PMS 2.0 1396 - COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK, Will Compton, North Carolina GM Michael Lombardi, WVU Head Coach Rich Rodriguez, Adam Schefter, & AJ Hawk

18:23Pat McAfee:Also has a dad podcast because he is an incredibly proud father. Obviously, he got ripped off of year 10, I believe, by the NFL. Supposed to be a 10-year NFL vet. Nobody would have expected that whenever he was coming out of Nebraska. Ladies and gentlemen, absolute dog, Will Compton.

18:40Michael Lombardi:Yeah! How you doing, dude? Pat, thank you for the introduction. Boys, it's great to be here. It's game day.

18:49Pat McAfee:We made it. Yes, we did. We did. That is the overwhelming sense that we have over here as well. This morning, brushing teeth just felt a little different. Like, we got actual ball here. Now, I couldn't even imagine my, like, West Virginia playing tonight would have an even, I mean, that would be a perfect way to kind of launch this. I assume you're very excited. Year three for rule. There's a chance here for Nebraska to go on a run. The boys, from what I'm hearing, look good over there. Look good. Pat, this will be, I'm telling you now, boys, I'm telling you, we got a favorable schedule. No matter how you think of the Huskers, this is year three of the Royale, year two for Dillon Rail, and Dana Holgerson on the sideline full-time.

19:28This is going to be the first double-digit win season since Willie C. senior year in 2012. You can book it. You heard it here right now. I'm just letting you know. I can feel it.

19:37Pat McAfee:It's in the air, and it starts tonight against Cincinnati. Okay, it's in Arrowhead, obviously. Travis Kelsey going to be there for Cincy. We assume. We're just assuming he's going to be there. That's his house. Now, if he's there, hold the phone. Who else is there? Are you worried about that for Nebraska? I mean, that feels like there is potentially an aura coming into Arrowhead that is highly swinging in Cincinnati's favor. Have you thought about that, Will? You know, when Trav, he got engaged. When he got engaged, I texted him. I said, hats off to you trying to distract the world from this ass whooping that's coming on Thursday night.

20:16From what I'm hearing, the misses won't be there. So it won't take over the entire world. But, yes, I am a little nervous about the aura of Travis Kelsey walking in that stadium. But, again, this is about the Huskers. This is about the Bear Chats. This is about stopping. I think it soars me. They've got a little dual-threat quarterback. And I'm telling you, it's coming tonight. I swear to God, I can just – I feel it. I feel it. I feel it.

20:41Pat McAfee:Matt Rule can give all the speeches he wants to give. Taylor Swift walks in there in a Cincinnati shirt. You guys are done. Don't care. You guys are absolutely cooked. Now, I like Raiola. I like Eat Money, your running back. I met him at a WWE event. Great Moxie. Feels like the offensive line is going to be good. I'm excited for you guys. Beefy. Beefy. Okay, we got good beefy boys out there. Always Nebraska. Shout out. Can we talk about the announcement about you and ESPN today before the boys have their questions for you. Congratulations, man. This is an awesome thing. Like, legit, we are very happy for you guys.

21:15Pat McAfee:How does this come about, and what does this mean? Dude, it's surreal, bro. Like, it still doesn't, like, Pat, I remember talking to you. Like, we FaceTimed when Bustin' with the Boys kicked off, and you were giving me a lot of game on the podcast world and how to operate. And at that point, I want to say I was telling you, like, hey, I think we're going to go through the summer with pods and then stop during football season because you get really nervous about how the teams might feel, being a distraction. I was still a free agent. Is this going to keep me out of playing in the NFL? And I just remember you telling me you have to treat your audience like it is your best friend.

21:52And if you're going to show up for them once a week, you show up for them once a week. My advice, recommendation to you, Young Willie C., would be if you're going to do it once a week, then do it once a week throughout the entire year or as long as you guys can. And you're giving me game on the merchandise and everything else. And just to think back to that moment and get all the way here to now we are on the team with you at ESPN. Like, this is a true story. I pissed the bed until I was 14 years old. And before I fell asleep every night, before I violently wet the bed, I would fall asleep to ESPN.

22:27ESPN, nostalgically for everybody. ESPN is also the previous channel when you're rocking Skinamax and you need that fallback in case your mom and dad walk in. it was sports center in top 10 and now to get to appear on it and to be part of the brand it is uh we're grateful man we are we are truly fired up well we're proud of you both for stopping the

22:46Pat McAfee:pissing in the bed problem once you get to 14 you think that's probably a lifetime thing yeah yeah you know i think that is probably a lifetime moment and also for all the hard work that you guys have put in you guys have grinded over there mad respect especially as ex-players trying to represent for football on a platform that you had to create you should be proud of yourself man And every time I watched you guys, I knew you were special. And obviously, you don't have to be a genius to be able to see what's good and what isn't good. But it was immediate upon watching you and Taylor. It's like, this is a good show.

23:14Pat McAfee:You have the juice. Taylor is such a good smartass and super handsome. And I think he's got a little bit of a thing with blackjack and gambling. You guys maybe check on him. But that is, I follow along from outside looking in. Hey, I do the same thing. I just say, are you sure? And he's like, I'm ready to go to war. I'm like, listen, you got to do your thing. That's a lot of money, Dana. Dana is a dog. He's been kicked out of a lot of places. He's got title and everything like that. But that's him. I don't know. Is your brain? Okay, I don't know. The lockitude, Dana. But nonetheless, you guys have worked your asses off.

23:46Pat McAfee:We're proud of you. And we're pumped you're going to be representing on ESPN. Good luck out there. We're proud of you, Will. Thank you, bro. Thank you, boys. No problem. All right, we got some questions for you. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Will, you talked about stopping Soresby tonight. And those black shirts on that Nebraska defense have basically been carrying the team the last two years. got no issues with the offense with Holgerson and Rayola year two. I think they're going to be much better. But you know, you lost your defense coordinator, Tony White. He goes down to Florida State. You lose a couple polar bears off that defensive line.

24:13Are the Blackshirts going to be the Blackshirts this year? Tone, that's my biggest, you know, that's what I'm most excited to see tonight is how the defense is going to perform. Because you're right, like losing Tony White, not just Tony White too, but a couple other guys on the defensive staff. Terrence Knight and T. Knight, he went with them down to Florida State. That was a massive loss because they have been a top 25 defense the last couple years. But there's a lot of optimism talking about rotations with these young cats, guys being able to play all across the line of scrimmage. I believe the linebacker's name is Javin Smith, 6 '5", 230 pounds.

24:48I'm excited to see him run around. We do have a veteran group on the back end in the secondary. But that is kind of my, like, I'm not worried about the offense either. I'm just excited to see who's going to step up on the blackshirt side because everybody's wondering what are they going to be like when you set it, those polar bears in the middle. So that's what I'm looking for.

25:05Pat McAfee:They got any young Willie C's out there? They got any some white trash kids flying around, throwing their heads in? You know they do. You know they do. But, you know, who's going to step up and be that? I'm out here congratulating. You got John Bullock down, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, undrafted cat walk-on to the University of Nebraska, earning his stripes as a senior, making a camp with the Bucs, and he's on the 53-man roster with Levante Davis. That's what we like. That's what we like. Yes, undrafted linebacker U is what Nebraska is. But we'll see. We'll see. I'm excited. That's not good. Hold on.

25:39That's not. That's a good one. We can't put it on a shirt. Not good. Put it on a shirt, Will. It's about overachieving.

25:45Pat McAfee:Undrafted LBU. That's sweet. Nebraska. That's awesome. Black shirt's a great nickname, though, for an entire crew. You know, and it's seemingly always good. And then that being the question mark, I think it's good news if you're a Nebraska fan. Now, let's move to the NFL. obviously you should have had a double-digit year, Karu. And it's a damn shame. It's a damn shame that all that happened. Your last year was really your best, I think. You know, you looked your fastest. You looked your fastest. So funny. You looked your fastest. So I think you were right. I think maybe 11, 12 would have been in there, but you found your true calling.

26:22Pat McAfee:Ty, I have a question for you. Yeah, Will, now that you are on ESPN, I'm excited to get your take on the Micah Parsons situation. This would be your first documented one, I believe. If you're Micah and you're hearing, hey, the Packers, they want to trade for you. They got 45 per year for maybe even 50 per year. Who's he hearing that from? Just you or have the Packers said this? Listen, it's out there. It's out there. It's not just me. What is your take on that whole situation? Not like Shadi thinks he's maybe going to play, but he doesn't know because he hasn't practiced or done anything all of training camp.

26:57Jerry is kind of hesitant to talk to other teams. How do you think that whole situation is going to play out? Brother, listen, we just said we were undrafted linebacker. This is a position and a player where I have never been – I've never gotten to experience that world. I'm sitting on my couch throughout the week watching this America's Team documentary and just seeing everything that Jerry Jones goes through, the pride that he has. I feel like he enjoys this game that is happening. You see my man going out there on different podcasts. he's doing a little press tour, going out there and kind of peacocking and letting the young man of Micah Parsons know they got him for three more years.

27:33If I'm Micah, I have no clue. Like, I would have too much anxiety, like, sitting on the couch, kind of waiting for the season to unfold, leveraging everything. Am I in shape? Am I not in shape? Can I go? If I wait too long and then go out there the day of, like, I'm going to have to prove myself right and everybody else right that what I'm doing is the right thing. And if you fail or if you get injured or if you do anything else that isn't up to that expectation. It's going to be, you're proving the Cowboys and everybody else right. I have too much anxiety thinking about it. I have no clue what's going to happen.

28:05I do hope Micah Parsons gets paid because he is an absolute dog for the Dallas Cowboys. But I don't know. I know Jerry loves this game is what I've gathered from what I've watched. Jerry Jones is in the pocket right now, and this is where he wants to be with Micah Parsons. And I think he respects Micah. I think he respects what Micah's doing.

28:23Pat McAfee:I think he probably respects him, but he's also, I don't think there's any budging happening. You know, like, the narrative is that the Green Bay Packers are in, okay, and they will go. And the$45 million thing, Ty said that very confidently yesterday on the show, and then Schneidman came on from the Athletic for the Green Bay Packers. He's like, there's an offer on the table that is very favorable, basically, or there has been, but Jerry isn't listening. The way Ty Schmidt is turning that is Jerry isn't ready to listen yet. Like, there's going to come a time that Jerry's going to listen. I think they're just going to continue to dance.

28:53Pat McAfee:Micah ends up playing? Is that what you think the final outcome is? I think he ends up playing. I think, you know, it's like this YouTube and Fox thing going on where, hey, are we going to get the games on Friday? Are they going to not let us watch Baylor-Auburn on Friday night? And then all of a sudden, somebody's hand gets pushed, and then like two hours before Ohio State and Texas kicks off, it's going to come to life. I think at some point it's going to come to life. Hey, Ty, I hope it's for the Packers, because I think there's a part of you, too, that's like, is Micah just over the whole thing and maybe he just wants to get out of that situation?

29:25Because I don't think the Cowboys are going to be that great this year. I don't think they're going to be very good.

29:29Pat McAfee:Why? You don't think Dak's good? You don't like Shottie? You don't think Shottie's a guy? Iber Floos, D coordinator, back where he's supposed to be probably? I think there's just too much going on as always around the Cowboys. I think they've got a lot of talent. I like Floos on the defensive side. I don't know how Shottie's going to be as a head coach. Him just being in the circus right now, I just don't know how it plays out, especially with the Commanders up north, with the Philadelphia Eagles up north, I think they're going to both be better than the Cowboys. And the Giants. Yeah, Giants. The Giants.

30:00The Giants.

30:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, the Giants. Forgot, forgot. We've got to cover all the teams. The Giants have some good pieces. Malik Nabors, this guy. They're not going to be a bunch of candy asses this year. Yeah, Malik Nabors, he can catch a ball. Yeah, he can. He can catch a ball. Like Jack Dart. He's unbelievable. Shrags came on and was like, Terry McLaurin isn't really in. Malik Neighbors tier, but he's there. It's like, what the fuck? Who said that? Is that really how you guys feel? I did not know that's how Giants fans feel. It is like Malik Neighbors is a guy. I'm not saying he's not a guy. Terry McLaurin was, is, will be.

30:35Pat McAfee:Long time. That is a guy. That is a guy you're looking for. Happy they got that deal done. Trey Hendrickson, happy he got his deal done too. The boys have been attacking Trey a little bit. He got 14 million more dollars in one year and the boys are like soft. This guy rolled over. We know that's not right. He got 14 million more dollars.

30:57Michael Lombardi:You want to know what it really is? It's that it started here. Talking to you. We've been riding this thing from day one rooting for him and then he fucked it all up. All we're saying is yes, 14 million for this one year is awesome. That's not what he wanted. He wanted multiple years. That's what he started. That was negotiation. He didn't want one year. Folded like a lawn chair. No. He was in there fighting. And they treated him like an asshole for seven months publicly. They did.

31:29Pat McAfee:You know, at some point, these players need to just accept the deal that's on the table. They said that. They said that. Yeah. But he went back there. Golf closed. Yep. Shook hands. Talked to the press. I want beer. And accepted the deal on the table. Yeah. No, they upped it. He got more. They were offering$5 million more. I did not hear that as a fan. He said we knew. He won the negotiation a little bit. Definitely. No, he didn't. Yes, he did. No, he didn't. And Mike Brown said we knew. It's like the 10th highest paid at the end. He was so close. Come here, Trey. Why don't you sit up? Sorry, Will.

32:05Pat McAfee:Sorry, Will. This is a thing that's been happening off air a lot. Yeah. First time it was brought to. Yeah, so we just brought that on air. You just saw an off air conversation happening on air. The boys fed up with Trey. Hey, Trey, guess what? We'll see you next year, too. Okay. All right. See, this is what they did. They killed this guy. Neil, Trey, come to the ring. He got$14 million more in these guys. Ha! What is that? He deserves$20 million. That's why. We agree. I think you're doing this from a position of love. Yeah, exactly. Correct. It always is. But you're attacking him pretty good.

32:38Pat McAfee:Sometimes, yeah. A little bit. It's insulting him a little bit, but it's got to be done. I'm trying to help him. What do you think about Trey Hendrickson's situation? Will, you think$14 million more bucks for a guy is good news, or do you think he definitely deserved more? And if he was maybe just a little bit more of an asshole, it might have got accomplished. But he just couldn't do it. He literally just couldn't do it, I think. Again, like, Pat, you know it's like this – I'm assuming the self-talking has had this game that's going on. He was playing it well. He was posturing. He's, you know, at OTAs, training camp.

33:11He's standing. He's talking to the media, throwing it back at the Bengals, posturing up and at the end of the day once the money once they start hurting your pockets a little bit and you start thinking of not only hurting the pockets but hurting the team like the bangles if they have some sort of defense this year they can be nice you got joe burrow who in my opinion listen when he's healthy he's the best qb in the game and when you have that potential you got steelers that are coming you got the ravens that are built for success always and when you're just sitting there as a player it's like there's a lot of selfishness there where it's like you got to do what's best for you.

33:45You got to play the game as long as you can play the game. But there's always that team aspect that's just eating at your head. And at some point, it's like, who's going to break here? And, you know, if the boys are saying he broke, he walked in, he signed the dotted line for$14 million more, and that's a loss, then okay, that's a good loss. That's a good way to lose.

34:03Pat McAfee:That's a good day to take that particular loss. I appreciate Will Compton, ESPN analyst, founder of Bussin' with the Boys, says Joe Burrow is best quarterback in NFL when healthy. That is what you said there. That is going to get out there. You believe that? There's a lot of quarterbacks out there. I believe Joe Burrow definitely in the – I'm not doing the who's the best game because that's a nightmare for a daily show host, but in the pantheon would definitely put Joe Burrow up there. He got paid as such, and we all love watching him. You just said outright, though, this is the best guy in the league.

34:37Pat McAfee:Why do you think that? And who is, I guess, second? Would that be Mahomes, Lamar, Josh? Galen? That's a great question, Pat. Danny Dimes? That's a great question, Pat. I like Joe B just because you hear just everybody talk about this, man, whether it's coordinators, coaches. It's like there's no – you're not really game planning Joe Burrow. You can't game plan Joe Burrow. I want to say who was the player that came out. I was like, oh, you can game plan Josh Allen. You can't game plan Joe Burrow. He wasn't like taking a shot at Josh, But he was trying to explain it in the way that's like, yo, when Joe's firing, his brain, his mind is just in a different stratosphere.

35:15I'm not saying the other boys aren't smart enough to play football, Pat. I'm just saying when Joe Burrow is operating, you see what he does when he has zero defense. Got weapons on the outside, O-line that sometimes blocks for him. But if they can get in gear, Joey B is slinging the rock better than anybody in the league. Patrick Mahomes, he's the baby goat. Josh Allen, he's an absolute stud. Lamar. The reigning MVP, Lamar Jackson, multiple-time MVP. They're all studs. Danny Dimes. Danny Dimes. Yeah, Danny Dimes. Danny Dimes out in the Indy. Why'd he laugh?

35:49Pat McAfee:But I love... It's a junkie time, bud. Let's do quarterback analysis, please. Oh, God. We're going Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Patrick Monsie, throwing Danny Dimes on him. Yeah. We don't know here at the Indianapolis Colts regime, but I understand what you're saying. It is a little disrespectful to the other guys for what they've accomplished thus far. I do apologize. You know, Will, it was Joe's teammate, Jamar Chase, that said that about the game planning thing. I was going to say that, but again, once I was in the flow, I was like, let me not just try and throw this name at the wall here. Again, daily television.

36:19I've got to be on my P's and Q's out here.

36:20Pat McAfee:No, brother. So you're always going to be corrected, even if you're right. Exactly. There's nothing you can do about it. But I appreciate that about Joe and Burrow. I don't think a lot of people are saying that. Because that sounds reminiscent of Peyton. That was Peyton's thing. He knows what you're doing, and brain-wise, he is just so far ahead of everybody. The amount of preparation that it takes to get to that point that Joey B is doing is absurd. That is just how he has to operate, so I respect that. Once again, I don't think there's a lot of people going to bat for Joe Burrow being the best quarterback in the NFL on a regular basis.

36:54Yeah, and that was a great comparison with Peyton Manning. I don't know how many times I lost my voice at the lunch table in high school trying to argue Peyton Manning over Tom Brady until it's just like you couldn't anymore because of all the Super Bowls. But that's a great comparison. You're not game planning. You're not doing anything against Peyton Manning that's going to be successful other than you hope something works out against that man. I feel like it's the same with Joe B.

37:19Pat McAfee:The timing was always the issue. If you could get a good jam and mess up the timing route, right? That was kind of what I think Bill started doing.

37:26Michael Lombardi:Yeah, that's when they changed the rule because they kept crying.

37:31Pat McAfee:All right, let's go. That is not. That's a fact. Listen, if you're lobbying for your team to benefit for something and it works, good on you. Patriots fans should not be saying anything about people doing things to get better as a team.

37:45Michael Lombardi:Yes, we can. Oh, yeah. That's a fact. I mean, proven witch hunt against us was deflategate. Proven. What about the other gate and the other gate and the other gate and the other gate? Once again, those were legal in terms of rules. That's why all the other people were just like, hey, let's not be looking too far. Then when looked at it, they're like, oh, but New England's doing it, so we've got to do something to them, kind of try and strike down the empire.

38:09Pat McAfee:But it lasted 20 years. Hey, when you're on top of the mountain for 20 years, people are going to try to attack you. And once again, all football people, whenever they heard about everything the New England did, were like, let's not get too crazy. Let's not be investigating too much here. Let's move along. Let's move along here. We've got to burn the tapes, right? Okay, burn the tape. Whatever. Let's move along and burn the bridges. Let's stay in New England, though. Obviously, somebody you know very well. Go ahead, Con.

38:30Michael Lombardi:Yeah, well, you were up there in New England. I believe you were trying to interview Vrabel. He told you no. And I also just want to pass on my thoughts on it. If you don the logo, stay the fuck out of the building, Compton. But when it comes to Vrabel as a whole. You did not deserve that. Hey, look, I'm just throwing that out there on behalf of people who are Patriots fans in New England. But when you're looking at Vrabel, you know, Stretch just did an entire interview with Ari Mirov, and Stretch is, you know, Vrabel's Ernie Adams, basically about how Vrabel is a football savant. He's got the McVay recall, but you never really hear about that, you know, publicly, because Vrabel, you know, looks like a big meathead.

39:12Michael Lombardi:What can you tell us about Mike Vrabel you think that most people don't know, and how do you think the Patriots will do in his first year? Most people know that he's a good asshole. Yes. I would say what Vrabel does, in my opinion, that it's a thing that set him apart from other coaches that I play for, is Vrabel does a great job every week. You're going to hear three keys come up a lot. And there's three keys on offense, there's three keys on defense, and there's three keys on special teams. Teams do that, teams have that. But the way Vraeb paints a picture for how you're going to win a football game, where it feels like your back's against the wall and everybody's counting you out, and he's throwing clips up of your team performing it in practice or executing in practice, or throwback clips of yourself executing it back in the day, or stuff around the league that says, hey, here's how we are going to affect this game and here's how we have to win this game.

40:08The way he does that because you have a team meeting every morning to kick off the day Vrave does a very good job of clearly painting the picture of how you're going to win the football game And there's no deviating from that You're going to get your ass checked every day through practice film when you deviate from that Or when you're like doing your own thing This is why we say this this is why we say that and he shows you in front of the entire team So what Vrave does so well that I feel like no other coaches like did that I played for that you're kind of like, oh, shit, he's kind of, he's right.

40:39He gets guys motivated this way. He paints a clear picture for how you're going to win a football game. And then when it happens, you know, he sits there and brags about it and talks about, hey, this is why we did that. You know, 14 years, what do I know? But he is, man, he's the leader of men. And all eyes are on him when you're in that room and your asshole's tight. But he paints a picture for how you're going to win a football game.

40:59Pat McAfee:When he's putting his hands on people, that's a part of the whole thing, right? That's a part of the whole thing for him. Like he has to be the alpha in the room. Has to. And people need to know he's the alpha. Literally, when I met him in person for the first time at that golf outing out in the American Century thing in Tahoe, he walks through the tent and he sees me and AJ. I just got done walking 18 holes for the second time in my life. The first time was the day before. My feet were all – I mean, it was terrible. I was rather high. I mean, I was on a different stratosphere maybe. Probably pretty boozed up if I had to guess.

41:31Pat McAfee:We had a good time out there. Fireball and AJ. Oh, yeah. You just got fireball. yeah yeah he got fireball yeah it was a good time we're having a blast he comes walking through you feel his aura as he hits the tent you know and he just got done walking 18 holes as well and he's 250 260 pounds but he's gonna no sell that nobody's allowed to see any weakness and he comes walking straight over to us and i see his big ass mitt literally flying like it was a left hook and i'm like oh he's he's about to check me right now he's about to hit my arm and he's gonna check me i was tired i was a little bit hot sue me don't actually i was a little boozed up it's But I knew in that moment, like, he is checking me right now.

42:08Pat McAfee:I flex as hard as I can, lean into it, and I think there's a good stalemate right there, right? But he wrapped his entire hand around my shoulder, and I was like, this guy's an animal. This guy is an absolute animal. And, like, I felt like I had to, like, when you're in a room with a pit bull, and pit bull get these bad rap, I have a pit bull. Pit bulls are, like, the greatest dogs of all time. But if you're around one of these dogs, and they sense that you're scared, they're going to mess with you. Like, that's what it is. yeah able is very much a guy like if he senses any is there anything in this guy he's gonna attack i feel like and that is i think that is why his leadership style is so good he's the guy in he's in the locker room still i think if i'm watching accurately the way he talks the way you guys interact with him the way he operates he's still player in locker room but he's obviously coach and obviously in charge is that an accurate depiction of his leadership style is that is that something you think spot on a time where you might feel like there there could be any separation from the locker room and a head coach he's got the ability as the head coach to banter with you bust your balls break your spirit to where you're kind of like yeah i kind of have to listen to him and the dude is like you know i sent stretch a screenshot when they got that fight in training camp because you had the video and rave just you know it's like coaches don't want fighting to happen.

43:26Vrave likes to act like he doesn't. Oh, no.

43:31Pat McAfee:He's on the bus. You're on the bus. You're on the bus. Did you guys get me? Did you lose me? No, you said Vrave likes to act like he doesn't like the fights and then... Vrave likes to pretend as a coach, we don't want any fights happening, but you know once that fight breaks out, he's like, you just said it, a pitbull. He wants to be in the mix. He wants to be yelling like it shouldn't happen, but he also wants to let the boys know at the bottom of the pile that it's still his pile. I sent Stretch a screenshot and like, hey, get him Stretch because Stretch kind of moseyed in there and then kind of backed away.

43:58He wasn't about that life. But that is rabe to a T, man. He's just got the ability to still get on that player level with you, and he still has that respect and leadership as a player and also as a coach. Yeah, and he's ready. Is he Stretch back there? Which one's Stretch? Stretch, yeah, go to the beginning. He's a tall guy in that gray shirt, white hat. Tall guy, yeah, gray shirt, white hat. Look at him, stepping away. Come on, friends.

44:25Pat McAfee:Come on, we can't be in the fight, man. Hey, how about him coming out bleeding in the entirety? It's like a whole new era up there in New England. Patriots fans, he's gone. The bus. The bus, yeah. The bus.

44:36Michael Lombardi:Might need to get that checked out. Might have been sharing too much game on Vrabel.

44:41Pat McAfee:Yeah, might have been.

44:41Michael Lombardi:Excuse me, stop talking.

44:43Pat McAfee:You said we got rats in the building. Here's one right now on ESPN. They do have that machine up there that shuts everything down and creates weather. Yeah, and the weather, yeah. Then they built a thing above it to show everybody where it stands. And then they started deflating the balls.

44:54Michael Lombardi:No, no, no. Remember, that was a witch hunt in 2014. When it happened, they started testing the balls the next season in 2015, and they realized, oh, fuck, when it gets cold out, the balls, they deflate a little.

45:07Pat McAfee:Turns out science has been saying this for a while. Yeah, but a little bit more than the others. Joining us from the bus, ladies and gentlemen, Will Compton. How's it going? Good. Did I get lost? I came back? I don't know what happened. I don't know if you got lost but you just said joining us Will Compton I was like hang on am I watching a replay is a replay about to happen no you were you just lost connection there right did that happen on our side a disconnected screen popped up you were gone you did we lost service yes oh gotcha I was trying to break down stretch in that fight but maybe the voice didn't hear me and then the phone just hung up yeah that's what we're talking about So that's why I introduced you back.

45:55Pat McAfee:First phone call? You were kind of gone there. I'm back. Yes, you are. Yes, you are, Will. Yes, you are. And on that note, Will, thanks for joining us. That was awesome. Hey, very happy for your success. Legit. Tonight, you want to pick these two games tonight? Nebraska. Nebraska minus six and a half. How about Boise State and USF? USF I like USF as the underdog Tough trip, Donner You think these are going to be high scorers or you think it's going to be kind of a cagey affair between these two early in the season, do offenses have it figured out? I like points in the Huskers-Cincy game again, I think Sorsby being a dual threat guy he could cause problems for any defense and again, being a young Nebraska defense I don't think he starts catching momentum until the second half I like a high scoring game for the Huskers Cincy.

46:54Boise USF don't know much about Ashton Jenty is not there anymore. I feel like Boise is just a logo and a name. They're going down to South Florida and playing in that heat. That's why I like USF. But again 61 and a half that's a high scoring game. I watch Big Ten football. I watch SEC and I dabble in the Big 12 and ACC a little bit. But outside of that I ain't tuned in to the Boise States of the world.

47:18Pat McAfee:They're always good for a reason. Obviously, Ashton Gentry was a big deal, but they got a good program up there. They really love it. Chuck Pagano has, I think he lives up there. And he talks about the commitment, the ball that they have. So I think Boise State's always going to be good, especially with the opportunity that they have now with the college football playoff and how much money it is. But USF out the gate is not an easy, that's not an easy week one when you don't even know what your team is. No, Boise basically returns everyone, including quarterback Maddox Mattson, except for Ashton Gentry.

47:47So that's why they're projected to make the playoff. But no, going down to USF in that heat, coming from Boise. In that heat?

47:54Pat McAfee:Idaho gets hot now. What did you say? USF has got the athletes. They got the guys. They used to, when we would play them, West Virginia would go down there. It was like, we should beat it. In theory, everybody thinks we're going to beat this team. But then you look at the D-line, they all ran like four fives, four sixes. like the whole D-line ran linebackers, all of them, 4-4 or better, like way before it. And it's like, how is this team not like very, very, very, very, very good? And it's like, well, I don't – who knows about USF setup with the funding and everything like that.

48:32Michael Lombardi:Yeah, so I know how much fun South Florida can be.

48:34Pat McAfee:Yeah, yep. A lot of distractions down there. A lot of distractions. All right, we appreciate the hell out of you, Will. Congrats on everything, you and Taylor and the whole team over there. Thank you, boys. Love you. See you Saturday. You too. Good luck, dude. Ladies and gentlemen, Will Compton. Yeah, Will. Big Will Compton. What a dog. Is he going to game day? Sounds like he's going to game day.

48:54Michael Lombardi:Oh, that'd be awesome. Is he on game day? He said see you Saturday. Maybe he meant like through the tube? Or did he mean? Oh, yeah. Yeah, like I'll be watching. Like, I'll see you. Hey, the best truck. Dying on. I knew right. Oh, man. Nothing stops a rain. Is that an Iowa Hawkeye Ram truck?

49:10Pat McAfee:I was going to say black and gold, Tony. Pittsburgh, yeah, they got down on there. I think they're trying to potentially. Iowa, I like that your first thought is Iowa. I like that because college ball is more of an Iowa yellow than a Steeler yellow. Yeah. There's a difference. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, there's a shade, I guess. You could certainly change it. But with that being said, nothing stops right now. I didn't see the down, to be honest with you. It's right above my head. Yep. You got that yellow blood slider. It's the best truck down the line. It is. If you need a truck and it's on the line, the best one downer, ramp truck.

49:48There's no argument there. Better than all the other guys.

49:52Pat McAfee:They are better than all the other guys. I don't like that other truck. Every other truck. There's another truck that might say it can do what Ram trucks do, but it ain't like the other ones. No. Ram trucks are very different.

50:04Michael Lombardi:That Ram truck would pull that other truck backwards. All right, let's talk about my truck.

50:11Pat McAfee:That guy was in a Ram truck. Yes, he was. And that's why he was so confident. Yeah, he knew. Let's talk about some NFL news. It was Cam Ward named Captain. Rookie season, congratulations. Quarterback, especially with everything that is said about Cam Ward. I think we all kind of expected this. This is cool, though. This is not a normal thing to be a rookie and to be a captain of a team. If you're a quarterback, obviously the team would hope that you would become a captain or be a leader of men. Cam Ward, seemingly leadership is one of his best qualities. If you go back to when he was at Miami, flipped the entire time.

50:40Pat McAfee:Flipped the entire university. Flipped the entire building. Congrats to him on becoming the number one overall pick with a lot of great, hard-ass work. Started at Incarnate Work. Yep. Then he went to Washington State. Yep. Then he goes to Miami. Then he creates a resume in college that makes him the number one overall pick and described as a generational talent. If you listen to the GM who early in the draft process said, you're number one overall pick, you're not going to pass over a generational talent. I think he's also a generational leader. I think the way his brain operates and the way his teams respond to him is a wonderful thing.

51:11Pat McAfee:And I think Tennessee Titans have a chance now. Can they become a team that is relevant in the conversation? because Nashville having a good team would be cool. Because Nashville likes ball. And Nashville is also a great time. So them having a good team would be great for the NFL. It will. And Cam Ward is awesome. All the stories about how early he gets there in his leadership. So not surprised he is a captain. But Foxy, can you throw that up there? Because I have a question about captains, Pat. There's a lot of one stars on there below the seas, which I believe means it's the first year being a captain.

51:42There's, what, five of them for this team? And do you like that for a team that, you know, did have the first overall pick last year? So, like, hey, maybe we do need some new leadership in this locker room.

51:50Pat McAfee:Yeah, I like that, you know, they're going with a new generation. They certainly need to turn the page. Callahan coached there for a couple years now. He's trying to establish his culture. These are his guys. I assume they were brought in to be leaders. So, yeah, I don't mind the one-stars all over the place, especially you got Simmons up there who got into a fight with Cam Ward. So, you know, I think they have the pieces. They have the city. They got an upgrade to the stadium too, right? Yeah, a new stadium. An investment for a stadium. so it's like the Titans uniforms too are sick. I know the Houston Texans people don't like that.

52:19Pat McAfee:But they're filthy. But they got great uniforms. And they're healthy. And Cam Ward's seemingly very entertaining. Once again, has not played a single down of football. Seemingly very entertaining. We love it. I hope the Titans become a good team.

52:30Michael Lombardi:Yeah, I mean.

52:31Pat McAfee:They're in the Colts division.

52:32Michael Lombardi:That's what I was going to say.

52:34Pat McAfee:They're looking up like this and they ain't dimes in the boys. But I mean, that is what the AMC South football is all about.

52:39Michael Lombardi:I think they're standing next to the Colts but I do think there's a chance what? But the Colts and the Titans are two of the healthier teams in that division at the moment. Everyone else has kind of already had some sort of injury. Texans for sure. Jags. So, I mean, hold the phone. What if the Titans are?

52:56Pat McAfee:Yeah, the AFC South is always going to be a dogfight. And now that Danny Dimes is in here, there's problems for everybody. Let's talk about two divisions, the AFC East and the NFC West. They'll be wearing Nike's rivalry uniforms this year. They debuted on social media this morning. Nasty set of threads. Ooh! The boys are modeling. Yeah, give me a little sexy eyes for these new rivalry jerseys, boys. Plopped there in front of a green screen. Let's go ahead and take a photo with some good lighting and showcase some sick unis. Now, anytime you put an alternate jersey out, there's a chance everybody's going to hate it.

53:37Pat McAfee:Okay? That is just something that is possible. In area, there's a chance you strike gold. I think that New England jersey is sick right there just as I looked at it. Yeah, love it. With Drake May. I think a couple of the others, like the Niners jersey, I think people will want to buy that. I think people will get excited about the Jets. I think the Arizona Cardinals even have a little bit of pizzazz on their uniforms. Anytime these happen, there's always going to be kind of mixed results. But if the team sells, I don't know, a million of these jerseys, definitely will. So much more money. So much more money for their business.

54:04Pat McAfee:And also, I think it looks cool whenever it's on the field. You know, color rush used to be on Thursday night. It was sweet. It used to be divisional games. It was rivalry games. Good ones. You know, short week. These teams know each other. And they're going to dress like highlighters out there. And it was like, wow, this is different. This is a little bit of sauce. There was throwback uniforms and alternate uniforms became the conversation. I like whenever they do this. I think whenever you do too many, though, it's a little bit of exploitation of your fan base. Yeah, for sure. But I think whenever you do it a couple times, I like it.

54:31I don't mind it. I like the themes to this one, too. Obviously, Buffalo, you got the snow in New England. Then you got the nor 'easter coming off the ocean. Stafford, you got Gotham. Yeah. Arizona, you have the little bits of dust of sand, which is a huge sandstorm rolled through the other day. So there's those unique intricacies that you got to love. Yeah, I like the artistry you're saying from these 90s.

54:51Michael Lombardi:What's interesting is I just assumed it was the two light-colored teams were playing the two dark-colored jersey teams, but the Bills and Pats are wearing those jerseys against each other, which I think is interesting as well.

55:05Pat McAfee:Oh, they'll make sure that there ain't no confusion on who's on the SD. A little light blue and white. I just, you know. I know how the photos look versus how they are in real life to a whole nother thing. Yeah. You know, because what's the lighting like in the studio where they're taking the photos? Icy. Obviously, it's cold as ice. Willing to sacrifice. 500 bucks probably for this jersey? That's the thing. That's the thing. Now, listen. I'm not really a jersey guy. If you are, good on you. You will be spending$499.99 for that tackle twill jersey. I don't want to say we've jumped the shark on some of these ones.

55:41What? That one's a night dolphin. Come on, man. Under the sea. That's just fucking goofy. Under the sea. It's from the depths. Under the sea. Like that one, like the Seahawks one, looks like, I don't know, it's got like Seahawk talons slicing open the jersey. There's just a lot of goofy bullshit on these, and I get it. What? I get it. If you're a 12-year-old boy, that's all you're asking for for Christmas. That's sick. So I understand.

56:05Michael Lombardi:That's awesome. The Jets have the Master Sergeant Halo 3 Greenman. J-E-T-S. Jets. Jets. Jets.

56:19That's actually the first thing I said. J-E-T-S.

56:23Pat McAfee:Jets. Hope Fireman Ed has a great season this year.

56:26Michael Lombardi:I hope they still put him on the Jumbotron because where on the street is up there in New York is. They're moped up with Fireman Ed. No. But I hope not. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, They're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities.

57:03Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook.

57:41Pat McAfee:This is the greatest, huge night of college football as week one of the season officially kicks off this evening at 5.30 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN as Boise State takes on USF and then Nebraska will take on Cincinnati on 9 p.m. on ESPN. There's like 20 other games taking place. We are officially a football season and we are acting accordingly. We are in great moods. This is the time that we have fought all offseason for. This is the time that we look forward to all year since the Super Bowl ended. This is the day that we want in our lives. This is the morning where we take a dump and it's a smooth dump.

58:17Pat McAfee:There's no wipes. Yeah, old one. This is the morning the first sip of coffee or water is the perfect kind of temperature or mixture. This is the morning where you're brushing your teeth and it's tickling your nose hairs. And it just is enlightening you into a sense of absolute pure joy and happiness. because tonight we have a sport that is better than every other sport on earth and storylines developing that will continue and carry all the way into January. This is a great time to be alive, and we're thankful you're allowing us to do this for a living. The Toxic Table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt.

58:49Pat McAfee:Iowa with Gronoski might be the year. Hey, it could be. Listen, I'm actually very excited to see what the Big Ten will be like kind of in that second layer. We all know what Ohio State and Oregon and Penn State are going to look like, But a lot of people think that there is a chance that the Big Ten gets four teams into the playoff this year. So teams like Nebraska, who everyone's kind of hot to trot, especially with the Matt Rule and his third-year deal. Hey, this team's got a favorable schedule. This could be setting up for them to get in. I think Iowa's the same way. I think if everything goes right for both Nebraska and Iowa, the game they play each other could be like an eliminator to get into the playoffs.

59:25Pat McAfee:Let's go to one half of the hammer. Don Cowboys, AP tone. Indiana ranked 20th right there. Sig had to do a big overhaul yet again. And he just wins. And that is literally what Google will tell you and your eyes if you watch any team that he plays. Does Indiana have a shot doing what they did again last year? Yeah, if their quarterback works out, if the quarterback situation works out again like it did last year, they bring in Francisco Mendoza from Cal, who was really good there last year. But on the defensive side, they have a first-team All-Big Ten guy at D-tackle, at linebacker, and the secondary.

59:54So they have all three levels. Yeah, and they reloaded with a couple of Notre Dame linemen on the offensive line. So Sig has reloaded. I don't know if IU, is that something you could say in the past, but it feels like Sig has reloaded. They do have a chance. Their schedule is a bit harder this year.

1:00:07Pat McAfee:Well, last year, a lot of people talked about their schedule, and they said, we play who we want to see. We played who we played. You know, a couple special teams mistakes against Ohio State. That game is a little bit different. For sure. That's what Sig Nett is definitely telling the boys, too, as they go into this season. What an incredible motivator and coach. I've enjoyed getting to know him, as I've enjoyed getting to know the entire college football landscape, as I was baptized through a college game day three years ago. Cannot wait to get over to Columbus, Ohio, the home. of a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner, and a man who's currently in the middle of a new haircut.

1:00:38Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. A.J. Hawk. We're in the middle of it. We're doing it right now.

1:00:43Michael Lombardi:Hey, what's the normal age to stop peeing in the bed at night? You know?

1:00:47Pat McAfee:14 seems way too old. I don't know.

1:00:50Michael Lombardi:I mean, when you pee in the bed, you can almost have your temps and drive with your parents in the car. Like that? I don't know. Your temps.

1:00:57Pat McAfee:Temporary license. Yeah, temps. You don't call it temps?

1:01:00Michael Lombardi:15 and a half, get your temps What, for like farm trucks and stuff? No, when you turn 15 and a half You take a little written test and get your temps We call it our permit

1:01:10Pat McAfee:Temps is a much better term Your license is your license Yeah, that's the That's Ohio I guess the permit permits you to drive Is that how you guys view it as opposed to a license?

1:01:21Michael Lombardi:I mean, permit, what are we, 100 years old? It sounds like an old formal term

1:01:25Pat McAfee:You're calling it temps

1:01:28Michael Lombardi:Tomato, tomato, we're good No, I think temp's a much better word. Some people call it a permit. There you go.

1:01:33Pat McAfee:I will not permit anybody to do that here on this particular program. But with that being said, 14 feels a little bit too old to be peeing the bed. Who would have thought that that guy would go on to have a nine-year NFL career? And now he's an ESPN analyst. That's right. Hell yeah. And we're pumped for him. We can't wait to watch him this football season. It's going to be a great one. You just talked about it. We're pumped. College football's here. Tonight, what are you looking forward to, brother?

1:01:56Michael Lombardi:I tell you what, USF. I know people are trying to say, what is it, five and a half? They're dogs, I believe, against Boise. I think that's a test deal to win. I'm not scared of UCF on this one. Alex Golish is the coach. He was actually at Ohio State my senior year, junior and senior year. The guy was a student just breaking into the coaching world. I've watched his whole path, so I have a lot of respect for what he does. But, I mean, Nebraska, UC, that's going to be awesome. At Arrowhead, it's going to be an awesome environment.

1:02:22Pat McAfee:Andy Reid welcoming them yesterday was really sweet. You know, there's photos like Matt Rule and Andy Reid talking. and there's a lot of great history, obviously, in that stadium. Tonight, they'll kick off a college football season. Can't wait to watch. There's also other games. There's like 20 other games. I think ECU's playing. NC State, I believe. Yeah, right there in the middle. That's a huge game. I mean, NC State every year, potentially a conversation piece. Favored by 13 and a half at home. Okay? Here we go. Here we go. ECU can get it how you want it right here. You know, this is a great start.

1:02:54Listen, we've been talking this week. Ohio Rutgers, Buffalo, Minnesota, Miami of Ohio at Wisconsin. Those are three MAAC teams versus three middle-of-the-road Big Ten projected teams this year. There's a chance one of those MAAC teams gets one of them boys tonight.

1:03:07Pat McAfee:I don't think the books are showing enough respect for the smaller-tier teams, especially in the modern NIL world. You know, some of these schools, I don't know what Ohio's exact setup is, but if they just have a couple hundred thousand dollars from donors, you can get good players at certain positions. And if you get good players at certain positions and you have, like, good fill guys everywhere else, you could steal a win against a team like any team like that can happen let alone week one where nobody has a clue what they're going to be nobody everybody thinks what their team is but until you actually get out there you don't know it's like 13 and a half is a lot of points 15 and a half is a lot of points for week one now granted i know that's a lot of respect for uh ruckers and for nc state and everything like that 17 and a half up there like that those are that's a lot that's a A lot of points for week one college football game, in my eyes.

1:03:52Pat McAfee:I am not saying that this is what you should spend your hard-earned money on. I'm just saying when I look at that, I think the sportsbooks are thinking that there's going to be some blowouts here tonight. And in my eyes, first week of college, who knows? There's always one. There's always at least one. There's probably going to be multiple this weekend where someone big, you know, gets upset in that. But, you know, those Mountaineers better be watching that Ohio and Rutgers game tonight because I believe the Mountaineers go to Athens, Ohio in week two. Yeah, and don't you worry about that. Uh-oh.

1:04:21Pat McAfee:Okay? Yeah, we'll thank the Shiano man. Sure. Okay? Shout out to part of my take for giving us a blueprint on what we need to do week two. We'll certainly watch that. The Montaneers, we'll be talking to this man, head coach Rich Rodriguez here in about 20 minutes or so. Can't wait to catch up with him. There was a stat that just dropped about the amount of starts from the players that he transferred in. We have the most amount of starts, transfers, in the entire Power 4 conference. This is from Max Olson. So West Virginia, we have 51 transfers that have a combined 462 starts of experience. A lot of seniors, 35 of them, I think, 32 ,000 snaps.

1:04:58Pat McAfee:Right underneath there, Virginia in the ACC. Only 31 transfers, but 447 starts. A lot of football played by not that many guys. So you're thinking this is kind of the Indiana rule. Indiana got a lot of transfers that had a lot of starts, a lot of wins from smaller divisions. Hungry dogs, if you will. Hey, let's go try to flip this shit at the highest level. They make the playoffs. That was an insane run. Now you're seeing West Virginia. Rich Rod's going to have to bring in a lot of veterans who have been through his type of style shit before as he's trying to change the culture. But I assume he also thinks you've got to win early.

1:05:31Pat McAfee:And the way to do that is with players that have won before. Yeah, and this is potentially the blueprint now after IU last year. So let's look at it. West Virginia, new coach. Virginia, third-year coach. Purdue, new coach. Arizona, second-year coach. Houston, second-year coach. Wake Forest, first-year coach. Colorado, prime, loves the portal. And then North Carolina, new coach. These are a lot of programs with new coaches bringing in, guys. And on that note, North Carolina has a general manager. That general manager happens to be a friend of the program. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now live from Chapel Hill, where we will be, I will be, Monday night for a kickoff show.

1:06:04Pat McAfee:We'll be off on Labor Day, but I will be a part of a kickoff show for their first game of the season against TCU. Ladies and gentlemen, multiple-time Super Bowl champion, author, Ted Talker, podcast host, live show host, email newsletter founder, and now the general manager of the North Carolina Tar Heels football team, ladies and gentlemen, Paizano, Michael Lombardi. Hello, Pat. It's so good to be back. It's so good to be back with you again, Pat. Lambo, I know you're in a cave right now, probably watching film. We appreciate you joining us. Saving money. We know you've been working your ass off down there.

1:06:39Pat McAfee:How has it been? Now we have full offseason, regular season right around the corner. You're all the way back into ball. Is this as awesome as you thought it was going to be? And when you were doing media, were these the days you were yearning for? How do you feel going into the season? Well, I mean, I'm a little disappointed I missed the Kelsey Taylor Swift announcement being in the media. I'll admit that to you. I mean, that was a big day. But other than that, I couldn't be happier. I mean, this is what I wanted to do since I was 11 years old, and I'm delighted to do it with the greatest coach of all time and at one of the greatest universities, public universities.

1:07:16So I'm really living out a dream late in my life. I'm happy. We've got a lot of people working really hard on what we're doing. Our coaches, our support staff, our recruiting is going well. So, look, it's all coming together, but we're building a process, and that takes time. and we're building a foundation for sustainable success. And you just don't do that overnight. And it takes time, but we've got players that have bought in completely. I think you'll feel that, Pat, when you come down here Monday night. I think everybody's bought into Coach's program. They love what we're doing. And now we've just got to build confidence without evidence.

1:07:50We've got to go out there and build that confidence.

1:07:52Pat McAfee:Rome wasn't built in a day. You said he can't do this overnight in changing an entire culture and trying to build your process. We just had that stat up from Max Olsen, a great stat here, by the way. And also makes West Virginia look good, so I love that. Anytime that happens, I'm going to get excited. But you guys are on that list, top 10. Obviously, it's a lot of new coaches, new situations. We've got to turn it over. 39 transfers who have 308 starts. Was that something you guys were looking for whenever you were trying to get out of the portal? We wanted guys who played football, a certain style of football.

1:08:18Pat McAfee:How do you kind of get to this point of being in top 10 in this particular stat? Well, I mean, look, the high school recruiting is the draft, right? Anybody who tells you the draft is going to impact your team greatly really doesn't understand the draft. The draft is always about, in the NFL, next year's team. We all should be talking about the Packers draft from 2024, not their 25 draft, or the Raiders draft from 24, not 25. Some guys will make an impact. There's no question. But the real mark of a draft is what happens in the second year for the player. As Coach Walsh used to say repeatedly to everybody, the first year we teach the players the system.

1:08:56The second year we develop the skills within the system. And so the high school recruiting is for next year's team. Will we get some production out of some kids we recruited? Yes. But the free agency is essentially the transfer portal. And that's where you have to plug and play. You've got to sign guys. We've signed Gio Lopez from South Alabama when he entered the portal. And now he's going to be our starting quarterback on Monday night. He started two years at South Alabama. Now he's going to start for us here at North Carolina. So those are the things that you have to solve your problems with.

1:09:27And having not had a recruiting base here at North Carolina, when Bill and I arrived on the 14th of December, you know, high school recruiting was essentially done. So we're going to have to, thankfully, we had a spring portal to add a lot of players to our roster.

1:09:41Pat McAfee:What is the conversations like? We knew that Bill Belichick would be quite an advantage, you would think, for certain players in the recruiting. What has it been like now for the players that have got on there? Have you noticed that you said he got full buy-in? Is that strictly because it's Bill, or how has Bill been coaching these college kids versus how he talks to the professionals? Is it a different side of him? No, it's exactly the same, and I think what they're amazed by is his knowledge of the game. I think they all walk out of the meeting room saying, I've never heard anything like that.

1:10:08I've had coaches, assistant coaches, come up to me and say, I've worked for some really great coaches, and I've never heard what I just heard in that room. So I think he really, you know, he's able to use his knowledge, his intellectual ability, the way he sees the game, which is vastly different than a lot of people see the game, and being able to transform that into a message for them to all understand. man, the best part, Pat, is when you walk on the campus. You know, I'm here at the football facility. We're in the stadium. But we practice about a half a mile away at our indoor. And when you walk, you have to walk through campus to get there.

1:10:42The best part is when I'm walking with them and the students are walking by and they're like, is that Belichick? They're stunned. They're like, they want to say something, right? But then he's gone too fast, so they've gone by. They're like, you could just see him. No, thank you. He said that when we were in Detroit. It was awesome.

1:11:00Pat McAfee:We were at a steakhouse. Somebody was like, he walked past him, and the guy tried to stop him, was like, Coach, can I? No, thank you. If he would have caught him, though, I think if he would have caught him beforehand, I think he would have took the photo. But he's almost like, you missed it. This is not, we are now down the street. This is how it goes. The amount of people that recognize Bill Belichick, I think that was, he's a megastar. He really is. I couldn't even imagine him on that campus, especially with how much you guys have given back to the university. It feels like you guys love being there, always have.

1:11:32Pat McAfee:Go ahead, AJ.

1:11:34Michael Lombardi:Longbow, when you look at what's going on, when you look around college football right now, does anybody know what kind of team they have? I mean, you know what you had in camp and everything, but until you go out there and you actually play a real game, I guess how much can you learn from that first game, how much you guys can handle, how much they can't, and how you can actually coach and kind of move things around compared to the NFL game? It's really hard for me. I don't know who we are. I mean, I know who we are in terms of us against us, but that's the hard part. You know, when you have training camp and you practice, you know, 10 days and then you have those preseason games, you get an idea.

1:12:08You're able to judge your team a little bit. You know what you have. This is really foreign to me, not having any practices against some other team. And, you know, what does the speed of the game going to look like? We're playing a TCU team that won six of the last seven games. They're very effective. Josh Hoover, their quarterback, is outstanding. He's got a high percentage of completion. They don't have negative plays. Sonny Dykes has done a tremendous job since he's been at TCU. So, you know, you know the history of TCU. You know what they did in their game, but you just don't know what they've added and how they've changed their team.

1:12:40And that's always a little bit concerning as you go into it. But like Belichick says all the time, the first quarter's for assessment in any football game. You've got to assess what they are. And I think that's what we'll have to do in this game as well.

1:12:52Pat McAfee:Is he trading at the same game plan? No, you don't have to tell me. The Patriots always had three game plans. That was always the thing. I assume he's just coaching the same exact way from what you said. It's exactly the same way. I mean, look, one thing about college is you're not going to change. Josh Hoover's been a very good player for them, and Kendall Bryer, our offensive coordinator, has done a very good job. I mean, this is a team that was 25th in the nation. They score a lot of points. They run a lot of plays. They do a good job of keeping their defense off the field. They're very good at playing from in front, which is an essential quality to winning any football game on any level.

1:13:28So we know what to expect from them. They have a great job of turning short passes into long games. You've got to tackle really well. But for us, it's about really how do we play? We can't have bad plays. We can't have false starts. We can't make mistakes because we've got to be able to have 70 plays in this game. If we have 50 plays in the game, TCU will score points.

1:13:50Pat McAfee:P1 matters. First play matters, especially going against one of those teams. If you don't get any yardage on first down to the first position, you're in trouble. I mean, it is. Because then that's probably three and out. They're getting the ball back, and they are just – and your defense gets no time, and then you're back at it. You've got to slow them down, Mike. You've got to slow them down. Hope you're able to do it. TCU team, very efficient. Let's talk about the team that you have and that you've been able to get. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Lambo, I do want to talk about that. And I want to talk about how many times have you called Michael Jordan for NIL money?

1:14:25Is that something that you're allowed to do since I assume he's probably one of your biggest donors? And then also, like, with the NIL and the situation and the revenue sharing coming down the line, it hasn't fully passed yet or whatever, but have you started preparing for a situation where, you know, it's going to be, hey, you get so much money for your team, and then on the other side they could get the NIL? Well, the NIL, the rules about NIL go, and you have to process that. As for Michael Jordan, look, Michael Jordan's presence is more important than opening up his billfold. Michael Jordan involved with our program is what matters.

1:15:02I mean, I have three jerseys in my office, right? I mean, I'm in the football office. I hung three jerseys on the wall here. Julius Peppers, the great Lawrence Taylor, and Michael Jordan. I mean, that's who we are. And I think to me, him wanting to be involved, him wanting to give us the Jordan brand, which I wear every single day, that's really important because no matter how long he's been away from the game, the kids know Michael Jordan. They know the logo and he has a tremendous impact on them. And so financially, to me, that's more important than that. You know, sometimes you have to understand the value of what a donor brings to the table.

1:15:41And sometimes it's just not always cash.

1:15:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, Michael Jordan's presence is certainly good. Cash also. Also helps. Just saying, in sports. I got this text from Hembo while we were talking. Shout to Hembo, master statistician. The Patriots had won seven playoff games in 40 seasons before Bill Belichick arrived in 2000. They were a UNC equivalent, is what Hembo is saying. Like, what Bill Belichick was able to turn New England into, which I think he should get a lot of credit for and everything that he's been able to do. Yeah, he wasn't making pizzas in spite of what some people think he was doing up there. He wasn't the chef up there in New England.

1:16:19I mean, I know there's been documentaries and books written about he was basically working in the background. Yeah, on that note. Short order cook, yeah, I got all that. I mean, like at some point, you know, yeah, hey, I'll have two eggs over easy, Bill. And by the way, we'll take care of the game. Don't worry about it.

1:16:36Michael Lombardi:Yeah, on that note. Yeah, Connor has a question for you. That was awesome. As a Patriots fan, of course, what Bill said was interesting about how the difference in coaching in college, it's all football. There's no owner. There's no owner's son personally, and I think most Patriots fans feel this way. Bill should take as many shots for as long as he wants after that Apple TV Dynasty documentary. So I'm glad he's getting stuff like this in, especially because of how the whole entire thing ended and how it went last year. But to your point right there, what you said that first year or to Hembo stat, rather that first year in New England, you know, it didn't go great.

1:17:14Michael Lombardi:And then the year I think they went six and 11 or five and 11 on the year after they won the Super Bowl. And when it comes to expectations for, you know, Bill Belichick coach teams, aside from that one, typically every single year it was a Super Bowl. As far as like the team expectations from, you know, Bill's point of view, from your point of view, obviously, it's the first year you got to continue to grow. But when it comes to this year, is the biggest goal, you know, the finding out who you are to, you know, what you were saying when it comes to the game is the biggest goal? Just seeing development in freshmen.

1:17:44Michael Lombardi:Like, what is the mindset coming from Bill and yourself when it's college versus the NFL when winning is the only thing that matters? You know, look, everybody wants to win games and that's great. But sometimes winning can be a little bit of a misleading instrument where, you know, some teams win their first year and then they come back and they're not able to duplicate the winning because they haven't built the right foundation. And then all of a sudden it becomes problematic. I think for us, it's about getting better every single day. Look, the challenges that await us, we understand that. And we understand winning is part of the job that we've signed up for.

1:18:19It's a great job, but winning comes with it. But I think we have to lay the foundation and the process in place. We just can't assume we're going to go out and win. I mean, Nick Saban was, what, 7-6 his first season at Alabama? I mean, we've had many phone calls with Nick talking about what happened in his first year. It took him some time. Now, he didn't have the portal, right, to help him out when he was at Alabama. But what he did the next year in that recruiting class, it was Hightower. It was Julio Jones. It was some really good Mark, you know, Mark Ingram. There were some great players that he recruited that started his program in the right direction.

1:18:52And I think that's something that we have to do. We have to be very sustainable in our approach. And that's always been Bill's. I mean, look, let's face it, Connor, you know better than anybody. The Patriots, and I don't mean this as a knock towards anybody in the organization, they never were in the top five of spending in New England. Never. They've always maintained a certain balance with their salary cap and their building of their team because they wanted sustainable success. And that's because of the head coach.

1:19:19Pat McAfee:i uh i appreciate that bill is committing this much to north carolina because to build an entire program is going to take a few years like that's a long time everybody was assuming this was going to be a one-year two-year thing especially because where he is in his life seems like he is starting a new chapter you know there's a lot of noise outside of football up there for bill you know that yeah i mean it's not in the building so that's the one thing that i i can honestly say unequivocally our players have said that too that noise and i haven't seen any any part of bill's work ethic slowing down i think it's the fact it's increased it's it's it's remarkable i mean it's remarkable how and the attention to detail hasn't slipped away and he's involved in every single facet of our i don't think they've had a coach here and i don't mean this disrespectful towards mac brown or any coach who's been here but i don't think they've had a coach our players have had a coach, some coming from the portal, some being here, that have coached all three phases like Bill does.

1:20:17I mean, Bill's out there coaching the block punt team. And so, like, he's involved. And so that's part of what we sell. You've got to get a coach who's not going to be a situational game manager or call plays. You're getting a head coach.

1:20:30Pat McAfee:He twirls in that whistle every video. He'll be down at the punt team, and then next you'll see him twirling that thing, talking shit to some defensive guy. And then he goes over to the offense. You can't do that. You just can't with the whistle twirl. We're just like a coach's life. He's lived. He loves ball. I think that is very, very evident, as do you. I can't wait to see what you do with the college version of it all. Ty has a question about the professional version. Yeah, Lambo, when you look at the Micah Parsons situation, if you were the Cowboys GM or you were Jerry Jones, and I don't know how much you've seen of all of that with getting ready for the game on Monday, but all the trade rumors, They're saying Green Bay is interested.

1:21:10They have a contract ready for them, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, Jerry and Micah had the handshake deal. That's been made a big topic of conversation, obviously, because things don't really get done like that anymore when you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. But if you were in that situation and you were doing all that negotiating and you had to make a decision, what would you do and how do you think this ultimately plays out? Look, it's hard to find Micah Parsons. okay guys that change the game well he's a tuesday player right and i wrote about this in my book football done right tuesday players are the players that you have to worry about on tuesday in a game plan meeting right and those players on tuesday go into the hall of fame i mean that's what they are you're sitting there you're driving to the stadium sunday morning and all you're thinking about is how am i going to block parsons how am i going to handle him in protection what am i going to do He's the game plan set up for him.

1:22:04You know, Pat, you had Dwight Freeney. When he went out of the game, we're taking shots down the field, right? When he's in the game, we can't do this, this, and this. That's a Hall of Fame player. And I think that's what Parsons is as well. Now, to me, you know, Jerry has always been late to sign guys. And because of his ability to talk and to convince players, I mean, look, we're in an age now where I can't have a meeting with a player here at North Carolina without someone else in the room so we can validate exactly what happened because I don't want to play that. I said, you said, she said, he said, I don't want to play that game.

1:22:37And I think you got to be very careful about that, especially when it comes to your locker room. So look, Jerry's found a way to get through it with Dak Prescott. He's not done it. He's been late to the party to sign him and now he's at$60 million, but he seems to enjoy it. But I think at this point in his life, the best thing he can do is to get him signed to a long-term contract without having to franchise him for two years and having to pay an awful freight to keep him on the roster. Everybody's going to be interested in the guy. I mean, who has past rushers that can change the game? I mean, that's Lane Johnson we're walking.

1:23:07He's just walked right back there. That guy's a really good player. So he's a hot commodity and he can tilt the game. And I think what we saw with the Cowboys traded for Charles Haley back in the day, they won Super Bowls after they got Haley. This is the kind of player we're talking about.

1:23:22Pat McAfee:Hambo sent me a stat. Most sacks. I love Hambo. Hambo. Geez. Hambo. Hambo. Hambo. Hambo. Love you, Hambo. Hambo. Hambo. Hambo. Two we're big fans of. Most sacks on a team after getting traded there. In third, John Abraham, 68.5 sacks for the Falcons. In second, Chandler Jones, 71.5 sacks for the Cardinals. And the most sacks in the history after being traded to a team, Jared Allen, 85.5 for the Vikings. Let's go. So there has been, I think Reggie White was traded. He was like the first free agent signing. Yeah, like big one. Schneid said yesterday he was a trade. So Schneid's going to tighten up.

1:24:05Pat McAfee:Okay, Schneid, your boot's on the ground. I'm taking what you're saying verbatim there. But Jared Allen going there and having that career, I only remember him as a Viking, obviously. Like that can happen. And Jerry doesn't want that for Maka. No, he does not. Peyton Manning was only shown in a Denver Broncos uniform for a long time after he retired. Yeah. Okay. Jim Irsay and the boys had to build a statue for him here in Indianapolis for people to remember that he played for the Colts. And he was here for like 18 years. And won a Super Bowl. Jerry doesn't want Maka playing anywhere else. But Jerry has also said that his mouth has gotten him into a lot of borrowed money.

1:24:43Pat McAfee:I'm too good at getting borrowed money. I was$50 million in debt actually and then his one oil rig that he paid$800 ,000 for hit. I made a hundred million dollars just off of that ring i knew exactly what i was doing i was buying dallas cowboys so jerry you know all that's true you know pat all that documentary about jerry all that stuff is true and i lived it i experienced it not because i worked for the cowboys but we played in 1989 we were getting ready to play the buffalo bills in a conference game uh a divisional round and back in 89 there were no places to practice indoors nobody had an indoor facility like we all have now.

1:25:20And so you typically had to go somewhere. So the Browns, we used to go to Vero Beach to practice at Dodger Town, but that was being used. So we went to the Cowboys facility and Jerry had just bought the team and the building, he moved everybody into half of the building because he didn't want to pay the heat cost for the entire building because he was so leveraged out on everything. So he just practically moved. And now people were in two offices and shared it. It was unbelievable. And then he changed the game completely when he gave Jimmy Johnson that contract and he took all the money from Apex and said, here, Jimmy, all the money I just got from Apex, I'm going to give it to you.

1:26:00That changed the game. That changed the game. That's why he belongs in the Hall of Fame for what he's done for the league in terms of the value he put. The money you made in your career, a lot of it's contributed to Jerry Jones. There's no question about that his ability to see the game moving forward but this issue on parsons is a separate

1:26:18Pat McAfee:issue yeah the parsons stuff might be just drama that he loves which is a part of his business plan yeah he has actually said that that's a part the cowboys aren't scared to be in the middle a little bit of controversy don't you worry about what the cowboys are doing here i was told by somebody uh kind of in the know in the nfl world one jerry jones in the league was a necessity if there was 32 jerry jones our league would be over is that is that uh like one was a necessity well at the time when he came in it was really he was the steve jobs of the nfl he came in with a different idea a marketing strategy that no one else do if you see pictures and happy birthday to coach parcells last week you see pictures of coach parcells on the sideline next to belichick coach parcells is wearing an apex jacket and belichick's wearing a starter jacket and they were each making a little bit of money not a lot from each company and jerry said enough of that i own the sideline here's what we're going to do and now the owners own the sideline yeah rebox deal and then this this whole yeah and now they're a cash cow yes he was i was yeah 50 million dollars in debt to be clear now uh most valuable franchise in the history of sports it's a hell of an american dream story brother got 700 mil from the nfl unbelievable all right lumbo good luck down there We can't wait to watch.

1:27:35I'll see you Friday. I'll see you Monday night, Monday afternoon. We got a lot of people in the house. Can't wait to have you. Hope to see you.

1:27:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, I can't wait to be down there, man. I was asked if I wanted to do it, and I was like, Lombo and Bill's first game? You got to come here. Absolutely. You got to come here for their game. We got musical. I mean, I hear this. We got musical talent coming down here. The great Eric Church is a huge, huge UNC fan. Hopefully, he's going to show up with his bus, and maybe he'll play a little Springsteen for us. Oh. Is he? I don't know. I can't answer that. Oh, the spring scene movie. I'm about to just put a little public pusher on him a little bit. Yeah. I like that. You're the man. All right, Paisan.

1:28:15Pat McAfee:Good luck. Thanks, guys. Bye-bye. Michael Lombardi. Bye-bye. Springsteen. Is that on Monday? Jordan coming? Is Jordan doing the coin toss? Probably.

1:28:25Michael Lombardi:Michael? Lawrence Taylor. I'd be there, too. Yeah, I was thinking Michael. Michael, right? Oh, you're a different one. Oh, you're thinking Jordan. Yeah. Potentially.

1:28:33Pat McAfee:Is that pronounced Jordan though? With D-O or is it Jordan? I don't think so. Because every time you read it, it's hard not to say Jordan. It is. I've been saying. Because it is D-O and normally you see A-N there. Whatever the case, she's in a lot of headlines all the time. And it's not what we expect from a Bill Belichick-led thing. But Bill Belichick's living his life. And if Lombardi's saying, hey, inside the football, we're still doing our thing, I'm excited to see what the team is. I mean, it's a lot to just build a culture, flip a culture. We're going to be joined here soon by a guy who's doing it again at a school that he went to.

1:29:07Pat McAfee:He's an alumni of, and he's being tasked with flipping an entire culture back to what it actually is. You know, representing an entire state of just tough. Like, that is literally what it is. And this guy had a... Hachimaki. A Hachimaki on the other day. A hard-edged bandana. Just letting you know, I'm a samurai of tough. If you would like to come learn from a sensei, I am the guy. If you are tough and you are athletic, we want you here at West Virginia. Now it's going to be hard. Shit ain't going to be easy. You're going to have to be tough. But that is what hard edge is all about. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is one of the greatest football coaches of all time.

1:29:42Pat McAfee:I was very lucky to have him as a college football coach. And now he's back at West Virginia University, the home of tough. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Rod. Yeah, Coach! Hey, Pat, where did you get that funky picture at? I swore to Raquel, I said, I don't remember taking that picture and putting a headband on, but somehow I got circulated. I looked like an idiot. No! This is a good thing, not a bad thing. You are a hard-edged samurai, Coach. Hey, how are you doing, boss? How's life over there? It's good. Camp was good. You know, I still have my voice. You know, the first week was really tough, but I'm proud of our guys.

1:30:18You know, it's different. You know, Pat, it's a different type of challenge, you know, no matter what coach or what system you bring in. and we're going to be demanding. And I'm proud the way they hung in there. Now I've got to see what we have. We've got to play a game and find out what we really have. But from an attitude standpoint, a culture standpoint, I don't think we're 100 % there, but we're a lot further along than we were a month ago and six months ago.

1:30:41Pat McAfee:Okay, so let's talk about it a lot further along. Whenever you get the job, you understand that nowadays an entire building is not just the team and assistant coaches. There's everybody in the building now. We've got nutritionists, dieticians, trainers, massage, everything. That's a nice facility over there from whenever we were there the last time. That is a very beautiful upgraded facility. But the entire building has to kind of buy into your culture. How has that been? Because obviously I think the way Neil Brown coached, no offense to Neil Brown, I appreciate what he did for West Virginia University, spent a lot of time in Morgantown.

1:31:12Pat McAfee:But the way he coached, vastly different than the way you coach and the way you run a program. How has that been? How has it settled in? Was there like a little bit of a culture shock or do you think everybody's kind of figured it out pretty good? I think it was going to be a little bit of shock no matter who came in and did their own system. But what's funny, Paz, we took the team picture here a couple weeks ago, and there was as many people in white polo shirts on the staff as there was in uniform. I mean, I couldn't believe all that. I was embarrassed because I didn't know everybody's name.

1:31:41I'm like, here's 100 and some people. We're feeding 250 people every day in our building. So that's why our food cost is so high.

1:31:49Pat McAfee:We could probably pay some players, you know, and we'd take some of the polos out of here. And football staffers and football players don't eat like normal people. You know what I'm saying? Like there's normal people out here. No, a loaf of bread for one guy might last a day. A gallon of milk ain't going for two days. You know, it's crazy. But I'm really fortunate to have it. You know, I think it's – you know, that's what's changed before when I got a staff pitcher when I was first here when you were playing for us. You know, there's like ten coaches and four GAs and like three administrators and one strength coach, right?

1:32:20Now that's the recruiting room. You know, that's it. So it's a little different dynamic. And so you have more, I guess you have to have more people buy into the culture or help you teach the culture than ever before. And that's the part I'm really pleased about, that the staff really has not only, they got to buy in, they got no choice, right? But the staff really helped me establish that part.

1:32:44Michael Lombardi:Go ahead, AJ. Coach, what do you, like first game you said, we got to see what we have, like what kind of team we are. What are you expecting? and what are some non-negotiables that you have for your team that for especially the first week you want to see and see how they execute? Well, the easy answer is don't loaf and don't be soft. But that's kind of a standard for anything. But now you don't go live that much in practice. You know, a couple scrimmages and a couple practices, you'll be live or almost live. But in the games, it's all full go-go on. And so, you know, you'll see who plays a little bit faster in game time, who's a little bit more physical in game time, are the lights too big or whatever.

1:33:19And, you know, some guys, you think you know what you have. And you guys know that. You guys played at the highest level. There are certain guys that do play a rise to a level when there's a game. And some guys maybe don't. And until you play a game, you've got to figure that out. I wish we had a preseason game. It would be easier to kind of guesstimate what you have. But at the same time, these guys have worked hard enough. They've earned the right to show what they can do. And then we'll see what happens. We're going to play a lot of people this weekend.

1:33:44Pat McAfee:I don't know if a preseason – play a lot of people. I like that. That's a little piece of information in a nugget to find out who you have. I know the depth chart conversation has certainly been hilarious with you. And why would you ever put a depth chart out, especially when you don't know what you have? And the implications are very serious, especially with how transferring and everything kind of works these days. And I think you like the entire room in most rooms. On that note, you brought up a preseason there. I don't know if a preseason game will ever get approved, but it feels like the scheduling and how kind of power for conference football is, is changing right in front of our eyes.

1:34:17Pat McAfee:I think people aren't scared to get a loss maybe early in the season. So maybe they'll play a little bit bigger games. You're a guy I know that would play anybody. Now, I know the Alabama thing just kind of ended, but you are literally, hey, let's fight in the park. We'll play. Let's play you. How do you feel about where college football is right now with the college football playoff and how it's designed and set up? And was that a big part of you coming back to the Big 12 or back to one of these power conferences at West Virginia? Well, how college football is, it's a cluster. I better not say the last word.

1:34:47But I think there's efforts to make it better. I still think, I'm giving you my opinion, I still think there's a separation that's about to come where there's going to be 50 or 60 power four schools that have their own league, and then everybody else is separate because there's just so many different dynamics in play now, money financially, the commitments to programs, what they can do going forward and all that. So we're running a professional league now. And so as many professional rules that we can follow, which the NFL is obviously the most successful pro organization there is, we've got to follow that.

1:35:20So if we're going to follow an NFL model for fairness and equity, we need to get those rules established like right now. People can complain about the NFL all they want. You guys know this. There's fines and there's consequences for not following the rules and all that. The college, there's still not that. And so I think all that's going to have one aspect. But I can sit here and bitch about it. Right now I'm saying, what am I going to do? What good does it do to me to bitch about? What's the rules right now? What do we got to do to win on these rules? And what can we control? What we can control is our guys playing really hard, playing with passion, and being disciplined.

1:35:59And so this first game, I was on our guys yesterday. I said, we can't have pre-snap penalties. We can't have guys holding. When you hold, you're lazy. That's it. If you loaf, you're a traitor. You play for the other team. So I don't want lazy people and I don't want traitors. You know what I mean? And so that's not being like a jerk. And I could be a jerk, but that's not being a jerk. That's just being a team, a disciplined team, in my opinion.

1:36:22Pat McAfee:If you are loafing, you are a traitor. You are playing for the other team. You are wasting a spot on the field right now, and you are contributing. Yeah, we've got 10. We've got 10 against 12. If you've got two guys loafing, it's 9 against 11. Or 13. They gain, yeah. You are a wordsmith. You are one of my favorite humans I've ever encountered, as you know. The way you would put words together and how you're a psychologist, and you're also, you say hard edge, hard nose, accountability, discipline. Like what you taught me and our entire team, we all have carried into our life. I think about your West Virginia Southern fucking accent saying something to me on a very regular basis whenever something pops up in life.

1:37:08Pat McAfee:And I think once you get the guys in there that understand that and can buy into it, I think the opportunities in the sky is the actual limit on that note. Tone has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach, obviously you coming from Jack State and a lot of your coaches coming from Jack State and instilling that culture is huge. But how important is it the guys that you brought, the players that you brought, I think it's like six to eight, somewhere around that range of guys that you brought over from Jack State that are in the locker room every day, that are around the other players every day. How important are those guys to instill the culture with the team?

1:37:39Well, we thought that's part of the reason we thought, well, they're good players, but two, they can help explain to the guys, hey, coach ain't that crazy. It's really a method that we're doing to help these guys be the best version of themselves. But even those guys I had to get on. Of course. Which tells you that it's a constant thing. You have to do that daily. Now, there are some guys that get it and you never have to say a thing. But there's other guys you have to fight it every day. I mean, you really have to fight it every day. So it's not a once-in-a-while thing that you ask for in your players.

1:38:09It's an everyday thing. And then once it truly becomes established and ingrained in your program, so to speak, then the only guys you've got to teach are the 30 or whatever, 25 new guys going forward every year.

1:38:21Pat McAfee:51, 70, 100 new guys. So many new guys. Somebody told me the number was 79. I'm like, damn, no wonder I don't know all their names. Yeah, it's a lot of players. Signetti did this, though. Is that something you guys are looking at, like a blueprint? I did look a little bit at what he did there. He brought a lot more guys in from JMU with immediate help and all that kind of stuff. But we did think about that a little bit. He brought production as opposed to potential, I guess you would say. And that's the same thing everybody wants. Not that we won't take a power forward transfer or it's got to be the right fit no matter where it is.

1:38:57But there were a lot of guys for us that we thought we were looking for a move up or looking for opportunity on a bigger stage. And so they had a different type of reasoning or hunger as opposed to that. The guys that were looking for just a bigger payday, we weren't going to get that guy. Plus, that's not the mindset that we're going to build the culture around anyway. On that, Ty has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, so speaking of that mindset, Coach, when you go out and you're recruiting, whether it's high school kids that might be coming or it's prospective people in the transfer portal, how long does it take you to identify like okay this this is a kid that actually will fit into the culture when you maybe haven't had him in your building or you know anything like that yeah you have to ask hard questions i think any coach will tell you that i mean it's all about i know coach saban said this and i've obviously been saying it for the last few years you've got to buy guys you got to buy the right players right um you know some schools have been buying him for years you know but whoa whoa that's how's that but uh but the truth is you got you better you better evaluation is always the biggest piece people realize i mean and if a five star is probably a five star you're probably not going to miss on too many of those because if you're ready to so-called five star you're probably so dynamic that you're hard it's hard to screw that up but everything else is is a little bit of a crapshoot if you don't really evaluate not just his talent and his size, speed, all that kind of size and all that.

1:40:20But does he really love football? You know, right now you're getting a lot of guys that play football in high school and college that like it, not love it. I want dudes that love it and need it. So if you take it away from them, it bothers them. I don't want the guy that loves how many likes he gets on TikTok or whatever it is.

1:40:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, you hate that. Yeah, we know that. Yeah, I mean, I don't mind if that's like a side hobby. but if how many likes he's got is more important than beating a block to get a sack or high-pointing a ball in a jump ball situation or whatever the case may be, that's the wrong dude. I want the dude that just, you know, that's, hey, coach, we get to practice today. Not that we have to practice today. We get to. That's what I want. Yeah, and you just saying there, does he love football? Like, I just want back to so many moments of you. Because everybody on your teams, and you've probably been told this, have had a moment where they all looked at each other and go, Jesus Christ, man.

1:41:15Pat McAfee:This guy, this guy is getting after it. You know, and the weight room is a massive piece of it. And I've heard great things out of the weight room too. Cause it's like every day is on. I had the incredible opportunity to be a drill instructor for the Marines in this movie called the Mosquito Bowl. Well, the book is called the Mosquito Bowl. The movie's being filmed right now in Australia. Peterberg's directing it. There is awesome dudes across the entire thing and watching them become not just actors, but actual team behind the scenes as they're representing the greatest generation and college football in this movie that is going to be phenomenal from what I have seen thus far.

1:41:52Pat McAfee:It's like what drill instructors, when I went down to Parris Island to watch them and learn from them as I was depicting them in a movie that was going to be seen by a lot of people, these are the baddest motherfuckers on earth. These dudes are, they don't sleep. They're expected to be perfect every single day. They are supposed to stay on these Marine shit every single moment basically and these recruits are you know not worthy of being marines at the beginning and then once through they get through boot camp it's almost like you've earned your stripes and you have kind of dealt with and went through what a drill instructor has given you for 13 weeks nowadays back then it was seven to eight weeks because they're in wartime so it was all kind of much quicker as i was learning about these drill instructors all i thought to myself was rich rodriguez would have been a phenomenal drill instructor i mean it absolutely i was just on my team on my team yesterday about discipline you know i was talking about penalties pre-snap penalties holding because you're lazy you're not moving your feet whatever discipline you know uh in your work ethic whatever it is i said discipline is a form of love it's what you do for somebody not at somebody and but nowadays it's it's it's tougher because you discipline somebody and they're like you don't like me anymore you know or what happened it's like no if i didn't like you i wouldn't even pay attention to you you'd never hear i tell the guys you've i probably said it to you before oh yes When the day you start screwing up and I don't say something to you, that's when I gave up on you.

1:43:15And I ain't giving up on nobody. And surely I wasn't going to give up on you. And I didn't have to worry about that too much. But some of these other guys, it's like, you know, I'm looking at you. I said, listen, I'm doing it for your benefit. You know, I don't ever say that nice. But anyway.

1:43:31Pat McAfee:You are great. Just know that when you watch this movie that I'm in, know that I drew a lot of inspiration from your attention to detail. And also, the way that you are trying to get everybody to their best version. You said that earlier, but that is legitimately what it is. You just have your way of doing it. Now, there are other ways to do it. I don't think I've ever seen a successful operation not be accountable, not be disciplined. And like all the traits that you pitch are the traits that are make a successful anything business team. You can name it. So I want to thank you for being my college football coach and for, you know, changing me.

1:44:10Pat McAfee:And you mentioned it in the press conference and I texted you immediately afterwards seeing it because I think you didn't want to like step out of line where you're like, if you see Pat, like Pat works his ass off. I think he learned some stuff from our program. It's like, yes, you can absolutely say that. I learned a lot through your program about how I should approach life, how I should view life, work ethic, what I should expect, all those things. So you should be taking a lot of credit for that. You should not feel like you can't do that. So I'm very appreciative. Here's the point with Pat McAfee and some others of your teammates and other people that you have on your show, whatever.

1:44:46They not only have that, but they have a certain level of competitiveness that they want to do whatever you want them to do. You know, the discipline, the work ethic, and all that. And so that competitiveness piece of it, I think, is sometimes not looked at as much as well. The kids are, I think, naturally competitive. But the most highly successful ones, like yourself and everybody else that you have around you, they're the ultra-competitives. You know what I mean? They'll race you to the water fountain, for crying out loud. I mean, if there's one piece of steak over there and there's 20 yards, I'm going to beat the shit out of him to get to it.

1:45:23I mean, everything's keeping score. You know what I mean? And some people say, well, you know, it's not right nowadays. It's this participation trophy thing. Like, are you shitting me? You know what I mean? No, there's a winner and there's a loser. If you don't get the participation trophy, then try harder next year.

1:45:42Pat McAfee:Yeah, work harder. Work harder building up to it. You didn't earn it. Sports are a meritocracy, and they always will be. what you do in the dark when nobody's watching will certainly be seen in the light when everybody's watching and what you and your team have done which we already know anybody that's been through your shit we know the boys are going to be ready and we know that uh you guys are ready to fight i can't wait to watch your team maybe see you in a couple weeks yeah we hope we hope so let's take care of business let's not be fucking you know let's you know what hey we need today right right now i'm worried about getting the first down and the first play of practice here in about two hours and then I'll take it from there.

1:46:18Pat McAfee:I asked him this morning, AJ, when I called him, I said, Coach, how you doing? He said, fuck, just trying to get a first down.

1:46:26I wish it's harder than ever now, you know what I mean? It's like I'm speaking a foreign language still. That first year, I mean, and I got a lot of one-word calls. I'm like, if I had one of these West Coast offenses where you had like 18 sentences to make a play call, we'd be screwed without no hope whatsoever. I got a bunch of one word calls. You think I'd be able to handle it. hold on.

1:46:49Pat McAfee:I want to go back to a video that I broke down. I wasn't there. I don't know if you've seen my breakdown of the video that hit the internet. This was certainly equipment manager wearing the ref stripes, not spotting the ball accurately. Is that what this was? I think it was. No, I don't think it was equipment. I think it was one of the staff members, one of the coaches. I have one of the coaches in charge of being like the umpire or the center judge to spot the ball quickly. and for whatever reason he was just not paying attention and it cost us about 10 seconds and I was like, that's 10 seconds I'll never get back.

1:47:22I'll be sitting on my deathbed and wish I had 10 more seconds to live but because if they screw the drill up I'll never get that 10 seconds back.

1:47:34Pat McAfee:You're the greatest. I'm happy you haven't changed. Good luck. I'll see you soon. Take care of business ladies and gentlemen, the founder of Horde Edge

1:47:41Michael Lombardi:Rich R. Rodriguez. Hey Rich!

1:47:44Pat McAfee:I'll be laying on my deathbed and I'll think, I wish I had 10 more seconds. Do you know where they went? You, spotting the ball in the wrong place. I'm telling you, when I was watching those Parris Island drill instructors, these unbelievable men and women, just the baddest humans on earth, limited sleep, maximum energy, full attention all the time, have to be perfect. It's like, to play that in a movie is absurd. Like, they're going to be so mad at my version of it. You know, like, I understand there's going to be many drill instructors who have sacrificed their entire lives to creating marines for extended periods of time i mean it is a full commitment families what what is that you know like we are we are in this with this platoon right here it's like honor of a lifetime but as i'm watching them and the way that you're speaking and then i watch some film obviously we watch r lee from full metal jacket and everything like that the way they talk it's a lot of promos and it's like they're trying to get their point across and it's like not exactly everybody's saying the same things.

1:48:42Pat McAfee:They're cutting promos in there to try to crack through, to try to break through, to try to touch an emotional nerve. They are trying to get to that, to let you know, like, hey, everything you've learned before getting here does not matter. We're the Marines. We're the first to fight, and you are not going to be a Marine unless you are a bad motherfucker. That is just what the Marines are. That's what they stand for, and the culture is the drill instructor. So as I'm watching and listening to these drill instructors, I'm like, Rich Rodriguez missed his calling, man. Every day there's something you can fix.

1:49:10Pat McAfee:Because even when they're standing perfectly, they're not. Your feet aren't at 45 degrees. They're at 46 degrees. You need to go ahead and move that shit. You're standing upright. Nope, you're not enough. You're fucking need to extend that spine a little bit more. Like, there's always something to fix. Because it's like you're always striving. You have never made it. That is Rich Rod to a T. Yesterday, I had the greatest practice of all time. He's coming in the next day. That was shit. Absolute shit. We're watching the things that were bad. And then we're going into it. It's like, with that being said, I think that's always going to win.

1:49:40Pat McAfee:you know like it's always going to end up winning like i think if he would have stayed at michigan a little bit longer i think i think he probably would have won i think he would have started winning arizona i think he started with jacksonville state he takes them from uh not d1 to d1 wins conference it's like those intangibles win in the sport of football toughness accountability uh being a good teammate like that matters in our sport so like whenever richard gets hired back to west virginia i think everybody that was at west virginia when richard was there was like all all right, we're going to win.

1:50:09Pat McAfee:We're going to win games. Are we going to win it all in this modern world with how much money some people have versus what we have? Maybe not, but are we going to be a tough football team? Big 12? Yeah, we're going to be a tough football team, and it's going to be fun to watch. You know, AJ, it's like a cool feeling.

1:50:23Michael Lombardi:And Rich Rod even said that. He's like, it's every day. You've got to stay on it. It's true. It's like a parenting. If you're a parent, if you let a kid get away with a tiny little bit, they're going to continue to try to push and push. And your team, I think a bad thing for a team is if they're comfortable. A team should never really be comfortable. I know at least as a player, I never felt comfortable. You should never be comfortable. And sometimes you wish you were, but then you're like, no, like we don't, that's not how it works. You have to be on everything every single day and you can't let anything slip.

1:50:49Pat McAfee:Meetings at two o 'clock. Okay. You better be in there. One 50. Cause that meeting starting anywhere between one 50 and two o 'clock. So if you're anything after one 50, you're late and you're sitting there, you're facing the front. Okay. We're facing the front. We are not the same. You're not just hanging out. We're not just study. Hey, how was it? We're in a fucking team meeting right now. We have a reason. And then he would walk in whenever, 154, through the back. And it was like as soon as he walked in, it was everybody was like, all right. Here we go. We have no idea. We have no idea what's about to happen here.

1:51:24Pat McAfee:He could throw us a bone, which is exactly what they call it, I think, on Parris Island. When he throws somebody a bone, like let him just have like a little bit of a moment. He could throw us a bone. Hey, guess what, boys? Go to the pool. It's like, holy shit. We thought we were running the hill potentially there. Like, always guessing, you know, never content, always striving. And, oh, yeah, we can get better than we were yesterday. That's why, like, I hope he wins. I do. I hope he gets a chance because I think he's done it in a way that is a winning way in football. And it is, like, you feel for the people that have gone through Rich Rodriguez, like, football program.

1:51:59Pat McAfee:Like, the guys that went through with Neil Brown and Dana Holgerson at West Virginia certainly respected your Mountaineers. I do. we didn't have a lot in common though because i i didn't you didn't have to go through bar with speech and it's i know you didn't because i've been watching the videos of what you guys been doing we were damn near death every day like that is what we were and those rules were a little bit different back then and watching that team and kind of watching it build and watching him just be the alpha of the room and us rallying sometimes against him almost like fuck this guy like this guy has no idea he doesn't care he wants that like that is a part of the entire mission it's like They're going to win at West Virginia.

1:52:36Pat McAfee:And I'm honored that they have selected me for the Hall of Fame. And I'm pumped that Rich is back there. It's going to be electrifying this fall, I think, personally. Maybe not this year.

1:52:44Michael Lombardi:I think coaching is back.

1:52:45Pat McAfee:Rich Rod's style-ish, I think it's coming back a little bit. Matt Rule, too, same thing. We're not doing TikTok, please. No. Go on, get it out of there. I think it is. That's always been the style that wins. Some coaches just are a little bit better with the media, I think. You know? Like Andy Reid. Some are louder than others, I think. Some are louder. That's all. Nobody expects Andy Reid. Andy Reid, he's not swearing. like we tried, but it is still the same.

1:53:06Michael Lombardi:Who's that? Arizona State coach? The young guy? Dillingham. Feels like he's just like that as well. He's great. Yeah. Hey, you have to.

1:53:14Pat McAfee:This is a developmental thing. You are boys to men. ABC.

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1:54:26Pat McAfee:It's the greatest. AJ, if you loaf, you're a traitor.

1:54:30Michael Lombardi:Okay. It's true. It's true. There's all, do you guys have different forms of loafs as well? Like we get graded. There's a turn, turn it down loaf. If you turn it down, there's a speed up loaf. If you're running, all of a sudden you change your speed. Yeah. All that stuff.

1:54:42Pat McAfee:No, people were getting loaves when they weren't loafing. I think back at West Virginia, I mean, he is, he's looking for treason. You know, he is certainly going to find it too. If you loaf, you're a trader. If you hold, you're lazy. I don't want lazy traders on this team. Nope. What a line, dude. he was electrifying as a head coach i mean that is just like putting it mildly every year at the end of training camp i would host a gong show of sorts that the freshmen would put together and i would be rich rodriguez at the end of that thing and i would just say things that he had said in the past year just his i would write his shit down so like literally throughout the year things would happen and i'd be like locking that one down like if you loaf you're a trainer that would have been immediately like yup putting that down and uh in this time at the end of the gong show i would come out stone cold steve austin from the back like he does for the team meetings because like different groups of freshmen would do their show or whatever and then i would come out and at the very end i would come i came out like stone cold steve austin glass break did the entire thing and i won on that was probably my first time really doing uh a performance if i had to say and that was a tough room okay we had a tough team that's a tough room we got people literally from compton south florida ohio every you name it we got people from all over the map in that room and they're all just getting done with training camp and it's a rich rodriguez training camp so that's a tough fucking room i mean that is a tough tough room right there so i got in there and got some pops out of that entire thing felt like i was on top of the world then rich rod will come up immediately afterwards and did i get a rap pay motherfucker i mean he is he's so funny dude his brain football wise and motivation wise is just always we'd see him 5am he's on the fucking stepper the stepping machine or whatever Cavs just outrageous just right through we're working out down there 6am with Barwis which is Maybe the greatest strength coach of all time.

1:56:41Pat McAfee:He's getting people with paralysis to walk now. I mean, just like so honored to know him, but he was, I mean, that shit was not. That was, that was, that was some, those were some tough days. Those were some very tough mornings there when you're questioning a lot of things, a lot of things. Football, fuck this sport. I could go play soccer again right now. I stopped soccer because I didn't want to run. And now I'm going through the hardest work. is this the hardest workout in the United States of America? I think this might be the actual most difficult workout on a regular basis in the United States of America.

1:57:16Pat McAfee:I didn't even lift going in high school. I didn't even lift.

1:57:19Michael Lombardi:That's wild to me. You're thrown into that after. I know you said you kicked and everything in high school, but you joined the team basically for games. The fact that you had nothing, and then you get thrown into a Rich Rod team with Barwis as the strength coach, yeah, you pretty much threw you in the toughest spot you probably could.

1:57:34Pat McAfee:And I'll tell you what. Right mindset, I always try to enjoy everything as much as possible. But, boy, there were some days where I was like, I'm not supposed to be here. No way. And teammates, the tightness, whenever you go through that together. Hard. When you go through hard together, it really does bring you. You know, it brings you together. So I got faith in this West Virginia team. A lot of new faces. A lot of new bodies. But I think that soul is always going to be the same if Rich Rod is the coach. The Toxic Table was here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. Ty, are you a little bit worried?

1:58:06Pat McAfee:that that coach is back in football in a big way. Listen to the way he speaks. Would you ever hear Kirk Ferentz talk? You're talking about polar opposite type of personalities. Similar coaching styles, though, do you believe? Yeah, so you don't ever hear Kirk say anything like that in the media, and he'll never really get – he doesn't give reporters really anything. But if you watch Kirk on the sidelines, he still gets fiery. he'll still motherfuck an assistant coach or the referee. But, I mean. What's it like? Ryan Day just won. Ryan Day seems like a pretty intense guy. Yeah. Seems like a pretty intense dude.

1:58:43Pat McAfee:I do wonder what his day-to-day is like. Because I think you have to be, in our sport, I think you have to be pretty attention to detail.

1:58:52Michael Lombardi:You can't let anything slip. And that goes as far as your assistant coaches, too. That's a big thing. How you coach your assistants, they have to know the standard and what it is. and that's the thing like it's exhausting to do that think about rich rod that's exhausting to not let anything slip like you could be walking by at any like anytime just see the tiniest thing and if you want like yeah even though it might seem tiny like yeah we can't have that like we

1:59:16Pat McAfee:have to change this pick up the fucking straw wrapper put it in the fucking trash can yeah i don't know why i left it there yep you're 100 wasn't mine i don't think but yeah it's hard to

1:59:27Michael Lombardi:explain that to young people sometimes so as a young kid it's easy to be like well no what do You think third and two is going to care if I threw my tape away today? But honestly, it's all connected. It does matter.

1:59:38Pat McAfee:It doesn't show up until it shows up. That is literally what it is. It doesn't show up until it shows up. And I don't want to point out what happened with the Colts last year with the fumble and the half-yard line and everything else like that. But it's like there were signs that things were not operating how winning teams operate. I'm not just pointing out one particular team. This happens throughout a year for a lot of teams. You see things that are happening. It's like how you do anything is how you do everything. If that's happening, what else is happening? And if you're seeing this now, is it going to show up in the biggest moment?

2:00:06Pat McAfee:Probably. That is normally how it all works out. And, yeah, I'm very pumped for college football to start today. I'm starting to get very excited about it. Now, this also brings back college kickers. Let's be nice. Remember, it's not easy to kick. We showcase that every single weekend on college game day. Hard to kick.

2:00:23Michael Lombardi:Actually, with the kickers, cool story tonight with Nebraska. that punter who went viral for not seeing his family and everything. I guess they flew over like a bunch of his friends and his family.

2:00:36Pat McAfee:A bunch of blokes. Yeah, a bunch of the blokes are going to be there in Kansas City. Good blokes coming over there. I love to hear that. He also, one of the guys, he can kick with both feet. So I guess that was one of the storylines of the offseason. Young guy, 18 years old, which I appreciate. I like that he's 18, you know, because there has been some situations where 30-year-olds are coming over to colleges to kick in. 17-year-old Americans are obviously not going to get scholarships over. 30-year-old ex-professional, full family, know how to be an adult, very consistent. Aussies, who I love, listen, it was an opportunity.

2:01:15Pat McAfee:You're allowed to take it and everything. I'm just saying that was happening there for a bit. So that was an interesting dynamic and a little bit of a change. But I think the Aussies have brought great things into Bunny. So I'm not judging. I'm just saying that was the situation. I think it's happening right now again with Hawaii and everything like that. But I love that it's an opportunity and everything. But this kid, 18 years old, so he's like committing life to this now. You know, like all the other guys, Aussie Rules football players, great sport. Electrifying sport. Won and saw the Brisbane Lions.

2:01:42Pat McAfee:They just had their awards last night. Congrats to all the boys that won their AFL awards. New MVP was crowned. Toughest guy was crowned. Yeah, champion of all that stuff. but a lot of those guys were coming from Aussie rules football into American football to kick. So it's a little bit of an adjustment, different ball, different strategies. They're doing a lot of passing to each other. So they're very accurate, very good in control. They actually have a kick whenever they're growing up. So the way they punt the ball, obviously different than an American style. Him as an 18-year-old doing American football, feels like he probably concentrated a little bit more on the American style, which is cool that we've gotten to that continent because that's a very cool place.

2:02:15Pat McAfee:I think they would like football a lot if it became bigger over there. They're going to try to take a game there. That's far away. Good luck. That's a far away. But, like, a Nebraska kid, yeah, 18 years old, can go. I think he's a talent.

2:02:28Michael Lombardi:Do they know going into the punt if he's going right or left-footed?

2:02:31Pat McAfee:I would assume his team would know if he's 18. Like, this is freshman year. So, maybe rules giving him check, like he can check as a freshman, and that would be insane if he could be like, hey, we're rolling right on this one, like tapping his leg, making an adjustment out there. Maybe next year I would assume that would take place, or maybe throughout the year, but I would assume his team knows. The other team would not. But, you know, I do have a little bit of a take on that. There's definitely a more dominant leg. And, you know, this is kind of like the conversation. Do we want it like Shohei with pitching and hitting?

2:03:04Pat McAfee:It's like, do we want to sacrifice the development of definitely a bombing leg, whichever one is the one, for mixed hits on the off leg? Because there's definitely going to be one leg that's stronger than the other. It's like, how much do you want to do that? or do you use it as a curveball like hey this is or it could just be your your non-dominant

2:03:23Michael Lombardi:could be an emergency situation hey we dropped the snap whatever this guy's rushing all over

2:03:27Pat McAfee:i gotta kick this one left exactly you can have a fire fire situation or you could use it as an advantage you know because having probably two returners so you now you got only nine up so that takes a little bit of pressure off a lot of people you can maybe run fakes off of it if you're able to go both directions probably not going to run a rush probably going to be a lot of stand if you guys going both ways so that is a weapon i think but i i personally i would not want to sacrifice the development of the one because if he's going to make it he's going to have to have a very very very dominant one there's only 32 jobs and it's uh i think he has the talent all the talent in the world i'm very excited to watch him and once i learn more about his story it's like this is a guy this is uh this is a real deal and there's a lot of those and i think something to watch tonight something Nebraska wants to do is just get the ball off.

2:04:14I believe they had eight kicks blocked last season, which was one of, I think, the worst in college football. They brought in a new special teams coordinator. So I think they're just trying to get that ball off.

2:04:23Pat McAfee:Yeah, and if you have a punter going both directions, you might take the heat off the box a little bit. That might save eight blocks. Eight punks in the year? You weren't here. Did you hear the story about the Japanese field goal kicker from Hawaii? No. Okay, so he hit the game winner last week against Stanford. I think he's 24 or 25. He was introduced to American football, and then he learned how to kick by watching YouTube videos. Went to a JUCO, I think in Wisconsin or Minnesota, somewhere in the Midwest. Didn't want to go somewhere where anyone spoke Japanese because he wanted to learn the language, and then signs on with Hawaii, kicks a game winner.

2:04:58Pat McAfee:That's a pure ball right there. Yeah, learned how to kick from YouTube. I love that. Legend. Yes. That is magic. I mean, that's what technology and the advancements of everything, making the world smaller really shines a light on how good things can be too how would he ever be introduced to our sport or this opportunity he hits a pure ball right there too that's a huge moment there for hawaii beat stanford yeah yeah you know that you hear stanford people talk it's like if we can't beat hawaii we're in trouble in this entire thing would love hawaii to get back to be a great team that's a pure ball in a massive moment and what is he freshman sophomore oh that's

2:05:32Michael Lombardi:a good question i think i think i saw like his second or third year of eligibility uh but it's just like that kid who uh was racing they made a movie about him he was a uh just like an online virtual racer and then he became a real uh race car driver and you know whatever not formula one but with a forza motorsport whatever the hell it is he he went from video game in his entire rig in his house and then he got signed to a team then he became a professional driver kensei matsuzawa

2:06:02Pat McAfee:Kansai Matsuzawa is a senior. Alright, so we know that. Previous school, Hawking College High School. It's in Ohio. Makohari Sogo High School. Alright, well good luck, brother. Hey, we love that story. Ball kicking positions. Good entry point for our sport to a lot of countries. You know, rugby, Gaelic football I think even has some kicking in it. Obviously soccer, Aussie rules football, union rugby, sevens rugby. There's a lot of different styles. Rugby league, I believe. I want to get them all right because they all have their own very passionate fan bases who think the other sport is not as good as theirs.

2:06:39Pat McAfee:Sure. A lot of rugby people saying, Aussie Rose ain't the real sport, Mike. You got to come down here. Rugby, a lot of people have no respect for the other sport. Okay. It's like the whole – isn't rugby down there?

2:06:50Michael Lombardi:New Zealand and Australia, isn't that? Yes.

2:06:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, the rugby NRL, I guess, is a massive ordeal down there. Is one F1 and one of them's a NASCAR? I know they have a rivalry. So I think it's more regional, like hockey. You know how there's hockey towns? I think there's like Aussie rules football is across the south, I think, if I remember from the conversation. More the southern part of the continent has Aussie rules football and then rugby kind of more so the middle and the top, I believe. If I was remembering the conversation I had after about two hours of sleep correctly, you know, if I am all digesting it properly. But I went to one of those Aussie rules football games over there.

2:07:28Pat McAfee:It was electric. It was like a European soccer game. It was like that was the vibe. Always up. Always energy. There's action happening really far from us because of the field so far. People still engaged. Drinking low 4X. The field is as big as it looks. I had about 15X. The field is huge. The field is absolutely gigantic. But the vibes were awesome. Posted about going to it. And I got a bunch of Aussies. I ain't spoilt, mate. Rugby. I don't even fucking follow.

2:07:51Michael Lombardi:That's why there might not be many fat shows in Australia. because the sports that they play, there's really no – Constant movement. Yeah, there's no fatso positions. They've got to run a lot.

2:08:01Pat McAfee:And these dudes are big too and they're running a lot. You don't see a lot of like – Oh, no, they're jacked. Jacked, all of them. And all of them seemingly hilariously handsome. They've got like some ridiculous look. Like they all – it is – it's a cool sport. McCluggage, he got named all Australia, I think. Yeah, I mean, he's a dog. I've been saying it for years now since the pandemic really. He's what got me into the Brisbane Lions. I think it was episode 709, maybe like an hour, 40 minutes in. They played it. Really? Yeah, they played the clip. Seriously? That's awesome. And then they said, the guy who was standing two feet in front of me, he goes, that's Hugh McCluggage.

2:08:35Pat McAfee:And I was like, Hugh, dog. Huge fan. We loved you. It was a cool moment. It was a cool moment. McCluggage. Charlie Cameron, it was his 250th game. He had Country Roads as his song. That's sweet. Yeah, that was awesome. I guess there was some negativity about goal songs after goals. I guess this might be something new. I don't know. I was just trying to follow the social network response. And because I saw people saying, I saw one tweet that seemingly had a lot of attention that was like, for those who don't like the songs after goals or whatever, this must be a new thing. Listen to this in Brisbane.

2:09:13Pat McAfee:And it was the entire place singing country roads. It was fucking sick. I was so happy. I was sitting there just having a good old time. Charlie Cameron scores 250. He was very nice to me at practice. It was nice to talk to him. What a talent. I think I remember watching him back whenever we were watching the entire thing. So then he scores. I'm like happy for him. I'm like, my dude. And then all of a sudden, he starts playing. I'm like, wait a minute. Holy fuck, man. And First Sergeant Gartland, who's also from Plumborough, Pittsburgh area, he also has had friends that have gone to West Virginia.

2:09:44Pat McAfee:He understood. And we just, holy shit, in the whole 35 ,000 plus just singing it. And that was a cool moment. It was electrifying in there. Brisbane gets a big win over the Hawthorne Hawks. I'll tell you what, they were not happy with the officials, which there were many. A lot of refs.

2:09:59Michael Lombardi:Yeah, makes sense. Figure 10, very large field. What kind of calls do they make? Are there penalties? How's that?

2:10:05Pat McAfee:When the ball goes out, off of who? When's the throw? When's the start? I don't think I fully comprehend when what is happening because every once in a while that was blow the whistle and the ball go to the other team. and it's like well what that looks pretty standard and then every once in a while they blow a whistle and there'd be people pissed so i'll be trying to figure out what people are pissed like is that hawthorne people that are mad about what just happened and then 35 45 seconds later because there is you know like in soccer we've heard from the soccer players when they're flopping around it's not just like they're flopping around it's also like hey take a breather boys we're running like seven miles here this is uh this is a little bit of a dramatic moment for us to have a timeout when we don't really have a timeout feels like that happens a little bit in aussie rules whenever there's a catch and the whistle's blown and they got like 30 seconds that thing was at zero multiple times 30 second countdown clock zero and this guy's halfway in his run-up still it's like okay so this is a little bit of like uh yeah you can kind of let's get a little bit of a breather here i'll tell you what if they're off ball they're really handsy and by handsy i mean yeah beating the shit out of each other danny zork i think zorks danny zork it was they're calling him Zorks.

2:11:12Pat McAfee:I don't know if his last name was Zorks or not. It was his 300th game. 0.8 % of Ozzy Rules football players make it to 300 games. They were honoring this guy. They had 4X bottles with him on. They had t-shirts on, signs outside were him. Right before the game starts, they're on the field. They're about to do the bounce and center. Half a second, maybe two seconds before the game starts, he's at one of the ends. Guy from the other team punches him in the throat. Right in the throat. He's fucking this. Literally, Can you do that? I don't know. And then the guy from the other team starts pushing him.

2:11:47Pat McAfee:While he's doing it, they start pushing him. It was this guy's night. Literally, they're fucking doing the entire thing.

2:11:54Michael Lombardi:Maybe it's like, hey, 300th game. We've got to punch him.

2:11:56Pat McAfee:Right before the game starts, I got punched him right in the fucking throat. It was right in front of me because I saw it happen. I'm like, God, they're so cheeky behind. That is such a cheap move right there. But everybody just kind of does it, I think, from what we learned from watching. They're punching each other, getting up, and it's like, I'm going to get you next. And they do. And it's like, that's kind of how the game is played. Dude got punched right in the throat. It was his night.

2:12:16Michael Lombardi:And Zorko just kept going.

2:12:18Pat McAfee:That's why Zorko's the code. I think Zorko did take a moment, though.

2:12:22Michael Lombardi:It did take five. I would assume so.

2:12:26Pat McAfee:I saw somebody get hit. They were so far away. I didn't know who it was. And then I was watching them for the first couple minutes of the game, really struggle. And then he got closer. I was like, that's fucking Zorks. That's the guy we're honoring. I guess he probably should have expected that. Oh, yeah, big celebration, huh? Boom, just right to the throat. It was crazy. That's going to hurt so bad. It was absolutely crazy. They had a guy on the other team. He was number 18. I forget his name. His first quarter, he was unbelievable. First quarter, it was clear that Brisbane just needed to stop this fucking guy.

2:13:00Pat McAfee:Punch that guy. This guy's fucking, bingo. I'm like, how is this guy just allowed to just walk around right now? Like, we are not checking this guy through the boards, right? Can we not help this? This guy took over the first quarter. And I had a couple of Hawthorne Hawks fans around me. I'm like, is this the greatest player of all time? Was it Mavia Chul? Chul, yeah. He came up through the Brisbane Academy. He's from Brisbane. Then he goes to the Hawthorne Hawks. Revenge game. The Hawthorne Hawks fans tell me he's hit or miss. When he's on, he's the guy. When he's off, it's nothing. It's nothing.

2:13:30Pat McAfee:And he was on there for that first quarter. We didn't see him the next three quarters, though. That's classic. That's classic. Classic. Cool. Brisbane Lions, though, I think they shut them down a little bit.

2:13:40Michael Lombardi:I mean, I assume the boys, once they saw the replay of Zorko getting punched in the throat and getting pushed over, they're like, no, not on Zorko's night.

2:13:48Pat McAfee:Kyle Oman had two big goals. Kyle Oman had great mullet, great flow. Nice. He showed up at set the next day. Oh, nice. He scored two goals.

2:13:55Michael Lombardi:Nice. You guys need another role here?

2:13:58Pat McAfee:I'm sitting there in the middle of the entire scene. I look over. Good game last night, Kyle. Proud of you, buddy. Oh, Oman's got good flow. Great flow. That's sweet. A lot of moxie, too. when he showed up everybody had to look you know like geez what the fuck is that did the other aussies who were working there say like holy fuck god there he is i'm fucking rugby mike oh yeah that's where i learned the beef yeah that's where i learned the entire thing yeah because there's a lot of aussies there's extras uh there was aussie production people audio people like everybody basically was it's a lot of people yeah so they were so cool man the aussie human is a good one That's, I think, a genuinely good.

2:14:36Pat McAfee:Tough. I think they're all kind of tough. All seemingly have personality. And I don't think they're really, they're not about to fuck about much. You know, I think it's very much. Straight to it. Yeah, the food, AJ. I'm still worried to eat. I'm, like, very worried that my entire inside is going to be destroyed. I'm still very angry about that entire conversation, but that's okay. Yeah, I didn't expect you to get riled up like that. Dude, it is the thing. pointed out like that i should be bad i'm like i guess i should be i can't i was bummed out that we don't have it but it didn't move me to anger yeah but it was very nice to just be able to go i appreciate you kind of separating that it did move me to anger to clarify you sit down at a cafe in brisbane i don't know what it is everywhere i'm just talking about brisbane and it's just like everything you're ordering is like the nicest quality of whatever the coffee the eggs the bacon the fucking potatoes the sweet potato everything the granola the acai that everything is just like good yeah everything's like the freshest of quality love that in the pizza it's everything we tried our best to feel like shit like we're gonna go eat the fried stuff and it turns out it was all healthy fried stuff because it's a certain oil that is like healthier than everything else and it's like am i have we been doing it wrong i'm not gonna say that sounds like it no we definitely sounds like no i'm not what are they cooking with ghee are they cooking with ghee uh you know i didn't ask enough i i was beef tallow i was certainly talking and trying to learn as many stories as possible but i didn't catch the broth that they were cooking no i know steak and shake uh puts their new fries if they do tallow i don't know how much they're doing that in australia but they might be i mean there was fries over there pretty good you know where they do lack i will say outside of tim tams their sweets suck okay yeah we went into sweets another reason we're pumping really another reason everyone's fit really good stuff yeah i guess that is another damn it yeah see they can't win the sugar battle against us because we fucking

2:16:34Michael Lombardi:we're cool with whatever going yeah that's what really stinks and now i'm thinking about in my head because i'm like trying to think of like what restaurants in india are the freshest you

2:16:42Pat McAfee:know what has the best well i think it's d bones kitchen yeah probably you're probably right you need to head to d bones kitchen last night we got a life tip from d bone we do hope these become a regular thing boy society fucking needs it yeah cooking tip he says if you don't know uh put frozen pizza in oven while it preheats to get a head start of course opposed to waiting for the oven to reach desired temperature hashtag life hack hashtag you're welcome says dbo now we all I know what happened here because we are humans that exist in the same world as D-Bone. He sets the preheat, stands there for 30 seconds, says, I'm not fucking coming back here.

2:17:21Pat McAfee:Yeah. I'm putting it in now. And then I'm going to walk away. A little bit too lazy to take another trip back to the oven. But also, in my mind, getting a head start. That's right. Getting a head start. And then whenever he gets it out of the oven, probably earlier than it's supposed to be, he actually likes it that way. A little softer. I like a little soft. It wasn't that he couldn't wait any longer.

2:17:42Michael Lombardi:Yeah, no, it wasn't that he couldn't wait. Why did he have to get out so early?

2:17:45Pat McAfee:Well, I think he just looked at it. Hey, look at the pepperoni shining. So let me go ahead and buy it. But the individual cheese slices didn't melt. So he's giving out life hacks on how most people do operate that, you know, maybe are a little bit laser. I would consider myself one of these people. whenever I saw this as a life hack I thought to myself is this the first time that he's made a frozen pizza and then he assures us that no this is a one he's certainly right that is not the first time he's made a frozen pizza he was shocked when I told him I know you like it a little softer you don't have to eat the cardboard underneath the pizza if you can just eat the pizza on it's own it's not one piece because it does come together especially if it's soggy on the bottom because you put it in whenever it was 100 degrees.

2:18:36Pat McAfee:Exactly. And you only let it cook for however short a time. You can see how he can confuse that. Correct. He folds it into the pizza, and it's just cardboard folded in half. He's like, wow, cooked it good today. Don't look right, but I mean, I guess.

2:18:49Michael Lombardi:Love D-Bone. Okay. Truly love D-Bone. This is the fattest fucking thing I've ever heard someone do. What are you talking about? It's a life hack. Respectfully respect. And I know. And I know it's a life hack. And the reason I think it's okay Is because I am 40 % sure now He used to just eat the frozen pizzas frozen Just suck it on

2:19:09Pat McAfee:So you like that he at least heats them up a little bit

2:19:12Michael Lombardi:I think he is taking steps It was a pizza popsicle that was rounded That's what I mean I think he used to just chomp on these fucking frozen pizzas Like they were the cookie ice creams And he was just loving it And now he's decided I could fucking heat it up a little And then I can eat the cardboard He did tell us that he used to just, he'd eat just frozen hot dogs. Not kidding. This is no, I'm not reading. He did say that. Like, why don't he just eat a dog?

2:19:39Pat McAfee:Sucking on him like they're jawbreakers. Frozen crinkle fries. He says all these things with such a straight face. You never know what's a work and what's a shoot. And we still don't because he put out a tweet. Make sure to like and comment below if you guys want to see more cooking tips in the future. Laugh emoji. We don't know if it's a work or a shoot. I don't think D-Bone knows, but we do know we need more life hacks from this young lad. Without a doubt. He's experienced a lot of life, so whenever he's chit-chatting about it, we need to listen.

2:20:06Michael Lombardi:Yeah, allegedly he's got a real good one with Kill Sock. I think he's doing it later as far as when he's going to unveil that life hack. What's that? A Kill Sock? Yeah. I'm still not sure. I'm waiting for him to explain it to me, but that is why I'm excited for it. Okay.

2:20:21Pat McAfee:Sounds like this is something you do know. I swear I don't. the way you delivered it was as if it was something that... A little bit.

2:20:30Michael Lombardi:I think I made a few jokes back at the old office about all the kill socks around my own apartment, but I'm pretty sure... Are those the super starry ones? Well, no. See, I'm pretty sure I was using it in a different term than what D-bone... Are you talking about delivering seed to these things, boy? That is what I think D-bone is alleging, yes.

2:20:48Pat McAfee:Foxy, is this what's happening in your department? What the hell is going on? No, but I'm expecting chicken nuggets will be D-Bone's thing. That is my prediction. You should put ketchup, think about this, with these chicken nuts. I don't even think he would even do that. You're right. He's not. I was just reminded of your growth, though, you just talking about that because you used to spit on your walls.

2:21:05Michael Lombardi:Yeah, exactly. It's just... Just in the middle of my bedroom.

2:21:12Pat McAfee:The landlord was so happy. That house was the biggest shithole. The landlord! You guys should have been condemned out of that house.

2:21:19Michael Lombardi:If we're going to get into this, the landlord was a piece of shit because Half the time when I was sleeping in my room, all I heard was fucking mice under my bed running around.

2:21:28Pat McAfee:Yeah, the pub was certainly dead long before you guys moved out of there. He ended up kicking us out. I thought that was bullshit, too. Yeah. He saved your lives.

2:21:36Michael Lombardi:I drive by it every now and then. Reminisce? Say, how you doing? Good to see you. How you doing? No, you're not. Is it still standing? Oh, yeah. It's still standing. I mean, the stop sign is still there, too. I mean, that's what that. Look, I'm a pretty good painter. That's what that is. and I went back and checked and it looks just like that still. That's Zito's old car. That's Zito's Kia. Okay. Oh, that's the front porch with beer bottles? Yeah.

2:22:01Pat McAfee:Yeah. It smokes. There's no cigs. And the football stops there.

2:22:04Michael Lombardi:Oh, they're in that. Yeah, we were.

2:22:06Pat McAfee:There's also a P-State right there. I do remember that football. Yeah, there is a little bit of it.

2:22:10Michael Lombardi:Wait, is this a painting of you looking out the window or staying on the porch? Yeah, it's POV. Yeah, this is where my bedroom was. There was nothing in the front hall, so I had to hang up two curtains, and I slept on...

2:22:21Pat McAfee:I had to zoom out to zoom back in, Fox. It's really good. Well, I was going to get Connor and then I was like, wait, we're talking about the painting. Ken Burns effect on that. Yeah, that stop sign back there was a good display of strength for a football throw. Very fun doing that. That was a good time. That place was disgustingly terrible, though. So bad. Yeah. All right, before we get out of here, we got to cover the shit that we should cover because we're a sports show. Hell yeah. You know what time it is, AJ? What time is it? It's 2.38 Eastern. It's about to be 2.30 now. And it's the perfect time to do the news.

2:22:53Pat McAfee:Don't you think, H?

2:22:54Michael Lombardi:I think it is the perfect time.

2:22:55Pat McAfee:Let's do the news. What have you not covered? Go ahead, Conny.

2:22:57Michael Lombardi:Here we go. Start Indianapolis, actually. Chris Ballard yesterday gave a speech kind of about Anthony Richardson after making Danny dimes, which I believe you called him a dog earlier. I feel like Danny Doberman might have legs. But he gave a press conference about it. Here it is.

2:23:14Pat McAfee:We knew it was going to be a little bit of a roller coaster. Absolutely. I mean, you know, just his history in college. And so that's just part of the growth. No, you got to sometimes you got to take a swing. We took a swing. And look, I'm not ready to say that we missed because I don't think we have yet. I think Anthony has a bright future. I believe that. OK, so he's chit-chatting about Anthony Richardson and the swing that they took on. And obviously, Danny Dimes being named the starter. So Anthony is yet again to relegated to a backup role. This is obviously following multiple years of injuries, not a lot of football, some magical moments that showcase a great athleticism, but then some moments that make you think this guy doesn't know ball.

2:23:55Pat McAfee:I'm intrigued by it all. Danny Doberman, a guy, these Colts got a shot. What are your expectations, AJ?

2:24:02Michael Lombardi:Honestly, the Danny Doberman, I mean, that might have a little bit of a ring to it. I'm not completely so. I think Danny Dimes could absolutely be a guy. I really do. I think he could have the whole, you know, revitalize his career at Indy. But I guess the only thing that's not going in his favor is that they've tried this for, what, the last six, seven years with different quarterbacks and it just hasn't worked out yet. But maybe Danny Dimes can be the guy to turn around. There's a lot of people's jobs relying on this, don't you think?

2:24:28Pat McAfee:It's been a long time of this whole thing. Seven years. Quentin Nelson's entire career, basically. He's bummed out. He's been out a couple years. He's a couple quarterbacks bummed out ago. But, hey, maybe this is the one. Exactly. Maybe. Maybe this is one. I think it is. And Chris Ballard, I think so too, Tone. To Chris Ballard's point, Anthony Richardson is going to get an opportunity. We assume Danny Dimes is not going to be able to play all 17 games. There's a chance that Anthony Richardson plays. And if he plays good, who knows what the future looks like for him. But it's like understanding all of the, you know, quarterbacks' roles, leadership, knowing what to do, checks, audibles, all that.

2:25:09Pat McAfee:You heard Chris Ballard in a press conference also talk about what Danny Dimes can do with the play, what he can do at the line, put us in the right position, put us in the right play. You heard that be said a couple times. And it's like, well, he's a veteran, so hopefully his experience will help him. And hopefully Anthony Richardson will be able to gain some experience by watching him. And hopefully this team that has a lot of talent on it. There's a lot of talent on this team. A lot of money has been spent on this team. Maybe they're able to get a go. But the quarterback conversation is certainly going to be loud throughout the entire season.

2:25:36Pat McAfee:And if it doesn't go well for the Colts, I think it's all going to look very different next year. Yeah. I mean, that's the big thing. is, hey, let's see it. Because if we don't see it, guess what? We're going to be seeing a whole lot of new faces in Indiana. I think there is a chance that that's on the horizon. Now, I don't know. Obviously, we haven't seen the three daughters as owners yet. We don't know exactly how they're going to operate. Everything that they do is setting a new precedent. But Carly Ursa at her press conference was like, we're not just trying to win games. We're trying to be the best.

2:26:00Pat McAfee:And everybody knows what the standard is. We have not lived up to that standard. They have the opportunity to still do as such. And it's like, that sounds like hey, we need to roll here or we're going to try to redo this. I'll be excited to see how it all plays out. But if it's another year of disappointment here, I think you got to, you know, nobody likes to do that. But it's at some seven years of just question marks. And then like, hey, we have a good team. We spent a lot of money. Well, actually, we don't because we don't have the one position that we need. We spent a fourth overall pick on a guy who's the most athletic guy maybe to ever come into the league.

2:26:32Pat McAfee:Well, he just can't figure it out. Golly, it's just a never-ending, oh, no. And then Gardner Minshew almost leads the team to the playoffs. Shane Sykin's a genius. Anybody that Shane Sykin has is going to be successful. We'll bring in Flacco. He just brought the Browns to the playoffs. He doesn't do well. It's like, oh, no. What is wrong? I assume Ballard's asking the same questions. You know, I assume he's wondering what the hell is going on. But there's a chance this year. As always with every year. Looking at that schedule, that's a 4-2 start for sure for the Colts. You win a couple of those home games.

2:27:02You know, you get the Dolphins. You get Tennessee. You get Vegas. And you get Arizona. That's a 4-2 football team.

2:27:06Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. Super positive. And the Dolphins, what was Stanford Steve's stat that he sent that makes Dolphins fans feel good? Just Tua when he's healthy, they're good. Kind of what everybody knows, you know? No, I thought there was another one. It had to be more complex than that. There was another stat. I mean, I don't think so. I think that's what he sent me. Had to be another stat. There was someone with a little more context, Gumpy. Gumpy read the thing and said, thanks, Stanford Steve. That's definitely what happened. Best win percentage last two seasons among all quarterbacks with 20 starts.

2:27:42When Tua starts.

2:27:44Pat McAfee:That's good. Yeah. Best ever. Best all-line he's probably ever had. Are the Dolphins back? Secondary has some questions. We signed some guys, but I'm quietly optimistic all of a sudden. We'll find out week one, won't we? It's been a long time since the Colts have won on week one as well. Yeah, it's not really our thing, but coming down to a lot, House, good luck. We are underdogs. We are underdogs. That's Danny Doberman football. Is Waller playing? Waller said he is good to go, although he hasn't practiced or taken a snap.

2:28:16Michael Lombardi:He's a problem. A-chain. What's he doing if he hasn't practiced or taken a snap? Just getting ready, getting back into football shape. Okay. Would he be there week one? He'll be ready to go, yeah. I mean, both those teams, shit, they both need one. That's what's kind of sweet about this year is that there's just teams, it feels like that, are on there. Hey, if this isn't the year, it's getting blown up. instead of in past years. I think last year was the, what, eight new head coaches. And now this year it's like, hey, there could be eight new head coaches. Because Arizona, you could throw them in.

2:28:47Michael Lombardi:Giants. Giants. Arizona.

2:28:51Pat McAfee:Dolphins. Dolphins. There's four right there. That are just like, hey, let's see. We're going to have to see it. Yeah. Or this shit's coming to an end. And that's just the nature of the beast. I mean, you could argue LeFleur after what Schneiderman said yesterday. Yeah. And Guttekus. And Gutekunst, yeah. Yeah, Ed Policy's coming in and taking after Carmen Policy and saying, listen, there's a new sheriff in town, and it's me. That's five teams right there. Not quite the same, but if the Cowboys have a really bad year, I could see them getting rid of Shottie and reopening that up.

2:29:21Michael Lombardi:Yeah, similar to that, like the Titans. If the GM thinks Cam Ward's a generational talent and then Callahan and them, they end up going, he looks like shit and everything, you could see the Titans maybe. I mean, after the Patriots did the one and done, I mean, there's been other teams. But after they did the one and done last year, I feel like now it's possible for anyone just to say, fuck it if the right guy's available.

2:29:42Pat McAfee:Ah, wild world. All right, let's do some more news. What else have we not talked about, Conman?

2:29:46Michael Lombardi:A team that is not looking for a head coach would be the Detroit Lions. Last week, MCDC said, hey, look, this is the best team we've had top to bottom, which everyone kind of knew once they released Skipper, John Skip. But actually, what MC – oh, yeah, he got released. Skip's back. Skip's back. Skip, skip, skip, skip. We all know Skip, even though we probably all shouldn't know Skip. So you know how much that means to MCDC. So I figured, look, if they feel good enough to release him, probably have some good players. But they did mention MCDC said, hey, look, there's a chance Panay Sewell could play tight end.

2:30:24Michael Lombardi:Fox, could you run that video, please?

2:30:26Pat McAfee:There is nothing he can't do. I've said this before. If we just made him a tight end, I think he'd be a Hall of Fame tight end.

2:30:31Michael Lombardi:It's crazy. I mean, he is a freakish athlete. Just nimble, nimble athletic. Is there one thing over, you know, a couple years with him that you're like, damn, only he can do that? Well, I would answer only he can do everything. Yeah. That's probably would be my answer.

2:30:49Pat McAfee:There is no limitation on him. Like there's things, you know, whether it's the screen game, it's the run game, as you talk about the one-on-ones, turn the whole protection, just let him go one-on-one. Jumbo, make him a Jumbo tight end, let him throw, hand him a reverse. And it's one of those things. It's no different than you do with, like we do with our personal, man. We got St. Brown, you got JMO, you got Gibbs, you got, but like, he's, he's very much a part of that. Like he allows us to do so much schematically. Yeah.

2:31:17Michael Lombardi:That's really, you know, he's part of this secret sauce, man. We can do a lot. We can do the G, we can do the wide zone scheme. We can do gap. We can do the pin and pull. We can do a crack tosses. I mean, and that's really because of him. And you usually get a front row seat of seeing him speed bump a DB. Oh, my God. It's fast. You're not going to maneuver out of his way. What was that? Was that a bug on the windshield? A few moments later. I think you caught the ball on, like, the right sideline last year, and you were, like, making moves, like, for real. So, yeah, that one was against Chicago.

2:31:49Michael Lombardi:Chicago. I was supposed to throw it. You're not stepping out of bounds. No, I told coach. I was like, yeah, this is the only time I get the ball. I'm going to keep it as long as you guys want me to throw it away, but I'm going to try to make some.

2:32:00Pat McAfee:Shout out to the Greenlight Podcast. Chris Long, obviously Super Bowl champion multiple times, getting great interviews up there in Detroit. I love how much MCDC openly loves his player. Now, that was the first draft pick of this era, right? Yes, sir. Okay. All I could think of that entire time is when Penny's deal is up. Like, he just said our entire offense goes because of this guy. So they're just going to have to pay him the most that's ever been paid and just$1 million more than the most that's ever been paid. and let's just move on because of that glowing endorsement. And who knows how Penn A will handle all that.

2:32:31Pat McAfee:But what a perfect first draft pick whenever you're trying to set a culture, AJ. It sounds like they got it right up there.

2:32:36Michael Lombardi:Oh, they definitely got it right. And just listen to Dan Campbell say he can legit do everything. Like how many offensive linemen that are that big can move like that? I think people like casual fans will be surprised to see how athletic some of these big dudes really are. Most of them in the NFL, a lot of D linemen played running back in high school, were on the four-by-one track team. They did all kinds of stuff. They're much more athletic than people think, but Penesul is a different level to that. How would you cover him? What do you do?

2:33:03Pat McAfee:What's the one thing he does that you think nobody else can do that? Well, I'd answer that by saying everything. He can do everything. That was a great answer by MCDC in the moment. Brain always firing. That is tough to account for. That's tough to account for when you've got a 360-pound guy. Foxy, you guys love him up there. Is there so well?

2:33:25Michael Lombardi:Absolutely. love him fan favorite he was one of the pillar pieces to change this whole thing like you said our first draft pick and then in that same class wasst brown they did pay both those guys already madest brown the highest paid wide receiver at that time at the detroit draft right before it and then same with sewell highest paid lineman and to your point they're just gonna have to pay him again make him the highest paid people but that same draft class is where micah parsons was picked as well and it feels like that was so long ago that they paid those guys and we're still dealing with this Micah Parsons shit.

2:33:54So was on the second year of his new deal.

2:33:57Pat McAfee:And he was drafted the same year as Micah. Yeah. And you hear how Jerry's talking about Micah, and you hear how MCDC's talking about Penny. It's like one really, really, really loves each other. One seemingly perfect draft pick.

2:34:11Michael Lombardi:Yeah, and that's why it's like the Lions are the one team that are in prime position to screw over Jerry even more. Like they should pay Hutch right now. Yeah. And then see what happens with Micah in Dallas. Because if they play Hutch. That's a great point. Before Micah? I mean, that could actually blow the whole thing up. The only thing is that it could come back and fuck them because then Jerry will say, oh, okay, and send them to Green Bay so that they have to play against them twice a year. I kind of like that scenario.

2:34:35Pat McAfee:You like Detroit pissing off Jerry? Yeah. So Jerry's saying, NFC North, huh? Oh, really? Okay. Well, congratulations. All right. I watched the first three minutes of that documentary. Tone Diggs basically forced me to watch it. He goes, you need to watch the Cowboys one. They're calling it the best sports documentary of all time, brother.

2:34:54Michael Lombardi:Awesome. I mean, when you have Michael, like I've talked about Michael Irvin and all the personalities, like those guys know how to tell a story and they did a great job editing everything together. I thought it was great.

2:35:04Pat McAfee:Yeah. Just the first three minutes him talking about, you know, how much production he had with the oil business because it's gambling. And only the Lord knows what's down there. You go miles down into earth and only God knows what's down there. She got to get lucky. And he said something about his mouth could get him more borrowed money than he could make. He was$50 million in debt. His wife was calling his father-in-law, wondering about how he was going to make it. Is this guy going to be okay? He thought he was going to die. Then one rig came along,$800 ,000. As soon as it went in there, it coughed a little bit.

2:35:33Pat McAfee:You know, it is a living spirit. It breathed. It spit like a mammal. It spit like a mammal. And then I heard it start to hiss. And that thing was screaming. I made$100 million off that one rig. What a moment. He said, Jerry, you just bought the Dallas Cowboys. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with that money.

2:35:53Michael Lombardi:Good for him. Dude, there's a bunch of that. The best part, the reason people, I think, at least, are saying it's the greatest documentary of all time is just because all of the interviews. That was the toughest part about the SEC show is that the characters that kept popping up in that show weren't the main characters of what we were talking about. Like when Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman and Deion and Jerry and Jimmy Johnson are the ones that are basically the whole show. I mean, Charles Haley, he comes in for sure during it. They tell a great story about how when he wanted more money, he walked into Jerry's office, pulled his dick out and pissed on the GM's desk and then left and then he got paid.

2:36:31Michael Lombardi:So a lot of people were saying do that. Micah. But just the entire kind of backstory with Jerry is Charles Haley walked into Jerry Jones' office. You'll get there. Walked into Jerry Jones' office, stood on the desk, took his dick out, took a piss, left, got a new deal. Actually, now that we're – I kind of like what he did. I like that. What if there was like a four-minute piss? It was how he got out of San Francisco. It's how he got to the Cowboys. That's what I was about to say. He did that in San Francisco, then got traded to the Cowboys. Oh, it wasn't Jerry's. I forget if it was a San Fran situation, yeah.

2:37:07Michael Lombardi:But that's how he got out, and then Micah could do that maybe. Charles Haley is a very unique human being. He's watched the doc twice. Yeah, definitely want to listen. It's awesome. It's so good, man. I started it again, and like you said, that clip at the start just pulled me back in. I was like, fuck it. I'm watching this all over again. I'm running back. It's so good, man.

2:37:26Pat McAfee:All right, I can't wait to watch. Because it's a lot about that Niners team, too, with Jerry Rice and Steve Young as well. It tells their story a lot as well. And Carmy Policy. Yeah.

2:37:36Michael Lombardi:Ed's fodder. Ed's fodder. I was unaware of the entire Jimmy Johnson stuff. And if that happened nowadays, people would lose their minds. Yeah, the beef. Getting fired after two Super Bowl wins. Yeah, and then. That story's incredible. Yeah. Fighting with the owner going in. Fighting with the owner of the week of the Super Bowl, like in the media too. Like both of them saying things about each other. Like it was a weird time.

2:37:56Pat McAfee:They had that moment at the Hall of Fame. Was that two years ago? Yeah. Where Troy was kind of. They're back. Yeah. It's really cool.

2:38:02Michael Lombardi:Wow, they're back now finally.

2:38:03Pat McAfee:Yeah, that was. I didn't. I don't think until that day did I realize that it was as big as it was. And then you could tell Troy was like, this isn't a TV show. we finally got these two at the same table. Hey, can we potentially do this entire thing? Big hugs. You know, we did a lot together.

2:38:20Michael Lombardi:Because the players were mad too. They loved Jimmy. And they were pissed off at Jerry for doing that. Yeah, like it makes a lot of sense now because Troy and Jimmy, Jimmy benched Troy for a burr line. And that's when after that season, Jimmy and Troy became like very close because then Jimmy realized like, oh, Troy is also as competitive as I am. and that's kind of when they became like a team because Jimmy Johnson talks about how one time a guy came off the field and he caught him on the spot during a game. And he said, you know, a lot of guys say, you know, releasing players is the hardest part of the job.

2:38:56Michael Lombardi:Not for me. I don't care. And he – Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy Johnson, yeah. It's that good. It's that candid. Like Jerry Jones talking about when he was suing the NFL and the owners asked him to leave while they talked about him is definitely another top tier.

2:39:12Pat McAfee:I can't wait to watch it. I'm going to do that. And then Barry Switzer comes in. And he doesn't give a fuck.

2:39:19Michael Lombardi:Switzer's the star. I think he's the best character. Jerry's the star, obviously, but Barry Switzer is fucking hilarious. Lightning rod. He did not care about anything. But all the players loved him.

2:39:32Pat McAfee:Normally he goes hand in hand. As long as you're as authentic as you are, like genuine, I think you're in a good spot. if you're fake players hate you that's like the biggest thing if you are who you are all the time players like rich rod here like we're talking about it he was always like that so it was like when you leave you have a love for that and appreciation and respect it too like you can't

2:39:54Michael Lombardi:just be a dick and not be respected like it's one thing to be a dick if you're if you're a coach that's like the hard driving dictator type coach and guys don't respect you it's never going to work like they have to respect you as a man and as a coach that's part of the whole thing i was asked

2:40:08Pat McAfee:I got a good story, but I'll save it for later. It's a good story we'll save it for later. From set. It was a good story. You know, because am I a method actor or not? Time will tell.

2:40:20Michael Lombardi:Can't wait to find out. There's a lot of dudes. Daniel Day-Lewis.

2:40:25Pat McAfee:So much like in real life at boot camp, I would assume, anytime the drill instructor is doing his thing, the recruits are all thinking, can we beat him up? you know like if push came to shove could we beat him up drill instructor needs to let everybody know they can't like that you cannot you would never be able to don't even fucking think it natural human instinct though whenever you're getting yelled at by somebody especially if you're trying to be a marine you probably have a little bit of a dog mentality your natural thought is i could beat the fuck out of this guy if i wanted to especially with what's happening that happened on set the actor started wondering like if they could fight me and i was like this is this is good this is exactly how it's supposed to be you know like you are supposed to feel and also no i would meet the fuck out of you okay that is it was uh it was like a cool it felt like a real life you know like it really did because there was like uh you know there's like boot camp there's a fight scene in there and the drill instructor is telling them to fight each other and like i have to get i have to you're you're gonna have to fight like this is some so for some of these guys it's their first ever fight you know so like that's kind of the whole thing and it's like this really happened this was real life that was taking place like hey in six weeks from now you're not just going to be here fighting somebody this is knives ban like we are killing somebody and combat is happening so like you need to get punched in the face okay that has to happen you have to feel what this is like but also you have to be able to so there's a lot that was a very intense day i will say and the things that i was saying to said actors you know in the moment to get them you know motivated to go it was funny just like in between takes you know like they come up to me do you think any of us could fight you win no absolutely not and then first sergeant gartland's like none of you he's like he because he's been a actual drill and right it's like that was like a real life moment like definitely like i could see that happening very easily and i like laughed because i got along with all those dudes afterwards but it's like on the set it's like these dudes probably did we're like fuck this guy like this is it was like a stanford it was like a stanford prison experiment yeah it was it felt like that in the middle of it and i was you know fucking i was acting as such we have an update here from adam schefter uh several teams have spoken to the Dallas Cowboys about a potential Michael Parsons, uh, Micah Parsons trade.

2:42:52Pat McAfee:And for the first time, the Cowboys appear willing to at least listen. Sources tell Todd Archer and damn Ozzy Ono. Wow. And Adam Schefter. Wow. So Ty Schmidt said yesterday, he said, there's an offer on the table and Jerry Jones just isn't ready to listen to it yet. Here we are about 26 hours later. And now allegedly Cowboys are willing to listen. Ty, is that a zipper burn over there? Well, I'm not going to get ahead of myself. Not yet. I kind of have talked this into my head into thinking like, hey, listen, Micah Parsons is going to be playing for the Packers week one against the Lions at home.

2:43:31It's going to happen. It's already a done deal. So now if this is like open bidding, like don't pussyfoot this around. Go do exactly what I said. 45, 50, 55, 60, whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. Two first-round picks. Three first-round picks. Four first-round picks. What? Maybe a couple second-round picks. What? You're just saying everything. Maybe a couple defensive starters. What? Maybe a guy like Quay Walker. Ooh. Add him in there. Okay, now you're shipping people out of town. Well, they did. That's one of the things Rapchie thought that they might want a starter as well.

2:44:06Pat McAfee:There's an update here. Schefter tweets, The Cowboys would like to resolve the situation one way or another in the coming days with their season open next Thursday against the Eagles, and the Cowboys hold their first full practice in preparation for the Eagles tomorrow. And, you know, he's getting a second opinion, if you believe, the photo from the airport, which who knows when that photo's from, but everybody's saying it is him getting a second opinion, leaving town, yada, yada, yada. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, the man who broke that news, Adam Schefter. Schefter, how you doing, brother?

2:44:34Pat McAfee:What's going on, guys? Reading your tweets as you're tweeting them. Micah update, obviously big deal. Jerry said in an interview, I believe, with Stephen A. Smith, don't listen to the trade BS. I'm not with it. Then people were reporting that he wasn't even picking up the phone. There was allegedly a Packers trade kind of already created, but Dallas wouldn't listen. Now you're saying they're listening? Is this brand new news, and how quickly could this possibly come together? It's complicated because what would have to happen here is that another team would have to present a contract compelling enough to Micah to make him want to take it, At which point that team then would have to go to Dallas to work out compensation.

2:45:18And I don't think they're at that level right now. They're just not there. Other teams or Dallas? I don't think the conversations with other teams and Mike and his agent are there yet. And so it's complicated. Like I said, there's a lot of layers that have to happen. There's a certain order that has to be followed here. And here's the bottom line, though, Pat. And the reason the story's out there is the Cowboys have heard from multiple suitors. There are multiple teams, multiple, that are interested in trying to work out a trade for Micah Parsons. And the Cowboys, at the very least, appear like they're willing to listen.

2:46:07And it certainly sounds like they want to get this resolved in the next few days. They practice tomorrow for the first time for Thursday night's opener against the Philadelphia Eagles. Obviously, unless there's a new deal for Micah, it's hard to imagine that he's going to be playing in that game on Thursday night. He was in California yesterday getting a second opinion for his back tightness. he hasn't practiced all summer he's not going to practice tomorrow so how short of him getting a deal done with the cowboys is he going to be out there a week from tonight for that opener i don't see that now if they somehow work out a deal i'm sure his back tightness would feel dramatically

2:46:55Pat McAfee:better very we don't know what the second doctor obviously said the second opinion and also i got back tightness let me hop on a commercial plane fly to LA and maybe get a second look at it we hope his back is obviously healthy he is an electrifying football player you talked about other teams having to deal with uh Micah and Mulligeta first for a long-term contract before going to the Dallas Cowboys to negotiate what a trade would look like have the Dallas Cowboys and Mulligeta done any negotiating and how often are those conversations taking place fluidly throughout the year I'm glad you asked that question Pat because I think it's a key part of us and basically what I've learned is that since Jerry Jones had what he thought was an agreement what he thought was an agreement for a deal that averaged 40.5 million dollars a year five-year deal 40.5 that was the agreement that Jerry Jones thought he had with Micah Parsons We know what happened after that.

2:47:57Jerry came out at the owner's meeting, said that they didn't need an agent to get the deal done. Micah Parsons came out and said, if we're doing a deal, you're going to be doing it with my agent, David Mulgetta. And since then, there have been zero conversations about a new contract. To right now, zero conversations regarding a new deal. No new offers. No new anything.

2:48:22Pat McAfee:Okay, so let me clarify. Can I clarify quickly? You said that Jerry believes that he and Micah made an agreement over a handshake deal or whatever for$40.5 million a year for five years? Five-year deal, correct. So what's that, 200 and? Here's what I don't know. He had a year left on the deal, and I think it might have been five more at$40.5 million. So it seems like, I don't know whether that included the one year or not. That's why I don't want to give that total number. I want to be clear. I know that the new deal that Jerry thought they had an agreement on averaged 40.5 million a year. Okay, that feels like a big piece of information.

2:49:05Pat McAfee:What did TJ sign for? 41? Yep. 41 million a year. But that was before TJ. It was before. But that was agreed to, in Jerry's eyes, that was agreed to way before T.J. Watt had his deal with Pittsburgh. And at that time, the 40.5 would have made Micah Parsons the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history. So how come they didn't move at that moment if they had an agreement? What does Jerry say about why they didn't move afterwards? Well, again, the agent wasn't included. and so Jerry felt like he had a handshake agreement with Micah. We've heard him talk about the fact that when he bought the Dallas Cowboys, he had a handshake agreement.

2:49:51Nothing was on paper. Nothing was written down and he shook the guy's hand. They looked each other in the eye and said, we have a deal. Jerry felt like that was the case this time. Micah went back and obviously that wasn't the case. Micah's like, hey, you got to talk to my agent to get the deal done. From afar, my analysis of it is when David Mulgetty hears about a five-year deal, when he did a three-year deal for Derek Stingley, an agent doesn't want his young, talented pass rusher tied down in the prime of his career for five years. So even though Mike might have been shaking his head and saying, okay, Jerry, okay, Jerry, that sounds great, or whatever it is that he said, the agent is, that's why you have an agent, to let you do responsible things, right?

2:50:35That's why the agent is representing your interests. Mike is a 25, 26-year-old young man, and he's an incredible football player. But the truth of the matter is his agent is probably better equipped to be handling the length of his contract and the details of his contract than Mike is. Certainly Molageta, too.

2:50:53Pat McAfee:Molageta is the one. He's actually the one that started an entire collusion case. He is a great negotiator. Will get every single cent that's out there for his high-profile clients, which he has many. That's all fascinating information. I didn't know it was 40 and a half for five years there. I just found that out right now. Thank you for that piece of information. So that means other teams would have to go probably three-year deal at 42 million now because that's what TJ Watts at 41. Yeah, it could be anything. Like, you know, you want Mike to come to your city. You're going to have to offer some money and be like, okay, yeah.

2:51:28Okay, here's 42. We'll use your number, Pat. 43, 44. What's the difference? Get to that number, 42, 43, 44, right? So you want to convince him, Michael, we want you here. We're going to be willing to pay you this amount of money. Okay, you in? I'm in. Let's get this done. Now it's up to that team to go to Dallas to work out the trade agreement. But the Cowboys have had conversations, from what I understand, with multiple teams.

2:51:54Pat McAfee:Okay, so this is what it would look like, Ty. Okay. Potentially. Well, I mean, he's not wearing 23, but, you know, okay, sure. How's his high school number? Like Jordan, dude. That was his high school number. 11's taken. You know what? He can wear 99 or 98 or 90. He's going to be in the 90s. Ty wants him to give him $45 million a year, fuck it, send three first-rounders down there to Dallas. Whatever it needs to get him to Green Bay. That is where you're at right now. Yes, without a doubt. Now that it's a possibility that it could happen without a doubt. That'll take me from, hey, Packers are going to go to the playoffs this year, have a nice little season, maybe make a run to the NFC Championship You have to win the whole fucking thing this year.

2:52:36I mean, that's what we're doing here. You know, Jordan Love's agent just happens to be David Mulgata as well. Oh, we got pretty good relationships. Yeah, exactly. Let's just say he might know Micah. Maybe he's talking to Micah right now. You think Jordan Love's recruiting right now? I think he might be. And Jerry refuses to talk to David, right? Well, at the time.

2:52:57Pat McAfee:I'm not talking to Jay-Z ever again. They have not had any contact since that time.

2:53:04Michael Lombardi:So how the hell is he going to go back? Yeah, we don't know. This is all such a shit show. Is Jerry and Moe getting to just, they're waiting for someone to reach out or what? I lost the light here.

2:53:12Pat McAfee:Yeah, what's up? I don't know what happened.

2:53:16Michael Lombardi:Trying to figure out what's going on. Go ahead, AJ. They need a marriage counselor. They need somebody, a mediator to step in and say, you guys. Are they just waiting for someone to reach out? Like is either one saying, hey, I'm not going to be the first person to text or call?

2:53:28Pat McAfee:Is that what's going on? You lose leverage. You become desperate. You're the one that reaches out. Everybody knows that. That's it. that's what it feels like right now. Again, no conversations. Season opens a week from tonight. Mike is still in practice. He was in California, the back specialist, and the Cowboys are talking to multiple teams. Like, yeah, there's plenty to talk about here. Yes, I guess. I will also point out to you. I will also point out to you. I really don't know how this is going to work itself out. There are people who still believe in the end Jerry is going to step in from outside teams, that Jerry's going to step in and overpay overpay on Micah the way he overpaid on Zeke and CD and Dak.

2:54:10They believe he'll do that. There are people within the organization who think that Jerry is very upset and that this is his Waterloo and he's not going to budge. And so I don't know what's right and what's wrong. I just know that we're entering a time where it's Labor Day weekend. The Cowboys play Thursday night. And if I go back to the last time, there was an issue a little bit like this. Khalil Mack was traded on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Oh, yeah, I remember that.

2:54:42Pat McAfee:Get him out of here, they said. He's a problem. Got to go and have like eight more years afterwards. Micah could go become a legend somewhere. He said multiple suitors, though. What if the Packers don't get him? What if another team gets him? What if the Minnesota Vikings make a run and get him? Well, you know what? then they're going to have to get rid of Van Genke. And we'll see what Vikings fans feel about that. Do you know what other teams other than Green Bay? Do we know Green Bay? I think we think Green Bay. I think we think Green Bay is one of, one of, teams that have inquired. Yeah, how many?

2:55:16But I was told, again, that there are, quote-unquote, multiple suitors. Multiple. Two to 30.

2:55:23Pat McAfee:Yeah, multiple is a lot. And everybody's going to be like, am I going to available? Yeah. What's it going to take? All right. We ain't got that. Yeah. That's crazy, though. All right. Good luck. Every team is going to have that thought, though.

2:55:33Michael Lombardi:Like, as a fan, you go from making the playoffs to winning the Super Bowl.

2:55:38Pat McAfee:All right, Chef, we appreciate you. Have a great football season. We'll see you soon. Thank you, buddy. Thank you, buddy. You look great, AJ. No shadows at all.

2:55:45Michael Lombardi:Yeah, one of my lights just actually didn't turn off. Just got a little dim.

2:55:49Pat McAfee:Axel eating it. Traitor. It's a loaf.

2:55:52Michael Lombardi:Yeah. It's a traitor. Do it on the wires.

2:55:53Pat McAfee:It's a loaf. Axel could be out there gnawing on it out there. All right, tomorrow's a big day. Let's enjoy it. Tonight, big games. Let's enjoy them. I got Nebraska and Boise State covered. Okay. Okay. I got both the favorites. I don't love that that's how I'm starting the year. Why don't you take the both? No, everybody seems to be very trendy. Seems very trendy. Everybody talking about USF being a problem. I'm like, all right, I believe in Boise State, I think, all of a sudden. And that's nothing against USF. I'm just saying, it feels like a lot of people are saying, whoa. it's like anytime that happens it's like well Boise State's hearing that as well they're gonna wake up for that and then Nebraska I got faith in Raul I like him came to the WWE event guys got moxie E-money too Emmitt the running back got a little bit of a little bit of cook now Travis Kelsey being in the building for Cincinnati is huge AJ who do you like

2:56:47Michael Lombardi:I like USF and I like Nebraska here boys

2:56:51Pat McAfee:boys. All chalk. We're in this thing together. Never forget it. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. I appreciate you all so much. College football for real is here. We did it. Boom. Hey Jack can't wait to see you in Ohio tomorrow brother.

2:57:10Michael Lombardi:Oh yeah it'll be a great day. I think the weather's gonna be a perfect little fall day for us.

2:57:14Pat McAfee:Yes. Love that. Perfect. Team on me. Team on three. One two three. Team. Goodbye. Bye. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes.

2:57:49Pat McAfee:May slow when network is busy. See terms. Close your eyes. Exhale. Feel your body relax.

2:57:54Michael Lombardi:And let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-CONTACTS. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-CONTACTS.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-CONTACTS