Football Is Back, Wisconsin HC Luke Fickell, USC HC Lincoln Riley, Rutgers HC Greg Schiano + Mt Rushmore of Things You Hated As A Kid But Love As An Adult

20:05PFT Commenter:We should win that one. Do we just become WPMT or start our own baseball? And we just do WNBA? Mm-hmm. I actually have already inquired about that. Banana ball. Oh, man. I need more banana ball. Maybe we get into cricket in the United States? No. No, thank you. I don't know. This shit takes forever. I think there's a different kind. It's not like the multiple day one. I forget what it's called. What are we going to do? It's like red zone for cricket. As a country, we need to figure this out. We can't do this. Paddle? No. Fair. God damn it. Beach volleyball? They might need to do like... What about two masters?

20:48The college world series Will matter No because that's still During the NBA I know I think we need to do

20:54PFT Commenter:Like double majors They should move College baseball back Because that would be Kind of hard to get Into college baseball For once Oh man Little league world series Little league world series Yeah little league world series Just like allow them To wear The professional team's Hats and uniforms Yeah I don't know We're in trouble We gotta You know what though It might Silver lining and Christian Yelich probably won't win the home run derby. True. True. But we just, I think we're all, I don't know what we can do, but everyone's got to put their heads together and we got to figure something out because we can't do this.

21:29PFT Commenter:We can't do summer no baseball. And listen, if baseball wants to start late, that's fine. If baseball wants to play like 130 games and they start after the NBA playoffs, great. That's fine. But you can't do just, if we're sitting here one year from now, exactly at this point and we're like we have not watched a meaningful like major sporting event in like two months yeah be brutal so yeah the lockout is probably going to happen nothing's going to change i i think it's almost 100 that there will be a lockout for at least a period of time someone fix it jeff pass and fix it please well maybe they just fix it jeff complain in April and it's back by July.

22:13Then it will feel even better.

22:14PFT Commenter:Right, right. That's what I'm saying. I can handle that. I can handle that. Maybe they just go dingers only schedule. What would we do? That would be weird if we did dingers only to start the season. We would draft so many guys that would suck. Yeah. How about this? How about, okay, the players have their idea for what they want the next CBA to look like. The owners have their idea for what they want the next CBA to look like. Why don't we flip a coin? I love that. Just flip a coin and we can sell tickets and live stream the coin flip. I love that. And then take all that money and then put that towards the next round of contracts.

22:44So you get a little bonus on top. And then heads, owners win. Tails, players win. What about this? The coin. And you have to abide by the coin.

22:52PFT Commenter:Yeah. What about, and this might end up being illegal. I don't really understand how it would work. But what if the MLBPA, I assume there's like dues that they have to pay. What if they do like, you know, when you live in a condo building and they have an assessment and it's like, hey, we got a new roof. Like everyone's got to pay 10 grand. What if the MLB PA does an assessment? Every MLB player has to pay 10 grand. They take that money and they bet on the Dodgers to win the world series. And then they redistribute that and be like, boys, let's just play. I like that. Right. I like that a lot.

23:26PFT Commenter:Yeah. Or again, I don't know if that's, it might, might be a little funny business there, but a little, little golden parachute. Or you take all that money and you give it to Shohei and then Parlay. And then have Shohei put something on a checklist of hockey and ping pong match. And then probably double, if not triple, what you invested crisis averted. I like that. We got a lot of ideas. Let us know, MLB. Fix this out. Man fraud. Please, please, please save us, Jeff Bassett. So, yeah, I have no idea how this, the whole trade deadline this year, nobody really knows what's going to happen with that because of the lockout that's coming.

24:07And if you have a pending free agent or a guy that you're trying to work out a deal with, I guess you would rather do it now. And because no matter what happens with the next CBA, it's going to be more expensive for the owners to pay the players. Like that price is always going to go up a little bit. So if you're a smart owner, you would want to extend your guys right now as opposed to waiting till after the CBA. Yeah. Just something to think about.

24:30PFT Commenter:Something to think about. Okay. Let's do Hot Seat, Cool Throne, and then we'll do our Mount Rushmore. And then we got three awesome interviews talking football. Before we get to that, DraftKings this summer, whatever you're watching, baseball, golf, soccer, racing, DraftKings has you covered for every single moment of it. The DraftKings Sports app is now available in all 50 states, bringing the game straight to your fingertips wherever you are, from Florida to Texas to California. You're in on the excitement at the speed of sports. Follow every buzzer beater, every walk-off, every photo finish.

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25:52PFT Commenter:Hot Seat Cool Throne is brought to you by our friends at TickPick. TickPick is the no-fee ticket app. Every other ticket site tells you their fees are included in the price, but included isn't gone. TickPick took a different road. No service fees at all. Never is charged one. Never will. That's the whole pitch. The exact same seat, same section, same row. Costs less on TickPick. Fan first since day one, and every order is covered by their buyer trust guarantee. 100 % authentic tickets guaranteed. On-time delivery. Fans trust TickPick for all their live events. Check the reviews yourself. Download the TickPick app and never pay another service fee again.

26:32PFT Commenter:And for new TickPick customers, take$20 off your first order with promo code PMT20 in the TickPick app. Terms apply. That's PMT20 at checkout for$20 off your first order. Okay, hot seat, cool, it's wrong. Brought to you by TickPick. Go use that PMT20 at checkout for$20 off your first order. Zach going to Lollapalooza. Zach, you're going to Lollapalooza with TickPick? Jake, we're not going to Lollapalooza. Curse you at TickPick. TickPick, greatest ticket app in the world. Who are you looking forward to seeing? What jersey are you wearing? Not sure what jersey yet. That's probably a game time decision.

27:03You got to wear a basketball jersey. Probably a black shirt.

27:05PFT Commenter:Oh, what? Backorder right now, unfortunately. A tough spot to be in. Oh, so the 90 you have are not good enough? I moved, so I had to cut down. You threw some out? That's a great move for moving. I assume you threw all of them out. You threw out all your black shirts? I had to move. I love this. That's a good point. I was already at the book. Did you actually throw them all out? Yeah. Every single one of them? No, I probably had like four or five. Max, did you not hear he was moving? Okay. Did you throw them? You got some of your ears? My box count was like at the threshold of the movers, and I was like, I got to eliminate some stuff here.

27:42This is probably a good time to just. Did you think about wearing all the shirts at once and then walking down the street? I'd have to roll. And then how many do you think you could put on at one time? They'd have to be different sizes if we're going to stack them. You paid by the box?

27:55PFT Commenter:I paid roughly by the box What do you mean your boxes were out That sounds like you didn't ask for another box There's no way you paid by the box There's no way They made me estimate furniture and boxes over the phone And then I gave them 25 And then I was at that That sounds like an estimate though But they bring other boxes You can ask for more boxes Also I will say you guys are right Movers might be the greatest thing on this planet Yeah no shit What do you got memes You threw out all your shirts It's crazy Yeah, he moved. I moved, you know? What's the matter? I honestly. Movies are the perfect time.

28:28You redo the box, the socks, the shirt. They're all the same shirt, Hank. I know what Hank's saying. I don't know what Zach's saying. No, I don't know what Hank's saying. He couldn't bring. He was moving. His clothes. He doesn't have room for his clothes. But he threw out shirts to buy the same shirt. And he has a new apartment. Fresh. Because he was moving. Fresh shirts. The boxes, the socks, and the shirts. But you don't have shirts. I got shirts, but like. You're not wearing a black shirt right now? Yeah. Back order. That's how it started. So you're screwed. I got an email or a DM back today.

28:57Subscribe to our email list. We'll let you know.

28:59PFT Commenter:Can you go back to your old apartment and go through the trash? Maybe another company sells black shirts. There's no other black shirts. There's tons of companies, but there's only one that feels right. Right. And you moved. And did move. What else do you throw? Your toothbrush? Well, yeah. A lot of pajamas. Wait, Max, what? If you're moving, you can get a new toothbrush. It's immediate. What is going on right now? What is going on right now? Moving is not throwing everything out. I don't think you guys are understanding what moving is. You take your stuff that you have, and then you move it. You move.

29:34To a different place.

29:35PFT Commenter:You move it. You don't throw it out. You move it. Toothbrush comes with. I mean, you just go. There's CVS right by your spot. You can just get it. Max and Zach treat moving like they robbed a bank, and they're starting a new life in a different town. Might as well throw it out. Yeah. Yeah. Witness protection because you move down the block. A toothbrush electric. That comes with. Yeah. Not for Max. He throws out his toothbrush. I'm a manual guy. I will say that when you do move, it's a good opportunity to throw out clothes that you don't wear. Well, yeah. Yeah. Like junk. Yeah. But you wear those shirts.

30:07PFT Commenter:Now you don't have any memes. Go ahead. How did you throw out the 95 shirts? Oh, good question. I just put them in a big pile and put them in trash bags. So you could have just picked up that trash bag and brought it to your house. But they were going to ding me. The movers were going to be like, this is. No, they wouldn't have. You guys have been walking distance away. You could have walked the trash bags yourself. It was the boxes, though. It would have been another box. These aren't unvalid points. Do you have pictures of the trash bags with all the shirts? I mean, I guess I probably have one of all the shirts.

30:37Why did you take a picture of them? Because I was like, could I carry these? Yes.

30:42PFT Commenter:He wanted to look at a picture. I usually run stuff like that by my brother. Like, what do you think? And what do you say? He's like, no, just ditch them. I did. Can you email that picture to Max and then Max pull it up? I'd like to see. There's so many t-shirts. I feel like your brother might have been fucking with you. They're just covering his entire kitchen floor. Email it. Send it to Max. DM it to me. DM it to him. It was a great time to do it. Fresh start, you know? I understand. I do. Obviously not because they're back ordered. Stop saying fresh start. He still has some. He's going to buy the same shirt, but he can't.

31:14Yeah, but fresh shirts are different than shirts you've had forever. But I never saw that coming. I've never seen a backorder a day in my life. You should have probably checked. I didn't think that could happen. I'm starting to think maybe we can explore a different black shirt. No. Sometimes you like what you like. Yeah. I've run through many ones. Just a thought. You can't.

31:32PFT Commenter:No, PFT. That's actually the craziest thing that's been said. Because earlier I was like, no, that's crazy. But now I'm thinking. You don't understand. Because it might be backordered for months. No, Zach's black shirts, they're like very black. They're a super popular shirt. There's no way they say I'm backordered for too long. They are very black. There's none more black. What happens if they are, though? Well, the weird thing is they'll still give you the 3v3 split pack. You can get three white ones and three black ones. And I'm like, wait, can I just go? Are you going to start wasting money by buying?

32:00No, no. That's why I drew the line. That's wasteful, yeah. That'd be like buying Neapolitan ice cream when you just want chocolate. That'd be like buying a t-shirt once and then throwing it out.

32:09PFT Commenter:That'd be like buying 90 black t-shirts. Actually, like Alan Iverson, he used to do that, too. How many did you have? And he's doing fine. Lost a lot of money. He's doing great. Okay. Wait, so... Send the picture. Who are you looking for to seeing at Lollapalooza? I'm looking for... Tickpick. Julie Wolf, great artist. Louis Vuitton, probably great artist. Thank you to Tickpick. All thanks to Tickpick. All right, so... And the jersey? You got to get a jersey. I got a couple options. I got a Jordan if you want to wear it. It'll fit. We might be different. Yeah, I was thinking... That's a big jersey.

32:40You're in better shape than me. Might not fit. Not necessarily true, but it's a big jersey. You're so close to set.

32:44PFT Commenter:I think it's more that his shape is different than yours. Yeah, we have way different builds. You're like more traditional build. I got a wonky one. I'm trying. I think you got traditional builds, Zach. No, Zach, you and I have actually similar builds, like a little bit of the refrigerator on toothpicks kind of deal. Yeah, the skinny legs, and then everything goes to the stomach. We're two SpongeBob guys. Built like Rex Ryan. Right, exactly, yeah. We're built like SpongeBob. Okay, Hank. Oh, he's about to send the picture?

33:17I am with him multitasking his heart so you were talking to him so he wasn't able to send it to me and now you're not talking to him and I was still kind of oh here it is he's still struggling nope he's about to click send

33:29PFT Commenter:why is Tiger Woods trending Max probably something good something really good I don't know why don't you have the picture up you were asking me something else okay here it is and that's a lot of t-shirts Zach that's a fuck ton of t-shirts you could have taken like five of them yeah I took five or six okay great time to restart do you have a washer and dryer in your new apartment yes washer and dryer we're good how do you like the new place everything's going well are you doing bedroom bedroom I was going to do it and then multiple women in my life were like hey if you ever want to have any kind of future of interpersonal relationships, you can't do it.

34:15PFT Commenter:No, so you're doing bedroom bedrooms. Yeah, so I'm doing bedroom bedroom. Not living room bedroom. I will say the only question I asked on the tour was do the outlets on the floor work because I'm a big desk guy. She's like, of course they work. Only thing that doesn't work is the outlets on the floor. I may commit arson. You got bamboozled, dude. It was the only question. It was a two-minute tour. It's all you needed. It looks like Tiger is trending because Rory and Scotty are about to catch him for all-time earnings. before the end of the year. That's kind of crazy. That is crazy. All right, hot seat, cool to rock.

34:46My hot seat here are the Jets. Why? What happened? Plaxico Burris was on the Joint Venture Show, and he had a quote about playing for the Jets in prison. He said they're both kind of similar because when I walked into prison on my first day, I was like, damn, man, you a fucking loser. And I had the same damn feeling every day I walked through the door with the Jets.

35:08PFT Commenter:Oh, my God. That is brutal. That is pretty tough. It's also a very funny quote. Memes? It's mean. I wouldn't say it's the funniest quote. It's very funny. It's a pretty funny quote. Objectively speaking, it's funny. Like, damn, you're a loser. I mean, he is a loser. He shot himself in the leg, went to prison. And played for the Jets. Jets were coming off two AFC championship appearances. So they weren't that big of a loser. Yeah, so why did you say that? I don't know. He's probably feeling like a loser. How bad could it have been? he also played in you know he was in new york it was same stadium yeah good point he should be thankful he's not no it sounds like he's actually he hates the jets 100 not thankful at all did you like him before that is rooting for the jets like being in prison oh yeah what kind of question is that yeah well you knew you know what kind of question is the question that you're going to give the answer hank's gonna love and he had a smile well as i'm saying you can relate to him yeah you played into his hands there memes you gave him what he wanted it's like brad stevens with the sixers yeah boom oh got him memes brad stevens being my jam is like it's like heaven on earth waking up every day right now you thank god every day yeah every day paul george you're thanking god for paul george yep thank god he's thanking god for hugo trust process that much uh also the bills afc east to continue the afc east they put out their new alternate jerseys whatever they're they're horrible yeah they don't even look like nfl they don't they don't look like an nfl team's jerseys yeah i don't know what they're looking at here um i hate the helmets you can get away with everything with the gray jerseys i know i've been a couple teams like the lions even though it's a shitty gray jersey i don't like the bone white that the the ram the The Rams have kind of a grayish one that they wear, too.

37:01I don't know what that helmet is. If you saw that from the side, no one is thinking that's the Bills.

37:05PFT Commenter:No, it looks like the Lions. It's a Mac Jersey. Yeah. They did our guy, Deion Dawkins, dirty, too. Dirty. Oh, man. That one picture where it looks like he just dropped heat. And I was saying there on Wake Up Bar, so it looks like he's standing outside the bathroom just saying to people, hey, you're going to want to give that a minute to everyone. one let me see this picture it's bad he's it's like the industrial picture he's yeah there it is oh yeah yeah oh you're not gonna want to go in there that's what he's saying but but almost in a way that he's proud of yeah right yeah no that is the john travolta real man just went in there where he's he's shrugging his shoulders um that is a man that's proud of the work that he's left behind i like that they release these because they're so bad it maybe scares some teams away to be like, hey, you shouldn't...

37:54PFT Commenter:Like, all alternate jerseys aren't great. We've gotten to a point in all sports where it's like, if it's an alternate jersey, people are going to love it. Something different. No, no, no. Bills have great jerseys. I think Titus said it perfectly. The Bills somehow fucked up red, white, and blue. Those are their colors. And they mess that up. What they should have done is they should have gone Zubaz. They should have gone Zubaz pants. Dude. And the Buffalo Bill, instead of being red, Zubaz, Buffalo Bill. It should be Zubaz pants and then a Bills t-shirt jersey with a little bit of puke on it. Yeah, that'd be good too.

38:28PFT Commenter:That would be sick. That'd be sick. And my cool throne is love. Justin Herbert, Madison Beer. Yeah. Engaged. I saw that. Hey, do you hear this one? Do you hear about this one? That's the only ring that Justin Herbert's going to get. Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah, it's pretty good, right? That's really good. It's really good. Embrace the bait. Should Justin Herbert take her last name? Yes. No, that's not No, that's not funny That's number one jersey seller Justin Beer would be a great name 100 % There's only one quarterback that loves Madison Beer more than Justin Herbert And that's Tony Romano What if you went hyphenated?

39:06PFT Commenter:Yes Herbert Beer Beerbert Her Beer Her Beer But that's, we were joking about it Her Beer is just is like a martini. So. I'm happy for him. Yeah. Yeah. Attractive couple. Yeah. And Jokic won another horse race. Yeah. Okay. That celebration's going. He acted like, I don't know what the level of horse race was, but it might as well have been the triple crown. Yeah. He just gets so excited. It's so funny. I fucking love Jokic. He's the absolute man. He's like one of the only guys out there Who's like If he says like I don't listen to the outside noise 99.9 % of the people Are just bullshit Bullshitting you He is someone I believe He's locked in on the ponies That's all he cares about Okay your hot seat cool to run PFT My Well Hank took like Three of my hot seats Yeah he just cleaned He just kept going He just gobbled them up He did two of each I'm gonna say my hot seat Is the Arizona Cardinals Oh I mean we talked about We just gassed them up for resigning the quarterback of the future, Jacoby Brissett.

40:19And then I just saw the stat that came out. They have the lowest expected win total since 1995 in the expansion.

40:28PFT Commenter:Well, I thought you were going to say it for a different reason, because I was shocked when I saw Nathaniel Hackett is there. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, when I saw him at the podium, I was like, holy shit. Yeah, Nathaniel Hackett's there for sure. Man, remember the 14 games that we didn't bash him because we had him on the show? Yep. He was funny. Basically, it was like he liked Blake Bortles. And so we were like, okay, fair enough. We won't say anything bad about your coaching. We should send that to future guests who don't know about Pardon My Take. Just be like, hey, you come on. We didn't say shit about Nathaniel Hackett for well into him being an absolute moron head coach.

41:03Yeah. Their win total is three and a half this year. They have the hardest schedule. It looks like by far. Playing in the NFC West would do that. Did not realize that it was the hardest schedule in the entire league. And yeah, three and a half win total.

41:17PFT Commenter:That's why Jacoby Brissett was right to hold out. He's like, I know what you guys want me to do. He's like, this year's going to suck. You want me to move the ball every now and then to a point where you can say you weren't tanking on purpose. And he is the perfect guy for that. They actually should probably be paying him like$50 million. It's basically hush money. He's perfect for the job. If you're looking to win a Super Bowl, you signed Patrick Mahomes. If you were looking to get the number one pick but pretend like you were trying, Jacoby Rousset is the number one guy for that. Who would that be in basketball?

41:51PFT Commenter:I think it's Jordan Poole. No, because he's pretty – it's pretty much you're trying to – James Harden. James Harden. Well, no, but you'll be too good if you have James Harden. No, but you'll never – yeah. You'll never win. If you're tanking. Yeah, if you're tanking. If you're fully tanking, yeah. Yeah, it might be Jordan Poole. then my cool throne is going to be making money. My cool throne is going to be the almighty dollar because college football teams are now selling jersey patches. Yeah. We've got a couple that came out. First one, Notre Dame is putting SoFi on their jerseys, and Ohio State has Chase Bank patches on their jerseys.

42:28It's just going to keep happening. I mean, honestly, I'm shocked that it took American sports so long to sell the jersey patches. Yeah. that's something that has been going on overseas now granted they don't have advertisements like all over the stadiums over in europe like they do in america um but the one thing that they did beat us to the market like 30 years was the jersey patches and sponsorship rights on those so i'm looking forward i'm hoping that georgia can get geico that would be very funny um and outside of that miami coke would be good too yeah if coke stepped up for that yeah um but yeah so So it's SoFi for Notre Dame.

43:06It's Chase for Ohio State. And I think that we're just going to keep hearing. It's going to be like a slow trickle that comes out as they start to make money off these. But it will be like every single college football team within the span of the next couple years.

43:19PFT Commenter:Yeah. Okay. My hot seat is Liv. Hank, why didn't you mention that? What happened? I don't know. They canceled Detroit. The last tournament of the year. Saw that. The one that you said that we were going to play? I said it wasn't canceled yet, and it is officially now. Well, okay, so now we're at yet. Is it canceled or postponed? I think it's canceled. I think Liv might be done. What? I mean, I think they were trying hard to find some new sponsors that looks like it's going a little harder than they expected. Maybe they just need a little more time to get a little more time in the room. It takes a little while to sign a deal, get everyone on board.

44:00Do you think they were maybe just too ahead of their time? You hear about businesses that just came around too soon. If you had just waited a little bit longer, then that was the perfect time for it. Yeah, that's a possibility. But I don't, unfortunately. It's over.

44:16PFT Commenter:It's over. It's over. So what do we do now? Because I don't want to stop talking about it. I don't know how much more we're going to have left. I mean, I think they canceled this event. and it's looking like the the league cancellation will probably happen at some point before next season we can talk about it then and then we can't lose major league baseball and live i know oh oh live had just the perfect timing like they would have been they would have been huge hank what are we doing i i gotta i don't know i don't know what's going on these meetings i'm not it's not You got to get in those meetings.

44:55You got to go. You got to go. Go right now. If you want to fix Liv, call Hank Lockwood.

44:59PFT Commenter:Get out of it. Get out here. Go. Find out. Maybe they need jersey patches. Part of my take jersey patches. Not part of my take jersey patches. We need someone to do analytics on the length of the show once Liv is done. Part of my take is, on average, five minutes less. It takes a dip for sure. We've lost a huge piece of this show. So what it's like when Coach O stepped away for a couple of years. Can I ask something for you, Hank, to please do? I a little project. What if if live is done fully done? Could you maybe start a social media account? That's like today in live history and we just can relive it.

45:46PFT Commenter:Maybe it's called reliving it. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, oh, today Bryson shot a minus four for the Smashers. I can say that. Or like transaction. In Dubai. The yard goats made a trade. Range goats, come on. The range goats made a trade. Yeah. I would like to have something to just keep living by. We could set that up. It is sad. Is there a Hall of Fame for Liv? We should host it. Let's make the Liv Hall of Fame. Let's make it right here. We'll absolutely host the Liv. All they got to do is send us pretty much all their memorabilia. Yeah. Who do you think is first ballot? Looking back over the story.

46:25It's got to be DJ. Live history. Right? DJ, I feel like, was the first to go. Maybe we'll put Ian Poulter's pants in. Phil. Yeah. He never won on Live, though. He didn't get it done.

46:41PFT Commenter:Yeah. He's old and horny. What do you want? That's a terrible combination to try to focus on golf. I think the person in the Hall of Fame, there's been some stats I've seen where there's guys that because of their team winning, they finish terribly in every event. But their team won and they got to split the team purse and they made$20 million in three years without ever competing. Doing anything? Yeah, that's the Saudi dream. So I think that would be where the Hall of Fame starts. is like who made the most from Liv? Who's the greatest team in the history of Liv? It's got to be the four aces. How many titles?

47:26I think they won the first year. They definitely won some team events. Yeah, it's four aces. I mean, they're the cornerstone of Liv. When you think of Liv, you think four aces. Definitely. Okay, yeah, sure. That's what I think of.

47:40PFT Commenter:Okay, my cool term is going to be love because Justin Herbert. Hot couple. Very hot couple. Zach My hot seat this week is going to be Patriots fans Because I'm seeing some stuff on Twitter That AJ Brown might just not have it What? I have a question PFT Oh yeah PFT comments are part of my take Did memes put you up for this? What's up? Did memes put you up for this? Did memes send you your hot seat? Shout out to memes What are we talking about here? I was hearing reports that AJ Brown Maybe wasn't making separation off the line Could be a bad report Is that true memes? We're just seeing videos at a training camp.

48:20There's a lot of hot seat cool thorns that were taken before. Yeah. I did see A.J. I saw one clip of A.J. Brown not getting a ball. Is this his concern? It's pretty crazy. No. His job is to get the ball, though. That's a good point by Zach. He's a new player, a new team, new system. This is literally what training camp is for. I think the system is still, for him, catch the ball. Get open. Yeah. He's also going up against Christian Gonzalez. It's good. That's good. That's a good spin zone.

48:48PFT Commenter:Iron sharpens iron. Good thing there's no videos of Devontae Smith going up against Christian Gonzalez in the past week. Is there? Is there? Why would there be? It's not like they had a joint practice. Wait, they already had a joint practice? Oh, wait. See ya. Oh, jeez. He broke him down. Oh, no. Thank God we didn't draft that guy. Oh, no. So happy we got Emmanuel Forbes. I mean, yeah. If you have to cover for that long, that happens to everyone. That wasn't that long. Wait, so AJ Brown is practicing with the Eagles right now? That's good. That's correct. There has been really much that came out of it.

49:28PFT Commenter:Wait, July 23rd. What's today's date? July 28th. They started last week? Have there been, like, handshakes? Have we seen AJ going up to Jalen Hurts? That's got to be from last year. Yeah. I feel like teams just reported themselves. There's no way that they do practice against each other. Maybe I'm wrong. People are talking about this clip. You saw a clip get resurfaced. I don't know. Oh, no. I'm pretty – I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that most teams, when they start practice, they just practice. You do joint after a couple weeks. Yeah, you're probably right. I could be wrong. It could be a clip.

50:13He's definitely right. Yeah, 100%. I don't know, Max. Okay, Zach. That clip still exists. The clip does exist. Clip does stand. Absolutely leaves him off the line. My cool thing this week is going to be guys are into insects because, gentlemen, we got a new Spider-Man coming out. Oh. Peter Parker's back. Let's go. Who's playing him? What is his? Tom Holland. Tom Holland, right? The handsome guy with the... Never mind. The handsome guy of the what? I was going to say Significant other But that felt rude Why? Who's his Zendaya Zendaya Zendaya Oh you're about to get Like J.J. Watt's wife I was about to get horny And it was an accident That was going to be rude of me I shouldn't have said that

50:57PFT Commenter:Okay I'd like disavow anything I just said in the last 90 seconds She's famous in her own accord Yeah in her own right You know what I mean She's not just Tom Holland's girlfriend She's Zendaya That's on me Are you a Tom Holland guy? No but I'll be honest with you Not huge on Tom Holland I'm big on Spider-Man though. Yeah? Who is your favorite Spider-Man? Spider-Man would probably have to be... Favorite Spider-Man all the time is Spider-Man 2. So the guy who plays Spider-Man in Spider-Man 2. Toby. Toby. I think Toby might do it for me. That scene where Toby's holding back the train, you can't beat that.

51:26Eagles and Patriots will have joint practice on August 19th and August 20th. Oh, you're just early. When is that close? Just a little early. I can't wait to see the matchup between Devontae Smith and Christian Gonzalez. Yeah. I'm going to be locked in on how that goes. Yep, 100%. August 19th August 20th Because you know that we would have gotten some quotes from AJ by now If that was happening Did Varebo have another puppy today? Didn't see one He's going to have a baby in his arms next He's going to go up there with like a Salve Charmier or like a Red Cross bucket the next time, just collecting donations

52:02PFT Commenter:Okay, good hot seat Cool Thrones everyone Let's get to our Mount Rushmore Mount Rushmore is brought to you by our friends at Reese's. There's something for everyone when it comes to Reese's. And guess what? The Mount Rushmore of candies is Reese's. The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. The absolute goat in all candies. If we did a candy draft right now, Reese's would go 1-1. And then guess what? Reese's Sticks would go 1-2. And then Reese's Animal Crackers would go 1-3. It would just be down the line Reese's because it's that good. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups with Marshmallow. Reese's peanut butter cup with Oreo.

52:38PFT Commenter:All of it. Reese's does the best in the business. They're like the Carolina Hurricanes. They're like the Spanish national team. They're like the New York Knicks. Reese's, the official candy partner of Barstool Sports. Go get Reese's wherever you shop. Reese's, we love you. So go get a Reese's. Okay, Mount Rushmore of things you hated as a kid but loved as an adult. We have an updated leaderboard after PFT. See, that sequence of events was quite something on Monday's show when you mocked Hank and Zach, and then I think you got 8%. Yeah, it was an all-time low, I think. Really bad performance. But you know what?

53:21It's always darkest before the dawn. Yeah, you bounce back. And one thing I know from this show, you take your L's on this show, and once you take a heavy L, that's when you know you're about to take a massive dunk. Yeah, you're about to come back. Yeah, about to come back. So come back. Although I have noticed a lot of people being like, because that one, and admittedly, historically bad performance. The cereal was just derailed you. It was bad. It was bad. What can I say? Really bad job on my part. I've noticed a lot of people that because of that performance, they assume I must be in last place.

53:48I'm not. You're not. I'm in second place in the Rushmore season.

53:51PFT Commenter:You're actually two points up from last place. So nowhere near last place. Not even close. Not even close to close to last place. 7.6. That's actually impressive. It's pretty bad. Seeing mashed potatoes and gelato and applesauce. Now, I will say gelato is a great. I have no regrets about eating gelato ever. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, sugar on cereal. Cereal wasn't popping for you. Analytically, I won. Analytically, you did win. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Okay, Mount Rushmore of things you hated as a kid but loved as an adult. Who's going first? So PFT, then us, then Hank and Zach. I thought we were third.

54:37Yeah, I fucked that up. Way to go. Memes. Way to go. There's a clear 1-1 in this draft, and I'm going to take it. It is going to sleep. Going to sleep. Hated as a kid. Bedtime was the absolute worst. Now as an adult, I love being able to take a nap. I love being able to just relax.

54:59PFT Commenter:Wait, is that all going to sleep? Yeah, going to bed. Going to bed. Yeah, going to sleep. Going to bed. Going to sleep is my pick. Okay. Because when you're a kid, you're worried about what you're going to miss. And as you're gone, as an adult, it's like, I can't wait to go to sleep. So going to bed is your pick. Going to sleep. Going to sleep. Going to sleep. Is that all going to sleep? Going to sleep is the pick. At nighttime? If you're going to take naps I mean I think naps are totally different than going to bed We haven't said what we're going to do But I'm just asking My pick is going to sleep Okay At night time You can take that as you wish Okay It's all sleeps What should we take?

55:42PFT Commenter:I don't know Should we take naps? No we can't take naps Yeah we can We can definitely take naps That's it Going to sleep What do you do when you take a nap? Well you said you don't want to take a you want to go to sleep so you're not missing stuff but that's yeah night yeah you can miss you can miss stuff by taking a nap naps and going to to bed are totally different what happens when you go to sleep and nap yeah sleep and a nap are not the same thing what do you do when you take a nap nap yeah you nap you close your eyes for a second what happens you see you close your eyes there's two there's there's two they're very different things yeah i i don't know why this is a contrary going to sleep it's not a contrary but they are different things Naps and sleeping are different things.

56:24PFT Commenter:Sometimes you nap, you don't even fall asleep. Yeah. All right. If you guys want to do naps, I have going to sleep as my pick. Okay. But naps are different than going to bed. We all agree, right? Yeah. That's why I said going to sleep. Right. But naps. My pick is not going to bed. My pick is going to sleep. Yeah. Okay. What do you guys want to take?

56:46PFT Commenter:Kind of want to take three. No. We can get it later. We can get it later. we can get it later we should take it later um yeah do we want to phrase it that way or yeah yeah we hated it um eight looks good what hank what what what hank say something i like usually it's like that you have a i know if you're early in the early in the i know but he's like playing semantics of like naps and sleep it's no you can take naps i said my pick is going to sleep all right you want to do that memes say it i like that taste of alcohol taste of alcohol okay not good as i mean very bad as a kid uh i mean when you're 15 like teenage years no what the first time you have alcohol it's bad i would say i would say maybe the second or third time you start to we're talking about like kids i can see alcohol i don't i don't i don't promote underage i'm not talking about teenagers i'm talking about kids We don't promote underage drinking.

57:51No, we don't. I'm not promoting it. I'm just saying. No, I don't. All right. We're a little promoting. We're going to go with hanging out with your parents. Okay. Yeah. When you were a kid, it felt like you were in trouble. And then obviously, you know, you turn into an adult. You're probably not living near them. We actually get to spend time with them. Look forward to it. Yeah. Yeah. That's a sweet pick. What do you think about three? What about? You think we do two? Yeah. I think three. I think two. Whatever you want. I mean, you're early in the draft. You should already have your pick. You should already have your pick.

58:31Either one's good. Go three.

58:34PFT Commenter:We're going to go with alone time. Okay. Okay. We had it. Yeah, we had it as well. Yeah. We had it. Yeah. I like eight a lot. Nah. No? No. Okay. Well, then what do you want to do? I like 10. We just went with one, though. But that's the same thing. It's complete. What do you mean it's the same thing? All right. All right. All right. What do you think, memes? Memes. Chime in here, memes. Eight is. You got to explain eight. Oh, no. I don't think you have to explain eight. I don't think you have to explain eight at all. Okay. Go for it. Ten way later. Yeah. I agree. We have so many picks. We can talk this through.

59:13PFT Commenter:Let's talk this through. Go eight. Go eight. It's no longer early in the draft. But we could also go six. Six is good. Six is good. I think four. Yeah. Four? Fourteen is another one I was thinking. Stop saying numbers. I know. I used to be so mad at you guys for doing this. We might have too many picks. Let's go six. Let's go six. Okay. And do we say that word or do we say the word that got you in trouble? I'm not saying. You're saying this. Okay. girls okay when you're a kid when you're a kid we're not we're not talking about teenagers when you're a kid yeah girls are like ew and now as an adult you love them you love girls yeah okay exactly max actually picked that now that you're grown up you love girls chicks uh huh is it girls or is it chicks it could be chicks or women is it girls women so when you were a kid you hated women yeah you know you know exactly what we're saying.

1:00:16Girls. What do you want on the graphic? Max, can you help us, please? You're on an island on this one. Don't say island for girls. The opposite sex?

1:00:29PFT Commenter:I need help, Max. You're the one who I needed help last year. You're navigating. We weren't on the same team. Yeah. I am not participating in this conversation. Get in the fight, dude. Chicks. Chicks. So the answer is chicks. Chicks. Okay. Max looks like he doesn't want that. No, that is what we wrote down. You guys scarred Max with the G word. What's the G word? Girls. Oh, I thought it was the P word. Like, Big Cat said girls, and he cringed back here. All right, so chicks. We'll go with chicks. Chicks. Okay.

1:01:04So I got two back-to-back. I'm going to go coffee. As a kid, way too bitter. You don't understand why adults drink it, and then you become an adult, and you're like, I get it. That's a good one. I get it. For most people, I think you enjoy the effects of it first, and then you learn to like the taste to go along with the effects. And then sooner or later, you're addicted to it. My next pick. Fuck it. Yeah, fuck it. Fuck it. Getting spanked. Okay.

1:01:37PFT Commenter:That's a very specific one. Spankings. As a kid, hate them. As an adult, you pay good money for it. Okay. You can pay really good money. Okay. Get spanked for a while. You love getting spanked? Well, I... Yeah. Well, not me necessarily. You love getting spanked? Not me necessarily. No, you love getting spanked. You love getting spanked. You're saying you love getting spanked. We're picking our Mount Rushmore things. Yeah, spankings. Yeah. You love getting spanked. Getting spanked. I think it's going to be a good pick. It was on our list. Okay. Oh, man. All right. Max, you're doom and gloom right now.

1:02:13PFT Commenter:Let's pick this up.

1:02:18PFT Commenter:yeah so so pick it up i i i'm i'm going i'm gonna pick it up right here go with eight go with it okay i think it's a good pick uh being a kid when you're a kid you hate when people treat you like a kid when you're adult you're like fuck i wish i was a kid again you lose your youth when youth is wasted on the youth is that what it is yeah i think that's the saying being a kid yeah you look back you're like man that was awesome you had no worries you had nothing but when you're a kid you're just like i want to grow up i want to grow up i want to be a big boy i want to grow up it sucks right uh we are gonna go with cutting the grass yeah good pick i had that it was a chore when you were a kid as an adult it's very peaceful experience experience understand completely why you know dads love it they get obsessed with it something to do and you feel good after and it It smells good.

1:03:13It's almost like healthy competition. You go out. You go against the neighbor. Yeah. I'll cut it earlier next day. Yep. Yep. Then a fourth pick. We're going to take naps.

1:03:21PFT Commenter:Nice. Good pick. Good pick. Good pick. We were going to take it. Naps. I mean, it's a great pick. Nap time sucked as a kid. It's awesome as an adult.

1:03:35PFT Commenter:Okay, guys. I like 14. 14 is good. What about 4? 4 or 14, I like. 4 is so similar. Okay. All right. All right. All right. Showers. I hated showers as a kid. Hated it. Taking hot showers the best as an adult. Alone time. Showers. my kids fucking hate shower time I never dislike showers I guarantee you if you ask your parents as a kid like real kid well that's what we're doing baths you want to say bath time Max is the only one who still takes baths baths are great baths are the best did you hate bathing as a kid we'll say bathing so it covers everything bathing bathing bathing but i hated that as a kid you definitely hated it as a kid i don't know i feel like even bass you ask your parents i guarantee you ask your like ask your your brother as a kid kids doesn't he like yeah yeah no i i see that no i see that it's a it's it's a war but it's a yeah you get all the action figures in there you know it's your imagination going still about the imagination it's probably like bubble bath 90 of my week is like the negotiations and then active bathing with like trying to get the kids to do it okay last pick pft um i'm gonna go with watching golf on tv it was the most boring sport to watch as a kid i don't even remember doing it as a kid yeah i never wanted to watch it if it was on not interested as an adult really enjoy it golf golf was my one one just playing i hated playing golf when i was young yeah i thought it was so boring yep and now it's like my favorite thing to do yeah okay good about rushmore a little contentious like it like a little get rid of the hanks kumbaya mandate um what else we have asparagus you love asparagus vegetables in general i like it i like asparagus yeah it's all right you grill it a little balsamic we did the two that we we threw out vegetables and reading but we're like we can't get behind that yeah we just couldn't get behind it we're only gonna do the things we love you can make asparagus good i it's become one of my favorite vegetables what do you think about a well-balanced meal yeah yeah because like when you're a kid you just want to eat you know fast food and burgers or whatever pizza well i had we had one of the picks in this i don't know what you guys were pizza crust pizza crust pizza crust as a kid You did?

1:06:19PFT Commenter:Like crust on peanut butter and jelly and stuff? Love crust. I was stealing the pizza crust off the pies as a kid. Really? Yeah. But how many leftover pizza crusts were there? No, I'm going to the pie and just perimeter checking the whole thing. And like the next guy's going to a slice, no crust on the pie. Like before it goes in. So you were eating. Oh, you savage. I was robbing it out the box just to crust. But you know that's a thing that kids don't eat. They eat the pizza, don't eat the crust. Yeah. Yes. But Zach, you were very important for the ecosystem. Yeah. It was like, yeah, a lot of people don't want to cross.

1:06:49No, I like the cross, too. I used to get other kids' cross.

1:06:50PFT Commenter:Similar to the parents' one, siblings. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you get older and you're like, oh, shit, we did a lot of fighting. Yep. A lot of fighting. What about documentaries? That's a good one. Hated watching them. They're boring as a kid. Yeah. No, I like, well, we said scary movies. Yeah, I don't remember. Also not true. National Geographic. I also don't remember documentaries being around as prevalent when we were kids. I just don't feel like it happened a lot No there were lots of documentaries There's a lot more now There's just more movies now in general Including non-doc Some of the other things thinking about my kid Brushing your teeth I like to brush my teeth at the end of the night My kids don't Leaving early from shit That's great as an adult That's a good one Sucks as a kid Car rides Love driving in the car Hated it as a kid Hate it Spicy food Can't get behind it Yeah, you still hate it.

1:07:47What about not being hungover? I guess never mind. When you were a kid, you hated not being hungover? Yeah, you were like, no, it wasn't fun. You weren't having fun. I was thinking like teenager, but yeah. Waking up in the morning without a hangover? I'm not going to endorse underage drinking. Yeah, there you go. Zach had tequila.

1:08:08PFT Commenter:Tequila. Going to the bathroom? Like, I always have to tell my kids, like, go to the bathroom. Go to the bathroom. go to the bathroom now it's like i look like i love taking a nice fat piss sitting on the toilet for a while going bathroom is awesome i like uh hank kind of touched on it with mowing the lawn but chores just chores in general if you get yeah i don't love them you don't love but if you get a good household project that you're working on that can be fun as an adult make a trip to the hardware store that's fun actually that could be its own thing is like going to the hardware store hated that as a kid as an adult it's kind of the best we also had wearing a coat as a kid never wanted to wear a coat never ever wanted to wear a coat uh getting a haircut yeah that's a good yeah that's a good one yeah although my kids like getting haircuts you get the lollipop so they that's they really pavlo dog that thing anchovies still don't like them big head said your siblings yeah I said that I think that's everything oh I had this one would have been hard to explain but the dark when you were a kid you were so scared of the dark now it's like give me a room with blackout shades like no light and I fucking love it you know like a real real dark bedroom is the best Zach had one which kind of counteracts our previous discussion to the show you want to say it Say it.

1:09:37I'm not sure that's what we're talking about. Folding clothes. Oh, yeah, folding clothes. Yeah. I didn't see a single folded black t-shirt. Those were going to the trash. Yeah. But you famously say that you don't fold your clothes. You just get new ones. Those were folded before I threw them to the center of the room to throw them away. Yeah. Yeah. But you often throw away your shirts. Just like, sometimes you gotta get rid of them.

1:10:02PFT Commenter:Yeah. Babysitters, too. As an adult, I love babysitters Night out When you were a kid, you were just like, oh, fuck Because you had like a mean babysitter What? I said people who think you're dumb Yeah, which we tried to talk that through But Why do you love the people who think you're dumb now? Less expectations True Like we're not going to have a dumb guy do it True Not being able to spell, Zach? that would stay with you what no that's you still just get destroyed for that yeah yeah that's fair okay good mount rushmore let's uh let's get to our interviews we have coach luke fickle then lincoln riley then greg sciano before we get to luke fickle is brought to you by our great friends over at ea sports from campus legend to nfl superstar make your rise across the mvp bundle It includes the deluxe edition of both games, plus you get bundle exclusive rewards.

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1:11:42And play as your favorite mascots and mascot mashup. Make your rise with the MVP bundle. It's available now. Check it out. EA Sports. It's in the game. And now here's Luke Fickle.

1:11:54PFT Commenter:Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is head coach of the University of Wisconsin, Luke Fickle. Coach, good to see you. Big Ten Media Week here in Chicago. Let's start with, I saw the article. So there was an article yesterday that I actually think was great because it talked about the first three years coaching the Badgers and it not going great. but you doubling down and being like hey i'm not leaving this place so i had a question right off the bat from that there was a moment why did i not expect that yeah well listen i know you have a relationship with you i care a lot about the badgers but there was a moment in in the article where it's basically like hey things are going bad and you were you were given a choice like hey either you can you can find a way out of this like you know go get another job or you can double down and turn this thing around.

1:12:47PFT Commenter:And you spent a night thinking about it. And I want to ask you about that night and what went through your head of, hey, what are we going to do in the future? What's this going to look like? Well, I think it was obviously really well done in a way that like, look, don't just ask you that. If you asked me that question right now, it'd be really easy just to say, oh yeah, hell yeah, I'm not balling. But when done things the right way, give you some time, go think about it. Don't give me your knee-jerk reaction. Let me know what it is that you're really thinking. And so that's what I did. I said, hey, I'm going home.

1:13:15I'm really going to think about this. Like, obviously in the moment, like, there's no way you're walking. I don't give a crap what the situation is. But when you really get to sit down and think about it, like, okay, where are we going? How are we going to do this? And so all those thoughts went through your head to say, okay, now, like, look, I got a family. Like, let's be honest with ourselves about where this thing is headed. And more than anything, it was just like sitting there just over and over inside your head. It's like, you know what this is going to take. You know what this has to look like.

1:13:44And you know the enormous amount of, you know, stress and time and things. And are you willing to really say you want to do that? And so that's basically what I did that whole night is just to make sure deep down inside in my head and my heart that knowing there's a lot of people that are counting on you, but like you've got to be all in to say, look, whatever it takes, I got to be willing to do. My family's got to be willing to sacrifice as well. And we all got to be in this together.

1:14:08PFT Commenter:Yeah, because it's, it's, it's, I think it's a little rare where it's like you, you basically said to yourself hey i know that i'm going into a hot seat like i'm walking into a fourth year that the temperature's hot the fan base is is anxious to get back on track and i'm up for the fight and that i i mean i give you credit for that like a lot of guys probably i i personally would have gotten the fuck out of there well i might say it later today at some point in time i don't know about it that way but i like to at times um i do think that today's world today's day and age, like when, you know, when met with some of these situations and where college football is, not just players, but even coaches, when there's other opportunities and other avenues, some would tell you, like, if you had this guy in your ear that you'd call an agent and be like, hey, we would really have a better opportunity if we would just kind of take this little avenue of something else that we could start.

1:14:57And like, you don't know what's best for me. You don't know what's best for my family. You don't know what's best for this program. And to me, that's where sometimes you got to quit listening to everybody outside and just kind of dive into yourself to say, hey, what am I willing to do? And what are we willing to do? Yeah. Are you a list guy? Did you just down do pros and cons? How'd that go? In my head, I don't know that I literally wrote down. I knew damn well what it was going to take. I knew damn well what you had to be committed to and to say, hey, I need to write down a pro and a con. That's what probably some agent or maybe my parents or somebody would say, hey, I heard that you could kind of think about this and take an escape route.

1:15:34No, No, there's one way to do something, and it's all in. Yeah, I heard that you did something very, very smart to start things off here. I think you have fullbacks now, right? Yeah, we do. We have fullbacks. We took the job. I was personally – I'm just a fan of the fullback position. We give out the low man trophy every year to the nation's top fullback. I was disappointed that Wisconsin was not going to have a fullback. And so I know you've got a couple fullbacks on the roster now. Yes, we do. For the first time, right? You've never had a fullback. Yeah, I think when we first came in, there were some guys that you're trying to figure out how to list them, but legitimately listed as a fullback.

1:16:09It's not just us, as you probably are, too. It takes a rare breed that wants to be listed as a fullback. I don't know if you've gone around college, but how many guys out there actually want to be listed as a fullback? But we actually have some that want to be listed as fullbacks. And those are the kind of guys that you want playing fullback. It's interesting. You can have H-backs. You can have hybrid tight end fullbacks. But at the end of the day, they want to catch passes. and they want to get eventually paid like a wide receiver if they ever make it to the NFL. More touchdowns. Exactly. But you have a fullback that wants to be listed as a fullback.

1:16:39I think that's a great start for Wisconsin football. And that's something that I don't know if you've weighed the pros and cons of that as you've been kind of like evolving as a head coach of what the tradition of Wisconsin football has always been versus the system that you like to run and what you're known for as a coach and what your strengths are. But what are some of the ways that you've kind of seen the differences between those two things and how you've tried to merge them? Well, it still comes down to players. And so to me, there's putting things into buckets and what gives you the best opportunity to be successful.

1:17:09Like, you know, we heard for the first year or so, like, hey, when it's short yards, how can you not go under center? Well, if you don't go under center, it's hard to go under center. So I think that's a part of the evolution of saying, look, in particular in this league, just like you see in the next level in the NFL, like if you can't do it all, meaning from your quarterback position, if you can't get under center, if you can't get in the gun, if you can't line up in an eye formation, If you can't do that, then you aren't as hard to prepare for as well. And so we all know, like, okay, so we have a fullback listed.

1:17:36How many reps or how many plays will we have in a game with a fullback in there? I can't tell you that for sure. As we get into camp and seeing how those guys perform and what are the strengths and weaknesses of what that position brings, we'll figure that out. But nonetheless, people are going to have to prepare for whether it's 2 to 10 to 12 plays a game of someone that's going to be lined up in some version of an IBAX and is going to have some type of a lead block. I don't know if they even call it. I don't even know if in football you're allowed to call it an ISO anymore. I think that might be outlawed based on health and safety nowadays.

1:18:07What are their names? What are your fullbacks' names? Tyler Janzey is one here from the south side of Chicago. Good fullback name, yeah. Converted linebacker, moved over. That's exactly what you need.

1:18:16PFT Commenter:Tyler Janzey? Tyler Janzey. Yeah, and a linebacker into a fullback. By the way, you say the fourth and one not under center. People were upset about that. I'm one of those people. Like, there are certain losses that I can stomach. Like, you know, and this is not saying that we can't get to this level, but, like, Ohio State has put a lot of money into it. They're a really good team. When you lose to Ohio State, it's like, hey, that happens. When we get stuffed on fourth and one against USC going shotgun, that's when I'm like, I can't do this. So that's what we got to fix. We got to just pound the ball.

1:18:48Believe me, there's all different ways. And I think that was a part of the evolution of saying, look, if you want to be successful in this league in particular, you have to be able to do it all. And that's not to say that you have to be able to play in the gun. You have to be able to play under center your whole time. The hard part is if you don't have that versatility, which we didn't, that in those critical moments, it's not that, look, I can honestly tell you right now as a former nose guard, there's nothing I like more than short yardage and to pound the ball and to hand the ball off. But if you're not comfortable with taking a snap on the most critical time of the game underneath center, which we almost gave up a game, you know, X amount of years ago at Cincinnati when the game was over, and we were on our own goal line.

1:19:26We just got on fourth down, flipped the ball with 30 seconds to go. We took a snap from under center and fumbled the snap because we weren't used to taking snaps under the center. So it wasn't just that we didn't do it on short yards. It was that, you know what, we were behind a little bit, that we didn't have it in the system to make sure no matter what, our quarterbacks can do it all, and we have to make people prepare for everything. So we have evolved in that way, and it's not just short yardage, but I think there's a lot of things that we had to evolve through.

1:19:51PFT Commenter:Yeah, so last year obviously didn't go great, But I talk about that moment where you sit down and you're like, hey, I'm not running from this. I'm going to fix this. After that, we do have two huge wins against Washington, Illinois. Was that part of it where it's like the guys could feel, hey, I'm not running from this. Let's fix this together. And especially the defense. The defense felt like it finally became a Luke Fickle defense. So there's some things that happened in those moments. And I'll even talk about it a little bit today in a lot of these situations. Like people from outside the program, I don't know that they really see some of the changes that happened.

1:20:25And to be honest with you, it had to do with leadership more than anything at all. And, you know, there was a part of us that was always holding on to this, hey, the quarterback's going to be back. The quarterback's going to be back. When there was a point in time at that moment where, hey, look, we're all in in this and this is the route we've got to be able to go. Then we finally said, like, look, we're not waiting on that anymore. We need to move forward with the things that we need to be able to do to be successful. And what started to happen was we had a youth movement, to be honest with you.

1:20:50We had some younger dudes that got opportunities to play, went in there, and created a different energy and a different leadership that really started to kind of grow within our entire system. And like I said, you could talk about those two games. People outside of the program don't really know what kind of growth happened in the last nine months. And it started at probably about that time where we said, look, we're out and we're moving forward on the things that we've got to be able to do. And a lot of that had to do with some of these younger guys that, look, had an opportunity to get in there, led in the way that they do things, and have created some real roots and stability, I think, within our entire program, and it starts with the leadership.

1:21:27PFT Commenter:And I think the Washington game specifically, I think you kind of earned a little of your Badger pinstripes, so to speak. Did we complete one pass? I think our punter had the most passing yards. He was leading. Yeah, and it was like, damn, that's how you win a football game. You just throw it back 100 years and you pound the rock and play defense. Yeah, we did. And that's where some of that stuff started to grow. But people would say just the game. We see the results of what grew, but what really grew was the youth and the leadership and those moments. When people started to see the Mason Post and the Cooper Catalanos and even the Matt Young who was with us, these guys started to grow and take over from what some would have said were the leaders of their team, from the quarterback to maybe some older offensive line guys.

1:22:13And there was a takeover that really grew from within the program. Are you going to have Coach Gruden back again this year? If we can get him back over here. He was a little bit busier than he was a couple years ago. That's true. But I know when ball starts to roll, there's nothing he loves more than to get off probably that golf course that I see him on so often and get back into some fall camps. Now that we're on campus, the whole game over.

1:22:35PFT Commenter:Bringing him up to Madison, I mean, he loved the campus. He loved being there. I think you noticed it. I've told this story on the show, so I want to hear your perspective. But it was funny because we went out to practice, and you guys gave us a play sheet. And all of a sudden I'm looking. We're on the sideline, and I look up, and I'm like, where's Coach Gruden? He's basically in the huddle. He was like standing listening to – he had drifted all the way onto the field. He just loves football. Yeah, and I don't know – I didn't know him personally. Obviously I had a little bit of a connection being where he's from and going to the University of Dayton.

1:23:06And then he actually coached my brother-in-law in the NFL. And so there was this little connection of some sorts that he was his quarterback and things like that. So I had followed him from afar, had communicated with him a little bit. And I don't know that I expected him to be in the huddle. I think he was one step away from making the calls. Yes, yes. And maybe changing the protections, which he probably really wanted to do. But I wish you guys would have – I wish we had a little more time to maybe pick his brain even afterwards. words because I know his mind and the way that which it works and I would have loved to you know

1:23:37PFT Commenter:got some insight from him as well yeah how does uh how does Colton Joseph look so the and this is not making excuses because I'm a realistic Badger fan it hasn't gone great uh the last couple years we want to get back to winning but there is context in the fact that we've had some pretty bad injury luck when it comes to quarterbacks and losing them pretty early in the season every single year. Yeah, yeah. It's been tough, obviously, to get through. But the unique thing is, what we haven't had is a room, a quarterback room, that you would say, look, it's happened before to the Badgers, right? Whatever year a guy gets hurt, a quarterback in particular, and the next guy goes in, and good fortune for them, they handed it off to Ron Dane or Melvin Gordon or Monty Ball, and the quarterback maybe didn't have as big a role in some of those situations.

1:24:25Just didn't have the depth in that room. So when we have those injuries. I don't know that we could say the next guy was going to be in there and ready to roll. And Colton has done a great job, but the uniqueness to the quarterback room is where we feel really good about where we are because look, we're not looking for injuries. It's happened, but that room is a completely different room. Now we've got Colton who obviously is the leader. We've got Deuce Adams who is right behind him. We've got Ryan Hopkins. Who's a, who's a true freshman kid. That's nipping at their heels along with, you know, some guys that have started four or five six games already in the Big Ten there's a room that you know has created great competition which has continued to make everybody better that if by chance you know you have a guy that twists an ankle or breaks a shoestring we've got some guys that they don't quite know what Wally Pip is but you got to be careful because there's some guys who can go in there and take off really really well yeah we talked to uh coach Lane Kiffin we were down at LSU a couple months ago he was telling us about the SEC that before after the hot yoga that was It was right after.

1:25:26It was after. So you couldn't speak very well. We were burnt out. Because you didn't look great enough. Do you do high-yo stuff? What's that? Do you do it? What do you mean we didn't look great? What do you mean by that? Well, I didn't mean your body at all. I just meant like you looked a little flush. Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. Sunglasses make you a little better chance. Correct. I was worried about you.

1:25:42PFT Commenter:He's right on both accounts. We didn't look great physically or like what we – our bodies looked bad and we felt bad. And mentally bad, spiritually bad, across the board, just bad, just pain everywhere. But we were talking about the SEC coaches group chat that they have. Apparently they've got two group chats, one from the commissioner, where they give out official instructions to all the coaches, and then the other, which is more the horseplay group chat, that I feel like Lane Kiffin starts, and he's probably the main poster in that. I'm curious, do you have a Big Ten coaches group chat? I think we do in general, just for information.

1:26:18I don't know that there's a whole hell of a lot of group chatting going on. And I actually just apologized to Brett Bielema for, you know, he's kind of the lead of it because he's on the AFCA and he does all the rules committees and he always sends out the updates and everybody gives him a little something back. Like, oh, I appreciate all your work. I'm like, hey, I don't ever respond in the damn group chat. Oh, you got it. Just in case you're wondering.

1:26:38PFT Commenter:You got to start sending memes. You got to get active. You got to let people know you're there. Yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't know. I guess when you're looking for new friends, maybe that's a way to go about it. We got some files on Bielema and Shiano, know some old pictures of them that you might want to just like repost in there just you know you don't have to add any commentary it's just like hey here's here's i don't know if i get a ghost number in there or something yeah he's wearing that shirt that would add some color and some life to our group chat because i i was looking through the list of coaches when we were coming over here for media day and uh there's not a lot of nonsense in the big 10 i would say it's like the most no nonsense uh group of coaches uh but really really good coaches yeah so like which Which ones, if you're looking out across the landscape of the league, which ones do you look at and you admire, you have respect for?

1:27:22Like you've been in this game a long time. Is there a guy in the league that you look at and you say, that's how I want to run a program? Well, unfortunately, they beat us the last three years and coached Ferentz at Iowa. But from the time when I first got into coaching, had always studied a lot of their defensive stuff, but just have always admired the way in which they've gone about, the things that they've done, the consistency that he has had and they've had. There's no doubt. Look, I grew up as an Iowa fan. Now I grew up as an Iowa wrestling fan. So there was a piece of me that when I was a little kid that ran that stadium, when I was out at the national wrestling tournament, like the sixth grade watching the NCAA wrestling tournament there, that there was a piece that I always kind of admired about what it is that they had done from the wrestling side.

1:28:05So I'd always followed him and what they had done from the football side as well.

1:28:10PFT Commenter:Do you have any relationship with Ryan Day? Not much. I mean, obviously there's a connection just with some of the things. I mean, from people that are on their staff to family that live around there. But you know what? Maybe it's just me, but it's really tough in our landscape of college football. I don't know how the SEC guys do it, but they joke. Maybe they all work together at one point in time. But to have much of a connection with each other, because with a lack of rules, it makes it difficult. The SEC is different because it's like everyone was saved by Nick Saban at some point. You know what I mean?

1:28:46PFT Commenter:And they all basically went to Alabama when they were on the outs. So I guess my follow-up question to Ryan Day doesn't make sense. It's like, did you see the picture of him with the nipple ring that wasn't real? But we like, wait a second. Was that from you guys? No, I don't know. We don't know where it came. Somebody did a Photoshop. If I'm being honest, I thought it was real. I thought it was real too. I thought it was real for a second. And he kind of seems like a nipple ring guy. That's not like a, listen, everyone should have their own thing. Yeah, right. Live and let live. But yeah, nipple ring guy, for sure.

1:29:14I don't know that I would have envisioned that. And I'm probably best off that I don't see that picture. Yeah, it's like Dan Lanning.

1:29:20PFT Commenter:I'll show it to you. I'll show it to you. Yeah, you should take a look at it. I thought it was real nonsense. If you would have said like that was from Grable or something, that I would have been 100%. Yes, I could see that. There's nipple ring guys out there. Let's see. Here you go. Yeah, what do you think about this? It was very clearly Photoshopped. We want that on the record. For a moment there, the world was like, that's a nipple ring. That's a big-time nipple ring. They do have undershirts nowadays. That's true. Oh, speaking of what we're wearing, what are we doing with the vest? Because the vest, when you covered up the vest, we started winning a couple games.

1:29:53PFT Commenter:I don't know. I'm going to leave that to my daughter as I get back from this stuff. She's back home now for a little bit, and she kind of maybe will give me some suggestions. This is a real conversation in the Badger fan base of the vest. Well, maybe I need to think. I had not thought of a whole lot about it. Here's the thing. I think when it's not going well, the vest looks fucking ridiculous. Okay? But when it's going well, it can work. So I think it's like maybe something you just keep on the sideline until we start stacking some wins, and then you can maybe bring it back out. But, you know, trying to be as consistent as you can possibly be to say that I would switch up, not saying I don't do the vest, but to say, hey, when we start winning, then I'll throw something back on.

1:30:34Like, whatever we go with, we're going to go with it. You don't think that's going to motivate the guys? Be like, hey, guys, if you win two games in a row, I'm going to win the vest. Or just go with the nipple ring.

1:30:43PFT Commenter:That also was me being nice. I really just want you to get rid of the vest. Just get rid of the vest. Let's just get rid of the vest and play responsibly. I don't see you as a guy that beats around the bush. I don't know why you just didn't freaking come out and just say, get rid of the freaking vest. Yeah, just get rid of the vest, and then we win games. When was the last time you wrestled someone? Oh, God. That's a good question. Thank you. Well, actually, I don't want to get into it. I was wrestling in the pool with my kids the other day. Okay. And they're getting to the age now where they're 19, and I finally realized, like, holy shit.

1:31:15They have some strength.

1:31:16PFT Commenter:Yeah. I can't do this anymore. I always thought, yeah, look, if you've got wrestling powers, it supersedes damn near anything else. And there's a point in time when I'm not sure that that supersedes it. So I had some realization about four or five days ago that, holy shit, 50 is coming fast. It's upon me. And the youth is a hell of a lot further along. That's when you got to start cheating. Well, no, no, no. Let me just tell you now. When I'm talking about cheating, like five on two at least four or five times was the only saving grace I had. If you haven't been a wrestler, I'm not sure you know what five on two is.

1:31:51No. No, I can tell by your eyes. Yeah, yeah, no. That's a complete grip of the balls. Okay, there we go. I got it. Five on two. Now I get it. That's a full grip on the nuts. That makes sense. And that was about the only way that I was.

1:32:03PFT Commenter:I was like, how many people in your family were wrestling in the pool for five on two? All right. Now that makes sense. No, no. Okay. So, all right. But you could still take another man down. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's something that you don't lose. No, you don't. But like the strength of things you start to recognize. Like after about 15 minutes of this pool basketball wrestling, like there was, I didn't look quite as bad as you guys did after that. hot yoga so i don't know how long that was how many times did you watch this hot yoga video was there a video because i would not have watched it was a video the video was tough it was very tough longevity over time i feel bad for all the people in the room because it was like we just showed up to their routine hot yoga and we were just absolute nothings on the on the back line is wisconsin a big hot yoga state would you say that there's a lot of people that do yoga i don't know that i would say that there is there's everywhere but no i i don't know i would say that Have you thought about how important the opening game is, not just for Wisconsin, but for America?

1:33:03I don't know if I've thought about it for America. That's a lot. Yeah, for America, because I feel like if you don't beat Notre Dame, they're probably going to go undefeated. They'll probably end up being the one seed. And Big Cat's got a lot on the line, too. Made a bet with Larry Fitzgerald in regards to that game. But playing at Lambeau Field should be pretty fun. What do you expect? It's going to be a home environment, I would think, but probably a lot of Notre Dame fans. Now it's a home game for them, but I don't know. Is it really? You guys are probably a better idea when they did this next amount of years ago.

1:33:30Soldier Field was the first game.

1:33:32PFT Commenter:Was it pretty neutral? It was about 50-50. I was at that game, and then it was delayed like a couple times because I think COVID and everything. So, yeah. This one, I mean, Notre Dame travels, and it's not a far travel for them. So it will be probably a split travel. I'd be curious to see what the environment. I would imagine it would be pretty balanced 50-50. But you know how that goes, right? I mean, the success makes it a hell of a lot louder. Like we've been there at that stadium before with maybe a quarter of the people and hurt them really well. What's the rhythm in terms of getting ready and game planning for that game?

1:34:09Since you have so long to prepare for it. I've always wondered about like week zero, week one. Do coaches spend the offseason trying to prepare for that game? We do. We do. And I think it's a unique situation, obviously. A lot of times what we have done in the past is you open up probably not with a game like this. So your first game or two is, you know, we don't get preseasons, but sometimes it's opening up with, you know, somebody outside of a major conference. When you open up like this, I think that it does take a different toll as you go into fall camp. So we will have to be a little bit different.

1:34:41Not that you can't start too soon. And that's not that there isn't this idea of, hey, we're training for. But if you start working like in a bowl game of some sorts, you know, two and a half weeks beforehand on the same team, you can get bored. And the last thing we want to be able to do is to get bored. So we've got a lot of growth that we have to do through fall camp, but it'll definitely be a little bit different as we get to that two weeks out that we know we've got to be able to play really, really well to start the season.

1:35:06PFT Commenter:When you bring in so many transfers, I think we have 33 transfers this year, something like that. Somewhere right around there. Is there a specific plan of how do we get these guys to buy into a certain way? You have a bunch of guys who haven't been – because it's so different than it was 10 years ago. It is. And I would tell you this, that like every year I would say in every other team, like when you bring guys in, because everybody's going to bring guys in the transfer portal. I shouldn't say everybody. Some, whether it's, it's five guys or it's 30 guys like us. I think the uniqueness is, is what are you bringing them in for?

1:35:38Well, we know you're bringing them into play, but there's a difference, right? I mean, in the, in the years past, we had maybe brought in one or two guys, three guys, the most that you would said, Hey, these guys were envisioning as starters. So you want somebody that was just kind of coming in to be a part of what it is you're doing. Maybe they're coming from a smaller division. Maybe they've, you know, I don't know, not that everybody doesn't expect to start. The unique thing this year is we're bringing in, you know, as we went out there, we were bringing in guys like, look, we need like eight to 10 possible starters, which is a unique situation.

1:36:07But the thing that gave us an opportunity to be able to do this outside of the investment was these roots that really started growing, as we talked about, about nine months ago in that midway through the season where this youth really took over. And so for me and for us, not worrying about bringing in a guy that's been a two-year starter from Missouri is how's he really going to fit? Is he going to buy in and believe in the things that we're doing when he hasn't been able to see the success on the field? We didn't have to worry about that because of the leadership that we hadn't had in the first three years.

1:36:38It is a hell of a lot different right now.

1:36:39PFT Commenter:Yeah, and I also saw in that article, you know, it talked about how maybe a recommitment to in-state recruiting. Because, you know, I'm paraphrasing. I don't think I'm getting the quote exactly right. But Barry Alvarez, when he took over the program, basically said there's a lot of fat people in Wisconsin. Let's keep them here. And let's let them block a running back. But, like, is that something that you said, hey, I tried to do it a little bit different when I got here. Now I got to realize, hey, there is a history to this program that has worked through the years and use that to my advantage instead of trying to do something different.

1:37:11So the easy thing to say is yes. The tougher thing to say is there's been slight changes over the landscape of even just three years of what the philosophy continues to grow to be in recruiting. Just the landscape has changed. I can honestly tell you from the time I walked in the door, it was we have to do our best job in the state. Now, what you have to determine is how many of these guys within the state do you believe have the potential to win in a league that's gone to 18 teams, to win in a league that's won the last three national titles. And so some of that, like I said, we had to grow as well as recognizing what can and will be successful as we grow.

1:37:47And again, we have wanted to recruit the state. We haven't done as good a job in the first three years with losing a few guys that went other places. so it wasn't like hey we're going to wholesale change what we're doing but we have to do a hell of a lot better job and so there's a part of those things getting on guys earlier and I think the other part it's a really good year in the state in particular with some big guys too that like you said Coach Alvarez that there are big guys or what did you say fat guys?

1:38:14PFT Commenter:Fat guys. A lot of fat people in Wisconsin. Well you're the cheese curse. But there's some big guys in the state that we know through time and development can be what we need to win this league. And so there's been a little bit of both. It's not just a wholesale change. It's a great year. There's some investment in things that really help you in the recruiting side of things, but also the idea that these guys within the state have seen some of this growth that I don't know that everybody else has seen. Do you take any pride in the conference winning the past three national championships? Because a lot of fans sometimes will be like, yeah, Big Ten, best conference in the league, especially if they have a down year for their team that they root for.

1:38:51They like to talk about how good the other schools are. Do you take any – is there anything like that that crosses your mind? There's no doubt. I mean, like, look, I grew up as a Big Ten guy. I grew up in Big Ten country. And so I take incredible pride in that. Now, you can hide behind that because a lot of people use that against you. Like, oh, yeah, you've got to ride the coattails with all these other son of bitches that have won. Yeah. But the truth of the matter is, look, this is who we are. This is what we compete with. Okay? And if we're going to win, we might as well win as a conference.

1:39:14Now, it doesn't mean I'm happy that somebody else has won. Okay? Because that's just not the way I'm built. But there's a part of – you're damn right. We want this conference to continue to dominate like it has. And we also know that a lot of us got to hold up our ends and parts of this too because the one thing that we don't have, and I'm just going to point it out, is we don't think we have the balance that maybe they've had that they're claiming they have more in the SEC. And I think that that's where you're going to see some of this growth even from us and from this league become even better.

1:39:41PFT Commenter:Yeah. All right, Coach, this has been awesome. I got one last question. It's going to be Zach's question. Roback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Promo code TAKE, 20 % off your first purchase. q-zips polos hoodies joggers shorts rowback.com promo code take all right zach move in a little closer here we go zach back back a lot of coaches a lot of teachers a lot of coaches in here so we did have a quick question sir i appreciate your time today i did see from time to time you do get into a little bit of bow fishing and i was wondering if it's ever crossed your mind like maybe take some of the guys out for like a team building or team chemistry exercise yeah we actually we tried to do that um we were going to take the big guys out there Bow fishing.

1:40:19So, you know, if you've ever done it, there's obviously some unique, like you have to time it up pretty well. So this past year when we went, it was about 32 degrees that night. And we didn't have a bunch of guys that were wanting to go out there and bow fish. We actually had somebody fall in the water that night as well. But we have, we brought it up and we tried to get some of our big guys to go out there and do that.

1:40:42PFT Commenter:Zach, do you bow fish? I do not. I do have one more bow fishing question. That's okay. when it comes to your low. Have you ever done bow fishing? No. If you like, I'm not a big fan. I would bow fish a hell of a lot all the time more than I would ever fish. You can see it. I stink, but it's a hell of a lot more fun. How does that work? Because when you're aiming at the fish, it's different, right? The fish isn't where you see it through the water. Yeah, it's a refract. I mean, you've got to hit and hope. It's kind of like my golf game. But you would think that the fish aren't moving. You're just going to pull up on them, and they're just like, no, no, no.

1:41:13They're moving now. I mean, yeah. Yeah, it's the most dangerous game. All right, go ahead. That speaks to you having a good eye. I would say, I was curious about your loadout. Are you going to recurve build or compound? Now you're really good. I have no idea what the hell that means.

1:41:26PFT Commenter:This is what Zach does to people. So he doesn't do the things, but he just, like, he learns all about it. Yeah, I have no idea what the hell that means because I'm not a hunter. Like, he doesn't golf, but he could tell you what shaft you need on your driver. I did see you were going compounding your most recent trip. something to check out is the recurve. I was just going to throw it out there for you. What's the difference, Zach? Distribution of load management. So the way you pull back... I can't even shoot that thing, let alone know the distribution. He's never been bow fishing. I'm left-handed.

1:41:56Does that matter? Because I don't know that they had a left-handed bow. Does that matter? Great question. Not sure. Oh, you don't know? I stuck to. 100%. All right. You better do some homework on that. Which one did the guy from the Odyssey have? I haven't seen the Odyssey, but I can double check for you. Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because nobody can strike his bow. When you catch carp nami, you're talking 35, 40, 45 pounds. It's fun. And then I saw you were also. I don't pick up. You were water skiing. Was that the same trip? That was wake surfing. Wake surfing. Yeah, if you guys would come and do a little.

1:42:27Yeah, we could wake surf. We tried. Bar class in Madison. We could take you out and do some wake surfing too. Yeah, yeah, we could do it. We tried that one time out in Tahoe. Yeah, we didn't get up. No one got up. None of us got up. Yeah. That's not a good sign for athletes. You sauce the high yoga. I'm about to get it up guy. Yeah, yeah. What can I say? There's medication for that.

1:42:43PFT Commenter:Well, Coach, thank you so much for stopping by. I'm excited for this season. I think we're going to turn some things around, so appreciate it. Yeah, right. No vest. Nope. All right, got that. One vote. Luke Fickle is brought to you by Mountain Dew. Summer's coming. I can't wait to get back to Camp Barstool. Nothing goes better with the summertime and hanging with your friends than the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew. Dew was proudly born in the foothills of Tennessee. Enjoy the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew. It is an American original Mountain Dew. It's the best. And now here is USC head coach, Lincoln Riley.

1:43:21PFT Commenter:Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is head coach of USC, Lincoln Riley. Coach, great to see you. Let's start with this. Year five, are you normalized with the Big Ten yet? Big boy football. We are. We are. It's been a fun transition, I think, for us, especially in the middle of a million other things changing in college football, right? You know, like the Big Ten on its own in any era, you know, anytime you change conferences, it's a big deal. But obviously a lot going on. But it's a fun league, man. Yeah. It really is. I mean, it's, you know, I know traditionalists, you know, some people, you know, have different thoughts about, you know, how these leagues have come together.

1:44:06And we'll see how long, right, all this happens. I mean, hell, this may all blow up next week, right? We never know. But I think one of the cool things that's come about it is, I mean, it's truly a national league, right? Coast to coast. And then some of the new rivalries and matchups that have come out of this. Absolutely. I mean, that to me is my favorite part about the league. I mean, you think about all the old great Rose Bowl matchups from years past, and now you're getting those every week, right? And I mean, how awesome is that? So I think it's a hell of a league. Obviously, the success of the league is well documented here over the last few years.

1:44:42And I just – the way it's going right now, I don't see that slowing down.

1:44:45PFT Commenter:So are you intimidated at all still by like a Brett Bielema, bigger guys, you know, like meat and potatoes? Like have you thought about getting fat? Huh? Have you thought about getting fat? You know what? Is it a prerequisite to that? I don't know. I mean, it might help. It might help. Whatever it takes, right? What do they say? It takes what it takes, right? There we go. That would be great if your offseason program was like, I'm going to get fat. Like, that's just what I'm going to do. I don't think it's possible to get fat at USC, though. I feel like the food there is too healthy. That's right.

1:45:12That's right. I have to go back to my roots. I have to go back to Texas to get that done. That's right. Can we talk about the brisket? How's the brisket looking? Fantastic. Did you know that when you posted that online, people were going to be like, that's a dry-ass brisket? You know, I didn't. It's actually one of my favorite stories. So I'm not a great cook, but I'm a decent cook. And I know I'll probably get roasted for saying this right here, and that's fine. I don't give a shit. All right. But I think we had so we had a bunch of guys over our strength coach at the time, this and that. So my buddy had been telling me about doing this brisket.

1:45:46And my buddy is a phenomenal cook, like phenomenal. And he'd been talking to me about doing this brisket and doing doing it in a Worcestershire bath. OK. Right. So and I love Worcestershire on anything. All right. So I do this, have this brisket. brisket's phenomenal but it rips all the pink out of it because it soaks in this bath right so when i take the picture i'm not thinking anything of it because the brisket was really really good and people say no it wasn't they weren't there yes it was um but but i'm not a brisket like aficionado so i don't have the pink right there on it because the smoke ring's gone because the worcestershire bath obviously the dark liquid it's a goner and that's how that's how the whole thing came about that's a great story honestly like you move up a notch in my book because you could have thrown that guy under the bus immediately.

1:46:34You know what we need to do in the offseason? Here's what we need to do. You boys need to come out to L.A. You can come sit on the back patio with me. I'll cook it up for you, and I'll let you be the judge for the world. What do you think?

1:46:45PFT Commenter:We're absolutely in. I'm always in. But did you learn a lesson? Never post your meat on the internet. It's always going to end up bad. It doesn't matter. You can try to get the right angles at times. When you put it that way, it hits a little different. That's the thing, though. Even if it was a perfect-looking brisket, somebody would have had a problem with it. Always. They would have zoomed in on one part. In my world, that's the nature of the beast. It was a very gray brisket. So when you went back and you looked at the picture. It was. I can see where that came from. You guys had a point. Yeah, I can see where it came from.

1:47:14Bad moot. My bad.

1:47:16PFT Commenter:Do you consider yourself a QB whisperer or a QB guru? I don't consider myself either one. Well, you are. Definitely one. I mean, I don't know what you want to say, but obviously it speaks for itself. Your resume is insane. Like the guys that are starting in the NFL, how does that work when you have a guy like Jordan who's now going into his second year starting? It's like, hey, if you follow me, like you can see it. You know, Caleb, Kyler, Baker, like all these guys, I've been there for them. And we've gotten to the point that they've made a lot of money and been very successful. Yeah, I mean, I think the path and the track record and them being able to see how that could evolve and kind of envisioning themselves, that's helped us in ways, right?

1:48:02It's helped us recruit guys. Obviously, it's helped the confidence when somebody comes in that, hey, we know what this looks like a little bit and that we have a plan for you. So, yeah, I mean, is it a factor there? Of course it is. And, yeah, I'm proud as hell to see all those guys doing what they're doing in the NFL. And Caleb right here in Chicago, obviously, you know, doing his thing. and that's been great. And Jaden, I think, will be one of the next great ones. But, you know, football is still football, man. Like, people want to say, oh, it's a quarterback or, you know, you've coached these guys.

1:48:32Man, like, there was every single one of those guys, I was a part of a big staff, right? Every single one of those guys, it took the rest of the team being successful. The team's not successful. Nobody's talking about a quarterback. And so, yeah, there's been a lot to it. We've been fortunate to have some really good ones, and we've got a system of how we recruit, evaluate, and develop that we believe in. And so far, it's paid dividends for us. Yeah, that's a great answer. Unfortunately, you didn't ask Big Cat's first question. And I actually wrote down the exact same question bar for bar. Are you a quarterback whisperer or a quarterback guru?

1:49:02Yeah. What's the difference? Well, I figured you would know. Well, you asked the question. Are you a whisperer? I don't really whisper.

1:49:09PFT Commenter:I think you're a guru. A whisperer to me is like a guy who gets a quarterback who maybe is not great, and then you whisper in their ear, and you're like, you can be great. And then they're great. You guru them. Like a quarterback that is already really good. Right. And then you come in and you guide them on the path to stardom. That's fair. So a guru, I think you'd rather be a guru. A whisperer sounds like maybe like a career offensive coordinator. Yes, that's fair. You bring him in to fix something. And you mentioned Baker. I'm curious because we've gotten the opportunity to meet Baker a few times over the years.

1:49:42Yeah. And he's a great dude. That wasn't any fun. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say, like, how long did it take for you to figure out what makes this guy tick? Because he operates like he always has a chip on it. Like he's always a little bit pissed off about something. Not long, man. We hit it off quick. I didn't know him when I came into OU, but we had a lot of similarities, obviously, both from the state of Texas. There are some things in our background that I think we were able to relate with each other pretty quick. His football mind is really, really good. And then he's obviously, you know, he's got a pretty sharp tongue, man.

1:50:16I mean, his wit in the room on the field, I mean, everybody sees it. He's kind of unapologetically himself all the time. And I'm that way in the meeting room as well. And so, yeah, we hit it off quick, man. I'll tell you one thing about Bay, kind of people with the Netflix show out and all that right now. I've seen, you know, everybody sees him talking trash and this and that. But I was telling somebody the other day, like, I think some people think it's for show. Like, it's not. Most guys, you try to get them in the right mindset or kind of mental frame of playing their best, right? Most guys, it's like, hey, don't focus on anything else.

1:50:54Just play. Don't worry about the outside noise, this and that. Baker's a few guys I've coached complete opposite. He is way better when there is something on the other side that he's competing against that he hates. Like, he just is. And it just, it's interesting. He's like fires him up. It also like focuses him in even more, which is typically not the case. Typically, people get fired up and then mentally they're all over the place. This guy has a unique ability to get himself like to the highest point of just juiced up, but then able to process and function at a high level. And he's smart enough to realize like, hey, this is what gets me going.

1:51:31So even if that narrative is not there, like I'm going to find a way to hate something on the other side. Like, it's pretty masterful how he does it.

1:51:40PFT Commenter:Yeah, he's a dude. He's a dude. All right, so we pride ourselves as being football guys, guys. You're a football guy. One of our favorite football guys of all time was Mike Leach, RIP. We were lucky enough to have him on the show. Just an all-time football guy. His fingerprints are all over college football. What did you learn from Coach Leach? And was there a moment where you're like, this guy's a little crazy, but I like him? Yeah, like every day. Yeah. Yeah, it was like a culture shock for me when I first went in there, man. I was new to college football. And then, you know, you kind of have in your mind what you think college football is going to be like or what a college football head coach is going to be like.

1:52:18And you get around Mike and you're like, what the hell is going on? You're like, this is crazy. But there was a method to the madness, man. And there was kind of a, you know, it just it worked. And sometimes I even look back now, I'm like, how the hell did any of this even work? But, man, it did. And, yeah, I mean, I learned a lot from him. I think a couple of the things that I've taken is, number one, I thought he was an elite at hiring people, which is obviously pretty central to what we do. And the best quality he had in hiring people is he didn't give a damn what anybody thought about who he hired.

1:52:51And it's amazing how many people just want to win a press conference, right? Just want to hire a big name to justify this why we did it. He's hiring people. And at that point, he didn't have the credibility built up at Tech. So he's hiring people and all the Texas Tech people like, what are you doing? Like, you can't hire, you know, Dana Holgerson from Iowa Wesleyan or all these, like, people, right? He hired me when I was, like, 23 years old. Like, everybody's like, what the hell are you doing? But, like, he didn't care. Like, he just, like, I know these people can get the job done. That's what I'm doing.

1:53:20And you look at his tree now, right? Like, you talked about his influence. A lot of people, like, I think the outside world thinks about, well, it's that way because of the offense. Honestly, I think obviously the offense is a factor. I think it's way more that because he was unbelievable at hiring people and seeing talent. The other great thing, and you guys probably saw this, he would talk to anybody. And so the people he met, the questions he would ask, he would find like diamonds in the rough all the time because he would just take the time to talk to somebody where somebody else might shake their hand and just walk on.

1:53:56I got a better way to spend my time. And it was kind of a unique combination, but I think it made him one of the best hirers of people probably in college football history. Yeah. What was your experience like a walk-on there? You know, it was awesome, honestly. He was great. It was fun being in the quarterback room with him. I've told one of my favorite Leach stories is my very first meeting, spring ball. So, man, I walk in. I'm like, we're getting ready to practice in like an hour and a half, right? I got my notepad. I'm like, man, I made it. I'm here at college football. like first meeting you know what that feels like it's just a big moment so i walk in the meeting room we sit down he has a he has a can of copenhagen and so he you know pops a can takes a dip and i'm like i've told people i'm i'm from milshue texas like i've seen i've seen a lot of dip i've seen a lot of people can dip i've seen a lot of people take big dips you know this dip was so big that there was copenhagen all in his face and he he had trouble like getting out like big words There was so much dip in his mouth.

1:54:57So he starts talking about, do you guys know how dip's made? We're like, no. He goes on about a 10-minute tangent about how it's made. Well, do you know that it has like little fiberglass in there and it like cuts your lip? Now it's getting your bloodstream. And, you know, you drink green tea and lemon when your lip gets like really raw. I mean, he goes an hour and a half on dip. So somebody comes and knocks on the door. I'm like, Coach, we're starting practicing 10 minutes. He's like, all right, y 'all better get out there. I'm like, we have not learned a damn thing. Like not one thing. And I'm like, I'm looking at the other quarterbacks that were in the room who had been there.

1:55:28I'm like, what the hell do I do? I'm like, just come on out here. We'll show up. It sounds like you did learn a couple of things about that. I did. You just taught us about that. I was an expert on depth when I walked out of there. I didn't know anything about playing quarterback, but I was an expert on depth. So how did that go when it was time for you to start thinking about being a coach? Was that something that you saw being your future when you walked on that? Yeah, I knew I wanted to coach at that point. I was kind of gearing myself up preparing to be a high school coach and then he kind of unexpectedly came to me one summer and was like hey you could compete to be the third quarterback this year or I really have this kind of opening I've been a head coach here for a while and I really would like to have kind of an understudy essentially that could help with the young QBs and do all this and that and you've picked it up fast I think you'd be good at it so just let me know what you want to do And it kind of – I wasn't expecting that at all, but it was kind of like that moment where, like, I want to coach.

1:56:25I'll probably never get an opportunity like this again, so I did it. And the rest was history.

1:56:30PFT Commenter:I remember when we had him on, he told us something that has stuck with me since where it's like, listen, arm strength is fine and you want arm strength, but accuracy is something you can't teach. You either have it or you don't. Do you scout guys? When you're looking at high school guys or guys that are coming up, you're like, hey, this is what we need from you. We need accuracy first, and everything else can come after. 100%. Now, I think there were some metrics on how we recruited QBs that allowed us to hit on some of the guys we did. Now, especially the last two places I've been at, I mean, you're recruiting a different level of QB, but honestly it's still a lot of the same things that we look for.

1:57:05And, again, it's almost like the hiring process, right? People fall in love with the big name. They want to hire them. What do people a lot of times do with quarterbacks? They fall in love with the big arm, with the gaudy stats, right, with the freak athlete versus the guy that just wins and gets completions and moves the football. And Mike had like a real clear picture of being able to filter out the stuff that didn't matter and stay focused on that. I think that's why the run of quarterbacks there, even though we couldn't recruit the cream of the crop, they were all like really, really productive guys.

1:57:36PFT Commenter:Yeah. All right. I got a tough question for you. I guarantee it's probably not going to be asked in the traditional media. And listen, I understand coaches, you've got to block out the noise. That's a big thing. Stinking Riley is a nickname. That's got to hurt a little bit. Like, that's got to hurt a little bit. I'm not saying that you're like, obviously, you know, you can push it to the side. But, like, when that first dropped, you're like, God damn it. That's a pretty good one. Like, it's a good one. It is good. Yeah. It hurts. You have to tip your cap every now and then. You're like, you got me.

1:58:06Like, I can't do anything about it. 100 % plus I've been called way, way worse than that. So that's, like, kind of right there in the middle. So, no, I always, even on the road, if there's like an elite fan that just like talks shit really well, you know what I mean? I'm like, hey, yeah, you've got to appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, I love it. You've got to tip your cap. In fairness, that's a pretty wholesome nickname, too. I think so, too. It could be a lot worse than stinking. The internet does way worse stuff to coaches on the daily basis. Actually, I don't know if you saw last year the Photoshop somebody made of Ryan Day.

1:58:34Did that cross your desk? I don't think it did. Can I just get your reaction? You've got to Photoshop a nipple ring. Yeah, does he have a nipple ring? Yeah, we would say. As far as you know, he doesn't? We don't share a locker room, but I'm going to guess no.

1:58:46PFT Commenter:But it looks real. We thought it was real. It looks real, right? And he might be a guy who would have a nipple ring. It's fake, but it looks real. Zach, get up here for the last question. This has been so much fun, Coach. We appreciate it. We're going to take you up on your offer to come. Come on. Because we're actually good friends with Coach Musselman. So we came out for a practice a couple years ago. Had a great time with him. Come on out. All right, rollback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Promo code TAKE. 20 % off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com. Zach, take it away.

1:59:15How are we doing today, Coach? Doing well. That's great to hear. I did have a quick question. When it comes to the recruiting process and this new era of college football, what's one character trait you look for in a player that other coaches may pass over where you see and you're just kind of like, oh, this guy could be a good fit for the program. We need him at USC. I mean, it's a good question. Good question. I think when you're talking about the modern era, I think what's kind of interesting is like I think the outside world is still coming to terms with like we pay players now.

1:59:44PFT Commenter:Right. Like I think there's parts of like, oh, it's OK. And part of like, oh, we didn't pay him before. Like, why is it like this? One of the things I've actually liked about that as it's gone on, it's like another way to evaluate guys. Right. Like it's like another like metric, if you will. Right. Because you're always looking for, you know, what's their family life like? Like, you know, what type of student are they, right? The athletic traits, you know, injury history. You're trying to find, like, every metric on these guys that you can to figure out who they are. Because you're not, you're really not around them that much, right?

2:00:16Like, this whole thing has, like, added a whole other level to, like, I think allows you to evaluate people, right? Like, what do they really value, right? Like, what are they really after here? You know, how do they handle, you know, something business related like this? So, I think that's actually helped us. You know, I would say, and then to answer it maybe more directly, I think at SC it's different, right? Like it's not just recruiting players. It's like recruiting players are going to work at your place, you know, depending on what your place is like. Our place is very unique. And I think finding guys that fit like academically there, fit socially there, within the campus that fit in, you know, a program where there's a lot of lights and everybody's going to be watching and have an opinion on every single thing that happens there.

2:01:00Like you've got to find the right type of guys. And so, yeah, we've dug into it. I think as we've been at SC longer, we've been able to figure out, I think, more and more what fits there. And I think that's a big reason why we've recruited so well the last two years.

2:01:11PFT Commenter:Good job, Zach. Well, Coach, thank you so much for stopping by. Think about getting fat. Yeah. Just a thought. Just a thought. It'd be fun. We'll start with the brisket. Yeah, right. Like a quick 150 pounds in the offseason would be so funny. I think it'd make the visor look good, too. Yeah, I don't think my wife would be real happy, though. You get the top folding out over top of the visor. Yeah. Bottom, yeah. It's a straight big town. Yeah. Yeah. But coach, thank you so much for stopping by and best of luck this year. Enjoyed it, man. That was fun. Lincoln Riley is brought to you by Cuervo. Cuervo, devil's reserve is pineapple jalapeno infused tequila.

2:01:48It's like a spicy marg in a bottle. Smooth and delicious. Devil's reserve is the perfect drink for when mischief is on the menu. Available in multiple sizes, including 50 millimeter shooters. perfect to bring to your party or your tailgate. It's time to listen to the little devil on your shoulder. Pour a round of shots. Get ready to raise a little hell. Go to your local liquor store or go to Cuervo.com. Purchase your own bottle of Devil's Reserve and raise a little hell. Please drink responsibly with Cuervo. And now here is Greg Schiano.

2:02:20PFT Commenter:Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is head coach Greg Schiano from Rutgers. Coach, how are we feeling? We're at Big Ten Media Day. I assume you don't love doing these, you know, Big Ten Media Day stuff. You probably want to be coach of football, but how are we feeling? Feeling great because it means we're getting close. Yes. Another week and away we go. Yeah. Yeah. So you got training camp starts in a week. when you start training camp, can you feel like the energy off the field and the guys where it's like you can close your eyes and hear the pads cracking and football's back?

2:02:58PFT Commenter:Can you feel it right away where you're like, we're ready to go? Yeah, you do. And it's the only time of year really where you get them all to yourself. No classes, no girlfriends, no families, just us in the building, just grinding away. And that's where your team really – summer's important, no doubt, because it's the player-led stuff, but training camp's where it all comes together. I've been a fan of yours for years. I've been interested in the lexicon behind the Shiano Man. So can you explain to us, what is a Shiano Man? All right, Shiano Man. Stand-up guy, going to be a great father, great husband, do some important things.

2:03:36But I got a bone to pick with you guys. I've been waiting for the residuals on the Shiano Man. I haven't seen a scent. Oh, you haven't seen a scent?

2:03:43PFT Commenter:What's up with that, man? You like it, right? I love it, but I got to get paid now. Sing us a song. You're the Sheano man. Sing us a song tonight. Honestly, it's a banger. You're correct about that part. But when I first heard, like, you're always looking for a Sheano man, I was like, I need to find out exactly. It might just be like, you know when you see it. It might be like, do you think that there's a difference between a Sheano man and then somebody else who might be a really good football player but wouldn't fit into what you need? Yeah. Yeah, because I don't like jerks. Yeah. You know, I kind of like guys that love football and want to want to do it.

2:04:16And yeah, I don't have any problem with guys that get all the catchings of football as long as they love football. If they love the catchings more than the football itself. Those are my guys. You got to have a football player that loves to play football. You got that guy that'll keep chopping. Right. That's it. Can you explain to us the origin of the chop? Because I think it's a fascinating story because we almost we almost lost the chop before it even got started. Right. Yeah. The chop was on the on the verge of extinction. No doubt about it. I heard it in 99 at Miami. Dr. Kevin Elko told our staff.

2:04:46We never used it. Went away dormant for six years. We go out to Illinois, open up in 2005. We're winning 28-7. We had a great summer. Got a good young team. Illinois comes back and beats us 31-28. It's year five. Haven't been to a bowl game yet. So, uh-oh. And I'm flying home on the plane and watching the tape, and I'm not really seeing a thing, right? I'm just thinking, how am I going to get this team back? You know, I told them, you work hard. We're going to go out there. And it came to my mind that meeting six years ago. And it was Kevin Elko told the story. There's a guy in the woods. Trees are thick.

2:05:18It's freezing cold. And he's got a choice. He can lay down and die or pick up the ax and pick a tree and just start hitting it. One falls, move on to the next and just keep going down the line. And I called the GA up to the front. Hey, look, when we land, you got to go get an ax. Go down to the hardware store, get an ax, bring it to the machine shop on campus. Get him to paint it red. I need it by 2 o 'clock for our team meeting. So what do you think when the team's sitting there after losing a three-touchdown lead and in walks this crazy Italian with a red axe, freshly painted? They were scared.

2:05:50Yeah. And I talked to them about it. And sure enough, we play Villanova the next week, the Division I AA team back in the day. And they had a good football team. And first play of the game, our left guard jumps off sides. And I said, oh, no. And then I see Pedro Sosa, who was our left tackle, who played in the NFL for a few years. He walks up in the guy's face and goes, and the rest is history. You want to beat him like, I don't know, 45 to 6 or something like that. That became our deal, man, chopping. I like it. I can tell that you practice the chop. You have a really good chop just hand on hand.

2:06:22Right on the spot. Have you ever hurt yourself?

2:06:24PFT Commenter:Never. Okay. Maybe a little bruised. Yeah, I was going to say. Maybe a little bruised. There's definitely a time where you've been like, ooh, that was a little too much chop. You can't show the guys. You can overchop. There's no doubt. You can definitely overchop. You'd rather overchop than underchop. Yeah, that is well said. Yeah, and then you just keep that stiff upper lip. You can have a broken hand and never let them see you sweat, right? You can't allow it. Have you ever buried a football or burned film tape? No, but I've seen that done. It's a great story. I feel like that's something you would do, bury a football.

2:06:51I just haven't done that. Okay. Just threaten your team with an ax. I love when I hear good stuff like that, but no, I haven't done it. What's the message going into this year? Because I always love at Star Training Camp you get to see coaches spent the whole summer, or maybe they've got a new acronym that they're unveiling or a new motto for the team. What is that going to be for Rutgers this year? Yeah, together, man. That's what it's got to be. We've got to play for each other. And we're going to be much better. But we've got to do it for each other. That's what's going to fuel that fire.

2:07:21PFT Commenter:Yeah. So you rebuilt Rutgers once. You're trying to do it again. Is there ever a point where you're like, I'm only one man? Like, this is crazy that I'm trying to do this again. Because you are trying to do it again. And it's like Rutgers is you guys are maybe at a little disadvantage sometimes in the Big Ten with some of the Ohio State and Michigan, but you're there chopping, trying to do it again. Do you feel it like turning like it did the first time? I do. And I feel like I took it. You know, this is my second time here at Rutgers, but I feel like I took the third time a new job because when when our board hired President William Tate and then he hired Kelly's in.

2:07:59And all of a sudden I didn't have to be the fundraiser anymore. I didn't have to be the lead guy on NIL. It was just a philosophical thing before. But now we actually have resources that are going to match expectations. And I'm really excited about it. We're getting better. We're going to be better this year, but we're going to be much better and then much better because the resources now, there's a commitment. There's vertical alignment at Rutgers for the first time, really, in my 25 years of being associated. And I can't wait.

2:08:23PFT Commenter:Have you had success this time around? Because New Jersey produces a ton of really, really good football players. And keeping them in state, I would imagine, is priority number one for the future of Rutgers. How's that gone? It's gone great. But it's got to be the right guys. And it's not just New Jersey. It's New York, New Jersey, Delaware. That whole area is ours. We call it the state of Rutgers. And we have to win there, but we've got to win on the right guys. It's a very highly recruited area. If you ever look at it, you fly into Newark Airport and you take your protractor at it and you just draw a one-hour circle around it, you can get into over 300 high schools.

2:09:03So people fly in from all over the country to recruit New Jersey. We got to make sure that we get the right players from that area, from the state of Rutgers.

2:09:10PFT Commenter:Yeah. Do you have a dog again? Sorry, I get a little frog in my throat. It's a touchy subject. We had a dog for 13 years. Yeah. Fumble. I was going to ask about fumble. Fumble. Yeah. Fumble. Fumble got. You're choked up about Fumble. We had to put Fumble down. I was thinking about Fumble and obviously like getting a little emotional. I can see. But I did realize that you had – you did have a dog at one point named Fumble. Yes. So when you get another dog, are you going to name that dog or is somebody else taking over naming responsibilities? All right. So here's the sad thing, right? My house has become a cat house now.

2:09:44Oh. Yes. Yes. Now we have my daughter. That is some big time football guy no-no. Tell me about it, right? Coach. My wife has a cat. My daughter has a cat. Yeah. And you want to know the worst part? I'm allergic to cats. How about that?

2:09:58PFT Commenter:Are you, do you pet the cat? Do you pet the cats? No petting. Are you sure? Do you, do you, do you feed the cats? I do nothing with cats. Do you like, you don't even look at them? I do look at them, but that's it. But like, are you like, oh, that cat looks cute? Look, some nice looking cats. Okay. That's not my deal. Let's see, this is a problem. You have feelings for these cats. No, no, that's not the case. Okay. That is not the case. All right. When they bought the cats, were you like, hey, you guys, I can't have a cat in the house. It's going to make me sick. I'm a football coach. The thing you better understand about football coaches, they're real tough.

2:10:29They act like there's one person who runs the family, and that's the wife. She's a coach at home.

2:10:33PFT Commenter:Well, no, actually, now it sounds like the cats run your house. Yeah, well, a little bit. Because your house probably – they're shitting in your house. I mean, it's crazy. Really, cats – I don't want to even sound like I'm favorable, but cats are a clean animal. Oh, no. He's a cat guy. No. No. This is how it starts. This is how it starts. I'm just dealing with facts. This is brutal. I'm dealing with facts. You got to have a line in the sand. No cats in this house. And then because the second they bring one in, all of a sudden now you're like, yeah, you know, I can see the allure of having a cat.

2:10:59Two rooms. My bedroom and my office at the house. Can I give you a little? No cat zone. Can I give you a little PR?

2:11:05PFT Commenter:Yes. Okay. I think you need to just start telling everyone because this story is going to get out. There's cats living in your house. I think you need to maybe say that there was like a rat problem. So you got the cats to kill the rats. Maybe mice. Let's not make the neighborhood. Let's not take it to rats. You know what I mean? Be like, hey, we had a rat infestation. I wasn't going to hire an exterminator. I want to do it the old fashioned way. I want to have these cats keep chopping. Run with it. Yeah, that's what we're going to say. But also, if you can teach the cats, if you can end up becoming almost like a cat whisperer, then I would think like that's actually a great coach.

2:11:38If you can get a cat to believe in you. No, there's none of that.

2:11:41PFT Commenter:They'll teach you the ways that they, you know, kind of move, you know. Cats don't chop. No, they don't. Dogs chop. Dogs chop. Dogs chop. And dogs, no matter what the score was, the dog's waiting for you at the door. Yeah, that's true. Cats, not so much. Have you thought about compromising and saying, hey, you guys are filling my house with cats. Can I come home with a dog one day?

2:12:01Haven't gone there.

2:12:02PFT Commenter:No, haven't gone there. You think so? Show up with the dog. All right. So you hired – did you hire a whole new staff or a couple new staff members this year? Defensive coordinator. Defensive coordinator. Yeah, so how'd that go? Because I know there was like – you said you were going to hire someone in a couple days and it took you a little bit of time. Was that intentional or was it like, hey, we just couldn't find the right guy? I was going to hire a guy after eight days and then it fell through. Okay. So the rest is not intentional. Right. But we got the right guy. Travis Johansson came to us from University of South Dakota doing a great job.

2:12:34We're going to be much better on defense and excited to see that. Yeah. The birthplace of college football. Yeah. What does that mean to you? That's where it started, man. 6-4. You know what the six and four were? No. It was six scores versus four scores. It was more like soccer or rugby than as we know football.

2:12:51PFT Commenter:Okay. Yeah. Okay. How often do you like close your eyes and think about the Thursday night game with James Gandolfini on the sideline? Because that is like, that's college football. That was a hell of a night. I know we don't like to look at the past. You're looking forward. But that was one of my favorite like seared in my brains college football nights with Rutgers kind of arriving his back. No, you're right on that. And he was such a great friend to our program. I mean, I know you guys love the Sopranos, but I mean, he was great, right? And that night, special night, we got to create a lot more of those going forward.

2:13:22And we're going to. That's what New Jersey, that's what Rutgers deserves. And we're in the best league in the country now, so time to do it. Yeah. What's your favorite episode of the Sopranos? Oh, too many. Too many great ones. Yeah. Yeah. Cleaver, you know, when they're trying to put Cleaver into action, that was... Yeah, that's good. When they're sitting in the living room there, the English language gets totally abused at that point. Yes, it does.

2:13:45PFT Commenter:it's great yeah i i'll tell you we have a guy who's probably the biggest ruckers fan of all time tj hitchings works for us he could be the new james gandolfini that if you guys are about to be back bring him on the sideline he's a star that's the guy make him the guy he's been listen every year he's like this is the year this is the year it has him in basketball and football he's a believer like through and through die hard yeah so you need someone like that all right he's ready to keep chopping let's get him going man um all right i know that you you have to go in a minute because thank you for giving us any time.

2:14:15PFT Commenter:We'll have to do maybe an extended interview and then talk about this cat situation. I need to talk to you about the cat situation. We got off topic with the cats. You're right. I actually feel like this is more confessional for you where you just showed up and you're like, I got to tell someone about these cats. It's been bothering me. It's like, I'll tell these guys. We'll talk through it. The rats is the way to go. But Zach here has a question. He's our closer here. All right, fire away, Zach. How are we doing today, sir? I did have a quick question. And during your time with Tampa Bay, I believe your first season with the team was also a breakout rookie season for Doug Martin at the time.

2:14:48And I was wondering if maybe you had any like fun moments or stories you could tell us today. Maybe a quick moment just about him as a player on the team. Muscle hamster, rest his soul. Right. He was a great pick. Remember, we're playing out at Oakland. Right. So the old Oakland Alameda Coliseum. Right. and Doug is kind of having a little bit of a rough start. And Jimmy Ray, who is a longtime NFL coach, he just had told me earlier in the week, hey, you got to tell Doug, very simple, keep your eyes up. So I just pulled him over and said, hey, Dougie, look, your eyes are going down. Just keep your eyes up.

2:15:21And man alive, he rushed for like 240 that game as a rookie, ended up rushing for like 1 ,400 and something yards. And man alive, what an exciting player he is. And it's a shame what happened, but I've got good memories of him.

2:15:34PFT Commenter:Yeah. You got a follow-up real quick? A quick follow-up question. I was curious. When it comes to Rutgers, when it comes to university, how are you going to set that intensity factor this season on the field? A lot of teams say they got the guys, they got the right coaches in position to make these guys kind of put that battery in their back and have them perform. What separates you from one head coach to another? How do you know that you're going to take this program to victory lane? Or do you not know that yet? No, I know it. Yeah, if I don't know it, you better find a new coach, right? Yeah, I know it.

2:16:03But it's going to be about playing for each other. And the way we do things, we've got to do it for each other. What fuels your chop?

2:16:10PFT Commenter:Yeah. And what separates you from some other coaches in the Big Ten, like you don't have a nipple ring like Ryan Day. So, yeah. Wow. Well, he alleged. He doesn't actually, but we saw pictures. Photoshop. So, unless maybe, do you want to tell us? It's a very dangerous thing. Let's not get into it. Do you want to tell us that you have a nipple ring? No, I can't. Okay. I can't tell you that. What do you think about that? Yeah, come on. It is Photoshop. We've gone to another level now. We've gone to another level. Coach, best of luck this year. Yeah, it was great having you on. We will get you those residuals.

2:16:38PFT Commenter:I think we probably have like 25 cents that we can give you. Yeah, maybe 50. Yeah, we'll put it in the NIL budget. Double it, yeah. Sing us a song, you're the Shiano man. It's so old school, yeah. Ten years, probably what, nine years ago we did that song. But thanks so much and best of luck. Appreciate you guys. Thanks, Coach. Coach Shiano was brought to you by BetterHelp. We talk about mental health more openly now, but openly asking for help can still feel hard. BetterHelp's latest research confirms it. They did a 2026 state of stigma report. They surveyed 2 ,000 Americans, revealed that 85 % of Americans believe getting support is wise, yet 74 % say society discourages people from doing so.

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2:18:10PFT Commenter:We got guys on chicks. I have a friend who is a great time when we go out, but is also known in our area for sleeping around slash being a hoe. When we go out, do men assume that I am the same way due to my friendship with her? I'm a bit conscious about that Because I'm not like that And I wonder if I'm perceived that way No I think A lot of girls get like a good cop bad cop thing going on Yeah Also how would we know I don't know how you get perceived that way I guess if your friend Yeah if your friend's like flirting with everyone Maybe I think as long as Every friend group's like that There's you know There's extremes on all levels As long as you're not as openly hoey as she is Then you'll naturally be looked at as being like the good girl Yeah, it's like, you know, if you're getting into a race and there's a there's a bear chasing you and your friend, you don't have to outrun the bear.

2:19:03You just have to outrun your friend. So as long as you're just not the skankiest one in the room, people will be like, oh, that's that's the good girl.

2:19:10PFT Commenter:Also, if she's like a sloppy drunk, you like people will be attracted to the opposite of that. You know what I mean? She's a mess at the bar. Messica. And you're and you're just a regular person. If she has that, if she has that like stigma, that's for a reason. Yeah. If you're not like that. But we don't kink shame. We're sex positive. Yeah. Live your whole years. That's fine. How do you know if your boyfriend isn't just saying what he thinks you want to hear and actually means it? Every time you're overthinking, does your boyfriend want to break up with you? Say it again. How do you know if your boyfriend isn't just saying what he thinks you want to hear and he actually means it?

2:19:50He's always doing a little bit of both.

2:19:52PFT Commenter:I mean the real actual answer here is like backing up what he's saying with actual actions but yeah he's definitely trying to just get out of a fight by saying what you want to hear which is fine that's a that's that's a survive that's it's a Darwin survival tactic that we've gained through years and years where it's like the guys who can't figure out that you got to say the right answer they die off if he just learns how to say like you're right you always just say the right answer. He might not actually think that you're right, but he'll say you're right, and that's really the same thing. Let's be honest.

2:20:26PFT Commenter:Every guy every now and then feels like they might be in the right, and they take a shot, and it usually just fucking gets dunked on. But I've done that. I do that probably once a quarter, where I'm like, you know what? This time I am right. And then it's just immediately shredded basically like a first-year law student going into like johnny cochran courtroom like i just get fucking eviscerated i'm like you know what i'm not gonna do that for another three months you know what i'm talking about yeah there's that reminded me of a we all story in the wedding planning where we got like fans you know like handheld fans for the ceremony because it was going to be hot and my wife was like the there were these really shitty ones and then there were these other ones that i got and I half heard her and she showed me the other ones and I was like oh yeah those are pretty shitty and she was like no the these are the good ones yeah and I was like actually I think those are good I thought you wanted me to tell you that those were shitty yeah this is really messed up with what this lady's asking because it sounds like her husband's doing the right thing or her boyfriend's doing the right thing which is like you're right and now she is like I'm not willing to let him off I need to know he doesn't I need to know that he actually means it he's he's well He's saying what I want him to say.

2:21:47Does he want to break up with me? Is what she's basically saying. Okay. Is he saying that to placate me because he's done with me? No, I think he's just saying that because even when he doesn't mean it, he's saying it because he's just trying to move on. You have to make a list of what's worth going to the mat for. You have to pick your fights.

2:22:05PFT Commenter:Yeah, mine's different, Max, where it's like I'll every now and then be like, I did so much today. And she'll be like, oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, no, no. What about all these things I did? and I'm like fuck I forgot about everything quite literally well that's the house is standing because of you I clean like one thing up and I'm like yeah you didn't say thank you right and she was like how about this yeah yeah and it's the silent stuff like oh shit I did forget that like there's a reason why my kids have lunch every day and are dropped in like picked up and they're in in camp and all this stuff and the house is standing and like everything looks nice fuck but yeah I did I did unload the dishwasher without anyone asking me.

2:22:47PFT Commenter:And didn't get one thank you. Oh, man. I've been accused of unloading the dishwasher extra loud to try to make attention to me doing it. Yeah, definitely. What am I going to do? Unload the dishwasher and hope that someone finds out? No, I got to let everyone know. I'm banging shit everywhere. It's the only point of unloading the dishwasher. Correct. You ever do this when you're done with a chore? You just got to clap your hands together. Give a nice sigh, sit on the couch. It feels good to take a load off. Man, what a day. Yeah. Looks pretty good, and it's never good enough. No. Oh, because my big problem is I put the shit back in the wrong spot.

2:23:27And then I'm like, ugh. I didn't know the little spoons were supposed to go into the little spoon drawer. I'm like, what does it matter? You didn't put it away, and it's just like I put it away all the time. Have you guys ever experienced holding a utensil or a plate, and then your significant other looks at you and just watches? and then says you don't know where that goes uh-huh all the time that's that's a tough moment right there i always i always just put it somewhere you gotta take a shot yeah oh no i always put it somewhere it's russian roulette yep and you're just i got a graveyard hoping that that's the right drawer of stuff that you're opening up and then it is the place where and then you you look over for i okay she bought it listen i have a graveyard i have a graveyard drawer

2:24:09PFT Commenter:that it's the drawer that doesn't get open for a lot of stuff, and I'll just put shit in there and hope that it finds its way back to where it should be. And then it's like, that's a problem for another day. Never second. I don't know where the fuck the food processor goes. It's going in the graveyard. She's looking for it. You're like, well, I always put it there. You always put it somewhere different? That's weird. I always ask where things are, and then I get yelled at, and she's like, why do you just look for a second or just know where these things are. Why do you need to ask me for where everything is?

2:24:42PFT Commenter:I also have a problem closing cabinets. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. They're all open. If I could make my dream house, there would be no cabinets. It would just be shelves everywhere. No, that's worse. I've lived in a no-cabinet house. Oh, no. Because if it's just, it looks messy as fuck. But that's fine. At least I could just see everything. I'm more so, I was with you at first, and then I heard BFT. Oh, no, it looked like shit. It looks terrible. It looks terrible. But I just never close the cabinets. It looks bad. All right, last one. I'm so excited for your book. Can't wait to see all PFT's one-liners put together.

2:25:17Anyway, my fiance and I are getting married August 29th, which, as you know, is week one of college football. We are having a backyard wedding, and he wants to set a TV up.

2:25:26PFT Commenter:Yes. Is that insane? Has to. Or is he just a normal football guy? I might just let him because we do bond over our love for football, but my family may judge. What's your thoughts? It's your wedding. TV, no sound. Nice compromise. So if anyone says anything, you should be like, no, but there's no sound. We also got to figure out where this person's writing from. Is this SEC family? But no sound. Probably not if they're even asking. TV's barely on if there's no sound on. And then when the game gets close, you put on the sound. It's pretty much a nice piece of art that you're having at your wedding.

2:26:00Yeah, just say the line. We bond over football. It's our wedding.

2:26:03PFT Commenter:Right. It's like it's barely in. And if there's a TV in a backyard with no sound, it's barely on. That's a barely on TV. I'm looking at the schedule for that day. Is that Ohio State, Texas? What's the day again? August 29th. Oh, no, that's week zero. Yeah, it's UNC. You got UNC, TCU. Oh, no TV. Don't do it. And give yourself a real pat on the back for not doing it. There's really not a lot? No, that's week zero. Yeah, because Labor Day is later this year, so that is week zero. Week zero is a you can check the scores on your phone at the end of the day. I guess maybe if you're an ACC person, NC State, Virginia.

2:26:47That's probably the only one that you can. No, but that's probably not even an ACC game.

2:26:52PFT Commenter:I think that's not. Oh, that's the one that's not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That doesn't officially count. That doesn't even count. That's out of conference. Out of conference play? Yeah. Memphis, UNLV, circle it. Over. Good game. Yeah. If you're, I mean, maybe you're a big Michael Lombardi fan and you're like, I wonder what happens with UNC TCU. Now they don't have a GM. Oh, wow. Crazy. Yeah. I also like USC in that game. Stanford Hawaii is fun. Stanford Hawaii is fun. USC minus, what is it, 35 and a half? Yeah, probably. Stanford Hawaii would be a lot more fun if it was in Hawaii. No. Last year they played in Hawaii and it was like the windiest day ever.

2:27:30PFT Commenter:It sucked. so I was scarred a little bit by that okay what? it was the first Stanford Russian touchdown in like 8 years that's right man I miss football yeah I'm so excited okay good show boys numbers 3 55 17 7 23

2:27:594

2:28:05PFT Commenter:Boys coming? Nah. They'll be running. They'll be running in a second. Oh, are they on a delay? Slight delay. Hurry up! Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. 69. 69 for Colton. 10. 84 for Jacob. 84 for Jacob. Shane. What's Shane? Shane was 10. Shane was 10.

2:28:33PFT Commenter:77. Anyone? That was your number for a while there, Memes. I don't think so. You take 77? No, when you dress as Dallas Mavericks Luca. You do that from time to time. Oh, yeah. You do dress as Dallas Mavericks Luca from time to time. I do. That's a fact. That's a good fit.

2:29:10PFT Commenter:Oh Would it Something in the 80s Jacob said 84 82 82 You do one more Nah Yeah let's do one more We did three interviews Might as well do three balls This is desperate memes Be a man about it This one does not count What's your number of memes? Be a man We did three interviews

2:29:4775 See it didn't even count Happy birthday to VJ Edgecombe Yeah Yeah. Yeah. That's weird. I had him pulled up right here. Oh, and it was 77, the number that came out? That's weird. I'm going to have to start doing birthday balls. Whoa, that's weird. Any other Lockwood? Any other Lockwood birthdays? No other Lockwood birthdays. Happy birthday to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Happy birthday to Christopher Nolan. Happy birthday, Hope Solo. Happy birthday, Bob Escalana. Happy birthday, Dak Prescott. And happy birthday to Benito Mussolini. I don't know who that is. And Tess Lockwood. Happy birthday, Tess Lockwood.

2:30:23Oh, happy birthday to my mom. Happy birthday to Max's mom. That's Ted X's mom. 28. Happy birthday, John Summit. Love you guys.

2:30:57Thank you.

2:31:25Thank you.

2:31:57Thank you.

2:32:25Thank you.