Max Olson (3:00)

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Ryan Rosillo (3:34)

To start with the breaking news out of the NFL? John Harbaugh, out after 18 years, the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. So want to do the resume? I mean, he didn't die, so we're not doing an obituary here. But 180 and 113, that's the record 13 playoff wins. Super bowl in 2012. Incredible Super bowl by the way. Only three losing seasons. He's got a five and 11 in there and then two eight nines. That's pretty heavy stuff. When Steve Machadi was looking for a head coach prior to hiring Harbaugh, he had said he's looking for a Hall of Fame coach. I don't know if Harbaugh will make the hall of Fame. Pro Football hall of Fame is the best hall of Fame because they are selective. They don't just let everybody in and I think they celebrate the best. I don't think that they worry about the lean years. I think they look at like your best stuff and you know, usually super bowl for quarterback will get you in, but for the most part it, you know, there's probably way more guys that we think should be in it as opposed to some of the other sports. You're like, that guy got in. So look, I don't know if Harbaugh gets in there with the one super bowl and he still has a lot of work to do. He's A young man. Young man in his 60s, but he looks young. You know, if Tyler Loop makes that field goal in the last game of the season on Sunday night, Ravens win the division, they're in the playoffs again. Does this happen? I don't know. It depends on what the playoff game looks like. Right, Right. Put together a little bit of a run, and no, it probably doesn't happen. But I don't think it was about that kick. I don't think it was just about the 25 season. Because, look, if you just look at this year, you go, all right, this is one of the super bowl favorites before the season started. And this is probably one of the single most disappointing teams in 2025 that you could have. There's probably a lot of choices there, but the Ravens probably have a few more excuses with some of the injuries that they had to deal with on top of everything else. But the division's terrible. The Steelers, the Steelers, that Steelers team, you watch them this year. They're in the playoffs. You're not. So the expectations division, I don't think it's just the loop. Ms. Field, go. Although, first thing I thought about, I mean, I thought about that kick a lot. And by the way, I love that kid in college, too. So Steve Bishotti, who's the owner of this team, who, if you read the John Feinstein book on him, you're going to like him. You're going to like. You're going to wish your owner were more like him. He's just. The way he comes off in the book is terrific. And I think even since that book, I think that book's, like, over a decade old. It feels like the book was a really, really good accounting of, like, how he goes in his decisions and how he sees himself as an owner and what he wants his franchise to be like. But there's also something else happening here because this is somebody who is incredibly patient. And I don't think Firing Harbaugh after 18 years shows impatience. I don't think that's an owner that's watching that kick be missed and be like, all right, time to make a change here. There's clearly more to it, because that's what I think Shadi does. I think he. He kind of steps back and takes a bigger picture. But if you look at the trends of coaches being fired, and I just want to point to the guys that were fired after one season. If you go from 1980 to 2000, only seven head coaches were fired after one season. If you go from 2001 to 2010, five coaches were fired after only one season. If you look at it from 2011 till now, it's 15 coaches that have been fired after one year. So we're basically averaging one year after having seven in 20 years and five in 10 years prior to this. Pete Carroll's now been fired after one year twice in his career with the jets, in 94 in Vegas this year. Speaking of the hall of Fame, I'm like, can you be a Hall of Fame head coach and also be fired twice after one year? I think with the super bowl and what he did at sc, Steve's going to. He might. I don't even know, do they? I lose track of some of that stuff every now and then. It doesn't sound good when you're averaging one firing after one season every single year. But it kind of speaks to what we have in this sport, what we have in college football on top of everything else, because there's just less patience. There's less patience than ever before. And I don't know that it's directly related to money. Maybe the money in the college game, but not necessarily the pro game. If you look at the college salaries, it's just a rising tide for all in the NFL. It's not really like that. It feels like there's this upper class and then maybe no middle class. I was looking at the salaries this morning. There's 20 million for Andy Reid. Sean Payton's at like 18 million. Harbaugh was at like 16 million. I think he was making a little bit more than Jim was with the Chargers. So there was a good chunk of guys that were like 14 million north, but there was only like a couple, like a 20 or 18. But then at the low end, there's guys still making like $4 million a year. Being a head coach in the NFL, like, that's ridiculous. Basketball, the money hasn't caught up necessarily. Baseball's gone in the opposite direction. I think there's podcasters making more than all the managers combined in the AL Central. But for football, I think this money to the coaches, with the salary cap projected to be 300 million next year in the revenue that this league makes, that we may. It may not just be like, hey, things are more intense and the new owners have less patience than ever before. And if you're making all of this crazy money and then you don't step up, we're going to fire you. I think that money is like nothing to these guys anymore, especially when we're talking about coaches that are being fired. That are making less than eight figures a year. Not that anybody's crying for him, but the money I don't think has. I don't think it's been a full Rising Tide thing that's happened with NFL coaches the same way. So, yeah, again, it could get back to that, that lack of patience. There were quotes about Harbaugh being dismissed and I thought one was really simple from ESPN this morning that I was reading that it was a current player and he's like, you know what? It's a little surprising, but I'm not shocked. And that's the day to day stuff. Being around the franchise that you don't have access to, I don't have access to. I'm not even. I don't care enough to talk to somebody about the Ravens every single week, like, what's going on over there. But this is part of the process of, like, I don't know that any of us necessarily know. Like, I just don't look at a record. I won't look at a record and be like, that coach sucks because of this record. You know, do you like the work that the coach is doing? Do you not like the work the coach is doing? Do you have a good record? But you think you have a long term mistake? But again, that guy never ends up being fired. I also think there's a really interesting Lamar storyline in all of this because the disconnect was real. I don't know what Lamar wants to be. The storyline, whether you go back to like when he was sort of offered as a free agent but not really there any interest and was there clues? Like there's a lot of weird shit that's gone on with Lamar that has. Some of it has nothing to do with him and some of it directly has stuff to do with his decisions on, like sitting out one practice a week and all that kind of stuff and Harbaugh being frustrated. So this feels like at least a win for the Lamar camp. Part of it. If this was becoming more untenable, this relationship between head coach and their star quarterback, a star quarterback who was diminished this year, I hope it's because of injuries. There was a couple runs in that Pittsburgh game where it's like, that does not look like the same guy. And that part of a game for a quarterback, as you start approaching 30, it usually starts to fall off of a cliff. And Lamar is so special physically. Like, I'd almost think that it would take longer for that to happen for him. But this year, the running part of his game was the worst it's ever been in his career, which is fine if the rest of it's all terrific. And. And he's so good, his resume is so good, the MVPs that you should just look at 25 and Lamar Jackson deserves a pass. But this decision tells you they're way more like all in on Lamar than maybe some of the stories that we're reading about. Ultimately, whenever you're deciding to fire or hire a head coach and meaning hire, keep a guy around and not fire him is probably the way I should phrase it. I think it's just really simple. Like, do you think you have the right guy? And yeah, you could need a new Voice, especially after 18 years. But look, it's not like it's the same players all the time over those 18 years. They're cycling those guys out. And it felt like for a long time there, there were some lean years there. There was like this middle section for Harbaugh from 2013 to 2017 where it became a topic more often. It's like, hey, you know, should the Ravens shake it up? And so many other franchises would have done it. Like, yeah, we know he won a Super bowl, but you know what. What's going on with this season? Like, why are. What's going on with the offense? Let's just make a change because we're going to make a change. And it gets back to that point of shoti and like he knew the whole time, like, I think I have the right guy. I know the results are not based or the results are not to the level of the standard that we had when Harbaugh first came in here. Because when he first came in, I'm going to tell you in a second, like, he tore it up. But you know what? I still think he's kind of the right guy. And clearly it got to a point where it didn't feel like that was the right guy. First five years for Harbaugh, five playoffs, three conference championship games, one conference championship game appearance since that Super Bowl. So I would close with this. If Bishotti thinks it's time, that's good enough for me. The gametime app gives the advantage back to the fans. It's the hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in a few Taps. 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Download the Gametime app. Today we are in the transfer portal season for college football. Day one, we had over 4,500 players enter the portal. We're going to go through all the big names, all the latest stuff. A guy who crushes it when it comes to this, which I think is going to become a bigger, bigger season every single year. From espn, it's Max Olson. Good to see you.

Max Olson (14:21)

Man. Hey, that number's 5800 now, Ryan. So it just, it won't.

Ryan Rosillo (14:25)

Stop. Day one was 4500. I did not. I lost track of the next 1300.

Max Olson (14:31)

Players. Yeah, we're. I counted up this morning. If we're talking 105 man rosters, there's enough FBS scholarship players in the portal right now. You could field 26 college football teams.

Ryan Rosillo (14:43)

So. All right, well, let's start with some of the headline stuff here because there's a lot of. Lot of places I want to go here, so let's try to get through it as quickly as we can. Sorsby, is this just a Texas kid going back to Texas after leaving.

Max Olson (14:56)

Cincinnati? Yeah, I think that's a big piece of it. I think Brennan Soresby has shown a ton of improvement over his two years at Cincinnati. He started his career in Indiana. Sig got there and, you know, he. I think he's one of those guys that at the start of the year he was like maybe a fringe top 10 big 12 quarterback in terms of perception. But as a guy who's super confident and believes he's the best quarterback in the Big 12, he's a super, like, if you spend any time around him, very confident in himself. He had a really good year. Great dual threat player. You know, he is a guy that thought about going pro and he's got good measurables. You know, the tape, like, he could certainly build on it. And, you know, maybe if Dante Moore and Ty Simpson were staying in school, you'd be kind of dumb not to go pro. But he looked at Texas Tech as a chance to, you know, go try and prove he's a first round pick and go play with a ton of great players.

Robbie Hummel (15:44)

There.

Max Olson (15:45)

Go. Yeah, go back home to Texas. And then, you know, certainly if you can make 5, 6 million bucks, that.

Ryan Rosillo (15:50)

Helps. Yeah, because I think there was a lot of push that maybe he was going to end up at lsu and then he goes to Tech. There was the line about him just being blown away by the facilities, which I think we all collectively laughed at. I think that's like, when was it, Was it Mike Hampton who once said he loved the schools when he signed with the Rockies? Yeah. So anyway, whatever. Good for Mike Hampton, if I'm not being critical of.

Max Olson (16:13)

It. But they are incredible facilities.

Ryan Rosillo (16:17)

Right. But like, I, I think there's also something where, like, again, I, I hear this all secondhand. This is something you're reporting on, but you'll wonder like, of the cycle of the boosters that get excited about getting involved and the rules that I put in quotes about, like, what a team can or can't do. And then if they get burnt, then it's like, do the same people go, yeah, let's do this all over again. And with Tech, that clearly ramped up for the 25 season win the Big 12 feel like, I don't know what kind of wake up call that Oregon playoff game was for them, but this was not a one and done thing for the people that were behind the money decisions. With Tech, if anything, it felt like they were more empowered about what they were able to pull off in 25 and being like, let's just keep heading in this direction and not screw.

Max Olson (17:04)

Around. No, it's absolutely well said. And I've written about Texas Tech a bunch this season and I think for them and Joe McGuire was like, well aware of the pressure, like they needed to win the Big 12 this year for the first time in school history. If they didn't win the Big 12, like, it was a failure and there would be a lot of, there'd be a lot of pressure and a lot of problems. I think if you, if you had all this talent and you just went 8 and 4. Right. And so I think for them winning the Big 12, just like covering that game, being down on the field with them afterward, there was like just kind of that sense of relief of like, okay, we did it, like, now we're going to the playoff. We think we can make a run, but it's like kind of house money from here because we did what we set out to do in winning 12 games. And you know, in some ways, yes, they were like, if you talk to their gm, James Blanchard, the people there, like in October, they were like, here's who we're going to go get in the portal in January. Like, they were well prepared to make a run here. But in, you know, to lose, to get shut out by Oregon the day before the portal opens, I think also motivates the money people of like, yeah, we're not going to lose to LSU on this quarterback. Right? We're not going to go like, we're going to go chase the best players that become available. And, you know, they've picked up the number one defensive tackle to help replace Lee Hunter. They have Cam Coleman, the number one wide receiver in the portal on campus today. You know, they're chasing. They have a chance to probably sign maybe four of the top 10 guys in the portal. So, yeah, this is not a one year deal. They are very much invested on running it.

Ryan Rosillo (18:32)

Back. Okay, so what do you think happens now at lsu? A quarterback? Because we have the Demon Williams angle, we have the Sam Levitt visit, but he was on his way to Tennessee after Baton Rouge. So I also think it's important point out this Williams story out of Washington's nuts because he just days ago signed what was, quote, a lucrative nil deal that they said that he had not filed his paperwork to transfer, but he had just announced it on social media. So they were like, what the hell is going on here? And of course, it's worth reminding everybody there's a back connection there with Kiffin where Williams was committed to Ole Miss for like six months about three years ago. So what can you tell us on this one that basically is a package deal of all the things that people hate about college football right.

Max Olson (19:17)

Now? No, it absolutely is. This was like as the portal opens up, you know, Thursday at midnight and we go through a few days of this, like, there are names that pop up that are like, surprising. I think Demon Williams announcing on Instagram that he's going to transfer portal was like the first like, whoa of this cycle. Like, where like just there was not rumors they had publicly announced five days ago he's resigned. From what we've heard, that's that deal is, you know, north of 4 million. He's going to make him One of the highest paid QBs in the country. So it wasn't a money issue, you know, in terms of his deal with Washington and just really. Yeah. Not indications that he was thinking about doing anything else other than staying at Washington. And so the timing of this on Tuesday night was insane because first he announces that he plans to enter the portal. He's going to do what's best for him and his family and enter the transfer portal. At the same time he's posting this. Lane Kiffin is sitting courtside at an LSU men's basketball game with Sam Levitt on the visit. And there's a. I don't know if you saw it. There's this incredible photo of Sam Levitt looking at his phone and Lane Kiffin looking at Sam Levitt as this is, like, playing out. And then Levitt wraps up the visit, decides, okay, I want to go visit Tennessee now. Because I think it became clear to a lot of people that Demon Williams appears to be the target for LSU now and obviously for a lot of money. And so there's a lot of complications with that. And we, you know, Washington, he signed a deal, like to sign a deal and then make this flip. Like, the school is going to try to enforce that. The Big Ten is going to try to enforce that. You know, we saw one of these issues play out last year with a defensive back, Xavier Lucas, who's trying to transfer from Wisconsin to Miami to go home. And Wisconsin said, they put their foot down and said, you sign something, we're not going to put your name in the transfer portal. We're just not going to do it. And so, you know, we can try and talk things out, but we're not going to let you transfer there. And he, he ends up withdrawing as a student and enrolling at Miami. You can do that. You can operate outside the portal. I think we're going to have a similar dispute here because there's, at this point, there's. There's no, like, coming back, right? You can't say, like, hey, we're going to, you know, we're going to really be tough on you. But you're. You're coming back, right? You're going to change your mind and stay in Washington. So, yeah, this is going to be a big issue, bigger issue than it was a year ago, and one that's going to bring a lot of attention to these deals they sign. Ultimately, it could also create some hurdles here for Link Hiffin, who needs to go sign one of these quarterbacks as fast as.

Ryan Rosillo (21:40)

Possible. All right, so I don't know how this changes anything, but Ty Simpson, just as we started taping this, announced that he's leaving Alabama and entering into the NFL draft again. Any of these major programs have to be prepared for any of this stuff. I'd imagine DeBoer and Simpson's relationship is strong enough that this, it's not like Alabama's waking up going, oh my God, now what do we do? But how do you think that impacts any of the stuff that we're talking about? Cause there's still, look, there's still another list of like 10 quarterbacks that we don't know that are all like name brands at least in the college football world, where we don't know where they're going to end up. But Alabama certainly changes the equation for some of the other teams that didn't think that they were going to be out there.

Max Olson (22:20)

Hunting. Yeah, I think it probably at the start of the season, this probably would have been the ideal scenario actually for Kaylin DeBoer. As much as you'd like to have Ty Simpson as a two year starter, the fact is they've got a five star freshman and Keelan Russell from Dallas who's really talented. And it's just, you know how it is nowadays, Ryan. It's like those guys don't sit for two years, right? So like if Tyson is coming back, then your backups Keelan Russell and Austin Mack, they're going to kind of figure out like, do I got to bail on this? And so to have Ty Simpson go pro and you know, I think probably at this point in time we'd say be a first round pick and then you kind of hand the keys to Keelan Russell I think is kind of, it's a good outcome for Alabama. I think it's one that the fan base will be excited about. It does to me though, like as you kind of have this musical chairs here, there's a couple really big programs that don't have the QB solved yet. You've got lsu, you've got Oregon, who's still waiting on Dante Moore's decision. You've got Miami. To me, Miami is like the big mystery one in all of this because there was a lot of speculation tying them to Lenora Sellers. He's staying in South Carolina. C.J. bailey announced he's staying at NC State. The last two years, Miami pulled a guy out of the portal who had already announced they were entering the NFL draft. And so I think that talking with personal people last night as they're trying to figure out what is Damon Williams doing? I think the one we're still trying to solve is what is Miami up to.

Ryan Rosillo (23:41)

Here? What do you think Damon Williams is doing? He must know.

Max Olson (23:45)

If. Yeah, I mean everyone you talk to thinks that it's going to be LSU and it's going to be for, you know, something in the range of 5 to 6 million bucks. And so again, question is how quickly can you get that wrapped up? But I think that that's, that's a guy that Lane Kiffin knows really well and really wants to get. I think Oregon likes my Williams, but probably is not trying to spend at that level. Maybe for a quarterback, you know, maybe Miami can get in the mix there with, with him. But yeah, again it's as you kind of have this musical chairs play out here now. Sam Levitt goes on and maybe goes to Tennessee now I think Dylan Raiola is hoping to go to Oregon and we'll see if that actually happens. Yeah, it's, it's as these guys make commitments now, you've got, you've got still a few big stars that gotta make a move here in the next few.

Ryan Rosillo (24:34)

Days. I guess I'm just trying to figure out on the money part of it. When you hear about money announcement, can you check with somebody to find out how fake the announcement is? Because usually like on the player side it feels like there's a lot of rounding up. So what do we know about like I don't care about per player but as you were kind of alluding to position, like where has that spending gone? What is real about what it costs to get a top end guy at some of these.

Max Olson (24:59)

Positions? Yeah, it's, it's tough to report on. Like if I just went and tweeted the first number I heard from somebody all the time, like I would be wrong all the time. I think that's, you know, one.

Ryan Rosillo (25:08)

One. They're generally always considered outrageously like rounding up numbers. Right? From what I.

Max Olson (25:15)

Hear. Yeah, like, yeah, generally. Generally you hear something that's maybe.

Ryan Rosillo (25:18)

A little bit too.

Max Olson (25:19)

High. Right. But like I'll give you an example. Like I wrote a piece on Texas Tech's defensive line this season and you know, if you talk to the players themselves, you talk to their agents, you talk to Joey McGuire, talk to Cody Campbell, you talk to their GM James Blanchard, everyone's going to give you like a slightly different number. And so you're like trying to like triangulate that and like ultimately like Cody Campbell's writing the check. Like I kind of trust if what he's saying, I'm not saying I don't trust everybody else, but you're trying to kind of like no one's like, hey, here's a PDF. Well, let me just show you. So you're trying to like kind of figure out what's right. And you know, certainly for Texas Tech, they spend a lot of money. They're going to continue to spend a lot of money. But yeah, it's hard to narrow down. You hear a lot of stuff as this going on. I would say the quarterback position, it certainly jumped up for the proven guys. I think last year you could resign your quarterback or you could go get like a pretty good proven quarterback for about 1.5 million. Like that was like considered like fair. And now I've talked to a bunch of GMs who are trying to resign their quarterback this year and it's like, man, the conversation starting at 3. And I think for some of these programs, especially like in the Big 12 where you've seen a few of them move on, it's like, we love this guy. Yes, we could come up with 3 million bucks, but we also have to go get a dozen other players in the portal. And we're trying to stick to a budget. Whether the cap stuff is real or not, we are trying to stick to a budget. And so you get into these pretty complicated decisions as these prices keep going up at other positions. I think the perception is usually if a guy is pretty good, he wants half a million bucks. If he's been a starter, he's looking for, you know, 500 to a million plus. And I think good linemen and good pass rushers and great receivers, you know, are going to get over a million bucks. And I mean we've got some big time running backs right now too. You would say, like, hey, why would you spend a million bucks on a running back? But you know, some of these superstars right now, Kewan Lacey, Jaden Bot, Florida, Isaac Brown at Louisville, schools are going to have to pay 2,3 million bucks to get those guys or keep.

Ryan Rosillo (27:14)

Them. Yeah, because if we look at the payment structure over the years.

Max Olson (27:19)

Here.

Ryan Rosillo (27:21)

You could sit there and I've already touched on this a little bit, but I wonder how many new money people would feel burnt by it. Because look, I'll say this, it's very clear that this is now a three year trend with the SEC where this is not to the standard, this is not what we would expect. And even if I think it's the deepest conference still, the domination, there's just too many results now that I can't. Like, I don't have the evidence that I used to have in the past to be like, what are you guys even talking about? That is not happening. So whatever. The gap sec, Big Ten, if you think the Big Ten's better, like, you know, now I'm like open to all of it as we're like on year three of kind of what this is. But, you know, I've seen some other stuff written where it's like, well, once the sec, like the other, the other schools could pay and like, sometimes I'll hear it from a fan base or a guy who I know played at one of the other schools where I'm like, you guys, you seriously want to argue that you guys were never doing anything that was like, in the shady area of things? Because we know that you were. So like, what are you talking about? But for the schools that maybe were more by the rule book, I wondered if, if they would get excited and be like, oh, we can actually kind of do this out in the open. And, you know, we, we can. Everything sort of allowed here. Which again, other people would argue that not everything is allowed, but we can kind of get to that and that there'd be a bunch of excitement and there'd be a bunch of money and then they'd go, hey, we went seven and five again. What a waste of money. Like, why am I, why am I doing this again? Like, we paid how much for this one guy and he stinks. And so I wondered if there would be some kind of correction. But then at the same time, I would think of, like, the first time you were actually able to compensate your college quarterback and you're like, we're going to give him $1 million. Like, oh my God, $1 million for quarterback. And then it's like, yeah, but do you realize, like, once we get through a couple cycles of competition and bidding on this stuff and we know that people cannot help themselves, that's why there's a salary cap in football, in hockey and basketball, because if you just let it be a free market, guys would be making $80 million a year in basketball. All right? So that even if there's some correction for the passion of wanting to cut these checks for all of these kids and different fan bases and boosters feeling burnt by it, you would at the same time have a lot of schools going, I can't believe we were getting a difference maker quarterback for the total of $1 million. Like, it would make sense that it's in the five or six million dollars range that we're hearing about with the top end guys because you just knew based on competition alone that it was going to get there. So I wonder how those two things play. And feel free to point out anything that you think is inaccurate in my. My assumptions or my summary of where this has gone in a couple years. But as it feels like those two things are battling each other. And it's also sort of hilarious, too, like, how do you spend five or six billion dollars on a quarterback when you supposedly have 20 million dollars in cap space to use for your entire athletic.

Max Olson (30:21)

Department? That's right. Yeah. I mean, or let's not try to do that math because it just.

Ryan Rosillo (30:26)

Doesn'T. We can just move on from.

Max Olson (30:27)

That. I will say this season, Ryan, I think you are already seeing the signs of, like, you know, I think with Brian Kelly, I think with Mike Gundy, I think even a couple of years ago, Jimbo Fisher, like, we're already seeing the signs of, like, hey, man, like, we spent. I mean, James Franklin, too. Like, hey, we spent a lot of money on this team and you're blowing it. Like, you're. We're going to fire you. Like, that's just, like, that's what it is now. If the investment level rises up, then the stakes are just heightened every year, even though your team is completely different every year. And, you know, I think that right now you're also seeing what Sig is doing in Indiana is so insane, and yet it sparks hope for everyone, right? And so it's like, I mean, fricking Indiana's doing it, right? Like, their championship window opened the second he got there. That's insane. And so it's like, all right, well, what are they doing? Let's try to do what they're doing. And so we've, in the last two, three years, like, you would talk to, you would talk to, you know, personnel, staffers at playoff programs, and they'd be like, yeah, we're trying to take like five to ten transfers a year. Like, we're not trying to overdo it. Like, we're signing blue chip high school recruits. All that we, you know, we. We develop guys, we get into the pros. All that we've normalized in the last, like, two years here. Not only, like, paying a lot of money for every player, but flipping it every year and just bringing in 25 transfers every year and, you know, constant. Just constantly looking at who can we go get to make us better? And I think you could also, like, look at where we're at today and Say, like I've had this conversation with Blanchard at Texas Tech, like some of these teams we thought were going to be really good to start the year and back in August, like Penn State, like Clemson, who had everybody coming back and it looks so good on paper. There's maybe like an argument to be made here of, yeah, having that veteran retained, you know, experienced team, like if you stay out of the portal because you've got those guys, that might be a mistake with kind of where this is going right now. Because some would argue, like you need to just be constantly recruiting your roster. You need to constantly be recruiting over even the veteran starters you got, the NFL guys you've got and applying that pressure every year and boosting the roster every year. Because otherwise maybe the guy that's a junior doesn't get that much better as a senior. And maybe there's that complacency a little bit and you're looking at a season like Clemson or Pensaca and you're like, man, how are we not better than we were a year ago? It doesn't make sense. And so just this need for everybody to flip this all the time, whether you're winning or losing, it's very expensive. There's a lot of attrition to it. It kind of makes the whole market a little bit worse and crazier. But that as you see people and these four programs that are at the end here have success with it. I think for everybody else it's like, man, we want to keep our players. Like, we want to be competitive. We see Indiana is showing it's possible, but it also creates a lot of spending and a lot of hope. That's probably not going to pay off.

Ryan Rosillo (33:22)

Too. Yeah. The biggest mistake is thinking that Indiana's fucking everybody else up because it's discrediting what they do as.

Max Olson (33:32)

Evaluators. Oh, for.

Ryan Rosillo (33:33)

Sure. And there was a stretch there forever. I can go back. I've always talked about revisiting this. There was a stretch there. Early 2000s I and Zon, it was like, look at everybody. Like Stoops as soon as he got their title right. Urban as soon as he gets there. Saban was right on the map immediately. Mac took a little bit longer, but it was very clear. Like it felt like the coaches that mattered were doing their best work in the first few years, but that window was still like a three or four year window. So just because Signetti is doing what he's doing, any other AD or fan base holding their program to the same side. I've seen it Written about. It's like, hey, no excuses, no excuses. It's like, well, I'd rather just praise what it is and how special this is, how unique it.

Max Olson (34:12)

Is. A plus at all of these categories. Right. In terms of how they're doing.

Ryan Rosillo (34:16)

It there, can you add more to. I mean, is it Wilson? And they're like, by the way, I love Hoover. I love that pickup at quarterback. I mean, it just makes sense. Like, I don't know if it's the snitty pitch, but there is another part of this story that I feel like deserves more. Just awareness on how these guys have. Like, if I owned an NFL team, I'd want to meet with the Indiana staff and go, what do you do to so perfectly identify what you need? Because, again, if we're talking overall talent rankings, there's an argument to be made that Signetti doesn't even have this thing going yet. And yet they're a game away from playing from a national.

Max Olson (34:54)

Championship. Yeah. And they've already loaded up for next year. They have Josh Hoover coming from tcu. They have Turbo Richard, the running back from Boston College. They got Nick Marsh, who, you know, probably the second or third best receiver in the portal. You're going head to head with Notre Dame on him and getting him to sign. You know, they, like, they've got one of the best pass rushers coming in, so they're going to run it back, too. They're going to keep doing this. It's incredible to watch because you're right. Like, the thing people say last year is like, oh, I mean, they brought all these JMU guys with them, and that really helps. That sets the. The culture. These guys have played before. You know, these guys, what they can do translates in the Big Ten, it's not that bad of a jump from what they're doing at JMU to doing it Indiana. And you kind of get a lot of credit for. Yeah, we brought these 12, 13 guys with us, and that really boosted the roster in year one. Okay, well, some of those guys stayed, but, like, how do you explain year two, then? Because I think that they did an exceptional job. It's not just the Heisman quarterback. You go through the whole depth chart, they either had returning seniors or they went out and got exactly the guy they needed. And I think part of it is, like, the availability of talent, and they know exactly what they're doing, exactly what they're looking for. They're very well prepared before the portal opens to go get the guys they want to get that fit them. And Part of that, like, we say, if there's 5,000 guys out there and it only takes 20, like, they know what they're looking for, and they don't have to give each of those guys 3 million bucks to come to Indiana. Like, the guys are bought into. Hey, I see the results. I see what they're doing here. You know, it's exceptional. It's what they've done this year. And I don't think it's going to drop off when these JMU guys graduate or this Portal class like we've seen in the past. Like, yeah, it can be hard to maintain if you're doing the Portal thing every year. But I think they're also a pretty exceptional developmental and cultural program. And so, yeah, I think now guys see it. I think Signetti's pitch in the past has been. He's had five or six guys since 2019 win offensive player of the year in the conference. And so Fernando Mendoza buys that pitch and comes out and takes his game to another level. Now Josh Hoover is going to have a chance to do the same. And so if you can keep stacking this and you have the proof of the playoff like this, like, guys are going to keep coming. It doesn't matter. Yeah, they could go to Ohio State or Michigan or Penn State or all these other schools, but, like, they're into it. They're into the brand he's created, and they want to.

Ryan Rosillo (37:10)

Win. Have you talked to teams that have decided they're just not even going to bother with high school quarterbacks.

Max Olson (37:17)

Anymore? It's a good question. I mean, it is, because ultimately we're getting the whole, like, how much should we pay a high schooler and how much should we pay for a high school class? That is its own conversation that I have with GMs all the time that I find really interesting because the statistics are what they are. Like, these guys don't stay. And now that the rule is unlimited transfers for their career, you know, guys are. I'm seeing players pop up in the Portal who are looking for their fourth school right now. Like, it's pretty commonplace. Like, that's going to keep happening as long as things are set up the way they are right now. And so part of the challenge is like, okay, how much are you going to pay? How much are you going to invest in a guy before he actually gets on the field for you and, like, starts producing? And then once he does do that, then is he jumping up to a million or 2 million or 3 million bucks? Right. I think that that's it's a tough business right now. You've got to work really hard to keep guys on board and even if you're successful and even if they're an all conference guy and performing at a high level and love the offense, like somebody can come along and offer them something better. And so yeah, I think the high school like you're seeing freshmen quarterbacks who just got through a year who red shirted are hitting the portal now. Like I think everybody is looking at this from just this direct path to getting on the field. And you know, a couple years ago it was kind of clear it was heading this way that like past year two, if they weren't starting they were leaving and now I think that's happening even earlier. So you know, you've got obviously the four teams in the playoff at the end here all did it with transfers and I think that's going to continue. I think whether it's just, it's expensive to keep them and you know, they just don't stay very long if they're not the guy as soon as they get.

Ryan Rosillo (38:58)

There. Let's run through just more of the players here then. So it sounded like, I mean this is twice now with Tech, whether it was the LSU Tech battle over Source B, but you know, a week ago it felt like Cam Coleman, hey, Alabama, he'll stay in the SEC or whatever. But you think Cam Coleman is going to end up in.

Max Olson (39:17)

Lubbock. It's a Texas vs Texas A&M vs Texas tech battle which since, you know, since they left the Big 12, we haven't seen too many of those. Ryan, like I think that's going to be extra spicy here. I think it was pretty evident especially like once Hugh Freeze got fired. Like man, people are coming after Cam Coleman. I, you know, I talked to one source that thinks that he could as a wide receiver he could get like 3 million bucks from this next school. He could get 3, 5, something like that. Like he has the potential to be a first round pick a year from now. He's, he's, you know, he was a top five recruit coming in. He's played with five different quarterbacks in his two years at Auburn. He's shown like you've watched Vanderbilt this year, like he can take over a game for Texas for A and M for Tech. Like this is going to just be a straight up bidding war and fascinating to see what he prioritizes here, what he and his family prioritize. But yeah, he's a true number one receiver and he's the number two player in our rankings right.

Ryan Rosillo (40:15)

Now. Give me some other big names. I mean, I don't want to put you on the spot too much here where you feel like I'm just asking you to predict where all of these kids are going to land, but, like, give us a few more names. And so the bigger ticket items right now that you're trying to figure.

Max Olson (40:29)

Out. Yeah, you know, the Levitt one, the Sam Levitt recruitment's been pretty interesting to follow. You know, I, like, I, I covered that, that playoff game last year. Texas, Arizona State, like, watching him live, it's like, dude, this kid is special. He was only a redshirt freshman last year. Exceptional year with Scatterboo last year at Arizona State. Got hurt this year, got knocked out for the back half of the season. Kind of like, it was kind of out there, but a little bit surprising he made a move considering how tight he was with Kenny Dillingham. And he goes to Kentucky for a visit. Now Kentucky has flipped Kenny Minchi, the Notre Dame backup from Nebraska. He goes to. He was going to go visit Texas Tech. Texas Tech gets the deal done with Sorsby in their battle with LSU. He goes to LSU. LSU is now evidently chasing Demond Williams Jr. From Washington. Now he's going to Tennessee. And Tennessee's just kind of been, like, seemingly kind of quiet. They haven't, I don't think, had a lot of ovs from quarterbacks so far. Certainly would be a good move for him, but, you know, there's people kind of assumed he's from Oregon. Would he end up at Oregon, at Dante more goes pro? So I think he has an interesting decision to make that could be another one where Miami just comes into the picture and says, like, hey, we got to figure this out. You're the guy. Like, it's, it's. I think it's been a good quarterback market this year. You've got Drew Mastermaker going to Oklahoma State from North Texas after, you know, leading the country and passing this year. Byron Brown going with his coach to Auburn. You know, we mentioned Hoover, Rocco Beck going to Penn State. You know, you've still got DJ Lagway out there, which, honestly, Ryan, a year ago, if.

Ryan Rosillo (41:56)

You. I can't believe there's not, like, I, I still am a Lagway.

Max Olson (42:00)

Believer. I'm just saying that I am, too. And I think if you had told me in August he's going to go in the portal and he's going to go take official visits to Virginia and Stanford and Baylor, you'd Be like, wait, what, what the hell happened? Like, I. Because he was truly, like, we all kind of viewed him as a five star freshman. Like a truly, like has a chance to take the step and be a top 10 quarterback this year. He's just had so many injuries and I think that that is really. You talk to personal people like, that's just the concern is like developmentally two years in that he's not where he should be because he's missed a lot of practice and he's just missed a lot of time and it's not even been throwing the football very much in the off season. So I think there's a lot there. I agree. Like, I think that would be a great guy to invest in. You know, I wondered when he entered the portal, like if you're dabbling Clemson and they recruited DJ Lagway in high school and have a good relationship with him, like, wouldn't that be an incredible move for Clemson with. When you've just got, you know, backups returning and you want to have a competition? You know, his dad went to Baylor. I think he just visited Baylor. You got Stanford fighting, you got. Ole Miss is trying to get him in because they don't know what's going to happen with turning that Chambliss. And so Ole Miss is on him and they're on Deuce Night from Auburn and they're trying to kind of figure out what to do here. So yeah, it's. I'm surprised. I agree with you. I'm surprised he visited Florida State. Like, I'm surprised that it's not done yet. Either Baylor's got to like find the money to get this done or he's going to go pick a spot and a big reset.

Ryan Rosillo (43:24)

Here. How about his teammate there, Jaden Baugh, who I think behind Love is my favorite running back from college football this past season. I mean, a lot of this stuff can get lost. The receiver's gone after a year who's a big time recruit. But I know the running back price. I don't know if there's. It's the same as like not drafting one in the first round, but I'm telling you right now, in the college game, that guy is a fucking stud. And I just don't think, I don't blame anybody for not watching Florida games this year. He was so good that you would just. I would like, I'm going to watch him this, this series. That's how special I think he.

Max Olson (43:58)

Is as a running back you talk to like, especially as Napier was on the hot seat during the season, like, talking to the SEC personnel folks, they're like, yeah, no, it's Jaden Paul. Like, that's. If that. If that opens up. Like, we're all lining up to try to line up, you know, get Jaden Baugh here. Tough runner, like just a sophomore. Like, really talented. And it's been. Jaden Baugh has never put his name in the portal, but there have been a lot of people fighting over Jaden Baugh here over the past two months. And he announced yesterday he's staying at Florida. And that is going to. That came as a surprise. I think to some people. It's a huge deal for John Sumrall, obviously, and a big priority as soon as he got the job, like, we got to get this done. But yeah, Florida's running backs coach, Jabar Jaluk, went to Texas. Texas lost both of their running backs to the Portal. And it was pretty clear, like, yeah, they're going to try and get Jaden Bob if they can. I think LSU certainly, you know, if they couldn't get Kewan Lacey to come, they certainly wanted to get Jaden Pa. And so it's a big deal for Florida. You know, hey, we still got a little more time here before the portal closes, so you got to kind of fight and hold on here. But I think Jane Ball is a player that is absolutely. You know, a couple years ago, you would say when Quinchon Judkins was going in the portal from Ole Miss, I remember there was a lot of conversation about, like, come on. Like, why would you pay running back a million bucks? Like, look at the NFL. Like, that doesn't make any sense. Of course he goes, wins the national championship at Ohio State. But, like, now it's like, you got to keep that guy. It's not really about the economics of it and about that we look smart for this. It's like, this guy has to stay here. And so, yeah, those guys are going to get paid over a million bucks. And those deals, you know, could approach 2 or 3 million.

Ryan Rosillo (45:30)

Bucks. Yeah, I guess I am always a little bit like, you know, considering all the turnover that they've had, I was. I was a little surprised by that. I just looked up the John Henry Daly Latest the edge for Utah. It's going to come down to Michigan, Notre Dame. I don't know if something's changed since I read that this morning. I loved him. I thought he really popped. Whenever you watch Utah this year, it feel a little surprising that he would follow Whittingham to Michigan.

Max Olson (45:55)

Right. Yeah, that would be. That would be a little bit surprising, really. Premium player that. That. I'm curious how that sits you, too, but, like, the way that this is. That shook out Utah pretty wild. And I think as soon as Whittingham, you know, he. He's going to, like, coach the bowl game and then he's done, then he gets Michigan, then I'm not coaching the bowl game. I'm going to Michigan. And then as soon as that goes down, then it's like, okay, now Michigan's top defensive players are going in the transfer portal right away. Yeah, it's. I would be surprised if some of those guys didn't go to Ann Arbor with him. Yeah, Daley was really impressive this year. One of the best pass rushers in the Big 12 in his first season as a starter. Got hurt at the end of the year. He says he's going to be fine for spring ball, and I don't think teams are really going to hesitate about the injury.

Robbie Hummel (46:37)

There. I.

Max Olson (46:37)

Think. I think that he's going to be a highly valuable guy. And I think, you know, truly, that's a position pass rusher where if you're. Whether you're experienced and you have production or you're just a freaky freshman, and we've got a few of those in the portal right now, like, yeah, easily a million bucks.

Ryan Rosillo (46:53)

Yeah. The Whittingham thing could not have worked out better for Michigan. I mean, just when you're trying to figure out, like, who can come in and then also, like, command the respect and Whittingham, there's extra boxes that he checks that you wouldn't even be thinking about. Although I was reading about Michigan the other day, and I was like, we just need to get back to, like, whatever this is. And you're like, well, what do you mean? Like, all the controversy around Harbaugh and then the next coach was at best super horny, at worst, dangerous to women. So you have a national championship with this group. Are you telling us, like, none of that fan base? And I wouldn't expect any single fan base to actually go like, well, I'd rather this be more respectful without the national championship. But Whittingham, like, from getting the right coach, a coach that I absolutely love, the demeanor and all this stuff and, like, buying whatever his contract is, there should be like, another 20% of just instant credibility. Right. That all of a sudden all the nastiness of, like, the Michigan football brand of the last few years with also a national championship in there, as I say, it second time, it just washes away immediately. Like Whittingham is like the perfect cleanser for everything they're worried about. All right, let me, let me close with this because you had mentioned it, we had a transfer portal quarterback matchup in the final last year. The final four this year are all portal quarterbacks. Which, which game, which outcome here are you more confident in picking between the rematch with Indiana and Oregon and then of course, Ole Miss.

Max Olson (48:20)

Miami. Man, I, I think Ole Miss will get it done. And I do. I. You look at this, Ryan. Like, it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility here. If we have Indiana Ole Miss in the national championship game, I think it's going to be a real representation of the thing we've been talking about here. Because those are two programs that are not in the blue chip ratio. Right? They are not like Ole Miss does a great job recruiting the roster, but they're not on that same level as a lot of those SEC schools in terms of just stacking five star, four star high school recruits. Obviously Indiana isn't. And so to have those two at the end and one of them is the champion, I think it would be a reflection of. You can call it nil, you can call it portal, it's obviously both. But like that, that is like we're in the new era of this and that if you can do this at the highest level, you can win a national championship. And I think that there's still been that skepticism over the past few years of, yeah, cool, you spent a lot of money, built this great portal class. You know, they're not first rounders, they're not second rounders. Like, does that really change? Does that really put you on that same tier as Alabama and Georgia and Oregon and these programs that just stack it year after year in high school recruiting? And so I think Ole Miss can do it, which is wild for everything that's going on there every hour of every day. Like, you talked to people on that staff and I talked to one right after they resigned Kewan Lacey, which was a huge deal for them because there's no question, like they were fighting LSU on Kiwan Lacey. He wasn't in the portal, but you were trying to fight and convince him to stay put as so many of these players have agreed to. But like you talk to the guys that have been there and been there for the past, you know what they've gone through the past like two months now, they're like, dude, it's not, it's like a multi part Netflix documentary Like, just if you're living in it every day, the Ole Miss side and the LSU side of it, right? Like, it's. It's. One of them said. He's like, I. He's like, I think it's like Godfather 1 and Godfather 2. Like, you can't just, like, tell the Ole Miss piece of it. There's like. There's two whole stories here. So it's like, it's just been completely insane. And that motivation. I can't think of a. Can you think of, like, a pro sports example of a parallel of, like, hey, guys, the head coach just bailed on you. He doesn't think you can win the national championship. How about we go win the national championship? Like, if they get to this title game, like, not only is it, like, just a total nightmare for Lane Kiffin, but, like, they might actually do it. Like, they. Like, they might, despite their phone's ringing every day about, hey, we want you to transfer here and go here. Like, for that group to, like, come together and play the way they did against Georgia and be as resilient as they were. And then they go play Miami and like, yeah, Miami's D line is going to give them problems, obviously, like, as it does everybody else. Wouldn't be stunning if Miami, you know, won that game. But, like, I. The Ole Miss story here that's playing out every day is. Is pretty wild and can't really think, like, is there a pro sports one like that where, like, yeah, coach left, but we just got. We. We got better. We won playoff.

Ryan Rosillo (51:20)

Games. I'm trying to remember how the. I don't think the Knicks did that great after the Pat Riley. I just remember that being, like, a ton of drama, certainly. Look, it wasn't the equivalent of what Ole Miss is doing right now. I'm just trying, like, I was starting with, like, all right, what pro scenario do you have? Yeah, it's not like the jets went on some tear after Belichick decided to fax resign as the HC of the nyj. So, yeah, I'd have to. I'd have to think about it.

Max Olson (51:48)

More. Have, like, you know, it's instead of, like, instead of those guys just being like, wow, this is heartbreaking. This ruins our season. Like, and now we're all. You know, all our coaches are going to lsu. A bunch of our players are going to lsu. The way that. That Pete Golding just galvanize it and the way he's handling this every day and with just, like, you know, pretty straight talk and just, like, not dissing Lane, but, like, hey, I'm going to do it my way, and I'm going to, like, do what I have to do to kind of get this team through the rest of this. Yeah, it's. It's unbelievably impressive, and I truly think we could see Ole Miss in the National Championship game, Which, you know, you would have said as Lane was deciding this, you would have said, like, no, they probably can't do it, but, you know, they took down Georgia, and it took a lot of punches to take down Georgia. And, you know, I think that kind of proved, like, man, I think they've got an opportunity to. To finish this run.

Ryan Rosillo (52:37)

Here. This is where people who don't like me are about to get really annoyed, though, because I would. I would point to a couple things here where I feel like we'll have these results in a moment. Like, I don't know that you'd ever look like it at a string of data of like, hey, look at how long this has happened. And you'll be like, oh, what happened in 1947? And be like, oh, that was kind of an outlier year, or whatever. Like, oh, what happened over here? Specific to Lane and the Ole Miss, LSU part of it. Anybody that thought that Lane should be coaching throughout this entire thing, as it extends. It's an outrageous thing to even propose. So the fact that Ole Miss was like, you can fuck off, man. I completely agree with Ole Miss because Lane would be this entire time working these guys to follow him to Baton Rouge while he'd be like, the star. And it was just going to be. It was just going to be a thing. And as an extent, it's like.

Max Olson (53:29)

Lane's like, you don't think I'm going to handle that with integrity? It's like, no, dude, we don't think you're going to handle that the right way. Like, of course.

Ryan Rosillo (53:34)

Not. So. And by the way, if you're lsu, you'd be like, we actually. Even if it's like an inside agent, you know, we'd like to get our thing started down here. So, like, what are you going to do? Host Sam Levitt for a portal visit while you're prepping to go up against Miami? That. That was argued, I personally think was absurd. Now, here's where I think I'm going to annoy people. Is that the. Hey, look at Ole Miss and the job he left for LSU because he didn't think he could do it. Ole Miss, what he can do at LSU while Ole Miss is on the doorstep of Doing this thing. No one has ever, ever, in the decades that I've cared about the sport has ever argued that Ole Miss is a better job than lsu. So we could have a result that makes it very easy to make fun of Lane and be like, you know, look what you did, dummy. Now they're in the national championship game and you left. But I feel like that's, like, the one data point out of, like, 50 to what feels like a really good point in the moment, when, in fact, you're actually just not telling the.

Max Olson (54:43)

Truth. Yeah. You have to, like, you.

Ryan Rosillo (54:46)

Can. You can tell.

Max Olson (54:47)

Me. Well, you just have to appreciate, like, this is a very, like, magical run from Ole Miss here.

Ryan Rosillo (54:53)

Right. Like, of.

Max Olson (54:54)

Course. It just. That that's, like, what can you say? And then you have the quick turnaround from the Sugar bowl to. To the. The semifinal here, and, like, you know, it's an interesting thing to navigate, going. Going four rounds like they're going to. Right. Yeah. No, it's. No. No one is saying it's. It's a. You know, we all agree, lsu, you're on the fast track to playing for national championship, no matter who the coach is, no matter whether you're from the south or not. Right. Like, it's. It is set up for success. But Lane will want this credit, obviously, but he put together a very special team here and then had to leave that team and not finish the job with them. And then, like I said, for that to just, like, galvanize them and be like, yeah, screw it. Like, let's just go in a national title together, guys. So, like. And then we'll figure out all the rest of the stuff after the season's over and the coaches will leave. But, like, you think about it. Right? Right. Right. Now, Ryan, like, those assistant coaches at Ole Miss, some of them are, like, working during the day, getting ready for the playoff game, and then at night, we're gonna go over to this room and we're gonna recruit for LSU here, and then we're gonna fly back to LSU and host these visits, and we're gonna fly right back. And every round, it's like, is Lane gonna let us go back to Ole Miss and keep coaching, or, like, is this gonna. Can we work this out? So, yeah, it's just kind of. I. As divorces go in college football, it's just one of the craziest things you've ever.

Ryan Rosillo (56:19)

Seen. Yeah. In a sport that has signed up for more and more crazy, especially the last few years. Max Olson, you can read all of his portal Rankings updating it hourly for ESPN.com he is one of the best to be doing this. We appreciate the time. Thanks.

Max Olson (56:34)

Max. Thanks.

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Ryan Rosillo (57:09)

Espn. Joining us now, NBA analyst NBC analyst Robbie Hummel, who also you know from the college game as well. He'll be on Peacock's NBA Monday, January 12 Celtics at the Pacers with more on the bench coverage. I have loved this. I can't believe TV tried something new and it's worked this well. You and Austin Rivers, I know they mix it up a little bit in the routine, but you know, I'm going to start there. I'm going to talk NBA and everything. But how do, how do you think this has worked as well? Because I'm actually shocked how great this is.

Robbie Hummel (57:41)

Going. Yeah, I was very skeptical when it was pitched because of where your location is. You know, I was like, wait, so I'm going to be on one bench and Austin's going to be on another bench and then Noah or Michael Grady will be across the floor? You know, how are we supposed to not talk over each other? Because in three men booths there's a lot of non verbal communication. You know, there's a lot of like, I might point at you if you're going to take a replay or and when you're all the way across the floor, you really can't do that. So I was a bit skeptical of that. But I will say we did some practice games out at summer league in San Francisco and it went pretty well to the point where it's like, wow, you know, there's maybe something here. And Sam Flood, who's the president, NBC Sports, had done this with hockey and he's kind of brought it to basketball and obviously with hockey it stuck. And it's kind of become something that all, you know, hockey broadcasts do now where they've got an analyst or reporter right down there on the glass is what they call it. So I think it's gone great. You know, it's been really, really interesting. I think Austin And I have developed a really good chemistry, and the Noah is as good as anybody. And you could say the same for Michael Grady. Like, I think the people that we work with in this broadcast have. Have been tremendous. And then I give a lot of credit to NBC for putting crazy amounts of resources to it. You know, we have the same crew. We've got a bunch of cameras. We've got really good, good people working on these. These shows. And then I give the NBA credit, too. You know, they. They are a big part of this in terms of saying, all right, we're going to give you this access. The coaches have been really, really good. They've let us come to shoot around. That's a lot more of a college thing for the NBA. The way that TV usually works is you might meet with the coaches, you know, before the game, but you're not going to shoot around. You're not getting that level of access to see how are they going to guard things. And, you know, what's the scouting report on certain players. But they've been willing to do it, and, you know, without their accessibility, it would have been a lot, lot harder to pull this off. But I think it's gone great, too. It's been really, really fun to do.

Hi Hat (59:49)

It.

Robbie Hummel (59:50)

And. And, you know, even last game, you know, we're. We're sitting courtside, we're doing our thing in Philadelphia, and I'm sitting next to Bob Myers. So it's just kind of like. It's been surreal. You've got executives, you've got actors, you've got. I was sitting next to this dude named the Watch King in Brooklyn. So it's. It's a hodgepodge of who you sit next to, but you do meet some really interesting.

Ryan Rosillo (60:13)

People. I love it. And I. I always think of, like, are there no new ideas? Or if you have that approach to any of this stuff, does that mean you're just limited creatively and that it's like, of course, there's all sorts of things that we have not thought of. And I was thinking about there was that NFL game where the camera thing got messed up. I don't know if it was because of the fog. And then we went to, like, all 22 for half, and then everybody online's, like, freaking out, being like, oh, this is amazing. We should stay with all 22. It teaches you the game, the whole thing. And then they stayed with it for a little bit. And then you realize, like, yeah, actually, the whole reason why we've had it the other way is because it's just way better thing to watch on television and that over the course of a full season, this doesn't really work. And so first when it was announced, I was like, are they just trying to do something different? Like how are they not going to feel disconnected? And it's been incredible, man. I really enjoy it. And I imagine too there's. With this access, there's an understanding and maybe because you're a former player and obviously Austin's very close to it as well, there's a tremendous amount of trust in that you're going to share what you think helps tell the story, but you're not going to betray anybody and being like, oh my God, they want to bench this guy, like he's a dog right now. Like nobody, you know, there's. There's all this stuff that I imagine that you have access to that you have enough of a filter to understand what will work and what will get you in.

Robbie Hummel (61:29)

Trouble. Sure. You know, Austin has grown up in the NBA so he has a tremendous feel for locker room. You know, what it's like to be to the day to day thing, just being around coaches, players, all that. So I think that he's got a tremendous feel with that. And then, you know, I wasn't in the NBA long, I played two years, but I think I've done TV long enough to understand like what these coaches are going to think is okay to have out there and what's not. We ran into something really interesting in Detroit, like in the third or fourth week of this. They were playing the Wizards. It was actually a really good game, even though Washington is obviously rebuilding. And there was a late game situation where it's like, all right, they're going to draw up a play and Detroit's going to draw this up. And I'm in the huddle and I watch exactly what J.B. bickerstaff draws up. There has been, and I understand this a little bit, I think of hesitancy from head coaches of like, they can't just say what the play is. Right. Like that that could be very, I think, just kind of, you know, maybe breaking the sacredness of, of what's coming. Even though there's a delay, even though it's not like the Wizards can be watching this and you know, yelling at the guys, hey, pin down for, for Duncan Robinson or whoever. So like we had to kind of like navigate that. And I think we actually did a good job of saying, all right, you know, we waited as long as we could. The ball's about to Be inbounded. And then just being subtle. Of watch Duncan Robinson. It's screen. Re. Screen. And it actually worked out perfectly where they ran the play right, and Washington just blew it up. Like, basically three guys ran into each other, they all fell down. And then Detroit threw it to the corner for Danish Jenkins, and he hit a three. But it ended up working out, I think, as well as it could have. But that's one of those kind of tricky things to navigate of, you know, how do you do that? And it was the first time, so we were lucky that it ended up working out probably as well as it could have. But, yeah, you're never going to say, because obviously there's times where coaches are trying to motiv. Maybe in the NBA, not as much as you'd see in Europe or. Or in college or high school, where there's, like, a coach really, really yelling at a player. But when those things happen or there's an argument on the bench between teammates, you can say, hey, there was some heated discussion without being like, hey, he just cussed this dude out to the maximum. Right? Like, you've just gotta. You've got to use some common sense, I think. And that's kind of the approach we've.

Ryan Rosillo (63:54)

Taken. The story from the most recent game, the Denver win in overtime against Philadelphia, is, like, perfect for it, because, you know, Denver's got this lineup, these different groups of guys, you know, and Beats played better, he's moved better. You know, Maxi's in the MVP conversation, and then next thing you know, you're like, we're in. We're in overtime for this one. So how different is the experience between what you're dealing with with your bench versus Austin? Because there were two vastly different expectations based on who was.

Robbie Hummel (64:21)

Playing. Sure, I'm sure with Austin. And it was funny because we both played for David Adelman. You know, I had him for two years in Minnesota, and Austin had him for a couple years in Denver. So we know him. I'm sure that he was. Every time out, he had to be thrilled, right? Like, just because these guys are playing hard, they're getting an opportunity. That's one of those games where he's just like, man, I just hope we hang around and we have a chance. Whereas with Philly, I thought the way they played at the Garden on Saturday was uber impressive. Like, their offense is just clicking. They're getting whatever they want. New York can't guard them and their big three. You know, Maxi has been so good. You're right. Absolute MVP discussion. Embiid I saw him in Memphis on last Tuesday, and I was like, man, he's throwing the ball at the backboard, trying to dunk. He's protecting the rim a little bit better. He's leaving his feet. He's looked better. I thought he looked, you know, kind of the same thing in New York. And Paul George is starting to fit into that equation. Plus the whole Vijay Edgecombe dynamic where you're like, man, this dude. This dude is a beast for being a rookie. The clutch factor, the athleticism, the shot making. And yeah, I. I will give Nick a lot of credit. He was. He was very calm. But the constant message of, we need to guard the ball, we need to stay out of rotation. We have got to keep these guys in front of us. And I saw Jalen Pickett a lot in college. He's a hard guard, man, because he's herky jerky and he's kind of. He's a bigger guard, he's got some size, but they couldn't keep him in front of him. And then Peyton Watson is pretty good. Like, he. He doesn't get the opportunity. But that. That's my biggest takeaway from this game. And I. I kind of understood this. Being a lower tier NBA player for two years, even the guys that don't play are really good players, you know, and they. You just need an opportunity. You need a situation where you're like, man, I get to play through some things. Denver is making three after three after three from guy like Zeke Najee, I think is shooting 28 from three. Hunter Tyson was like 22% from three. Those guys aren't bad.

Hi Hat (66:19)

Shooters.

Robbie Hummel (66:20)

But. And I, I always used to give my college teammates such a hard time for this. It is so hard to sit on the bench for two and a half hours, get put in when the score is decided by 20 or 25 points, and be like, all right, go make some shots. And I used to give our walk on such a hard time. I'd be like, man, it's basketball. Go out there and just shoot that thing. And they'd be like, dude, it's hard. And then when I got to the NBA, I was like, all right, they have a point. It is hard because you're just. You're not in a rhythm. So I think it's a great lesson. And like, everybody in that league can play. And when you get the opportunity and you play hard, and maybe a team like Philly that's trying to be labeled as a contender, they're looking at that roster. Like, man, there's Nobody playing their starting five is out. Tim Hardaway Junior's out. Anything can happen. It's. It's why the NBA can be so.

Ryan Rosillo (67:08)

Fun. Who is. You know, I'm kind of like, this is one of those answers. If somebody's like, hey, who do you think the best is? Then it's like, well, it's not that I'm rewarding the best. It's that all of a sudden other people are going to think I'm not the best. But have there been a few moments with a team or with a coach where you've had access to the season where it's just really impressed you, or.

Robbie Hummel (67:27)

Maybe. Yeah, I would say that they all have been great. You know, like, they all have been willing to talk about their teams and showcase. I think the coaches look at this like, you know, and Austin made this point early on, like, so often with the NBA, coaches are just scapegoated. You know, he's doing a bad job. He's fired. And I think that this job can. Can do it, or these broadcasts can do a good job of celebrating how good these coaches really are. You know, I. Because the. The basketball IQ and just the. The way that these guys take from all different places, you see action that gets run in euroleague or college or, you know, some stuff that the guys have come up with themselves. I think that's a cool part of this. You know, Kenny Atkinson's been tremendous. J.B. bickerstaff has been tremendous. I really enjoyed my talk with Joe Missoula. You know, I played against Joe in college, so I. That might, you know, just in terms of having a familiarity. I know Joe can. Can be tricky with some of his media that you see, which is actually hilarious. And I. I was roommates with Daeshun Butler, who's his college teammate, and also on the Celtics staff. We were roommates in USA Basketball back in the day in Belgrade for four weeks along with Evan Turner. So, like, that. That goes a long way, I think, of having a relationship. Honestly, I can't. Of all the teams we've had, and I bet we've had like 12 teams, every coach has been great. Sit down, give access, you know, talk about their teams, talk about their game plan. There's not been a single person that's not been.

Ryan Rosillo (69:02)

Good.

Max Olson (69:04)

Okay. With.

Ryan Rosillo (69:04)

The. This is probably slanted a little bit, who you've been around versus who you haven't been around. But, like, if you look at the east contenders, right, because, you know, the expectation of Cleveland is there. I still expect a Cleveland run at Some point. But you know, it's really up and down depending. I mean, even last night, a battle with the Pacers. You know, Detroit gets off to the start. New York, we feel good about Boston. Sort of a surprise. There's some of this meaty middle part of the east that early on they had some good records. But you're like, I don't know if they're really necessarily talented enough. If there's one team that you felt like, hey, this might be the team, is there an answer for that for.

Robbie Hummel (69:36)

You? Boy, I. Because the Pistons have come back to earth a little bit and I do worry some about their shooting and the court getting shrunk come playoff.

Ryan Rosillo (69:45)

Time. I did love that Knicks game though, by the way, the other night, because it was, it was like really intense defensively. Some of the individual one on one defensive matchups, you're like, man, you know, go.

Robbie Hummel (69:57)

Ahead. No, I mean, they, they guard. They, they destroy you in the paint, they destroy you on the glass. Like they win the margins at everywhere and it's like if they can just decent percentage from three, they're going to have a chance. And then Kate is a legitimate star, right? Like, so I, I really like Detroit's team, but I think you can make the case. The shooting, you know, Boston, it's like, God, they've gotten rid of just everybody and they don't have Tatum, but Jalen Brown's playing like, like a, you know, a first team, all NBA type guy. The Knicks, there just feels like there's something that's been. Something just seems amiss and maybe it's, you get Josh Hart back and you become whole and that all comes together here. I agree with you on Cleveland. I, I think that they're certainly a team. I, I think like missing Max Truce has been a lot more impactful than maybe people have given credit for. And you've been, you've missed Mobley some. God, I've. I've done so many stinking.

Ryan Rosillo (70:54)

Games. Well, no, Garland. Garland was slow back with the toe injury and he hasn't always looked like, what's my.

Robbie Hummel (71:00)

Man? The shooter? God, he's actually. Yes, yes. Sam.

Ryan Rosillo (71:04)

Merrill. Sam.

Robbie Hummel (71:06)

Merrill. Huge, unbelievable start to his season. And then he hurts his shooting hand. So it's like, I, I think he's a really good player. So if they get healthy and whole, I could see that. And I feel the same way about Philadelphia. You know, you get Uber back in the mix and you have a healthy Embiid and you have a healthy Paul George now. I get that NBA Fans will be like, well, that hasn't necessarily been the case over the last three, four, five seasons, you know, like that. But if they can be healthy, watch that Knicks game and you're like, whoa, you know, their talent. I had an executive text me that, like, look at Philadelphia's talent when they're healthy and they're scary. So, you know, I, I don't know if anybody has necessarily separated themselves I, and I, I might be biased because I've seen Detroit like five times, but I, I do love the physicality and toughness that they bring alongside Kutney.

Ryan Rosillo (71:56)

Him. Yeah, I'm with you on that. Like, I, I think they're in their own level in the east and they had that Knicks win without Duran playing, you know, and, and I probably, talent wise, still hold out hope for Cleveland and Mitchell wasn't playing in that Pacers game where, you know, they had to come back. And then the Pacers put together this little kind of like mini burst at the end there. But I just, like, we could talk about Streus all we want, but if you have Alan Mobley, Hunter, Garland and.

Robbie Hummel (72:25)

Mitchell.

Ryan Rosillo (72:26)

Yeah. And even the, the erratic part of this, like, strew should not be the deciding factor for, for like, oh my God, you know, they don't have this guy. It's like, well, look at all these other dudes they have. I mean, Hunter's the most expensive fifth option in the NBA. So I, I, look, I'm, I'm with you on Detroit. Even though it's not like, hey, oh my God, if Detroit isn't in the NBA finals, I'm going to be shocked. Like, I'm not that far along with it. That would be aggressive because you've done so much college. Every night has been like, I have so much fun now watching this rookie class where depending on how the games are kind of like flowing and like what I want to get my eyes on, there might just be a moment where like, you know what I, I, I mean, look, con caniple's been like a default. Charlotte's almost like a top five league pass rating for me here. Just because I'm blown away that somebody this young could understand the nuance of basketball as well as he does. It, it blows my mind. It's not just the shooting and the scoring and the rookie numbers for three pointers. It's like, oh, he understood how to do that. He read that this way. He, he's always dribbling with a purpose. He's moving the ball with a purpose. Give me your kind of Breakdown of like where guys are versus what you would think they would be because again, you've watched them all season long and there's so many rookies to get excited about.

Robbie Hummel (73:42)

Sure. So I guess you start with cooperation and you know, I think it was widely thought generational talent. And he clearly has been right. Like, it's just been, it's been.

Ryan Rosillo (73:53)

Phenomenal. He's been even.

Robbie Hummel (73:53)

Better. No, and like, he's playing, he's got the ball in his hands and yeah, you know, if he starts making threes at a clip, like, man, good luck. Right. Like, and that's probably going to happen because even at Duke he started a little bit slow from a shooting perspective and by the end of the year he was shooting a pretty good percentage. I just think his, his feel, his size, his footwork, he, he's just. And then like, defensively, the way that he can be off the ball, you know, as a, as a secondary defender, there's just, there's so much to like about Cooper. So, yeah, I'm with you. Probably even higher than I would have thought with, with how much responsibility has been shouldered there. You know, in terms of Dylan Harper, I, I haven't gotten to see San Antonio yet. And I will say the one thing that's tough for me because I'm doing so much college, I kind of helicopter into the NBA now. I saw him a ton at Rutgers and I thought really, really highly of him just in terms of pace, size, ability to get to the rim. Has a mid range, can shoot it from three. Has he? I'll actually, I'll throw it back to you. Has he played as well as you? Because I haven't seen San Antonio in person yet. I don't, I can't really even answer that for Dylan.

Ryan Rosillo (75:04)

Harper. No, I think that's, that's actually like a fair way, even if you've been watching a lot of it only because he's, he's asked to impact the game in a way that's really tough in comparison to some of the other young guys. Now he comes into the San Antonio team that's super established. Fox is coming back from the injury. Castle has made a massive jump. They're actually, it looks like their preference is to have Castle run the offense and Fox play off of him. So depending on injuries and how they want to go with the Keldon Vassell part of it, and then Harrison Barnes, I mean, Sohan's totally out of the rotation at this point. Champagne, he's getting minutes. So Harper has to come in and Kind of find his spot and it's tough for him, but I would say in the flashes where he's allowed to be himself, it's really, really impressive. Unfortunately, he's not on a bad team. Just running high ball screen and then reading off everything. My favorite thing about him, maybe how advanced he is around the rim with his size and his, his footwork's phenomenal. Like, he just has these moments where you're like, okay, there's so much to work with here, but Castle has made such a jump and, and playing like real. Yeah, playing like real point guard, which I didn't really know if that was true, even though they were trying to package him that way before the draft. So look, Fox looks like he's off the ball as a preference more often than not. So for Harper, it's just, it's harder to find a flow of like five or six minutes where he's in charge of the ball. It's just not going to happen a.

Robbie Hummel (76:31)

Lot. But I've like, I think with, with, with Steph Castle, it was like if he plays point guard, the teams just go under and under and under and under. Like are they going under to the restricted arc? And, and the fact that he's been able to make that work is, is really impressive. Edgecomb, I guess, is the third pick. I thought he had a chance to be good. Obviously you, no one thought this, the clutch stuff is crazy. You know, I, I know he missed the, the game winning layup in, in Philly the other night, but he makes some defensive plays even where you're like, man, he's just always making things happen at the end of the game. And we saw him in Memphis last Tuesday and he hits the game winner. Just pretty unbelievable to see his mixture of high end athleticism, shot making, you know, being dynamic, getting to the rim. I, I love the way that Philly just reverses the ball and he just rips it down the scene. Like, I think for somebody that's athletic with the way the NBA guards at the nail and help, that's an unbelievably simple action, but also at the same time so incredibly effective. So I, I would not have thought Edgecombe could have impacted the game like this, but clearly he, he has. Knipple would be fourth as the fourth pick. I knew he was crafty, I knew he could score, I knew he could shoot. But to see what he's done. You kind of hit the nail on the head earlier with Charlotte is actually incredibly fun to watch. Now their defense at times is like Whoa. But they, they score, you know, they got dudes that could really score the rock and he's a big part of that. The fact that he's like, in this conversation in terms of threes made with like the, the best shooters in the league is pretty phenomenal because there is, I thought the adjustment to the NBA three point line just in terms of like at the College 3 as a player, I felt like, all right, I can be off balance. I can kind of fade back. You know, you get to the NBA three point line, you start doing that early on and you don't maybe have some of the strength that these guys that have been there for 10 years and you're off balance, you're fading, man, you're going to shoot airballs. So I just think that he's made that adjustment so quickly and just his, his knowledge of how to score, how to play off two feet, how to find angles, that's high level stuff. Like it really is. And to round this out, I guess the fifth pick was Ace.

Ryan Rosillo (78:46)

Bailey. We don't have to do, we don't have to do the whole first.

Robbie Hummel (78:49)

Round. I've seen him play none, but I will say I did see him in college. Score 39 in Indiana and the shot making was absurd. Like he's making shots off one foot. He's doing, but he doesn't. In college at least he didn't get to the free throw line. He wasn't great at getting to the rim. He tantalizes you with some shots that you're like, there might not be another, you know, freshman in the country that can make them, but at the same time you're like, does he manufacture points in a way that like the best scores in the NBA do of getting to the line, stealing easy baskets? That. That wasn't the thing. And I will say I have not watched much Utah because we haven't had them.

Ryan Rosillo (79:25)

So. Yeah, no, I know. I knew you didn't have everybody here, so I wasn't going to be like, all right. Now the 23rd.

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Ryan Rosillo (80:06)

Espn. Did Austin Butler. Was he confused by your entire deal that.

Robbie Hummel (80:12)

Night? Yes, I think so. He was incredibly.

Ryan Rosillo (80:17)

Nice. So you had a Lakers game, and you ended up being seated next to him because of limited.

Robbie Hummel (80:22)

Seating? Well, I. You know, at Staples or Crypto or whatever they call it now, or Madison Square Garden, which we haven't been to, but at some of these places, the. The real estate there is so, so expensive, as you know. So it's like, they. I don't know if it's add a seat or, you know, just squeeze you in or beg the owners for their seats or whatever it is. I was told before the game. So this is because this became a thing, right? I was told before the game, rob, you're sitting next to Jimmy Goldstein. I was like, hell, yes. Like, this guy, you, you know, I'm sure, you know, where's the cowboy hat? You know, goes to all the NBA games, has a very distinctive look. So I was like, all right, I can't wait to talk to him. You know, like, just. Because when I was playing, him and Rony Turioff would always have these, like, discussions before the game, during the game. So I'd always, like, see that. I was like, I really am excited to just kind of talk to Jimmy Goldstein and see what he's like. Well, I look to my left. That's not Jimmy Goldstein. I'm like, this guy's probably a model or. I, I, I will say I have really lost track of, like, movies shows, especially during the season, but I. I have not seen much of his work. So Noah, being the bad partner that he is, he calls it out. Like, it's not like he said it in the timeout, like, oh, Rob, you're sitting next to a famous actor. He just says it on the broadcast. And I. I had no idea. But, yes, he. He was very oblivious to what we were doing. I was oblivious to what he. I guess who he is. And the sad thing was, I had made a point that night to go out there early and look at just who's around. Okay? There's Eddie Murphy. There's Jimmy Iovine, there's Pat Sajak. Sadly, those are all people that, like, my freaking grandma would know. I was not aware to the new age actor. And I have had more people reach out to me and be like, how do you not know this guy? Then I'm in the grocery store. I see him on the COVID of Men's Health. It was a funny moment, but it was an awakening for me that I Need to get up on my pop.

Ryan Rosillo (82:28)

Culture. Yeah. I don't. Look, everybody gets older. You start worrying about things. He feels like he's kind of a big deal and he was decked out. A lot of length on him, though. I don't know if you guys were sizing each other up, but he's. He's got some long length, as they.

Robbie Hummel (82:44)

Say. A lot of those actors that you run into and you see them in person, you're kind of like, man, they're not very.

Ryan Rosillo (82:50)

Tall. Like he.

Max Olson (82:51)

He.

Robbie Hummel (82:52)

That. That probably didn't help my cause either, that when he's standing up, he's not maybe looking in that way. Right. Like. So I'll make any excuse that I can for myself to not know this guy, but I will say I will know Austin Butler for the rest of my life. That. That will not be something that I. Escapes.

Ryan Rosillo (83:08)

Me. Who knows? You could be staying with him next time you come out to la. It's just an origin story. What was it like sitting next to Bob for that.

Robbie Hummel (83:16)

Game? Bob Myers, just to kind of like, we spoke in a lot of timeouts, whether it was about, you know, does he miss tv? Does he like his new job? He's obviously got a fascinating perspective on players because he did play and then he builds the warriors and has been an executive for so long. I was blown away with how cool he was, you know, just in terms of talking to him, and he could not have been nicer. And I, you know, that's one of those things where you're like, man, that was pretty cool that I got to sit next to Bob Myers and kind of pick his brain during.

Ryan Rosillo (83:51)

Timeouts. Yeah, he's one of the most impressive basketball people that I've ever talked to. How many teams in the west have you had that you felt like you had a good read.

Robbie Hummel (83:59)

On? I've seen LA once now, Denver, but, you know, Denver played nobody. Timberwolves once, Suns twice, Grizzlies. And that. That would be. Yeah. So we. We have Oklahoma City coming up. That'll be fun. I think we actually. We have San Antonio at Detroit. That'll be a good game. Well, you've had the Rockets, too. We had the Rockets early on, so actually more. More of the west than I would have thought. But it's.

Max Olson (84:26)

Been. We've.

Robbie Hummel (84:26)

Had. We've been heavy east and we haven't gone west nearly as much. But I guess in terms of lately, it's hard to. To say the Nuggets, you just got to survive. Right? Like, just try to keep your Head above water, get healthy, and then come back and make a run. When you get Jokic back, Laker wise, I guess we haven't seen. God, that was. That Austin Butler game was. That's almost like a month and a half ago. So they almost feel like ancient history. Same with the Rockets. The Suns have been a great story. You know, like the Dylan Brooks thing. It is fascinating to watch him psych himself up into these games because everybody, like you, kind of talk to him beforehand and he, he's very thoughtful and, you know, he's, he's good to talk to in terms of, I think, kind of just figuring out what he's trying to accomplish and how they're trying to play. And then you watch him go into this routine of like psyching himself up to, to kind of go into this alter ego. And man, he, I give him credit. He doesn't back down to anybody. He's not backing out of LeBron, he's not backing down to Durant. He doesn't care. And, you know, I, I know that he's going to be a very polarizing figure in the NBA because obviously a fan of any team, but the team that's rooting for him is going to hate him. But I do give him credit because it can. It's hard, I think, when you're not maybe at the level of Durant and LeBron. And I think if you asked Dylan Brooks, he'd say, well, I am at the level of those guys. But when you're not, maybe that's a credit to just kind of his confidence. But it's hard to do that with those dudes because those are some of the best players to have ever played this.

Ryan Rosillo (86:00)

Game. How important is it for you to be able to say through all your injuries and you were one of my favorite college players when you were playing. I just loved the way you played, man. How important are those two seasons for you? When maybe you're, you're around it and you're thinking like, man, if this hadn't happened, this hadn't happened and all this kind of stuff like that, you can say like, look, at least I did play in this league for a couple years. How important are those two.

Robbie Hummel (86:27)

Seasons? You know, it's very important. I have such a complex thought process of my professional basketball career like it is. If you had told me in high school, you know, I was like a top 75 recruit come out of high school. If you told me, all right, you're a second round pick, you play two years in the NBA. You play Euroleague, you play in Spain, Russia, Italy. Will you sign up for this today? I would be like, yes, sign me up immediately. Right. Like, I, I obviously hoped I could make the NBA, but when you're ranked 75th in your class, and granted our class was absolutely loaded, you've got Derrick Rose and James Harden and Kevin Love and Kyle Singler and Mike Beasley and Billy Walker and O.J. mayo, and like the list just goes on and on and on of Blake Griffin, Evan Turner. And then you get into the guys that were just really good college players and then fringe NBA guys. It's like, man, there was so many good players that when you're playing against that, then you get to college, you're like, it's not that much of a difference, maybe other than the physicality and the, the age gap. But, you know, if you told me that as a senior in high school, I would sign up immediately, but after my freshman year and then you start, you know, having some success and you, you know, you make the World University Games team for USA Basketball. And my junior year, I'm playing as well as I'd ever played. And then you just, you blow your knee out twice in, you know, eight months and you don't play basketball for 17, you're like, I don't know if I'll ever play again. And I think that I certainly have a good feeling about persevering through that and making it through all that and, and getting drafted and then going overseas for a year and playing in Spain and playing well and getting to the NBA. But, you know, I think by the time I was a junior, my thought process is that, man, I, I can play 10 years in the NBA and I can be a good role player and I can impact winning and I can help a team win. And you know, I think I go to Minnesota and my first year, we've got a team that's, that's pretty good. But in a loaded west, we won 40 games. But it was, it was K Loves last year. He was all NBA, he was tremendous. But then we trade him and we bring in Zach Levine and Andrew Wiggins, who are rookies, and Anthony Bennett, who's a second year player that's trying to, you know, kind of find his way through a tough rookie year and we win 16 games. And like, I'm, I, we were laughing with David Adelman before the game. He used to create an edit because they would put me in some really hard spots. Like, they'd be like, Rob, you're going to bring the ball up, but you're guarding DeMarcus cousins. So David, like, just to kind of keep spirits light, would make these man's game edits, and it would be essentially like. And I, you know, I knew that I'm not. I'm obviously not a center. I'm like a. I'm a three or maybe a stretch four. So he'd. He'd pull some of the funniest clips of these guys just like weight rooming me just to kind of like, it sounds bad, but we would laugh so hard like, dude, what are you gonna do? DeMarcus Cousins is 6, 11, 2, 8, right? Like, I'm 6 foot 8, 215, 220. What am I going to do with that? So, yeah, I think in terms of also, like, this isn't happening for me to broadcast these games if I don't play in the NBA. So I honestly, I look back and I had a surgeon. He actually just passed away. He had brain cancer. He's one of the best orthopedic surgeons that there was in the world. And his name was David Allcheck out of New York City. And I, when I found out he passed, it honestly punched me in the face because I'd had a bad experience with my first surgery in Indianapolis. And, you know, I go to New York and again, like, I'm thinking, I don't know if I'll even ever play basketball again. And he. This dude could not have had a better bedside manner. He could not have had a better confidence about, we're going to get you back. You know, it's just as simple as doing the surgery. And, you know, I look back on that moment of, of having my second surgery in New York City at the Hospital for Special Surgery. And, you know, David Allcheck not only saved my basketball career to go on to having all big ten seasons as a senior, get drafted, play in the NBA, play overseas for three years, but now, in terms of just tv, like, I'm not doing NBA games if I didn't play in the NBA. So I. When I found out that he passed away, it really, you know, kind of like, it just. It punched me in the face and it's like, man, I owe so much to David Allchick for the job that he did to just get me back up to being functional and able to. To play basketball. And, you know, for the rest of my life, I'll. I'll think, you know, for him it's. I owe a lot to that dude. And, you know, he was an incredible.

Ryan Rosillo (90:58)

Doctor. Yeah. Well, that's really well said, and I'm sorry to hear.

Robbie Hummel (91:02)

That. No.

Ryan Rosillo (91:03)

It'S. Yeah, but I. I think about that question with guys that I've got to know. You know, all the years of working espn, you know, some of the guys that become friends. Like, I have a friend who pitches in the minors, I think, for 12 years, and he was in the majors for six days. And when he got sent back down, we were just waiting for him to get the call back up. And then it never happened. And I think it really hurt to talk about it when it happened. And then the off season of what's next. And then I think now, years removed, you can be like, thank God. Thank God I got those six days. I know J. Will well, there's so many J. Wills, but Jay Williams, Duke. You know, we worked. We lived near each other in Connecticut, and there's a couple times we were hanging out and I'm thinking, like, I'm complimenting him, being like, dude, when you had it going. You know, when you had it going. But then what I didn't realize is that it may have been something that he was like, I. I don't want to talk about this because it's still something it's going to be. Especially when you're him and you're the number one, number one pick, and it looks like you're like, you're gonna, like, who knows what's possible for you in your career. But I imagine like, anybody, like life, you just have to get a little bit older, a little bit more removed from it, and you'll find a way to appreciate things that maybe you didn't appreciate nearly as.

Robbie Hummel (92:19)

Much. Yeah. And you also realize that, like, being in the NBA is such a gift in terms of, like, it's such a unique place. It's such a. It's not the real world, but you're around these guys that are the best athletes in the world and some of the best players to have ever played. And, you know, I think when you're there, you're thinking, I'm going to be here for a long time. And it's definitely not. Not the case for most of us. Right. Like, most of us, when it's done, it's not like it's your choice. In my ending, this is a bit of a hard pill to swallow as well. You know, I had had really good talks with Minnesota, and our team was. Dysfunctional is not the right word. We just, we were tanking for Karl Anthony Towns, and I'd had some good talks with the front office in Minnesota about coming back, and my agent, Mark Bartlestein had as well. And, you know, they offered me a qualifying offer. And then on July 4th, this is the worst holiday I think I've ever had. On July 4th, I get the call from Mark that my qualifying offer is rescinded because Minnesota can sign Nemia Bellitza, who was the Euroleague player of the year. And I played against him in college and I'd, I'd seen him overseas and look, he was a really good player overseas, so I, I understood the business of it. But that's, you know, I'm thinking, all right, at worst, I signed this qualifying offer. I'm making 120% of what I made last year, and I get to run it back with, with Minnesota and try to be a part of this young core with Zach and Andrew and, and Anthony and all these guys. And just like that, I never play in the NBA again. So it's like it just, it ends so fast for, for most of us, it's not like you get the retirement tour, you know, it's just like when you're not good enough, they tell you and you're never seen again. And I will say that the silver lining is I have some incredible stories of playing in Milan for Giorgio Armani's team. My, my year after I got cut by Denver, because I did go to training camp with them or the year, excuse me, the year before I went to training camp with Denver and then I played in Moscow and Russia was a free for all in so many ways. So from a life experience thing, I, I did gain some incredible experiences. But you want to be in the NBA. Like my, my rookie year in Spain, this is a great example. I get there. I remember we landed and I, I cried. I think I cried every time I landed in Europe because you're like, I have 10 months, which seems like an eternity, even though it's not, it's not that long. And if you're going over there by yourself, you know, if you're not married or you're not, you know, taking somebody with you, it's. It can be a little bit daunting. You know, at least in Milan and even in Moscow, to an extent, there was more English speaking people. But in this, I was in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. So it's not like you're in Barcelona or Madrid, where there are more English speakers. It is heavy Spanish. And honestly, they speak, they speak Gallegan, which is like a dialect. So it's sort of Portuguese. It's sort of Spanish. Like, I took Spanish in high school, but I'm going to really have a hard time if it's just normal Spanish. And I'm definitely going to have a hard time with Gallega. So it was just like, I get there, I have a workout the next day, and the trainer, I'll never forget this. After the workout, he's like, robbie, are you good? I was like, yeah, could I just get two bags of ice? And the trainer laughed. And he points to the ice machine. He goes, the ice machine's over there. We have no wrap. So you got to hold that stuff on, on your knees yourself, and you can make the bags. And like, not that I was opposed to making my own ice bags, but I'd never, like at Purdue. What do you need? I need some ice on my knees. Sweet. There's a cooler right there. They wrap it on. Same with the NBA, you know, you've got ice baths. You've got the ice baths. In Spain, they were garbage cans. They would just fill them up with ice water. This is in the acb. This is in the second best basketball league probably in the world in level of play. And we were a smaller budget team that had done a really good job of evaluating. Like, we had Salah Mesri, who played for the Dallas Mavericks on the team, and a couple guys that ended up moving on to Euroleague. But like William Buford and I, we were taking the baskets down and putting them up. Like we were building maintenance after every practice. And before every practice, we shared the stadium with an indoor soccer pro team. So think about how crooked the backboards were when we're. But I mean, it was just like, in terms of life experiences, but also living overseas and seeing different cultures and eating different foods and meeting some really, really good and cool people, that. That's probably the silver lining. I didn't play 10 years in the NBA, but I did, you know, get to have some experiences of playing for Giorgio Armani's pro team or playing in Moscow or. Or even after I retired, you know, playing three on three and traveling the world and playing in, like 19 countries in 2019, trying to make the Olympics. That those are really cool life experiences. That, okay, maybe the NBA is what the goal was, but it doesn't always work out and you've got to pivot. And I think that's one thing that my knee stuff has certainly taught.

Ryan Rosillo (97:19)

Me. Big thanks to Robbie Hummel. Again, the Peacock. NBA Monday game, January 12th Celtics at Pacers. I enjoy it so much. You three guys are terrific on it. Again, I know they mix up some of the things, but I'm. I'm. I'm not overstating this, because when I. The first game, I'm like, what are they going to try to do? I'm like, this isn't going to work. And it's. It's gone completely the other way. So all of you and everybody at NBC deserves a ton of credit. So thanks again.

Robbie Hummel (97:44)

Man. No, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, Ryan. And, yeah, we'll. We'll keep doing our thing on Mondays. I appreciate.

TGL Announcer (97:49)

It. Out on the course, they're the PGA Tour's best players, but in the arena, they're prime time. And season two of TGL, presented by SoFi, is back with lights, cameras, action. We're talking big moments, big personalities, big names in the stands all on the big screen. Big time matchups with shot clocks, Hammer drops, timeouts, overtime, and playoffs. It's city versus city, squad versus squad. This sport just hits different under the lights. It's TGL, presented by.

Ryan Rosillo (98:20)

SoFi. Keep up. It's.

TGL Announcer (98:21)

Golf. Tune in to every match only on.

Ryan Rosillo (98:24)

ESPN. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am.

Kyle Ceruti (98:39)

Liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's.

Ryan Rosillo (98:44)

Required. Life Advice, lifeadvice, rrmail.com. we've got hi hat on the hi hat. Kyle and Ceruti. Yo, no, Mike, Kyle got this a second time.

Kyle Ceruti (98:57)

Kyle, Fuck. I just said nothing gets past you.

Ryan Rosillo (99:03)

Man. That's all I said. That's like you have the pompadour lean going.

Kyle Ceruti (99:10)

On. What's going on? I think it's good from this angle. Honestly, I thought about this, and then immediately, right off the bat, you know, he throws cold water on it. Even if that's not what you were trying to do, that's how I took it. It's all right. I'm gonna keep it like.

Ryan Rosillo (99:20)

This. I think you look good. I'm gonna keep it like you look.

Hi Hat (99:22)

Youthful. Yeah, I agree. You look like, you know, not how you do fellow kids, but, you know, you look, you know, it's a good youthful.

Ryan Rosillo (99:28)

Look. Great, right? But I'm just talking about, like, hat placement that came.

Kyle Ceruti (99:32)

Off. No, it is, it is. It's different. It's certainly.

Ryan Rosillo (99:35)

Different. I.

Kyle Ceruti (99:36)

Was. It was sort of like I was like, going into school, like, first day of New Year, and someone's like, dude, what are you wearing kind of weird. Different for you. But you know.

Robbie Hummel (99:43)

What? I'll.

Ryan Rosillo (99:43)

Just. I'll take it positively. It's kind of like a late 80s lean on it. Late 80s, early 90s movie. Guys just get. They just made it down to Daytona. Who knows what's going to.

Max Olson (99:55)

Happen? Oh.

Ryan Rosillo (99:55)

Man. I'll tell you, I had that. I rocked that for a little.

Kyle Ceruti (100:00)

While.

Ryan Rosillo (100:00)

Okay. Jesus. Yeah, it's.

Hi Hat (100:04)

Amazing. Your hat placement selection isn't the greatest, so I don't know if that's the best thing to go off of.

Kyle Ceruti (100:08)

But. Oh, thanks. Thanks for coming to my side.

Hi Hat (100:11)

Buddy. Yeah, listen, I'm an equal opportunity.

Ryan Rosillo (100:13)

Hater, you know, what would you say is the.

Hi Hat (100:15)

Issue? You got a lot of. Actually, you know what? Now that we're on this topic, we got a long pod today, but, you know, might as well do it, you know, every once in a while. I'll just check out the YouTube comments about things on the pod or whatever, see what people like, what they don't like. And, man, a lot of comments about your hat last episode. And I honestly, I thought it too very aggressive. Like the path. Yeah, whatever was on there was like. It was.

Kyle Ceruti (100:33)

Pronounced. Very.

Ryan Rosillo (100:34)

Pronounced. Yeah. What were the.

Hi Hat (100:37)

Issues? So I think somebody said it was casting a shadow over your faith. That's how big it.

Ryan Rosillo (100:41)

Was. That's funny. Well, that's my guy. Dave Prescott invented the fast wrench. Firefighter down in Florida, college buddy. And he invented this wrench that basically his whole thing was the way his mind works. It makes all the sense in the world because in college you'd be like, like, this guy's going to invent something. But if you really knew him, you're like, yeah, he probably would. So he's a firefighter. He's been down there forever. He's an awesome guy. And he realized that they had to use multiple tools. They needed all these different tools to be able to access their job. Like, however they're doing it, hooking up to different water supplies, I mean, it's beyond my understanding. Right. Because I don't fight fires in my spare time. And so he basically just decided there needs to be this, like, multi tool that's incredibly durable that basically handles all of these different things that you're dealing with. And it's incredible. So I ordered one. I'm bringing it to the Miami. Not Miami. I'm not going to Miami. Manhattan Beach Fire Department. So that is his company. So I wore the hat and we're just giving a little shout out there. So anybody that has an issue with.

Hi Hat (101:51)

That you hate.

Kyle Ceruti (101:54)

Firefighters. Apparently you have a pretty successful group of college buddies. I'd say I'm probably near the top of my group, and that's not saying a lot.

Ryan Rosillo (102:02)

So. Yeah, that new.

Kyle Ceruti (102:06)

4Runner. Well, yeah, obviously that gave me a small bump, but I think in the grand scheme, I mean, we've got like, country music stars, guys inventing fast wrenches with, honestly, pretty cool gear to go with it. And every once in a while. Yeah, it was. It was. It certainly. It really.

Ryan Rosillo (102:22)

Draws. Had a lot of depth on the.

Robbie Hummel (102:23)

Logo.

Ryan Rosillo (102:23)

Yeah. I mean, it's a patch. It comes off. I think there's other patches. That was part of the.

Hi Hat (102:27)

Branding. Oh, it's.

Robbie Hummel (102:27)

Detachable.

Max Olson (102:29)

Yeah.

Kyle Ceruti (102:29)

Yeah. That would make a little more.

Ryan Rosillo (102:30)

Sense.

Hi Hat (102:31)

Yeah. Checks out.

Ryan Rosillo (102:32)

Yeah. But I was looking. I'm glad it was even brought up because I didn't expect to even give him that kind of shout out, but there you go. If you're running, if you're. If you're on the fire, you know, you're in the wrench business, you're looking for a new one. There's no promo.

Hi Hat (102:47)

Code. We know a.

Ryan Rosillo (102:47)

Guy. Yeah.

Hi Hat (102:48)

Yeah. While we're just. Honestly, I'm just gonna start airing this stuff out in the pod last.

Ryan Rosillo (102:53)

Night.

Hi Hat (102:54)

Okay. Deserves to be. To be done. Oh, no Big Cat text last night. And honestly, this our guy. The guy was getting DMs yesterday too. Not the DMs of the.

Ryan Rosillo (103:03)

Show. He.

Hi Hat (103:03)

Was. He was following up on the pictures about the wine thing yesterday. We have a Stephen Shea wants to do a wine review of your. Of your wine. And Big Cat was asking us, like, how do we get the wine to them? And I was like, I don't even know if this wine exists yet. It's like. I think it's like a prototype technically, but are you open to the che. Doing a wine review? I guess. He's got the fastest growing sommelier show on X right now.

Ryan Rosillo (103:23)

So. That's good. Fastest growing in America. I know. Tough to keep track. I gotta know when we're shipping because this whole thing is kind of.

Kyle Ceruti (103:32)

Starting to feel like a little over the.

Ryan Rosillo (103:34)

Skis. Well, yeah, I'm getting text. I'm not getting text. I'm like, I.

Kyle Ceruti (103:38)

Can'T. I can't put you through to him. I'm sorry. Because I don't think. I don't think he's at that stage.

Ryan Rosillo (103:41)

Yet. Look, the backstory is it was this real estate deal with a friend, and then they were like, hey, while you're here, do you want us to make you Some soft. And I was like, yeah, it's great. And then they made logos. And then they were telling me yesterday, they're like, all right, this can start shipping in two months. I was like, whoa. Like, what the. I was like, I, I thought you're just gonna make like a couple cases. Yeah, right. So I have, I'm, I got a lot of other stuff I have to worry about, but there's a pretty good chance I'm gonna be really, like, annoyingly not responsive about anything having to do with this wine for a little while. If that's okay with.

Hi Hat (104:19)

Everything. We got a lot of content. We don't need it. We'll need to do this, Push this into the spring, summer. This will be good content.

Ryan Rosillo (104:28)

Then. Yeah, I mean, sav is good year.

Kyle Ceruti (104:30)

Round. This will be great post June.

Ryan Rosillo (104:32)

Yeah. When it's hot. Yeah. So, so you're open to.

Hi Hat (104:35)

It? You're open to having him do a wine.

Ryan Rosillo (104:37)

Review? I don't know that I want him doing the first review, though. Does he have enough credibility in that? He just kept this.

Hi Hat (104:43)

Start. He's not just some guy. I mean, he took a football.

Ryan Rosillo (104:45)

Class, I heard, so he is that guy. No, I, I, I get the.

Hi Hat (104:50)

I think Chase, I'm just joking. I actually never met him, but I think he's funny and I like.

Ryan Rosillo (104:53)

Him. I like.

Hi Hat (104:54)

Him. Not a dancer.

Ryan Rosillo (104:54)

But. And by the way, it's not really like, I may be on the label, but it's not 100% my business. And so the guys and guys in Oregon might be like, who is this up and comer? That might be a nice way.

Hi Hat (105:08)

Of saying it's no pub is bad pup though, you.

Ryan Rosillo (105:11)

Know? Oh, man. All right. Hey, Kyle, pull up the spreads on.

Hi Hat (105:17)

DraftKings.

Ryan Rosillo (105:18)

Okay? Let us know what they are. I think as of this morning, both lines were at three and a half. Miami and Indiana favored. Looks like Cerutty already has him. Wants to say.

Hi Hat (105:28)

Don'T. I thought we were just going straight up, but now I got to do the spreads, so here we.

Ryan Rosillo (105:31)

Go. No, we're going to do a little mini contest for DraftKings. Mini alliance side. Alliance. So we're all going to pick both games and then see who has the overall. What's.

Kyle Ceruti (105:42)

That? Three and a half. You are.

Ryan Rosillo (105:43)

Correct. Both three and a.

Hi Hat (105:45)

Half. All.

Ryan Rosillo (105:45)

Right. All right. So, Kyle, the board is yours. You can pick whatever you want. We'll do combined record off of the semifinals and then the final. If we have to come up with a final score and everything else, it'll be Super Bowl Lunch, not dinner. Can't afford it. We'll do a Super Bowl. I'm just kidding. I just. I don't know that we're going to have time to do all these dinners based on what you guys have already.

Kyle Ceruti (106:05)

Signed. So this will be different than the salad.

Ryan Rosillo (106:07)

Bar. I'll tell you what, the three of us, Ruby Tuesday's old.

Hi Hat (106:11)

School.

Ryan Rosillo (106:12)

Yeah. As many times you want to get as many fix ins as you.

Kyle Ceruti (106:15)

Guys. All.

Ryan Rosillo (106:17)

Right. Okay. The winner has to pay though, because do you want to celebrate.

Kyle Ceruti (106:22)

Friendship? Yeah. I like that. So with that being said, I'm going to take ole miss + three.

Ryan Rosillo (106:26)

And a half and you got to pick the other game.

Kyle Ceruti (106:29)

Too. And.

Max Olson (106:29)

Yes.

Kyle Ceruti (106:30)

And. And Oregon plus three and a.

Ryan Rosillo (106:32)

Half. Okay. I love.

Hi Hat (106:34)

It. Not paying.

Kyle Ceruti (106:34)

For. Not paying for the salad bar, it looks like. I'm just kidding. I actually.

Hi Hat (106:38)

Do. Believe.

Ryan Rosillo (106:42)

Me.

Hi Hat (106:43)

Sure. I'm taking Miami. Don't really have. I just think the front is awesome and I think the Ole Miss fairy tale thing is a little over. But I do love Trinidad though, so I'd hate to root against him. And I honestly, I don't like reading for Miami either, but I think Miami is just a better team. And then I'm going to take Oregon too. Two guys pick it against Indiana. It's probably stupid to pick against six, but, you know, gotta beat him twice in one season. I think, you know, Oregon's good. I think they get.

Robbie Hummel (107:11)

Him.

Ryan Rosillo (107:12)

Wow. All.

Hi Hat (107:13)

Right. We're going to lose by three, so there you.

Ryan Rosillo (107:15)

Go. I kind of like the points on both sides. The points haven't really done much. It was four at one point. It was like a three, then a three and a half. So I don't know how much is going to change in the next couple of days. I'll take the points with Ole Miss even though if I had like, hey, you got to pick the game straight up, I would pick Miami. I do feel like back not even having to do anything to this point. Like he's probably due. And if there was a defense of all the playoff teams that were ranked, like that was my whole point with Ole Miss's defense. And it's not like they shut down Georgia, but Georgia is just not. Not to the standard that you'd expect with that defense generally. And I'll take. I'll take Indiana cover. I'll do something different.

Hi Hat (107:55)

Here. All right. So all three of us have different.

Ryan Rosillo (107:58)

Variations. There you go. I like that the variations vary. Let's get to life advice. As we all knew, the amount of dog poop content Dominated the inbox.

Max Olson (108:14)

Overflowing.

Ryan Rosillo (108:15)

Yes. Couldn't put a lid on.

Robbie Hummel (108:18)

It.

Ryan Rosillo (108:19)

Nice. I think most of you got it. I think most of you got it. That it's not the greatest thing. And then those of us that have garbage cans are supposed to think about you walking around with a plastic bag of dog poop. Like, nobody wants that in your hand.

Kyle Ceruti (108:43)

Right? Throw it in some construction lot or something. Just because you've held it long enough, you know, there's better.

Hi Hat (108:49)

Options. Yeah, but, I mean, I'm a dog guy through and through, and that's a choice that you make. Like, you don't do that. You don't have to have a dog. You know, the people. I mean, the worst is the people that, like, think that, like, they're just, like, biodegradable and they just leave them on the sidewalk. It's like, not really how this works, guy. But.

Kyle Ceruti (109:04)

Okay.

Ryan Rosillo (109:05)

No.

Kyle Ceruti (109:06)

Yeah. There was a construction lot that was just empty for a long time, and it was insane. The amount of people that would just throw their dog shit over the, you know, small, little flimsy fence. And it was just like, there must be a hundred bags of dog shit in this corner.

Max Olson (109:18)

Lot.

Kyle Ceruti (109:19)

That. That eventually somebody's gonna start construction on it was crazy. LA was.

Ryan Rosillo (109:23)

Crazy. The only one that, like, I think most people got it in the sense that if it depends on where you.

Robbie Hummel (109:31)

Live. All.

Ryan Rosillo (109:31)

Right. So a lot of it has to do with where you live. And I'm biased in my setup because, like, everybody decides to live where I live. Like, you just accept the fact that everybody's just on top of each other and, like, that's just the way it goes. Like, Chris Long comes out to visit. He's like, I can't fathom having house where it's like, all it is is just people all the time. Like, how do you do that? And I'm like, I'm so used to it because I've never really lived on, like, I mean, growing up, I did, you know, driveway property. You can't see any of the other neighbors. But from college on, this is kind of the way it's always been, is I've always lived sort of, like, within walking distance of everything. And it makes you think, like, wouldn't I eventually want to at some point have. But I think this is an entirely different topic when you're trying to figure out plotting building lots. So let's not do that right now. Most people, I think, get this, right? A lot of people were like, look, if the trash can is out and it's trash day. And there's trash that's already in there. It's all going to the same place. Like, what's the issue with throwing stuff on the top? I would tell you. I agree with that. I'm not to the point. Maybe in 15 years I'll be so old that I'll just be like, like looking for things to be pissed off about because I think there's like an age thing that's like, wait, so you're now telling me that you don't want your garbage messed with and then.

Hi Hat (110:50)

The line coming for your garbage is.

Ryan Rosillo (110:51)

Too. Yeah, right, right. Yeah. Like, that's my garbage. And I.

Kyle Ceruti (110:55)

Don'T. So it could be a little emasculating if it's like you're just going to do that right in front of me, you know.

Ryan Rosillo (110:59)

So. Oh, you think there's something to.

Kyle Ceruti (111:01)

That? I think again, I think there's no wrong answers. The only guy who would be wrong is the poop thrower. And so that's why that guy is like, if you get caught, you just say, yeah, sorry, your trash can, your rules. My bad. I don't think you're supposed to defend your thing. But if somebody who's just saying in general, all poop throwing is bad unless you own the trash can or the city owns it, you know, I would maybe argue with you, but I'm saying if you're caught in the act, I think you just kind of bow to the trash can owner and you're like, my bad, dude. I'll remember that one. Throw it in your neighbors next.

Ryan Rosillo (111:30)

Time. Here's the one that pissed me off. And I'm.

Kyle Ceruti (111:34)

Gonna. Yeah, I knew you had.

Ryan Rosillo (111:35)

One. I knew you had. Let me just say.

Hi Hat (111:36)

This. Installing until.

Kyle Ceruti (111:37)

This. It's been scrolling the whole.

Ryan Rosillo (111:40)

Time. Let's try to find.

Max Olson (111:42)

It. You.

Ryan Rosillo (111:42)

Were over 90% of the responses were basically like the common sense part of it of like, hey, look, we even had some guys be like, I've done it. I don't love that I've done it. Yeah, right. And if I had a dog and I was like, I don't want to deal with this right now. I'm telling you right now, I'd probably do it too. But if I lived in this area that I live in, I would stop doing it. I would map out where the garbage cans are, you know, the strands really nice. Just take a little U turn down there and there's public waste baskets there and there's plenty of.

Hi Hat (112:16)

Virus. Right.

Ryan Rosillo (112:18)

Right. And you're going to get there pretty Quickly. You know you're not going to be walking across a desert here with fecal matter in your hands. But this guy, this guy fucked it up. And we're going to read his email now. His dog's Rufus, 85 pounds, lab mix player, comp 19 or 2016. Marcus Peters, ball hawk. Insane ball fixation and fetching ability. So he did a nice little. That was kind of cool. But not cool enough for me to think that the rest of the email worked. Every single time I walk my dog and there's a can on the curb, I use it. If cans aren't put away by the morning following trash day, it's fair game. My only concern is if they are garage cans versus side cans. We had a few people do this where if you don't have your cans away by a certain amount of time, then that's essentially on us. It just freezes. Taxes. Your dog sitting in my trash.

Kyle Ceruti (113:15)

Bin for six and a half.

Hi Hat (113:17)

Days. But that's. That's property of the community if it's not put away by a certain.

Ryan Rosillo (113:22)

Time. Yeah, that's.

Kyle Ceruti (113:23)

Unbelievable. I broke into your car because.

Ryan Rosillo (113:24)

You had it unlocked and like. Yeah, it's exactly what it.

Hi Hat (113:27)

Is.

Ryan Rosillo (113:27)

Yeah. Hey, my car got broken into. Why did you. Why did you park it there? And you go, okay, never.

Kyle Ceruti (113:33)

Mind. Done talking about.

Ryan Rosillo (113:34)

It.

Hi Hat (113:36)

Yeah. That's.

Kyle Ceruti (113:36)

Insane. Okay, well, I hope that guy changes his ways because that's. I mean, that, that might just. Jade your whole topic. If you have a guy on the street who's looking, he's trying to snipe your can, he's doing his.

Ryan Rosillo (113:48)

6:30. He's saying next.

Kyle Ceruti (113:49)

Morning. Next morning is.

Max Olson (113:52)

6:30.

Ryan Rosillo (113:52)

It's. If he's. He's mentally there, that means he's not like. Because here's the deal. I have to put mine out super early. I miss it occasionally because it's always on a taping day. It's just me. So if I miss a pickup, it's not the end of the world. But if I had to put the can in my garage, it would be really bad. But I have sort of like an out outdoor organizer.

Hi Hat (114:11)

Bin. You're not a night tour guy. You're a morning. Yes, you guy. I just do it the night.

Ryan Rosillo (114:17)

Before. Well, you know, you get a little wind off that, that offshore breeze.

Kyle Ceruti (114:21)

Brother. You've seen how close he.

Hi Hat (114:23)

Is. Yeah, that's fair.

Ryan Rosillo (114:25)

Yeah.

Hi Hat (114:26)

Yeah. There's a little more distance between the driveway and the trash can. Up here in the.

Ryan Rosillo (114:30)

Northeast, nobody cares. Somebody has a thing of dog in their hand, they're just gonna go, oh, wait, the cans have already been emptied and it's just a little bit later in the day and he hasn't had time to put them away. But the town will actually get really on your case if you don't have some sort of organizer and if you want to leave them sort of exposed to the street because they don't want every single house having all their garbage cans all over because it just wouldn't look that good. But then it's like, all right, so now I got to pull it into the garage. And if you're doing squats that day and somebody was like, hey, this guy didn't put his can away in time. Come on, man. All right. It's a long show.

Hi Hat (115:07)

Today. It is.

Ryan Rosillo (115:08)

Yeah. You want to just do a quick.

Kyle Ceruti (115:10)

One? Maybe?

Hi Hat (115:11)

A1.

Ryan Rosillo (115:12)

Yes. A1. A single. 15 minutes in and we haven't done anything.

Kyle Ceruti (115:18)

Yet. I mean, we were doing poop.

Ryan Rosillo (115:20)

Follow ups, but we really have a quick one. I let an 11 year old beat me a pickup. I think we've covered this neighborhood before. 6 foot 180 bench 165. Well, no kidding. He beat you. I'm just kidding. Squat, deadlift, 225. Mostly rock climb. Do yoga. Yeah, you're going to be in much better shape. Your back isn't going to hurt. Don't worry about my bench joke, man. Good for you if you're doing all this stuff. Pickup comp. Andre Roberson, All D. No jumper was never the same after some knee injuries. I volunteer with an organization that matches me with a kid who wants a positive role model. My little Jack. He did change the name just in case we have an 11 year old listening to Pod. Jack just started playing basketball. One of his goals is building skills and confidence. So we played a couple games of one on one. He's got solid fundamentals, but he obviously can't compete with a height speed advantage. First game I hit a couple layups and immediately realized this isn't training. This is a grown man destroying a fifth grader. So I switched to only lefty threes and hook shots and gave him 3 to 5ft of space on defense. I let him win a close one and then a little Wider in Game 2. He had a blast. We got ice cream. Great day, Great coaching. Mission accomplished. Wow. Next time we hang out though, Jack is talking crazy amounts of trash. I'm fine with good natured ribbing, but I also want him learning sportsmanship and not turning into the kid everyone avoids at open gym. Now I'M torn about what to do the next time we play Option a, demolish him 11 zip as a lesson. But then he learns I was sandbagging and I risked shattering the confidence we were trying to build in the first place. Also, I'm in my 30s. If I celebrate a shutout on 11 year old, I can't go back to Whole Foods. I don't know what the Whole Foods. Is there a.

Kyle Ceruti (117:02)

Rule? Maybe that's a pop culture thing. I don't know. Maybe, you know, maybe that's a line from a show we didn't.

Ryan Rosillo (117:06)

Watch. Maybe we need like a social influencer on the show. Should be like, oh, you're not looks maxing. Option B, play it close and win like 11 8. But keep the hope alive that he can get me. Kyle, I sounded like you had something.

Kyle Ceruti (117:21)

There. I'm just saying that's not real. Is it like smashing your face with a hammer in order to like build up some sort of calluses? Is that.

Ryan Rosillo (117:29)

True? Well, I mean, I don't want to give away all the.

Hi Hat (117:35)

Secrets. Okay. All.

Ryan Rosillo (117:36)

Right. Option C, keep letting him win close games and trust his real coaches develop his game. I'm here to build confidence. Appreciate your thoughts as you, as we pivoted into the trash talking part of it, I was leaning toward option A, 11 zip. But I don't, I think it's, I don't think it's 11 zip, but I think he needs to lose a.

Kyle Ceruti (117:57)

Game. Yeah, I like a happy medium. Like maybe you are decimating his shit but you're still keeping your left handed thing that you're doing. Like maybe you're, you're hamstringing yourself a little bit but still to the point where if you're, if you're blocking a, a trash talking 11 year old shots, that's got to feel pretty good regardless of what you've allowed the score to become. You know, maybe you just, maybe you just amp up the defense, Tony Allen this thing instead of, you know, just demolishing the.

Hi Hat (118:22)

Kid. Yeah, I, well, I mean Ryan, you probably, I think you've talked about this like the like the dad role of like the first time you beat your dad, like that's like a big deal in life in a sport, in like competition. My dad wasn't a big athlete so I didn't really have that. But like obviously I know it's a thing and I don't know, I just don't like the idea of giving it to like giving.

Kyle Ceruti (118:42)

Him. He already.

Hi Hat (118:43)

Did. I know I'm like kind of off of that to begin with. Like, I think. I think you. I think he already kind of screwed up, so it's over. So I don't. I don't. I think you just kind of lost. I mean, I'm happy for you. You're helping out the community. It's great work. But I think, you know, just if I'm coaching up like, the. You know, I don't know if it's the boys and Girls club or whatever we're doing here. Like, you know, I think you gotta, like, like, legitimately beat the kid until, like, he at least is somewhat close to you. And that.

Ryan Rosillo (119:09)

Just.

Hi Hat (119:09)

It. It builds callous. It's Kyle's point about hitting somebody in the face with a hammer. Like, you got it. You got to kind of like, let that kid learn how to. To take an L first. Because anybody's. If he's the guy that starts, you know, talking smack with no actual backup to it, then that's not. Then he end up with somebody like me in college who's talking shit to people who probably shouldn't be talking shit to. So I don't know. I kind of don't like that idea. I think you got.

Ryan Rosillo (119:29)

To. I think you should be.

Kyle Ceruti (119:30)

Steve. I keep thinking about that picture when we were sharing those.

Robbie Hummel (119:33)

Pictures. I.

Ryan Rosillo (119:34)

Don'T. It's.

Kyle Ceruti (119:34)

Like. That's.

Hi Hat (119:34)

Exactly. You could see the words coming out of my.

Max Olson (119:37)

Mouth.

Hi Hat (119:38)

Yeah. It wasn't. It wasn't great. So as someone. Who was that kid? Maybe. I don't.

Ryan Rosillo (119:42)

Know. No one ever punched.

Hi Hat (119:43)

You? I'd actually never got punched.

Kyle Ceruti (119:46)

No. Find.

Ryan Rosillo (119:46)

It. That's probably hard to.

Hi Hat (119:48)

Problem. Probably. Yeah. But, you know, and I didn't really have any bigger friends, so I don't.

Ryan Rosillo (119:56)

Know. Was it the Quinnipiac thing? Well, see, you had a hawk. Well, because, like, UVM are big.

Hi Hat (120:01)

Though. I wouldn't do that. I wasn't talking shit to hockey players.

Ryan Rosillo (120:04)

Though. Yeah. Like, we always talk about uvm. It was like there was really no one to be afraid of. We didn't have football, and then we were friends with all the hockey players, so. Didn't.

Kyle Ceruti (120:13)

Matter. Your friends were all fucking geniuses.

Hi Hat (120:15)

Apparently.

Ryan Rosillo (120:15)

So. That was cool. Engineers engineering country ballads and goals shout out St. Louis.

Hi Hat (120:26)

Nice. You don't disagree, though, like. I don't know. I just. I don't like the idea of just letting the kid win. I don't. I don't. I don't love.

Kyle Ceruti (120:32)

It. I guess I think he already started off with that way, so. I mean, whatever. He's not. Maybe he's not a born coach and he's just trying to figure it out. It's like, what do we do from now? And I don't know if you should go from, you know, I think he knock him down. Yeah, I certainly knock him down a peck. There's kind. And that's why I think getting your shit swatted often will do that anyway, whether you're, you know, whether you're scoring 11 nothing on him or whether you're just blocking everything he puts up, which is probably going to be satisfying to you as the guy who is just getting shit.

Ryan Rosillo (121:02)

Talked. Think about our emailer here, though. He was concerned about changing the kid's name. He does yoga. His first thought was like, I want to volunteer and help kids build confidence. And then he noticed something about the kid's personality he didn't necessarily love. This is a very thought.

Hi Hat (121:22)

Thoughtful. Yeah, no, I.

Ryan Rosillo (121:23)

Agree. This feels like a very good person emailing the show here for a bunch of different factors. So this is somebody who's probably not an only child and struggling with processing the way others emotions could be impacted by their decisions. This is somebody I'd imagine has multiple siblings and can see the world in different ways. No offense to the only children out there, but there's just a lot of death. All right, sorry. So I think this person's like a. This person's like coming from a great place. Right. So it might even be hard for the person emailing us to understand that Jack needs to fucking taste a little humility.

Kyle Ceruti (122:04)

Here.

Ryan Rosillo (122:04)

Right. So Even if you're 30 and he's 11, don't let him win anymore. Doesn't mean you have to destroy him. Doesn't mean you have to start beasting him on the block, scream out, mouse in the house, too small, that kind of.

Hi Hat (122:16)

Stuff. Slap the backboard.

Ryan Rosillo (122:17)

Yet. Right. The emotional roller coaster being 11, you know, although I don't know, 11 year old boy, I feel like you're pretty sturdy with stuff though. It depends on who you're at with like where your upbringing is. Then you can start getting a little weirder, you know, after that and you know, emo and.

Hi Hat (122:33)

How. I'm trying to think of what, what age was like the peak. No one could say anything to me. Age 11 is.

Ryan Rosillo (122:39)

High. 11 is very.

Hi Hat (122:41)

High. You think 11 is like because you don't know. You don't know but you think you know everything. I don't.

Kyle Ceruti (122:48)

Know. I think I was pretty like deferring to adults still at.

Hi Hat (122:52)

11. At 11. Oh man, I don't.

Kyle Ceruti (122:54)

Know. It was still, like my mom was like, don't let me hear you being disrespectful to anyone in this big wide world. You better keep that tight. If I, if I find.

Ryan Rosillo (123:02)

Out. Okay, but what about the part with it, like outside of earshot, let's say of, of any adult.

Kyle Ceruti (123:09)

Kyle. Oh, well, that's a night and day Jekyll and Hyde situation, you.

Ryan Rosillo (123:12)

Know. Right. Your weed story's phenomenal, by the way. You don't get enough credit. Like that needs what people need to talk about that you just coming home and telling your parents like, yeah, smoked it. I'm not supposed to debate over and that's it.

Max Olson (123:28)

Right?

Kyle Ceruti (123:28)

Yeah. Whatever you guys think. Whatever you guys think is just probably like, what, what are you want me to.

Ryan Rosillo (123:33)

Do? Then telling your brother, don't deny it. They know you did it.

Kyle Ceruti (123:38)

Dude. They want you to have a little shame. That's.

Max Olson (123:39)

Right.

Ryan Rosillo (123:40)

Right. Have a little bit of.

Kyle Ceruti (123:41)

Shame. Then they think they really got you and then just figure out how you're sneaking.

Ryan Rosillo (123:45)

Out. Like if I were making this 15 year old kid came back just reeking of the old Gonge and I'm like, hey, what the fuck is this? And they'd be like, you know what? I did it. It's on me. Stupid. Like went to the room. I'd just be like, what are we supposed to do now? He's two moves ahead of.

Max Olson (124:00)

The.

Hi Hat (124:01)

Yeah. Came and enjoy this. Yeah, it's.

Ryan Rosillo (124:03)

True. You know, I'm going to reflect on my decisions. Thank you for your input. I'll be playing Zelda. Are there any uncrustables around? All right, that'll do it for the show today. Thank you. We're saying thanks to Tom and Kevin. Until they come on. At some point we'll bring them on, ask them if they got high when they were in high school and got caught. Thanks to Kyle cer. Thank you for checking out and please subscribe to the Ryan Rossillo Show, Barstow.

Hi Hat (124:36)

Sports.