just give me one glass of water. Just one glass of water. Cause I got a woman to go back home to and she's already been warned, by the way, about the Frolic Room. It was a deep conversation from Kyle's girl to my girl about the Frolic Room. So she was like, don't come back here all fucked up. And I did anyway. But it was. But it was a lot of fun. Old Fashioned is worth a drink.
- [81:14]
Kyle
Can I give you a little fun fact? I paid her both of our tabs before we left just so we get out of there clean. You want to guess what it costs for both of us to drink for.
- [81:22]
Van Lathan
Seven hours there, I had like six and a beer. So I'm going to say, what, like 100, 150 bucks?
- [81:32]
Kyle
It was 98. I thought you were going to say a lot more, but it was mine and yours, so I don't know.
- [81:36]
Ryan Russillo
I was.
- [81:36]
Kyle
I was getting beers the whole time. So I don't.
- [81:38]
Ceruti
Kyle, do you get a discount for bringing people in? I feel like you need to, like, get some kickbacks.
- [81:42]
Kyle
It's not really said, you know, and I don't really want to put it out there, you know, I don't want like, Bar rescue John Taffer showing up and being like, we're going to fucking gut this place.
- [81:50]
Ryan Russillo
I don't want Taffer anywhere close to that place.
- [81:52]
Ceruti
Yeah.
- [81:53]
Kyle
So. Yeah, me neither. I would just change everything.
- [81:57]
Todd McShay
Yeah.
- [81:57]
Kyle
I don't know. Different Times, you know, sometimes pretzel rods.
- [82:00]
Ryan Russillo
Like canes, like the guys in the 20s, buckets of pretzel rods as soon as you watch it. What says Hollywood more than pretzel rods?
- [82:07]
Kyle
Right? Exactly. Really, really wanted to capture the soul of this town.
- [82:11]
Van Lathan
I know we don't have a ton of time, so I want to ask Ryan one thing. When. Because me and Kyle talked about it. Either you're coming up there or this Saturday. We're coming to you. Whatever. We had a whole conversation about the. Like, when. What's gonna. Like, what's going to happen with.
- [82:37]
Ryan Russillo
With.
- [82:38]
Van Lathan
With this. Are you coming to Frolic, Ryan, or are we gonna have to come all the way down to Manhattan Beach? Like, what. What's. What's the deal?
- [82:45]
Kyle
Road dogs.
- [82:47]
Ryan Russillo
The Manhattan beach parties apparently are not well reviewed on Yelp. So I like, I, I. This has to be where I come to Kyle. I have to come. This is not me reversing it and be like, hey, why don't we actually do it at my place? Because we've already tried that. I have to come up.
- [83:02]
Kyle
But I'd go back.
- [83:03]
Ryan Russillo
It's gonna be, you know, the problem.
- [83:04]
Kyle
Is, good review for me.
- [83:05]
Ceruti
Redemption.
- [83:07]
Ryan Russillo
There's always, like, a last second thing with me. There's never, like, oh, I'm gonna be going out next Thursday. My life doesn't work that way. It's a last second thing. And then you guys are conveniently leaving out. Like, when you go early to the Frolic Room. Do you know how long that would take for me to get there? It'd be an hour. It'd be an hour.
- [83:25]
Van Lathan
It would be an hour. Russell, let me tell you something, okay? A lot of people recently have tried to drive a wedge between me and Russell. It's never going to happen. All right? So just to stop it, it's Crockett and Tubs. It's rigs and merchants heard about this. It's never going to happen. Yeah. People have been trying to drive a wedge. It's never going to happen. Okay, whatever. You have to agree on everything.
- [83:46]
Ryan Russillo
I'm aware we're together.
- [83:47]
Van Lathan
I put you like this. You're coming to the Frolic Room, and there's not gonna be any last second. Not only are you coming to the Frolic Room, I want old Ricilo. I want New England drunk. WWE Fucking give me another one. Give me another beer. I want you to drop your. You know how, like in Departed where, like, Mark Wahlberg is talking to the guy and he's like, on the weekends, you're dropping Apples. And you're hanging out with the. Yeah, like drop your eyes on the weekend. Give me another beer. Fire. It happened. Fucking Southie or whatever. The guys from Southie. The boss was from Southie. You come in there, we're going fucking crazy in the Frolic Room. Everyone's coming. We're going crazy. I'm going to be the new mayor. It's time that a black politician wants something. So I'm going to be the new mayor of Frolic Room. So I'm coming in there and. Ricilo, you got to come in there, man.
- [84:42]
Ryan Russillo
I'm in. I'm in. We'll set a date. We'll figure it out. We will not. You know, it'll. It'll happen only if we promise. There's dancing after. Van, you're the best.
- [84:54]
Van Lathan
That's unexpected.
- [84:55]
Ryan Russillo
Thank you.
- [84:56]
Van Lathan
Love you guys. Love you guys. All right. Prayers for Ryan Day. I gotta go.
- [85:01]
Ryan Russillo
You want details? Fine.
- [85:03]
Van Lathan
I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [85:06]
Ryan Russillo
What?
- [85:06]
Todd McShay
What's up?
- [85:08]
Ryan Russillo
I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.
- [85:11]
Van Lathan
I have every toy you can possibly imagine.
- [85:13]
Todd McShay
And best of all, kids, I am liquid.
- [85:17]
Ryan Russillo
So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Okay. Thanks to Van for stopping by again. Our email address is lifeadvicerromail.com LifeAdvice begins now. Okay, I think we had a couple. Yeah. This feedback one is too intense. What's up, guys? 510165 NBA compound Matthew De. Not the game three of the 2015 Finals version, but close. My buddy and I want to come clean about a few things. TJ was right. You can use his real name because he said you could call me Alex, which is my real name. So I guess we're real naming each other here. I do do that stupid joke of asking if he minds if my buddy can meet up with us for a drink. However. So this is the tickle monster emailing us.
- [85:57]
Kyle
Okay.
- [85:57]
Ryan Russillo
Ceruti is correct. Being a wrestler, you often get too comfortable with physical contact. Being a smaller guy, you frequently get targeted in the wrestling room with unwanted attacks. Imagine these men wrestling like locker room with unwanted attacks. Rilla was also correct. The guys become way too comfortable being in their natural state when introduced with this uncomfortable and disturbing joke. I also hated it. But like the saying goes, hurt people, hurt people. It is not how I wanted to become known to Ryan, who I've listened to since the SCP days. But I'll take it. My buddy will be retired from TJ's life going forward and it's not necessarily for him to ask random strangers to tickle him to build up a tolerance. Oh, okay. And he says, as a former Montanan, I'll see at the Garden Bar. I'd like to get a shift at the Garden Bar. Maybe pick up bottles for seven days. So this is the tickle monster, I guess. Is that what we're. Is that what I'm led to believe then here?
- [86:54]
Kyle
Yeah, it sounds like it. So he just needed someone to say it loud enough. And he was like, yeah, you're right. I'm going to change my whole shit.
- [87:01]
Ryan Russillo
I guess I'm a little confused if.
- [87:04]
Kyle
So this is the biggest help we've ever been.
- [87:06]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, perhaps.
- [87:07]
Ceruti
Well, it's one of those things where when you kind of say it out loud and let other people figure out what you're doing, it's like, yeah, that is kind of weird, actually. Maybe I should stop doing that.
- [87:15]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, yeah. When you hear people that don't know you talk about it. Because no one was listening to that email going, I think it's cool. Those guys. Yeah, come on.
- [87:26]
Ceruti
Can I hang out with that guy?
- [87:28]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, like, hey, I was listening to that Russell pod the other day. The hoop stuff gets a little long, but they do this life advice at the end, and one of the guys in the friend group just tickles the shit out of the other guys. Like, what do you think if we started doing that?
- [87:43]
Ceruti
Hell, yeah.
- [87:47]
Ryan Russillo
Okay. This is a longer email, but, man, it's good just because it's well written. Although it's not like, oh, my God, this. I've never heard of this scenario before. Gym stats, 510, 185. Just started lifting again at age 26. Recently hit dumbbell bench press with 45 pounds, four by eight. I'm telling you right now, if there's anything in you, this is when the strength starts to happen. A couple of months ago, a couple years, but just keep going. A couple months ago, I went and saw a movie with my roommate. Twisters. Review of Twisters. Glenn Powell is cool. Did you like it, Rudy?
- [88:21]
Ceruti
I like the original better, but I do love Glenn Powell, dude.
- [88:24]
Ryan Russillo
His approval rating, he's like Anthony Edwards. At the end of last year, you know, it's like I told everybody, Ant has really nowhere to go but kind of down on the love fest for him. Glenn Powell. I'm worried. All right. Anyway, movie theaters packed. To the left of me sat my roommate. To the right was some guy who was the subject of this email. The dude appeared to be anywhere from 15 to 19 years old. To his right, right sat a girl about his age and his mom and dad. Not sure if the girl sitting to the right of him was his sister or not. Before the movie started, the guy sitting to my right asked me if I wanted to get any of the snacks that his mom packed at home and snuck into the movie. I kindly accepted a small Ziploc baggie of popcorn. I thanked the guy. A couple minutes go by, and the guy looks my way just enough to get my attention to ask if I wanted any of the Puppy Chow that his mom brought to. Which I kindly declined.
- [89:15]
Kyle
Is that like a nickname for, like, trail mix or something?
- [89:19]
Ceruti
Yeah, it's like chocolate. A bunch of different chocolate things, I think. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe some chocolates in there.
- [89:27]
Ryan Russillo
Okay. I didn't. I didn't know that. So think, think. Because I. I didn't realize they called the Puppy Chow. I've noticed my own shopping. I never have snacks. That's been pointed out.
- [89:40]
Kyle
That makes sense. Checks out.
- [89:42]
Ryan Russillo
Yep.
- [89:44]
Ceruti
You're a very deliberate eater. I feel like an efficient and deliberate eater.
- [89:48]
Kyle
Just stacks of chicken breasts in the freezer.
- [89:52]
Ryan Russillo
You like good food.
- [89:53]
Ceruti
It's not like you don't like good food. It's just that, like, I don't think you're like, hey, man, like, I'm, you know, I'm gonna have a pack of, like, Biscoff cookies in the, you know, in the pantry.
- [90:00]
Ryan Russillo
No. And whenever I do buy any of that stuff, it never. It just, you know how much you hate waste. I didn't want to tell you. So, yeah, I didn't know what that stuff was called. All right. So I kindly declined. A couple minutes go by, and the guy asks me, do you think this movie will be good? At this point, I'm thinking that this guy's just being nice. And I generally did appreciate the offer of snacks. This is also the. The most by far that I've ever spoken to a stranger in a movie theater. But again, nothing seems weird at this point. The movie ends, the guy looks over at me and asks what I thought of the movie. I've never had a stranger immediately ask my opinion on a movie, but considering our exchange before the movie started, I wasn't perturbed by the question. After sharing my opinion, the movie was pretty good. The guy asked me, what are your hobbies? I finally have that uncomfortable feeling that you get when a conversation with stranger has reared into an unforeseeable direction. I come up with some quick but comes quick response, such as, quote, hanging with friends or watching sports. And I hope that my short response and slight change of tone would signal that I'm now done with the conversation. Didn't work. Then the guy asked, quote, do you like skateboarding or fishing? At this point I'm wishing a tornado would just rip through the building and suck me away.
- [91:12]
Kyle
Which one do you like?
- [91:13]
Ryan Russillo
You can only like one.
- [91:14]
Kyle
Which one are we doing on Saturday?
- [91:17]
Ryan Russillo
I wish the tornado would rip through the building and suck me away. Again, give a short answer. I double down and using a tone that would suggest an uneasiness, saying something to the effect of I don't mind fishing. Then the guy suggests that we should hang out sometime and then ask for my phone number. Now I'm full blown panicking. Quickly I try to understand his intentions. Either he's just an overly kind guy who's oddly comfortable in attempting to strike up a friendship with a stranger, or he has room or he has romantic intentions. I don't know that age. Again, I'm not trying to like make any assumptions about it, but I don't know. I mean, if he's sitting there with his parents and then maybe a sister or whatever, I don't know. Not sure if it could really be anything other than those two opt. I'm not attracted to men and not actually not attracted to men who may or may not be teenagers. Also, in a matter of seconds I try to brainstorm brainstorm responses. I obviously don't want to give this guy my number, regardless of what his true intentions were. I don't know how much time I would need to spend with someone before I feel comfortable going fishing with just that person. But the answer is a lot of time. Not to mention I'm potentially 10 years older than this guy and I look like I'm at least 26, if not older. So there's no way this guy mistook me for being around his age. I'm a nice guy and I don't like making people feel bad. The guilt I know I would feel if I told this guy, sorry, but I'm not giving my number overpowers me and I say, quote sure, I'll give you my number. I start reading my digits and about halfway through I think to myself, what in the actual fuck are you doing? I panic again and quickly make up my mind that the safest way out of this is to give a fake phone number. I give the guy my real number until it came to the final digit and I changed it. I smiled, got up and left. The way I handled this exchange stayed with me for days. And I now took the. I know I took the coward's way out. I've attempted to justify my actions by telling myself that either this, either was this guy. Either way, sorry. This guy was going to be disappointed to learn that I didn't want to ever see him again. But this way his disappointment could come at a later date, once realizing I gave him a fake number as opposed to feeling that disappointment in the middle of a packed theater next to his family. I'm interested to hear all of your takes on how you would have handled this. Am I a piece of. For giving a fake number as opposed to just being honest? If you're asking why I didn't immediately get up after the movie end of the theater was packed. Our conversation was silent enough. All right, so longer one there. I'm gonna offer up something that may not. Like, he might just be. Maybe he's the friendliest teenager of all time. He could also be like a special.
- [93:38]
Kyle
Classroom, you know what I mean? Just doesn't take cues.
- [93:40]
Ryan Russillo
There could be a touch of something going on where his social cues are off a little bit, which unfortunately, which is I always think of like, you know, teenagers not having friends. You know, it just sucks that that could have been it. But that's not your responsibility. You know what I mean, man? Like, it's not your kid. So for you to be beating yourself up here, the fake number thing, I get it. It's just easier way than saying, you know, women been doing it for decades. Unless you know, you never know though, because if like the kids remembering birthdays and stuff, he may try every single number combination on your ass and in a week from now, you're going to text, ask you to go fishing. So I would just. I think you handled it fine. You don't need. I can't even believe you let it go that far personally. But that may be something to replay in your head, which is not always the easiest thing to understand. And I can't imagine the like, why wasn't a parent jumping in there a little bit sooner going, hey, why are you talking to the 26 year old? Or like, leave or. I don't. Maybe they were psyched he was meeting someone.
- [94:47]
Kyle
Yeah, they were like, please take them on Saturday.
- [94:49]
Ryan Russillo
This kid loves to fish and skateboard. But you can only do one.
- [94:52]
Kyle
I only get one day off a week. I can't do another fishing trip.
- [94:54]
Ryan Russillo
Come on.
- [94:56]
Kyle
I don't know. I. I look at it, you know, I'm a normalized no guy. I look, I would look at this as training, the stakes are kind of low. Like, I think I would have had a nice way out of this. That doesn't really hurt anyone's feelings. Maybe it would, but it wouldn't sound bad coming out. Like, I would just be like, oh, yeah, I don't give out my number. Like, almost like it's a telemarket or something. Like, that's what I would try. I haven't really tried that one yet, but it's. It popped into my head, and it was like, man, if I was in that situation, that's what I would do. So, like, I look for these little. These little situations that I didn't force, but they were just coming my way. And I'm like, this is a good chance to see if I can do a couple more reps on the. On the old squat rack or whatever. It's just like, can I get this one out? I understand that he's. If it comes across your mind that maybe this guy's got a developmental thing, maybe not the best time to test that out, but he wasn't thinking that. So if I wasn't thinking that either, I would have tried something like that. It's like, oh, yeah, no, actually, I don't. I don't really give out my number. But, yeah, you know.
- [95:47]
Ceruti
Yeah. Once again, it's just. It's rough out there for dudes finding friends. This is. This is. This is a little bleak, but I think this. It's. It's. You were too nice at the beginning, and I know that sucks because, like, if you were just more of an asshole at the beginning. Didn't. Didn't want snacks, or if he asked you, the fishing versus skateboarding thing, just say, I don't like either. It probably ends the conversation. But you were being too nice. Kind of dug yourself too deep of a hole, maybe. Yeah, maybe. He just keeps shooting shots. He's like, all right, which one? What do you like basketball?
- [96:12]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, I don't think he would have.
- [96:13]
Ceruti
Yeah, he just starts five different activities until you say yes.
- [96:17]
Ryan Russillo
You know what I love? Because I don't know what I'm doing lately, but every now and then, I'll. I'll say something in a setting where I, you know, I'm by myself and I asked, like, I. I got. I shouldn't even admit this, but, like, it'll just be such a sign that you're getting older. Where I was getting a sandwich and the girls, do you want to drink? And I'm usually like, I never get a soda or anything. Like, that. And so I'll usually just be like, can I get a cup for water? But then I was kind of feeling myself. I was like, maybe I'll get a soda water. And I was like, what's. I was like, what are the cup options? You know? And she was, she's like, we only have one cup. I was like, that's pretty efficient. And was like waiting for. And she just was like, what the are you talking about? And I'm actually regretting even telling any of this story right now. So the point is this. I kind of want to go to a movie theater by myself and turn to a stranger and be like, you think there's gonna be any good?
- [97:12]
Kyle
That one I like though, like, that.
- [97:14]
Ryan Russillo
I feel like that's probably what used you think so.
- [97:16]
Kyle
Did that ever used to happen? I'm talking like the 80s when it just wasn't like everyone wasn't a weirdo. Kids played outside. Like, was that a thing? I mean, even the previews, like, the previews end and you're like, I'm not going to see that one. Like, maybe the stranger next to you. But like, isn't it sort of like a. What do you think?
- [97:31]
Ryan Russillo
I don't know. Opening credits, I think to be like, hey, what do you think, buddy?
- [97:36]
Kyle
Excited. Yeah, I know, I get it.
- [97:37]
Ryan Russillo
Think this will be good? That is hilarious.
- [97:40]
Ceruti
You know what sucks too, is no watching this movie as a guy who's like a solo movie. Like, that's my thing. I love it. It is just like the most peaceful thing I could do, really. And if somebody like kind of came and screwed that up and it would just bum me out, like, it would ruin my whole experience and I would be mad about it. I don't think I would have been nice to this guy to be so I can't really relate because, like, that's my safe space. Like, I want if I'm going to see Twisters by myself. I've got a big ass bowl of popcorn. I've got a giant soda. I don't want to talk to anybody. Like, I don't want to talk to anybody. Like, me being there alone signals that I don't want to make friends. But I don't know, it just.
- [98:16]
Ryan Russillo
Here's. I think the lesson 15 and 19 is not your concern. Worry about the new guy at work. Worry about the guy who moved into your town that you went to high school with or the college friend that doesn't have any friends and wants to crash. Like, we've covered a thousand of those emails already. Stay in your age. Lane. Do not feel guilt about this one, okay? Thanks to Kyle, thanks to Van. So because you got Van, you got one email, we'll make it up to you. Thanks to Serudy, thanks to Oron and Hope. Everybody had a good holiday week. We will be in Denver. Bill and I are going to be doing Bill's show in Denver on Wednesday night. So we get some Nuggets warriors tomorrow night. That means no Wednesday pod for me, but I'll be back on Friday. All right, we'll talk to you then. Please subscribe Ryan Russell Podcast Bring your Spotify must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18/ plus and present in D.C. gambling problem. Call 1-800- gambler or visit rgh-help.com, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline.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.