Grit Week Finale, Coach O, Saints HC Kellen Moore, Knicks Up 2-0 And Fyre Fest of The Week

12:31Big Cat:he saw this i saw him courtside tonight he was at msg wait he was yeah oh i didn't see him yeah no they put him on and they said like it said star of ozark the whole thing oh that was mean of you

12:44PFT Commenter:yeah and sure yeah it was it was jason bateman and jason sudeikis that was very mean of you

12:50Big Cat:It's my guy. I looked at TV. I was like, Blake, that's our guy.

12:54PFT Commenter:Yeah. So Thunder Spurs tied 1-1. Do you know that this is the first time that the Western Conference finals has been tied 1-1 since 2018? That's kind of a crazy stat. Did not know that. Crazy stat. This was the let's get physical game because Hardenstein got very physical with Wemby. Just wrestling. Castle got very physical with SGA. I unfortunately feel like the tenor of this series is we're just going to have to talk about the refs after every single game, which sucks.

13:28Big Cat:It's like, how is this guy going to be officiated tonight? Because Hartenstein was, he was like draped all over him. He was playing physical basketball, which I love. They didn't call it. Yeah, physical basketball is great.

13:37PFT Commenter:Charles Barkley said that wasn't physical. He's been kissed harder. Yeah. That's what he said.

13:40Big Cat:It's good. Yeah, I mean, I know that Charles has a thing for Max Struess. Maybe they got into it. But it was good basketball. It was fun to watch. And that's how basketball used to be played. And I don't think Wimby was flopping. Maybe the coaching point is going to be like, Wimby needs to start flopping more. Because if he had, then I think some of those calls get made.

14:00PFT Commenter:Yeah, we just have, it just sucks. Because SGA was good. He answered back after a not great game one. He had 30 points. And it was, you know, the Thunder, I expected the Thunder to have that type of response after losing game one. We also have like dueling injuries because J-Dub got hurt again. Dylan Harper got hurt. De 'Aaron Fox remains hurt. So it's a little bit of a war of attrition. Stephon Castle had, what does he have, 20 turnovers so far?

14:29Big Cat:Yeah, he had 11 in game one, nine in game two. I think that's a record for back-to-back games.

14:34PFT Commenter:And it's tough because some of them were egregious, but also he now with De 'Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper being hurt, he has to just dribble the ball all the time.

14:42Big Cat:And it looked like Dylan Harper wanted to come back in the game, was not permitted to by the training staff. I don't know if it's just going to be Castle and Wimby I feel like Wimby's going to have to do a lot of it on his own and the role players that they had I think were the series felt like it was more in favor of the Spurs until those injuries but I actually have a take now I've got a take on this series I know who I want to win I want the Thunder to win this series and the reason why I want the Thunder to win this series is because I think if the Thunder win we get to restart the clock on how much longer we get to love Wimby before we hate him.

15:20Big Cat:If the Spurs win this series, and then they win their first championship, and Wimby dominates, we're going to enjoy it. We're going to have a great time. He's so fun to watch. I love watching Wimby play. But just like any other superstar that we see in every sport, it doesn't matter. We're going to eventually hate Wimby. So in the interest of being able to enjoy more Wimby basketball, I think I would like to make the sacrifice of having the Spurs lose this series. that way I get all next season to root for him probably the season after that and then I'll be like this guy fucking sucks he broke basketball you could just enjoy him you know god damn well that's not an option

15:57PFT Commenter:I'm going to enjoy him because he's like I said on Wednesday's show he's already better than LeBron so that's how I'm going to enjoy him

16:06Big Cat:but you know like Steph Curry we all enjoyed Steph Curry oh I never stopped enjoying Steph Curry not when they were just when KD was on the team

16:13PFT Commenter:I still enjoyed Steph Curry I was pissed at KD, but I still enjoyed Steph Curry. Steph Curry might be the one guy who's actually impervious to it.

16:21Big Cat:Patrick Mahomes. Like, really? Yeah, no, no. I know what you're saying.

16:24PFT Commenter:I agree with you. And I think a lot of America...

16:26Big Cat:Steph Curry might be the only guy because he's short. Wimby, yeah. Wimby is so much fun to watch. And I love... He's just a treat. I look forward to it. But I know that in the back of my head, I will one day say this guy is cheating at basketball because he's too tall. He's an alien. and he shouldn't be allowed to play because he's a walking PED. I don't think I'll get sick of Wemby.

16:47PFT Commenter:I think we'll get sick of the Spurs, which is kind of one in the same. Right, it's one in the same. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, this, I don't know. I think when it comes to the refs, because it really is the series of just who can get clips up faster of the opposing team doing something, whether it be Hartenstein grabbing Wemby, SGA getting absolutely face guarded and crushed by Castle, SGA flopping. I love the one where I saw there was a highlight tape of S. It was it was titled SGA literally fell down on every single one of his shots. I think it was maybe seven of his 24 shots total. And I think Jerry's called me back.

17:28PFT Commenter:Jerry. Hey. Hey. Hey, did you watch all four quarters? Yeah, I watched the whole thing. So stop fucking calling me a hex. I didn't say anything. I just was we were checking in. We're doing the show right now. am i on the air yeah you're on the air okay so what i say is for air yes for air okay then let me say this and i'm gonna be real clear about it okay because i'm still at the bar okay the knicks are six wings away from a championship think about that can hank hear me yes he can hank think about that have you thought about that oh yeah six wins away i'm gonna tell you something else. You're Nixon for OK West Coast teams beat the fuck out of each other.

18:13PFT Commenter:Just fucking beat each other up flopping all over the place. OK. Six wins away from a ring. I love it. I love it. OK. Well good for you Jerry. Also PFT kind of took a shot at you. I didn't. I was mistaken. It was mean. Whatever. You'll just have to listen to tomorrow's show. I got confused.

18:32Big Cat:I got confused with the broadcast Jerry. I'm at a bar and there's like people. I'm having fun. I'm not like doing a podcast. You got to be a little louder.

18:41PFT Commenter:PFT said that you were at the game tonight and I was like, oh shit, I didn't see him. And he's like, yeah, it said star of Ozarks and all that. Yeah, yeah. I got confused, Jared. By the way, I just wanted to say, I was about to tweet this out, but I thought it was a little hater of me. Bateman was like hardly in his seat. Like when the Knicks came back for the second half, he wasn't even in his seat. Who knows what he was doing? That's not me. I just want to say, when the Knicks invited me, Mr. Dolan, if you're listening, I know you're a huge fan. When I went to the Knicks game, I stayed in my seat.

19:14I went number one before the game and then held it and stayed there the whole time.

19:19PFT Commenter:You didn't even watch the game one. You got to go tinkle, you know? Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right, Jerry, we love you. No, no, no. Guys, guys, hold on a second. I want to start with the AFC. Okay. All right, that's it. he actually one of these days he's gonna do it yeah we random on a random show he's gonna do it

19:38Big Cat:we told jerry at the live show we're like hey jerry it would absolutely kill if you went out there to introduce us and then you just unfold a piece of paper and said i'd like to start with the afc east and i think ever every time that we've talked to him since then he started our conversation with i want to start with the afc yeah yeah he's gonna do it he's gonna do it but

19:56PFT Commenter:yeah so back to what we were talking about i i just look i get it sga i actually think the problem with SGA more than anything is he's just boring. That's really what people are upset about. The flopping like sucks but so back to my point. There was this clip that went viral that was like SGA literally fell down on every yeah Shay flopped on every single shot attempt. It has 16 and a half million views and 10 ,000 retweets. It's six or seven shots of the 24 he took. He went to the free throw line three times last night. Three times and again I'm not saying that SGA doesn't flop. He does. He falls down.

20:32PFT Commenter:He flops. But more than anything, he's just... He's boring because he's a lethal mid-range guy. He doesn't have flashy dunks. He's not doing... I mean, Stefan Castle, that was like the dunk of the playoffs. And he's not hitting threes like Steph Curry. He's just methodically into... Like, great. That's what he is. He's methodically an exceptional basketball player.

20:53Big Cat:It's what we said that we've wanted from a superstar for the last, like, 15 years, which is like the lost art of the mid-range right and he's very good at it and he's lethal and he's like master of his body control and uh he should be celebrated but it does get fucking annoying watching him

21:08PFT Commenter:but it wasn't called that much last night oh i agree like hartstein was hartstein was 100 % like getting very physical with wemby if you watch that game castle was doing a lot on sga in terms of before he got the ball face guarding him i liked it it's a physical series i hope the refs don't call a lot of this stuff. And again, they didn't call a lot of his flops last night. I just... It's such... The teams are so good, and it's just going to bother me if we... I'm just going to tune it out. But it's the fact that every game is just going to be refereeing.

21:42Big Cat:We can get upset with SGA for flopping, even if they don't call it. It's still annoying to watch.

21:46PFT Commenter:See, but I think if it doesn't work, it's actually he's just disadvantaged in himself. He's falling down.

21:52Big Cat:That's a disadvantage to himself. But it's still annoying to watch. it's like when I don't get his noise when he takes a shot and then he like dives forward and he tries to draw the call to me that's something that they should be able to review between games and if it's egregious they should be able to issue technical fouls for clearly diving if they missed it during the game in the off they'd be like yeah that was that was bullshit let's stop with

22:14PFT Commenter:the flop bullshit see I don't care as much if they're not calling it he's not getting rewarded and it's actually

22:20Big Cat:hurting him I think it sucks to watch when Superstar is just like diving

22:24PFT Commenter:Also, Tom Haberstraub looked at every single shot, and he broke it down in this series so far. He has fallen to the floor in 27 % of his shots, so that's a little over a quarter. So to say that it's every shot is just – it's gotten a little out of hand. You would think that SGA is just constantly on the floor. He does go, but I'm saying a quarter is not as – if you ask 100 NBA fans how many times does SGA fall on the floor after a shot, they'd all say like 70 % just on the narrative.

22:58Big Cat:Oh, yeah. There's people that aren't watching the full game, that are watching the highlights. But SGA has said that he intentionally goes to the ground. He's admitted that. Yeah, yeah. He's like, it's part of my game. I think he says that he does it sometimes because he can control how he goes down. Like in football, we always talk about a running back learning how to get tackled. Like SGA, when he's off balance a little bit or when he's diving or jumping, he thinks that he's got a better chance at controlling his body, preventing injury if he ends up like diving to the ground in like a very controlled manner

23:27PFT Commenter:i mean we've seen injuries before i mean the kawaii the famous kawaii injury the landing zone like when guys get under your feet when you're when you're trying to rise for a mid-range jump shot or a three-pointer oh is that a cheap shot yeah that's probably a little bit of it is like hey if i'm falling forward i'm not going to have someone get under my legs and turn my ankle anyway i'm just excited to keep watching this series and and not i i don't know what i think there will be an adjustment to Hartenstein that will 100 % happen he will get called for a lot more I hope Dylan Harper comes back I hope De 'Aaron Fox comes back I hope JW can play because I just want to watch I want to watch seven games of this I do and it was Tuesday or Wednesday night was the championship medal of an Oklahoma City Thunder team where it was a tight game and they were able to find a way to put it away and be like that's a team that they know they've been in the wars and they're not going to go down 2-0 and lose both games at home.

24:27PFT Commenter:So, hockey, PFT, Canadians up 1-0. Disqualification. Canadians up 1-0. They took it to the Hurricanes. They were down 1-0 and then they rattled off four goals and it was like record speed. And I think I saw a stat that was something like... I have the stat right here. Do you? All right, give it to us.

24:48Big Cat:So since 2000, teams that are coming off of a sweep are 1-7 against teams that are coming off of a Game 7 win in hockey.

24:56PFT Commenter:I saw a different stat. So that's a great stat. It was something like teams that have 10 days rest or more have lost, I think it's three series in a row. So maybe rest versus rest. Like the entire series. Yeah.

25:10Big Cat:I mean, yeah, this is like specific for, yeah. So if you come off that sweep, And I think the Hurricanes had the longest possible layoff that you can have. And the Canadiens had the shortest possible, which you would think like, yeah, okay, Hurricanes will be ready to go. I think that I might launch a nuke on the Hurricanes game two. That feels like a must win for Carolina at home. Because you don't want to go up to that barn in Montreal down to nothing. No. You don't want to look that in the face. You don't want to have to become a French citizen.

25:43PFT Commenter:Yeah, I don't want to have to do that. And the Knights took us to the Avalanche, who McCarr being out is very, very substantial. I feel like he's out for the series. I don't know what his prognosis is long term for the series, but that does feel like the Knights are going to win if McCarr just doesn't play in this series. Yeah, I would agree with that. Mitch Carter just continues. Itchy for Mitchie is what they're saying.

26:05Big Cat:And that was one of the teams that I believe Biz gave us at the start of the playoffs. Yeah. Vegas.

26:10PFT Commenter:Yeah, Vegas. Tremendous organization. biz also just doesn't he just calls blutman bluntman i love all the time yeah and i don't

26:20Big Cat:think he knows that he's doing that but it's awesome memes keeps pulling up or is that zach zach keeps pulling up the uh the the rastafari canadians fan that memes put my face on it looks like you it looks like me it does it does canadian

26:39PFT Commenter:okay anything else with playoffs or any other sports stories real quick I'm thinking oh I had oh just so everyone knows if you don't listen to the intro coach oh we taped on Tuesday and so we didn't know that he was fully back we had an inkling that he was maybe going to be back so if you think we're like it sucks the timing worked out that way i'm so happy he's back it's all is right in the world i love the lsu too is like hey remember when we were kind of successful

27:11Big Cat:a few years ago like let's just do that again yeah will wade yeah let's lean into it um and if you listen to the interview with lane lane drops a little easter egg in that interview yep about coach oh when we're talking about if he's met mike tiger yet if he's looked in his eye and then Lane said something along the lines of like that could be a good job for Coach O to be the Mike the Tiger translator for me.

27:32PFT Commenter:Yep. And the Coach O interview also he dropped some kind of hints of like hey I want to be in it. I like you know talking to recruits and making sure like I can fix defensive lines like he's got the enthusiasm for it. He's it's perfect. It's perfect for LSU. Coach O

27:48Big Cat:he can coach the fuck out of a defensive line and he's probably the best recruiter in college football.

27:53PFT Commenter:Not only that but he's he can essentially just tell Lane Kiffin how the state of Louisiana works. Yeah. Like just that was the big thing from our Coach O interview that you're going to listen to. His love for the state of Louisiana and he's just telling us like how it's just different. And we have funny moments where we asked him about Brian Kelly and he gave very candid answers. Yeah, great answers. So like those, you understand those. Like Coach O, he's built for it. He's ready to go. All right. And then the last one, Kyle Busch, which was tragic. We're not the biggest NASCAR fans, but we had Kyle Busch on the show.

28:30PFT Commenter:I think it was like seven or eight years ago. Awesome dude. One of the best NASCAR drivers of all time. Anytime someone loses their life, 41 years old, he's got two little kids. It's just absolutely heartbreaking. I feel just gutted for his family. I feel gutted for NASCAR fans. I don't know what else to say than it's just it was shocking. I was shocked when I saw it.

28:53Big Cat:It came as a big surprise. I think everybody was shocked. Even the biggest diehard fans. They knew that he didn't feel well last week. Yeah. And that he might be going through something. And we still don't know what happened, but obviously it came on quick and suddenly. It's very tragic what happened. And yeah, nobody saw this coming. And it seemed like he was a guy that he was the face of NASCAR, one of the most successful drivers of the last 10 years 15 years and he won a truck race five days ago yeah and then after that race he said cherish everyone you don't know when it's gonna be your last yeah which is kind of it's a little spooky um but poignant in retrospect to look at uh it's just very it's very sad it's

29:37PFT Commenter:brutal i i mean i just like i don't know how ai works or you know the algorithms but he was his instagram feed was on my algorithm almost immediately is you know his 11 year old his His son turned 11 three days ago. And just like, I just, it's really, really, really sad. And we feel awful for his family. And I said, again, NASCAR fans, because he's a legend. And I think it's like one of the top, just shocking deaths of guys in there. He's still in his prime. So, all right. Let's, sad note, but let's, we're going to transition back into our truck. Coach O. We're going to do Grit Week recap, some really good stories, tell you everything that went down.

30:25PFT Commenter:We are going to do Cocho, Kellen Moore, and then Fyre Fest. And again, the Kellen Moore interview. Top Mount Rushmore PMT moment. It's pretty great.

30:38Big Cat:It's really great. I don't want to spoil what it is, but I'll just say that there will be one member of part of my take that will probably not spend a lot of time online on Friday, reading the replies and the comments. Well, he was golfing anyway. And the posts. And it could be any one of us. But thank God he's got his kids to see. But he's got more important things. Touch grass. Put some perspective. Touch grass.

31:02PFT Commenter:Literally. Okay? We touch sand tomorrow. Touch some Bermuda. Some split grass. Whatever. What is it? Bermuda. Yeah, Bermuda. Yeah. What's the one that's saying? Augustine? Yeah, the bent grass. Touch it. And then touch it again. Maybe touch a little sand.

31:16Big Cat:Sure. No, not a guy like our guy, Hank.

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32:44PFT Commenter:By the way, speaking of the NBA, can I read you guys a tweet real quick before we do our recap of Grit Week and what we did with the Saints? Yeah, I got a tweet too. Oh, you go. You go.

32:56Big Cat:I'm getting there.

32:57PFT Commenter:Okay. I got two tweets. Okay, yeah. Clint Kubiak called Brock Bowers a football robot from heaven. I saw that. That's a good tweet. Like, I am not, I didn't know if I was in on Clint Kubiak, and then he just said that a football robot from heaven and i'm like that guy is going to win what

33:13Big Cat:i like about that is it does beg a lot of questions yeah like are is heaven filled with football robots like instead of angels yeah angels are just robots and then occasionally one can get sent down to earth yep to rescue the raiders i think so okay all right that's actually the only question i had so that's a robot from heaven that checks out yeah and then does hell also have a football robot army like can a football robot go to heaven and it can go to hell or are they produced and made in heaven then sent back to earth? I think football robots from hell play defense.

33:44PFT Commenter:Yeah.

33:45Big Cat:You know what I'm saying?

33:46PFT Commenter:Yeah. If you had like a stud nose tackle,

33:49Big Cat:that's a football robot from hell. And football robots and purgatory are just the ghosts of players that played for Jeff Fisher.

33:56PFT Commenter:Yeah. Kickers and punters as well. Okay. Next tweet. I actually have a couple. We'll just do it real quick. Is Joey Chestnut competing in the 4th of July hot dog competition? He slapped a man.

34:06Big Cat:did you guys see that he slapped him in yep yeah he got charged the battery i didn't read it sounds

34:11PFT Commenter:it's the most delicious sounding felony yeah it absolutely always has been uh i i was like um kieran kieran mcculkin in succession when the rocket blows up i saw the tweet about joey chestnut being it says america's most popular competitive eater joey chestnut is now serving probation after pleading guilty to slapping a man inside of a Westfield bar earlier this year. I saw the tweet and just closed my phone and put it back in my pocket because I was like, I don't want to deal with the fact that he could potentially not be competing on 4th of July. We were robbed of 4th of July. Was it last year or two years ago?

34:48PFT Commenter:And it was not a holiday. So I don't want that to happen again. I'm not going to look into it. I'm going to just find out on 4th of July, turn on my TV, and we'll find out if 4th of July is canceled.

34:58Big Cat:What a storyline it would be if it was true, though. And he makes his comeback. He's like, really, you know, the Rasheed Rice of competitive eating. What if he's in prison and he has to keep training for the Fourth of July hot dog eating contest behind bars?

35:12PFT Commenter:Yeah. So that training wouldn't be fun.

35:14Big Cat:Well, there's some. Yeah. When I'm thinking how hot dogs behind bars. How would you learn how to train for that particular throat competition? Yeah. Behind bars. Actually, I would probably bet on him heavy when he came out.

35:25PFT Commenter:Yeah. I mean, the man's been to hell and back. Yeah. He had to train so far off the grid. He's basically Bane. Yeah. He would be Bane coming to the 4th of July. Rocky IV. Yeah, Rocky IV. Yeah. Instead of training in a penitentiary for the hot dog eating competition.

35:44Big Cat:Dealing with a lot of long cab and stuff up there. Yeah. So I don't want to know what happened, but I'm on his side.

35:50PFT Commenter:I'm on Joey's side. Do you think if he trained in prison and he got to the 4th of July, uh nathan's competition he'd just eat one solo hot dog and never eat it maybe he scars it for

36:02Big Cat:life he just he just sucks on a hot dog in front of the whole country he just doesn't he might not have to chew anymore this might be a game changer he's out there like like deutsch with beers

36:12PFT Commenter:swallowing them whole yeah all right next tweet so we're gonna just put a pin in that one we'll forget it but we'll think about it later uh this one's just quick math one zach you ready get your get your human calculator out uh cam scadu scadaboo believes full season will equate to big numbers for him he said i had 400 yards on 100 carries last year when i play 17 plus games this year it's going to be 300 carries over 200 2 000 yards okay yeah does that make sense would it be 1600 yards it would be but yeah whatever that's scadaboo math but maybe he thinks they're He's going to wear them down.

36:48PFT Commenter:I think it's like with him, he gets stronger as the season goes on. Yeah, that's fair. And then this is my final tweet. This one, I actually think this should be in the takeies for just like rollercoaster tweet, funniest tweet. I don't know what you want to say. This is from Henry Abbott, True Hoop. This is after Jason Kidd was fired. He said, I covered Jason Kidd when he played for the Nets. I know one of his childhood friends. I've been to his house, met his kids, then wife, and Pilates instructor. and I have insight for many people who worked with him in his coaching years. This is a great firing.

37:24PFT Commenter:It's a very funny tweet. I love that tweet so much.

37:27Big Cat:Perfectly constructed in the exact format of a beat writer that's about to go to bat for somebody that does not need to be going to bat for. I know everything about Jason Kidd. He sucks. Very good joke.

37:39PFT Commenter:Pilates instructor. Throw him in there.

37:41Big Cat:Okay. You got one or no? No, no. Mine was I was starting with I'm getting there. Oh, okay. Yeah. Let me switch back and forth. But I do have one right here. It's actually kind of an old segment that we used to do, Radio Wars. So in the off season, there would be back and forth about, you know, sometimes usually between Philly radio stations, they would get into arguments with each other, kind of fill some of that space after football was over. And now I feel like we might be in a beef right now. Uh-oh. We might be beefing. Who are we beefing with? With Toucher and Rich. Yep. Which sounds like that's just the name for Glenn and Jeffrey Epstein.

38:15Big Cat:back in the day. That was their going out name. That's about true. But apparently they're not happy with the way that we conducted the Bill Belichick interview, but they said something that was wild today because I guess they're a Boston radio show, right? Yep. And so they've been around Belichick for a while, probably got sick of the way that he used to treat the media sometimes, which is like he's always been a grumpy guy, never been like, you know, the most forthcoming when he didn't have to be. So it sounds to me like they don't really care for him that much based on the small amount that I've heard.

38:48Big Cat:But then one of them said something. I don't know if it was Toucher or if it was Rich or who it was, but they said that Belichick right now needed us more than we need Belichick. And they're like, I wonder what the part of my take guys, like we're getting out of having Bill Belichick on the podcast. It's like, wait, he's the best football coach of all time. We want to talk to the guy about football. And then the other guy said, bill belichick right now is more known for dating jordan hudson than he is for anything else and it's like wait what have we completely lost the the plot oh yep i i agree with that she's our queen we can agree to disagree she's our queen we got i think he is most known still for being a football coach but it's like the guy that can do it all yeah i mean so hank where where are you

39:36PFT Commenter:at with this beef because you you you started this beef on no they started you they started the beef i kind of retaliated i think that the clip pft's talking about is the original clip uh no there's no it is it is what it is their pft is right he's like they they have a long standing like beef with belichick and they're they need to fill their time they need to talk shit about belichick they're never going to be complimentary i saw one tweet that was like

39:58Big Cat:hennies did not back down fuck yeah hank oh no here we go that's my boy this is great this is from Boston Radio Watch, which I'm going to follow that account. Looks like, oh, Toucher and Hardy just started a beef with Barstool's part of my take. They roasted PMT's Belichick interview on air yesterday and PMT's Hank Lockwood didn't exactly take it lying down. Let's go, Hank! That's the tweet I was talking about. That's my boy. Doesn't take it lying down.

40:29PFT Commenter:Unless he's in Vanny Woodhead and we got a long drive.

40:33Big Cat:Yeah. Fair. He's all sitting down, yeah. Yeah, so we were strategizing how we could both lay down. Cuddle, big spoon, little spoon. No, because there was a little alley. We were like, I could go on the floor right there, and then Hank could make the back row a bed. We were trying to figure out how to lay down. You'd lean up against me, Ali. You'd lean up against you. The back of Vinny Woodhead does fold out.

40:56PFT Commenter:You should have just both gotten on the bed. We could have snugged. Yeah, you could have vacuumed beforehand. I learned that today that Vinny Woodhead has a vacuum in there. Great vacuum. I hit a bump on the way to Waffle House, and I was like, I heard this noise. I'm like, oh, fuck. Vinny Woodhead's about to break. Felt like a real handyman because I went back and I just turned the vacuum off. And I was like, look at that. I can fix cars.

41:19Big Cat:So where are we at with beef? I don't know. It's more a question for Hank because he's the one that's leading this battle. I'm not leading this battle. They took a shot. I said, fuck him. And that's where I stand. Wow. He did not back down again. You guys can just fuck him. Okay. All right. Fuck him. Yeah. So, yeah, I guess the battle rages on.

41:36PFT Commenter:Yeah. We should just title this episode. Quote card. Yeah. Can we make a quote card of Henny saying fuck him? Yeah. In reference to Rich and Touchy? Yeah. We should honestly, we should title this episode, Hank Doesn't Back Down Again.

41:54Big Cat:Oh, you know what I love? I love the thumbnails and the headlines that always say, like, so-and-so breaks his silence on something. That's real hot, right? Hank Lockwood breaks his silence on Boston Radio Beef with Toucher and Richardson.

42:10PFT Commenter:Oh, man. Okay. Grit week. Great grit week, boys. We were at the Saints. So we woke up in Baton Rouge on Wednesday morning. We went to Waffle House. Delicious. Hank tried to shame you for not having grits.

42:24Big Cat:He did, in fact, shame me for not having grits. What? I just said, like, your whole spiel before the Waffle House was like, I'm going to have grits every day at Waffle House. Wait, wait, wait, wait. There's no spiel. What spiel are you talking about? Your monologue. You did a monologue? I didn't do a monologue. In conversation on this show, I think I was like, maybe I'll have grits. That sounds like a spiel. I actually remember it.

42:48PFT Commenter:Yeah, no. PFT got in front of all of us on Sunday. He goes, you guys hear about this thing called grits? you started the monologue is it a spiel your keynote was ted talk i'm gonna i'm gonna eat

42:59Big Cat:grits every day at waffle my keynote yeah my keynote spiel yeah thesis i listen i said that i would like to eat waffle house every meal because i love waffle house but then sometimes what unselfish people do hank is when they're in a situation where they're around others they don't make everybody else change their calendar for the things that they want to do so i was like you know what let's say let's eat some pub subs let's let's have some good meals on the road if If we find ourselves at a Waffle House, that'll be great. This is a deflection. Sometimes you go right past a Chick-fil-A that your brother works at, and then you just don't tell anyone that your brother is there.

43:30So, Zach, can we talk about that?

43:31PFT Commenter:Because we have to go back now. We'll leave Wednesday morning. That's where we'll come back to if you want to bookmark that. Zach, we found out. We went through Tallahassee, and Zach told us afterwards his brother owns three Chick-fil-A's in Tallahassee. Runs three Chick-fil-A's. He runs the stores, though, yeah. And you were like, you weren't going to tell us. We weren't going to stop. We drove by the one that his brother was at. We were on the road, and the Chick-fil-A was to the right of us. Did you see his car? No. Usually, they park in a parking lot across the street. It's behind a different building.

44:07PFT Commenter:And look, I totally understand if your brother doesn't want to be on camera or stuff, I would have just liked to meet him because you are your brother's keeper. I want to know who you've been keeping all these years. So I know we had like 10 hours on the road. I just didn't want to be salvaged everybody's time. But we stopped at Publix two minutes away, and that was our longest stop. Yeah, true. Looking back, that does make more sense, but that's where my headspace was in the moment. I was like, I know there's a lot to do this week. I don't want to. Does your brother not like us? What's up?

44:33Big Cat:No, my brother likes you guys. Does your brother have, does he have the same tattoo? No, he's got tattoos. We just have different tattoos.

44:39PFT Commenter:Does he have one that's like about you? Yeah, does he have one that says like kept by Zach?

44:44Big Cat:Yeah, if lost, please return to Zach.

44:46PFT Commenter:No, no. I just I'm bummed because I asked afterwards I was like what's your brother like is he basically just you and you said yes but cooler like this is like a possible Urkel and Stefan Urkel situation yeah he's me but cool he's one of the coolest guys the globe has yeah guy does he have a guy does he have glasses he does now are you saying he's one of the coolest guys in the world because you keep him no no I've got to do it that's a good pelt on your wall I would say I'm a supporting cast member in his world. Oh, okay. I bet you he runs a great Chick-fil-A, too. Oh, yeah. He's great what he does.

45:26PFT Commenter:That's nice. That is kind of money. I think they went this Sunday. I think they went beach. Okay, nice. And then, all right, so back to Wednesday, we went to Waffle House, then we drove to... Go ahead, Hank. Well, going back to Waffle House, PFT did a deflection there. I did not care that you didn't go to Waffle House every meal. Like, that was fine. The point that you also made with the Waffle House was, I'm going to go to Waffle House and eat grits. So when we went to Waffle House, all I said, I did not accuse you. I did not come at you. I just said, PFT, did you get grits? Question mark. Just because I was remembering you saying verbatim mid spiel.

46:03That sounds back to the spiel.

46:06Big Cat:It sounds anti-Semitic when you say the word spiel. I'm going to go to Waffle House and eat grits for every meal. So I was just like, oh surely we went to waffle house one time you must have got grits yeah so that was not when you have your cute little attitude like that you know you hear some here's some things maybe that's just a product of us knowing each other so well that i hear when you're being a bitch and i pick up on it um listen the fact is i forgot to order grits and i apologize for that if anyone out there is disappointed okay yeah i screwed up nobody to blame but myself i did try to order grits halfway through the meal which was fantastic got the hash brown bowl with sausage and a blueberry nougat waffle, which I believe is a new menu item, but it's fantastic.

46:45Big Cat:So I did order the grits and then the grits, they just never came out. Yeah, they just never showed up. It was fantastic. Well, it was better. What are you going to say, Max? That makes sense. What? I forgot about this whole spiel, to be honest with you. And I asked PFT what he ordered and he was like, oh, yeah, I got the I got the hash brown bowl with sausage and then and I ordered grits, but they never came out. I was like, you just didn't need to tell me that you ordered something that never came out. So now I know why you...

47:13PFT Commenter:He was circling back to his State of the Union that he did before the Grit Week started. Now it's all making a lot of sense. Now it makes sense. Because I was thinking, as you said that, I was like, that sucks, but you didn't need to tell me that. I asked what you got. Yeah.

47:25Big Cat:I had Hank's little face dancing around my head. Yeah, that makes sense.

47:29PFT Commenter:Now it all makes sense. I didn't say that. I just asked. Didn't order grits. All right. So then we went to the Saints. Great day with the Saints. Shout out everyone at the Saints. It was incredible hospitality. Yeah. Kellen Moore interviews coming up. We also did a couple other interviews that we'll run next week. Got to see Tyler Shuck. Got to throw the ball around with Tyler Shuck. Max, you were back here. Between PFT, myself, Zach, and Hank, I think Tyler Shuck threw us probably 30 to 35 passes. Ball did not touch the ground. Yeah. It was, I can't tell you, like catching his spiral is a dream.

48:08PFT Commenter:It's a dream. His balls are even better in person.

48:11Big Cat:It's like you can't help but catch it. It lands perfectly. It lands softly. And it's coming in with a good amount of velocity. We had a shock, but man, it feels soft. We had our hands all over Shuck's balls. And he liked it. It was great. I would say official stat line, 34 for 34, 512 yards. No touchdowns. Some deep passes. Yeah, no touchdowns. No touchdowns. We never got in the end zone. Do you think we're going to see an all-pro year? Not a lot of Yak. Yeah, not a lot of Yak. All pro year for sure. Well, yeah. No Yak because Max wasn't there. Yeah. All pro year.

48:46PFT Commenter:Loading. Oh, I think that there's definitely something to Zach. So we went to the Saints whole facility. They gave us the whole tour. They have their ice cream machine, which what was the ice cream machine? They had a Spaceman machine. Yeah. So we actually looked at that machine, and Zach knew right away. He's like, no, this machine. Listen, he's not going to judge another man's machine, but we did not buy that machine. We were looking for machines. Zach, though, said that he could fix that machine in like two minutes because it was a little soupy. We might have to start sending Jacob and Zach around as like a John Taffer for ice cream machines.

49:25PFT Commenter:Would be electric. I love that idea. Doesn't it always come out soupy to start, though?

49:30Big Cat:So it can come out soupy to start. The first cone is going to be soupy. If the machine's not getting enough reps, but it was coming through soft all the way through. So that's more of like a viscosity problem.

49:40PFT Commenter:Yeah. Oh, Zach diagnosed it instantly. He's like, house. He's like, yeah, I know. I know what's going on here. You'll see at the office, if the ice cream is soft, if you run a little bit into a cup, the next ice cream cone will be firm. Their machine was just kind of soft all the way through. Well, the humidity here is probably a factor or no. I mean, it was 60 degrees in the cafeteria, so I don't know if the humidity was much of a factor.

50:02Big Cat:It's indoors. It was indoors. It's definitely something they can fix pretty easily. Yeah. Yeah. And we heard that the owner of the Saints, she likes the ice cream like a little bit on the softer side. So it was actually intentional. So it's not like, you know, different strokes, different folks. What do we say?

50:15PFT Commenter:Different creams for different teams. And we went to the gym. Ted Rath just went after PFT.

50:23Big Cat:It was going to be my fire fast. Okay. We'll talk about it then. Yeah. Yeah.

50:26PFT Commenter:And also the Saints gave us a great gift for the office. They gave us the, if you remember when Drew Brees broke the record for passing yards, he got the little laminated card that just said like Drew Brees all time passing yards. And he held it up and it was very funny because it was like, this is all he gets mid game.

50:43Big Cat:It was like eight by 11 sheet of paper.

50:44PFT Commenter:Yeah. So they gave us the backup one. They made two. They gave us the backup one. We're going to hang it like a banner, which will look ridiculous because it is just a piece of paper. It's like a spotted if you can. Yeah. I spy if you can even notice it in our office.

50:59Big Cat:You probably have to take your phone out and then zoom in on the camera to be able to read it from the ground. But yeah, it is a piece quite literally of NFL history.

51:07PFT Commenter:Yeah. So great, great week. And then everyone, please watch the vlog. So if you you're listening right now, Thursday, we dropped the vlog with Friday. We're dropping over Friday. OK, with Blake Bortles. So watch it today. Blake Bortles with us in the backyard. We built a swing set for a swing set, an entire place of play set for a kid battling cancer. And it was so we started. Obviously, that entire idea was a joke where Blake has always talked about wanting to sit on a construction site, rip cigs, hang out with the guys, throw a football around. And we're like, all right, we'll go to Jacksonville.

51:44PFT Commenter:We'll do that. Then the people from Rock Solid hit us up and they're like, hey, if you're serious about this, could you come help us? yes of course it was awesome like it actually felt good to be able to do something like that the kid loved that he came out and he you know went down the slide and and he can't go to the regular park because he's immunocompromised so it's really cool blake is the man watch the vlog please help out and donate to rock solid if you can it's roc rock solid foundation uh great charity

52:15Big Cat:it sounds like they do some really really awesome work to make a lot of kids happy in some pretty tough times but that was it was an awesome time out there yeah it really was we had volunteers and we were joking like because it was what the the four of us max blake memes we even had all you know the people we had helping mulcahy's the mulcahy's helping so we had like eight of us and then there was i think four volunteers from rock solid yeah if we didn't have the four volunteers from rock solid it would have it took us like three hours i think it would have taken And we would still be building that.

52:46Easily.

52:47Big Cat:They'll help. Help. Help. At one point, Max and I just had to raise our hand and ask for an adult. Yeah. And I think everybody there was younger than us. Yeah. It was quite something.

52:58PFT Commenter:But, yeah, really cool that we got to do that. We really appreciate the people from Rock Salad. And do donate if you can. We'll post a link on all of our socials so people can help out. They do awesome. They said they build, like, I think, like, 350 playgrounds for kids. throughout the year. So they're building one like basically every day. And a lot of these kids can't go to regular playgrounds. So now they have a place to play outside through a really tough battle and really tough time. Cancer is not fair. Childhood cancer is like, you know, it's just you can't comprehend it. So shout out those people.

53:33PFT Commenter:And then also congratulations

53:35Big Cat:to Zach for winning the Golden Hammer. Yeah. Yeah. Like the game ball of the construction. You also got a Golden Hammer. Congratulations to Max. We're not going to ruin the whole vlog. Thank you, Max. Oh, wait. I also got a golden hammer. Congratulations. Wait, did anyone else get one? Yeah, I got one. Oh, wait, you got one? Yeah. I got one. I was trying me hard. Zach, you got one? Well, it's like Kellen Moore. I guess we'll get there. Let's just spoil everything. If you give out one golden hammer, I don't know that two or three matters. It kind of makes the other ones insignificant, in my opinion.

54:03PFT Commenter:Our golden hammer team would beat your golden hammer team. Our non-golden hammer team would beat your golden hammer team in football. Disagree. Me, Hank, and Blake Bortles? We're running away. I forgot about that last member there. That's on me. That's on me. He's a golfer now. He says he doesn't throw anymore. And then shout out to AWLs who met us on Bourbon Street. Great meetup. Thank you to Twisted Tea, too. People were having a lot of tweeze. It was a great time. Someone brought a game used Hank doll. That was a first. That was awesome. I signed his dick. I signed his ass. You see a lot. I've seen a lot of things over the years, but that was the first time someone brought a chewed up doll of myself.

54:42Also, when I went to my brother's house in San Diego last week, I had that. Like he had like his dog, Mookie, just came running out with me. I kind of forgot about it. Loved it. It's an unbelievable. I wasn't expecting it. But when it came running out, I was like, this is ridiculous.

54:55Big Cat:What do your parents think about the toy? They love it. They have they have them. They have everyone loves it. Yeah, like they put it. I think I sent you the picture. They put it as the star of our Christmas tree. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Hank, you're loved. You are loved. Have you come around on it finally? where now it's like, yeah, it's pretty cool that I have my own dog. It's fun. It makes me laugh. The picture, it's still like it was an insult toy by you. I can find humor in it and it makes me laugh seeing them in the wild kind of, but it's just ridiculous. I love it when somebody sends me a video of a dog just going to town.

55:27Big Cat:I actually like it when a kid's

55:29PFT Commenter:also playing with it. It's like a kid's throwing it around. It works for everyone. It's one size fits all. And then last thing before we get to Kellen Moore and Coach O. We're going to do Coach O, then Kellen Moore. Listen to Kellen Moore. One of the funniest moments of Grit Week happened during Kellen Moore's interview. I would say one of the funniest moments in Grit Week history. I'm sure we'll also get to it for Firefest. Yeah, we'll probably talk about it at Firefest. Your Firefest? Not my Firefest. Thank you to all the behind-the-scenes people. So Jonah, our sound guy all week. Jacob, Shane.

56:05PFT Commenter:I'm not going to thank Memes because of the uh nicks debacle on tuesday night uh and also you're not as much behind the scenes you're on you're on the scenes too uh caitlin the mulcahy's security guard mike it takes like colton colton colton was colton never went outside colton has just been grinding colton colton i actually asked him i was like did you go outside today on tuesday and he's like yeah i stepped out for a minute i was like did you eat he's like yeah i had a little food he was just grinding all day making sure of these interviews because it's a quick turnaround hotel Wi-Fi and all the vlogs.

56:40That's why you have to watch all the vlogs. He's just been editing every piece of content that we've been doing this whole

56:44PFT Commenter:amazing work by the bus driver

56:46Big Cat:that drove this studio around.

56:48PFT Commenter:Yeah, I had her. Yep. So a lot of a lot of people behind the scenes helping us put on a good great week. What was that Zach? No, we just had such great work that such a great week that I just get like a little animated with my hands and that's on me. Okay. Sorry about that. Yeah, no, you could don't apologize for your hand.

57:05Big Cat:I was excited. It's been such a great week. I just got a little excited. What did you do? I didn't see that. You just like, you know, you shout out the bus driver and you're like, no, we were shouting on everybody. But that one was the bus driver and you were like, yes. Yeah. Did you get a chance to meet her? That's all. What a week we've had, gentlemen. What a week. What a week.

57:21PFT Commenter:And also shout out Brandon from UNC, Sawyer from LSU and Grant from the Saints, because I was working with all those guys the last month and a half, making sure we could get all the access. And they were so, so nice. Alex with the Saints, too. Yeah, they they were very awesome to work with. Go back and forth. They made it super easy trying to get this all booked. So I appreciate their help. And yeah, it was like seamless. What are you going to say, Max? You were going to say something. I don't remember. Okay. Good point, Max. All right. Let's get to Coach O. Negative star. We're going to do Coach O.

58:01PFT Commenter:Then we're going to do Kellen Moore and finish with Fire Fest of the Week. Coach O is brought to you by our friends at Chevy. This is a truck. This is a truck. Cut. Hank, you've been doing stupid shit all week, dude. I did one stupid thing. I didn't say anything. You did your stupid face.

58:22Big Cat:Hank wasn't saying anything No but he does the fucking face He does the fucking face This time it was blatant Oh yeah you saw that right?

58:31PFT Commenter:Yeah it was disgusting We're keeping all this I'll do the ad in a second Hank's best quality is that he doesn't He just serves you looks And then he says why didn't say anything Hank walks around the barstool office Doing these disgusting looks at people And he's like I don't know why everyone thinks that I hate them Yeah, he just fucking, he's so emotive with his face. And then he's like, well, I didn't say anything. So you can't get mad at me. I didn't. You say everything with your face. Oh, yeah, memes is doing it now. Oh, yeah, yeah, that one. Shit memes. Memes does that too. Oh, that's when you have a bad idea.

59:07PFT Commenter:When you have a bad idea, Hank goes.

59:12I mean, I just looked over at Max. He goes, Max, he goes. Yeah, that's, no one thinks anything of that.

59:18Big Cat:But you know what we do? We lift our brothers up. Yeah. When they're struggling, we're like, that's fine, Max. Thanks for trying to contribute. You'll think of it soon. People love Patrick Starr. They'll look at him and go, ugh. Hank, do you think that people outside of this podcast at Barstool are scared of you? At Barstool? Yeah. Yeah.

59:40PFT Commenter:PFT. PFT. This is great for the audio listeners of that. We're just doing some real chat things. are being so funny right now we're doing some great looks all right let's get to coach oh uh there'll probably be more of this in fire fest because it is great week's always a fun week where we we spend so much time together we love each other but we also fight like uh little brothers uh all week so coach oh is brought to you by chevy this truck is the definition of grit long days dirty work and showing up day after day no matter the condition strong dependable and built for the grind because grit isn't about being flashy it's about being ready when it's time to go that's silverado all grit no quit check out the current offers and build your silverado at chevy.com we had the chevy uh silverado grit week truck driving with us mike was driving it memes was driving it making sure that uh they were they were tailing vanny woodhead in case vanny woodhead had any issues the chevy silverado is incredible we've been in the truck it is such a smooth drive It's an awesome, awesome truck.

1:00:43PFT Commenter:You get up there and you feel great. So go check out the current offers and build your Silverado at Chevy.com. Okay, here he is, Coach O. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest. We could not come to Louisiana, Baton Rouge, New Orleans without seeing our good friend, Coach O. Coach, great to have you. It's Grit Week, and it's presented by Twisted Tea. we've asked you this question before but we've got to start with it again maybe I'll ask it this way has your definition of grit changed at all and if so how has it changed not at all hey you know grit is is be able to face adversity dig in deep scrape your face against the cement when it's tough full of blood facing adversity and coming out victorious I love that I love that.

1:01:38PFT Commenter:So how is it that, like, we've been here for 24 hours. We've been here a bunch. And it's awesome that we have you here because you were one of our first very big guests on Grit Week. And we've been doing this for 10 years. Louisiana, is everyone just always wet? It feels like it's just wet. I've changed, like, three shirts today. I've had to take two different showers. It's just wet all the time. Love it. Love the sweat. And you know what? It's got to be your friend because you've got to get used to it. Yeah. Because when you come to Tiger Stadium, it's humid. And listen, we have a saying down there, the heat is our friend.

1:02:13And in order to be our friend, we have to spend a lot of time with it. Yep, yep.

1:02:17PFT Commenter:I got to spend more time with it.

1:02:18Big Cat:Got to get used to it. Yeah, so Ray Baker, the sun, and then I don't know what we're going to call the humidity. But yeah, you get used to it. You'll be good with it. It's like a steam room. It is a steam room. We stopped by Mike the Tiger's pen on the way. Show us out of respect. Wanted to say hi to Mike. And talked to Coach Kiffin. he hasn't met Mike the Tiger yet. And I feel like that's something that you have to do as head coach at Louisiana State. You have to look Mike the Tiger in the eyes and develop a mutual respect, or at least show that bond. Spend some time with him. Spend some time with him, yeah.

1:02:50Big Cat:So do you remember the first time that you locked eyes with Mike the Tiger? Yeah. You know, I remember we had some recruits, and I was actually working under Coach Miles, and he had a deal where he knew the person that would feed the Tiger. So we got to go in there and feed the Tigers some raw meat and see how he reacted after raw meat. It was pretty good. So we became friends with you. Associated you with violence. Yeah.

1:03:16PFT Commenter:We also brought up, I was asking him a story about, I don't know if you remember this, the Tennessee-Alabama game when you were coaching with Coach Kiffin, getting the team fired up before that game. Because that was a big game at the time. Who was it that blocked the, it was a block kick? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What's his name? Big Cody. Big Cody, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he took his helmet off. Should have been a penalty. Should have been a penalty. But the story goes that you smashed a projector before to get the boys fired up. Yeah, probably something like that. How many things do you think you've smashed before?

1:03:49PFT Commenter:Because obviously it worked. You have a national title. You're a very accomplished head coach. And also, I would say one of the best motivators, just being around you, the little bit I have, one of the best motivators I've ever seen. But would it be like, hey, we need this game, so I'm going to smash. Would it go up in size depending on how important the game was? No question. So what's something small and then what's something like, all right, this is the biggest game of the season? Yeah, you know, one of the things I used to like to do is get a bunch of sharks attacking people with blood. You know, and see them attack and tear their legs off and stuff like that.

1:04:25And have like a defensive lineman going after a quarterback. and then you see the shark attack the person in the defensive line and go out to the quarterback.

1:04:34PFT Commenter:A video of this? Yeah, a video. Show the team right before the game. This is who we are. This is who the quarterback is. And this is what we want him to look like. Be a shark. Be a shark. Be a shark.

1:04:45Big Cat:Yeah. I like that a lot. So what have you been up to? I feel like it's been a while since we talked to you. You're back here in Baton Rouge, which is amazing. I mean, I feel like this is – you're still a king. You'll always be a king in this city. But what have you been up to these days? You know, first of all, I had all three of my boys in the college football playoffs. Wow. My twin boys, two at Miami and one at Tulane. Yeah. And, man, I went to all the games I could. And believe me, I saw some great games. I love the college football playoffs this year. Yeah. I thought there were some great games.

1:05:16And, you know, so I got to see Ohio State play for the first time. I got to see Ole Miss and Miami play. I got to see the championship game.

1:05:24Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah, I watched my son at Tulane. And I just saw some great players with great teams. And then after that, I moved back here. I've been with my boxing trainer. I go box every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning from 9 to 11. Two hours. Yeah, that takes a lot out of me. And I went this morning. And I'll go again tomorrow morning if y 'all want to come. I think we're out on morning workouts. I'm more of a yoga guy myself. You got to take hot yoga or something. Bring it on, boy. But anyway, I've really been enjoying coming home. I've attended a lot of events. I've been to LSU baseball game for the first time.

1:06:03I had a company. I brought them around. We saw Coach Kiffin. We went to the facility. I went to Tiger Stadium for the first time. And so it was good to be back.

1:06:13Big Cat:Yeah, that's great. So you spent a lot of time around the Miami football program this year. Yeah. You're a defensive line guy. Tell me about that defensive line and just how intense and how violent they were because they were so impressive to me. Yeah, they were. And, you know, that's what Mario built that team around. And Bain and Mesidor were phenomenal football players, even better workers. And Jason did a great job of coaching them. I thought they got better as the season went on. And Bain's Ohio State game, he started revving it up a little bit. Those guys took over in the playoffs, man. It was great to see, especially their pass rush ability.

1:06:49Unbelievable.

1:06:49PFT Commenter:Do you, as someone who knows the defensive line as well as you do, do you take any credence in, like, the NFL scouting Bain and being like, oh, his arms are too short? Or is it like, hey, man, this guy could ball. It doesn't matter. A baller's a baller. Like, just let him play. You know, remember they told Joe Burrow his hands were too small? You remember that? Yeah, yeah. His hands were too small. Yeah. You know, I think that could be overstated. Sometimes it's right. Sometimes it's wrong with this guy. He's a football player. He's a baller. I don't know why he dropped to Tampa Bay. I thought he was going to go top 10, but I thought Tampa Bay did a great job of drafting him.

1:07:29He's in a great place. I think he's going to have a great career.

1:07:32PFT Commenter:So when we're talking about the NFL draft, and it's interesting because it feels like a lot of times a lot of these guys are very similar in traits and production, and it kind of comes down to who loves football and who loves football to a level that it's going to take to be good in the NFL. How long do you think it would take you to sit with someone Before you can determine like that's a guy who loves football Or that guy doesn't love football Two minutes Two minutes See teams should hire you Honestly that would be incredible if you just went around Yeah You're just Just talk to me about ball and I'll find out very quickly I'll find out easy Do we We love football right?

1:08:09PFT Commenter:Yeah No question Yeah yeah Well Hey I came here I'm trying to talk to y 'all Y 'all checking the scores or something Yeah I don't know what's playing right now I'm going to take some score. No, we do.

1:08:19Big Cat:We do absolutely love football. Throughout the last few years since you've been out of the game, did you fall out of love of football? Never. Are you coming back, you love it more? Oh, my, yeah, always. I'm always going to be involved in football somehow. You know, I've got my three boys coaching. I go to practice every Tuesday at Miami. Sometimes I go to Tulane. I go to games on Saturday. If I'm not at a game, I'm watching football from Saturday morning until I fall asleep on the sofa. And I'm keeping up with it all. You know, I get up. Now, I got to admit, you know, when I was young, I used to get up and look at the Twitter machine.

1:08:54I look at nice girls, you know what I mean? Now I look at football and TikTok. I told Joe, I said, the other night, I'm watching you on a Pilates machine at 1 o 'clock in the morning. I know I'm getting old, you know what I mean?

1:09:07PFT Commenter:Is it? So Mario did an incredible job with his Miami team. Feels like he has everything in that program going in the right direction. What is it – like, it must feel very – it must feel awesome to see a guy who you knew way back when he was a player to have this type of success. And, like, what is that when you're watching some of the guys that you've touched throughout the years? So happy. Look, he's been around some great coaches. He's learned. But I've been with him since his first day of practice. Right. And I saw him change that roster and get better and better and better in the size of the line.

1:09:42His offensive line, you guys don't. And he built that team after the Miami blueprint on defense, but after his blueprint on offense, he wanted to be big and smash mouth football. Look, the thing about paying players and transfer portal and NIL, you hear none of that at Miami. When you go out to practice, Mario's the head coach. Everybody's got it. Everything's in line. It's a pecking order. Yes, sir. No, sir. and they practice it and you don't hear none of that BS and they practice as a Miami football team. That's what I'm most proud of.

1:10:17Big Cat:Yeah, that's cool. Over the years, since you've seen so much football, I hear a lot of coaches sometimes talk about different positions that they coach. Some say the positions are being taught differently. Some might not think that they're being taught as well as they were back in the day. What do you see from the defensive line? Is defensive line play, has it gotten consistently better over the years? I see the teams that I watch, I see great defensive line coaches. If not, I'm going to fix it. I'm going to jump in there and fix it. I'll tell you that right now. But they know I'm there. But, you know, Miami's got some great defensive line coaches, and I really like the way they coach.

1:10:56Tulane, I think Tulane did a great job of coaching their defensive line. Now, I see on TV some guys don't know how to play blocks well. You know, I see some teams getting – some players getting double teamed, getting knocked out of the gap, not playing with great technique. So, I can't see it. I see everybody playing with great technique. Right. And I'm not going to say what team, but they piss me off when I see it.

1:11:18Big Cat:Right. Is there one guy that you've seen over the course of your career coaching, like the most dominant defensive lineman that you've had a chance to be around? All the time. Sap. Yeah. Yeah. You know, when Sap took off in his stance, this is what you heard. Like a snake. I never heard that before. I didn't tell nobody.

1:11:48That's how fast he was. He was 265 and he ran a 4. No, he's 275 and ran a 4.65.40 and he was mean as hell.

1:11:59PFT Commenter:But Sap, he got it now. You know what I'm saying? So we're here at LSU. It's different here. It really is. If you've never been here, go to a game. It's different. Your guy, Lane Kiffin, is now the head coach. Have you given him any advice on what it is like here and the culture? Because there's certain schools and certain jobs that are just completely different than the rest of 100 other jobs. And I count LSU as one of them. I'm sure you would agree. embrace the state of Louisiana and its people. Use it as your advantage. Recruit them. Love them. Keep them involved. And when you walk down that Tiger Walk and there's 30 ,000 people, your feet are going to be that high.

1:12:48But when you walk out that little tunnel, that little square that looks so small, and you walk in there, there's 100 ,000 people screaming at the top of their lung. It's an energy level that you have never felt before. Use it as your advantage for your team. Recruit them every day.

1:13:06PFT Commenter:Right. Yeah, that's good advice. Because it is. It just feels like this state and this program, they're so intertwined in a way that maybe Ohio State, maybe Alabama, but other than that, there's just not a lot of places like this. And look, we're the only big school in the state. Right. Saturday night, everybody's watching the Tigers. Now, you guys were there at Superdome. You remember that energy? Oh, yeah. You remember when we pulled up to that Superdome? There was 300 people in front of the bus out of Marriott. They wanted to let us leave. Yeah. So we'd go Tigers. Yeah. And then when we pulled up there, it was a synergy.

1:13:41It was an energy that you just can't match at other places. Maybe Alabama. Maybe somewhere else. But right here, we're the only big school in the state.

1:13:52PFT Commenter:Yeah. And actually, you know what the funny thing is? Because we were at the Superdome for the national championship game. Incredible game. when I tell people to come to Death Valley and come on a Saturday night I actually tell them we went to a game when you guys lost 28-0 or maybe 29-0 to Alabama and that pregame and even in the first quarter and the second quarter it was still so goddamn loud and you guys had nothing going on offense that was the year before the year and it's like that told me everything it wasn't when you're on top it's when you're still climbing and people are still going nuts and crazy for you.

1:14:28That's what I told Lane. Look, recruit them. They're going to be there for you thick and thin. The guy before didn't do it. And you cannot disassociate yourself with these people because this is their life. Now look, rich, poor, indifferent, North Louisiana, South Louisiana, all rich man, they are all the same. And look, those cooks and those people that work on the offshore, they're pulling for them tigers, man. They listen doing it on the radio. They watch it on TV. They betting on it. That's their life.

1:14:59Big Cat:Have you gone back and watched that championship game? You know, I've never watched the whole thing. Every once in a while, I watch bits and peaches like they have on the internet and stuff like that. I watch Jamar Chase eating that corner back up. You should do that sometime. It would be fascinating. What you should do is you should watch it and you should sit there with a microphone and a recorder and just give your thoughts as the game goes on. Relive it. Put yourself back in those shoes because at the start, it wasn't, yeah, you guys ended up blowing them out. But at the beginning, it was a little back and forth.

1:15:35Big Cat:It was a little dicey. I don't know how you felt at the time. But in the stands, I was nervous watching because I wanted you guys to win so much. At the very beginning, you know, it wasn't a blowout from the very kickoff. Back and forth, we'll get an ass kick. Yeah. I mean, what happened is we should have never took that penalty. We didn't want to take the penalty. It was a mistake. And we gave them five more yards. No, no, no. We put them five yards back so they can put the ball on the minus three yard line. And they were blessing us. They were commenting. We couldn't pick it up. And I remember saying this.

1:16:08And they asked me this about Joe Brady. By the way, I think the Buffalo Bills got a great coach. That's another guy. Yeah, right. He got a great coach. Okay. And they asked me this. Tell me something about Joe. I said, well, you know, obviously it helps put in the spread. But we're losing against Clemson, and I'm about to lose my shit. I'm not happy. What the hell's going on? And Joe Brady got on the headset and said, hey, stick to their plan. We're all right. And you know what? That made me feel good because somebody on the other side had enough confidence to tell the head coach, hey, we're all right.

1:16:40Just calm down. We're going to make it. And he was right.

1:16:43Big Cat:Yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts. You should watch it again because it was an amazing game, and especially the second half when you guys just turned it on. And it was so much fun to watch. You should go back and watch that, if for no other reason than to just be like, you know, that was an amazing time in Louisiana State football history.

1:17:01PFT Commenter:I have a question about, because you're right, PFT, I have a question about a different game, because that game back and forth, the game before that against Oklahoma, has enough time passed that you can admit that, like, in the first quarter, you're like, this is going to be fucking easy? What? I played on a high school team. I actually became a fan I was on the sideline going Go Joe go Wow You had a coach Every play You test like that Hey look at this shit Wow You see that play Joe just made And even Justin Jefferson They couldn't cover him And plus our defense played very well too 63-28 and you guys were up 49-14 at halftime.

1:17:49PFT Commenter:Yeah. That's, yeah, that's time to just be like, hey, because most coaches will say, and they'll be like, oh, no, you got to play until the last one. That was a game. Watching it on TV, I was like, this is just not, they're just, no one's on their level right now. You guys are just playing at a different level, and it's not fair. Yeah, and it was. And, you know, and you're right, Big Cat. Look, as a coach, you rarely want to say that, but there's sometimes you got to say, you know what, look at this shit, man. Wow. That game definitely deserved that.

1:18:20Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah, we got him. So how are things right now between you and Louisiana State?

1:18:25PFT Commenter:Great. On good terms, everything's good? Great. Oh, yeah.

1:18:28Big Cat:I assume the people just love you. Feel the love when you come. Even more. Yeah. Even more since the last debacle. Yeah, that's true. What were your honest thoughts when he went out onto that basketball court the very first time? It's over. He ain't got a chance. He ain't got a chance, man. And, you know, not only do the fans see it, the players see that.

1:18:49PFT Commenter:Yeah. And they're like. Yeah, what was that? You know, one of the things, and you guys know this, man, the players got to trust you. You got to be who you are. If you try to be somebody you ain't, they're going to smell it right away.

1:19:01Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah. I don't think anyone ever had that question about you and about your love for the university. So, with Joe Brady, we're a big fan of his too. Love Joe. That was kind of a roll of the dice that you took when you had co-offensive coordinators, right? Like, no one knew that was going to work out. What was it about Joe that made you confident that it's going to be a good match between him and Burrow? Look, I think I told you guys this before. I made a 10 on my ACT, okay? All right? A 10? You did not tell us that. So you spelled your name correct. Yeah, I got it. All right. But I got a thing called situational awareness that I'll trade that in for anything.

1:19:42PFT Commenter:Yeah. And I can walk in a room, I can figure shit out. You know, I was in the boardrooms when I was 15 years old. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And, you know, you learn a lot in those boardrooms. It's true, though. What you're saying, and I completely agree, is like knowing you could be the smartest person in the world, but if you don't have any sense of where your blind spot's on, you can look like a fool. Whereas someone who might not be the smartest person in the world, if they know where their blind spots are, they have the self-awareness to realize that, that person goes farther. Apply it.

1:20:12And so we wanted to learn the RPOs. And he was at Penn State with the guy that was at Mississippi State, and he knew it. And we knew some guys at the Saints. I was at the Saints. Coach Michael was at the Saints. They said, look, Joe knows the RPOs. Let's bring them over. So we did some personnel deal. And I walked into the room, and he was on the board. And it took me about two minutes, and I said, you know what? This guy is special. I want him on my staff. I didn't say nothing to anybody. and as the season went on, that game, 28-29-0, I went up to Steve's man and said, who is the general of everything?

1:20:51You got to give, if there's an MVP, give it to Steve because without him, it wouldn't have worked. I went in to see us and said, Steve, I've been mistaken. I thought we had to match Alabama's physicality. I said, Steve, let's go to the spread. He goes, you know what? You're right. I said, I got somebody who can teach it. Are you willing? Are you receptive to learning it and let them teach it, and let's totally go into it. Because with Joe, I know with Joe, Jamar, and the guys that we have, it's going to be great. He said, yeah. And we hired Joe Brady, and off we went.

1:21:23PFT Commenter:That's genius because then the next year you have the game in Alabama, two of us, Joe Burrow, that was just a shootout. And it was like you guys beat Alabama the way that they had started to beat everyone else. One of my favorite times, besides the one at Clemson, you know, on Thursday night, coaches go home. You know, we wore out, go home at 6 o 'clock. Not Joe Brady. Joe Brady's going to sit in there, and he's going to watch every NFL touchdown in the red zone and study it and come up with maybe an extra game plan. And I got into work about 6 o 'clock that morning, and Joe was just leaving the office.

1:22:04And this is all he told me. Coach, I got him. I went, yes! And he had him. I mean, that three-level route we were at the Clyde in the end zone after the interception, I saw Saban scratching his head, and I got all the respect in the world for Coach Saban. When we were slicing and dicing in Alabama, I never seen our guys that wide open. I'm like, look at this shit, man. Wow. And he had him. He had him. He did.

1:22:32Big Cat:Yeah, he seems like he's set up for success, too, because Josh is obviously a great quarterback, and he's been working with him for the last few years, so excited to see what he does leading a team. What did you see out of him in terms of leadership qualities where he could take that next step to not just be coordinator but command respect on all sides of the ball? You know, he said this, and just like myself, it takes a while. Pete Carroll told me, you're going to find out who you are, who you are as a man and who you are as a coach, what you do well. He said, Eddie, do that. He said, the thing that you don't do well, hire people that do it just as well as you.

1:23:10That's what I did. I'm motivated, recruited, toughness, defensive line. Joe's going to coach the offense. He got a great defensive coordinator. I think the guy from Wisconsin is going to do a great job with him. But I do believe he's going to delegate. But Joe understands that he's got to set the standard and hold the standard up high, give everybody their job, and hold them accountable. and I do believe he's going to hold him accountable.

1:23:35Big Cat:He learned from the best when it comes to motivating. What did you do? Did you have like a special motivational plan that you put in place the night before the championship game? I feel like that's got to weigh heavy on your shoulders. It's like this is the biggest stage of them all and everyone knows that you always bring the energy and you're going to do something. What was that like? Game planning or something? What were the options? Did you have different things that you thought of going into that week? Yeah. Yeah. Man, the night before is the motivational speech, you know. The men are walking in there.

1:24:08Bruce Thelma's in there. Everybody's in there. And they're all looking at me like the coaches are looking at me. And one of the things I did, I got to tell you all this before. Coach Carroll did this with us. We were playing Michigan, and we were riding this Mercedes on a Friday, and he could tell we was uptight. He goes, hey, guys, we're going to play our best game tomorrow. It's already done. You guys got to go do it. I want to guarantee you guys, Coach Schwab will play our best game. And we had like 12 sacks. But he gave us that confidence here. So we had gone and I had to meet with Dabo Sweeney, those little fire side chats, whatever they have and all that.

1:24:49And Dabo got to ask me a question, and I was asked Dabo a question, not how you tackle Aton or something like that. And he goes, well, can you do me a favor and not play Joe? And I almost said, I almost said, I didn't plan on playing for the fourth quarter anyway. That would be great. But I didn't. So I get in the staff meeting, and look, it's the day before the championship game, and I'm all right. I know we're going to win. And I walk in there and Steve has me and the staff. The staff's looking at me like we looked at Coach Carroll. I told them that story. They started laughing. I said, hey, guys, I almost said, yeah, I ain't going to play Joe in the fourth quarter.

1:25:42It gave them all the confidence. So I went in there tonight. I said, well, we're going to play our best game tomorrow. Why shouldn't we? We've done it 14 games in a row. Right. What's changed? You practice well. You're done well. We've got great players. We've got great coaches. Guys, it's already written. Let's go get it done. But we've got to get it done. And everybody in the room just went, just relax, man. It's like, let's go.

1:26:08PFT Commenter:Right. Right. Love it. Do you miss being able to motivate guys on a daily or weekly basis? Because if you ever want to just motivate us, you can. You can just call us up and just give us a little, you know, hey, you're going to run through a brick wall for this podcast tomorrow. I like that. You know, well, I do notice that it just rained, and the humidity is really hot out there. We can sort of go do some get-offs, you know, up and down the field, like run some Tom games, some X games, make sure that we're mentally short for the game. Yeah, yeah. I just retired from running a couple weeks ago, so can't do that.

1:26:46Big Cat:Are you still running? You go for your jogs every day? Running, boxing, yeah, doing it all, man.

1:26:51PFT Commenter:Are you benching? Do you bench still? I got to tell you, man, I wish in 2015 I tore my rotator cuffs, and I haven't benched since. So I'm doing the stupid little cable curls just like everybody else. But I never wanted to get operated on my bench, on my rotator cuffs, so I had to give it up. That's a long recovery.

1:27:13Big Cat:That's like a nine-month recovery from a shoulder surgery. I didn't want to walk around Southeast like this.

1:27:18PFT Commenter:Yeah, no, that's a vibe killer. Yeah, absolute vibe killer. I like that. That's what hurt my neck.

1:27:28PFT Commenter:Do you still go back down to where you're from in southern Louisiana? Do you ever still go visit and stuff? Yeah. What's it like down there? Always back to my roots. Yeah? Do you still have people? I mean, I'm sure people are tremendously proud of you down there. My brother lives there. My mother lives there. She's 84 years old. She's still the same. Acorn didn't fall far from the tree. Every time we go, she's going to cook two pots of food. You know, we got to go eat. I go ride by my high school. I take my wife down there. She hasn't been down there with me. We go down to Grand Isle. I go see my friends.

1:28:02And the other day we had a recognition party for one of my old coaches. Bobby Ebert was there. We were all there. The boys were there. They were drinking at 10 o 'clock in the morning, and they were drinking at 10 o 'clock at night when I left. That's incredible. Just having fun. But, you know, I've been more involved in the community things down here than I ever have, and I enjoy it.

1:28:27PFT Commenter:That's awesome. When you go back, do people, like, make fun of you and say that you've lost a little bit of your accent? Never. Okay, because that would be funny if, like, it's just even thicker-accented, you know, Cochos. We start talking French, and it's all over. Give us something in French. What do they say? I don't want to say the KVS the KVS the KVS the KVS the KVS the KVS you know what I just said hey you're wanting some crawfish how was the crawfish oh Trebier Trebier Trebier Trebier that's awesome yeah I mean Louisiana is such a cool state because it really is I tell people like if you want to go you could basically take a vacation outside of America in America when you go to New Orleans or you go to different places It's just the culture is so unique and different.

1:29:17PFT Commenter:It's awesome. That's what makes this stage the people. Look, guys, they don't come here to see the mosquitoes, the humidity, and the alligators because of the people and the culture. Actually, Baton Rouge is right here, but North Louisiana is different. Then you go all the way to New Orleans, and New Orleans is like a different country. Then you go down where I'm from, that's totally different than everything else. So there's a lot of things to experience here. But I think it's what the people, the people make it. But LSU makes the state of Louisiana. Yeah. And everybody loves the LSU Tigers. Does this, like, southern Louisiana where you're from, do you guys like spicier food or any, like, what do you look at northern Louisiana as you're like, you guys don't do this correctly?

1:30:02Well, you know, northern Louisiana, yeah, they're, I went to school in north Louisiana. I like it. I like the people up there. but they got a twang. They got a different accent. They don't have a Cajun accent. They don't speak French. They don't cook a roux like we do and gumbo like we do, kind of like Southern Arkansas food or Southern food like that. They're just a little bit different. Yeah. But they are Louisiana.

1:30:24Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah. I think it's the friendliest state. Like everybody here has always been so nice to us, and we absolutely love it. So if you're looking at Shreveport, what city in Louisiana would Shreveport be like the biggest rival for? Shreveport being the biggest rival like you look at Shreveport Ruston, Monroe all that I-20 corridor right there and then you also look at that, that's the Arklatex too. You got Arkansas Louisiana and Texas and that is a great area of football. Yeah I was going to say which part's the best of football? Which part's the best football? Oh, Shreveport? No, no, just in Louisiana.

1:31:07In Louisiana? Oh, definitely in New Orleans. Yeah. There's more schools and more players in New Orleans. It's great. Baton Rouge's got some great teams. Ruston, Monroe have always had national state champions. Great players there. But you're looking at the more football players come from the city in New Orleans.

1:31:26PFT Commenter:Would there ever be a – I would assume this happened, but like a recruit, like five-star recruit in Louisiana that you didn't even have to do anything. He just had to show up and be like, you're a tiger. Because that is something different in this state, where there are kids that it's not even an option. It's just they're a tiger. 80%. Yeah. That's what I used to say. 99 % of the young men that were born in the state of Louisiana at some time or another wanted to run through the goalposts. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? And he just got to recapture it.

1:31:59Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah. So I imagine that you still – Do you have the itch to get out there and recruit again?

1:32:07I do some recruiting. I've been asked to call some people, really, like before signing day or something like that. In fact, we had a couple of guys about ready to flip. And I knew their families, and they didn't flip. Yeah, the closer. Yeah, you are the closer.

1:32:27PFT Commenter:I mean, we said it the first time we met you. It is really cool that you're doing this because I think the first time we had you on, it was early, I think it was the third or fourth grit week. And it was such a big, we can't thank you enough because it really was like a big moment for the show. Helped us out a lot, yeah. To have you on the show. What was your first impression of us? Were you like, who the fuck are these guys? No. They're talented. They're on their way. But they're good guys. You know, and really, situational awareness. I felt good people. And, you know, y 'all didn't come in there begging for nothing or asking us for nothing.

1:32:59Y 'all just fit in with us. And we like to fit in. You know, sports people know the code. And once you know the code and you know how to act and you don't go around people, you guys get the code. Yeah. It's cool. Some guys don't get the code. They don't. They're not blessed with it. We're blessed with the code. Yeah. We get the code.

1:33:19Big Cat:That's the fucking biggest compliment ever. The one guy that might not get the code, he's not here right now. Yeah, Hank's not here. Hank's not here.

1:33:24PFT Commenter:He actually doesn't get the code for skipping the Coach O interview.

1:33:27Big Cat:No, he doesn't. But maybe he does get the code because he knew that he would not get the code and it wouldn't be good for him to be here. Right. He's a self-aware not-code-knower. He would probably ask about the code and we'd be like,

1:33:37PFT Commenter:dude, if you have to ask, you can't afford it. You don't know. You can't afford the code.

1:33:39Big Cat:Yeah. We have a new guy I don't think that you've met yet, Coach O. I think he knows the code. Yeah.

1:33:45PFT Commenter:I guess we'll find out. Should we give it a shot? Yeah. Let me do the rowback 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, promo code TIG I'm wearing it right now Coach O has done some Roback stuff So he loves Roback as well Alright Zach Coach, how are you doing today my man? How are you doing? Doing well sir I was curious As someone who's able to go into a program On such a stage like LSU If you had any words and advice For like younger coaches Who had those same aspirations That want to go in and make an impact With a team I would advise a young coach, go to work early, keep your mouth shut, take notes, listen, find the winners on the staff.

1:34:33I found Jimmy Johnson, and I listened to every word Jimmy Johnson said and wrote notes. And, you know, the impact of my team, of this 2019 team, all started with a smart quarterback. And I learned that from Coach Johnson. So the things as a young coach that you will learn, you will later be able to implement those things when you get your chance. Thank you, sir. Good question. Great follow-up question. Coach, with the L2 Tigers being such a, you know, The team is ingrained in the city. Like you were saying a little bit earlier, whether it's the gentleman's flying the planes or they're cooking a gumbo in the restaurants, they come together with one common thing, and that is the team.

1:35:21Did you know right away that you were going to be at the forefront of that and have to produce for the people of the city, or is that something you kind of came into and adopted? Hey, I was born with it. I was raised in the state of Louisiana. Nobody ever had to tell me about the expectations of LSU. I got it. I saw it from a home. I saw it from a mother, a grandma. I saw it from coaches. And I understood that everybody was just LSU. You know what I'm saying? But I knew that the people wanted to be involved. They wanted to be part of. And then when you got them to be a part of, they'd fight like heck for you.

1:35:58And that's what I did. I felt like we pulled the whole state together. Awesome.

1:36:03PFT Commenter:Good job, Zach. Great job, Zach. You like Zach? Zach, yeah. Zach's our new guy. He's not even that new. He's a year old. He's been a good part of the team. A plus. Oh, wow. That means more you know. Thank you very much. He might be too shy to ask you this, Coach.

1:36:16Big Cat:Have you ever had a problem sleeping in? Missing alarms? Have you ever had a problem sleeping in? Or have you always been able to wake up on time? Look, man.

1:36:30I've been some nights. Yeah. Walked straight up the stairs. I wasn't going to show up. I was always going to show up at work There ain't no way I wasn't going to show up at work Now, if I went to bed at 10, 11 o 'clock Waking up at 5 Was no problem Not when I used to come in at 4.30 Waking up at 5 Used to be a little problem

1:36:51Big Cat:But we're moving past that We're working on it Actually, I just got a text From Booger McFarlane He says hello He says that he just hung out with you in Mobile A few weeks ago He's a big fan of yours Booger's a great guy, too. You know, he was put in the Hall of Fame, Senior Bowl Hall of Fame. Okay. And now I've always been proud of Booger. I just love him. Yeah. His quickness is from Louisiana. I always represented that. But the way he speaks, he's so smart and so articulate. He just represents the people in Louisiana in an elite way. Yeah. He's a great guy.

1:37:27PFT Commenter:Yeah. Well, Coach O, we love having you on. You're an integral part of our show. You're in the book. Thank you again for writing a chapter in the book. And we really appreciate your friendship. Well, we're family guys. Whenever y 'all need me, I'm there. Whenever I need y 'all, I know I can call on y 'all, but I want to congratulate y 'all on the success that you've had. But I will say this. I saw Joe Burrow the other night. With all the success he has, he's never changed. Neither have y 'all. You're the same guys, man. But that's what makes y 'all unique. and I'm going to be the same guy every day.

1:38:05I ain't changing for nobody. I'm going to be me. I'm going to teach my kids to be me. And you guys are living a great life, and I'm proud of you. Thank you so much.

1:38:14Big Cat:We appreciate it. And you're damn right. Whatever you need, we got your back.

1:38:18PFT Commenter:I don't know what you could possibly need from us. It doesn't matter. But we got it.

1:38:21Big Cat:We got it.

1:38:21PFT Commenter:And we'll figure out a way to make it happen. We got it. No problem. You need a worm? You need us to get you a worm? I'll get you a worm. So you put it in your mouth for a pump-up speech? We'll get you a worm. Thank you, man. I got to say the things that we did, we did in January. It went viral, man. It was all over the place. I mean, the worm. The worm was incredible. Pulling a worm out of your mouth for a pump-up speech. All right. Thanks so much, Coach O. Thank you, guys.

1:38:46Big Cat:Coach O was brought to you by our great friends over at Reese's. What's that, Big Cat? That's a Reese's. Thank you. That's a Reese's. All the Reese's we could ever want. It's the best. It's the best candy in the world. You guys know it. Chocolate, peanut butter, game changer. One of the goats. It's Mount Rushmore of candy. Some fans believe in teams of destiny, but I believe everything happens for a Reese's. That's right. Reese's. You got the chocolate. You got the peanut butter. They got all the different flavors, new varieties. We have the Reese's Marshmallow, the Reese's Strawberry PB &J. We've been snacking on those all week.

1:39:18Big Cat:We love Reese's. It actually got us through that long 10-hour drive. It took us from Jacksonville all the way to New Orleans, eating Reese's in the front seat the entire time. it's almost like you were destined to get one right now because everything happens for Reese's Reese's the official candy partner of Barstow Sports everything happens for Reese's get yours at Hersheyland.com slash Reese's and now here is head coach of the New

1:39:45PFT Commenter:Orleans Saints Kellen Moore okay we now welcome on a very very very very special guest it is head coach of the New Orleans Saints, Kellen Moore. And it is Grit Week presented by Reese's. So coach, thank you for joining us. Let's start with the question we ask everyone on Grit Week. What does the word grit mean to you? Appreciate you having me. Grit, I think we use this word tough around here a lot. I think there's some similarities. We always say be your best regardless of the circumstance. I think it ties to grit. Be your best. There's good days. There's bad days. You've got to hang in there and you've got to keep going.

1:40:22Big Cat:Yeah. I like that. It's a good answer. It's a good answer. You had some good days. You had some bad days last year. Like first season as a head coach, you know, you have to kind of leave your mark on the organization and kind of mold it in the way that you see things. What's the biggest change that you see after being here for a full season going into year two now? Yeah, I just think we have awesome guys, awesome locker room for us to kind of navigate the season that we had last year. There's a lot of guys that it would be really hard on, and our guys stuck with them, stuck with each other the entire time.

1:40:51I mean, I think we were 1-8 at one point going to Carolina in the division game, and our guys were still having fun and getting better each week, and I felt like we finished the right way. We finished with the sights, you know, with where we can take this thing.

1:41:02PFT Commenter:Yeah. We've asked Sean McVay this because we've had him on a few times, and when he was hired, he was very young in his 30s. You're in your 30s. Is it hard to, like, be that voice, that leadership voice, and be like, I'm also kind of some of you guys, I'm your, you know, I was playing against you or, you know, like I know, like especially some of the guys. I mean, Cam Jordan, like, you know, you were in the league at the same time as him. Is that is that difficult to get through? I think I'm getting to the tail end of it. I'm 37. So I'm like, OK, a couple of these guys are still hanging hanging around, which is awesome.

1:41:32Good for those guys. When I was younger, I was a coordinator in Dallas at 31 and shoot half the offensive room I played with two years before that. And so it was a unique deal when I'm playing with Dak. And the next thing you know, you're you're coaching that room. And so it was a lot of fun.

1:41:45PFT Commenter:Can I give you a tip? I think you've got to go mustache. Can you grow a mustache? I try. I like to call it the Paul Pierce, if you guys remember when he was a mustache. Yeah, I'm very familiar with that. Yeah, a little face baldness. It's in a tough spot. You can go to Turkey.

1:41:59Big Cat:They actually do the transplants for your face in Turkey where they can give you some beauty. It might be something to consider. That could be good. McVay told us about that. I probably shouldn't say that on there. Oops, sorry, Sean. Yeah, he gets face injections. He's thinking about getting the face injections for that. That's a good idea.

1:42:12PFT Commenter:But listen, this is what being a coach in the NFL is. Like you have to look for any competitive advantage, right? No doubt. So Turkey, let's do it. We actually do a series called Bald Stool where we send a bunch of our guys from the office and some of the stoolies to Turkey to get hair transplants. I'm going to say right now, full trip paid for if you'd like to go. Let's do a little research. Let's do a little research. We'll see what we can pull off.

1:42:36Big Cat:You know what? Yeah. You can always like dye the sides too gray. You can go prematurely gray. Like just put that on yourself like a reverse Pepe Le Pew look. Yeah. It might be good. That'd be nice. We can see all of it. I've got kind of a real question for you about the different dynamic. You obviously go from being an offensive coordinator. Now you're a head coach. There's a dynamic between the OC and the head coach. I think it's really interesting, especially for you, because ideally it should be the same job. And I think 99 % of the time you guys are in alignment for what you want to do as an OC versus what you want to do as a head coach.

1:43:09Big Cat:But there are some times where as a head coach, I know in the past you've had some times where maybe the coach wants to run the ball more and you want to throw the ball more and there's a bigger kind of like game plan that you're looking at from a head coach's perspective um and that doesn't always work from what the oc is always trying to do but now now as a head coach is that ever in conflict like do you how do you see it from a different perspective now i think you see the whole perspective a little bit more just from a defense perspective because when you're an oc you're on the sideline kind of getting ready for the next drive and when you're the head coach you're out there watching the whole thing.

1:43:43I think my experience has been awesome. I've been with a bunch of head coaches that were all offensive mindset coaches. And so it was a lot of fun. I think our goal always was ultimately my job was to create an offense in the identity of the head coach. And so us working together. And so I got to experience that in a couple of different spots, which was fun. And so now you kind of get to see the whole perspective. You see how the defense, you know, there's times where, hey, the defense on the field for a long time, probably going no huddles, probably not the best idea, you know, coming out of the gates.

1:44:10And so So you kind of got to pick and choose your battles there.

1:44:12Big Cat:Do you think that was a fair criticism of you when you were younger, that you didn't take that into consideration when you were calling the plays? I think you always get to grow each and every experience, get to learn from those times. I think in Dallas and Philly, we played a lot of different styles. In Philly, we ran the ball a ton. In Dallas, we probably threw it a lot. And you find something in the middle. Because for the record, I thought that that criticism was bullshit. Put it on the record. It was like, yeah, Kellen Moore is a great offense. he's scoring a ton of points, so you should say thank you.

1:44:41Big Cat:Yeah. We still ran the ball, Lola. We had Zeke and Tony. We were really good about it. Whoa, whoa. I didn't say which head coach said it. Yeah. It could have been anybody.

1:44:48PFT Commenter:In Philly, the Super Bowl year, did it feel – I mean, I don't know how to ask this question. Cheating is the wrong word, but did it feel like you were on easy mode when Saquon would just rip like 60-yard touchdowns? Would you call that? Were you like, hey, let's do the 60-yard touchdown play? It was a good idea. Because it felt like it was every week. The best was, yeah. I mean, it got to the point where we were rushing it 40 times a game. I mean, it was just a matter of if we get 40 rushes, we'll probably win. You know, defense is playing really good football. And, you know, Jalen and AJ and Smitty, you know, kind of when we needed to get some passing game stuff going, we did it.

1:45:21And I think my favorite play was the snow touchdown by Saquon. Yep. Because that play pretty much was drawn up in the dirt on the sideline by Saquon. And the other line, just like, just give me this run play and we'll make it work. And I think there was an unblocked guy and Saquon made a miss. and he's running down the sideline. It was a pretty cool moment. That is cool.

1:45:40PFT Commenter:So how much is – as OC and now head coach, how much are you listening to the players? Because obviously you have an idea in your head of like, hey, this is what we want to do. This is what we want to attack. But then when they come to the sideline, are they saying, hey, we got to do this, and then you're putting that into your game plan and changing it? Or it's like, hey, no, let's just keep doing what I have planned and going forward? I think the goal is a collaboration because ultimately these guys are the guys performing on the field. And my experience is if someone's really convicted about something and says, hey, let's do this.

1:46:10If we do this, I'm going to be really successful. They're going to figure out a way to make it happen. And so now are there bad ideas at times? There probably are. I've got to keep that moving, get to what we need to get to. But there's a ton of fun with these guys. Yeah.

1:46:25Big Cat:You had a great college career as a quarterback. You should be in the College Football Hall of Fame. You're not? It's ridiculous that you're not. Not yet. 50-3? We'll see. The all-time winningest quarterback, right, in the history of college football? not in the college football what else can you do put him in the college football hall of fame that is insane voters 50 and 3 it was fun but uh you got to be like good enough to win which we were able to but you know all these guys leave early you know if you're really good in college football you leave after two or three years right uh i didn't think everyone was chasing six foot quarterbacks who didn't scramble so uh you know i stuck it around but it's called the college football hall of fame so you played college football at a high level for a long time like I don't know why you would look at a guy that left after two seasons and be like, that guy deserves to be in there more than, than you.

1:47:09We'll see what we can do for Boise. Yeah.

1:47:12PFT Commenter:Can you tell me about the magic of the blue turf? Because I actually just purchased some blue turf. I have heard about this. Yeah. I'm very excited. I'm very excited too. So we're putting it in our office. Okay. I am a big believer in the blue turf. Now I will say it feels like after, you know, you left and there was a little bit of a downturn where there was times when I would be like, it's blue turf, it's blue turf. and Boise wouldn't win, I'd be like, what's going on with the blue turf? Because I believe in it. I was like, when you go to the blue turf, that's a tough place to play. Oh, yeah.

1:47:41PFT Commenter:Has Boise lost? Is that why they're changing the turf? We're just resetting ourselves a little bit, you know? Okay. A little refresher. Sometimes it's always not bad. What yard line did you get, by the way? I got the 10-yard line. Okay. And then I think I talked with them, and they're going to give me some of the sideline, too, so I can turf the whole side. But did you guys feel that when you were playing? I mean, 50-3, you probably did. But when you've got to go to Boise, it's a different animal on the blue turf. We love the blue. Yeah. Our fans were all in. Color-coded student sections every single game.

1:48:12And it was a great atmosphere. And so it was a ton of fun. A ton of people would go there, kind of be a little bit paranoid about this whole blue turf thing. What's this thing that we're playing on? And it was a huge advantage for us.

1:48:22Big Cat:Is it true that birds try to land on it sometimes, thinking that it's a lake? Or is that just an urban legend to scare people? Unfortunately, I have not seen one. Now, maybe someone has. They definitely hover around a little bit. But there's a river close by, so maybe they're getting a little bit confused. Okay. And then as you kind of progressed through your NFL career and you decided that you wanted to get into coaching, what made you decide to stay with the NFL as your target for advancing the career as opposed to going back to college? Yeah, I always wanted to be a college football coach, to be honest.

1:48:49That was always my goal and aspiration. I was fortunate when I was in Dallas. So in 2016, Tony was our starter. I was one of the backups, and we drafted this fourth-round draft pick, Dak Prescott, you know, whatever. And I got hurt during training camp. And so lo and behold, Tony gets hurt a few days later and all of a sudden Dak becomes our starter. And so through that experience, I kind of got to see the other side of it. I got to see the coaching side of it, kind of be around the quarterback room and all that sort of stuff. We figured out this Dak Prescott guy was pretty good. And so it all happens for a reason.

1:49:20And two years later, I just slid right over to the QB coach chair.

1:49:23PFT Commenter:Yeah. Being a backup quarterback, I actually you think it's one of those jobs that is underrated in the fact that I don't think everyone is built for it was there a moment where you're like okay this is my role and I'm gonna embrace it and and like what goes into it week to week yeah I think part of it's it's there's two parts to it you're preparing to play as a player if you ever have that opportunity but at the same time like the starters got a lot of stuff going on you know and they're trying to prepare everything in every way they can and so you're trying to help those guys as much as you can when I was in Detroit you know with Matthew, Matthew is our starting quarterback and the backups, you know, is Sean Hill or Dan Orlowski and myself.

1:49:58And, you know, our job is to kind of watch some film and give them a few little things that maybe they missed during the week or give them just another, another viewpoint as they, as they prepare.

1:50:07PFT Commenter:Yeah. Was there, when you were with Matthew Stafford, was there, I don't want to say like a wake up call, but like watching his arm talent, you're like, okay, there's a little bit of a level to this. Sean Hill was our backup. He was like 14, 15 years in the league, backup quarterback i remember going to otas and one of the early throws he throws this double move post route to calvin johnson and uh he just looks at me i see this ball go up in the air it's gotta be you know 60 yards on a rope and he just looks at me and says kellen we don't even try those we don't even go down that road and so uh it was pretty cool to watch matthew and calvin yeah

1:50:44Big Cat:dealing yes uh was dan orlovsky always like really weird about matt stafford the second he met him he was like I really like you man that's what backup quarterbacks do you're protective of your starters until the day he dies I think he took an oath he does a great job of it Dan's committed it would be nice if he spread some of that love to Shuck we're big Shuck fans on this podcast tell me about the first time you saw Shuck when did you get Shucked for the first time we all remember he did the senior bowl then he went and did the combine so we kind of got some exposure there and then we had him come in on a visit and uh it was awesome it was awesome it was just a great time and I think his personality just this like I'm just gonna go for it I'm not gonna worry about a single thing like that's what you want in the quarterback and so um it's been awesome yeah it's it's weird because I think

1:51:32PFT Commenter:probably the the age thing you know had him fall he's older than you which is crazy um but he's you know he was a winner and he I there's something about the way he throws a ball is that crazy am i wrong on that like it's just so catchable it seems like it floats when it gets the receiver yeah that's what that's what playing quarterbacks about is you gotta throw this catchable football everyone everyone's got different arm talents and arm strengths and it's about giving your receivers opportunities to make plays and so uh tyler does a great job with it you know his anticipation his ability to throw it when he has to with on a frozen rope and so he's got really good ability there yeah i got uh two dumb questions which one do you want the dumbest one first or we'll build up dumb to dumber okay all right so this is just the dumb one all right so you're from a town of 60 6 000 people oh yeah uh at what age were you like i'm the man because it had to have happened i mean you're you're you've won 50 games in college football you went to the nfl you were definitely the man i'm just wondering what what age was everyone's like oh shit so i'm prosser washington there's 6 000 people there's two stoplights so and it's on either side of the bridge.

1:52:38So that's what we got going on there. So my dad was our high school football coach. So I grew up wanting to be a Prosser Mustang. That was my whole hopes and dreams is I'm going to be a Mustang. And then having a chance to go to Boise, obviously, turned some things into a pretty cool perspective there and made a fun run at it.

1:52:54PFT Commenter:All right, so you didn't answer the question, what age were you the man? Like, what did you start freshman year? Sophomore year. I think my freshman year, I felt pretty good. Okay. Freshman year, because we were winning 60 to nothing, 80 to nothing on freshman squads. and then sophomore year. It's like, all right, here we go. So sophomore year of varsity and how did you guys do that year? We made the playoffs. We lost. So you were the man then? Yeah. Yeah, as a sophomore, you were the man. Yeah, so 15. You were 15 years old and you were the man. Yeah. That's awesome. Did you ever have a Kellen Moore Day?

1:53:22Big Cat:Has there been a holiday in your honor? I don't know if there has been, but we go back once a year.

1:53:27PFT Commenter:Did you win state? We never won state. I ran to Jonathan Stewart. Remember him from Carolina? Yeah. I ran to Jake Locker. Okay. Imagine Jake Locker on the wing tee in high school. 200 yards rushing as a quarterback. Big guy, yeah. We had a couple times. We were close.

1:53:42Big Cat:That's a rinky-dink offense, though. You were the best pocket passer. Yeah, we were throwing all over the field. You know how I am. Okay, so you ready for the dumbest question?

1:53:50PFT Commenter:Do you like the name Kellen? I do. Okay. I just didn't know how you felt about it. You don't see a lot of Kellens. There's not a ton. Yeah, it's a rare name. My mom's maiden name is Kel. Okay. K-E-L-L. And then I turned into Kellen. I like that. Did you have any nicknames growing up? The man? Kells. Kells? Kells. Keep it short. What other sports? Kelling them softly. Are you one of those guys that you were just sick at every sport? I was football, basketball. Okay. Someone said that you play at the Pelicans facility on Friday sometimes. We'll go over to the Pels Arena, yeah. See, that's bullshit.

1:54:25PFT Commenter:You're so good at football, and then you're also just awesome at basketball. I'm just the guy who sits in the corner and shoots the three. That's a great one to be. Like Shane Battier, you know, sitting in the corner for the heat. Like, that's my goal right there. I just sit over there. That's a great guy to be. When you need me, I'll be ready.

1:54:37Big Cat:Yeah, I heard a rumor that you are an addict, that you have an addiction to giving out game balls. Oh. Game balls, yes. How many game balls do you give out after each game? I don't know the number, however many we need. It's a problem that you don't know the number. Yeah. That's the sign of an addict. Yeah.

1:54:56PFT Commenter:It's like enough. Has the equipment guy ever been like, hey, we don't have any balls left? We've not gotten any pushback yet. We've always had enough footballs. Until the bucket is empty, then I'll just keep going.

1:55:05Big Cat:Some of those balls, they can't have all been used in the game. No, they actually have to return those ones. Then we'll get them the official fancy colored ones with their names on it. All right, so after a typical game, let's just say, what's one of the big wins that you had last year? The Bucs game. The Bucs game. Yeah, the Bucs game. Yeah, that was an awesome game. How many game balls have we given out after that? I'm thinking eight. What? That's a lot of game balls. That's too many game balls. We had a couple touchdowns. Tyler Shuck, you know. Well, Shuck deserves a game ball just for being him.

1:55:32Yeah, we had a couple rushing touchdowns. Defense, we had a couple picks. Maybe one pick.

1:55:37Big Cat:Eight game balls. You give them out like helmet stickers. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Do you think that's a problem? No. They don't lose their mistakes. We still have a player of the game later, so we'll narrow the focus down later in the week.

1:55:48PFT Commenter:Okay, but what number's too many? Like, if you're giving out 30 game balls, that's over half the roster. Yeah, that's probably a little aggressive on my part. Okay, so what about 20? Would you ever give out 20? That would probably be a whole organization at that point. We might as well round up and everyone gets a good ball. And they just do one ball and it's to everyone. Yeah, we'll get there. Now we're probably eight. I mean, eight's not too bad. We're single digits. We're going to be obsessed with this. We'll tie it up. The first time you do more than 10 in a game this next year, it's going to be a big moment.

1:56:15PFT Commenter:You guys can call me out. On the show, it's going to be a big moment. If we get to double digits, we'll see.

1:56:20Big Cat:Has anybody been like, sir, I think you've had enough? We're cutting you off. Give me the keys. We were winning late in the season. We got to keep this thing going.

1:56:29PFT Commenter:So is it like the momentum from last year? Can you feel it going into this year? Because a lot of coaches will say, hey, last year is last year. It's a new season. It's a new slate. But that was a great finish. You guys, we kept on saying like it's too bad that you started kind of slow because we thought you guys were playing the best ball in the NFC South at the end. I think there's parts to it. Obviously, there's a long window between seasons. We get that. but there's a ton of young guys who played late in the year. I think that says a lot about those guys developing, and obviously those guys are going to carry on some big roles moving forward.

1:57:02PFT Commenter:Yeah. Hank, by the way, just farted. I think everyone heard. He farted so loud. Who was that? Who farted? It was Hank. It was so loud. Hank, that was so loud. We all heard it. It was mid-question. Kel and I locked eyes. I kept it together. Kel and I locked eyes, and we're like, we're not even doing this question anymore. We're just thinking about who farted. that was crazy dude we were joking earlier about this getting to like the loopy point of the week

1:57:29Big Cat:in the week where where hank just kind of like hits his wall of grit week of caring and uh that

1:57:34PFT Commenter:was it right there hank come up here and ask a question now you have to the farter has to ask you raise your hand yeah you did yeah you stopped the whole interview that was nuts like i tell and i both i think like locked eyes were like we're not even doing this question we're just thinking

1:57:48Big Cat:about who this is in the this is the press conference room right here has a reporter ever done that? Have they ever farted? I tried to put my I was crossing my legs and just the physics of it. I take myself very seriously and I'm really sorry. I apologize. I try and be all business in these settings and that was unacceptable and I'm sorry. Do you have a question? Yeah. Do you feel the momentum going into this year? What do you think about this season coming up? It was also the loudest. I don't know how loud that was so loud. Now he's blaming your chairs. Bad chair. That should have been a silent one.

1:58:32Big Cat:Can't have cushions in here. This hat is not as funny anymore.

1:58:39PFT Commenter:I'm sorry. Good question. Great job, dude.

1:58:45Big Cat:Oh, man. I think I can pinpoint where the season turned around for you guys last year. I think I know the exact moment where it was like, okay, watch out for the Saints. It was going into halftime against the Seattle Seahawks, and you kicked a field goal to make it 38-6 at halftime. I think at that point your team was like, okay, this guy believes in us, we believe in him. Yeah. That was a rough one. That was a rough one. That was Super Bowl champs for a reason. That game got out of hand fast. Can you walk us through that field goal process? We did. We said things about you in the moment. And it was all probably worthy.

1:59:20About the sad field goal at the end of the first half.

1:59:22Big Cat:But sometimes you're just like, I want points. We just needed some points. We just needed to get this thing heading in the right direction. It wasn't going to go probably our direction ultimately, but maybe we can get a little bit.

1:59:31PFT Commenter:Did the field goal kicker get a game ball? We got to win to get a game ball. That would have been funny if you're just like, hey, you did something nice there. Might have been worthy, though. All right. So here's an analytics question for you. All right. Four minutes left in the game. You're down 14. You score. You go for one or two. We're definitely leaning towards going for two. Okay, that's correct.

1:59:52Big Cat:You said leaning towards. Leaning towards going for two. Part of my thing with analytics is, okay, there's a decision, and then there's actually the play you have to run. And so sometimes there's the element of, yes, I want to go for two, but do we have the confidence? Do we have the play to call to execute in that situation? Right. You know, there's two parts to that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so here's another question for you, analytics question. So let's say that there's 209 left in the fourth quarter, and you're down eight points, 31 to 23. You're at the eight-yard line. This is just off the – Yeah, it's just a random idea.

2:00:29It's a random one to look at.

2:00:31Big Cat:It's fourth and goal from the eight-yard line. What do you do? Again, you're down eight, 31 to 23, and it's in the fourth quarter, two minutes, nine seconds left. and also the quarterback of the other team is like a six-time Super Bowl winner, league MVP, that kind of guy. What do you do? Yeah, we'll probably go for it. Okay, smart move. Smart move.

2:00:54PFT Commenter:We agree with that. We'll check that one off the box. You're a smart guy. Do you think I got that one right? Yes, yes, you got that one right. That's 100 % correct. Yeah. Through the PFT analytics department? Yeah, that's it right there.

2:01:03Big Cat:I think through like the real-world analytics department. Like why would the Packers have ever done that against the Bucs and Tom Brady? I still don't understand that to this day.

2:01:11PFT Commenter:You have an award named after you. The Kellen Moore Award for college football? I think I do. Yeah. You think you do. Yeah. You don't know? I don't know if it's still running. That's kind of crazy that you're not in the College Football Hall of Fame. You have an award. They're teasing you. I think College Football Hall of Fame is teasing you. We've got to give the Broncos some more love. We've got to get Boise in there. Yeah, they're teasing you right now.

2:01:32Big Cat:Do you know who votes on that? I don't. If you're listening right now, get off your ass and put Kellen Moore in the College Football Hall of Fame. Yeah, this is crazy. It's a sham of an institution until he's in it.

2:01:44PFT Commenter:Having an award named after you and then also still not being in the College Football Hall of Fame, we're going to make this a personal mission for us. Will you give us a game ball if we get you in the Hall of Fame? Definitely a game ball. Okay. Because see how that worked, I don't know if you know us that well, we're not going to do anything. And then when you do get in the College Football Hall of Fame, we're going to demand a game ball. We'll claim it. It's still a win. It's a win at the end of the day. For raising awareness.

2:02:06Big Cat:That's how we come out on top at all times. What are your thoughts about designed downfield laterals? Definitely trendy. I like it. Yes. Would you say that they are the future of offense in the NFL? It's getting bigger and bigger for sure. So, yep. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I've always looked at you as being an ally. I've been on a crusade to have more of those implemented. Boise ran one that was well-known back in the day. Very much.

2:02:30PFT Commenter:I had Oklahoma in that game. That's unfortunate. Yeah. I was like, how the hell will Oklahoma lose to Boise? Like, that's crazy. No way. I'm proud of you, by the way. You're saying Boise. Yeah. Well, you did it. You got it in my head. Boise. Yeah. Boise. Boise. Yeah. Did you happen to see, you probably didn't, but I read an annual blog for the coach's picture. You looked pretty good in it. I gave you the award. You were standing next to Dave Canales. You guys looked like you were almost planned it together. You were wearing kind of similar shirts. And I said, the young dad's on vacation who still think they're cool because they have hot wives award.

2:03:06PFT Commenter:Think that's fair? I'll take that one. Okay. How awkward is that, folks? It's all about the positioning. That's the juggling factor because everyone wants to be in – you want to make sure you're in the right spot. Oh, so is there like a little – is there a hierarchy? There's just a slow movement of letting certain – Interesting. We're going to let certain guys kind of make their decision, and then you kind of try and slide in where you fit in. So maybe in a couple years you start to maybe take the spot you want instead of the spot you're given? I like the back right. Yeah. I think it's a good spot.

2:03:37PFT Commenter:Okay. Yeah. What about the chairs?

2:03:39Big Cat:Do people, how early do you have to get there for the chairs? Like they camp out the night before. There's some guys who love the chairs. There's some guys, you know, last spot's the chair. You're stuck. Now your socks and your shorts are exposed.

2:03:49PFT Commenter:I think, yeah, I think standing's the right move. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Because you can kind of just, and yeah, the back row usually has. Back row. You got the shirt and that's about it, you know? Would you be open to maybe wearing something if I sent you it? Because I'm trying to work with Kevin Stefanski. He's open to it. He actually didn't wear anything I sent him this year. But if I sent you a shirt. Do you want to create like a little section over there? Yeah, where it's like I just dress half of you guys. Yeah, some of us, you know, you can have that whole NFC South over there in that corner.

2:04:14PFT Commenter:Listen, you don't have to do it. Just say yes now, and then everyone will be like, damn, he's cool. Yeah, sounds like the game ball thing. All right, great.

2:04:22Big Cat:Perfect. That's a win. Do you hate the Falcons? Yes, I've grown quickly into that mode. The team in red, yes. Yeah. Was there a moment where you realized, oh, man, I hate you guys? I think as the week grew, Cam really educated me on the rivalry and the understanding of that. We were basically tied going into this year. Now, unfortunately, we lost two, so we've got to get two back. And so we've got some business to do next year. Yeah. That was a really strange position that the entire division was in at the end of the year this year. What was your message for your team going into Week 17? We wanted to win because we had won four in a row and so finished the season 5-0.

2:05:03But it was a weird game. Falcons were basically playing for Carolina. We were playing for Tampa. Yeah. It was a unique deal.

2:05:10Big Cat:Yeah. Did you talk about that at all during the week? We did not. We did not. But we focused on the rivalry. We had an opportunity to play Atlanta. We were down a few guys. It was a fun game for Tyler, but he hung in there.

2:05:22PFT Commenter:Have you embraced New Orleans culture and food? And what's your favorite food now? Absolutely. The food is a challenging task because there's so many restaurants and recommendations when you come here. It's all so good. So basically my phone is just a running tally of anyone you meet in the city, they come in, what's your favorite restaurant? Where have you been? And then they give you another list. And so I just keep adding to that list. And so it's been good. I can't go wrong with Steakhouse. The seafood is amazing. I'm growing in that aspect, getting a little bit more seafood friendly. Yeah.

2:05:55So it's been good. Are you doing gumbo? Are you doing all that stuff? gumbo all that yeah which level of spice uh good question thank you yeah thank you low to medium

2:06:05Big Cat:low to me so is that something that we're working up we got up to probably deserve something to yeah it's an off-season project we gotta work on that you gotta get ted wrath to get you like a

2:06:13PFT Commenter:like basically doing hot ones every day after practice just work you up ted's the best one to do it yeah you're big you're stronger than spice you need to get that mental toughness you

2:06:26Big Cat:let spice you got to let spice into your life yeah it's not like trying to defeat spice you got to learn how to work with it and then you'll learn how to love it after you can work with it exactly

2:06:34PFT Commenter:so just give it a shot um what do we we poke fun of a lot of people ourselves mostly but um what what is it about mike mccarthy because we we we tend to poke fun but he is a very good head coach what did you learn like what's maybe one of the big things you learned from your time with mike McCarthy. I love Mike. He's very much the same every single day. He's very consistent. He likes to have fun. The watermelon smashing for you guys who've known that pregame meeting. I'm still pissed about it. Were you there for that? Oh, I was there for it. Walk us through. In detail. So I had, I bet against you guys big in that game and I didn't know until after the fact the watermelon was smashed and I've never been more angry because if you smash a watermelon, that's an auto win.

2:07:19remind me minnesota game minnesota okay yep got it covid year okay so season late in the season we're in the middle we're not you know we're hanging in there andy dalton's our quarterback uh i think he had just came back off of uh being being hurt and so covid your team meetings are like in the biggest ballrooms and everyone's like 10 feet apart right the whole six six feet uh apart thing and so there's this big open room wide open then towards the front you see all these like tarps kind of out and you're like all right this will be interesting what's going on today you You know, sometimes the team meetings have different things.

2:07:51Next thing you know, there's watermelons. There's a sledgehammer. There's guys going up there. The watermelons, you know, whoever's in close proximity. I mean, you're getting sprayed a little bit here. Oh, so everyone's smashing watermelons?

2:08:01Big Cat:No, there's just a few. There's just a few. How many is a few? Like, what's the line like to smash a watermelon? I would say, I'm trying to remember. I'm thinking there was under six. Three to five. And did Mike smash one? It's a great question.

2:08:13PFT Commenter:Oh, my gosh. I don't remember. You don't know? I think he did. He had to have, right? He had to have. Were these all team leaders that were smashing? Yeah, it was the team leaders. Okay. Like captains. Yeah. And was the crowd going crazy when you were – It was awesome. Damn. But part of it was there was no expectation of watermelons coming out for a team meeting. So that was part of the excitement. No one expects that. And could you feel it when you guys were playing the game being like, yeah, this is a watermelon game? We need to bring some juice. We're playing in Minnesota. There's no fans. They're trying to do the skull chant with the speakers, and there's no one in the crowd.

2:08:45It's a quiet game. So yeah, bring a little juice.

2:08:48PFT Commenter:So the question was, what is the big thing you've learned from Mike McCarthy? Will you be using a watermelon game at some point? There's potential. Now, what that watermelon is, maybe we do something a little bit different.

2:09:01Big Cat:Do you know why a watermelon was selected? I still don't remember. But it was genius. But it was great. You guys were underdogs in that game.

2:09:09PFT Commenter:It was like the Cowboys were – you guys weren't doing great that year because of the injuries and everything. Yeah. We won late right at the end.

2:09:15Big Cat:Man. What was the cleanup like? Did people have to stick around afterwards? Oh, there were some people that were really pissed off probably. Yeah.

2:09:22PFT Commenter:Now I can't stop thinking about you doing a watermelon game. Like Tyler Shuck in a watermelon game, that's like 10 touchdowns. Yeah, watermelon is probably the best, right? Yeah. Any other suggestions?

2:09:33Big Cat:A giant king cake? King cakes. And then whoever accidentally hits the baby piece, then they get the game ball for the watermelon smashing.

2:09:41PFT Commenter:I think smashing like a TV or something would be cool. Maybe a car. TVs, cars. Yeah, bring in a car. Just got a car crash.

2:09:49Big Cat:Just like drive two cars into each other. Be like, that's what we need to play like today.

2:09:53PFT Commenter:So like in a real way, Mike McCarthy, what's kind of one thing that you've taken from him where you're like, all right, this is how I want to operate, how he operates things? Just really steady, really consistent day in and day out, week in and week out. I think, you know, what they had so much success year after year in Green Bay as well was, you know, just their consistency. And I think it was because everything was so steady that, you know, the NFL is about highs and lows. No matter what we do, you know, two years ago, you're in Philly. At one point, we're two and two in Philly and the whole world is going to fall apart because we lost to Tampa.

2:10:24And, you know, the teams that can kind of stay steady, those are the teams that have success towards the end.

2:10:30PFT Commenter:Yeah, that is a very like I don't know how you guys do it, because from our perspective, if you lose a game, I just think you're the worst team ever. And when you win a game, you're just going to win forever. So I don't know how you're able to stay steady like that. It feels like that. We put a lot into this thing, and for about 24 hours you feel those emotions, but then the trick is you've got to move past it.

2:10:51Big Cat:Thankfully you had fans in Philadelphia that loved you win or lose, so they weren't really that concerned after you started. I was fortunate. I was fortunate. Our year was fun. That's true. So what was the key to cracking that relationship between just the entire offense? Because I feel like Philly has had one of the most talented teams. I think most people would say that for the last, what, three, four years. Yeah. They've got great players at every position, but sometimes it's like interpersonal dynamics, it can make the talent take a little bit of a backseat. So what was your key to cracking that and making sure that everything ran smoothly?

2:11:25It was awesome. I had an awesome year there, teaming up with Nick and all those guys, and we had a ton of star power. We had a ton of guys that were really talented players, had a ton of success in the league, And so I think the fun part of it was really bringing them into the equation of, you know, I mean, shoot, there's nothing better than talking about the run game with Jordan Malata and Lane Johnson and Saquon and being like, OK, you know, how are we going to approach this week? And so in the past game, you know, getting with Jalen and, you know, AJ and Smitty and spending time with those guys.

2:11:53And so they're all super competitive. They all want to win. They all want to be successful. And that's the fun part of it.

2:11:59Big Cat:Yeah. Did you read AJ Brown's book? I've not read. AJ Brown has a book. Well, the book that he would read on the sidelines. I've seen it I've seen it yeah maybe I need to read it have you guys read it Max did you order it

2:12:11PFT Commenter:no I don't think so you ordered it formal

2:12:14Big Cat:yeah that's right I was gaslighting 101 Max you read it you loved it

2:12:22PFT Commenter:alright this has been so awesome coach we really appreciate it we got one last question Roback question RHOBACK.com promo code TAKE 20 % off your first purchase Q-Zips polos hoodies joggers shorts Roback.com Promo code TakeZak. Come on up here. Zach is a Bucs fan. So just so you know, there's a rivalry here. Rivalry question. There's a rivalry question. Rivalry. All right.

2:12:46Big Cat:I was curious. Zach, one more set. One more set. One more set. You're doing good. Get out of the light. Wait, wait, Zach. This way. This way. Stay in front of the camera. I'm in the way. Yeah, you're good. Okay. All right. Good start. Sorry about that. I would like to apologize for that, Coach. That's my bad. I was curious if you've had a chance to kind of get yourself familiar with a former edge rusher and now 10 bay buccaneer ruben bain's game and if there's any kind of worries to him getting to the quarterback at will week 15 good question i don't like that ruben went in the division he's a really good player uh he's really talented he's really talented and so uh luckily you know we got two left tackle right tackle first round picks the last couple years and so you know i feel like we'll be able to hang in there i'm looking forward to it i uh best of luck You got another question?

2:13:31I do, if that's okay. Coming off of last season, do you kind of have any, like, looking to improve in different areas of the game, do you have anything you're paying special attention to for this year's team that you really weren't able to execute on last year? Is this a scouting report for the Bucs? Is that what this is? Just two guys talking ball? Yeah. Two guys talking ball. Two guys talking secrets. Just talking football. We didn't run the ball great last year. We're going to run the ball a little bit better. That's a goal of ours, you know, schematically and all that fun stuff. And so, you know, we got to close out these games.

2:14:01We got to play better early in games. We didn't start games well, you know, early in the first quarter. And so a bunch of things we're going to improve on.

2:14:08PFT Commenter:Awesome. I appreciate the info, not Intel info. My bad.

2:14:13Big Cat:Definitely not Intel. Thank you, sir. Definitely not Intel. This stays between us.

2:14:17PFT Commenter:Well, Coach, thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate it. I am, I mean, the game ball thing and then the potential of a watermelon game has me juiced up. So we're going to be, and we love Tyler Shuck, so we're going to be rooting for you guys this year. I appreciate it. I'm excited for that. Yeah. And anytime you're in Chicago, you want to come see the blue turf that you helped make famous. We're going to have it ready to go. Awesome. Can't wait. And we have a basketball course. You can stand in the corner and hit some threes. There you go. That's all I need. All right. Thanks so much, Coach.

2:14:44Awesome. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

2:14:48Big Cat:Kellen Moore was brought to you by our great friends over at Twisted Tea. We've got the tweeze right here, right in front of me. I got the Hard Iced Tea Twisted Tea Party Pack. delicious flavors in there. It's got the hard lemonade. I had a couple half and halves at the meet and greet tonight down on Bourbon Street. The Twisted Teas are great in this party pack. We're looking at the Rocket Pop, the original, the half and half, and the lemonade. It's got a refreshing taste with a little kick. No carbonation. Perfect drink for day drinking. Hey, guys, it's a long weekend. People are firing up the grill.

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2:15:40PFT Commenter:twisted tea okay fire fest of the week to rack wrap up a great grit week uh pft did you want to

2:15:48Big Cat:first yeah yeah i'll go first um my fire fest of the week is that hank is by far the funniest guy that we got on this podcast and it's not close the the funniest moment maybe i've ever seen on the show happened in that kellen moore interview and god damn it hank the the word genius gets thrown around a lot these days hank is a comedic genius for what he pulled off um hank that was so funny you're so so you're serving a great look right yeah but it was funny it was it was one of the hardest i've ever laughed i know i've been saying that a lot recently but it's been between zach and and and jerry o 'connell and now now hank getting involved and it's like i feel like i've got a front row seat to comedy genius i'm just i'm on one hand i'm so happy to get to watch it on the other hand i'm like i i'll just never be able to achieve what what these guys have done.

2:16:42Big Cat:George Carlin produces Part of My Take. Yes. That's what it is. Yes, but originally one of the behind-the-scenes guys on Part of My Take turned out to be by far the funniest. So, Hank, that fart was awesome.

2:16:54PFT Commenter:It was so fucking funny, dude. It was so funny. I mean, come on. And then afterwards saying it wasn't a fart, it was just air coming out of your butt. Kai, if I could explain that, I think it would make more sense. Okay, Great. Please do. First of all, I'd like to give some even more context to the situation because shout out to the Saints. And the Saints and the Pelicans share the same facility, same building. There's a Saints facility, Pelicans facility, same parking lot.

2:17:26Big Cat:I can't wait to hear how this is relevant to it not being a fart. And we talked about in last year about the Pelicans giveaways. Yeah. And how they weren't doing giveaways. Yeah. And so while we were waiting for Kellen Moore to come, some of the staffers came through like oh we got you a bunch of the best giveaways from last year in that box was like a bobble head a gnome and a hat like a ridiculous green pelicans like it's awesome cartoon hat and I was like oh this is funny hat let me put it on so I'm wearing this ridiculous green pelicans hat during the interview before the interview you were loopy no it's just like yeah It's cool hat.

2:18:09It's cool hat.

2:18:10PFT Commenter:Yeah. Why are you wearing your sweatshirt like this right now? Because it's hot. But you're wearing it like a bib. I only brought, I packed two shirts and I got a coffee stain on this one. Okay. Then during the interview, I was sitting in the back and the chair that I'm sitting on is like circular. So I'm basically sitting on an amphitheater. It wasn't like. You're sitting on the Hollywood Bowl. Yeah. I'm not sitting in like a square like desk chair. It's like, I'm literally. It's Hank's ass live at Red Rock. Literally. Like the acoustics on this chair were second to none. Yeah. And I like, and I, I'm a, I'm a, I always get confused.

2:18:50Liberal means like a lot. Like really you do it a lot. Like liberal, like liberal use of something is like abortions.

2:18:54Big Cat:Yeah. No, just like I, I'm a, I'm a liberal.

2:18:59PFT Commenter:You try to turn the kids trans. I'm a liberal, I'm a liberal farter. Like I know like left, lefty Lockwood, whatever but like maga hank but like i'm a liberal farter i'm not afraid to fart in front of the boys in front of a crowd like i i don't mind it in the right place at the right time like i'm not afraid to let one lose for jokes obviously i do consider myself a very serious guy very professional like all business all the time when it comes down to it like you know play hard party or work hard party harder like that i play hard but i also party hard

2:19:32so like i would never do this like in in this setting i would never i would never if i had to fart i would never be like i would never risk doing it in front of an interview so i didn't have to fart there wasn't that we did have waffle house which is pft's fault but like i in the interview and and jacob was sitting behind me all i did was like i lifted up my left leg over and when I went over, air came out of my... You are just defining a fart. You keep saying this and that's the definition of a fart.

2:20:05Big Cat:You're not listening. He's not listening. Max, you don't get it.

2:20:08PFT Commenter:Let him explain. This is not a fart. It's air coming out of your asshole. Most farts you have to push. Most farts you're like, when you have to poop with a fart, you're like, oh, there's a fart inside of me and then let me like hit the button like like that's a fart yeah we've all got the part like you you know you know what that is like this was not i was not like consciously like oh i got a fart yeah but when i lifted up my leg i i guess i had like gas down there and like he's still you still don't think you fart came out of my ass that was so loud i i couldn't i turned around and jacob and he had he literally had the eyes he was like it was like a dog fart you know how dog farts and they scare themselves yes that's what you did and i was hoping at first that it was like just me and jacob that like witnessed and i was like dude that was insane like that i can't believe that just came out and then and then i looked over the entire room the saints people were looking at me and then big cat was like what was that yeah because kevin more and i locked eyes

2:21:05Big Cat:like who just farted i i couldn't believe so when i heard the fart i looked i looked up and i saw you and Jacob looking at each other and I thought to myself, dear God, I hope that was Hank. Yeah. Yeah. It would have killed me if it was Jacob. And then the look that Jacob had, it felt like there was some unspoken communicating going on and Jacob. I was saying that's crazy. That was crazy. That was crazy.

2:21:31PFT Commenter:Did you hear that fart? I did think I did feel out of someone's ass.

2:21:35Big Cat:I did think in the moment that Hank was trying to get Jacob to take the fall for him. No, no, no. No, the sound The sound did come out of me, my body. But you didn't fart. Yeah. But it was not a conscious fart. It wasn't really.

2:21:50PFT Commenter:It was essentially like if you were if you left your trunk open and you had luggage in there and then you sped away and it just fell out. You're just like, hey, I didn't I didn't think that was going to fall out. The fart just fell out.

2:22:02Big Cat:Not just fell out of your car. Not even that. I don't know if I heard, but like the Saints in the they share a facility. Yeah, that's true. And that is true. That's important context. to have. Because that doesn't happen. He was wearing the hat. He was wearing the hat. Not only was I farting, then I got called on camera and I had to be like, oh, sorry for farting. Meanwhile, I'm wearing a fucking like cartoon hat. With a coffee stain. Yeah. I think I was wearing the sweatshirt at that point. That was before I drank the coffee. Then Hank went around the room blaming everybody else one by one in the room for his fart.

2:22:30Big Cat:Yeah. It really... Well, it wasn't a fart, PFT. You keep saying fart. It wasn't a fart. It was air that came out of his butt. This is by very... Waffle House gives you gas. You made us go to Waffle House. We didn't get grits. The chair.

2:22:42PFT Commenter:You are describing the telltale signs of a fart.

2:22:46Big Cat:The chair was bad. The food I ate was bad. The chair was bad. I moved. Also, Max looked at you, and then he didn't look away. And if he hadn't looked at you, no one would have known that you farted. No. That was the chair. Yeah, that one's on the chair. I actually didn't look because there was a bunch of people from the Saints that were behind me. so I didn't want to turn around and look and make a scene if it was one of them that farted so I didn't want to take that risk and make one of the people from the Saints embarrassed and then once I heard you say that it was Hank it was the most joyous I've ever been

2:23:22PFT Commenter:but again not a fart anyone who says it's a fart you don't understand how the human body works I think people there's some relatability to that it's like sometimes it's not a fart but a fart happens This is actually gaslighting. Right. Anyone who says it's a fart, delete it right now. You're actually... We'll talk to our lawyers because it wasn't a fart. If you say fart, that's actionable. Yeah. If you say air out of Hank's butt after eating Waffle House... Air fell out. That would be correct. But fart, no. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay. We're good. But it was so funny. Yeah. It was so loud. I can't believe it.

2:24:01Everyone heard it.

2:24:02Big Cat:I think it... I actually think it made the interview better. I think it broke down a barrier. I think Kellen Moore, he thought it was the funniest thing ever, too. Everyone thinks farts are funny. Yeah, farts are funny. Well, Kellen Moore probably smelled. That's another key factor.

2:24:17PFT Commenter:Kellen Moore probably thought we were. Because it wasn't a fart. I think up until that point, he thought we were guys that didn't fart. And then we did one, and he's like, oh, I can hang with these guys. They fart. Boom. But yeah, the fart, and then realizing what I was wearing, and it all fell apart quickly.

2:24:32Big Cat:all right Hank went on like a 15 minute walk right afterwards because he yeah he was looking for a bridge I think yeah I did yeah I did just go take a walk outside yeah because we did we did

2:24:42PFT Commenter:another interview and then afterwards I was like Hank credit to you you didn't fart during that one and everyone's like he is he hasn't been in here for a while so he probably was farting during the interview yeah uh we've been PFT you got your neck wrenched I did get my yeah I got my neck blown out

2:24:57Big Cat:Shout out to the Saints and their training staff Ted Rath Ted Rath, you might recognize him from being He was Sean McVay's holdback guy Yeah, he was also on the Lions with Dan Campbell, I think Yeah, one of the all-time great strength coaches And holdback guys as well They're doing these neck workouts For their rookies that are here And I think they're doing like two or three times a week Everyone has to get run through this neck workout And we did a similar one When we were with the Chargers a couple years ago This was like three times crazier This was maybe the most uncomfortable workout I've ever done in my life.

2:25:31Big Cat:And at one point he was like, okay, you're halfway done with this set. And I just stopped. I was like, you got to be fucking shit. Your leg was twitching. Hank and I were watching being like, no chance we're doing this. Like neck workouts are crazy. And this was the hardest one yet. And I feel like if I go to sleep, I don't think I'm going to be able to move my head off the pillow. But you're stronger now. I'm going to be stronger. I said at the end of it, like I kind of I don't want to get into a car accident. But if I got into a medium car accident, I would like to be able to do that just to prove that my neck is so much stronger now.

2:26:03Big Cat:Yes, I'm ready to absorb anything. So there was that. And then also for the second year in a row, I did not pack socks on Grit Week. So I thought I learned my lesson last year and I only packed two socks for this Grit Week.

2:26:18PFT Commenter:So I've had to be doing sink laundry at the end of every day where you put doing a lot of stuff, too.

2:26:25Big Cat:Yeah. You put soapy water in the sink and then you soak the socks in there. But then the problem is they never really dry out fully overnight. So I've had to, like, use the hair dryer on them in the morning. Yeah. It's been a lot. One of these days I'll learn to pack enough socks.

2:26:39PFT Commenter:Yeah. By the way, it just is an aside. Ted Rath and his guys. If you really want to feel like a pussy, go to an NFL weight room. Have the strength coach say, are you guys ready to work out? And reply, no, sorry, we did hot yoga yesterday. That hurt. Yeah. I'll just look at us like, what? Like, we're being serious. We did hot yoga almost 48 hours ago. And it's we can't do this.

2:27:05Big Cat:Since I lost one of the contests that we did, I volunteered to step up for the neck workout. But then when I was done, I looked at these guys. I said, you guys do not want to do this workout. Like, I'm dead serious. Do not run away from this workout. But there's some ridiculous pictures that came out of that, including one where I went gremlin mode on Kellen Moore.

2:27:25PFT Commenter:Do you guys remember, by the way, this popped in my head when we were getting the juice with the LSU coaching staff. And I think the defensive coordinator casually was just like, so what do you guys work out like five, six times a week? And we're just like, what? five five six times a week yeah a year yes a week no and they just looked at us like god damn all right hank what's your fire fest uh i mean pft took a majority of mine but you didn't fart

2:27:50Big Cat:uh so it's not actually no yeah it's just the fart accusations i guess was gonna be mine i mean i don't know other than that i guess i guess whenever i do these these grit week vlogs and then big cat has to do his rebuttal

2:28:02PFT Commenter:like oh that's my that's my fire fest i said i'm gonna miss your vlogs I don't understand what you're doing I'm going to miss your vlogs Are you editing yours or are you just sending the video to someone else What are you talking about So Hank does these vlogs behind the scenes And he's getting mad because I've had my camera out In his face The whole time What do you have Max I have a video of something Yeah yeah of me taking the video of Hank Yeah you went meta on it Do you want me to play what you said You can show it to Hank Yeah yeah This is so Hank's getting upset because he's videoing all of us all day and then I started doing it to him and he's getting upset at me.

2:28:39PFT Commenter:You did this before. It was years ago. I learned one thing. I haven't been recording on a entire time. I have been recording once. I just take my phone out and pretend I'm recording. I haven't hit record on one single video today. He's just recording the camera. You turned away and then he just looked at me and he's like, I haven't been recording. Look at my photos. Look at my photos. There's not a single Hank picture in there. There's not a single video of you. All right. Well, yeah. A couple years ago, you did get mad at me for doing the vlogs. It's been great. A rebuttal vlog. It's been great.

2:29:19I thought you were doing that again.

2:29:19PFT Commenter:Just taking my phone out and putting it in Hank's face and him just serving. I wish I actually had been taking videos because you were serving looks. But yeah, I did not press record one single time. I didn't even open my phone any of the times. That's good. That's funny. so yeah i'm gonna miss your vlogs they're very funny they're my voiceovers are great and i love them they all keep them coming okay yeah i like that also so so that was your fire fest and my fire fest combined also uh we we are we have not given memes enough shit for what he pulled on tuesday night no i assume that's gonna be memes is fire fest no chance that memes fire happy as a clam right memes i mean it's not good i didn't get to see like one of the greatest fourth quarter.

2:29:58I watched it via a choppy phone broadcast. We did a bad job of explaining it. All of us were separately watching it on our phones at insanely different playbacks. We didn't allow it.

2:30:09Big Cat:We were all watching it. Hold on, let me explain it.

2:30:11PFT Commenter:Let me explain it. We're all sitting in our hotel rooms watching the Knicks-Cavs game. Memes texts the group when the Cavs go up 20 saying, let's record right now. Twice. Twice he says that. So, we all being the good friends we are came down from our hotel rooms from our tvs where we're watching the games into this truck that does not have wi-fi bad cell service and we're sitting here waiting for memes we all take out our phones to try to watch the game it's spotty it's going in and out we're all in different intervals we're all like kind of spoiling it back and forth because we can't really watch it i i think i saw like six plays i just had to stop talking entirely because

2:30:54Big Cat:I didn't want to ruin it for Zach who was here.

2:30:56PFT Commenter:I started just watching the score. I watched the score bug on ESPN.com because I was like, I'll just watch this instead. So I was just watching the score change. The entire time, we're all here because memes told us to come down here. He's watching the entire game on his TV. In his bed. And he never came down.

2:31:14Big Cat:I did apologize for this. No. Last show, you guys accepted. You accepted. You accepted. I can't unaccept. You accepted in a good moment because now you're pissed. But the power of the pod brought the Knicks to a win. Okay. So. You didn't come down. You didn't.

2:31:41If you came down. And then we, because we were all together watching it collectively in a shitty atmosphere. then that pod would have brought the Knicks to win.

2:31:54Big Cat:What do you mean the power of the pod? You used us.

2:31:56PFT Commenter:Yeah, I used you guys. We feel used. Yeah. It's also been very funny because memes have tried to have multiple conversations with him today, and he just replies like, put the Knicks. Yeah, Knicks. Actually, at like 10.30 this morning, I was like, all right, memes, we're done talking today. Not because I don't like you. It's just like I know that you're not going to reciprocate a conversation with me. You're just going to want to talk about the Knicks. I don't have much more to talk about because I didn't fucking watch the fourth quarter. Yeah. Big Cat was like, yeah, episodes this week have been really good.

2:32:25I'm like, and the Knicks.

2:32:27PFT Commenter:Yeah, and I was like, I didn't fucking see it, dude. I watched it on ESPN. But yeah, good job, Memes. I mean, I'm happy for you. I am. Thank you. It's great to see Memes happy, and he was truly, truly happy for the entirety of the day. So good job. We have one good team. Yeah. Zach. And the Jets. Firefest.

2:32:48Big Cat:my firefighter this week uh i guess kind of a short one uh we did go we went and did the hot yoga with with uh coach kiffin the other day and everyone is everyone in there you know we just established a safe word we went in as a team we were gonna we're gonna tackle it and take it on head first uh there was like we're probably 20 15 20 minutes in at this point i'm like physically fighting for my life just trying to survive i didn't want to be the first guy to break the box and get out of the hot yoga. And then I just hear Coach Kiffin just go, not an athlete. This guy's got no twitch. And my heart sunk.

2:33:24I've never felt more just physically ashamed in my entire life because I was really just trying to get through the workout with the boys.

2:33:30Big Cat:And to hear somebody just come over the top like, hey, man, you just don't got it. I respect the honesty, but it's painstaking. He's used to looking at D1 athletes. His version of not an athlete is not our version of not an athlete. That's true.

2:33:43PFT Commenter:I know, but I think it was just all encompassing. Would you say Zach's an athlete? Yeah. Okay. I don't even disagree with that. He throws a good ball. He does. He has a cannon. We found out Zach has a cannon.

2:33:52Big Cat:He's got a great throwing motion. Yeah. It's kind of like a Haynes King situation. I don't even disagree with not an athlete, but that just wasn't the setting you want to hear it because you're just doing everything to survive.

2:34:02PFT Commenter:Like you're just trying to. And then he dogged you on the softball field, which that vlog is going to come out on Tuesday. He dogged you. He had some things to say. He did. One of the things he said just wasn't true. My hand up. I'm part. What do you say? That wasn't true. He just said you never got hit in your life. And then I just got a hit. And we won. Yeah. Everybody won. And I got hit as well as you guys. Yeah. I partially I'm partially to blame for that. I was coaching third base and Lynn Kiffin turned to me and he's like, what's this guy's deal? And he's like, can I make fun of him? I was like, yeah.

2:34:30PFT Commenter:And then he kind of he emptied the clip.

2:34:32Big Cat:Yeah, that'll play. That's totally fine.

2:34:33PFT Commenter:Yeah. I mean, you're one of the guys like I would hope you want me. I think it would be bad if I answered like, no, do not say anything. That would be extremely uncomfortable. Yeah, that would be worse.

2:34:42Big Cat:But Zach, you're doing hot yoga. That's not necessarily the place that you want to show Twitch. True. Maybe the opposite. You're stretching. That is. You're lengthening. You actually need to. It just wasn't hot yoga. It wasn't hot yoga. So whatever it was, that's a place that you want to show. It was hit yoga. It was hit yoga, yeah. It was controlled movements, and that's the complete opposite. Hot. So I feel like he was not in a position to judge that.

2:35:03PFT Commenter:Yeah.

2:35:03Big Cat:It was sauna boot camp. We do keep saying hot yoga, but I think we're selling ourselves short. We are. It was not hot yoga. They told us it was hot yoga. it was hot hit it was hot crossfit they they had us bring in the weights i did i mean i i kind of kind of felt bad but i also kind of felt like i was maybe trying to like do zach a favor but like they were like oh grab weights grab 20 pounders we grabbed 15 pounders pick i was like oh the 15 pounders look like 20 pounders i'm like oh perfect those were still way too heavy i also was just trying to get through it zach started doing basically they were doing having us do stuff with weights.

2:35:36Zach was just doing with no weights in hand. He had 10 pound weight so I just at one point just took his weights because I was like I didn't want to do the 15 pound weights and that way Zach he doesn't have a choice to use the weights because I took them from him but I did. He said something after I kind of felt bad but I couldn't. The 15 pound weights were too heavy. Yeah.

2:35:55PFT Commenter:Always by the way that's a tip. Just a little old hockey trick for anyone out there. If you go to a workout class they tell you what weight to get. Always size down. You gotta drop. Always size down. You got to. You have to No one's out here to be a hero. No. Because you know it's always going to get harder, and you're just going to be like, fuck, why did I get this weight? Max, you got one? Yeah, a lot of the stuff has been said already. The high yoga has put my body in shambles. I did more activity at LSU than I've done since I left college baseball, and I've been thinking about that a lot, and I've really been thinking of how much I've let myself go and how much like that you should just be a normal day and i and i am dead yeah i also jam my finger playing third base that's an issue we got the pugs playoffs coming up

2:36:45Big Cat:i gotta have i gotta be back for that max can i point one thing out so i don't know if i'm gonna no yeah i think i think you'll be okay with it um in the softball game you don't have to try to kill the ball every time yeah it sounds like something that historically i've been okay with people telling me.

2:37:02PFT Commenter:I'm going to say right now, Max and I are back as softball friends. We agreed. We had a great game together. We were kind of like co-captaining the team and we felt good. It felt good. I also went three for five with a double. Just make contact. That's all you guys do. Played fucking awesome at third base. No big deal. The boys were looking good. The boys were humming. A lot of errors.

2:37:24Big Cat:A lot of runs. I made some great tags. Yeah, you did. PFC was a piece of shit. That's another big time fire fest Is that PFT just tried to fuck us At one point in the game

2:37:36PFT Commenter:Also threw the ball behind the runner Which is a big no-no Little league shit He threw it to first with a guy on third The more I think about it Lane Kiffin was upset that we took one of his guys He took one of our guys He took PFT from us

2:37:51Big Cat:I was an all-time catcher I had two really nice tags One, memes threw an absolute laser From the outfield tagged a runner coming home he was called safe on review but i i touched the guy i don't know what you want me to say and then i didn't want to be accused of uh of cheating them out of out of a win so because i was all-time catcher there was a time where i had to tag hank out at the plate and i put a tag on him and then all of a sudden my own guys are mad at me now it's like well i can't

2:38:19PFT Commenter:well you said to us you said to us before you're not going to get any of us out i have another question about that hank did you just did you just lie to me about that play what do you mean You were on second. I hit a hard ground ball down the line. I'm thinking two off the gate. And you get tagged out at home, and you told me the reason was because Lane Kiffin tackled you rounding third. He screened me. Oh, he screened him. You told me he pushed you. I said he screened me. He did. He screened him. He, like, blocked. I didn't think it was an issue because I was like, there's no way I get thrown out.

2:38:54But he, like, got in my way.

2:38:55PFT Commenter:It was a shocking getting thrown out. And I had to go around him. Was I going 100 %? Probably not. But I did. It was like if we were doing softball, so who cares? There was interference by Lane Kiffin. But again, I was like, ha, ha, ha. Let me go around you. It was going like 70%. And then PFT did make a crazy catch. I did try and get around him, and then he tagged me out. Why am I getting the blame for you not running hard? Yeah. Also, we weren't mic'd up. one of the best moments because security guard Mike is the best for people don't know he's a Staten Island cop he's been with us for I don't know five years now he's the man and uh he like it's something about like he's so New York he's such a New Yorker being in the south it's just such a clash and we don't know the people were playing I got a I struck a guy out and Mike just yells from right field nice it back guy

2:39:55PFT Commenter:I sounded like a fan of the Yankees game. It was so great. And they had one of the women of the LSU softball team, like nice enough to like play with us. It was a coach. It was a coach. She walked a couple of batters. And then Mike was yelling like at her was like, she'll walk an army. Yeah, we're rooting for LSU against Alabama. I think the Super Regional Series starts today as you're listening to this. So, yeah, we had a couple LSU coaches playing the game. It was awesome. Oh, yeah. We're LSU softball fans. They were so nice for us. They let us use their field. It was awesome. Yep. Meems, you got anything before we go?

2:40:34Big Cat:Yeah, I'll do a quick one. So I only packed socks and underwear this week. I've been just buying shirts as we go.

2:40:41PFT Commenter:Been given shirts, too.

2:40:43Big Cat:Been given shirts. This is where the Fyre Fest comes in. I took a tour, probably the nicest tour ever, the LSU facilities, just in a Florida State Seminole shirt. What are you going to do? Just an absolute piece of shit move.

2:40:57PFT Commenter:Well, later on that day, I think you were wearing an LSU bucket hat and a Florida State shirt.

2:41:02Big Cat:Yeah, switch it up. Just a fan of SUs. And then Jacob was wearing a University of Florida hat, right? In Lane Kiffin's office. It was awesome. In his face.

2:41:12PFT Commenter:In his fucking face. And then Jacob also... Actually, you tell him what you said. Yeah, that was tough, Jacob. That is your fire fest.

2:41:19Big Cat:oh yeah i so i did tell lane kiffin at the end i wore my gator hat in his office in his face and i said we're leaving hey lane sorry in advance for uh the florida game this year and then he was like we don't play florida this year so what kind of florida fan are you yeah which is a fair point but i'm the kind of when it comes to the schedule i usually am like uh i will memorize it in july august like when it starts coming that's fair like a normal that's fair and also like we play lsu every year and now we're starting to the sec schedule of like pods and shit yeah but we saved it we said like sec doesn't care about rivalries anymore and i do and maybe in the championship game yeah that's what that's that's true yeah yeah that's true either way um i'm proud that i stood 10 toes down you did hell yeah you did you you rattled lane kiffin i think i did during softball i was giving him a little shit he made a big error on third and um i got on camera it'll be in the vlog but he you were behind the camera yeah no i know

2:42:28PFT Commenter:i did sideline reporting no he actually jacob did jacob literally when we beat them jacob like did a beeline to lane kiffin he was like coach how do you think that game went

2:42:38Big Cat:i so i told him i was like how do you feel that your team of d1 uh athletes and coaches just lost a teammate primarily up of podcasters. How does that feel? And then he said something like, you know, we're here to lift other people up and make them feel better. So, but we had a good rapport. I was glad that Lane let me give him a little bit of shit.

2:43:04PFT Commenter:Yeah. Okay. Great week, boys. Great week. And memes, you look swaggy as fuck right now. Thank you. Also, I thought I had a fart for you, Hank, to solidarity.

2:43:17PFT Commenter:Yeah, that was pushed. That one was for Hank. That one was wet. We're in the bayou, bro. That was not wet. What I did was not. We stand with Hank. This is like the all-star game when everyone does a stand-up for cancer. That's what we just did for Hank. You know when you open a door and there's wind coming in and all of a sudden it creates a crazy amount of gust?

2:43:43Big Cat:Mine's pretty bad. Oh, it smells. Zach, do you have a fart? No. One more. Oh, there we go. That one was cute. That's six farts. That was a six shooter.

2:44:01All right. That's enough. All right. Did you guys know that we...

2:44:03Big Cat:We'll do lottery balls back in the office. We stand with Hank. Do you know that we missed our 1 ,000th lottery ball? Two birthdays.

2:44:09PFT Commenter:We'll do lottery balls in the office.

2:44:11Big Cat:Okay. Birthdays now? No, no. I just want to say, just so I get this on record so I don't forget, it's an important birthday on Saturday.

2:44:18PFT Commenter:Yeah, but we're going to do it all. We're going to all do it tomorrow.

2:44:21Big Cat:Happy birthday on Saturday to Security Mike. It's his birthday on Saturday.

2:44:25PFT Commenter:Remember to say it tomorrow. This counts. Do you know that we missed our 1 ,000th lottery ball on Wednesday? That's okay. We'll do it. Our 1 ,000th lottery ball will be back in the studio. None of this is going in. Yeah. No, the mic is going in. Smells in here. But we missed it regardless. Yeah, we missed it regardless. Okay, wrapping up the show. We missed the 1 ,000th drawing of the lotto ball. Whoops. I guess this will count for it. I don't know. This counts for it. I think it does. Yeah, those ones don't count. So this is actually$9.99, right? I have no idea. I think it is. Pardon my balls.

2:45:04PFT Commenter:You let us know. Numbers for everyone. 16. Do eight.

2:45:10Big Cat:17. Six.

2:45:16PFT Commenter:I'll do 85.

2:45:32PFT Commenter:You guys got them? Throw them in there. What do you got? 21. Jacob?

2:45:41Big Cat:18.

2:45:5212!

2:45:54Big Cat:12! Nobody. Anyone? Nobody.

2:45:57PFT Commenter:One more. One more. Right quick. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. That's a lot.

2:46:15PFT Commenter:36. 36. All right. No one?

2:46:21Big Cat:All right. Have a great weekend. Love you guys. And happy birthday to Security Mike on Saturday. Yep. He's the man. Happy birthday to Julian Edelman. Jules. Shout out, Jules. Happy birthday. Hank probably has another family member whose birthday it is this week, too. It seems to be that time of year. Happy birthday to Lori Markkinen. Happy birthday to Anthony Richardson. Kind of a member of your family, Hank. You love him so much. Happy birthday to Novak Djokovic. Nice. And happy birthday to Aaron Donald. Did you? He's kind of a pussy. On Wednesday's show, who did you do? Wednesday's show, I made a minor mistake.

2:46:54Big Cat:There was an error. Was that like a really good friend? No, it's a minor mistake. Minor mistake that I made on Wednesday. What was the minor mistake? Patrick Ewing. I wish Patrick Ewing a happy birthday. But I can't remember. It was not Patrick Ewing's birthday. It was Patrick Ewing Jr.'s birthday. But who else did you wish on Wednesday's show? Chris Benoit. Anyone else? Cross-faced crippling. Was there any good friends? Yeah, Will Smith. And? I forget who I wished a happy birthday to on Wednesday. Why? Jason Wirth.

2:47:23PFT Commenter:It's Josh Allen's birthday right now. Oh, no, no. I did. Okay, he did. All right. That's all right. All right. Good. I don't know. I got it.

2:47:28Big Cat:Thanks for listening. I got ahead of it.

2:47:30PFT Commenter:I zone out this part.

2:47:31Big Cat:I got ahead of it. And I said, happy birthday, Josh Allen. Got it. Because he's going to be on a non-show day. Got it. Yeah. Got it. Did say that. So Patrick Ewing Jr., it was his birthday, not Patrick Ewing's. Yeah, but you can see how one can make that mistake. He missed the junior. He missed the junior on that one. But also, Josh Allen did share a birthday with Chris Benoit.

2:47:48PFT Commenter:Nice. Memes, anyone? No, I think he got it. Shout out to Bus Driver. Open roads aren't easy.

2:47:55Big Cat:Yeah. Mm-hmm. Big-ass bus. Love you guys.

2:48:09Thank you.

2:48:39Thank you.

2:49:10Thank you.

2:50:01PFT Commenter:Okay, guys, it's grit week. This is the part of the football calendar where nobody's watching, but everything gets built. Early mornings, pads back on, conditioning, film, reps, spring training in football is all about putting in the work when nobody's cheering yet. And honestly, that's the same mindset behind the Chevy Silverado. This is a truck that is the definition of grit. Long days, dirty work, and showing up day after day no matter the conditions. Strong, dependable, and built for the grind because grit isn't about being flashy it's about being ready when it's time to go check out the current offers and build your silverado at chevy.com that's silverado all grit no quit and you can build your silverado at chevy.com today