PMS 2.0 1446 - TNF Preview, Kirk Herbstreit, SMU Head Coach Rhett Lashlee, Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day, Texas A&M Head Coach Mike Elko, Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule, & AJ Hawk

20:10AJ Hawk:I don't know anything about it. I thought it was cool that you put the whole show on your ex thing. I didn't know you could do that.

20:17Pat McAfee:Hey, neither did we. And the fact that that happened, I think that's setting up for, okay, let's not even dive into that. There's a lot going on still behind the scenes. We would like the deal to get done. All of us would like the deal to get done.

20:26AJ Hawk:Can you do that this Saturday? Are you going to do that again for three hours?

20:29Pat McAfee:I don't know. We'll see if the deal, hey, we'll see where, you know, like for the good of ball, we all would like this deal to get done. Right, Ernie? I agree. I agree. We would all like this deal to get done. So let's go ahead and get that done for the good of ball. And I assume, you know, politics people will say for the good of the world too. We're just saying for the good of ball, which is good for the world.

20:46AJ Hawk:That's all we care about. That bingo, that is what we would like. That's all we know. Yeah, we need it. But let's talk about tonight, shall we?

20:52Pat McAfee:Let's talk about ball. On prime, 8-15 kickoff. Raiders at Broncos. We just kind of went through how, coming into the season, the Raiders had such a fresh appeal to it, you know? Tom Brady's making decisions. Chip Kelly, fresh off a national championship, is back at offensive coordinator for an NFL team. Obviously, he's been a head coach before. Now he's just coordinated. He brings Pete Carroll in. Pete Carroll even said it. Hey, I win games. You still got Max Crosby. Brock Bowers is special. Geno Smith becomes quarterback. It was like, hold on. This might be a brand new Raiders team. Hasn't felt that way, right?

21:25Pat McAfee:Similar outcomes, although you got different pieces there. And then on the other side, this Broncos team, Super Bowl darlings coming into the season for everybody because how much everybody loves Sean Payton, and I think how much everybody respects the defense that the Denver Broncos have. So they assume up and to the right, Super Bowl going into the year. Broncos have lived up, though, I think, what everybody's saying. Raiders have not. You've talked to both parties now. What do you think are kind of the takeaways from both sides as we head into this Thursday night matchup?

21:50AJ Hawk:I mean, you're all over it. I think the Raiders were, like you said, with Pete going there, Chip Kelly going there, Geno coming over to call the quarterback. And then you had enough pieces with, you know, if you think about what Brock Bowers, you could argue, I mean, he's technically a tight end. They really use him when they flex him out more as a receiver, and he's a tough matchup. If you play man, I don't know what you're going to put on him. corner, safety, no matter who it is, you're in a tough spot. Look at that catch right there. He hit three touchdowns last week. And I think a big part of that is he got hurt in week one, tried to kind of gut it out next couple weeks, and they finally took him off.

22:26AJ Hawk:He hadn't played in three weeks. Throw the buy-in, that's four weeks, until he came back against Jacksonville, where he just lit it up. So I think internally the hope with the Raiders, with Pete and Chip, is you guys have no idea how big of a piece to the puzzle that guy is for kind of building our offense around his skill set and give defenses a lot to kind of figure out where's the guy going to be aligned. And that really helps Gentry and the offensive line and all the other pieces. So obviously they moved Jacoby Myers, probably you could argue their best quote unquote receiver. But I think this is one of those Thursday night games where you're sitting there in the open like how's this game going to be competitive?

23:06AJ Hawk:And it just ends up in the fourth quarter a one-possession game. And by the way, Denver, they're in a one-possession game every single week. I think they're five and two in one-possession games, which is really a credit to them and kind of their culture. I've watched Denver play this year, but when you're calling a game, you kind of peel it back a little bit further. I don't know if Nick Benito and Jonathan Cooper, their two edge guys, get the love that they deserve. I think they're probably playing at this point in the season in the best tandem of any NFL defensive line and pass rush. And then on the inside, Zach Allen, nobody talks about.

23:45AJ Hawk:I mean, J.J. Watt, obviously, when you have him on, you can talk to him about Zach Allen. I mean, he kind of got under J.J.'s wing in Arizona and learned a lot about, okay, you're gifted, but here's some tricks to the trade. And he's taken that throughout his career, and now he's in Denver. And you throw those guys on the edge with him in the middle, it's a lot for any offense to be able to deal with. And Vance Joseph right now is dialing it up, probably as well as any defensive coordinator. So this defense is real. And by the way, this is all with Pat Sertan, probably the top corner in the league, on the IR for the next few weeks.

24:21AJ Hawk:So they're doing it without him. And yet they're still playing at that elite level. So it'll be a good one. I'm hoping that when you call the game, you want a close game. I'm hoping that Brock Bowers and Ashton Gentry get it going tonight and keep this one close.

24:37Pat McAfee:It's been a couple good Thursdays for you for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been really good. You know, big spreads going in, big spreads coming out.

24:45AJ Hawk:We had a great start. Our first five or six were insane, you know, going down to the wire. Last two, not so much. So we're hoping. But this defense from Denver, and hopefully they stay healthy. They're getting Drake Greenlaw back. you know he's obviously a thumper and a great player so if they can get him along with Alex Singleton at those two linebacker spots dude with everything else they have around him it's as good

25:14Pat McAfee:as there is I think right now in the NFL Hembo sent over some stats about just not good protection of Geno Smith either sack rate percentage of sack rate and then what the Broncos are look at this stat down at the bottom 11.3 percent sack rate the Broncos defense highest since the 2000 Saints I assume you have numbers on that as well, but they get to the quarterback really good. And Geno, yeah, he gets got to very good, too, by other teams. So it feels like the Denver Broncos' strength is a Raiders' weakness. And as we know, this could be quite a swing of the game. Oh, you do your first down, wreck.

25:51Pat McAfee:Then it's like second and 15. It's like, all right, now you're punting the ball. And what's going on the other side? Well, maybe Bo Nix will figure it out. And then all of a sudden you're in a battle. and then all of a sudden Kirk Herbstreet, now Michaels are filling time in the fourth quarter. We hope that's not happening. We hope that's not happening. Now, on that note, Will Lutz, okay, Will Lutz, I think he's got three game winners this year, I think, for Sean Payton. 14 of 16 under Sean Payton, him, in those clutch kicks, Will Lutz. He has – I don't think his pants touch his knees either, so let's have a little respect, okay?

26:26Pat McAfee:Let's have a little respect for this guy. All right.

26:29AJ Hawk:And I will say, you didn't kick. Pull a shot of Pat McAfee up in his prime, kicking field goals for the Colts or punting for the Colts. I want to see your uni. I want to see Adam's uni and how he looked. There's no way. Those were shorts, dude. They were not just covered up above the knee. Those were short shorts.

26:54Pat McAfee:Yeah, he came out afterwards and said, it was a little torn more than I thought. He said he didn't know how short they were until he saw it. And he was like, wow, those are... And two, I would say as somebody that did not like anything touching my knee, I think that's most kickers. We don't want anything on top of our knee because of the amount of movement. I think those were a little high. Look at you, that's perfect. That is perfect. We're old school though, me and you. We're old school guys.

27:23AJ Hawk:You got a little something going on with the laces. I mean, you're having some fun there, right? Yeah, I got some sauce. I got some sauce for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

27:32Pat McAfee:Yeah. Absolutely. That's a good look. The Sandel, I think is his name. He's a great kicker. He's a kid out of Oklahoma. Great kicker. Wow. I mean, you got to be good to have the amount of confidence that he has to roll out there with those shorts where they're at.

27:44AJ Hawk:And then you see the mean mugging on the back end of the kicks, too. If you could roll that, like, after he makes the kicks, he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That just happened. watch him after he makes his 55 yards

27:56Pat McAfee:this is just a photo

27:58AJ Hawk:those are technically those are shorts

28:02Pat McAfee:those are tight those are a little short and he did come out afterwards and say this one's on me but he's an incredible kicker he's a hammer

28:14AJ Hawk:for a little guy I don't remember how a couple from 55 3 over 50 I mean, he was crushing.

28:22Pat McAfee:52, 56, 55, I think. And all needed. He's wrong. Every one of them. Yeah, 102 ,000 people. 102 ,000, you know. And everyone is a necessity. Yeah, that is big time.

28:33AJ Hawk:Keep the dream alive with that leg. Keep the dream alive. They go to Tuscaloosa in a couple weeks. But right now, their dream's still alive. That's a brutal schedule.

28:40Pat McAfee:Okay, so for me in this conversation, and you obviously do a lot of college, and now for the past four years been the voice of kicking off NFL schedules, which we are so incredibly appreciative of. It's hard to find good kickers because, like, think about how big that moment is for that guy. Some kickers get, like, broken in college mentally because of the big moments. And then you've got some guys that aren't in any games that matter at all. So it's like, how do you know when and who's going to show up? And that's why you go back to Vandy and you think, Tyler Huang, this kid needs to get signed somewhere.

29:10Pat McAfee:You know, he stepped a kid, a kid kicked it in Vandy. Yeah, he was an absolute monster. Jonah out there in Utah. He snuck that one in. Stanford, Steve didn't want to give it to him.

29:22AJ Hawk:What was the final analysis? I didn't hear this week. Did you guys get a good replay? I missed it. From my perspective, I thought it came back in, I thought.

29:31Pat McAfee:You and me were standing in the same area. So I think we saw it go right like the first one, but then it kind of hooked back in over the upright. And, yeah, I thought it was good. I do appreciate Stanford, Steve, saying, nope. I actually ripped up the check. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I don't know. Jonah started celebrating, too. That was a good play by Jonah. That's no good. Look at Stevie. No, no. Look at that one's face, by the way. Right in that guy's face. He does it right in Jonah's face. Yeah, right, bud. That ain't good. Right in his face. The whole place was yelling. That was quite a scene. Those have become quite wild out there, Herbie.

30:09Pat McAfee:Oh, they're wild.

30:11AJ Hawk:Oh, it's so much fun. We tried to affect them with the blockers. I was trying to get those blockers on the turf, but you were being so kind. No, no, no, no. Let's push them back.

30:22Pat McAfee:Well, those kids getting blasted in the face, bro. Did you know it was going to be dudes holding that? I had no idea. I thought maybe we had rollers. Is that what you thought? They're like turning away from it. I mean, they're going to get blasted in the face. It was like, oh, we need to back this up a little bit here. Who were those lads? Who were those lads? I genuinely have no idea. I have no clue who they were, but I'll tell you what. They had courage. Those dudes just sat right there. Steve just grabbed them out of the crowd and said, hey, boys. Hey, boys, you need to go block this kick. It's going to be no good one way or the other.

30:52Pat McAfee:Either you block it or I'm going to call it no good regardless. But, yeah, they walked up there. The one kid had his face just right next to it, just like sitting right here. I'm like, yo, bro, like I was all worried for that.

31:02AJ Hawk:I was all worried for that. But I appreciate you looking out for me. But next time we do that, I'm going to bring them in a little bit tighter, if you don't mind. That's a little bit too easy. where we had them. I didn't think they really affected him much.

31:14Pat McAfee:They can't get blasted in the face, though. These kids look like they were 16 years old. I mean, that's... Sign a waiver. Yeah, get a sign a waiver. Might help them.

31:23AJ Hawk:I think it'd be good for ratings if they took one off the board. Oh, my gosh. He's not lying. That's football. Right in the gut.

31:31Pat McAfee:Could you imagine being this, guys? Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. Kids puking because it got hit so hard.

31:38AJ Hawk:Maybe this week. Tune in. I tell you, too many people are making it this year. I mean, holy cow. It's like every week they make it.

31:47Pat McAfee:I know.

31:48AJ Hawk:How much have you given out so far?

31:51Pat McAfee:We don't even talk about it. It's too much. Every time it goes through, it's just like, oh my.

31:54AJ Hawk:Is it two million? It's kind of, I mean, it's probably getting up near. Has to be. Has to be up there. Has two million.

32:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, now they're preparing. Everybody's practicing. The Texas Tech kids practicing this week, which I respect that. I've got Cowboys. Mascot obviously named And Larry.

32:09AJ Hawk:Yep, yep. He's there. He's ready.

32:13Pat McAfee:His name's Larry? Is that what his name is? Lubbock Larry is kind of what I was thinking. I know Lubbock Larry. Is that Lubbock Larry? Raider Red. Raider Red. Raider Red. Raider Red. Raider Red. Raider Red. All right, I look like that was Eddie Raider Red. You can come kick for sure. Yeah, we can certainly put you on the spot there, Raider Red. We'd love to see you. I think they're going to be – I think this is going to be pretty outrageous. I think this is going to be quite a scene this weekend, brother.

32:34AJ Hawk:Oh, my gosh. They started camping out on Sunday night. I know. They love their ball down there. What a game. They love their ball. Friday Night Lights. That's what it is.

32:43Pat McAfee:Well, isn't Joey the perfect guy for that to coach there, right? Yeah. Because he's a high school football coach. Yeah.

32:47AJ Hawk:High school coach who's now killing it in college. We need Riggins to show up down there. Him. Friday Night Lights. They got a lot of money, too, don't they? Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Very, very active former player who's a billionaire. that's making sure that the women's basketball team, the softball, football, you name it, they're all in.

33:12Pat McAfee:Is he oil? Is he an oil guy? That's all I ever think.

33:15AJ Hawk:I think he's oil. Yeah, I think he's an oil guy. But a young buck, a young buck like you. Like, he's a young guy. Who found a drill and he'd go ahead and pop that thing down.

33:27Pat McAfee:He made his fortune in the oil and gas. Oh, my God, he found one good rig out there. Sold his company for$4 billion. Oh, my God. Good Lord, this man did it. This is the same glory hole that Jerry is currently hunting once again. Cody Campbell's his name. Cody Campbell. Hey, Cody. Way to go, man. Boy, Cody.

33:46AJ Hawk:Cody, next thing you know, David Bailey left Stanford and is down in Lubbock. Getting after it.

33:52Pat McAfee:Isn't that incredible? And then all of a sudden there's a, what, a million-dollar pitcher on the softball team. Everybody wants her. and then she literally leads the team all the way to the World Series or whatever. Yeah, she is good for Cody Campbell. I like that. And good for him in that moment where he first heard that rig cough like any mammal would as oil started to flow. And then all of a sudden, it just was a pure, unfiltered, glorious road to$4 billion. It's scratch-off. It's what they're doing. It is a scratch-off is literally what they're doing. That's what Jerry's currently trying to do with his natural gas.

34:31Pat McAfee:He heard there's$100 billion.

34:33AJ Hawk:Why don't you go work on a rig this weekend?

34:36Pat McAfee:What do you think? I got meetings, brother. Scratch-offs? I don't go to gas stations anymore.

34:42AJ Hawk:Remember when we went to Montana? You were out there on the horses, and you're becoming a cowboy. Why don't you work on the rig?

34:51Pat McAfee:I don't know if I'm going to work. I'm going to try to figure out how to get one.

34:53AJ Hawk:No, but just like the other guy.

34:55Pat McAfee:There we go. Maybe we do send the other guy out to another rig. Or that all covered in oil. Yeah. Maybe he makes his picks from the rig. That's not a bad idea. Standing on top of that thing. The other rig. Stanford Steve is on. Yeah. He's out there on the other oil rig, and he makes his picks from there. You said work on the rig. I don't think I'm going to be doing that. I will certainly –

35:13AJ Hawk:No, you and Cody go out to see where he hit it big. I think that would be an awesome thing. Apparently he had a cup of coffee on the Indianapolis Colts. What year? Oh, boy.

35:24Pat McAfee:Is this no way this is Cody Campbell? You know? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think so. 2008 season?

35:33AJ Hawk:I think you've got offense or defense alignment, I think.

35:36Pat McAfee:All right, let's move along.

35:38AJ Hawk:Holy hell.

35:39Pat McAfee:Am I in the oil scratch-off business all of a sudden? It sounds like I'm potentially getting – I got my big country's over the net. 2005 season, you weren't there. No, yeah, he's older than me. Okay, he's a little bit older than me. But Cody, I'd like to learn anything that you're willing to –

35:51AJ Hawk:You need to go check out where he hit it big.

35:54Pat McAfee:If I could become the Jerry Jones feeling the floor. I think it's down here. You know, because they have like all these rockologists or whatever they're saying. It should be in this area here. It should be here. They do a tech. Yeah, all of that stuff. It should be here. It should be here. But then some of them, nothing. Some of them, nothing. People chasing that. You know, I used to watch, what was that show they went down to the Gold Rush? You guys watch the Gold Rush show where they're trying to find gold? Never watched it, but I'm familiar with it.

36:23AJ Hawk:I'd like to watch that. I'll watch that. Gold Rush. Oh, man.

36:27Pat McAfee:They're spending a lot of time out there and not really pulling much back. I'll tell you, but there is always the thought that this sweet nectar of gold is just going to come flowing out of this shit. And then you got$100 million. Every day they wake up thinking,$100 million. And then normally it's, we lost$45 ,000 today. And then they go back out there. So this is the show, yeah. And I'll tell you what, I don't know if this is the original cast. Is this the original cast? They were in the mountains a lot. Adam Driver? Yeah, there was another gold hunt one where they went down to, like, a jungle.

37:00Pat McAfee:Like, down in Africa. I think that's the one I saw. They were getting in some shit. You watched Landman? Landman? I saw Jerry Jones in Landman. I saw one scene. He was unbelievable.

37:09AJ Hawk:He was really good. Yeah, he needs to do that.

37:12Pat McAfee:He should act a little bit. All right, let's talk football. Suck football. Ty has a question for you, Kirk. Yeah, Herbie, I know coming into this season, you were a big J.J. McCarthy guy thinking that he was going to make the Vikings better than when they had Sam Darnold. And obviously, it's been a little bit up and down. His stats weren't great last week, but he led the Vikings to a big win over the Lions. With him being back now and allegedly 100 % healthy, do you think the Vikings are about to go on a run with J.J. McCarthy here?

37:42AJ Hawk:I'm still kind of bullish on what I think he's going to do. and I think it has as much to do with the system. And, I mean, a guy hasn't played a lot of football. You think about the injuries. You know, really this year, hadn't been able to practice a whole lot to be able to get the timing and the rhythm down. So, to me, what you're seeing right now is just glimpses and eventually through more weeks and more reps and more opportunities, I think you're going to start to see the timing get better and better, the game slowing down for him. But you can see how the team responds to him. I think, Ty, that's the thing that, I know you being an Iowa fan when he was playing in Ann Arbor it wasn't just him executing it was how like you know see how he scores a touchdown how you can just see whether it's alignment receivers everybody's naturally drawn to him and I think it's because he has a very selfless approach and I think that goes over big in the locker room when you play that position so I think this I have a lot of respect for KOC the system that he makes for the quarterback very quarterback friendly and you look at the pieces they have around him yeah yeah I do I I think he'll get better every single week.

38:42AJ Hawk:And I think you're just seeing the beginning of what I think is going to be a great marriage with he and KOC in that offense.

38:49Pat McAfee:Why is he doing that after a game in the locker room? He said he calls him nine. You know, that's character nine. Not this part here. Whenever he's about to get the game ball, there's a video that I saw of him. He's kind of like bobbing back and forth. I think his tongue's going out there. And it's like this guy has like the competitive stamina. I think he wants to at least. Like his entire focus is on being a guy, I think. Like that is kind of his mission since high school, it feels like, of J.J. McCarthy.

39:18AJ Hawk:No, I think that's true. Remember, COVID, he left his high school team. I think he went down to IMG to play his last year because of COVID concerns and just wanted to play ball, just wanted to compete. We saw him early. If you remember, it was his freshman year. He was kind of playing a little bit of spot duty here and there. And then remember the sophomore year, that gave starting an opportunity for both quarterbacks to win the job. He ends up winning the job and really never looked back as far as being Michigan's starting quarterback. And I don't know. I mean, you watch all these quarterbacks, you always try to figure out what's the thing that makes NFL GMs and head coaches and scouting departments miss so consistently on first-round picks.

39:57AJ Hawk:This J.J. McCarthy class, you go back and look at top to bottom now that he's starting to play, every single one of these guys is playing in that class. I mean, by the time it's all said and done, if they continue to play well, it's going to be one of the better classes we've ever seen. But they miss a lot, right? So I think, to me, repetitions like Brock Purdy had at Iowa State, huge. And then ability to process through those reps. Can you see it? Can you get the ball out? Do you have the ability to keep a play alive with your legs? And I think he does all those things. And like I said, you go back to the KOC part of this, Aaron Jones, what he can do.

40:34AJ Hawk:I mean, they're just – JJ's obviously, they've got a ton of weapons, and I do. I think each week they're going to become a bigger story as we get into December and January.

40:45Pat McAfee:B.A. said every team in the NFC North is going to make the playoffs. They did. B.A. said every team in the NFC North is going to make the playoffs. And if you start looking at schedules, it's like it is possible.

40:54AJ Hawk:Probably going to happen.

40:55Pat McAfee:It'd be the first time ever. That'd be the first time ever. Wow. Yeah. That's awesome. They are very good up there. You know, obviously it just used to be the Green Bay Packers and then, and for a long time. And Packers fans really enjoyed that, didn't they? Yeah, it was a great run. Pretty much my entire childhood going up to, you know, when I was 25, 26 years old. And just no respect really for anybody else. Certainly not. When the Lions were getting good, you know, and that was all happening, all Ty would say is, okay. And then the Chicago Bears, since this show has started, and me chatting with Ty Schmidt, a Green Bay Packers owner, There's been three different times that the Bears are supposed to be good.

41:32Pat McAfee:And every single time, Ty goes, okay, it's the Chicago Bears. Let's all relax. But now it's like, wait a minute. Chicago Bears might have figured it out. Lions definitely have it figured out. And the Vikings have the reigning coach of the year. And Kevin O 'Connell with a young quarterback that might be here. It's like, all of a sudden, this is a powerhouse of a conference or division for a long time, too. This isn't just like for a year or two. This is seemingly the next 10 years. No, yeah. I mean, I guess Goff is the oldest. but still he's got a lot of good years left in him. All the quarterbacks in that division are super young too.

42:04AJ Hawk:Pat, look at that. When you guys had the standings up, look at that NFC at the halfway point. You could make a case for a lot of teams. Again, a lot of it's going to be based on health. But look at that race that we have this year in the NFC and the quarterbacks that you have. That is wide open this year.

42:23Pat McAfee:Yeah, there's the top seven for Super Wild Card Weekend as we currently sit. And then obviously there's lurking behind us. And then there'll be some division champions that kind of throw off the ranking of it all. And we'll certainly have some gripes going into wildcard weekend, but then we'll have six fantastic games that'll launch us into a playoff run. There it is right around the corner, kind of. Yeah.

42:44AJ Hawk:It is. We got a lot of season left. Yeah. We got a lot of season left. And I, I think it's great that in the NFL, we have rules. If you tie, you know, there's different tiebreakers and in college football, It's just subjective analysis. And that started this Tuesday night, and it just gets messy. Yeah, but they put their hats.

43:03Pat McAfee:Did you see them put their hats? They took –

43:05AJ Hawk:Went to work. I saw that. They took their hats off. Did they sing their song this year, or is that not happening?

43:11Pat McAfee:Starting with 12, counting down to 1. It better. We don't know yet, but I just want to know, like, do they take the hat off because the hat is kind of – Well, you guys didn't see it. Stomping the creativity. Eclipse, they put their hard hats on when they go into the room. Oh, okay. That's cool. So that's their thinking caps. They whistle while they work. So they take off their casual leisure cap, and they put on their thinking hard hat. Yeah. Okay, I get it. Their college game day orange hard hat.

43:39AJ Hawk:How much would you guys hate to be in that room? Because no matter what you do, you're wrong.

43:43Pat McAfee:Oh, you mean like I would hate to be in that room. Okay, I didn't know why. You're talking about having one of those positions.

43:49AJ Hawk:If all of us had to make... Wouldn't that suck? No way.

43:56Pat McAfee:It would be awesome. Ty would want to do it. Connor would want to do it because they'll just sit in the fire. They're cool with it. Say, so what? It's how I feel. It would suck, though. You'd never win. Hey, hey, hey. Shh. Hey.

44:07AJ Hawk:Oregon loses Saturday. Don't get too loud with it.

44:12Pat McAfee:You think that? Oh, it's getting real loud. I know. Why are you saying that? Why did you say that so loud like that? This is very early putting that out into the universe. Ty really was wishing you didn't do that on a Thursday. I've been feeling like this since the Monday after. I'm telling you.

44:27AJ Hawk:I'm telling you. I'm telling you. We all love Dan Lanning. We all love the Ducks and their potential. But there's just something about certain teams at Iowa. When you go to November, the only blessing they have is it's not a night game, right? No, 3.30. If it were a night game, it would be a given. It would be a loss. But at 3.30, it's going to get dark in the second half. And I'm telling you, Iowa is going to be just typical Iowa. It's going to be ugly. It's going to be like 15 to 12. You're going to wonder, how the hell did we get to 15 to 12? But that's part of the fun with Iowa. We don't know how we got to 15 to 12.

45:08AJ Hawk:But it's going to be 15 to 12. Was there a safety? What happened to the game for 12? Yeah, what happened? How did we get here? How did we get here? Two-point conversion return for –

45:15Pat McAfee:Yeah, actually, they bobbled the snap. The kicker picked it up, ran it in for a two-point conversion as they were trying to do an extra point.

45:21AJ Hawk:Something wacky, and then they're going to be lined up to kick a game-winning field goal, and it's 15-13. It's 15-13. There's like 40 seconds to go. The crowd's going crazy. Here we go, lining up, 45-yarder, right hash, boom, nail it. Game over, 16-15, Iowa wins.

45:41Pat McAfee:And Iowa all of a sudden is still very much into college football playoff conversation. Right in the mix. And the Big Ten champions. Oh, my God. The Hawkeyes with Gronaski. This D3 Heisman winner. National champion before.

45:54AJ Hawk:No longer winning with punting and defense. No longer winning with punting and defense. No.

45:59Pat McAfee:Winning with just a quarterback that can't throw, but he can run really, really, really, really good. He can run really, really, really good. And look at the fans. That's the difference in the game. Kirk's dog's going crazy out there. Now, Ty, he just took us to a fantasy land there on Saturday. And I don't know if putting that out in the environment. Dan Lanning heard that right there. Dan Lanning is running that to the team tomorrow morning, if I had to guess, before they travel out to Iowa. Dan's saying, hey, this is what the voice of college football is, how he was introduced. I'm telling you, at the very least, they're either going to escape or they're going to lose.

46:36AJ Hawk:That's what's going to happen.

46:37Pat McAfee:That Penn State game, I had eyes on that game. against Oregon, Penn State. Think about how much has changed since then. That was an overtime. That was an overtime. That was an overtime. That's what, four weeks ago. If you start doing the math here, midseason, that was a crazy night. Oregon, though, anytime Dan Lanning's coaching him, we have the utmost respect, obviously. Might have the number one quarterback draft. I mean, there is a lot of good, obviously, with Dan Lanning, but Iowa's just a little bit different, isn't it, over there? I'll tell you what, weather's not going to be nice. It's going to be windy.

47:09It's going to be rainy. I have been feeling like this for a little bit. I really have.

47:14Pat McAfee:So does it scare you now that Kirk has put this out into these guys? No, because if they weren't taking Iowa seriously before this. Yeah, he's saying don't say it. You just said it. You said it. Too late. Everybody's going to hear it. We can't dump it. And it's not coming from a team, you know. Kirk's dogs will be ready. He's certainly not giving any bolts and board material, you know. So we'll see. Oh, no. So CBS Sports just tweeted this out too. Mark Gronowski is a winner. Well, that's just an undisputable fact. He just tweeted this. CBS Sports just tweeted this out. So you got Herbie going, shh, shh, Gronowski's about to take down Oregon.

47:52Pat McAfee:Then you got CBS Sports saying, yeah, actually, here's another thing. Herbie said it. Put it on. Here's another thing. 55-8, this guy. You want to see a winner when he's playing football? He wins. And Dan Lenning, you hear what CBS Sports is saying now about this guy? You hear what Kirk Herbstreit's saying? so much to draw from in such an inspirational, motivation-type game. Now, all of a sudden, it's just getting flooded over to Oregon. What is Kirk going to be able to pull from? What is Kirk going to be able to pull from now? He doesn't need any gimmicks. He's not P.J. Fleck. He doesn't need some bullshit.

48:20Jeez Louise. Row the boat, mumbo jumbo. There was no reason for that.

48:25AJ Hawk:There was no reason for that. Why are you taking shots in Minnesota? He always does. They love to chant, I hate Iowa, and stuff like that. I don't think about it, but I thought that was pretty apropos because Kirk's just going to do what he has done every single game for the entire Kirk Ferentz era. Hey, we're just going to be tough, physical, play smart, don't get penalized. And we'll see – you know, we'll put the chips in the middle and we'll see how it falls. He's hoping for a good river. He's hoping for a good river. They try to lure you out into the fourth quarter, out to the deep end. They just try to – it's really ugly, really ugly.

48:59Pat McAfee:It's going to be hard to stay awake. See if they can.

49:03AJ Hawk:That's what they do. That's Iowa football right there.

49:06Pat McAfee:Well said.

49:11Pat McAfee:No explosives. No offense. No throwing. Just hard-nosed Iowa football in November at home. Waving to the children's. That's right. They've been averaging 30-plus for the last couple weeks here. So, you know, we'll see. All right. We'll see. Bye-week might have changed. Let's go back to the NFL. Talk about a team that might be back. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Herbie, you had them last week, the Ravens down in Miami. Now the record is still what the record is, but they are the favorites to win the AFC North. What did you get vibes-wise from the Ravens before that game, and how do you feel about their outlook the rest of the season?

49:45AJ Hawk:Probably like a lot of other people, the fact that they were finally healthy, not just Lamar, but all the pieces. Ricard being back, as you guys know, is such a big part of what they do offensively. They were favored before they won that game to come back and win their division. I know you're a big Steelers guy. They got a big win last week, and it's really a two-team race in that division. But you look at their schedule, what they have in front of them, if they stay healthy. I love the Steelers. I hope they get there, but I would bet on the Ravens right now. You don't believe in your Bengals?

50:21You don't believe in your Bengals, Harry?

50:23AJ Hawk:Good team. No, I don't at all. I'm a – my teams take a rubber hose out on me and just beat me into the ground. That's what they like to do. That's what they do. Yeah, but Joe Flacco, dude. Joe Flacco had such a cool under-two-minute drive.

50:42Pat McAfee:He scored a touchdown to win that one. That was such a good drive.

50:47AJ Hawk:As long as there's more than 15 seconds, then you know it's going to happen.

50:53Pat McAfee:Caleb, you knew it was going to happen.

50:55AJ Hawk:Here's how my brain works. Touchdown, great. How much time's left? Nope, that's game. They lost.

51:00Pat McAfee:No way! with Caleb. Did you know that about Caleb? That's a real thing because obviously Colson Lovelin makes an incredible play in the Cincinnati Bengals and here's some Caleb Williams magic that's obviously taking place in the NFL that was also happening in college which is why he was the outright number one guy.

51:15AJ Hawk:Right here in my family room I said hit the cross here. Hit the dig right here. Get in the field goal range. That's what I'm saying to Jake and Ty. Boom. This was a bonus. That was a bonus to the missed tackles. I just thought they'd tackle him, bring out the game winning field goal but the bonus there with Loveland saying these guys don't tackle so just keep running

51:37Pat McAfee:what's your Reds group text called? Pain. Shout to Cincinnati still doing it hey you know what though we all knew going into the year though that that was going to be a winning brand of footballs you know we all knew that that was how you win football games going into the season now there was a chance that you guys were going to change it all Cincinnati was going to change it all hey we'll pay two number ones because they They both are incredibly talented. They both are exactly who you paid them to be. We're going to pay a quarterback. It's going to be great. And then, you know, defensively, they'll figure it out.

52:06Pat McAfee:We'll get a stop somewhere. We'll get a stop somewhere in there. And we'll just be able to beat these teams. And then whenever you think about Bengals defense ranking, 632nd among 640 defenses in the span of 20 years.

52:19AJ Hawk:Is that bad? So there has been worse. I thought Sweet Lou was the problem. Where's he now? Over at Indy?

52:28Pat McAfee:He came to the Colts. Yeah, we just got Sauce, too. We just got Sauce, Moody, and Tremaine Pratt. You guys know him. He was a good player for you guys. He's over here. We got DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart, Leotu Lotto. He's got three picks, I think, or two picks. Yeah, and Lou Anarumo is just out there calling the shots. But, yeah.

52:46AJ Hawk:It turns out he's a DC in the league still. Okay. Doing well. Doing well.

52:53Pat McAfee:Yes, he is. This is what he said about Sauce Gardner. I love the addition of Sauce. It gives us another Pro Bowl corner. The guy's been a lockdown player his whole career and gives us the chance to match him and Ward Moody up to different receivers. Two super smart football players. I can't say enough about Sauce Gardner being on our team. We just elevate our whole defense. Lou Anarumo is living like King over here. Paizan King, Lou Anarumo. Get all the pieces. They're spending money on defense. They're spending draft picks on defense. They spent two firsts.

53:16AJ Hawk:Honestly, how's that feel? How's that feel to see your squad? Because you were last year, last few years, it hadn't been great with you and the Colts. You're back. you're back and you guys are all together in harmony happy enjoying this ball club what's it feel like? Is it fun?

53:35Pat McAfee:I love the Colts yeah I love the Colts the team you know I love the Colts team this particular roster

53:41AJ Hawk:doing a great job right now. How about the owner buddy? What's going on with the owners taking notes

53:47Pat McAfee:You're talking about Carly? You're talking about Carly Irsay? Yeah Carly's a G okay that is how Carly's been on the sideline for years now As I think it became more, I guess, closer to the time in which they potentially take over a team, they obviously all started investing a lot more time in building, learning about things. Carly, since day one of getting into building full-time, has been having full meetings and sessions on trying to learn the ins and outs of football that she wasn't able to learn from she didn't play. I think she's a lawyer by trade, so she's obviously been around the Colts her entire life.

54:23Pat McAfee:her dad had her around she obviously loves the colts and everything like that but she didn't get to play so she doesn't know the ins and outs so she thinks and i think this was her original thought is i'm gonna have to hire people that are gonna have to do this and i don't know enough about this particular world so she has gone head first in you're talking trying to learn as much as possible and this is like years now this is like five six seven years straight of trying to like learn everything she possibly can and talking about lou anarumo uh i talked to i got a chance to talked to one of the big three here carly and i'm like uh what are you doing you know what are you doing everybody wants to know what you're doing she's basically just charting what the play calls are what the outcome is and then she's checking out trends at what times do you do what why do you do what and she said lou anarumo's play calls vastly different than what the previous uh defensive play calls were he's got tags and ads and things like that so as soon as she sees that you know she's like oh what's i've never what is this and she she's able to talk to lou and then when she's talking to Lulu, it's like, well, this is adding this to this.

55:23Pat McAfee:So it's like, she is literally trying to learn football as fast and as great as possible. And I think, like, obviously you can mock her because she does not give a shit about what people think about how she dresses to other. I own the team. I would dress however. She was dressed like Michael. She had this leather jacket on, leather pants on, these sick, probably $10 ,000 boots on on the sideline with this entire thing. Like, gee, you're talking about like an actual She's got a lot of her dad in her, too, when it comes to that. Like, hey, I am who I am. But it's all coming from a good spot. And I think she knows, as do Kaylin and Casey, because they've been in the building and been talking to these coaches so much.

56:00Pat McAfee:It's like, hey, what do we need to go? Like, hey, we want to win a Super Bowl here. This would be really cool for our dad. This would be really cool for everything. It's like, how do we go? It's like, you get us another big-time elite defensive guy. We trust you. Let's go. And they're in. So I think it's all because of the information that she's gathered that she's able to sign off on this type of decision, if that makes sense.

56:19AJ Hawk:Yeah, man. And you can see it's cool to see that she's taken the time and not just this year, but kind of behind the scenes. Maybe we just didn't see the cameras weren't on her and we didn't realize that she's putting that kind of commitment in. But I would put them up as the biggest surprise this year in the entire NFL. Go back to August, what people thought of them and the potential. I mean, it's easy to look at Daniel Jones now, but when Daniel Jones left Minnesota, there wasn't a whole lot of people thinking that he's going to be the guy. They thought maybe it'd be a competition with Anthony Richardson, but he's been a huge story.

56:49You're the man.

56:50Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, that's Kirk Kirk for you. See you tonight, Harvey. See you in Texas, brother. Safe travels.

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58:03Pat McAfee:This podcast is awesome and tonight on Prime we have an AFC West clash between the Raiders and the Broncos that we will all be watching. It's an eight and a half point spread on ESPN bet December 1st I believe and then everywhere else you could potentially get it at nine and a half as well. It's more than a one score game looking at it and boy if it's another blowout the NFL might start dancing with a little bit of a danger with the fact that these prime Runtime games have not been living up to any hype. Or this could become an absolutely sensational battle of Bo Nix and Max Crosby and Geno Smith and the Broncos defense that has been heralded as maybe one of the greatest of all time.

58:45Pat McAfee:Al Michaels will be on the call, so it'll feel big, unless it gets to a point where it's a blowout and Al Michaels will say, what the hell will we do? And we will love him for that. And Herbie will be doing the same exact thing. What we do know is the pre-show will be spectacular. The post show will run very late, and a game will be happening in between those. Will it be a good one? We hope. Can it be ass? Certainly. Now, we will talk about it for a little bit longer here, and then we have a full boots on the ground. Feel the beat of college football coaches that we're about to start here in about eight minutes or so.

59:15Pat McAfee:We got Rhett Lashley joining us from SMU, Ryan Day joining us from Ohio State, Mike Elko joining us from Texas A &M, and then Rule joining us from Nebraska. We're about to hit it from all different angles. We're lucky to do it. The Talks at Tables here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the Hammer. Dad! Cowboys AP Tone is here. And joining us live from Manatic in Ohio is Matt, who's a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. Hey, Hawk. How you doing, Hawk? Good. I'm looking forward to the old, what are you, we're, what, feeling the beat with these coaches and everything?

59:50I couldn't think of it for a second. Yeah, yeah, me neither.

59:52Pat McAfee:It took me a little bit to get there. But, yeah, we've got boots on the ground. We're feeling the beat, brother. And, you know, you don't really know how things are going until you talk to the people that are there. And we're talking to four coaches that are in four different spots, obviously. Ohio State, reigning national champion. How's Ryan Day going to feel about that? Rhett Lashley has three losses, but only one ACC loss. Can still win the ACC and get in the college football playoff for two straight years. Matt Rule, obviously, he's going to be looking at a different outcome this year as we build for next year in what we have with a quarterback that just broke his fibula who's out for the season.

1:00:22Pat McAfee:And then, you know, Elko, down in Texas A &M. What a genius this man is. Everybody calls him a football genius. And then going into the season, it felt like nobody just expected Texas A &M to be great. Beginning of the season, nobody expected Texas A &M to be great. And then all of a sudden, it's like, I thought we trusted Elko, and I thought we said they have all the money down there. So if they have all the money and we trust Elko, one thing leads to another. Texas A &M is going to be very good. Ah, yeah. Undefeated in the SEC. Marcel Reed, his quarterback, that started playing last year, has only gone up and to the right.

1:00:53Pat McAfee:They're a special town. So I'm excited to talk to everybody here, AJ. Yeah, I think everybody's going to be great. But Elko as well, he's like one of the football genius on the defensive side. We don't see that a whole lot. We know they give a lot of respect to him, but usually it's those offensive guys that we want to crown as these wonder kids that can figure everything out. But credit to Elko, man. I love that guy. Well, just wait for the question that Tone's going to ask Elko about his defense because college football playoff chairman came out and said, yeah, the reason why they're three is because their defense ass compared to Ohio State and Indiana.

1:01:24So now on that note, though, they were talking about stats and they didn't say ass.

1:01:28Pat McAfee:They just said it was a separator between one and two in Ohio State who has a historic defense. Indiana's defense, very good. A lot of continuity from last year's team and they've added pieces. They've only gotten better. But they said that the separator and why Texas A &M was third as opposed to one or two is because the defense wasn't as good. Now, that is a stats driven thought because if you do eye tests last few weeks, they figured it out. Early in the season, though, their defense was, in Elko's world, and I guess in any college football world, not good. Third down red zone, not good, which was abnormal for an Elko squad.

1:02:00Yeah, they were giving up 20 points plus. I think it was UTSA and then I want to say Nevada or something like that. And then they went to Notre Dame and gave up 40. So those first three weeks were not impressive. But since then, I believe they are the number one third down defense in the SEC and red zone. That's what really turned it around for them. so they've been oh and sacks sacks they are like four or five in the in the country and sacks so

1:02:20Pat McAfee:they're buzzing there as well so the stats tell the story of the entire season but if you look like the last few weeks it's like actually defense they're back that's elko's bread bread bread and butter so it's like we assumed he would come back can't wait to talk to all of them in ohio states ryan day thank you for making that happen by the way we appreciate you utilizing your former presidency there and uh getting ryan day on the program nobody talks about him bro Nobody talks about it. I guess I don't watch Big Noon. I don't get to watch it as much, and I don't watch as many, like, Fox stuff, you know, because I just don't see it literally in my world that I'm in.

1:02:54Pat McAfee:I assume they're talking about Ohio State a lot over there on a regular basis because we don't – nationally, it's just like, Ohio State's number one team. Okay. They'll be there. Next conversation. It's crazy that Ryan Day potentially can have that as a motivator for his boys. It's almost a good – I mean, yeah, it's a good thing because it can always be a motivator for your guys. think that they, you know, people don't value what we're doing and all this. But also, like, if you're in the Ohio State's position, you don't really want them to talk about you. If they're talking about you, it's because they're freaked out because you lost or you barely beat a team that you should have won by 30.

1:03:23So I think they're doing what they need to do.

1:03:25Pat McAfee:This was like the Boston Celtics a few years back. Yeah. They were just so good. Nobody talked about them. Then they win. And everybody says, was it that impressive? It's like, wow, don't give this team any of their flowers, which is what I'm talking about here. Like, Ryan Day's team here deserves flowers. They are pounding people. I mean, Matt Patricia's defense is maybe the best in the history of college football, whenever it's all said. That is, they're on track to potentially break records to be the greatest of all time. And then Julian Sainz, odds-on Heisman favorite. So the number one team in the country, they're odds-on Heisman favorite as quarterback, but not really chatted about, so they can still act like they're the underdogs, which is crazy to think about, and crazy how good that team is fresh off of a national championship where they lost a lot of pieces.

1:04:06Well, I think you made the comparison either Monday or last week, but it's just like Georgia. I mean, Georgia, the second year after Stetson Bennett won the first one, he went to win the second one, and they ended up going on to win it, but you didn't talk about them all year, and it's almost a good omen. It's like, okay, we're not going to talk about Ohio State all year. This is what's going to happen. They're going to run the table, and then they're going to run the table in the college football playoff, and then it's going to be, hey, now we're going to talk about Ohio State for six more months because they just went back-to-back.

1:04:27Pat McAfee:Yeah, but then as soon as the offseason starts, they'll say, Ryan Day can't do it again. You know, it is a juggernaut over there for Ryan Day. it's like ryan day feels the heat can't win it can't win it can't win it then he wins it nobody talks about okay nothing to say now nothing is now we are nothing now we got nothing to say so i can't wait to tell ryan day that we noticed that that's happening and uh he'll have to say you know we don't worry about that we worry about what's going on blah blah blah blah but deep inside he'll be like thank you for pointing out that i got killed for everything you know we're winning everything and nobody's saying a damn word about it so it'd be nice if there was a little bit of 6-7 here.

1:05:03Pat McAfee:Yeah, there won't be. It would be nice if there would be a little bit of that. Okay, let's talk about tonight's game before we dive back into college football. Raiders, Broncos. AJ, what are your thoughts on how this game goes or what these team stories are in your eyes? Obviously, I've broken it down a couple times. We've chatted about it, but Week 10 is kicking off in the AFC West, and both these teams going into the season, we thought were going to be good. I think one of them we thought was going to be great. That team has remained as such in the Broncos. Yeah, I think the Broncos will continue to roll tonight.

1:05:33I think the Raiders, we always talk about Max. I love Max Crosby and how he plays. I think he's going to have an impact, but I think the Broncos, especially at home, at night, Thursday night, big-time situation, Sean Payton wants to put on a show. I bet he wants to put up a lot of points tonight. So I think Bo Nix has a big night in this. I think the Broncos' defense obviously continues to do what they do.

1:05:52Pat McAfee:What does Vance Joseph's defense do that everybody else maybe can't do, or why are they just so good? Is it because Vance has been there for so long and there's so much continuity and everybody kind of understands? Is that a huge piece of it, or what are your thoughts? I think that's definitely a big part of it. I was with Vance Joseph when I was in Cincinnati for one year. He was the DB's coach, and I went to Vance all the time to ask him little nuances of the defense. And really, I love that dude. I think he's really, really good. But I think he's never going to overcomplicate things. They all know their job.

1:06:21They know what to do, and they play well together. Playing great defense is no secret. There's no secret sauce. It's 11 dudes running fast with proper leverage and being accountable to your teammates.

1:06:32Pat McAfee:Just all buy-in. Just all buy-in. That's why, you know, you hear some, I don't know if they're scouts or coaches, I don't know who to throw under the bus here for this, so I'm just going to say football people say. You know, on defense side, you're looking at that wonder, like we don't want like, we don't want super smart independent thing. No. We don't want, you know, we want guys to just, Hey, when we're told, I need you to sell out through both these guys' jaws right here. You need to eat up these two guys. That is your only job. You are nowhere near going to make the play. You have no chance of getting the tackle here.

1:07:09Pat McAfee:You're going to end up on your back, actually. This is going to be a painful rep. But if you do that, guess what's happening right behind you? Boom. We got a big time play. That is a lot of defensive football in the NFL. And if one person doesn't do that, it's like, touchdown. Okay, that is how we lose it all. So having everybody on the same page, and if you can have super geniuses across the board, then now you're really cooking. But boy, if you just got a couple independent thinkers out there, if one's wrong, we're all wrong, I think is kind of the old narrative out there. Yeah, it definitely helps to have – you don't have to have all super geniuses, but maybe two to three on a squad that can kind of make sure everybody's lined up.

1:07:48Those guys that may not be the super genius, but they may, hey, you see that guy? Go kill him. You got to have a guy to line him up. You need to have some of those super geniuses to make sure that guy is lined up in the right gap.

1:07:58Pat McAfee:Man, we had special teams. Obviously, you're looking for those guys. You know, you were looking for those guys. Oh, yeah. Especially back in the day with the wedge. Guys that are just down for the cause, man. It's just like, hey, I understand what it is. And yeah, I got it. I'm here for a good time, not a long time. They know that. Bingo. Yeah, AQ was the king of the wedge. He was actually the wedge. So he just had people running into him and that was something. But the people that were running into the wedges, they were down for the team, man. They were down for the team. And they took great honor in it.

1:08:30Pat McAfee:And I'll tell you what, coach, if you didn't show it, like whatever happens in the next meeting, you were doing it a disservice. It's like, hey, you have a guy on your team here that is willing to just sacrifice his entire body so that we can maybe get a guy to make a tackle on a kickoff. Like that is maybe something that's happened. Special brains, man. Special people. Special sports. Why we love football so much. We've been so incredibly lucky to kind of get dropped into the college football world. Baptized by its tradition and its pageantry. And now it's time to feel the B.

1:09:15Pat McAfee:Another seg of Feel the Beat, another time of AJ just not feeling the beat. Pretty usual. I felt it. I felt it. I just showed it in different ways, but I definitely felt it. No, this is like when Wiz Khalifa asked you to put your hands up, and you refused to put your hands up. I did. Two feet away from him. You didn't put your damn hands up. So disrespectful. All we're asking for you to do is feel the beat. And normally we go to beat reporters because beat reporters are there and they have a better grasp on things. But now we're going to feel the beat. We're going to go boots on the ground with the actual coaches of these teams to see where they're at.

1:09:43Pat McAfee:Let's go directly to the source. Let's go to Dallas. Ladies and gentlemen, the head coach of the SMU Mustangs, Rhett Lashley. Hey, coach. What's that, a brand-new car you just bought with that new extension? Geez. Already going to the car dealership? Respect. Congratulations. Hey. We got a new car. coach congrats on a new car right hey appreciate it uh you earned that deal obviously down there last year you go to the playoffs and i know how much you love smu i i got a chance to meet you in your first round with smu then you leave then you come back as the head coach special place feels like you've always felt that way uh why is that kind of coming true with this particular run with you down there at smu yeah i mean we just uh in our time here like you said back all the way to 2018 off and on and then coming back as a head coach.

1:10:30Dallas is a great city. It's a great place to live and it's all about timing. Just happened to get the opportunity to be the head coach here at the right time when, you know, the alignment here is great. Everybody is all in on us competing at the highest level and being the best we can be. And our program has been on the national stage before on that national championship level. It's just been a long time. And so with that, coupled with move to a Power 4 conference, all the things we need, that's what makes it fun. And when you can recruit the area in Texas and Dallas, you're going to get some good players.

1:10:59So we just feel like we can keep building here. And that's what makes it a good fit for us.

1:11:03Pat McAfee:I feel like the donors and boosters are in a plenty and they're behind you, which is also a good thing in 2025. We don't want to act like that's not reality, but let's go back to this past weekend. Special, special moment for you. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, coach, what did it mean to you to see that goalpost get ripped down? I mean, it was a massive overtime victory. It's not as if you haven't had huge wins before, But what was it like Saturday and just kind of taking that in after completing the upset against Miami? It was awesome. I mean, it's part of the vision, what we're trying to build here.

1:11:35I wish you could do it overnight, but it takes time. Two years ago, we won a conference championship. Last year, we made the playoffs. This year, we're still in contention for an ACC championship. And we've gone and won at Clemson and now beat a team like Miami at home. And the most important part was a packed stadium. Ford Stadium was packed. It was loud. It was a loud start. It was loud to finish. Obviously, you saw the field just packed with fans and the goalposts coming down. It's what made college football special. And it's been a long time since SMU. We've been in these kind of environments.

1:12:04And to be back in these environments, be back in these games, and to take advantage of these opportunities, I think it's just what gives us all a lot of confidence we can keep this momentum going.

1:12:12Pat McAfee:You just mentioned about still being in it. AJ has a question for you. Yeah, Coach, I know you have three so-called winnable ACC games here ahead of you guys. I guess what's the message for your team to try to finish out strong and get back to that championship game? Yeah, we've proven this year we can beat anybody and we can lose to anybody. So, you know, we're going to play really well to win up in Boston this weekend. If we can find a way to do that, we stay in the hunt. You know, we're playing meaningful games in November for the third straight year, and that's a big deal. That's our goal every year.

1:12:41Then we'd get an off week, and then, I mean, we got a top 15 team in Louisville that would be coming into Ford Stadium. And so just another great opportunity. We're in a different situation than we were last year, right? Last year, it was like you're in control when to win out and go to the ACC championship game and maybe make the playoff as an at-large, as we did. We stubbed our toe on some games, brand new team, breaking some stuff in. But now we're playing good football. If we can win these three games, there's a good chance we can get back to Charlotte. But we have to take care of what we can do, and that's winning these three games.

1:13:10So our focus is a little different, right? We're not having to worry about all these other distractions. Nobody's talking about us. We weren't ranked Tuesday night. But yet, if we can win out, we'll be 9-3 and 7-1 in the league, and we can possibly be in Charlotte.

1:13:21Pat McAfee:I love that you know all these things. Yeah, Tuesday night, no, SMU, yeah, three losses. I don't think they dove a little bit deeper. Only one in conference. You know, we're still very much in it. And the fact that if you win your title, you're in the dance, anything can happen, right? Obviously, we feel that way. Did you learn anything last year from the playoff, maybe? What type of team, what you need to be better at, anything like that? Yeah, I mean, I think that whole experience will help if we are fortunate enough to win enough to stay in contention down the end of November and early December.

1:13:49You know, the old saying, act like you've been there before, you can't do it until you've been there before. And, you know, last year was the first time we'd been on that stage in 40 years. And so, and all of our kids, obviously. So we had a good team last year. We had a team that could have played much better against Penn State than we did. Our defense played well, but we didn't. But I think that experience helped us this year when we go on the road to Clemson and, you know, it's 80 ,000, 90 ,000 people and they're flipping the lights on and off with five minutes to go in the game and we got to go on 11-play touchdown drive to win the game.

1:14:20Or Saturday when it gets to the fourth quarter tied and then we get the ball down three with two minutes to go, we got to go tied up, winning overtime. Like, just each chance we get to be in those moments and those stages, we get better and better at it. So if and when we're able to get back to Charlotte or to the playoffs, I think we'll be better equipped for it.

1:14:37Pat McAfee:Callus, a little bit of a callus team, which is always good news. Tone has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach, last year you guys were more of a running team with Brashard Smith, who's now on the Kansas City Chiefs. Obviously, he was awesome. This year, more of a passing team. Is that because Kevin Jennings is in his second year, feel more comfortable that way, or is that just kind of how the team is built this season? Yeah, great question. I mean, we missed Brashard. I mean, that's almost 2 ,000 yards that went out the door, and he's playing pretty good for the Chiefs. So he was obviously a weapon for us last year.

1:15:07We've got some younger players, and it just, the running game hasn't been as consistent as we'd like it to be this year. We've had some injuries and at times we just haven't executed like we need to. And yes, we have Kevin Jennings, we have Jordan Hudson, Romello Brinson, some really good tight ends. So, you know, like Saturday was a good example. We could have ran the ball a little bit better, but we weren't going to win the game. And so we kind of had to let Kevin air it out. He threw it 44 times for 365 yards and it worked. But for us to win these games down the stretch, we're going to have to have more balance.

1:15:35But yeah, I think Kevin being more experienced definitely helps us.

1:15:38Pat McAfee:Are you guys still moving really slow on offense? Because I know that's what everybody says is how boring your team is. Here's what's crazy. So Saturday, time of possession, they had 37 minutes. We had 22. That's a whole quarter. But when you dive into it, they ran 78 plays. We ran 70 plays. So our defense didn't really play that much more. That's how fast we were playing when we had the ball. And so, yeah, we like to play fast. We like a fast break offense in football. And we like to throw it deep a lot. So hopefully we can keep that going. Yeah, we like to what we like to call electrify the people whenever they're watching our team.

1:16:13Pat McAfee:And it has certainly been that. Congrats on the new deal. You've earned it. And good luck to you and the boys the rest of the way. Thanks, Pat. Appreciate you guys having me on. What's the chant? You guys have a chant down there? I forget what it was. I forget. Do you guys have a chant? I forget. I mean, they mainly just chant SMU. SMU over and over and over. SMU. It sounds good when they're doing it. Yeah, yeah, it certainly does. Now, Texas Tech and SMU, very similar places, right? I've heard very, very similar. Very similar, yeah. Dallas and Lubbock, really, really a lot. You're the man, ladies and gentlemen.

1:16:44Pat McAfee:Coach Rhett Lashley. I heard Dallas and Texas Tech, very similar places. Just same state, just got to be the same style place. Hey, that Dallas place where they're at? Pretty nice. A lot of cash, a lot of cash. All of the cash, I guess. A lot of those people live through the death penalty. Yeah. You got all the old heads, you know. So there's like old heads that are very much like, let's go ahead and get the boys back. And they got great facilities down there. I mean, they are set up for success. And the way Rhett plays, it's a fun team to watch. So, you know, you get a chance to kind of go on a run into place and you got booster and alumni support behind you, you're going to be in what we like to call prime college football position.

1:17:28Pat McAfee:We talked to AQ Shipley yesterday, obviously. He's got no idea who Penn State's are. No, neither do they. I don't know. Whoa, no. Just because AQ doesn't know. Well, yeah, I suppose. Who does AQ want them? Different name every time we talk to him. Different name. He's learned about new guys. Have you heard about insert name here? I like him. Guy's always talking out of his ass. Who, AQ? Right here. Literally. Like actually doing that on TV for the entire thing, which is certainly something. Rhett Lashley, though, has always been good to us. I appreciate the hell out of him. Speaking of people that have been good to us, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to feel the beat.

1:18:23It's enjoyable to watch you guys do that.

1:18:25Pat McAfee:Yeah, but you're supposed to feel the beat with us. It's more enjoyable if you're doing it. I do feel it, but maybe I'll show it one of these times. You're right. Joining us now is a man who definitely had to feel the beats because he has a soul unlike A.J. Hawk. National champion, head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Ryan Day. Yay, coach! Did you feel the beat? I thought the beat. I felt the beat, yeah. You did? I feel like you didn't feel the beat all of a sudden. Now I'm starting to think you didn't feel the beat. You said you saw the beat? It was first with your eyes, not with the ears and the body.

1:18:56Pat McAfee:Your bones didn't just start doing this, coach? That wasn't out of nowhere? No, not so much. All right, I'll do the dancing. I'll do the beat feeling. Okay, you Ohio guys just kind of not feel beats and just kind of look at them. Let's talk about some beats, shall we, of the college football season. You know, I do college game day on Saturdays. Pretty big part of the college football conversation, I'd say. We here, Monday through Friday, talking sports. Pretty big part of the sports conversation, I feel like. The only time we bring up your team, we just say how dominant they are. Wow, Ohio State, so dominant.

1:19:26Pat McAfee:Let's go to the next conversation. You're an odds-on favorite, obviously, to win it all. You have the Heisman favorite. uh at julian saying nobody's talking about your team or your quarterback and you guys are the odds-on favorite to win everything how do you manage that with the team and do you like that you aren't really the topic of conversation all the time like maybe you used to be whenever it was negative and now there's really no positive on the other side well i i think it does um and can have an effect on your team i don't think that there's any question about that and i think to act like the fans, the players, the staff members, the recruits, their families aren't watching and listening, that's being naive.

1:20:10So for us, I know it sounds cliche, and this is the message that I've been talking to our team about, is that we just cannot get comfortable, and we cannot get bored with just the same old thing over and over again. And that's having a great week of preparation and then putting it on the field on Saturday. And that's it. And what we're trying to chase, I mean, is we want to be the best in the country at what we do. And we know that we have to play our best football here on the second half of the season. This is where all the good stuff happens right now. And, you know, I think it's, you know, people say ignore the noise when things aren't going well.

1:20:44Well, it's the same thing when things are going well. And so, you know, criticism and blame are all the same. And so you have to stay disciplined and focused on what really matters. And that's the messaging. And it's going to take, you know, a bunch of guys in this building right here to stay focused week in and week out. We've got to do that again on Saturday.

1:20:59Pat McAfee:You guys have been crushing teams. So much so that people are like, are any of these teams actually good? It's like, well, every Saturday we see some team drop their standard just a little bit. You guys have not done that at all. And we had the chance to chat with you before the opener against Texas. And we talked about, hey, you might be in the middle of a dynasty right now. You might be kicking off a dynasty right now. We have no idea. And you said that you actually, I think, had to talk to some folks about some ideas and opinions on after you're winning it. How do you sustain and how do you stay at the top?

1:21:26Pat McAfee:How has that been for you as a coach? Like keeping the, hey, we can't get bored doing the same thing. Sounds like that is a message that you probably have been sending all season. Is there any other things that you're picking up on top of the world that you're at while you're trying to stay there? Well, like you said, it's the same thing over and over again. And there's times where I think you have to adjust the message based on what your team is feeling or doing. but it's the same foundation, the same fundamentals that we start the season with. And that's not going to change. And so, you know, we really wanted to grow up this offseason.

1:22:00We knew we needed to mature, and it was a group of guys that hadn't played a whole bunch of football, but they saw what happened the year before, and I think they recognized the fact that it's a grind. Like, what we're asking our guys to do is a year-round deal. And it's not just, you know, from September to November. I mean, it's year-round. and the grind that we're in right now. This thing's going all the way to the middle of January. That's the goal. We have to embrace that part of it. When guys walk in the building every day, they have to enjoy being around each other. We're on that field, man.

1:22:29It is a fight. Tuesday and Wednesday practice around here, you've got to bring it. We call them bloody Tuesdays. If you're not bringing it on a Tuesday, you're going to get it. That's where it goes. That's where you get better. For us to play confident on Saturday, it doesn't matter who we're playing because we're competing against each other every day across the line from each other. And so if you can cover Jeremiah Smith or you can get open against Caleb Downs or you can block Caden McDonald or you can get around Luke Montgomery, you should have confidence on Saturday knowing that the opponent you're going against is maybe they're as good as those guys, but there's not going to be too many guys better.

1:23:07So that's the confidence that we have to continue to build with as we go towards the end of the season.

1:23:12Pat McAfee:That's how they described Alabama. you know practice was much harder than the games the second team was trying to beat the first team because they know that they're next and they're trying to put on so then the games you come around it's like is this team better than our second team that we're playing against probably not to be honest but on that note prepared for any moment and if you suck there's somebody ready for your spot so it's a nice little motivation i think they talked about it with the miami teams way back in the day as well every dynasty basically has that culture and that mentality that's sweet I didn't know you were doing Bloody Tuesdays.

1:23:41Pat McAfee:That changes a lot of things in my mind. In 2025, you're doing Bloody Tuesday? Know that I'm on your side. If we got a Bloody Tuesday call, that means we're still trying to be more physical than you, which is what you have to be to win in football forever and ever. Amen. Go ahead, A.J. Hawk. Yeah, Coach, can you just talk a little bit about a couple of your linebackers, Sonny Stiles, Arbel Reese? We're watching these highlights. We're seeing these guys all over the place. I guess we know Sonny's played a lot in this scheme already in this system with the team, but with Arbel, did you know, I guess, the impact that these guys were going to be able to have this year?

1:24:17Could you foresee it coming in training camp? I think one of the things that probably doesn't get talked about enough is when Matt came in, Matt Patricia came in, he had to embrace the current staff and then the current players. And so our defensive staff did a great job, I think, of making the transition with some of the new stuff that Matt's brought to the table. But when you talk about Sonny Stiles and Caleb Downs, they're the guys that are almost like coaches on the field. And when you look at Sonny, he's wearing the green dot. He's doing the communicating. He started at safety and now plays linebacker.

1:24:54And so he sees it from top down. And then when you look at Arvell, he played linebacker, but also spent some time on the D-line, came back to linebacker, so he could do multiple things. They're versatile players, but in the transition of sort of a new terminology and new scheme, those are the guys that have been able to get guys around them to play better. That's the sign of a great one, is when they make the guys around them better through the communication. But the versatility of all of those guys is really, I think, what separates them. And just how fast they're playing right now, you can just see there's just a twitch about Arvell, about Sonny, about Caleb.

1:25:31They're seeing it. They're anticipating and not reacting, and that's the key.

1:25:34Pat McAfee:Matt Patricia also showcasing a good twitch, isn't he? You see him on the sideline. Looks like he's a little faster than he's ever been. Yeah, he looks good, man. He's down some weight. He's moving around good. The beard looks sharp. I mean, he's moving fast now. Hey, you're talking about yourself there, too, a little bit. You look good. The beard's good, too. All the same things you sent his way, I think you could go ahead and send right back to yourself, brother. You're absolutely killing it on top of the world. Talk about Matt Patricia, though. His defense, you know, it was chatted about after Texas.

1:26:01Pat McAfee:You know, I think after the Texas game, everybody was like, hold on. And now at game day, anytime I bring up Ohio State, I have to bring up like giving up less than six points a game. Like Illinois scored some, I think, late. And I think there was probably a whole conversation about how that's not how we're doing it this year. And I assume the next week, I think you guys came out and shut them out. Wisconsin, I think, was the next week. And you guys gave up zero points or whatever. What is Matt Patricia's defense like for you to learn about, too? Is it vastly different than what the boys were doing in the past?

1:26:28Pat McAfee:Or why do you think it has kind of worked so well in college, as we know him as an NFL guy? Well, Matt has such a Rolodex of years of going against really good offenses. And then also has, you know, this resume of players that he's had over the years. And what you'll hear him say a lot of is, you know, Arvell's like so-and-so. Or when I had Jamie Collins, he was like this player. And, you know, Ninkovich reminded me of this player. And so, you know, he combined some of these players that he's had in his past with the schematics of playing against, you know, some of the best, you know, quarterbacks and offenses that have been, you know, in the NFL in the last 10 to 20 years.

1:27:07And so when you combine all those things with a group of guys that, you know, my opinion have a high football IQ, it can be a lot of fun. every day when he comes in a building. He's got that pencil, and he's pulling it out, and he's coming up with new stuff, and these guys embrace it. But they're the ones that have to put it on the field. I mean, they're all good plays. We all got good plays, but the players are the ones that have to get it done.

1:27:26Pat McAfee:Yeah, and him being able to communicate with that generation. We didn't know how it was going to go with Matt Patricia. We obviously know him. I think we know him very well, have a lot of respect for him. We all appreciate the hell out of him. Obviously, the play call of Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots is one of the most legendary defensive play calls in the history or defensive stands in the history of ball. But when it went to Detroit, how it went, and now he's going to college, especially with the Belichick stuff, how will it work out? It's been awesome seeing him smile. It's been awesome seeing him enjoy football.

1:27:56Pat McAfee:You too? Have you been enjoying it a little bit more this year? Like I say, fun is winning. Okay. Okay, okay. Fun is kicking ass, I can tell you that. Losing is no fun, so that's it. But I will say this. being around these players and these coaches is fun. Coming in the building every day is fun. And I think for this age group, it's important that when you walk in this building every day, if you're going to play all the way to January, these guys better like coming in the building. Because if they don't, it's not going to go very well. And so we have to figure out ways to drive them, push them, make them uncomfortable.

1:28:29But they have to like being around each other. And it's like that with the staff and with the players.

1:28:34Pat McAfee:And when you walk through that trophy room over there, what a hilarious flex. Not everybody's had a chance obviously to be in the ohio state practice facility we have been very lucky to be in there have an entire day there was six i mean so awesome i mean it was absolutely incredible being over there also took some of your uh some of your uncrustables you know had a couple of those we appreciate it we enjoyed some of the the fruits of the boys labor over there for sure but like as you walk into that facility it's just a big trophy room and this thing's three four stories high it's all trophies everywhere it immediately puts into perspective i I think like, oh, yeah, we win around here.

1:29:11Pat McAfee:And I think that's a nice reminder, especially with what you guys just did. Like, this isn't new. This is what Ohio State football is. And on that note, you might have your best quarterback you've ever had right now. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Coach, Pat mentioned how no one's really talking about Julian Sane, although he is the odds-on favorite to win Heisman. And even at the start of the season, that was kind of the big question mark. Hey, we know how talented this guy is, but we still haven't seen it, especially coming in for Will Howard who had that many starts under his belt and that much experience.

1:29:39How impressed have you been with Julian Sands so far this year? Because if you don't really watch the games and you just look at the box scores, it seems like he's getting better each and every week. Well, he is. He is. I think his confidence is probably the biggest thing. I think we've always seen that Julian can make the throws. He has that innate talent. The ball comes out quickly. His mind works quickly. His footwork is good. He's probably a little more athletic than he gets credit for. He's quick. But to me, it's been the preparation. He had an opportunity to watch Will Howard go about it last year, what came with that, what came with last season, and what a great opportunity to take a year to learn from somebody and then go now, and now it's his team.

1:30:22And the command he has, the confidence that the guys have around them, that if they protect for them, they know they've got some really good receivers that are getting open down the field and then certainly in the run game. So I just like this command of the offense and his confidence right now.

1:30:35Pat McAfee:I think that's what, AJ, didn't that what you said from watching the game live? You said it was the first game you really had a chance to be down there this season because you've had family and visiting stuff going on. You're like, he's a guy. He operates as a guy, right, AJ? Yeah, I was on the field pregame, and then I saw the first couple of series from the end zone, and yeah, watching him, just everything. Like I told you, Coach, like I said on the show here, I watch all the little things, how he comes in down the huddle, talking to coaches. Because, yeah, when he decides to pull the trigger, man, that dude, he's got a live arm.

1:31:03It's fun to watch.

1:31:04Pat McAfee:Good for you, Ryan. Hey, good for you all over there. Congratulations on a great start. Obviously, you've won absolutely nothing this season, okay? Nothing. Number one team. No, that's right. That's exactly the best. Number one team in the country, though. Hey, number one team in the country. This guy right here. This guy's the number one team in the country. Oh, hey, Scott. I'm telling everybody that, too. Keep telling everybody. Because that's what I'm telling. We haven't won a thing yet. We haven't done a thing yet. So we've got a long way to go. I don't know. A lot of football ahead of us.

1:31:33Pat McAfee:I don't know. Tuesday night, I think I saw they crowned you guys. That's right. Yeah, this guy. You guys are number one team to cut. Don't start with that. Crap. You're the man. He's walking around. Ladies and gentlemen, National Team. Ryan Day. Thank you. Yeah, coach. He wasn't saying, did that now? He's starting to get up. Nah, that's uncomfortable. We haven't won anything. No, no, no, no. No, you guys did. Tuesday night, they actually said, dude. You win. These are the winners.

1:31:58Pat McAfee:That's the number one team in the country. Can they not? Couldn't they set that up differently just for now? So it doesn't, like, this is what it's going to look like when you're there. But, yeah, the number one team in the country right here in the middle of the thing. It's like, all right, sweet. That's an interesting dynamic. But on that note, Julian Sane's so good. I love hearing what he just said right there. His leadership, his command, his moxie is what drives the boys. That's very real when it comes to quarterback position, especially brand-new quarterback for a team or brand-new starter for a team, AJ.

1:32:25I think if he came in and just like stumbled out of the gates and lost the game earlier, just hasn't been playing well, like coming off the year they had with Will Howard and all he'd done, like good luck. They would be calling for your head three series into the first game.

1:32:37Pat McAfee:And he still has Jeremiah Smith and Cardinal Tate out there. So it's like, what's what? So we know what the problem is. It's this one right here. Yeah. This quarterback right here. Well, it's a whole new team. Actually. We don't really know. We got to give them time to kind of find. Nope. Yeah. We just saw it in national championship. Third nine. You remember? Yeah. We need Julian to do that. And he has. Beats Arch in Texas week one. Nobody talks about him. Then he just goes on to be dominant. 80 % completion rate or something like that? It's like 80 % completion rate. He's not dinking and dunking either.

1:33:08He's not just throwing behind the line of scrimmage.

1:33:10Pat McAfee:Quick release. He's got a little Dan Marino in there. He's got a little Danny in there. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, let's go to the great state of Texas with a team that is undefeated in the SEC. It's time to feel the beat.

1:33:48That was a good one.

1:33:49Pat McAfee:Did you feel it, AJ? Yeah, he was dancing. That was the best one yet. That was by far the best one. I had to take my big countries. up on this big seat because we got a man with a big brain. Ladies and gentlemen, the Texas A &M football head coach, the number three team in the country, undefeated Texas A &M Aggies, Mike Ogo. There we go. I'll tell you what, that's a heck of an introduction right there, Pat. I appreciate you getting on a chair for me. Hey, you know what? I did get on a chair for you because of how big of a fan of yours I am. Did you feel the beat over there? Did it hit your bones at all?

1:34:20Pat McAfee:It did. It did. I was dancing. You still didn't have the camera on it. Hell yeah. Okay, I knew that about you. Golly, I knew that about you. Okay, speaking of knowing about you, I didn't know much, okay, before I get into the college football world. Down at Duke, I obviously get to meet you, your entire staff. You go over to Texas A &M and take the job. It's a huge deal. Everybody says, Mike Elko, good football coach. Mike Elko, good football coach. Texas A &M has all the support that you could possibly want to be a good team. Everybody assumes you're going to be good. Then going into this season, your second year, nobody's really talking about Texas A &M.

1:34:51Pat McAfee:Even at the beginning of the season, you guys have a couple good games. Nobody's really expecting greatness. I want to let you know because of how big your brain is, okay, and how everything everybody has ever said about you is you're a good football coach. I expected your team to be great this year, and I don't want to, like, say I'm a super genius, but did you as well? You had to know that this was probably coming with this particular squad in the preseason, and how do you feel sitting undefeated at this stage of the season with everything literally very much in front of you still? Yeah, obviously we felt like we had a chance to take a huge step forward.

1:35:23And, you know, last year we had a really good first two months of the season and we didn't finish it the right way. And I love the way our kids attacked the offseason. I love the development that we had in the program. There was a really good feel for where the culture was and what guys were doing. And so we went into the season obviously confident that we could put things together and have a really good year. And, you know, it's a testament to the kids that they went out and did that. And obviously we've added some weapons on offense, and I think that's made a big difference for us.

1:35:48Pat McAfee:Tell me about Marcel Reed. Obviously, we saw him last year a bit, but whenever you talk about executing the entire offense, it feels like he's very comfortable, very confident, and the boys seemingly love him out there. How could you not? Yeah, no, I think he's made a huge step. You know, I got kind of tired of answering the question in the offseason because it was the one everybody wanted to know. But we had seen it. You know, we had seen the development. We knew how hard he was working. We knew what he was capable of becoming. And we knew he could be the quarterback. We needed throwing the football and running it.

1:36:18And so I think you see a kid now who can sit confidently in the pocket and go through his progressions and put the ball where he needs to go. And you also see a kid that you're showing in these highlights that when the play breaks down, he can go out and he can make things happen with his athleticism. And so he's truly become the dual threat kid we knew he could be. And it's hard to argue that there's been a quarterback better in big moments on big stages than him this year.

1:36:40Pat McAfee:Hell yeah. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, I think somebody coached that probably helps us with a lot of that. Your OC, Colin Reed. I know you're a defensive guy, but bringing in an offensive coordinator, obviously a huge hire. Yeah, my bad about that, Klein. But I would, thinking about that hire as a defensive coach, what has that done for your offense? I know he's not a very old guy, and you bring him in there and he just hits the ground running. You guys are a very balanced, explosive offense. Yeah, I think obviously when you're the defensive-minded guy, that's a really critical hire for you. I did a very similar thing when I got to Duke.

1:37:12I kind of locked myself in a room and I just studied offenses and watched what he did at Kansas State. I thought he was really multiple in how he attacked people. I thought he did a really good job utilizing his personnel there and figured out he'd sit down and have a talk with them. And, you know, when we got together, we had we actually had breakfast in Colorado. I flew out to Colorado to spend time with them and we just really hit it off. We did. I think philosophically, we're very much aligned in how we see things. And obviously, he's doing a tremendous job coordinating that side of the ball and then create an explosive attack every week.

1:37:43Pat McAfee:What'd you guys do? You flew to Colorado, smoked some weed? Well, you know, I don't know if that's really the cup of tea that we're at, but we had we had a good breakfast. we had a good practice you can wind out of the gutter a little bit Pat it's still early in the morning I know in my mind I'm heading to Colorado okay I know where I'm headed I know where I'm doing it's different you're a ball coach different spots in life Pat you and I right now hey maybe you and I go to Colorado one time that will you know you do a little breakfast I do a little smoke and we'll figure it all out but I appreciate you taking that knowing that that was the guy you want that's why you travel to Colorado go do that selling him and then now you guys obviously are reaping everything that you've sown from that off season because you guys look special on the offensive side.

1:38:23Pat McAfee:There's actually some question marks on the other side. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Coach, since you said you're a defense guy, I wanted to ask you about this Tuesday, the college football committee chair, playoff committee chair, whatever the title is, Mack Rhodes. Super duper leader. Super duper leader of the college football playoff committee said that the difference between Ohio State, Indiana, and A &M when they got down to it was the defense. That's why you guys were three and not one or two. Obviously, the beginning of the season, you had Notre Dame, which was just a high-scoring affair. But then you got an SEC play, and your third down defense is unbelievable.

1:38:57Getting to the quarterback's been unbelievable. What has been the difference, and have you guys grown all season long on that defensive side? Yeah, I think so. And listen, when it comes to the rankings, they have a really difficult task. You're trying to compare apples, oranges, and bananas all across the country. Nobody plays the same teams. Nobody has similar schedules. And so it's a good thing now. Now the playoff is 12 and ultimately at the end of the day, it's going to get decided on the field in terms of our defense. Yeah. I think we've, we've grown each, each week. I think we've had weeks where we've played consistently really, really well.

1:39:30We've had quarters where we played really, really well. I still think we're trying to put it all together still at the level we're capable of, but you know, we've got the leading sack man in the sec who's swimming on the ground right there on the high left is now. And yeah, I think we've got a pretty good secondary that's gotten better every week. And so, you know, we just look forward to continuing to grow and really become what we're capable of being.

1:39:52Pat McAfee:Anytime we are reading the stats of your defense early in the season, it was like, well, Elka is going to get the defense. Elka is going to get the defense at some point. Was it as easy as just like figuring things out or like what is a change that you can make throughout a season to make a defense better? Yeah, I think, you know, one, the kids get more comfortable in what we're doing. I think, too, as the stages have gotten bigger, they've elevated their focus level a little bit. I think confidence has grown a little bit, and I think they're playing at a better level. I think we've played complementary football for the most part this year.

1:40:26There's been times where the defense has carried it, but there's certainly been times where the offense has had to step up and carry it as well.

1:40:31Pat McAfee:Second year at Texas A &M, undefeated. You've got four left. You've got Mizzou at Mizzou. then you have South Carolina, Sanford and then Texas to wrap up the season I know you can't be looking ahead or anything like that but you've got to be excited that in your second year in a place that was willing to pay the amount of money that they were willing to pay to move on that you've been able to deliver for them honestly and I hope you take a lot of pride in that and I hope you share that with the boys down there for all the hard work that you've already been able to accomplish No, for sure there's obviously a burden when you come in here and there's expectations that, hey, if we spent that amount of money to make the change and you're the guy that we picked, we're kind of expecting results.

1:41:12And it was two years in a row that we put ourselves in position going into November to be meaningful and be relevant. We got to go finish it. And that's been the mindset. That's been the focus every step along the way. We know we're a talented team. We know we have the ability to go out and play with anybody in the country. But every Saturday, you got to go out and prove it. And that's the world we live in today. And so we're here. It's November. It's time to go. It's time to go show what we're capable of. And we're excited for the big challenge we got on Saturday.

1:41:40Pat McAfee:Yeah, you're in a good spot. It doesn't sound like that sometimes though. Ty has a question for you, coach. Yeah, coach. Has the local media lightened up a little bit over the last couple of weeks? I know a couple of weeks ago, you know, you guys were still undefeated. Obviously that's what fans like to do. They like to get all cynical and poke holes and everything when you don't win a hundred to nothing every week. But now after the most recent rankings and where you guys are at uh are things pretty good every single day when you're talking with people who are covering the team uh listen media is the media you guys are a big part of it too it's it's oh yeah we are part of the problem yeah no no it's it's um listen everybody everybody wants to everybody wants to figure out how come this part's not perfect that part's not perfect i think the biggest thing that i've just tried to get our fan base and our media around is the fact that it's hard to win football games and so we're doing things you know we won on the road against the top 10 team for the first time since 1979 we won in baton rouge for the first time since 1994 or eight no for the first time since night like those are long times ago like i was not like very much into coaching at that point and so like let's just take a step back and let's enjoy the fact that we're winning and let's not just focus on the play in the second quarter that we didn't do the right way and how that's going to kill us if we move forward and we keep making those mistakes.

1:42:59Pat McAfee:I will say that second quarter play has come back to bite. I actually think I heard you. I think I heard you referencing that. Just wait, I'm gonna start doing a little bit more research on your poor ass second quarters now that I know that that is potentially where we need to attack. I appreciate though that you're keeping it all in perspective though, through it all. And obviously that relationship with people that have been covering the team for a long time. They've been through this. They've been through it a lot of times. They're expecting probably, which is once again why you're hired, to bring it in the way it is.

1:43:29Pat McAfee:And on that note, you talk about having a good setup down there. I've had an opportunity, obviously, to be a part of a couple game days down there. Your crowd and your fans are so awesome. I mean, it is such a cool place. But also, the traditions and the way you guys set things up might be tops in the country. Go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Coach, let's go off the field and talk about the game day kind of production of the whole entire thing. Do you think that the college football playoff would rank Texas A &M's walkout as number one? One of our guys, Gumpy, always posts it, and it's basically the most electric walkout in the entire country, I'd say.

1:44:05Yeah, I mean, certainly got to be up there. I think we're 10 straight games. We've had over 100 ,000 fans in our stadium. You know, the 12th man shows up and supports always. I think we've had more people at our Friday night, midnight yells than a lot of people have in their home games. It is. It's a really passionate fan base. It's a great atmosphere. There's nothing like running out of the tunnel on Kyle Field. And it's just great to put together a season that these fans really deserve and can really get behind. And we're obviously focused on this week in Missouri, but it'll be great to get back home for South Carolina.

1:44:40It's been a while. It's been over a month since we've been home.

1:44:43Pat McAfee:Oh, the place is going to go crazy. Yeah.

1:44:48You like that song. You can dance to that one, do you?

1:44:51Pat McAfee:I see you two. Hey, I see you two turning around, doing a little talk, a little bat on the shoulder, and then you do your little skip. You know, you got your little skip, little run, bringing it back old school. You can't walk down the tunnel without a little bit of swagger and how you go about it. Especially with the lighting. And from what I heard some of the boys say last year, while they're walking down next to you, it's like, I don't know how you're not ready to go win a football game by a thousand. The lighting, the songs, just everything about it is special. And you talk about the midnight yell.

1:45:23Pat McAfee:You know, obviously that is easy for other teams to make fun of. It's like, hey, they're dressed weird. You're going through a thing. They're doing this thing at midnight. It's like these people are showing up for the game literally at midnight the night before so they can learn how they can terrorize your team on the thing. It's a special place, and I love that you've embraced it all. and your walkout is, I don't know, Tennessee had a great one last week? Bama. Tennessee, Bama's got a six set of. Penn State, obviously, with the whiteout, people will talk about for a long, long time. Oregon was insane when I was up there.

1:45:54Pat McAfee:It's just a little smaller than everywhere else. Texas Tech, I believe, has a pretty sweet one as well. Excited to experience that this weekend. But your guys' shit is awesome. And look at you. Hey, how are you feeling on the runouts this year? You know, you're 30-some days away from your last runout. How are you feeling? when we do a little knee drive, maybe get a full sprint like your dabbo out there? Well, I don't know if I'm going to risk pulling something like that. But no, there's an energy. When you get down to the bottom of that tunnel, there's an energy and an electricity in the air that really it's unmatched.

1:46:24And it's an unbelievable feeling. It's an unbelievable feeling leading that group out. And you feel especially good when you know the group behind you is going to go out and play the way they're capable of and lay it all on the line and have your back. And so it's just a really good time right now to be a fight in Texas Aggie. There's no doubt about it.

1:46:40Pat McAfee:You got a special place down there, and they got a special coach. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Mike Elko. Yay, Coach. Hey, I'm going. Appreciate you guys. Hey, how far are you guys from Lubbock? Do you know? Oh, gosh. Pretty far. Like, really far. Big state. Yeah, probably like four northeastern states. I think we're like eight hours. So you take Rhode Island. You take Delaware. You take Vermont even, Massachusetts. It's a seven-hour drive. Like New Jersey down to North Carolina. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Elko. All right, I won't see you this weekend. I won't see you this weekend.

1:47:19Pat McAfee:That was funny. About four northeastern states away. I mean, seven hours. That is Boston to D.C., so he's not lying. That's crazy to think about how big Texas is. All of Pennsylvania. So West Texas is North Texas, right? Because that's what Lubbock is going to feel like. A &M's down here. Lubbock's up here. Yeah. Yeah, they count that as a West Texas, I think. Yes. A lot of this, too, I think. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's what Raider Red does. That's right. That's where Yosemite Sam's from. Bro, I cannot really. I assume so. I thought he was from Yosemite. I assume so. No, no. He looks just like Raider Red.

1:47:53He does look just like Raider Red. He's probably from down there. Yes. Yeah.

1:47:59Pat McAfee:Yeah. For sure. I can't wait to get down there. I foresee a lot of that. oh my gosh I'll make sure I'll do it good though are you taking a couple with you? a couple six shooters? I mean that's the thing you gotta check the state laws when you're traveling plenty of musicians have gotten in trouble with their tour buses you know cause they've potentially been strapped up and then all of a sudden you drive into a state and it's like well actually your gun license doesn't work here but it just worked like 20 minutes well we're not 20 minutes ago so we are now putting you in jail for how long? however we want.

1:48:31Pat McAfee:So I think Texas probably would be pretty good if I had to guess. Indiana and Texas would probably share some gun license. Yeah, maybe I do take a couple of mine down here. Just pull them out right now. Pull them out. Absolutely. Pull them both out. This is what I call it. Shoot them in the air, though. Shoot them in the air, though. Don't shoot it towards anybody. Oh, you want me to go and shoot it, too? I thought you were pulling it out. Use them, right? You said if I'm pulling it out, all right, let's get the one out of the back. Let's get the one here, and then let's actually unload these things.

1:48:58Pat McAfee:On the set, could you imagine me on the set? lights dropping gotta come down somewhere yeah that'd be crazy can't wait to get down there with them honestly i've heard nothing but great things and obviously the videos we have seen coming out of lubbock in preparation for this weekend's game are special and those kids have been practicing kicking looks like there's some guys that got some good shit kickers on down there that could be able to move it okay let's talk about some uh news around the nfl that is uh phenomenally sad Cowboys, number 94, literally just scored a touchdown a few nights ago on Monday Night Football for the Dallas Cowboys on a block punt.

1:49:37Was found dead this morning.

1:49:42Pat McAfee:And obviously this is incredibly sad. Just had the night or the game in the moment. I assume that he's worked his entire life to have. and then the Frisco police in the Texas state resource, I believe department, something along those lines, have put out a couple of statements right before we went live about an accident happening and then a chase and then him evading and then a search in an area and then him sending some messages to people that he knew that were potentially alarming and then they found him passed away. So we would just like to let everybody know that we are so sorry that this happened down there in Dallas to the Cowboys.

1:50:20Pat McAfee:we are so sorry to the family the friends former teammates former coaches of marshall especially after what just happened on monday every everybody that has coached this guy been a teammate with this guy you name it on monday after he scores that touchdown say this is our guy this is our guy so he literally just probably came up in conversation again for so many people probably so many good memories being talked about so many good stories so many good everything happening just on monday and then here we are just a few days later and he's gone and it's like we didn't know them but this is certainly something like perspective dude like you never know what anybody's going through you have no idea what's going on in anybody's life and uh if you have the opportunity to maybe change the trajectory of somebody's day by just telling them like hey hope you're good let's go ahead and do that that's like another reminder is what i saw from this aj hawk yeah terrible things like this yeah they that's the only you got to take the only positives they like bring should hopefully bring you together with the people you care about and you love and And, yeah, it's weird, man.

1:51:15It's weird dealing with all of it. As you get older, too, it's wild. So, yeah, I think it should. Perspective, you always talk about that.

1:51:21Pat McAfee:Yeah, perspective big. So rest in peace to him and his family. And we are so, so, so sorry about that. Rasheed Shahid went into Seattle. He's the new Seahawks wide receiver. He said, I'm here to stay. I'm here to stay. He's a weapon. Sam Darnold can spin it. And now that you've got Jackson Smith and Jigba and Rasheed Shahid on the same offense, let alone all the other weapons, it's like the Seattle Seahawks go from great to greater somehow, and they're in it for real, AJ. It feels like the Seattle Seahawks make a big-time statement that they are in it for real with Rashid Shaheed, and he's feeling the same way, it sounds like.

1:51:55Yeah, it's good to see how he enjoys being there, and he wants to be there for a long time. Yeah, John Schneider, man, he just kind of quietly goes about his business and continues to make this team better and better. This route right here was awesome, by the way. I love watching this.

1:52:06Pat McAfee:Yeah, and you have to give him respect for the deep ball so he can cut those things off at any moment. So he can be a mid-throw anytime he wants because everybody's got to give him so much respect for the deep ball. So it's like I'm excited to see what they do with him in that offense. Huge news in hockey. Last night, Alex Ovechkin scored his 900th goal. First player ever with 900 goals. Congratulations, Ovi. Ovi, friend of the program, I guess we could say. Because he obviously joined the program last year as he was in the middle of breaking the goals record. Now he's at 900 goals, first person ever.

1:52:41and he does it in a nasty backhand, obviously,

1:52:45Pat McAfee:sneaking it past the goalie. Ovi's special. Very, very lucky that we've been able to watch his entire run. And I think he's nowhere near done, if you listen to him talk. He's going to be putting pucks in the nets for as long as he possibly can. Nick, this guy's the greatest goal scorer in the history of hockey, and he notches another resume builder, basically? Absolutely, and he does it in un-Ovi-like fashion with a spinning backhand, pretty exceptional to do. And he's going again tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins. oh okay no sorry you're plateauing at 900 for a while ovie as the boys were celebrating remember if you can watch an nhl game do it they're awesome the sport's great and it's currently happening and ovie is a goat and we get a chance to watch him for hopefully the next 10 years if he continues to drink his diet coke and the way he operates uh we appreciate you all so much for allowing us to do this for a living we'll make our picks uh digitally on youtube espn plus disney plus and tick tock live hope you're able to find those obviously with a lot of things going on in the world we uh hope to continue to be a little bit of a distraction to all the and a celebration of sports we'll celebrate uh week 10 kicking off tonight tomorrow goodbye tonight's week 10 i was gonna say should have won with it i mean it's still guys yeah title of the title of the day Did you see what the Blues goalie did?

1:54:06What did he do? He took a puck and hit it in his pants. Yes. Ref had to come get it from him. Classic banner. Unbelievable. He's Canadian, but. This was after, I believe, he got caught. And he had to give it back. Yeah, the ref comes up to him right after. No, this is him doing it. Oh, this is him doing it. The ref comes over, gives him a little talking to him. Give him that puck.

1:54:26Pat McAfee:Hey, we're going to need that puck. No. Why do they need it back? Why did he skate away so he didn't see him take it out of his pants? he's following you yeah he's still there with you dude i don't have it what are you talking about it's not me oh it's in the corner oh oh how'd that get in there oh there it was the whole time he was gonna keep that yeah why does it smell like poop what was that he's gonna sell it on ebay for like a thousand bucks yeah not a bad player he likes to get under the skin of the other team any way he can he'll he'll find any edge and he'll take it did you hear the story about the guy that had the home run ball hit him in the leg while he was trying to buy some popcorn or something like at Shohei's home run goal.

1:55:02Pat McAfee:There was a guy that was in a concession line. Homer bomb hits him in the leg. Just picks it up. $150 ,000. Yeah, pretty sweet. Sweet. I was reading the story about how much the auction people were like, yep, we got to do this entire thing now because of this entire deal. And it was just such a bomb that it made it all the way into the thing. Oh, nice. Baseball. Sir, this ball. we now need your id we need to take a picture can i get my not fuck the nachos yeah yeah that is yeah that's crazy like sports memorabilia remember tom brady's situation from a few years back tyrese halliburton and yannis right didn't they have a situation yeah basketball basketball was happening all this you know these memorable moments that's why cam little whenever we finally were able to debut the entire conversation he chatted about how, you know, they want the ball or the cleats.

1:55:59Pat McAfee:I forget what they want. They want something. And he's like, I'm not giving them the jersey, though. No, they wanted the jersey. And he said, I'm not giving them the ball. I was like, you let the jersey go and all the fucking brother. They'll put lights on that to him. Make you look like you're a fucking fuck this dude. They're going to make it look like you are one of the legends of the game. And Cam Little just going to be like, dude, that's my fucking jersey right there. Yeah, legit. a 68-yarder. He's going to beat it. Don't you think he's going to beat that? He would have for that particular kick.

1:56:31Pat McAfee:He would have for that particular kick. He's special talent. All right, let's get to a break on the other side. Let's make our picks. Let's wrap up storylines.

1:56:40Pat McAfee:I don't even want to talk about it. We almost lost Ty in a U-ball incident. So D-bone was kick-tipping with his foot? let's go to the footage actually if we could pause the music so we actually have the footage foxy found the footage and uh here's the moment obviously foxy shoots and oh yeah okay she kind of comes quick so we'll zoom it boom he was nowhere near jumping in the air remember if you kick the ball you have to be in you don't have to do that

1:57:25Pat McAfee:Because my first reaction was, Debo trying to change the game a little bit, trying to do that. Ty's first reaction, why the fuck do you think you'd be able to pull that off? Almost died. Ball goes flying past head. U-ball's getting good. U-ball's getting good in here. Nowhere near jumping, by the way. Hey, Debo. Don't you have to attempt to jump? You've got to always attempt to jump, right? Yes, if you're going to kick, it has to appear as if you're trying to be in the air. There might be a chance you're on the ground, but at least the thought was I have to be in the sky. Because a kick is a radical move on the defensive side.

1:57:56Pat McAfee:It really turns the entire momentum on its head if you're able to pull off a kick tip into some sort of tip-in on the defensive side. D-Bone has seen others attempted. Others are just a few people, okay? People that have actually used their feet before potentially professionally, you know? So D-Bone says, wait a minute, I didn't know that was a move. Let me go ahead and just throw this thing out there. and to be clear, great ball contact. Yeah, it really was. We've been in this Thunderdome for like three or four years now and I've never seen any ball of any type ever hit the ceiling, ever until D-Bone did that.

1:58:31Pat McAfee:That'll be D-Bone. D-Bone had a big one last night at the Ryman. He had a big one. I heard. I heard. I could imagine his face as different people walk into the bus, to the room, wherever it might be. Play a cool D-Bone. Start sweating. I'm in the fridge. Anybody want a water? Everybody in there, yes, yes, yes, D-Bone. No, I'm good. Just act normal. Just fucking take a water. I heard he ended the night well, too. Yeah, I mean, he batted a thousand, I will say. I will say the D-Bone batted a thousand. Looks so cool, too. He had his boots on. Oh, hell yeah. Did you hear what he had to do? What's that?

1:59:131.30 a.m. when you guys got back? Yeah. He had a calling. He had to go to McDonald's. He was hunky. Come on. They open 24 hours? Oh, yeah. I thought that was the night he had. It gets better. He took a detour because Sarge was behind him, so Sarge didn't see him going.

1:59:33Pat McAfee:No. So he evaded Sarge? So how'd you find out? He told us. He was lining up for a donut this morning and told us. Yeah, but he had a tummy ache after eating the McDonald's, so then he had to rub one out. It saved his night. He said it was perfect. He didn't get to bed until about 2.15. Yeah. Went on a deep dive, page 50. That's a lot of right. I don't know, man. That's what he does. All right, let's get to a break. On the other side, we'll make a pick. We'll see if D-Bone's okay. D-Bone, come on. 1.30 a.m.? We can't be doing that. He got off the plate and said, you know what would be perfect to end this night?

2:00:09Pat McAfee:Some McDonald's. I respect that you're in that stage of your life. And I've been there before. We're just trying to tell you, D-Bonings, just drink a water. Just chug a water. It's 1.30 a.m. Just chug a water. You'll be so uncomfortable you won't want to eat. Just go to bed. You'll wake up in five hours. And you'll have to piss. And then you're up for breakfast. Yep. And then guess what? You can get McDonald's breakfast. Because what he did, you know what he did. The 1.30 actually told him, oh, I can't wait for breakfast McDonald's. he got McDonald's breakfast again immediately. He probably did.

2:00:41Yeah.

2:00:42Pat McAfee:Yeah. Live your life, D-Bone. D-Bone. I mean, he's going to start driving out to like, well, no, I guess if he admitted it. But yeah, if he's trying to, you know, lose a tail so people don't know that he's going to McDonald's, then yeah, that's a lot. There's an update on the group text. 13 minutes out of my way, by the way. Had to. First Sergeant Garland. Jesus. it's unbelievable I almost broke my neck on that plane last night nodding off I had one of those oh my god it was late night but it was worth it and watching D-Bone like a little kid in there was pretty cool it was a pretty cool little moment obviously you knew every song that was being sung this one hasn't been released yet D-Bone singing every word there's actually a couple samples that have been released to this song website or blogger or whatever.

2:01:39It's like, Jesus,

2:01:40Pat McAfee:you're awesome. You are awesome. We're in it. We're in the middle of it. Country royalty last night. Country royalty all over the place. And I'll say this, everybody crushed it. That was a great show. Like, it was a very, very good. There was emotional moments in there. There was high in there. We were super country at one point. I mean, we were fucking out there in the country one time. D-Bone knew it all. And that's why we love it. Bingo.

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2:03:10Pat McAfee:He is certainly majestic and that's AJ Hawk. He's won a college football national championship and a national football league championship in the Super Bowl. And we normally just talk sports, but we got to break some news. A man who works here at the Thunderdome on a daily basis who has many nicknames, but then just as many jobs around here who we certainly love. Bailey McComb is also his Bill and many other nicknames. He had to exit the Thunderdome very abruptly and in quite a panic as he had learned that somebody just drove into his house. He has a car currently in his house somewhere. He just got a phone call and during the break it was somebody crashed a car into my house so I gotta go.

2:03:59Are the cats okay?

2:04:01Pat McAfee:that's hopefully not full sprint full sprint full sprint out of Thunderdome we hope his cats are okay and Tone does not speak for the Freudian slip of the tongue yeah come on Tone I fixed myself he loves these cats that's AP Tone the talks table here is at Boston Corner at Ty Schmidt I have cats I'd be very worried if there was a car potentially you got cool cats sitting inside of the house potentially we don't know I don't think he knows what it is either and then as he's leaving guess who fires up guess who fires up fire department right across the street. So it's like, we don't even know if they're heading to Bailey's.

2:04:36Pat McAfee:We don't even know if they're heading to Bailey's. But Bailey's running out of the Thunderdome as the fire trucks right across the street are going this way. A whole siren. So a lot of chaos out here. We'd like to let Bill know. Pull him for you, buddy. Good luck, Bill.

2:04:56Pat McAfee:So... Is that a vet? We got caution tape out. Yeah, we got caution. And that was where the fire trucks were headed to. It appears as if he is okay. We hope everybody's all right, including the cats. And Bailey, hey, Bailey. Good luck. We love you, buddy. And you should feel pretty good about your knee drive. That was a pretty good run. Yeah. Out of the Thunderdome, through the parking lot, to his truck. Hits the gate, on the roll out of the gate. Two cars behind fire truck as he's getting out of here. Well, if we know anything about Bill, he handles situations like this better than anybody. Yeah, this is something he's very good at.

2:05:28Pat McAfee:whenever there's a little bit of adversity. That's why we sent Mitt behind him to assess the situation and make sure everything was okay. We did send Mitt. We were hoping for potentially a drone follow because it is pretty near to here. Drone following Bailey's car as he's going, turning in. We got the entire fire. And then Bill getting out of his truck, hands on head. We got drone over top. That's what we were trying to do. Weren't able to get it on fast enough because, once again, And Bailey, from telling us he had a car hit his house to sprinting through the parking lot, probably six, seven seconds, if I had to guess.

2:06:03Pat McAfee:So we're proud of Bailey. We hope he's okay. We hope everybody's okay, including the cats. And good luck over here, McComas's. Good luck, Bill. Good luck. Maybe Mitt could do – I thought Mitt could do like a live hit, like he's a local broadcaster. You know, they stand outside and – We should actually FaceTime. Let's FaceTime Mitt, shall we? AJ, that's a good call, actually. You know, AJ? He could really paint a picture on what's been going on and give us some information. We did have to tell him to definitely not be the second person to drive a car into Bailey's house, though. You know, whenever he was following Bailey over there, clearly told him, like, hey, now you can't crash into his house.

2:06:41Pat McAfee:Because Mitt's the worst driver I've ever seen. Ever. Parker, bad Parker, bad driver. What if he did? What if he did? We're trying to handle the situation as professionally and as courteously as possible. but we need to get eyes on Bailey reacting to somebody driving into his house. Like we needed that for sure because Bailey does get a little fired up. He does get a little, you know, a little bit flustered, which is, it comes from passion. You know, that comes from his passion, obviously. But yeah, he, when he said a car drove into my house, I guess, I have to go. I want to, we need to know if it's a, if it was like a targeted attack or it was just a mistake.

2:07:20Pat McAfee:I don't know if anybody's targeting Bailey McComas' house with a car but I mean shit we don't know what Bailey's up to no exactly he's working out three times a day I know he looks very fit joining us now live from the scene of the crime ladies and gentlemen he is a member of Hammer Don this is Mitt live from Mitt how's it going on yep yep great we got a situation over here

2:07:44AJ Hawk:at the McComas property it seems as if just high blood pressure Guy had 198 and climbing, I think, and hit Bailey's house.

2:07:54Pat McAfee:Okay, so a guy potentially had a little bit of a diabetes situation, it sounds like, while he's driving. Yeah, it is a very nice, it's a nice Corvette over here. I don't know if you can see it. Is Bailey okay? Is the house okay? Is the driver okay? Yeah, Bailey is trucking to the cops. The driver seems okay. He is going to, oh, here's Bailey right now. We have an on-scene interview. Bailey, how's it going, buddy? It's going. It's certainly going. It looks like this guy had a really sweet Corvette completely spun out, took out my tree, which I was just manicuring that. It was really in a good shape right now, and hit my electrical box and my garage.

2:08:34Oh, perfect. Perfect.

2:08:36Pat McAfee:Okay. Is he okay? Is everybody okay, though? Cat's good? Yeah, he's okay. Cats are good. Everything should be okay. We'll see. The guys next door actually responded, so I got the escort directly to my house. Yeah, we saw you follow him. Yeah, we saw it. We figured that was the case. All right, we appreciate you. Happy to hear everybody's okay. All right, appreciate you guys. Thank you. Good luck, man. That's good. Mitt, really good, dude. You should feel very proud of yourself. Look at you. It's fucking good.

2:09:00AJ Hawk:Investigators journalism. Let's go.

2:09:03Pat McAfee:Investigators journalism. Best hit ever, dude. You're so good, dude. Yeah, we call it investigation, you know, with Mitt. You're the best. Ladies and gentlemen, man. Hey, man, man. Mitt. You got a really nice Corvette over here. This thing's fucking sick. He had 198 blood pressure, so. Did go in there. I heard an ambulance person say that. Right in the electrical box. Or no, that's actually the meter, isn't it? No, it's the electrical meter. I mean, where's possible spot? Happy to hear everybody's okay, though, honestly. That is a very scary situation. How about him manicuring his tree? I'm sure he is, actually.

2:09:33Guy's doing Bill a favor, I'm sure. What?

2:09:36Pat McAfee:Go to that thing. That's what the boy said immediately. The boy said immediately, hopefully this guy just took this entire house down. That is what everybody just said. It was so sad. It was like, why do you think that? This guy gets a new house. He's been through a lot with this house. You got a new photo here? Here's where the damage has been done. Oh, that's not. Okay. You're good. That's good base. That's a good sturdy home. He should be proud of that home. He should be proud of that home. Now, it feels like there's probably going to be a lot of things that are going to have to get fixed just with that particular part there.

2:10:05Pat McAfee:Anytime you get a dent in something, normally that offsets like everything else. So, you know, the knee bone's connected to the shin bone. In a house, everything's connected. So whenever one thing is just like this, you got to fix. Oh, yeah, we got to fix this top one here, too, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one. How long is that going to take? Three to seven months. Yep. Okay, all right, sweet. We got different people for different jobs. Bailey just added a whole new situation. Oh, man. You got to knock down the whole structure, build a whole new garage.

2:10:37Unfortunately.

2:10:39Pat McAfee:Bailey's the best person. Bailey, I'm happy you're okay. We're happy you're okay. But, boy, this getting added to Bailey's life. Oh, man. Right before the holidays? Oh, my God. Boy. Happy everybody's all right. Yep. Could have been worse. Okay, so we had stolen skeleton Halloween stuff. We got to the bottom of that. Had a car crash. We just had some lit investigation journalism from MIT. I feel like we're really broadening our horizons. Oh, yeah. Aren't we kind of diving into – Maybe we start doing some journalism. We did today. We talked to three coaches. Yeah, that's right. Texas A &M. We talked to head coach Mike Elko.

2:11:16Pat McAfee:How are we feeling? How's the team? How's everything looking? Journalism. Talked to Ryan Day. Told him, hey, you guys won. Yeah. Congrats. Journalism. Proud of them. Also told me he hadn't done shit. Journalism. Yep. Then we talked to Rhett Lashley, fresh off a new deal. They're still in. Everybody's wiping them off, including the college football playoff committee. It's like they can still win the ACC. They got winnable games. They got winnable games coming up to get the ACC championship. ACC championship. Will they be able to win it? Ah, they just beat Miami. So. They can. You tell me if they're able to do that.

2:11:46Pat McAfee:Let's go to one half of the hammer. Dad. Cowboys, Bubba Gumpino. Gumpy, almost like you knew Miami was going to lose that game to SMU. And we're now at the nostalgia part of the season, right, for Miami Hurricanes fans and, I guess, Dolphins fans. And football season kind of over in October. Yeah, it was a hell of a run for Miami. Started off hot. But you saw those boys coming off the bus. They weren't winning that game. First game out of Florida. Noon kick. We've been playing at night, Friday night in Miami. I was never going to win that game. I'm sorry, Gump. It was a good run. I mean, it was a fun run for you.

2:12:21You do that early, Gump?

2:12:21Pat McAfee:You do that early? That's why Herbstreet said it on game day, because of how confident Gumpy was in his misery. He was so confident in his misery. Because, you know, Miami didn't control their own destiny going into last weekend. So they were like one of the only – there was only two teams, Georgia Tech and Virginia, that controlled their own destiny, and obviously that all changes. But Miami didn't control its own destiny, even though it only had one loss. So it's like even if they win out, there's a chance that they still don't make the ACC championship. So does that mean that they're a two-bid league all of a sudden?

2:12:49Pat McAfee:So then going into SMU, it's like, all right, just got to stack wins here, especially with the position that you're in. Who knows what can happen? And Gumpy just, nope, this one's not good. This one's not good. Homecoming, guy just signed an extension on a contract. They're also very good against the run, and Carson Beck has not been playing very well. I mean, he threw a shitload of picks in that game against Louisville, and it was more of the same on Saturday. At least he's not throwing his teammates under the bus. Oh, shit, he is. No, that one was chopped by a Georgia account. That was not the full answer.

2:13:24It needed to be context. Yeah, he had some things that you could question, but not that one.

2:13:28Pat McAfee:Yeah, he wants to win more. A lot of pressure on him going into Miami, obviously, with the way it was going, and it was great to be down there. Cristobal, I think, is going to have that team in it for a long haul. They got money. They obviously have the U, so they'll be able to go. But SMU is feeling the same way. All these schools that have money, they're like, hey, we can do this. Texas A &M, no different. Texas Tech, no different. All these Texas schools. Texas. Texas Tech. Texas A &M. SMU. It's almost like Texas people that have money like ball. Football State. Everyone's about to have a little bit of money, at least.

2:14:02Pat McAfee:What do you mean by that? And North Texas, too. Like there's some schools in these big conferences that don't have a lot of NIL money, but every team is at least going to get the TV money here in the upcoming years. So they're going to have some money. When does that start? Did that get signed off on? I thought they kicked the can down the road even more for that. Eventually. It's happened. That's what everybody said this last time. I didn't get voted through. Like when? Remember they said it was a June or something like that, or a July hearing or a May hearing. I forget the exact month. We had the exact month.

2:14:29Pat McAfee:And then that just came and went. Nothing was said. Then they said, no, we postponed it. Then it came, they're like, no, we're going to look into it again. And everybody was like, no, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. It did happen again. They started the process of providing direct institutional revenue sharing payments to their student athletes on July 1st, 2025. So it's already started. Oh, so we're already doing a revenue share thing? I don't know if it's in place for this season, but it started at least. Sounded like it. So this is like the weed business. Everybody got really good at growing the weed and being able to move the weed, just waiting on the feds to legalize it.

2:15:04This is the start day of a new system where schools can allocate a portion of their revenue directly to athletes. Yeah. So it's already started? July 1st, 2025 is what it looks like. I could be wrong. The internet could be wrong. Does anybody know anything? No. In college football?

2:15:21Pat McAfee:I thought the rev share thing was happening in the future. If that's already happening, more conversation needs to be. Who's spending what on the salary cap on who? I mean, we need to start knowing what salary cap is. That's the 20 million deal, right? Yeah, but I thought that wasn't in place. I thought that was kind of down the road. I didn't know that was happening. Because everybody's trying to get the max amount of revenue, remember? Trying to come up with ways to generate more revenue. That's at least what not Ohio State's doing. Would never say that. But other schools are like, how do we get the max revenue?

2:15:47Pat McAfee:It was one of the reasons why Bill Belichick was able to go to North Carolina because they promised something along the lines of being at max revenue. Are they going to be good? I was going to ask you. What do you think? How are we going to look back on this first season for Bill at UNC? I mean, really loud, obviously. It was really, really loud. And they've been able to stay the course somehow. And they're just still playing ball and getting better and winning games and still out on the road recruiting through it all. These people don't want to be here. They're not going to last for the full season.

2:16:14Pat McAfee:These guys stink. Obviously, this is a failure. Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. And then you've got Lombardi and Belichick in tiny towns across the country trying to find some new offensive lineman that they can sign to their first ever recruiting class. interesting stuff in the North Carolina Tar Heel football story you know because he is greatest coach of all time conversation no matter what anybody wants to say he's actually going in the hall of fame this year probably congratulations to him being a semi-finalist oh yeah on the coaches hall of fame they changed the rule that it didn't have to be five years after you retire uh we all think so that they could just put Belichick in because obviously in the NFL he is the guy in it all.

2:16:55Pat McAfee:I'm intrigued to see if he turns this around if everybody will have respect for him. The loud that was would become the opposite whenever they win. And can they win there? They think so because of the amount of money and the revenue stuff. We'll see. You're right, Tony. If everybody's going to have money, then there's a chance everybody can be competitive. So I chat GPT'd it. They had to opt into it. Most schools did opt into it and then started paying their athletes. Yeah, looks like it. So West Virginia's paying school right now with revenue share? We're paying our athletes? Let me see. Did W opt in?

2:17:30Pat McAfee:Whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't need to be targeting. We don't need to be targeting anybody. We just need to say maybe which schools did, which schools did. Has publicly stated that it will fully participate in revenue sharing. It will fully participate. That's what I'm saying. The will in R right now, you're saying. Is it happening right now? That's what I'm being told. but then you still raise all this NIL money next to it, right? Yes, West Virginia is starting to participate in NCAA revenue sharing for its athletes, while with the 2025-2026 Athletic season as the target for full participation. A key partnership with Hope Gas will help WVU meet its revenue sharing obligations, specifically around$20.5 million.

2:18:13Pat McAfee:Hell yeah. The university has been generating funds through other avenues, such as Golden Blue Enterprises, partnerships with companies like Planet Fitness and Grant County Mulch, and craft beer collaborations. Oh, okay. Best mulch in time. Yeah. They also have that whiskey, I believe. Yeah, the whiskey. Yeah, it is pretty good. People are going to get creative. Okay, so we're just straight out of the revenue right now. So can we see salary caps? You would think so. Can we see how much people have left? Can we start seeing how much money is being allocated to what positions? Can we start learning about the game a little bit here?

2:18:45Pat McAfee:Because everybody's talking about these guardrails. feels like we have them a little bit here now and we don't have any of the information. We need to start pressing for that. Do you need salary caps on every single sport then? Or do you need, because is that revenue for all athletes? It's revenue for the whole school. Yeah, so 16.5 is the number allegedly for football. There's like a certain percentage. It was like 80%, I think, is what some people might do, but there was no rule that was made to every athletic director was potentially going to have to make the decision, which is what they were worried about.

2:19:11Pat McAfee:Man, I thought we kicked this can down the road. I didn't know we were still doing that right now. Congrats to college getting better and better. All right, let's make some picks for tonight age okay let's make some picks for tonight raiders broncos broncos favored by eight and a half on espn bet until about december 1st and then everywhere else you could potentially get it at nine and a half as well at least a couple hours ago is it the same story right now what is the percentage of money on what tone day it has not moved as 66 of the money is on the broncos tonight okay 66 of the money on the broncos you can get them at minus eight and a half this is 8.15 tonight on Amazon Prime.

2:19:46Pat McAfee:AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? I think I maybe showed a little bit earlier in this program I am leaning heavy Denver Broncos minus 8.5 at home tonight. Especially, are we wearing, do we know or confirm are they wearing these uniforms right here? I do not know if they're wearing these. They changed their Twitter header to that symbol. So probably. Either way, give me the Broncos tonight. They want to put on a show. They understand what's at stake here. This is prime time. We got a chance to look really cool. We saw what the Steelers did a few prime time games ago. Let's not do that. Let's look sweet out here and let's enjoy and celebrate the hell out of the football environment that we have.

2:20:25Pat McAfee:Much like you AJ, I feel the exact same way. There was a stat though. There was some stat I heard about something. Yeah, the Broncos have not won a division prime time game since 2017. They've lost 10 straight to division opponents in prime time. and also just keep in mind we do think the Jags are good and you know with Brock Bowers back the Raiders are they didn't look like shit I mean I let it off with I think Pete Carroll sucks which I do but at this stage Pete Carroll was obviously very good with CIOC Hawks went to Super Bowl USU is pretty good but they did strip that shit I mean do you believe this is too many points for a divisional game that's in the back of my mind I'm not going to lie it's in the back of my head alright All right, plus nine and a half.

2:21:12Pat McAfee:Give me the Raiders. I'll take the Raiders plus nine and a half. No way. Broncos minus eight and a half. I'm not doing it. A lot of points in the division, though. That is. That is a lot of points in the division. But look at the numbers that Hembo said over about sack percentage and fucking how much they sack. Yeah, does that include when Patrick Sertain's playing? What are the numbers just from last week? We need more numbers, we're saying. That's just the classic stats thing. There's always stats. They almost just lost to Dougie Bills. to be fair. Well, that's what I'm saying. Let's go football.

2:21:43Almost lost to Jackson Dart and the Giants. The Broncos have a good record. They haven't been smacking people around.

2:21:49Pat McAfee:Oh, it feels like I'm starting to get a hint of... Yeah. I saw Bruce do a fool when I go away from the raid. Obviously, you got some stats drop here. Gumpy sounds like he is cemented on it. He hates with the passion of a thousand sons, Sean Payton. Why? He does. Never have been. He's not my cup of tea. To be fair to Gumpy as well, by far, and this was kind of out of nowhere, the Broncos fan base is one of the most insufferable on the internet. What? I had no idea. Most disrespected team. Oh, we also have a six-game win streak. It's like, all right. Oh, you're talking about the post that you copy and pasted?

2:22:30Pat McAfee:Yeah. Somebody else did the stat, and you copy and pasted. Is that right? And then they came after you. Is that what you're saying? No, I'm not sure. I'm not sure which one you're talking about. You put a Drake May stat out or a Patriots stat. I think it was leading the league in passing touchdowns maybe. Yeah, it was something. And then everybody's like, well, actually this stat's wrong, this stat's wrong. Oh, no. Okay, no. So it was from overreaction Monday. It was when I said they have the longest winning streak in the NFL with six games. And all the Broncos fans were like, oh, that's not true.

2:22:58We got six games. So, okay, they're tied for the longest winning streak in the NFL with the Broncos. And now all this other stuff because the Chiefs are still the favorites to make it out of the East, blah, blah, blah. The Chargers, all this stuff. And, you know, the Broncos, the team itself, haven't really heard much like, hey, we feel disrespected. But, boy, these fucking fans, they are the worst marks in the league. No, they're passionate.

2:23:22Pat McAfee:They love the Broncos. Remember? Bronco country. That's right. They've been through it, bro. Brock Osweiler. I mean. He's a quarterback. He paid them a lot of money. Yeah, Paxton Lynch. Drafted him high. I thought he was going to be a guy. Yeah, we all did. 7-5. Have been through it more than the Colts, I'll tell you that much. Oh, I'll tell you what. Colts started going through it whenever Peyton just went over there and he just broke every record. And won the Super Bowl. Yeah, he was really good over there. He still had it appeared. But, boy, you would think this is the first time the Broncos have been good in 200 years.

2:24:03Pat McAfee:Give me the Raiders plus 9.5. Fuck yeah. Okay. Wow. Universe Bowl right now.

2:24:13Pat McAfee:Go back. I'll take the Broncos. I'll take the Broncos. Okay. I mean, that just... Let's see here, actually. I didn't really give that one a good go. Dear football gods, please direct me to the pick. This will be for the Raiders plus nine and a half. oh that's a shame give me the broncos yeah all right big time broncos mind saying that football guy spoke to me there lights camera match and aj i don't know if you saw this i did i like that they sent it over it's pretty cool looking you know because it's like sloppy but you can read it you know so it's pretty cool it's super artsy that's matching baby they took a picture i think the mac conference and posted it i'm mid blank like thank you thank you guys that is matching Yeah, it is.

2:25:06Pat McAfee:That's matching football. And all right, we're going to get out of here. We're going to interview with Matt Rule. We're going to run from earlier today. Obviously, we ran out of time in the field of beat hour because, I mean, when you're talking to Mike Elko for the first time all season, he got questions. Yeah, you do. Ryan Day, we got to let him know his team is the best team that we've ever seen. 80 % completion percentage for that quarterback. Holy hell, defense, historic. You guys are the best of all time. Maybe you stop playing. Just take the trophy now. Just why are we even doing it? Stop, stop.

2:25:38Pat McAfee:He was getting. I'm out of here. I'm out of here. I'm done. Oh, yeah. Nope. He literally got up to get out like it was when Coach Lou Holtz came in. Yeah. When Ty Lou walked in. I forgot about that. And then Rhett Lashley. That was cool to chit-chat with him. What if they do go on a run here at the end of the year and go to the ACC championship? It's almost like we maybe knew it was going to happen. Hmm. Hmm. It's good shit. We love football. We can't wait to watch tonight. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. and might change their life. We're in this thing together. We're pulling for you, Bill and House.

2:26:03Pat McAfee:Good luck. Starting to get multiple thousands of dollars are coming in repair. Mm-hmm. And I'm sure insurance will get that right over to you. Yep. We love you, Bill. We'll be here to support you however you need. Yeah. Let's have a night. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye. The head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Matt Lue. Yeah, coach. Coach! All right, Coach. What's up, fellas? What's up? Hey, everything over here is on the up and up, and we obviously send our positive thoughts and vibes to Dylan and everything you've got going on. Fresh out of a surgery, I do believe.

2:26:42Pat McAfee:As a coach, kind of, how do you handle this week for your team? Obviously, massive, devastating injury, massive, I don't want to keep piling on, but loss here in the Big Ten. It's like, how do you handle this week with your team as the leader of men who still have games left and also still have a lot to prove, not only to yourselves, but the fan base, if that makes sense? Yeah, no, I think it's a great question, man. I mean, it's like you get into coaching and you want to have all these amazing moments, but these are the moments where you, like, earn your stripes, right, where you prove what you can do and you have to do a great job for your team.

2:27:19And so instead of being in your own feelings, I think you have to really think about your guys. And so first you got Dylan devastating news. I mean, you know, you sit there, you think he, you think he's going to sprain his ankle, you know, he wants to go, he's out there, he's trying to hobble around. I said, you know, I said, buddy, I love you too much to put you out here when you can't move, get back home after the game, Pat. And they say, Hey, you know, guess what he broke his fibula. I mean, like just the toughness of that kid to want to go out there and play. So you're devastated for him. You're devastated for your team.

2:27:48You know, you, we were in a great position. We had the lead, you know, Credit to USC. They made the plays down the stretch. Then you wake up the next morning and you have to tell the guys, I know how disappointed you are. I know how much you put into this. But as a team, we have to rally around TJ because he's an excellent young quarterback. He's going to have his first college start as a freshman going back home to L.A., playing a hot, hot UCLA team coming off a bye. You know what? We all have to be great teammates. We all have to just do a little bit more. We can't ask TJ to shoulder more than just, hey, just go play quarterback and have everyone else, the defense, the receivers, the O-line, the coaches, we all have to do a little bit more.

2:28:28Pat McAfee:You talk about going back to UCLA, and obviously everything you just said there is spoken like a great leader, which obviously you are, and our T's and P's to Dylan, and also hearing that it's a broken fibula and then him wanting to play through it, like, hell yeah, dude. That is football, that stuff. Quarterbacks have to show that, and there's a lot that don't. So I respect the hell out of him for that. You talk about the young quarterback going back to L.A. for his first start. You guys are, and I know you don't pay attention to this, but I'm going to give you a heads up. You guys go from having everything in front of you to now underdogs against UCLA in L.A.

2:29:00Pat McAfee:How do you handle the travel? Because USC's first win over 1 ,000 miles of travel was this past weekend. How do you handle the travel? How do you handle all the conversation? And now you guys are literally the hunters as opposed to hunted with the underdogs to UCLA. Yeah, you know, one of the things I said this week in our press conference, and I mean it, like, if you want to be taken seriously nationally, if you want to like, you know, we're a two loss team last week and we're not in the top 25 and other teams are. So if you want to if you want to gain the respect of the country, then then you need moments like this and you need to come through.

2:29:35You know, you need to go on the road with a freshman quarterback, underdogs, everyone counting you out. Everyone say, well, that was a good game last week. I mean, you know, last week we held USC's high-powered offense to their lowest totals in a long time. And so there was a lot of good things that happened, even though the scoreboard didn't go out our way. And so you can just walk away and be disappointed and kind of write the season off. And that would be pretty average. That would be like what we've kind of been like here for a long time. And so, to me, we have an unbelievable opportunity to kind of change the narrative, to begin to show tremendous respect for ourself.

2:30:10And once you respect yourself and start standing up for yourself, then people around you start to do it. Then nationally you start to do it. So I've told us, I've told everyone around us, like either you're with us or you're not. Like I'm with TJ. My goal this week as the head coach is to be the best coach I can be for this freshman quarterback and for these guys that bust their tails for me. Make it all about our players. Don't make it about ourselves. And I'm expecting the fans that show up. I'm expecting the people that support us and love us, they'll do the same. And this is a chance for Husker Nation to rise up.

2:30:39and you know what? It won't get us in the CFP, Pat. You know what I mean? We lost by three to Michigan. We lost by four. So we'll have to chase those in the offseason. But right now, that's time to stand up for ourselves and go fight for what we want.

2:30:51Pat McAfee:Yeah, there's still a lot that is possible for a team that is trying to build a program back to the greatness that it was. And I'm excited to watch you do that. You have a running back that I assume you will definitely be feeding that I got to meet at a WWE event. So much moxie, so much swag. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Coach. Obviously, with TJ Lateef coming in, who is a true freshman, it would be nice to have an incredible running back, and you do in Emmitt Johnson. He's already over 1 ,000 yards for the season. I believe he's going for a top five, top ten historic rushing season in Nebraska history, which is insane.

2:31:21How nice is it going to be to have him just in the backfield to rely on with a true freshman quarterback next to him? Absolutely. I think he's one of two people in the country to be over 1 ,000 yards rushing. you know this is this is this is this guy's an unbelievable example of what we're trying to do you know he shared time last year he was a rotational player and instead of leaving you know he just kind of hung in there hung in there and now he's gotten his opportunity and you know I've yet to see the first guy tackle him I mean he's unbelievable great vision can catch the ball but unbelievable in terms of making people miss and fighting for extra yards and so that's kind of what I was saying about TJ like hey everybody just do a little bit more TJ you just do your job But Emmitt, go do a little bit more, which he will.

2:32:07Nizaya, Jacory, all these great players that we have, they're all going to do just a little bit more, take the strain off of the young guy.

2:32:13Pat McAfee:I love E-Money and Raiola's relationship. I like their handshake there. At the WWE event, they were having a good time. Feels like the culture's in place for a while. Although this year, maybe not a national championship here, feels like you're setting the foundation, and E-Money is certainly a guy for that. Now, what's the rest of the season look like for Nebraska? Well, Iowa Hawkeyes, Todd Schmidt has a question for you. Yeah, Coach, is it weird being in a situation now with the way the playoff is set up where obviously at this point, playing spoiler, that's what it's all about going down the stretch.

2:32:45But on the same token, you're also kind of incentivized if teams in the Big Ten make it to the college football playoff. Obviously, we know the revenue share. I mean, I guess obviously you're trying to win. You're not trying to lose. but is it kind of weird that that is a reality, kind of like a 6-7 situation where you want to play spoiler, but if the Big Ten gets four teams in, obviously you guys will reap the benefit of that as well. Fascinating. Yeah, I care about no one else other than us. I will last week. And you know what? And honestly, I think you're always going to hear me say, I think the Big Ten teams with two losses are underappreciated.

2:33:27I agree. I think Iowa's having a heck of a season. I think SC is having a heck of a season and many more. So Michigan is at seven and two. So I, I am, I look forward to, you know, I look forward to every game that we have a chance to play. And that's kind of what I said before. Like, you know what, like, we got to get Nebraska where nationally, like we're, we're respected and not just kind of dismissed. And so we have to win every game that we play. And, but I, I do think, I do think there's some really good teams in the big 10 and we deserve four in. And, and you know what, It's kind of crazy when you look at it right now.

2:33:59You look at the rankings. This team's really ranked high, but they still have to play these guys. So many teams have to play each other. And it'll be really interesting following the CFP rankings as we go down the stretch.

2:34:10Pat McAfee:Yeah, Tuesday was the first one. And obviously, there's a little bias, they say, in the South. And then the Big Ten has the back-to-back national champs. If they were to get that again, how will that conversation dive into it? And then obviously, last year, SEC travels up to Big Ten. Tennessee travels out to play against Ohio State, who had two losses. Ohio State had two losses. Tennessee had a couple losses. And we all know how that went in the ice cold. So there's going to be a lot of chatter around who gets in and who doesn't get in. But the Big Ten, to your point, Coach Rule, I don't feel like it gets as much respect.

2:34:42Pat McAfee:And will it next year? Will it the year after that? How long does it take? And will that be the Nebraska Cornhuskers' job next year to become the stallions that people have been talking about in the Big Ten? Ty says no. Just know that Ty says that. And he asked you that question because, you know, Iowa beats Oregon this weekend. And then obviously some other stuff happened. You guys in Iowa, last game of the season, Ty's like, hey, for the good of the Big Ten. For the good of the Big Ten. That's what Iowa is pitching, you know. But it is – it's very – the 12-team playoff, obviously better. More teams have a chance.

2:35:17Pat McAfee:But now it's like, well, how do they view the teams that deserve the chances? And it's like, man, college football is never going to be able to get it right. I mean, they're never going to be able to get it 100 % right. but it's a beautiful thing. Conman has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach. The coach that comes in the office into the Thunderdome every week, Bruce Arians, always says no risk it, no biscuit. And when you're going up against an interim head coach, it feels like there's no other coach that is probably risking it more because why not? Because of that, when it comes to game planning for a team like UCLA, you legitimately have to go over all the trick plays, all the type of shit that they could pull.

2:35:51and on the opposite end of that, similar to Ty saying, playing spoiler, are you guys now just opening up the playbook? Hey, let's think of everything and anything because at this point, let's just go out there and get the victory. Yeah, I think every week you're going to do everything you think you need to do to win the game. What they've done is they've faked three punts. They're faking punts against punt safe. They've opened up the playbook. They've unleashed. You know, I think Nico's a tremendous quarterback, and they've unleashed him. He's running all over the place, and they're coming off a bye.

2:36:24You know, so USC was coming off a bye. They had two weeks to study us. UCLA's coming off a bye. And so, you know, as a coach, you just tell the guys, like, hey, we have to be alert for everything. And you can't play afraid. You can't play scared. But you do have to say to yourself, like, hey, we need to have our eyes on our keys. Everybody has to be, like, locked in and focused at all times. And then we just know. I mean, like I said, Nico's one of the best quarterbacks in college football, I believe. If you watch what he's done, especially in this run, He's been amazing. And a lot of it he's done running.

2:36:50He's their leading rusher. And so we are going to have to, have to, have to account for him at every turn.

2:36:57Pat McAfee:Nico broke three helmets against Ohio State. Yeah. Three helmets. Now, obviously, they lost and it wasn't his best game. But he was getting dumped into the frozen and getting right back up. Like nobody was really talking about this offseason with how everything went with Nico's story and the NIL transfer portal. We want this. We want this. We go back to UCLA. UCLA starts how it goes. Everybody's kind of burying him, burying him, burying him in his situation. It's like we watched him up close and personal take some. I mean, absolute shots and get right back up. So I got immense respect for him.

2:37:30Pat McAfee:I'm happy to hear you say the same thing. He's tough. Nico's much tougher, I think, than anybody gives him credit for. Yeah, when he's running, he's not sliding. He's not running out of bounds. He plays the game like a warrior. He's an elite competitor. And I think sometimes when we talk about quarterbacks, We talk about everything else, but I think there's something really to that. You know, guys will follow a quarterback, a leader who goes out there, whether it's Dylan trying to play on a broken leg, whether it's Nico not sliding. You're going to play for guys like that. You're going to sacrifice for guys like that.

2:38:01And so I respect the heck out of him. And so, you know, our guys understand, like, we have to treat him like a tailback. He's not a quarterback. He's a tailback when he runs, and he's got great speed. And, again, he's their leading rusher. So it'll be a major factor in our ballgame.

2:38:13Pat McAfee:Cannot wait to watch you guys execute. Good luck this weekend against UCLA. I'm heading down to Lubbock, Texas for the first time in my life. What should I be expecting down there? I know you've got a little history, a little Big 12 history. Well, you know, I was the one. You know, many coaches tried, and I was the only guy that was able to get Joey McGuire to leave high school coaching, and he came and worked for me at Baylor. I met him at an IHOP, and he was like, who's this guy from New York? And by the time we were done, man, we were brothers. and he's one of the great, great, great coaches.

2:38:46Lubbock's a cool town. There's going to be all kinds of – there's going to be great vibes everywhere. You're going to love it when the game starts. Just don't get hit by a tortilla, you know. Oh, they banned those, coach.

2:38:54Pat McAfee:They banned the tortillas. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure on national TV the guys aren't going to let one fly. But I tell you what, man, like he is – you know how sometimes you meet people and they're so positive and they're so engaging. You're like, is this guy – he really is. Like, my kids used to walk into building, Pat, and they would go see Coach Jojo before they came and saw me because he has more juice than I got. So he's one of the best of the best, man. I'm so happy to see him. And then, you know, Kalani Satake is one of the good guys in coaching. So, like, this is two guys that I respect immensely.

2:39:26So it'll be a great, great ballgame.

2:39:27Pat McAfee:Hey, the Big 12's hot, right? I mean, there it is. The Big 12's got a lot of shit brewing over there, you know? Obviously, Cincinnati loses to Utah, but Utah-BYU might be the Big 12 championship game. and then Texas Tech's like, excuse me, we're also in this thing. The Big 12's cooking right now, and it's a special time. In BYU, Texas Tech, there's been people camping out since Monday to get into that game. They're camping out down there since Monday. It's a huge, huge, huge game down there. And I think this is what the future is for Texas Tech, Coach. They got money. They got backers. So I think that's, hey, we're good for the future, right?

2:40:03Pat McAfee:Isn't that kind of how we should be looking at this, especially with Joey McGuire? What was your thoughts on him? Absolutely. Joey's a guy, you know, he's in the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Fame. So he'll always be able to go mine all the small towns and find the unearthed gems. And now, because of the commitment they've made financially, they can also go get the best players in the portal nationally. They can get five-star kids nationally. So there'll be a great combination of elite, elite, elite recruited talent. But also, Joey's going to go find those guys from those small towns that, you know, maybe are underserved, undernoticed.

2:40:33And someone will call Joey. he's just the right person to go out there to West Texas. And he's going to have that mindset, that brand that they have out there in West Texas. They're going to play football that way. They'll be exciting. They'll be Texas Tech. But they play defense and they're physical. So he'll do a great job there for a long time.

2:40:49Pat McAfee:Yeah, I'm excited to get down there and witness it and watch it and experience it. You know, I learned about Elma, Texas through the Big Green. That's right. I think we're going to be down there. We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, head coach of Nebraska. Good luck, bro. We appreciate you. Appreciate you guys. Good energy in. Good energy out.

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