PMS 2.0 1454 - BA Day with Bruce Arians, MNF Recap, Ole Miss Head Coach Lane Kiffin, 4 Star OL Kevin Brown Makes His College Commitment, WVU Head Coach Rich Rodriguez, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

16:52Pat McAfee:What is that decision-making process? Is that because they can't run? Like, what are your thoughts on the Raiders?

16:56Bruce Arians:Yeah, they need a lot of help up front. But for me, when your best three receivers are three tight ends,

17:01Pat McAfee:you're in trouble. you're in trouble.

17:03Bruce Arians:Yeah.

17:03Pat McAfee:If you can't run it with three tight ends and you got the best young back in the league, maybe, it's got to be up front.

17:11Bruce Arians:Got to get some better, stronger, faster guys up front. And defensively, they show at times. They're good at times. And Max, he's the best. Highest motor in the league. But for me, they got to get some top-notch wide receivers. And that's going to help Geno a ton because he is forcing the ball to guys in tight little windows all the time. Yeah, but, I mean, top-notch wide receivers, like, yeah, those grow on trees. They don't. They need to use what they have. No matter what, I get it, you might be down by 30 in the second half and a running back might only have 10 carries. But Jinty had two carries in the first half.

17:46Bruce Arians:You always mention, you know, hey, by November, by Thanksgiving, rookies need to be up to par. They need to be able to play. And Jinty has played a lot of good football. I think I saw a stat yesterday actually that he actually only has one 20-plus yard carry the entire season. He had 25 last year. That's what I'm saying, though. It all seems right. Yeah, and that's why it's not Geno's fault. Anybody who just goes on there and says, oh, yeah, it's all Geno. What's Geno doing? Geno sucks. Like, okay, that's not what the field is really reflecting. You can look at the box score and say that, sure, but you're not actually watching the game.

18:19Bruce Arians:And just real quick, I really wish I didn't think of this. Max Crosby says, Joe Thomas, a defense.

18:25Pat McAfee:No.

18:25Bruce Arians:No, that's what he is. That's a good point.

18:28Pat McAfee:Yeah, Miles Garrett also. Oh, yeah, that's just the bronze.

18:31Bruce Arians:Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, Max, yeah.

18:34Pat McAfee:Yeah, I guess you could have a bucket. I guess there can be more than just one. And I assume we can find maybe other Joe Thomases. Joe Thomas is the one who was, what, all pro like 16 straight years? Yeah, like 12 ,000 straight snaps. Like didn't have a hold or something. And then he came on the show and said every year I thought we were going to win a second. Every year we thought he didn't even play in the playoff game. No. He was so good. Think about the mental toughness on that guy. To be the best in the world at something while also not really getting to reap the benefits of it, really, but still, still just locking in and going, what an animal.

19:08Yeah.

19:10Pat McAfee:Max Crosby. Yeah, also what an animal, man. Miles Garrett. Absolute stud. Go back to Jason Hansen. Yeah. On the Detroit Lions. Wanted to go? Barry Sanders. At least he got to the playoffs. Yeah. Calvin Johnson. Calvin Johnson. Man. Don't do it, Max.

19:28Bruce Arians:It's commendable that he wants to stay there, but, I mean, what are we doing? It's time, okay? Especially when you look at that division. Like, that's the thing is they are miles and miles and miles and miles behind the third place. The Chiefs are the third place team in the division right now. Look what the Broncos are doing. Like, are the Chargers all of a sudden next year?

19:48Pat McAfee:Give Tom some time, okay? But does that matter? Maybe he plays. Maybe we Jackie Moon just think. Exactly. Maybe that's the only way it gets going. Maybe the other owners of the Raiders need to come together and say, Tom, as an ownership group, we've decided that you need to play quarterback. Did you see him last night? Oh, yeah. He looks good, dude.

20:07Bruce Arians:He does. He's aging backwards.

20:09Pat McAfee:Benjamin Button almost, this guy. He's phenomenal.

20:12Bruce Arians:But that is that, like, I think we all just assume Brady's a consummate winner. Like, he'll turn that around. And we forgot, like, he's not playing. And he can't play every position. Their line sucks. It's awful. And it's been like that for multiple years now. I mean, yeah, he looks sweet. Throw up a picture of Mark Davis real quick. Because that's also, I love the guy. I do. But it's just, he's just not a fucking serious guy. He's just not. Look what he's wearing. Look what Jerry's wearing. And Jerry is bombastic. He's outlandish. He's crazy. But he's an owner of an NFL team. And he knows, hey, I should maybe just throw a suit on.

20:48Bruce Arians:What are you talking about? Do you like Mark Davis with the jacket? I love it. I love it. But are you ever going to look at that guy and be like, wait, why is this guy who was sitting at the Bellagio Sportsbook for the last nine hours, why is he on the field? Oh, wait a minute. That's Mark Davis. He owns the Raiders. He's relatable. Very relatable. To an eight-year-old who wants to sit on the couch at his parents' house and play Game Boy and eat chips all day. It's a good life. And maybe part of this is on us, too, because when they hired Pete Carroll, it was like, don't look now. Brady, Carroll, just John Spitek guy who went to college with Brady.

21:25Bruce Arians:The Raiders might win 10 games this year. That was maybe the dumbest thing collectively we've ever thought up. That was a we thing. It was. It was. Jente, too. We were all. Oh, Jente. We loved Jente. He was on the show. We loved Jente. Exactly. Hard not to. But it's just like you watch them, and every week it feels like they are farther and farther away from being a team that is figuring it out.

21:45Pat McAfee:Hey, they'll figure it out.

21:46Bruce Arians:All right. Or they won't. At some point in time in the future, they will.

21:52Pat McAfee:And congrats to them for that. They've been there before. They've been in the pinnacle before. Before our time.

21:59Bruce Arians:Rich Gannon. Sign Rich Gannon to come in and play quarterback.

22:02Pat McAfee:I bet you he could still give a good. Oh, yeah.

22:04Bruce Arians:I might fall off, but. I mean, he's.

22:06Pat McAfee:No. Not Rich Gannon.

22:08Bruce Arians:Pop out.

22:09Pat McAfee:Pop back. That's his new pump fake is actually dislodging his shoulder. Yep. And then bringing it out there. He used to skip rocks. Oh, yeah. I mean, he was B.A. Rich Gannon. Oh, yeah.

22:19Bruce Arians:So good. He was a beast.

22:21Pat McAfee:He had arm talent like out of the.

22:22Bruce Arians:First kid I ever offered at Temple as the head coach.

22:25Pat McAfee:Wow.

22:26Bruce Arians:And he turned around and beat our ass at Delaware.

22:28Pat McAfee:He went to Delaware over Temple? Yeah. Oh, shit, coach.

22:31Bruce Arians:He wanted to get out of the city.

22:33Pat McAfee:Rich Gannon wanted to focus on ball. Love Richie. Love Richie. The Philly guy?

22:37Bruce Arians:Oh, yeah. St. Joe Prep. Makes sense.

22:40Pat McAfee:True. True. Speaking of that part of the state, we have Kevin Brown from Harrisburg joining us in the second hour. He's one of the top-ranked offensive linemen in the history of ranking things. He's going to be announcing his commitment on our program today. And on that note, we'd love to congratulate Virginia Tech on hiring James Franklin. I know you were a part of the consulting group, the advisor group. That's amazing news. Congratulations to you guys.

23:06Bruce Arians:Yeah, really, really pumped up. There's great, great years ahead of us at Virginia Tech, I think.

23:11Pat McAfee:I know you don't want to feel like you're speaking for the group that did the hiring, but you were a part of the group that did the hiring. James Franklin, you guys, it felt like there was rumors for a long time. You guys, as soon as you saw he was available or in the market, that is who you wanted, I would assume. James Franklin, very accomplished guy, perfect for Virginia Tech right now.

23:27Bruce Arians:Yeah, he was a number one pick all the way. You know, his record speak for itself. Been in the Mid-Atlantic for a long time in his career. Great recruiter, especially in Virginia. And, yeah, hopefully bright, bright things are on the future for us.

23:39Pat McAfee:Congratulations to you guys. That's a big deal. Huge. Yeah, James Franklin, I think everybody, you know, Penn State people right now are like, a lot of pity parties for James Franklin happening on TV right now. Whenever he came on college game day, just a few days after he was fired from Penn State, boy, Penn State alum were not happy about that. Oh, okay. Yeah, this guy just lost the game Northwestern at home, and you guys are going to have him on here and make us feel bad for doing what we had to do. Basically, it's what Penn State people are saying. But on that note, Penn State people, as they get further and further away from the situation, just like I kind of said to Coach Franklin on the set, 10 years from now, 15 years from now, 20 years from now, the way they'll look back on the James Franklin era is a guy that I think stood in the fire with them, for them, and kind of flipped them into what they are now.

24:25Pat McAfee:Now, they will say that James Franklin wasn't able to get them over whatever hump that he was able to get them to this particular altitude. He is saying, I want to pick up and just take the national championship to our next place from everything that I've learned somewhere else. He seems hungry and very eager to get back to coaching. and I think you guys got a great one. I'm a big fan of his after meeting him multiple times.

24:46Bruce Arians:And getting it done now. There's already kids that were committed to Penn State and of course some of them were lost, but I've seen multiple guys tweeting out about how they've received an offer from Virginia Tech. Obviously probably going to follow James Franklin there. Who knows who is at Penn State right now? Who's a freshman that might say like, oh shit, I can go to the ACC and play for Virginia Tech? And just talk about paths to the college football playoff, especially with what's coming out tonight. The ACC is a little different than the Big Ten. They might have a much cleaner path than what they would have had and what they have had at Penn State in the past.

25:21Pat McAfee:All right, well, before we get to Tone's bracket, we got a chance to catch up with a coach whose name is obviously a topic of discussion everywhere down there at Ole Miss. Joining us now, the head coach at Ole Miss, a man who's obviously the topic of discussion in a lot of different cities, and it should be because his team's in the middle of a college football playoff push right now. Ladies and gentlemen, football icon and legend, Lane Kiffin. Yeah, Lane O. What's going on, Lane O? Hey, guys. We're just having an awesome day here, man. Started meetings, getting ready for a practice, and now we're on the Pat McAfee show.

25:58How about that?

25:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, what an honor. And obviously, we had been talking to Lane right before we just introed him, and it's been a spectacular morning down there in Mississippi. We're very thankful for everybody. How was the yoga this morning? I know 6 a.m. yoga is non-negotiable. How did you start your day? Was it a great start? It was. Ann McClain taught a great class. It was extremely hard, man. We had some coaches in there. Keith Carter, AD, was in there. And it was a grind this morning. Okay, so you and the AD obviously doing 6 a.m. yoga. We'll certainly dive into that relationship here in a matter of moments.

26:28Pat McAfee:Let's talk about ball, though. Huge win, obviously, over Florida. Right now we're on our way to another massively successful banger of a season for your Ole Miss Rebels down there. How do you feel at this point? Got a bye week and then you got the Egg Bowl on the other side, which is obviously massive rivalry in the United States of America, not just in the SEC. Well, it was great to get that Saturday night win. Our crowd, the fans were electric. The atmosphere was. It was awesome. I don't know if you got to watch any, but it really was cool. And I would think, and I hear a lot, I hear this a lot, there's no team in America that has more fun than Ole Miss and our players and the whole thing and the whole program.

27:08So it's just awesome to see. It's awesome to see them have so much fun, the interaction. Afterwards, they were going in the locker room. I brought them back out so we could go to the student section that was still out there. And Kiwan Lacy had these big runs, as you see, and he brought the belt out afterwards, and it was awesome.

27:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, you got a special thing brewing down there. And I know you and the Ole Miss fans, obviously, over the last six years, have developed quite a powerhouse down there. And obviously there's discussions at a lot of different schools, especially whenever you're winning. Fans kind of get bored with it. They maybe leave. It was nice to see your place packed at the end. And I appreciate you bringing your team back out to say thank you. I also appreciate the fact you're throwing oops to the boys. You talk about having fun. That's a main message that you're sending to the crew. And how important do you think that is to the success of your team as well?

27:55well I've been I've been fortunate to be part of some really great runs in college football you know being at USC with coach Carroll and we won 34 straight and then coach Saban our last 26 straight there I think we won so and I remind these guys as they're in these runs and these great things and now here are what three straight 10 win seasons enjoy it have fun you know so often everybody's so serious everybody's in it and then they get out of it and they're like man remember those old days remember how great they were so I remind them hey those good old days you're in them right now someday 10 20 years from now you're gonna be saying man remember that run we had at Ole Miss and we had that division two quarterback that would make all those plays and and the running back was leading the country in touchdowns and there was a dog running around on the field and the players were dunking I said you're in the good old days right now so just have fun enjoy it and I think if you watch our team you see them doing that okay so let's talk about having fun

28:50Pat McAfee:enjoying it staying in the moment there's a lot of distractions that come with having success you talked about the past three years being an absolute juggernaut down there in the sec for old miss all the success you've had in the past your name is a topic of discussion everywhere seemingly and will be for the rest of your life it's a good thing i don't think it's a bad thing because it it means that you're having success which is why other people are certainly going to mention your name whenever jobs open up but there's a rumor now circulating on the internet and we appreciate you joining us here to maybe kind of clarify this.

29:20Pat McAfee:Was there like an ultimatum given to you in the middle of a season from Ole Miss? It feels like the way I'm reading it on the internet is that Ole Miss has told you, and you were doing yoga, I guess, this morning with the AD. Ole Miss has told you, like, we need an answer. Is that true? And how are you handling it all with the team with what's currently taking place? Yeah, that's absolutely not true. There's been no ultimatum in anything like that at all. And so I don't know where that came from. I'm like a lot of stuff that comes out there. Like I said, man, we're having a blast. I love it here.

29:50I mean, our running back's sitting right over here. Come on over. And it just couldn't be better. Like I said, you pray for things. Our fans prayed for this type of thing, and now we're in the middle of it. So enjoy it. You're 10-1. You're getting ready. You've got a bye week. You've got to watch half the country lose, and there's no way we can lose Saturday. And then you play the Egg Bowl and go dominate that and keep that Egg Bowl trophy home where it's been for a long time.

30:16Pat McAfee:Okay, so Kiwan Lason, by the way, 19 touchdowns. 19 toads. 19 toads. Hey, last week on Tuesday, we had the president on. This week, we got the best running back in the country. Is that smart to say, Lane? Yeah, we did know that. And that's why we were so excited when this came up. And I had to have him here. Man, you had the president of the United States seven days ago today, and now you have the best running back in the country. How about that? What a moment. Hey, Kiwan, we appreciate you. Keep going, brother. Hey, I'm going to ask you, with him here, obviously you guys have kind of grown. How old are you, Kiwon?

30:5119. 19.

30:54Pat McAfee:It would be so cool to be that athletic at the age of 19 with the world in front of you that it is with the current world that's happening. You guys feel like since high school, maybe throughout, even maybe junior high for guys as talented as you this modern age, where you've got to deal with a lot of distractions in business and chatter and social media and messaging, how do you kind of stay focused, especially with everything that's going on with your team and what the future could be? Really just having a mindset of just getting better every day. You know, it's easy, you know, when you have coaches like this, you know, Coach Smith, just to keep you in the right direction, you know, and just, you know, staying focused, just, you know, going 1-0 each week too.

31:31Pat McAfee:Have you ever returned any kicks? In high school I did. What would you have done when you see me on the other side, buddy? What are you doing? He's like carrying the ball like 33 times. We don't need more like this. we're good dude we hey you don't you're supposed to be helping us right yeah yeah you're right i'm sorry i'm sorry hey keep crushing it kiwan we appreciate the hell out of you man you're the best yes sir i appreciate you ladies and gentlemen thanks for bringing him on by the way that's really cool i think you're the first person that we talk to that on a very regular basis brings in players and other people we met winnadead obviously had a chance to tell him i'm sorry for picking against you with that and then obviously bringing lacy best running back we appreciate how much you seemingly enjoy the hell out of your players and your players enjoy you.

32:14Pat McAfee:I think I saw you post, you were driving them to a game. Is it like, is this the tightest you've been with a team? Is that an accurate depiction of how you feel with this particular squad, especially with everything going on? Or is this kind of how every Lane Kiffin coach team is? I think that's kind of how it is. I mean, we were extremely close with Jackson Dart and all the most draft picks last year in the history of the school left us last year and went on to the NFL. So that's just how we create our culture. And they should be on. They're the ones making the plays, not me. So, you know, all this success, all this credit, all these things, it is because of the players and the assistant coaches putting it all together that allow this to happen.

32:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think you've got a special team you're fun to watch. Speaking of that, big one next weekend after you watch half the country lose. Coach B.A. has a question for you, Lane.

33:01Bruce Arians:Hey, brother, you know, I've been a part of seven of those egg bowls, and you're the hottest thing in the country right now. You lose that when they're going to try to fire your ass. You know that. I know that. I know that, which I've said. When they're like, hey, all this stuff. And they're like, are you focused on other places? I said, no, I'm focused on winning because now what I've learned in college football, we have our little group chat with like Sark and Kirby and a couple guys. And we came up with this. You lose one, you're out of the top 10. You lose two, you're out of the top 25. You lose three, you get fired.

33:31So, you know, we're focused on our job of trying to get to 1-0 every week because that's the profession we're in now.

33:36Pat McAfee:Yeah, it certainly is. And it sounds like your players understand that more now than maybe ever before. So it's a special thing you got brewing. And you talk about losing one game, you're out of the top 10, two, you're out of rank three, you're out of a job. It's like Ole Miss seven years ago. I don't know if that was necessarily the expectation. So not that I am the deepest of SEC history guy, but I don't think the expectations come unless you create something special, which you certainly have. And you've lived in that world, I guess, where it's like, hey, we want to be in a college football playoff.

34:06Pat McAfee:Whenever you know that that's the expectation every year, what is the mindset for you? Like looking ahead, are you trying to grow players right now? Are you trying to figure out this particular team, future culture? Like how do you kind of balance it all when that is the expectation at the highest level? That's not the expectation in every school. You know that. But like at most schools that you are going to be talked about, that is the expectation. How do you handle that? Just one day at a time? The standard cliche shit? Yeah, I do. I have an extremely high expectation how we should perform as a program.

34:33And I've had that since we've got here. So my expectation is way up there. So when outside expectations happen, or for instance, now our fan base that is now getting used to this, you know, 10 win seasons every year, I'm good with it. I understand they're now coming to the expectation that I've had all along here. So some people will be like, man, they're going to expect you to do this all the time and everything. Great. We're now aligned in our expectations of what we want our program to be. So I love that the fans now have what some people would say is unrealistic expectations for Ole Miss because now they're just matching how I feel.

35:10Pat McAfee:Yeah, I love that. I think you had that in FAU too. I think that's what you're planning on doing down there on this tour, coaching tour around the country that Lane Kiffin is on. Ole Miss has certainly reaped the benefits over the last six years. Talk about offensive explosion and being fun to watch. Go ahead, D. Butch. Yeah, Coach, you're kind of known from the outside in for your passing game. Your wide open passing game, maybe up-tempo, but you're rushing the ball for over 200 yards a game now. So how does that work as far as, like, I guess your scheme and then your personnel using what's best for you week to week to win a ball game?

35:43Yeah, I think that's a misconception. You know, the passing thing, as you referred to, that, you know, we've just always, I've been this passing coach. We had Devin Singletary at FAU lead the country in touchdowns. Then Quinshawn Junkins, when he was here, was leading the country in carries. And now Kiwan Lacy leading the country. So we've been running the ball for a while, believe in running the ball. I think that that was an issue last year why, you know, we didn't end up going into the playoffs and going deep in the playoffs because we didn't have that running game. Had we with the defensive players and Jackson Dart and stuff, I think we would have been there deep into the playoffs.

36:18So I'm really glad that we've got that back. We had a one-year off of having a great running game, and now we're back.

36:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's fun to watch, and Lacey seems like an absolute dog. Oh, yeah. I mean, immediate salute upon getting on there. I respect that. What did you say earlier? He's got 19 touchdowns, and he's 19 years old. That's crazy. That is crazy. 19. Yeah, he's got a lot of time left to really take over football and only get better. and certainly has already done some incredible stuff.

36:45Bruce Arians:Ty has a question for you. Yeah, Coach, last year I think a lot of people believed you guys were one of the 12 best teams in the country. And, you know, what happened happened. You got left out, and it is what it is. But I remember you saying, like, you know, you were in a position where you kind of had to root for chaos given, you know, the situation you were in maybe being on the bubble last year. With this year and there being, you know, potentially eight or nine teams that are still in play to make the college football playoff from the SEC. Is that mantra kind of still the same? Are you still kind of in like, hey, like you mentioned, half the country is going to lose this week and you guys don't play?

37:21Bruce Arians:Or is it different because after the Egg Bowl, the hay is in the barn and what you guys will have needed to do is already done. And then you can change your mind or your mindset, I guess, to the playoffs on the horizon. Yeah, I looked at it going into the Florida game as we have two one-game seasons. We had Florida. Let's make sure we win that. Then we got a bye. And then we got a one game egg bowl. Let's make sure we win that. And then we've taken care of our business. There's too many variables, you know, because everybody's like, well, you got to get to the top 12 teams. Well, now we're finding out that depending on how other things go, you really got to get to the top 10 teams to make sure you make the playoffs.

37:58Because there might be two of the teams might not even be in the top 12. They can be number 20 and 25 or something with the current flawed system. so um like you said everybody's like well man you better be in the top 12 no you better make sure you're in the top 10 um or you or you might get left out one loss out of the top 10 two losses out of the top 20 three losses out of a job joy i said i love that you guys just kind of understand

38:25Pat McAfee:that now yeah that is life such as life you're living go ahead yeah that's i mean we just we We just saw it out with Brian Kelly. That's exactly the scenario that just happened. So I didn't worry about other stuff. I worry about making sure we win. Yeah, because if we win, I still have a job. And now if we win, there's a chance. And if we win, you'll have me on. Because we know the story before how over the years I tried to get on and you didn't let me on until we won enough. Is your SID there? Is your SID there? No, he would still be asleep. He would not be here. This is too early for him. Yeah, so let's believe his side of the story and not ours.

39:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, there you go. Conor has a question for you about life these days. I actually, I'm joking with you. I really do believe your side. No, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm joking too. I'm joking. He has told me all along differently, but I know. Now that we've become buddies, I know the truth. Well, on that note, SID, I like he's a little bit of a dog too. And I like that he sleeps in. Get a little catnap in here as well. I enjoy all of that.

39:21Bruce Arians:Go ahead, Conor. Yeah, Lane, most SIDs suck at their job, just FYI. Most, yes.

39:25Pat McAfee:We have learned that most, almost all of them. Go ahead.

39:27Bruce Arians:Almost all, if not all. No, no, no, not all. No, no, no, because I'm going to run into one,

39:31Pat McAfee:and I'm going to say you're not the one we're talking about. My opinion, my opinion.

39:35Bruce Arians:Yeah, almost all. Almost all. But, Lane, one thing we all love to see from you is when you post on IG and X, kind of those day-to-day segments from the book that you're reading. How much does that mean to you, and how important it is to you to get in that book every day and kind of help you stay in the moment, kind of keep that moment-to-moment awareness? And is that something you fall back on a lot of the times, especially amid all the chaos Ty just mentioned? yeah it sure is um i've really changed in that of you know i used to just coach thinking okay well it's about getting the players good and getting them to the nfl and now i've realized like i have this really god's put me on this wonderful platform that for whatever reason people listen to me and follow me so to be able to help people now especially because of all the things i went through and learned from is my favorite thing when people come to me say hey I watched your E60, man, and I've made changes in my life because of that, or my son did.

40:31And I'm like, man, that gives me a feeling that is so much better than any win or any trophy or anything. So I've kind of become addicted to that, like wanting to just help people not make some of the same mistakes, or if they're in some tough spots, helping them through that because of things I've gone through.

40:48Pat McAfee:What's the name of that book? The Pivot Year? Is that what it's called? Yes, The Pivot Year, Breonna West. and uh what it's like daily words like what i don't i don't think i fully understand what what is it yeah it's just stuff that she wrote that every day has something in there like you know today like if you're 90 years old man what would you tell yourself when you're making decisions you know i thought was kind of a amazing read this morning see my issue as soon as i would read that is lady i'm not living in 90 what's tomorrow i knew you're gonna say i mean so then Then I got the next day.

41:21Pat McAfee:But 365 days, I assume, of messages? Yeah. I love the idea. I love the concept. Maybe we do one of those in here. You know, and we just project it up onto that wall when everybody walks in here. Not a bad idea. We got the... The thing. Yeah, the thing. Yeah, we'll put it up on the thing. Perfect. Thank you, ladies. Maybe you, every morning, make one up. You know, as you're like kind of going through your morning thing, and you kind of have your tradition of what helps get you clear in the morning. And then you write one for everyone. You're an early writer. Yeah, your, like, moment as you're sitting there.

41:52The Pat McAfee moment.

41:54Bruce Arians:Another job. Motivating McAfee. Motivation by McAfee. Motivation by McAfee.

42:01Pat McAfee:All right, I'll do it in that sauna that I'm in in the morning. There we go. Now, some messages. Yeah, just don't start with things like, well, you probably won't live to be 90, so this doesn't matter. Let me write my book. Stay a little more positive. Can I write my messages, please? Okay, Brianna can write hers. I'll write mine. We don't know if we're going to make it to tomorrow. That is not a bad way to look at today. Now, on that note, I will try to do this, maybe for a betterment of my own being, too. This will help me a lot. So I'm going to do this for incredibly selfish reasons. I don't know how long it's going to last.

42:33Pat McAfee:Let's assume I start one tomorrow. Okay. I'll add Elaine Kiffin. Yeah. I don't know if this makes it to Friday, but...

42:41Bruce Arians:If it does... We're on to something. Hey, Pat. Stop worrying about Friday. Just one day, man. do it for one day and then the next day maybe do it maybe just one day maybe you should do this one

42:53Pat McAfee:day you're the man ladies and gentlemen his name is being talked about in every city but right now is the good times for old miss and he's enjoying every single second of it keep doing you lane we appreciate the hell out of you man all right guys thanks for having me hotty toddy go rebs hashtag come to the sip come to the sip anytime man hey you got to do the walk with us sometime man we had your buddy Theo Vaughn did the walk he said it was one of the best experiences of his life I saw the video pop up on the internet and I see you two standing next to each other I'm like this is awesome and of course and then I see some videos of Theo experiencing it and obviously if you're not a part of the sports world especially you know big time sports world you very rarely get to experience something like that it's a special feeling when everybody's kind of coming together saying hey go kick their ass that's a special thing I think that sports has that nobody else has coach yeah he started the walk and i don't think he realized like the walk's like a half mile it's a long walk through like 50 000 people so like right off the bat he's screaming this is the greatest thing ever let's go kick it off kick it off i'm like hey bro we still have a half mile to go all right i'll catch him for the marathon in the sprint yeah that's awesome all right well thank you for doing that for theo letting him experience yeah it was cool thank you for being good for college ball and thank you for your time this morning you're the best All right, guys.

44:13Have a good one.

44:14Pat McAfee:All the best. And we don't know if we're going to make it to 90. So let's make sure we enjoy today because we're in the good old days. You're the man, ladies and gentlemen, Coach Lane Kiffin. Yeah, Cole. He was awesome. He was awesome. Obviously, we didn't ask him where he was going to be coaching next year. And I think if he was to give an answer, he would say, I love being at Ole Miss. I think he does too. You know, there's a lot of old sayings about, like, don't leave happy. And it seems like Lane Kiffin is the happiest he's ever been. Now, obviously, there's a lot of different situations that are open.

44:42Pat McAfee:And what he has been able to accomplish at Ole Miss over the last six years, I think people around the SEC, old school SEC people are like, hey, he has made this place an expected powerhouse, which is something special and good for ball as a whole. And they also see the style that he plays with. The way he plays is an explosive style. It's fun to watch. And if you're able to get a loaded defense alongside of what he can do on the offense, it's easy to see like, hey, this could be a national champion in the making. and I think Ole Miss is thinking the same thing. So it's a very interesting time for Lane Kiffin.

45:12Pat McAfee:It's an interesting time for these coaching searches. You know, James Franklin was obviously the biggest name that was available for this particular coaching cycle, and he just signed with Virginia Tech. All the other coaches that were maybe going to become the head coaches whenever these schools opened up, they've all re-signed massive deals at their place. So Lane Kiffin's decision, which I guess he's saying, there's no decision being made. I'm in the middle of like a five year, I don't know how many years he has. I don't know what his contract is. He's just doing his thing right now at Ole Miss and certainly sitting in a great leverage position.

45:47Pat McAfee:Yeah. Yeah, let's assume that he understands that because he's been in the business literally his entire life. Like I understand the coaching business, but he seemingly loves Ole Miss. And every time he's there, every time he comes on, he brings a player on, which I think is sweet too. Lacey is just like, hey, we're trying to go one day at a time. We're trying to get better every single day. They're all locked in. It's like that's good leadership out of the guy who's very entertaining as well. I love that. With all the distractions outside the building, that's always, I feel like, one of the biggest challenges for our coaches, even in the professional level, but definitely on the collegiate level is kind of excluding the noise on the outside.

46:20He seems to have a great relationship with his guys. We see it during the games. You talked about throwing alley hoops and doing the shit. We see it post-game. It's always something with either his players or the opponent's players. And we feel like coaches, whenever we see them, they're always in recruiting mode. But the world that we live in, when you're that good at your job, like you do have a decision to make almost year in and year out, unless you're at one of these schools that you just feel like, okay, maybe Ohio State or like Alabama. What are they calling them? Blue Bloods. Yeah, but like, you know, once you get kind of to that top, it's like, okay, what other jump can you make?

46:50Ole Miss, while they are a national title contender, you can still look at the LSU job or even the Florida job and say, hey, maybe that's a bump up or a stuff, even a Penn State job to some people. So we'll see where it goes. It will be a decision made. not only for coaches, but players in this environment. Even when Lacey pops in the screen, it's like, I just can't help but think, like, okay, if he leaves, he'll probably be coming with him, or where will he be going next?

47:12Pat McAfee:Because we've seen coordinators and quarterbacks. Yeah, exactly. We saw it with Junkins. He mentioned Junkins. We saw him at Ohio State. We've seen it in basically 70 % of the schools that get very good bring a coach and player or players, or Signetti came here to Indiana, brought a roster, basically, alongside of them and have massive success. It is a different time now with every coach. It's changing. Go on, Todd.

47:36Bruce Arians:Yeah, I was just going to say, like, there aren't too many times in your career, I don't think, either. We all know how good of a head coach Lane Kiffin is, but, like, he's the bell of the ball right now. You know, and I don't know how many times you get that opportunity where literally every college that has an opening, they want you, and they want you really badly. So, obviously, he's not going to – he's not thinking about other stuff right now because if you're an LSU or you're a Florida, guess what? It really isn't that big of a deal. You can wait until January when the season's over if Ole Miss is to win the national championship, and then he can make a decision.

48:10Bruce Arians:But if you're an Ole Miss fan, I understand all this kind of stuff probably pisses you off because you'd like him to just sign an extension and declare his allegiance and stay there. But you also have to understand, he may never get this opportunity ever again in his career.

48:25Pat McAfee:Yeah, and it's also like if you were in his seat right now, what would you do? You know, like he loves Ole Miss. He loves it. He's in middle of the school. All that shit is not happening with him either. I think he has an agent and everything else is kind of happening outside. He's just trying to win right now. And there's still time to do everything is what he's saying. But he's certainly got to understand the situation as well. I would assume Coach B.A., who's a coach in college and in the NFL, he understands the situation that is currently happening around him. He's not promoting it. I don't think he is.

48:52Pat McAfee:He literally only wanted to come on there and say, hey, Ole Miss and I do not have any – there's no heat between me and Ole Miss. I think is what he wanted to clear up. I think that is why he came on today. Like, hey, there's no ultimatum. There's no you need this. There's none of that happening right now. We are focused on ball right now. He knows all that's happening there, right, Coach B? Oh, totally.

49:10Bruce Arians:And he knows he's been in his business as his dad the whole time. That elevator rises real fast to the top to the bottom. And it's only a couple losses, like you said, and you're looking for a job. Right now, everybody wants you. Do what's best for your family.

49:22Pat McAfee:Okay. So B.A. Exactly. Let's go on the record. Do what's best for your family, okay? This is old coach B.A. I would like to go on the record and say, I love the fact that they are seemingly locked in on this egg ball. Like, I appreciate that it feels like, and it might be the modern day with how the world works, but, like, that kid, Lacey, they've been talking to him since he's, like, ninth grade probably. There's been business deals trying to be happening since he's 10th, 11th, 12th grade. So, like, he might be only 19, but in this modern world that we're in of distractions, like the things we used to call big-time distractions, money.

49:55Pat McAfee:They get money on the table somehow and somebody's doing this. Having negative things said about you, maybe in the media. These dudes are literally entrenched in this throughout their teenage years. They see everything that everybody says about them all the time in their phone. And they have throughout their entirety. So it feels like they're a much more mature maybe group of individuals than maybe in the past because they've had to be because they wouldn't be able to survive if they weren't. So it's like the way they handle a coach maybe getting talked about or more money being talked about. It's like they've been hearing that shit since they're 14 years old.

50:28Pat McAfee:Like, hey, you go win this tournament, there's a chance that you get an Adidas deal, lockdowns for something in the future, a Nike deal, you do something like that. Like there's always been like stipulations to basically everything and everybody for these generation, I think. So it's made them much more welcoming to the situation, maybe easier for them to buy into everything happening. So I don't think there's any distractions. Where it used to maybe be like some sensitive or some personal feelings. Now it's like these dudes are like, game. This is business. I think it still is. But I think the best ones are going to be able to separate it.

50:59They can compartmentalize, hey, I can handle the business or have someone or some people handle that business. And then when it's time to, because it is still just as tough in between those lines. We heard Kirby Smart talk about, hey, some players just want that check. They don't want the physicality. So being able to handle both, I think that'll be an even bigger separator of the two different type of athletes that we have going forward.

51:19Pat McAfee:Hey, it feels like Ole Miss got a bunch of D2 guy comes in winning that. It's like, yeah, I understand. Hey, you might go. They're saying you're going to get a bigger check somewhere. You should have seen what I was getting at Paris State. So what you guys offered me, you changed my life here. So if you get a potential, I feel like they're just entrenched in it. It's almost like more commonality between the coach and the player, almost like a much more understanding, which can rally a group. So Ole Miss, there's a chance they benefit from all this conversation happening actually for the motivation of the team, even though their fans don't want to hear that at all.

51:51Bruce Arians:Yeah, and it's not as if this is Lane's first rodeo. Like, he did this. That was the biggest thing when watching his E60. When he was at Tennessee and he, you know, left to go to USC, like, that felt like a decision that people are trying to work him into. It's damn near, like, the internet and everybody in Ole Miss and how loud it is about him not signing the extension, yada, yada, yada, and all the options he has. Like, he went through that process at Tennessee. And what did he do? He ended up leaving Tennessee. And then there was a riot in the street. So, like, there's so many different aspects that go into it.

52:20Bruce Arians:and the fabric of college football is different because of the payment of players. So you can't really compare college football then to college football now, but you can compare him being poached by other schools and him having the temptation to leave and what he's doing right now. He went through the process already. It feels as though when he looks back on it, he might have approached that entire thing wrong at Tennessee, at USC, with how everything ended up, whereas now he's more so as enlightened as you can be. Like, hey, no, we're worried about right now. We're worried about today. We're worried about the game that's on our schedule still.

52:49Bruce Arians:not worried about all the shit that could come because who the hell knows what changes.

52:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, they lose every game out here. Things are going to change quickly, to your point. And B.A., your words of advice once again, Sam, would be?

53:00Bruce Arians:Do what's best for your family.

53:01Pat McAfee:All right. And on that note, let's go to Hammer. Time! Time! AP Tone. Tone, anything on Lane Kiffin that we missed? And also, what do you think the CFP committee is going to roll out this evening as their projected 12-team playoff for their third edition of the CFP projections?

53:19Bruce Arians:Yeah, for Lane, I agree with Coach B.A., do what's best for your family, and that's probably going to LSU or Florida. Jeez!

53:27Pat McAfee:Ole Miss are having a good time! The Havons walking out there, they're unbelievable, they're throwing hoops!

53:32Bruce Arians:Listen, I love Ole Miss, I really, really do, but, I mean, they are playing that transfer portal game there, and it's not so much of that at Florida and LSU, so I think it's more of a, less of a dice roll, season by season at those places. Plus, I mean, LSU at night, that's just,

53:49Pat McAfee:Ole Miss, they say.

53:51Bruce Arians:Yeah, yeah, it's great. Let's talk about Ole Miss. Let's talk about tonight. Let's talk about the college football playoff. I do think Ole Miss moves up to number six, and that is because Alabama lost. So one's going to be the same. Two's going to be the same. Three's going to be the same. That's Ohio State, Indiana, and A &M. I don't see anything changing there with what happened this weekend. A &M, the comeback was impressive. So I don't think they're going to dock them for that. I don't think they're going to put them over for IU for that. So I think one, two, three, stay the same. Four, Georgia got a big win over Texas.

54:24Bruce Arians:They bump up because Alabama was at four and they take a loss. Five, Texas Tech is going to move up to where Georgia was because they were at six last week ahead of Ole Miss. So there's no reason that I think Ole Miss is going to jump Texas Tech. So I think five and six will be Texas Tech and Ole Miss. And this is where the questions start coming in. so I have Oregon at seven but I also had Oregon higher last time in the very first one and they didn't love Oregon they disrespected Oregon and they had Oregon lower than other teams but Oregon's only got one loss Oklahoma's got two losses Bama's got two losses so I do think they're going to have Oregon at seven but there's a chance that Oklahoma and Bama may be ahead of Oregon in that situation we will see Oklahoma at eight because they just beat Bama head to head at nine Notre Dame at ten They had Miami at 11 last week.

55:15Bruce Arians:Miami won. I don't see any reason why they would move Miami out of that. Georgia Tech had a close, close win against Boston College. And then the toss-up is 12. I have North Texas. They're the only one-loss American team. That could be Tulane. That could be Navy. But I just have North Texas up there at 12 right now.

55:33Pat McAfee:All right. Well, I appreciate that. And we are trying to predict what the CFP committee is going to do, right? Correct, yes. Would that be the same as how you view it right now, though? Thank you.

55:44Bruce Arians:Similar, very, very similar.

55:46Pat McAfee:All right, let's talk about the A &M ranking because it's going to become the topic of conversation because there's people that think, you know, they should be ranked higher because of how great they have been, obviously, and they have won. They were down 30-3 at halftime. What did that tell you about the Texas A &M team? Do you dock them or raise their score for them? I raise it. I mean, to come back, South Carolina's a good football team. They're up 30-3 at halftime. They lost some close, close games to all the teams on that list right there. and to come back and score 30-some points and win the game,

56:13Bruce Arians:that talks about what's in their heart in the locker room. And Mike Elko is a hell of a coach.

56:18Pat McAfee:Yes, he is. You're saying after that game, you would raise them in the rankings as opposed to maybe lower them in the rankings? Because there's people out there that see those close wins, like Indiana over Penn State. Penn State, not supposed to be that good. South Carolina, not supposed to be that good. There's people that are like, it was really close. It was too close, not as good of a team. We players have said, yeah, right. I think that type of win is more important than anything else. How do you view it?

56:41Bruce Arians:Yeah, I think it's way more important. And it's hard to flip. Indiana is playing so good. And that win at Oregon. But look at that strength of schedule that A &M is playing. They're number two to me.

56:52Pat McAfee:Oh, geez. He's saying, yeah, I'm on that side. If you're number one in the SEC, then to me, you're number two.

57:03Turn it up.

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57:16Bruce Arians:No one goes to Hank's for his spreadsheets. They go for a darn good pizza. Lately, though, the shop's been quiet, so Hank decides to bring back the$1 slice. He asks Copilot in Microsoft Excel to look at his sales and costs to help him see if he can afford it. Co-Pilot shows Hank where the money's going and which little extras make the dollar slice work. Now Hank's has a line out the door. Hank makes the pizza. Co-Pilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more at m365copilot.com slash work.

57:50Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, that cadence that you just heard had a little hiccup in the middle of that. We're going to get him on the first one or the second one. And we're going to get that thing from deep down in the soul, down in the belly, because we need these people that are leaning on their fingertips. You see, they get that one little sound, and maybe they give a little flinch, and we get a free play. And what's a free play lead to? Well, that leads to a free deep ball. And a deep ball, no risk it, no biscuit, means maybe a touchdown. It means maybe we win this game. Maybe we win it all. And that's what a good cadence can bring.

58:17And that cadence was brought to you by a man who coached football for 47 years,

58:22Pat McAfee:quarterback legend, Super Bowl champion, Bruce Aarons. Yay! That's what a good cadence can do. Can change lives. Can change a city. Can change a team.

58:30Bruce Arians:Yeah, this can't. That's a good point.

58:35Pat McAfee:I didn't know we were going to utilize this as an opportunity. Hey, need to get this out of the game. We're not doing fake claps. We're not doing real claps. We're going, hey, we need at least a little bit of leadership out there, is what you're saying. Getting something down your gut, let's go. Yeah, because they're going to need that at some point in their life. Indeed. Yeah, not even just in football, just in life in general. going to need to be able to have a little bit of command at some point, especially if you're playing quarterback.

58:57Bruce Arians:I can't tell you how many quarterbacks I've interviewed over the years. Oh, I never called a play. What's your snap count? You've never called a play and you never used a snap count. You're a quarterback. I could throw. There's a little bit more to it than that.

59:11Pat McAfee:It's not on them, though. I mean, obviously, we're kind of giving them an excuse, but legitimately, their entire football careers have been, hey, you're just the most athletic guy we got, okay? don't you worry about anything you look over at us we'll tell you to play and then you're just easy as this okay if we hold up two you're doing you're okay that's what you're doing and they don't really expect anything from them i think tom brady actually did an entire take on this about how when you don't really expect much from people you're not really going to reach their expectations of themselves ever or whatever you put more responsibility on people they're actually going to show up for you in a bigger way and he thought football was getting too simplified sounds like you as quarterback also feel the same way now are we getting back though is it feel like it's coming back it's very cyclic though i don't see that many teams holding up the cards going a thousand miles an hour guess we got the headphones now in the in the helmets oh yeah you thought i was talking to you using the headphones now yeah they're like the nfl college is like the nfl now

1:00:05Bruce Arians:so i brought over mike norvell he was at arizona state to arizona cardinals all right teach our guys all this shit you're doing man i said but if you could talk to him would you do this he's

1:00:14Pat McAfee:hell no exactly yeah so now that they have the ears they're able to do it it has changed it a bit and I think also the style of football it feels like it's kind of changing right in front of our eyes now last night the Dallas Cowboys get a huge win the talks tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt nine-year NFL vet Darius J Butler yes huge takeaway from the Dallas Cowboys last night from you is I like their defense going forward I feel much better about it now was against the Las Vegas Raiders so I'm not too high on them I would like to see him you know kind of the same way with hey Dan Campbell oh man he's back calling plays against the commanders got to see it for a three more games against some good defense.

1:00:49So I feel the same way. But I feel much better because I know Dallas, week in and week out, they can be great on offense. Not sure about the defense, but I feel better with the bodies that are on the field.

1:00:58Pat McAfee:Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner, the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, A.J. Hawk. Yeah. Hawker, D-Butch big takeaway is, hey, the defense for the Cowboys might not be ass. You know, they made some plays at the trade deadline. Obviously, Jerry Jones said, I'm going to be in the market at all times. I have a trade in my back pocket, maybe in my front pocket too. Shit, I might have one inside my boot. You don't know what I'm going to do in this entire thing. Made some plays. They're getting some guys back healthy.

1:01:24Pat McAfee:Deep up, pointing out in the first hour, Malik Hooker, who obviously we know here in Indianapolis, you know, at Ohio State, incredible player, especially whenever he's on the field. He just returned back after an injury. So it's like, are the Dallas Cowboys' defense maybe primed to go on a little bit of a run to maybe get them back into contention down there?

1:01:41Bruce Arians:I mean, they absolutely should be. I think the Quentin Williams-Kenny-Cart duo up front is awesome. Those guys are going to give O-lines nightmares, I think, moving forward. But Logan Wilson also came over from the Bengals. You know, he was running around the middle of the field a decent amount. And look at this run-stopping. I just like when they kept cutting to Jer in his box, and he was kind of slouched down in his seat. He was cackling a few times after Quentin Williams would make a play. I think he was feeling pretty good last night.

1:02:08Pat McAfee:Am I a jolly gee, I assume, that there was? And I know it. Didn't I tell him? Did he have one of those things where he walks out and they have microphones in his face. Do you remember those things? Oh, yeah. Did he have one of those last night and did it look like a... Come closer. Got to be able to stop the run. I said it. We were able to do it on prime time here. This is what I've been saying. Now, you know, Mr. Clark, he was part of that Michael trade that nobody was talking about. Yep. I felt like I was a super genius now. Nobody even talked about Mr. Clark. You know what he does in the middle of D-line?

1:02:38Pat McAfee:You think they're running on us? I don't think so. And then wait till you see what I... Oh, Quentin Williams. You ever heard of him? You have. Yeah. He's coming over as well. And guess what we're going to do? We're going to stop the running. Michael, what's he doing? Well, he's closing out games for the Green Bay Packers. We don't need that. Don't ask about Michael.

1:02:52Bruce Arians:I think Michael's a sack of shit, so don't ask me about Michael again.

1:02:56Pat McAfee:Jerry's got to be so pumped. He's got to be so pumped right now. He's potentially drilling for$100 billion in natural gas, and his defense is doing what he was hoping that it would do in the end, and they might get back into contention. Now, on the flip side, Las Vegas Raiders, we made a massive pitch in the first hour. I don't know if you heard, for Max Crosby to just not be on their team anymore. And I understand that that takes a lot of different decisions. There's a lot of emotions involved in this. I understand, you know, there's been a lot of turnover, and there's been a pillar, and there's only been a certain amount of pillars of the Raiders franchise.

1:03:30Pat McAfee:And Max Crosby wants to epitomize everything that there is to be a Raider, and I appreciate that. But a part of just being a Raider and nobody else is we're not going to see you in a big game ever, you know. And I'm bummed out about it. That's what it feels like at least. I feel like they're just a cursed franchise. Every decision that is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, just goes, no, no, yeah.

1:03:56Bruce Arians:What do they do? I mean, what do they do with Pete Carroll first year head coach? Like, what do you do? Obviously, trade deadline's gone, so Max is there for the rest of this year. But what happens after this? Like, this offseason, what does it look like for the Raiders?

1:04:07Pat McAfee:I have no idea. I honestly have no idea what they do. All these people are so new. And it was supposed to be good. Now, granted, hey, let them get their culture in there. Okay? No doubt. Let them get their culture in there. No. Let them. No. Pete Carroll's not. He's not a spring chicken. All right. Took a shot, and the shot was, hey, let's compete now. We don't need to go win a Super Bowl now, but we need to be competitive. So if you finish this season how it started, you move on. You restart. Brady, Spy Tech, you restart. I love Pete. Might be a little longer than two. What? Yeah. I love Pete.

1:04:43And it was some shots on him on the sideline where he didn't look like the same old Pete. I know. I saw the gum was beating him again. I don't like that.

1:04:50Pat McAfee:I know the gum was beating him. I saw at the bottom of the crunches, the gum wrapping a little bit longer, so it's a slower uplift. The gum starting to win a little bit more than what it used to be. Okay, I understand what you're saying when you talk about those types of things. I like Pete. But Pete is only one, legitimately, from what I remember. Now, I think there was a time maybe in New England he was coach or maybe some other places where he didn't go well. But from my entire memory life, USC, he wins. Seattle, he wins. He's awesome. Everybody loves everything he says. He gets kicked out of Seattle, I mean.

1:05:23Pat McAfee:Yeah. Dude. And how's Seattle now? And Seattle's really reaping the benefits of that right now, moving on. They got a nice young coach, McDonald, and boy, I'll tell you, he fucking brings it on the defensive side. It happened fast. And they're going to get – they got a quarterback who's kind of on a revenge tour just for the entire world. Now he had a bad outing against the Rams. They were wearing a midnight mode. It was tough to play against them. Everybody was making the ghost jokes, so let's relax. Okay, there's no reason for that just because it was night, midnight, and ghosts.

1:05:55Bruce Arians:Yeah, poca.

1:05:56Pat McAfee:Yeah. Yeah, he dropped a subtle little ghost out there. But I think that's because he's, like, paying tribute to T.Y. Hilton because he's always open. Sure. But the Seattle Seahawks turned the page quickly. painted over walls. Legion of who? Yeah. I love that. Pete Carroll? Yep. Yeah. Let's get him out of here. Triple coat that one. Russell Wilson? Yeah. Yep. Let's do that. Triple coats. Super Bowls? Okay. All right. We'll find new ones. Look at those. And thank God. New team. Jesus. We hated it. Thank God we got a new team. And now they are a whole different team, brand new characters, brand new dominance.

1:06:41Pat McAfee:And Pete Carroll had to sit out for a year, and then he gets his opportunity here with Las Vegas. And I just know Pete Carroll, especially for how competitive he is, every day he wants to compete. Everything's a competition. That's why he's still in shape. That's why he can still spin it at 70, whatever he is. It's like he wanted to be good, very good. Oh, yeah. With the Raiders. I mean, he wanted this to be great. And that is why they brought in Gino.

1:07:01Bruce Arians:Yeah.

1:07:01Pat McAfee:And that's why they did make some plays.

1:07:03Bruce Arians:What were the expectations, though? Honestly, what was the expectation coming in? They think they were a playoff team? No, no. It's what Deebut said. Just competitive. Chip Kelly's the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL. The 31st offense. We forget about that, too. It does take a lot of nuts to cut bait after one year. But from a team that just did it, sometimes it is the right decision. Sometimes you do have to do that. And keeping the GM spy tech would also make a lot of sense. They're in no man's land. because I understand we've talked about this with the Jets right now with what they're doing, but they have so many positions in need, and I understand Max Crosby could be a top five Raider of all time.

1:07:42Bruce Arians:They need to trade him. They need to trade Brock Bowers. They need to stockpile as many picks as they can because they have about 15 positions in need that they have, and they need to go just try to get lucky and find those guys. We've heard about Brady and Spitech. They think Spitech's really good. It just, like, it's too bad, but you do. You have to blow it up.

1:08:04Pat McAfee:And we don't want to keep doing this. We feel bad for Raiders fans. We would like your team to be good because the Raiders being good would be sick. We just fear that it's probably, I mean, Tom Brady's in there making decisions for you guys. It's not going well. In my simple football brain, I go, Tom Brady can't figure it out. Who else would you call? Tom Brady. Well, he's there already. Is that working? I don't know. You're not going to call me. I'm not giving you an answer. Tom Brady's giving you the wrong ones? I don't even know what it is. But that's why I believe that maybe they do have a chance to be good.

1:08:33Bruce Arians:But it's also one of those things where if you're like, you know, like we talked about Ben Johnson and Brady and like if you're one of these like kind of up and coming coaches who a lot of people are looking at and they like, do you want to go take the Raiders job and potentially get fired in like a year and a half as opposed to just getting an also ran who's been around there? Like I don't know. I mean, it's tough. It's a tough decision. I would not get rid of Pete for sure. Pete's got so much energy, and he lives for it. I worked with John Spitek. He's outstanding. Great evaluator. They'll kill the draft each year.

1:09:09Like you said, I'm not getting rid of Brock.

1:09:13Bruce Arians:He's too young. He's too good. He's unbelievable. All right, Max is up there. Let's get as much as we can for him. Okay. Maybe we get three offensive linemen for him.

1:09:21Pat McAfee:Okay. That would be a good idea.

1:09:22Bruce Arians:All right? Two in the draft and a trade. And now we got picked up front. Gino can still spin it. He's shown it. He was lighting it up there on those play action passes last night. And then all of a sudden, one gets tipped. Now all of a sudden, they're throwing it 20 times a game with the best young running back in the league. I don't know about that one. But, you know, it all goes up front again. Yeah, but I'm not blowing it up.

1:09:44Pat McAfee:Okay. All right. Coach B.A. speaks. And we shall listen. Tom Brady is there. We assume he'll have success. Pete Carroll, to his credit, has had success. Tom Brady letting Geno be the quarterback for the team that he's on. He has respect for Geno. Yeah. I think we all think Geno getting a bit unlucky a lot of times this season, but he's taken the blame for everything happening in the city, which we respect and appreciate. Let's pivot away from that and let's go to a moment that we're honored to be a part of. So this has started to happen on a few different occasions now. Not on a regular basis, but a few different occasions where our show is allowed to be a part of one of the biggest moments of an athlete's life where somebody commits to a university to play football or basketball or whatever their sport is of choice and continue their athletic career.

1:10:34Pat McAfee:Now, we assume, especially with getting to know the guys that have done that on our show, that these guys are going to go on to be pros and potentially Hall of Famers. And it's an honor that we are a tiny part of their guaranteed documentary later about their football lives. And today is no different. We got a dude from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He's 6 '5", 285 pounds. Jeez. 18-year-old dog. His face and hair make him look like Captain America. When his picture hit the internet, I didn't think anybody could really look like that. He's almost chiseled like he's a Greek god. A statue of a man. An 18-year-old high schooler who's one of the top-ranked offensive linemen in the world.

1:11:22Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, Harrisburg High stud, Kevin Brown.

1:11:27Bruce Arians:Yay, Kevin!

1:11:30Pat McAfee:How you doing? Hey, I didn't want to gas you up too much, but I think people needed to understand who we're talking to here. You know, I hope you didn't get too embarrassed for that entire... Yeah, okay, good. Who do you have with you here, Kevin?

1:11:40Bruce Arians:I have my dad, my mom, and my grandma.

1:11:43Pat McAfee:I see, family, how are you doing? It's an honor to be a part of this day with your family. Dad, hell yeah. Thank you for your service to the West Virginia Mountaineers. And as an NFL stud, I appreciate the hell out of you. Now, Kevin, obviously, we talked about you being 6 '5", 285, and now the world knows your dad, NFL lineman as well, and NFL stud. How long has the recruiting process been for you, and how has it gone to get to this particular point? I know, obviously, with everything that happens in the college coaching role, it kind of changed it a little bit, but how has your recruiting time been in your life here, Kevin?

1:12:18I mean, it started when I was a freshman.

1:12:21Bruce Arians:Trout wine from Penn State recruited me, and then West Virginia was my second offer, and they just kept piling on from there. And then in July of my sophomore year, I committed to Penn State, and that was awesome. I was set in stone. I was ready to go to Penn State, and then James Franklin gets fired, and then I got to open it back up, and it was stressful, man. For the past two months, texting 10 coaches a day, and yeah I mean stressful but very blessed to be in the situation I'm in yeah anytime you have that

1:12:53Pat McAfee:much attention there's good reason there's a lot of hard work that has gone into you getting to this moment in your life and uh obviously when there's a change of a coach a change of an entire organization you're allowed to re-evaluate things as the school did for themselves after doing that uh I think now would be a great time to let the world know where you're headed next Kevin

1:13:13Bruce Arians:Yeah, I mean, I've been praying about it, thinking about it, talking to my parents, talking to coaches, and it's clear to me where I have to go. And I'm committing for the next three to four years, the University of West Virginia, baby. Yeah!

1:13:32Kevin!

1:13:34Pat McAfee:Let's go. Country roads, take me home to the place. It is

1:13:44Bruce Arians:I'm in on

1:13:47Pat McAfee:West Virginia Yo

1:13:50Bruce Arians:Yeah, buddy Congratulations Where are you taking this? I appreciate it I have a special surprise for you, man Alright, alright, alright You won't believe it, but Listen here His dad I'm bringing couch burning back to Morgantown, baby Let's do it Yo Some difficulties But We're gonna do it Okay Yeah My little brother, man.

1:14:14Pat McAfee:Uh-oh. There it goes. There it goes. Okay. Kevin, I like that. Kevin, I respect that. We're bringing it back, baby. Okay. Okay, the people, the Morgantown police aren't going to love that. But I'll tell you what. You're fine with it, man. You got one. Oh, yeah. Okay, we like the good old days out there, baby. Big commitment W, baby. Let's do it. Okay, I like that. we're celebrating for sure in Morgantown with you coming. Yes.

1:14:42Bruce Arians:Yes, yes, yes.

1:14:46Pat McAfee:Let's do it. Hey, Dad. Oh, that's hot, baby. Yeah, it's going to be hot, yeah. Yeah, you got to watch yourself. Listen, I'm not saying that. Oh, man, look at that fire. It's going. It's going. Let's go. Oh, that's amazing. Hey, Dad. Dad.

1:15:05Bruce Arians:Hold it still.

1:15:07Pat McAfee:Hey, Dad. Yes. Hell yeah, man. Getting your boy to go to West Virginia. I know you played for Coach Rod back in the day. What do you think of this whole thing? I'm obviously incredibly proud of our alma mater.

1:15:19Bruce Arians:Yes, I'm super.

1:15:21Pat McAfee:It's been a tough process because the situation at West Virginia – hold on one second. Hey, guys. Okay. Yeah, you got to do what you got to do. Yeah, Coach.

1:15:29Bruce Arians:Hey, the situation at West Virginia hasn't been good for the last couple years, and it's been tough with the last couple coaches. Once Rod came in, my stomach dropped because he's already committed to West Virginia. I mean, committed to Penn State. And it's been heartbreaking for me since he's been a sophomore because he's been committed so early. And then Franklin got fired, and all the situation at Penn State fell apart. So it's been such a blessing, actually.

1:15:56Pat McAfee:Yeah, hell yeah. Hell yeah. It really has been. And Kevin, let's talk about you. Yes, okay, so you grew up, obviously, a West Virginia fan, I would assume. I know you're in the Penn State area, so obviously you have friends and family from there. But with your dad going to West Virginia and obviously having a lot of pride in West Virginia, you grew up around the culture. You grew up around Coach Rod and everybody? Yeah, grew up.

1:16:19Bruce Arians:I mean, no, not Coach Rod, Holgerson.

1:16:22Pat McAfee:Okay, got it.

1:16:23Bruce Arians:Yeah, it was not the West Virginia culture we know today. Like, we went to our practice one day and they kicked us out. Like, not a good feeling.

1:16:30Pat McAfee:Yeah, yeah, got it, got it, got it. And then my sophomore year, I went to West Virginia on a visit, and the O-line coach didn't even watch my film. Okay. All right. Let's not talk about those things.

1:16:40Bruce Arians:Let's not talk about those things. Let's talk about the future. Let's talk about the future. They didn't talk to me either. I took my OV this summer, and, like, holy cow, like, totally changed. I went to Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, and West Virginia's facilities, coaches, and everything was just elite.

1:16:59Pat McAfee:Hell, yeah. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. I can't wait to watch you change the program. I can't wait to watch you kind of experience life. I will keep in touch. Please tell your dad and family. We said thank you. And Kevin, good luck out there, brother. You're the man. I appreciate it. Hell yeah. Ladies and gentlemen. Yeah. Hell yeah. That's West Virginia University Mountaineer Kevin Brown. Yeah. You guys are mad, man. Wow. I have a surprise for you at the end. Yeah. Is what he told me. I had no idea what it was. I had no idea what that was. I thought it was like a painting. Yeah. I talked to him this morning.

1:17:31Pat McAfee:I've gotten a chance to catch up with him here. I mean, you're talking about a guy that's committed to ball, bro. I mean, just like all these other guys that we talked to, AJ. And obviously, Ohio State was on the board there, and we did keep AJ off the screen. Wait a minute. Is that AJ Hawks? Yeah, we did. Yeah, there was no way you were going to slide in there. Okay, there was no way you were going to slide in there. Obviously, Penn State was a part of the original commitment, and then whenever they changed their mind, he did the same thing. And I wasn't letting B.A. talk in there either. You should have hired Frank Alessio.

1:18:02Pat McAfee:Yeah, exactly. So we were keeping everybody off camera for that particular time. That's huge for West Virginia, AJ. Obviously, you guys experience this at Ohio State a lot, but with what Coach Rod is trying to build, we got a freshman quarterback in Scotty Fox who's a dog, okay? He's an absolute dog, a beast, this guy. Not scared of anything. And then we get like a tone setter offensive lineman. I think it kind of sets the stage for what type of team we want to be and what a hard-edged team is. I think it's like a big precedent setter for the entire culture, this type of shit, AJ.

1:18:33Bruce Arians:Oh, absolutely. And just, I mean, after these, I love watching the highlights of him, but that first still shot, that photo you guys had of him, kind of like at a camp or whatever it was, that's a high school kid. He hasn't even grown into his body yet. That's what's freakish about all that. And talk about like a legacy. His dad played there. His dad understands what it's about, and he seems to already understand the culture. Man, like that's a big day for West Virginia, honestly.

1:18:55Pat McAfee:Yeah, huge day for us. It seems like a huge day for the dad, too.

1:18:58Bruce Arians:Oh, God.

1:18:59Pat McAfee:Really cool. This clip is awesome. This is his huddle. This is the first minute of his huddle highlight. There is more, obviously. And he's only going to continue. They're in the, I think, the quarterfinals of the state this upcoming Friday. I think he, you know, he talked about all the text messages and everything that was happening throughout the last couple months since the Penn State change with that. I think he was excited to get this. Oh, I bet. It felt like he was excited to kind of get it out there. What a moment. And then, hey, we are taking it back, he said. Get the couches ready. And I like how primed they had.

1:19:32Pat McAfee:Do you see the gasoline there? Oh, yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah, they had gas ready for that thing. They've lit a fire or two before. I'll say. I mean, they have certainly been around it.

1:19:40Bruce Arians:For sure. There's no doubt about that.

1:19:42Pat McAfee:What a moment, though, there, Coach. Like, honestly.

1:19:44Bruce Arians:Yeah, that's one of the biggest days of your life. When you get it all off of you, you're committed and you're excited, and you get to sign that scholarship, it's amazing.

1:19:52Pat McAfee:And now we just kind of focus on just going forward with ball. Now, granted, there's a chance, you know. I mean, West Virginia fucks around and wins the national championship next year.

1:20:04Bruce Arians:I don't see why not. Okay. Thank God Rich Rod's back. That tape, I mean, old line coach didn't even watch it. Just watched three plays. What's going on? That's in the past.

1:20:13Pat McAfee:We don't know. That's what I'm saying. Thank God Rich Rod's back. We don't, you know. I wasn't really. I mean, I won in the Hall of Fame this year. It wasn't because of previous years, I don't believe. You know, there isn't necessarily that. But on that note, I think each team was trying their best for West Virginia. You know, like each organization kind of ran themselves a little bit differently. I think when Dana got to West Virginia, they went to the Big 12. It was like a big difference. They painted the walls, basically. It was like, hey, we're a brand new team. I think they tried to get better in schooling.

1:20:45Pat McAfee:Like the academics, like they tried to re-franchise almost every part of it. And they had success, you know, because Gino and Tavon were unbelievably electrifying. and they won a BCS game, so it was a big deal, you know? So they had a brand-new era almost. So our era that had just basically finished, which was the most successful maybe ever. Now, the boys back in the day could have been in the national championship, so I don't want to disrespect them, but Pat White won five bowl games, including his senior bowl, two of them being BCS. And if it wasn't for a kicker missing a couple kicks in the first quarter, we probably, in the national championship, he probably wins it as well.

1:21:17Pat McAfee:So we were an unbelievable team, but they were trying to move on from our era. They were trying to move on from the Rich Rod. They were trying to move on from everything we were. So I understand what they were trying to do. It didn't work out. And then Neil Bryan comes in, and that didn't work. And that was vastly different than what I had experienced. It was hard for, I think, our group to relate to these groups as well, just because vastly different styles of everything. Just everything was completely different. So then Rich Rod comes back, and it almost felt like, I think, the group that played for him at the beginning felt like oh we're allowed or we're welcome back home again because we're allowed to talk about everything that kind of happened in the past and i think that's what shined through right there in that conversation the most where some of the things he wanted to say is like it felt like kevin was like i wanted to be a west virginia guy yeah yeah like i wanted my dad was in there but like they were so focused on like not thinking about the past like this guy played for the last we're not even thinking about that we're trying to do it differently you know if that would have worked it would have been great but obviously richrod's back and now it feels like there's a little bit of a hard edge.

1:22:22Pat McAfee:Joining us now is a man who's just looking for this far. It's always looking for. Head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers. A man who cannot say a recruit's name in public or on media until they sign a commitment scholarship. Head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineer football team, Rich Rodriguez. Hey, coach. How you doing, coach? What's going on, guys? Hey.

1:22:46Bruce Arians:Hey, I hope we're having a good day, I guess. Yeah, yeah.

1:22:49Pat McAfee:I think you're having a pretty good day. There's a celebration happening around West Virginia. Obviously, you can't say any names of any recruits, but what does the future look like for the West Virginia Mountaineers on this particular day?

1:23:01Bruce Arians:Well, I can't say any names of any recruits, but we're having a great day. I hear there's couches that are burning. You know, there's – and this mount has now gotten down to that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. From what I understand. So it's all good. It's a process. But BA can tell you, it's sure a hell of a lot easier to get that much when you got big people that move other big people against their will.

1:23:31Pat McAfee:OK, so let's talk about people that can do that. I have learned of these 18 year olds that are like, I don't know, 6 '4 to 6 '6 range, like 275 to like 295. It feels like at a younger age, they're getting more strong, more mature. But also off the field, it feels like they understand business more. We just talked to a guy who committed to a place. He said he had been recruited basically since his freshman year. This is also during the NIL era. Whenever you're talking to future players of your team, does it feel like they're a more mature bunch? And does it feel like they're able to understand what you're looking for easier?

1:24:07Pat McAfee:Because it feels like you have to be able to buy into the culture if you really want to transform a place.

1:24:12Bruce Arians:Yeah, there is. But you know what, Pat? You still, as a coach, you want to find a guy that has all those athletic ability, the size, the speed, the strength, the athleticism, but also a guy that just loves football, not likes it, but loves it and needs it. And if you find that guy that has all that ability and size and strength and all that, and he really loves football, he loves the work, he loves the hard-edged mentality, then you've got everything you want in a guy. And that's what we're doing or trying to get right now. We want those guys. And they're out there. Yes, they are. And they're going to come, and some of them are going to come to West Virginia.

1:24:50Bruce Arians:Yes, they are.

1:24:51Pat McAfee:And that's what they're going to do. Hey, they're going to win some games. And I think we're going to put a product on a field that resembles the old school days. I don't know if you've kept in touch or kept up with West Virginia football since you leave and obviously have your own coaching journey and what West Virginia kind of went through and the cycles of it all. but it does have a lot of people saying hey it feels like the old days now obviously you were coaching in the old days but from the people that i talked to that went back for the sugar bowl reunion and even from other sports basketball players even were like hey this feels like the times when west virginia sports was something that was unique different than everybody else playing a different style and a different type of edge hard edge than everybody else but also successful does it feel like that right now and is this what you were envisioning when you chose to come back.

1:25:36Bruce Arians:Yeah, it did, Pat. You know, we knew we were going to have some road bumps. We didn't expect to be playing four quarterbacks and five tailbacks and all that kind of stuff injury-wise, but we also knew that we had to make sure we set the culture the first year. You know, no matter what happens, our culture, our hard edge, our work ethic, our toughness, all those kind of stuff has to be set this year, and that's painful sometimes in the process of doing that, but we think we're getting there we're not all the way there and it's a hell of a lot easier to do that when you get the right guys on your roster which we have some but we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna have a whole lot more too and yeah you know this time next year uh we expect to be talking about the playoffs and winning championships and all that stuff hell yeah hell yeah me too connor has a question for you yeah coach how big is it when you land recruits or guys in the transfer portal that are very familiar with the rich rod hard edge way do you feel as though that kind of gives you a leg up and what do you think that says about the hard edge way when people are aware of what it means and they still want to come play for you yeah that that that's a good point you know you you know we think we could train if you once the culture is established the only ones you got to teach other new ones coming in right but still it's it's is it difficult a little bit more different nowadays i say compared to like 20 years ago you tell a guy hey just run through the wall he'll do it not ask any questions now they'll still do it but they want to know why if you don't get in the right answer they'll google and say well i ain't what it says on google So the damn guys are smarter now.

1:27:03Bruce Arians:But that doesn't mean they're not willing to do it. And I think as a coach, you cannot sacrifice that part of it. That doesn't mean we're like grinding full pads every day and knocking the crap out of each other every minute. But it does mean you have to be mentally and physically tough. And to me, I don't think that just serves you well in football, but it serves you well the next 40, 50 years of life. If a young guy thinks I'm not going to face adversity in the next 50 years of my life, you're crazy or you're smoking a lot more weed than I think. You know what I'm saying?

1:27:32Pat McAfee:Well, I don't know if I was smoking more than he thought.

1:27:35Bruce Arians:So the guy's got to understand there's going to be adversity. And we want our guys to learn to handle adversity better than anybody in the country. And not just on the field, but off the field.

1:27:45Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think I feel like I am a product of your Rich Rodriguez football camp, I would say, as life. And also, Mike Barwis. I mean, you and Mike Barowice together. I'm not saying, no, because we like Mike Joseph. Mike Joseph is a great strength coach. We're not going to talk about it. But you and Mike Barowice together were something that set me up for the rest of my life, for sure. And I think there's a lot of people, go ahead.

1:28:09Bruce Arians:Yeah, but you had the hardest edge of any specialist I've ever had. Thank you. And so, but I'm a truth. And then every guy after that, every specialist after that said, well, you know, if you want to know what kind of hard edge you're supposed to be as a kicker or a punter or a specialist, Just watch Pat McAfee. You know what I mean? And that, to me, is how we built our program, you know, 20 years ago. And that's how we can build it today.

1:28:31Pat McAfee:Yeah, they need to make more kicks than me. But, God damn it, you can throw the body around a little bit if you need to. Let's talk about, though, his dad. Sorry, not his dad. Actually, let's get out of here.

1:28:43Bruce Arians:Let's talk about our former players. You know the thing I feel best about. This sounds kind of Pollyanna-ish. You know, the ultimate goal is to win championships and all that. But if every player that ever played for me or in our program, and you ask them 20 years from now, would you do it all over again at the same place with the same people? And they said yes, then we did our job. So I feel really, really proud when I have former players of mine that are now, I'm so old, they either got their kids or somebody they coach or something like that, that they recommend to play for us. That, to me, feels an awful lot of pride in our program.

1:29:16Pat McAfee:Yeah, and everybody feels welcome back and wants to go back and wants to talk shit about being a part of what you built there. You need to know that. Like, that reunion I watched from afar I wasn't able to be at, obviously, because College Game Day kind of infringes on all these Saturday things. I'm lucky to be a part of it. I'm not saying it's not, but there's been a lot of great things that have happened at West Virginia this year that I haven't been able to make it to that would have been sweet because of College Game Day. But on that note, I was following along with everybody that weekend.

1:29:39Pat McAfee:They're like, everybody's pumped. Like, everybody's pumped. And Scotty Fox, and even though, you know, you lose this past week, just get this much. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right there. we'll fix that yeah i heard i heard you got yep i heard you're gonna find i heard you're gonna find maybe some people to help fix that on that last question here from ty schmidt yeah coach when it

1:29:59Bruce Arians:comes to a press conference like that how how hard is it to keep your composure and not just jump some guy's ass when you know you there it's very clear hey there's one point i want to get across here i know you guys are asking me a bunch of other questions there's one point i'm trying to get across right here and did you feel after the fact like you know what i'm really proud of myself that is that is a big you know moment of personal growth for me because in years past i might have just jumped that guy's ass and that guy's ass and that guy's ass yeah i've matured over the years not completely 100 i still got he didn't see me 15 minutes before that uh presser in the locker room i was not i wasn't a pleasant person but i i've learned to cool down take my 10 minutes before i talk to the fine media that are asking the fine questions and then go out there and i didn't have a speed bag on the road to hit before i had my press conference so i had to take 10 minutes and

1:30:55Pat McAfee:take it out on the lockers you after an answer taking a drink breathing okay and then they ask you they ask you about scotty fox and you want to continue to just talk about how i am so disgusted that our team cannot get it. Like, everything that is against the hard edge in Rich Rodriguez's football is being able to get this when the other team knows that you need it. All you want to talk about was that. And then they go, tell us about Scottie Fox. And you watch your brain go, I like Scottie Fox.

1:31:23Bruce Arians:He's a competitor. This guy's a good player. It starts with big people moving other people against their will. And when we get that part fixed, we will no longer have this in the press conference. Yeah, that's right.

1:31:36Pat McAfee:I can't wait to watch it. It seems like today might have been a good day to get rid of that right there. That's what I hear. Yeah.

1:31:42Bruce Arians:I hear a great stuff. Yeah, don't talk about it.

1:31:44Pat McAfee:Don't talk about it, ladies and gentlemen. Don't talk about it. Yeah, yeah, Coach Rob. Yeah, Coach. Not allowed to say, we were dancing there close. I was getting real too close. Me to saying his name. And I think it would have kind of carried over there. Let's not ruin the day. But, I mean, that is a, yeah, that's a pillar mover, you know, for us. Legit. Massive. And thank you, Kevin.

1:32:06Bruce Arians:Imagine the effect it has. Sorry about that. I'm sorry. But imagine the way that watching him finish, the highlights that you keep running, watching him finish every single play, sometimes three, four, five, six guys on the ground. Just having one guy like that on your O-line has such a trickle-down effect. It makes everybody play better. If your whole O-line is doing that, good luck anybody stopping you.

1:32:27Pat McAfee:And listen to his dad talk. I've been heartbroken since sophomore year. He was going to be a Mountaineer because what was going on with Virginia was just not what I was looking for. Like, he O-linemen, too, in the past. And I got a chance to chat with Kevin over the last 24 hours, you know, and kind of learn a little bit about him. His dad, obviously, very active in the, hey, this is how we're doing his O-linemen. And he is, since a boy, like, hey, this guy is going to be a people mover. That is what he is. So his mentality is old-school offensive linemen as well. And I think his lifestyle is old-school offensive linemen mentality.

1:32:58Pat McAfee:Him coming on the show to do that, I don't think was, like, necessarily his thing. I think they were like, hey, would you? And he was like, yeah, I'll do it. I don't want to do the hats and all that. Yesterday he was even asking like, what am I supposed to, should I do like a hat thing? I don't. I was like, I think you should do some sort of declaration that you're headed there. Do I need a camera? I don't even, like he did not, like old school offense still had the whole thing. Yeah, AirPods, what do I, how do I even do it? So it's like, this guy might be, even though he looks like Captain America and Mr.

1:33:29Pat McAfee:Incredible and all those different things that are cartoonish characters that you don't think can actually be in real life because they seemingly are too perfect of humans. His jawline is literally a home plate. I mean, it really is. And his hair flows. But in mentality, I think he's like an old-school, old-school offensive lineman. And, geez, if you're Rich Rodriguez, that is the exact thing that you need on this team.

1:33:48Bruce Arians:Yeah, he's more Paul Bunyan than Captain America, which is kind of exactly what you want in alignment. But how big is it, too, just having a guy in your recruiting class that can tell the other recruits, like, hey, this is what it's going to be. Like, that kid knows probably more than anybody who's going to be a freshman or even transfer in there that hasn't been part of a Rich Rod program. Like, my dad has taught me and has prepared me for what this is. I've heard about it my whole life. Like, that also just radiates throughout the rest of the freshman class. And, like, to your point about he didn't really know what to do, it feels like the only thing he wanted to do was burn that fuck.

1:34:19Bruce Arians:Yeah, yeah.

1:34:20Pat McAfee:Last night he was like, oh, I got a surprise for you at the very end of this. Like, he was, like, teasing this last night. Then I talked to him this morning. He's like, just wait until the very end. Can't tell you.

1:34:28Bruce Arians:Yeah, I can't tell you.

1:34:29Pat McAfee:You're not going to see it. And then this is local media.

1:34:32Bruce Arians:Nailed it. Local media. Think they put it out yet? You think they put it out?

1:34:35Pat McAfee:Now fire? Yeah, that thing's burning to the ground, brother. You let that one go out. You know, you celebrate that thing kind of living its full fire life. You know, you let the final bristles burn out there. I've seen a couple of those, you know, the final flames of a few different cultures. I'll tell you, the Morgantown Police Department is not going to be bumped about that. I mean, they've tried to put an end to that pretty quickly. They were giving citations to people through social media posts. So, yeah, they were, like, finding people in pictures of fires on couches this year, earlier this year.

1:35:02Pat McAfee:And I was getting messages, like, hey, you need to do something. It's like, I don't know. You want me to do? I don't know. I don't know. What are you doing? I'm trying to be the mayor. What do you want me to be the mayor? I will run next year, I guess. I don't know. How long is the terms? I don't know what I can do. But, yeah, I guess they thought, I guess, say, Morgantown decided that that was not necessarily the best thing to happen. And I would like to speak, I guess, from the perspective of the Morgantown Police Department and Morgantown people that voted for that. there were some nights there we were winning a lot we were winning a lot of things i mean we were winning a lot of things too much we had a lot to celebrate that's a uconn grad over there who was in the big east west virginia was winning all over the place i mean big games big moments multiple sports night games every all year we're doing this all year and boy that it wasn't i don't think the hardest school to get into normally good time crowd went to west virginia from new jersey you know a lot of new jersey a lot of east coast in there west virginia people are good time people so a lot of good time people a lot of opportunity a lot of very big successful moments i mean we we had good times out there there was a lot of partying and the couches became the thing what doesn't get talked about with the couches is obviously the couch is right in the middle of the street stacked up like six wide okay six down head to toe bam bam bam bam bam right down the middle of the street there's cars next to you know some of these things start one obviously start trying to start them all but they will eventually carry into themselves what the ripple effect is it that nobody really thinks about that i saw the first time i was really a part of one people are throwing shit into fire sure so now you're getting bottles tossed into couch fire so now you know uh boom boom boom from houses boom you know so you got fireworks thrown into

1:36:43Bruce Arians:the fires too sometimes there's some fireworks in there not water bottles either no yeah no no

1:36:47Pat McAfee:No, not water. We're talking glass bottles out there. Obviously, they're going. And then what's the broken glass? That song plays. And then people come running out. And then there's more. So I've seen an entire streak is kind of taken out, you know, just like bottles underneath cars, cars partially burnt, you know, like the rearview mirror. So, I mean, it does get a bit dangerous, I guess. But if there's one Koch in a neighborhood that wants to kind of be celebrated a little bit, I think that's going to probably continue to happen.

1:37:14Bruce Arians:They win 10 games next year. I have a feeling that they're going to be turning some blind eyes. They're going to build a couch park. Yeah, dog park, put a couch park. Come out and burn all your couches in the park. Throw your bottles in here. Okay. No cars.

1:37:28Pat McAfee:We're good. Owen Schmidt actually, I think, pitched that idea to me the last time that we were back there. We were like, I don't know, maybe a lot of beers, a lot of beers, a lot of whiskeys. I mean, a lot of them deep. And I was like, what's going to happen with the whole couch fire thing? Because at that time, it was starting to get talked about how they're going to maybe arrest people for this entire thing. and i'm like well it's kind of a part of the culture i don't know how you just kind of get rid of that he goes we need to make a place that just is kind of built for it and say hey either we'll supply the couch you just go have like run a corner like it's a golf sim you know basically like kind of get your own little area where you do it he's like this is what needs to happen feels like you're thinking the same thing oh yeah it would have to be just what a massive parking

1:38:07Bruce Arians:lot right yeah yeah nothing around it that could catch fire that's the main thing don't want to get to anything else.

1:38:13Pat McAfee:Whatever the case, Kevin Brown is going to be just throwing people on the field as soon as that game's over. I mean.

1:38:23Pat McAfee:Couch maybe. There you go. Two couches.

1:38:26Bruce Arians:Two of them. Both shoulders.

1:38:28Pat McAfee:Shout out to West Virginia. We're having a good week. Let's go. We up. Basketball

1:38:34Bruce Arians:recruit. Don't remember his name. He's Canadian though. Miles. Miles.

1:38:44Pat McAfee:Miles. Miles Adler. Miles Adler. I don't know. Sadler, I think. Sadler. Miles Sadler. Miles Sadler. Boom. Boom. Thank you, WVU Barstool. Breaking five-star. Miles Sadler's the other day. Now, Kevin Brown, 6 '5", 285. Offense alignment. What will tomorrow bring? I'm joking. I said that yesterday because I knew this was happening. I don't have anything. Let's move along. Let's get back to some NFL football conversation, shall we, AJ? You know, every week we have a coach who coached football for 47 years, and there's different narratives that are maybe starting to build around the NFL. So we want to ask him if it's BS or no BS with BA.

1:39:24Pat McAfee:What we'll do is we'll read some statements of fact that maybe some fans feel, and BA will tell us if it's BS, which stands for bullshit, or is it no BS, which is no bullshit. Let's get started, Con, man.

1:39:36Bruce Arians:Yeah, BA, analytics are in football, And so the statement is some of these nerds' stats are ruining football, particularly the commanders in Lions this past weekend. No bullshit. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I mean, come on. This go for it on fourth and one with a minute 20 left, you kick the field goal and go ahead and win again. Trust your defense. You know, tie ball game? Now, I see it in the first quarter, you know, but not at the end of the game. And then, you know, the Lions, they were 0 for 6.

1:40:09Pat McAfee:Yeah.

1:40:09Bruce Arians:And this one, I know there was a lot of win. It didn't affect Jake Elliott. And it didn't affect Bates at the end. He kicked the bomb down there, no problem.

1:40:17Pat McAfee:And big games, three points are huge. And we're not saying that all these stats are. No, no. Just in big games, this going forward on fourth down has gotten out of hand.

1:40:27Bruce Arians:Kick the damn field goals and put points on the board.

1:40:29Pat McAfee:There's no context to these stats. This is a big game. KG Affair. Points are at a premium right now. Let's go ahead and take that. The book can't tell you how the whole rest of the game has been going, that your eyes and your body has felt, right, is what you're saying?

1:40:40Bruce Arians:Yeah, and I was just on that committee. We interviewed 20 head coaches in college, and one guy actually had the book. And it's like, you have the book? And, yeah, I don't use it, but if I need it, I know what it says, but this game is about heart and feel. And that is what this game is about.

1:41:00Pat McAfee:Hold on, hold on, hold on. So you're interviewing these guys, 20 guys. And you go, you know, there's some book that says you should make game time decisions. First thing I ask him. And this guy goes, I actually have the book. And in your mind, you said, not hiring this guy. And then you had to have a fake conversation with him? No, I had a good, and I will hire this guy because he doesn't follow it.

1:41:17Bruce Arians:He just knows what it says. He said, that book doesn't know if my right guard can block that damn three technique.

1:41:22Pat McAfee:Okay, so he understands. He understands football. Yeah, yeah.

1:41:25Bruce Arians:Not the mathematicians don't understand football.

1:41:28Pat McAfee:Yeah.

1:41:28Bruce Arians:They just know numbers.

1:41:29Pat McAfee:Yeah. 80 % of the time this happens. Well, what about that 20 %? And what if that's tonight in a game that very much matters for our livelihoods?

1:41:36Bruce Arians:Yeah, I mean, for me, it's gotten completely out of hand, and it's a total fucking excuse.

1:41:42Pat McAfee:Oh, the book told me to go for it. No accountability. Exactly. Book. Gone. Yeah, blame the book. It's an analytics, like, Bible. Yeah, who had it? Will you tell us who? Who wrote that? Who wrote that? Yeah, who wrote the book? We know who wrote the book. Billy Walter.

1:41:56Bruce Arians:Bernie Adams. Oh, yeah. It's in the book. Oh, yeah, you're right. I don't think it's Billy Walter's sports gambling book. Seth. The guy we just, he was on the internet. Who? Follow us. Forgot his last name. Walder. Seth Walder. Boom, he wrote it.

1:42:11Pat McAfee:Oh. Or Lord Sharp. He might have wrote it. He has. He does have a big book. He might have like the New Testament of this one. Yeah. The book. It's the Old Testament of this one. Who else writes? Yeah, who else writes? Did Diggs write one of them? Did you write the book on ball?

1:42:32Pat McAfee:no wasn't told okay who wrote the book

1:42:36Bruce Arians:that's a big that's a million dollar question

1:42:38Pat McAfee:everybody has it

1:42:40Bruce Arians:nobody's got it

1:42:41Pat McAfee:nobody knew who the fuck wrote it it wasn't Shula it wasn't Lombardi for sure did you have an analytics I guess department that had that can get your ear during a game no towards any never I refuse to okay a lot of people do

1:42:57Bruce Arians:and it's the hottest thing going and I would probably if I was back in coaching, I would say, yes, shut the fuck up.

1:43:07Bruce Arians:Thank you for your input. Shut the fuck up.

1:43:14Pat McAfee:It's a new profession for people. Each team has one of these people that are basically in the year, 64 % of the time on this particular down or against this particular front, you're able to pick it up on the run versus pass. 68 % of the time you should say you should go for this instead of a punt Don't want to kick a field goal because that would work out. Somebody's doing that. And not necessarily always that voice. That's unfair of me to do that voice. But that information is getting delivered to somebody. That's a whole new job. There's a whole new department. There's stats departments now, let alone stats coordinators who are messaging in information throughout days.

1:43:46Pat McAfee:And I love that you're like, yeah, don't need to hear it. We're not hiring any of them. Can our team run the ball to the right? That's what I thought. We need to play. We're running it to the right. That's a hilarious part. I'm going to run behind Joe Thomas. Yeah, exactly.

1:43:59Bruce Arians:Yeah, I'll make it behind you, Thomas. But if you look at two or three of the most dysfunctional organizations in the league right now, analytics. Okay.

1:44:09Pat McAfee:He just sat back, too. Did you hear that? Yeah. He did the whole, excuse me. There's a moment of silence here immediately for your brain to shatter as I just said everything that you guys have been pitching is wrong. Old school football still back on top. More analytics, not necessarily great. Better analytics, good, though. Yeah. Like having analytics is good.

1:44:29Bruce Arians:I think part of the puzzle. It's all part of it. Yeah. I think it's all part of it. Like coach BA says, like, yeah, you've got to trust your instincts and your feel and you've got to know matchups too. Like where, where do we have an, like an advantage when it comes to matchups? I don't, I don't know analytics and all the book well enough to know if it can take any of that into account. You didn't write it. I didn't. And we don't know. It's what is it? Bitcoin. We don't know who started it. We don't know who wrote kind of no, no,

1:44:50Pat McAfee:get some answers. There's some answers out there. And I don't know if I'm on the right side of history or not still at this moment with all the information coming out on that stuff. You know, because I, oh, I'm on the right side? Yeah, you're on the right side for sure. Okay, what they're saying.

1:45:04Bruce Arians:I don't know. Okay, see. I'm holding. You never know.

1:45:10Pat McAfee:Let's move along. We don't need to talk about that. But the book is certainly a weapon if it's utilized that way as opposed to being like a way of life, the book is. because to your point, I never liked whenever it was just kind of blamed on numbers. So whenever they put it up on the screen, it always says go, go, go, go, go, go, go. It feels like it's always an excuse for the team to go for it, which I think is better for TV and everything like that. But, man, if you look in the eyes of your offensive line and those boys feel defeated, I think the stats are going to be a little bit different that particular evening on that particular fourth quarter than maybe in years past.

1:45:44Are you strictly by the book on the blackjack table or you play more like Bill?

1:45:47Pat McAfee:I'm a field guy, but I'm a book guy as well. I'm a book culture guy So 16, if you hit it from the beginning You do that the rest of the day I'm hitting on 16, yes, because my hand doesn't even qualify So I need to qualify to at least play

1:45:59Bruce Arians:It's different than football analytics When it comes to the book and blackjack Yeah, I will hit on 16 Now granted, I'm splitting

1:46:06Pat McAfee:And putting more money on the table if they have a bus card Some people around me do not get happy about that But if I have the opportunity to split And or double down, get more money on the table When they have three Maybe, three is kind of a dancer with me but if they got four or five or six out on showing, I'm trying to get as much shit on the table as possible. Not everybody loves that, and I don't think that's necessarily by the book. Okay, like maybe a six you should do that, not a four. For me, I see four out there and I have an opportunity to split, and then I get a chance to double down.

1:46:35Pat McAfee:Oh, let's do this thing. And then that pisses some people off, I do believe, in the blackjack book from my understanding.

1:46:40Bruce Arians:Also kind of separates the great coaches from the good ones too, the ones that use analytics when it is needed And when they ignore it and decide, no, now's my time where I can – the dagger play with the Eagles in the Super Bowl, you could argue. It's like, hey, you're midfield. You're already up big. Do you just run out the clock, kind of continue to chew this thing out? Or do you take that dagger shot and go up by four touchdowns instead of three and a field goal? And that's football.

1:47:07Pat McAfee:That's football. I understand football. So you're saying that there's some of these nerd stats are ruining football. That's no BS. Let's go to the next BS or no BS would be a tie.

1:47:16Bruce Arians:Yeah, Coach, there's a thought that outside of the NFC East, the NFC stands for no fudging clue on who's going to win. Is that BS or no BS, B.A.? That's no BS, man. I mean, you look at those three divisions. December football is going to be great this year.

1:47:35Pat McAfee:That's one part of NFL scheduling I really like. Now, I don't like playing a team two times in three weeks like the Bucs and the Panthers are going to have to do. But all those teams play each other in December.

1:47:46Bruce Arians:December football is going to be outstanding. That's when it's supposed to be decided. And the entire NFC, other than the Eagles probably. And it's going to be really fun to see who makes that wild card, that last wild card, because there's some really good teams not going to make it this year.

1:47:59Pat McAfee:Yeah, here's the road to the playoffs for each one of the teams that currently lead their divisions. Obviously, the Eagles in the East is who B.A. is talking about, not really having a fudging question about whether or not they're going to win the division. Every other division in the NFC is potentially up for grabs. Everybody has a lot of wins. Everybody is kind of in the same exact plane. And a couple wins one week, a couple losses the other week. You can completely have a full shift from four to one in the NFC side. So that means that wild card is going to be – what do you think – what number do you think is the wild card right now with where everybody's sitting?

1:48:32Pat McAfee:Can you put the records back up for the teams in the NFC? Yeah, here we go. So NFC, look at that. Seven, six, six, four in the north. Six, six, three, and two. You could kind of rule out the Saints out of this entire thing. Probably the Falcons as well. 8-7-7 over there in the West, and then 8-4-3-2. I guess the East is over. How many wins do you think make you the wild card?

1:48:52Bruce Arians:You're going to have to have 10. You're going to have to have 10. I mean, there's been 11 and 16 not making. This could be a year for that, too, and a tiebreaker. You know, the tiebreaker is going to be huge.

1:49:02Pat McAfee:All those fantasies, that's going to be fun going down in December watching it this year. Here's the current NFC playoff situation with the Lions and Panthers lurking. Congrats to the Panthers. Yeah. Congrats to the Panthers being in that conversation. Yes, indeed.

1:49:15Bruce Arians:I'm going to shout out to Harold Goodwin, man, their run game coordinator. He's got it going, man.

1:49:20Pat McAfee:Goody's obviously got him rolling, and Bryce Young just broke a franchise record. Eagles, Rams, Bears, Bucs, Seahawks, Packers, and Niners round out the top seven in the NFC right now. That could all change, except for probably up at one and two, if we had to guess, because obviously the other divisions can be up for grabs. Let's go to the third. BS or no BS with B.A. Let's do it. The most disappointing teams in the NFL this season are the Falcons, Bengals, Cardinals, Commanders, Dolphins, and Raiders. Is that BS or no BS, B.A.?

1:49:50Bruce Arians:That's total BS. What? The most disappointing team in the league is the Kansas City Chiefs. Whoa! We went from winning 12-0 in one-score games to 0-6 in one-score games. How does that happen in one year with the same players? Same coaching staff. I kept saying Chiefs are going to pull it out. Chiefs are going to pull it out. And they keep losing these closed games. And they got their guys back now. So they're fully healthy. Something's missing. And I don't know what it is because I love Andy Reid. I love Spags. I think they're all great coaches. But, you know, that throw by Patrick Mahomes, that didn't happen last year.

1:50:27Bruce Arians:Never, yeah. That never happened. And something's missing with this team, and I don't know what it is, but they're disappointing to me. Most disappointing.

1:50:35Pat McAfee:I think we all are not expecting this Chiefs team to be the way that they currently are. Sportsbooks are still scared to death that they're going to go on a run. I think everybody is because they, just like you just stated, they're always going to turn it on. They're going to turn it on. Patrick Mahomes has been taking a lot of hits this year, a lot of hits. He's been running the ball a lot. He's been getting shot. I think some of his passes may be different than what they have been in the past. Is Patrick Mahomes a little bit different than maybe he was? Is the offense a little bit different?

1:50:59Pat McAfee:Maybe they find their groove. Maybe this is just a down year for the Chiefs in the middle of their dynasty, and they're going to have to ask some hard questions at the end of the season. Oh, no.

1:51:06Bruce Arians:Well, we'll also see because we said, like, I don't know if you would say it's a must win, but it kind of is. Like, this Sunday against the Colts is kind of a must-win game for them. And then they have a short week turnaround. They play the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. And that'll be kind of the big – like, if they go out there and beat the hell out of the Cowboys on Thanksgiving with 50 million, you know, 70 million people watching it, I think that following Monday people will be like, oh, wow. Wait a minute. Chiefs are all the way back.

1:51:31Pat McAfee:Chiefs is still the Chiefs. Yeah. Because we're just looking for something. Exactly. As a Chiefs fan, all I'm doing is looking for something in there that resembles the Chiefs. and then you watch them kind of play against Broncos, and it's like, I'm a little worried about this.

1:51:44Bruce Arians:Good kick by a bunker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But aside from that. I already can't point to one thing, though. Like, you can't point to, like, one glaring weakness that's going on. It just looks weird. It looks discombobulated.

1:51:54Pat McAfee:Hold up, boys. Good luck. And I'm disappointed as well. And then we added a last one just to kind of test your integrity here. BS or no BSBA, James Franklin will have the Hokies of Virginia Tech in the ACC championship game in three years.

1:52:08Bruce Arians:That's no BS for sure, brother. He's going to have them going. And he should have hired him last week, and we could maybe talk him to a different couch burner over there.

1:52:16Pat McAfee:No, no, no, no. He had those country roads, taking them home.

1:52:23Bruce Arians:He had poppin'. That's a great one for him. I love when sons, father, fathers.

1:52:28Pat McAfee:But on that note, James Franklin had him to Penn State, and then whenever Penn State leaves James, he's like, all right. James Franklin got him out of his West Virginia family, and that's how good of a coach he is. I think that's how much people respect him. And I think it's a perfect hire for Virginia Tech.

1:52:41Bruce Arians:Honestly. Awesome. Yeah, he does a great job. He'll do a hell of a job recruiting. And, you know, his record speaks for itself.

1:52:48Pat McAfee:All right, on the way out here on ESPN, we have two B.A. game balls. Let's start with the NFC. Bryce Young. 31-45, 4-48, three touchdowns and 30-27 OT win over Atlanta. A lot of questions, obviously, around Atlanta. Quarterback gets hurt. Wide receiver gets hurt. Carolina Panthers are now lurking. Congrats to them and to Bryce Young. and the AFCBA game ball is Jaquan McMillan. Wow. Six tackles, two sacks, one interception. I love that you're giving it to a defensive guy. It was hard not to give it to Josh Allen because of what he did,

1:53:18Bruce Arians:but that was an unbelievable performance in the biggest game of the week, I thought.

1:53:22Pat McAfee:Three touchdowns on the ground, three through the sky. Who's Josh Allen? Get him out of here. First Bronco to ever put that stat lined up. Yep. Warrington, congrats to him.

1:53:31Bruce Arians:First game of his career. Shout out to you, B.A.

1:53:33Pat McAfee:We continue. He's been around. We continue digitally. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. Really nailed that one. Even had that on the end. And we lost Hawker, I guess. Yeah, I saw that happen. Hawker dropped off. All right, let's go to a break. And then on the other side, we're going to go through all the storylines that we haven't covered. And then we're going to launch into the greatest Tuesday evening of all time. Hell yeah. Because tonight, we get to watch.

1:54:01Bruce Arians:Southeastern Missouri versus Iowa. College basketball. It's a big game. Michigan State versus Kentucky. College basketball right before the playoff bracket thing comes out. Yeah, Duke, Kansas after that. Got a hell of a new TV show on Apple TV. I need you to check out. Let's forget about all this shit. We got LeBron coming back tonight, man. LeBron's playing against Utah. Yeah. Bobcats play on Maction tonight, too.

1:54:23Pat McAfee:Oh, that's the football team. There it is. That's what we're watching. Lights, camera, Maction. That's what we're probably going to watch tonight. Ron Bonswick? Bron, Luka, AR-15. What's been going on? It's been a sciatica? Yeah, but he's back. He said, as long as maybe weren't all the way back to where they needed to be. And JJ and the boys said, take your time. Take your time. We're going to build this entire thing up. Are they going to have to change their style of play with LeBron coming back? Absolutely. Aren't they playing really good? They're playing all right. Not championship basketball yet.

1:54:53Pat McAfee:Exactly. What is your expectation of LeBron if he was to come back this evening? Because he's questionable. He's still questionable. It's upgraded to questionable is how Shams worded it, though. Okay. Which is an interesting phrase. If LeBron's on the court, I expect him to be LeBron. We've been seeing him for the last couple decades. How many minutes are we thinking? Oh, I would say between 20, 25. Okay, so he's back back. And is he defensive side as well? Or are we kind of giving it up maybe on decent so we can have a little bit more on the offense? He's an old guy. We're not smacking the backboard.

1:55:27Pat McAfee:Needs a little help on defense. Yeah, hey, we're going to put me out of here in a way. Common, common. Help, help, help. A lot of that. That's what he got eight and four. Hold down the back end. Oh, yeah, he's great. Trade him, man. He's had a couple great moments. I've seen interviews post-game of him. They don't do those unless they play good, right?

1:55:47Bruce Arians:Yeah. Typically. You know, when Luka Doncic has the ball for 40 minutes of the game, everyone's going to eat. So what's going to happen when we're wrong?

1:55:56Pat McAfee:Is there enough basketballs on the court? The time will tell. They're actually going to play with two tonight. Two basketball? That's what we lead with. Yeah, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking. All the way. All right, so that's tonight. Okay, two balls, one NBA game tonight. Yes, thank you, sports. That's amazing. Ryan Smith, just innovating. That is. Constantly. All right, listen, I know you guys got LeBron and Luke. You're trying to figure it out. We still would like him to play. So if we can somehow figure out, well, maybe if you get another fucking basketball, deal. We'll agree to it.

1:56:29Pat McAfee:Do you guys agree to it? Genius. Two balls. How about this? Four hoops. That's a great idea. Stacked on top of each other like MTV back in the day. Yep. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah. What was that basketball game? Oh. This is our age. AJ, you're back. You got dropped off. Your service was lost. Do you remember what that NBA, the basketball, MTV?

1:56:51Bruce Arians:Like the Papa shot where there's two hoops?

1:56:53Pat McAfee:No. It had like a hoop at like 20 feet. Rock and jock.

1:56:56Bruce Arians:Yes. Oh, yeah. That's what it was. Do you remember that? That was. That was sweet. That was good.

1:57:01Pat McAfee:They had a run that and one, I think, just kind of took over. See you.

1:57:05Bruce Arians:Great run.

1:57:06Pat McAfee:I'm going to go watch Hot Sizzle. No holding. Wait, it's NBC tonight, right? I never know what fucking nights I'm sorry. So are we getting MJ?

1:57:16Bruce Arians:Going to sit down with him. Tarika? The new one? Can't wait. What? That's been the fucking biggest miss of all time so far. There are a lot of weeks left, but boy, You want to talk about over-promising and under-delivering?

1:57:32Pat McAfee:No, I think we just misunderstood. Remember, we've already talked about this. We certainly did. Because we question how we, as adult humans with brains, okay, in the world that we're in, ever thought that Michael fucking Jordan was going to be sitting at one of these desks for a pregame halftime in postgame. That was on us for those expectations. Without a doubt. Did they ever say that? I think we just kind of jumped to the conclusion.

1:57:55Bruce Arians:They said, like, special contributor. I think they didn't really get in detail. I think we thought because Wano did it, we were like, MJ will do it. Because Wano does it like every hockey game. Yeah, and we should have connected the dots. Like when Wayne Gretzky was playing in the NHL, they were playing for 10 toonies a game instead of actually getting paid money. So he needs to be there, unfortunately. I will say, really cool part about that.

1:58:17Pat McAfee:I don't think Wano needs to be anywhere just as we go forward.

1:58:20Bruce Arians:Yeah, yeah, exactly.

1:58:22Pat McAfee:Think about the amount of skates and tape and sticks.

1:58:25Bruce Arians:None of them with his name on it. That's probably why he's still doing it.

1:58:28Pat McAfee:He's smart.

1:58:29Bruce Arians:He licenses it out. True. And also, you know, his father-in-law is Dustin Johnson. He can hang out with him at any time. Austin Rivers actually has a sweet little, like, sit-down segment type thing. I believe he did it with Giannis, and granted, his papa is the head coach of the Bucs, but he did one with Giannis, and it was, like, hearing Giannis talk about, like, hey, you don't see guys doing what I'm doing out there, like, candidly about that. That seems to be kind of the hidden gem of this whole thing. Austin's a talent.

1:59:00Pat McAfee:We've known Austin's a talent. Austin talks a little shit, doesn't he? He's not afraid. Great story from KG and maybe Tony Allen about Austin Rivers as a high schooler talking shit, mixing it up with, like, those. Yeah. Like, what a great story. I can't ever tell a story like KG. So if we ever find a clip. We will direct you to that story. Absolutely. Go find it, please. Hell yeah.

1:59:27Bruce Arians:KG Weapon, too. Yeah. He's awesome. He's amazing. Weapon. His doc, the first hour, I mean, I think it's two total hours, but the first hour, a lot of it is about him more so being the kid from high school trying to prove it to, you know, the NBA dudes, and it is unbelievable.

1:59:45Pat McAfee:Yeah, he's, yeah. There's some special personalities that have come through sports who are also goats. Yeah.

1:59:50Bruce Arians:Mm-hmm. We thought we were going to learn about Michael Jordan's. I'll watch tonight. I'll give it another shot. I'll give it another opportunity. Did you say, what did you say this morning when you woke up? I said good morning. First, first, right away. Right when I woke up. Boom. Good morning. To who? Just yourself? Just everybody. Just everybody. Hope you have a great morning. And I put the little sun smiling too. Just kind of, you know, try to brighten the day. There's no sun outside here. There's not. But it was very dark when I woke up. So I thought, hey, maybe the sun will come out.

2:00:17Pat McAfee:That's very kind of you to say good morning to people. Are you a good morning guy? The sun is always shining.

2:00:23Bruce Arians:Yes, he is. Even in the rain. So, yes. Especially if you've got the red cocktail in your hands.

2:00:28Pat McAfee:Yes. Amen.

2:00:35Bruce Arians:MLB.TV on ESPN is your home for every out-of-market game, live or on demand. Catch your favorite teams and players, plus MLB Network and ESPN app features like Multiview, Sinking your stats. Key plays, bets, and fantasy all in one place. Sign up now for MLB.tv and the ESPN app. Separate subscriptions required. Blackouts and other terms apply. Visit stream.espn.com slash MLB.tv for more information.

2:01:07Pat McAfee:Football. That's A.J. Hawk. The cadence was from 47-year football coach, Super Bowl champion Bruce Arians. The Toxic Table is here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. And nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. Live from Hammer. Don, Don. He's AP Tone. And ladies and gentlemen, we have a tweet. But Cam Scadaboo is addressing his appearance on Monday Night Raw last night where he, Andrew Schultz, and other members of the New York Giants got into it a little bit with the sleazebags of the Judgment Day. Now, listen, it was during an interview with Jackie Redman where, you know, real temper started to flare as Dirty Dom.

2:01:49Pat McAfee:Okay, Ray Mysterio's boy who has grown into quite a dirtbag of an individual. This guy, you know, he'll watch. He can steal his way through anything. He'll start stuff with anybody. Behind him, Finn Balor. This guy has never touched a carb. He's got 2 % body fat. He's an ass kicker on Ireland. Andrew Schultz obviously gets disrespected and pushed. Cam Scadaboo says, excuse me, Donovan. J.D. McDonough, who we thought maybe had the biggest head with Cam Scadaboo's head kind of on opposite sides here. This is something of colossal proportions that he's never really thought could come to fruition.

2:02:23Pat McAfee:Scadaboo's doing him on one side. McDonough's on the other side. Holy hell. You're talking about granite and marble. Shit. Staring each other down. Scadaboo, on the mend. Okay, on the mend. Shoves his ass down and says, don't you be disrespecting New York like that. Gets pushed back, obviously maintains his balance. As Abdul Carter and the rest of New York Giants get involved in this stupid judgment day, gets their asses kicked out of the arena. Now, John Cena will go on and take on this slimy judgment day in his last appearance in Madison Square Garden, but there's a lot of people going after Cam Scadaboo for doing that.

2:02:56Pat McAfee:that are New York Giants fans saying, hey, enough of the fucking. Enough of the physical.

2:03:01Bruce Arians:It's WWE fans.

2:03:02Pat McAfee:We don't need that right now. All right, we don't need to see you doing that right now. We can't see you on the football field doing that. We don't need to be seeing you. Go to Monday Night Raw. Great show. If it's in your town, you should go check it out. But we don't need that happening. He's saying, hey, honestly, if you don't like that I'm having a good time or dealing with a tough time, then just go ahead and unfollow me and casually move on. I'm not able to play football and have the fun I've been having my whole life, so I'm doing things outside the box, trying to find stuff to keep me happy.

2:03:27Pat McAfee:Enjoy the rest of y 'all's week, and just don't talk about me if you ain't got nothing nice to say. Hell yeah, Scadaboo. That a boy. All right. Do your thing. Now, I was taken back when I saw him get pushed. I was like, yeah, certainly. I mean, coming from someone who was just there, probably those same seats to watch you do your thing in Vegas, Ty coming, we were all there, just there. He didn't know this was going to happen. No. He was there enjoying the show in New York, and then sometimes just running to a little physicality. Yeah, and sometimes you got to stick up for the city. Always. Especially for a city that has done so much for him already.

2:04:03Pat McAfee:I mean, he was becoming a hero in this town. Hopes to go on to continue to become a hero in this town. And if you're going to run your mouth and disrespect us, how about this? Eat fists, cuz. And that's what Scadaboo's going to do until the end. That's why you love him. Yeah. Can't be the reason why you get mad at him. That's what he's saying.

2:04:18Bruce Arians:And that's the thing, too, for Scadaboo. Like, in his business, you know, you get hurt. You're supposed to just kind of go back, kind of relax. In this business, you really kind of have to stand up for yourself. I mean, someone's talking shit to one of your guys. So kind of the combination of businesses. Like Cam Scataboo.

2:04:36Pat McAfee:And you got to stand on all of them. Exactly.

2:04:38Bruce Arians:You got to stand on your business. So Scat's probably thinking, like, in my business, I kind of have to defend my guy because that's my business. But in this business, if I don't defend myself, then all of a sudden I got a guy, JD McDonough who thinks that he's got a bigger head in his business than I have in my business. And it's like, hey, in these businesses, both these heads have to come to a halt at some point.

2:05:00Pat McAfee:Yeah, and once again, at the end of the day, both sides say they stood on.

2:05:05Bruce Arians:Business.

2:05:06Pat McAfee:Yeah, and that's kind of the whole thing. That's all that needs to be said. Let's get a giant super fan, Bruce Brown. Bruce Brown, Scadaboo saying, hey, listen, tough time for me right now. Not able to play ball. I'm trying to get better. I'm rehabbing. and then I'm trying to figure out how not to just be miserable while we get off my back a little bit. Giants fans were attacking. Is that what you were hearing and seeing?

2:05:26Bruce Arians:Yeah, Giants fans, the kind of talking heads on the local sports talk radio were saying, hey, look, he's going to re-injure his ankle and his physicality. It's like, hey, all right, you fucking marks. Calm down. He's going to be okay. It's in a boot. But, yeah, honestly, last night I was like, hey, can we just maybe focus on winning a fucking ball game? Abdul Carter reports he slept through a walkthrough. He's there right next to Scadaboo. he's not injured you know I think you know maybe he could he could focus up a little bit but he didn't say he wasn't he wasn't sleeping he was just uh in recovery um but yeah last night my thoughts were hey maybe we're jumping the shark a little bit here we've been losing for for almost a a complete decade now um but this sweet one won me back over he is injured he's going through a tough time and I do appreciate that he's just out enjoying his life uh at the UFC event he let out an awesome Ric Flair mid-match that I really enjoyed.

2:06:23Bruce Arians:So yeah, I'm glad he's kind of going through the Twitch car wash and enjoying his life.

2:06:26Pat McAfee:Of New York.

2:06:28Bruce Arians:Yeah, I guess you could say this is kind of the New York car wash, kind of the Jalen Brunson slot at MSG. Aaron Rodgers whenever he became a Jet.

2:06:36Pat McAfee:Look for Scatterboo to potentially go check out Wicked. Is that available on Broadway?

2:06:40Bruce Arians:Go see the Rockettes here soon. Maybe he's

2:06:44Pat McAfee:putting that boot. Maybe he's moving in that boot.

2:06:47Bruce Arians:Now we're talking. Get him on stage. Not a bad idea.

2:06:50Pat McAfee:Maybe that's the first time we see, you know, like Tatum and Tyrese during their recovery here. Now, Tyrese has been trying to keep his mind occupied. Basically, anything that was happening in Indianapolis, he was trying to go to and just kind of stay because he's just confined to his house if he's not doing that. So he was trying to go to events while doing rehab. And obviously, whenever you're very public, people are going to need to see progression in your recovery. So every milestone marker that he puts up there is a big deal. So whenever he showcased himself dunking just a couple weeks after Tatum was dunking, obviously that's letting the fans know that you're getting healthier.

2:07:23Pat McAfee:It feels like the Giants fans didn't view this fight with Dom last night. It's like, hey, this is good in recovery. I'm at the point where I can just go ahead and shove somebody here. It feels like it was viewed the opposite way. It's like, hey, you are nowhere near the point of your recovery where you need to be mixing it up with Judgment Day. And Scadaboo, as long as you're back playing football, man, none of this matters. And however you've got to get through it, you get through it, brother. We'll pull him for you because you make football better whenever you're running your fucking ass through the entire other team.

2:07:50Pat McAfee:But, like, the way Tyrese is doing it versus the way Tatum is doing it, vastly different. It's like however you can get through this, because recovery is not fun, AJ. Nobody really talks about that. Rehab is terrible.

2:07:58Bruce Arians:It's hard to enjoy anything when you're – especially when the season is going on and you're hurt. Like, I think it's tough to let yourself enjoy anything. So good for Scadaboo, honestly.

2:08:08Pat McAfee:You feel isolated at times. So I liked that his teammates were with him last night. He's still hanging out with the boys, you know, because that can be a pretty isolated type situation that you feel like. So I think that's actually good for the culture, not bad for the culture. But then also like in rehab, it's painful the whole time. So like you're going into a building and it's painful. You're trying to relearn how to do the most basic things with your body that you've done for your entire life. And oh yeah, there's scar tissue that's on there. So they're going to have to strip that away actually.

2:08:32Pat McAfee:So it's not painful for the rest of your life. And to do that, they're just going to have a metal rod that they're just going to rub up and down your scars. And it's like that is signing up for torture. Like you're actually getting tortured while doing that. And it's like, yeah, that's just a part of the whole process. Oh, yeah, also got to do these wall sits when your leg can't do it. And then it's potentially going to go out. And then they got these bands you're going to do. And then you're going to have to crunch your toes up just to move like a piece of cloth six inches. And it's going to be the hardest thing you've ever done.

2:08:58Pat McAfee:It's like the most tedious, miserable, isolating process of any athlete's life. Oh, yeah. And it's just always projected as, hey, he'll be back in three months. Nobody thinks about the three months. No one's like, hey, we'll see you in three months or whatever. It's like those three months for said person, miserable. That's all sports, all recovery. Absolutely. However you can get through it. And we talked about it yesterday. It's not like he's not showing up to work. He's still showing up to work and doing what he's doing on game day as well. So I like it. I don't have a problem with it. Abdul Carter did put out a story too saying he was getting – I know Bruce kind of alluded to it.

2:09:28He was getting treatment during the walkthrough. Now that's tough to do. And I talked to Coach B.A. about it too. He said trainers have been fired over shit like that. So I know it's kind of rare, but I guess he's going to clear up the sleeping on the job accusations.

2:09:43Pat McAfee:Yeah, that's fascinating because normally everybody knows what the schedule is. Like, that's why whenever we heard the story, we were kind of confused. Because where would he have been where someone didn't see him and say, hey, there's always that. Like, there's people in the bathroom maybe late, choose to go to the bathroom late, and people are like, got to go. Yeah, like, there is a lot of that conversation. Treatment room, same thing. Equipment room, I don't even know if anybody's in there because they're setting up practice. So, like, it felt like whenever I heard the story, like he missed it, but he was in the building.

2:10:10Pat McAfee:It's like, how? I don't even know how you do that. And then he said he was getting treatment. Getting treatment, especially if you're like a – I mean, any point in the team. But if you're a rookie and you look around and you don't see, like, somebody else in your meeting room, like if I don't see another DB around, like I'm just surrounded by offensive guys. It's like, hold on. Spidey senses go off. It's quiet. Yeah, where's Burns? Where's K-Von? Like, what's going on here? So, very weird story right now. Yeah, I just said it's a little too quiet around here. Maybe they have a recovery room where you put on the leg things.

2:10:39Bruce Arians:Yeah, the Normatec boots and in the darkness. Yeah, maybe it was in.

2:10:43Pat McAfee:What's that? Salt things. Yeah, like one of the. Float tank. Yeah. Yeah, float tank. If they have the float tank in the recovery room alongside the Normatecs, that would be pretty impressive. But if they have like.

2:10:54Bruce Arians:There's digital. Like everywhere has digital screens in every single room of facilities with pretty much the daily schedule. So if like a trainer is sitting there working on them, you would imagine like, hey, why is there nobody else in here right now? Why did I not feel any traffic walking? Like, usually there's a lot of activity. And then if there's nobody there, it's because there's a walkthrough of practice.

2:11:12Pat McAfee:I think he fell asleep with the Norma Tech on. That's what I think happened.

2:11:16Bruce Arians:Oh, yeah, I used to do that.

2:11:17Pat McAfee:Recovery room. I think there's a recovery room. Maybe a little darker lights. Maybe not as high lights. Okay, recovery room. Norma Tech here. Got a foot thing, a couple feet things over here. Let's see, maybe a recliner massage thing along this wall over here. Normatec options on the reclining like the...

2:11:36Bruce Arians:AQ red light thing probably maybe wearing on his head or something or his face.

2:11:40Pat McAfee:Yeah, maybe the Normatec's back in the corner though. He goes into Normatec. He reclines that bad boy and all of a sudden pulled the phone. I was watching so much wrestling last night I got a little tired so I can catch up from Monday night. And he just closes his eyes accidentally. Doesn't even mean to close his eyes. Accidentally closes his eyes because he's thinking about, I wonder if the tribal chief is going to return at Monday Night Raw, the last one for John Cena and Madison Square Garden. And then all of a sudden, guess what? We're in La La Land, and we wake up. Who wakes us up? Oh, it was them coming back from walkthrough.

2:12:14Pat McAfee:Holy fuck.

2:12:15Bruce Arians:Can you imagine how bad he'd freak out if that's the case?

2:12:18Pat McAfee:Because there's probably people, go to the locker room. Somebody go find him. He's hiding in the corner of the recovery room. On the Norma Tech. They couldn't even find him. OTC. OTC. there's a chance we're not 100 sure until we learn more on the story but i do appreciate him they're willing to fight for scaboo yeah and i appreciate scaboo already wanting to fight for schultz exactly that's good for the city that's good for everybody that's that's good work brother that's good work and the giants the giants fans it feels like they got worked a little bit now uh speaking of working mike tomlin has been a head coach for the pittsburgh steelers for how long tone i believe this is 18 years his career as the head coach for the pittsburgh steelers has just become an adult can buy lottery tickets can buy nicotine things can serve in the united states military uh 18 years a long time in a place somehow he still one-ups himself whenever he gets onto a microphone to speak about different situations he was asked about spit gate the sullying of a sport by spitting happening in between the lines, in between the whistles.

2:13:28Pat McAfee:Jamar Chase and Jalen Ramsey, obviously a situation we're referring to, he was asked about what his message was to the team. You know, I have no message if someone spits in your face. Do what comes natural. Do what comes natural. I think Jalen Ramsey did what came natural to him. Hold the phone, started throwing punches. is it feels like everybody in sports, Coach B.A., views spitting the exact same way. It feels like every person that we have talked to that's been a part of sports says, hey, this is the most disrespectful thing you can do. You can't do it. It's a guaranteed fight. Like, if you want to start a fight, here's how you do it.

2:14:05Pat McAfee:Why do you think it still happens, though? Do you think there's always going to be, like, outliers in situations that happen? Because this is, what, third incident we've had this season in football, and it doesn't feel like there's been that many in the past.

2:14:15Bruce Arians:No, that's kind of a new thing. is kind of crazy because you're begging to get a fight. Maybe I won't get thrown out of the game, but to me, it's the stupidest thing ever. And to quote James Harrison, I'm going to find you. All right?

2:14:28Pat McAfee:Okay.

2:14:29Bruce Arians:I'm going to find you, brother. In the offseason, we're going to settle this.

2:14:34Pat McAfee:I like the thought of you saying, hey, he spits in your face now. I get it. You can't get ejected, but in the offseason, we got a fucking FBI. We will try this guy. We will find out where he is at. You can figure it out then. But it does feel like everybody thinks it's a reasonable response to punch somebody in the face if they get spit in the face yeah i mean there's not there's no cliche answer that tomlin's given there i have no message for getting spit in the face you do what comes natural to you is tomlin saying hey if you want to get punched in the face spit in somebody's face it feels like the sports community has really rallied around this yeah i think we all would like it to not happen i think absolutely you usually the message is hey don't be selfish you know take the high roll walk away so you're available for your team but there are also things that hey just cross the line and Debo I saw the clip from uh the Debo and Joe show I believe with him and Joe Hayden and him talking about it yeah I'm gonna find where he's at in the offseason it's gonna be report mask man just beats whoever's ass and you know no other details come out it was me and Zeke we went back because we wanted to see like some other incidents and I believe it was like 2006 with T.O.

2:15:39and he's been like D 'Angelo Hall's face and then you saw like Shannon Sharp, Dan Marino and I believe like Boomer Esiason all just talk about it with maybe JB and just saying all the same things that we're saying now. So yeah, everybody knows that's just a line you don't cross. Taboo. Taboo.

2:15:56Pat McAfee:AJ, will there always be somebody though? Mike Tomlin just said that. There's a playoff game. Okay? Let's send our special teamer. Yeah. Number 49. Let's get him in there. Don't. Absolute beast. This guy's willing to do whatever. Need you to be an active talker in the face of this guy.

2:16:18Bruce Arians:Don't make it too obvious. Don't make it too obvious, though, right?

2:16:20Pat McAfee:I mean, really. I guess you can bait a fight immediately if you want to spit in somebody's face. And that's the sad part of it all.

2:16:29Bruce Arians:Are they going to have to review this? Are they going to have to review it and say, okay, say they threw Jalen out and then they go back, they review it, say, no, he did get spit on. We'll just give him, maybe we'll throw out the guy that spit and we'll give a 15-yarder to Jalen. and he stays in the game.

2:16:40Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think it can be, what is it called when both of them get it? Offsetting.

2:16:44Bruce Arians:Offsetting, yeah.

2:16:45Pat McAfee:Yeah, offsetting. And then, obviously, injection for the spitting party. You know, that would have to have the NFL and the NFLPA come together quickly. There's no way.

2:16:52Bruce Arians:There's no way.

2:16:53Pat McAfee:To readjust some rules. We're trying to do that with degrading the report cards. How do we feel about that? Have we thought about the conversation we're going to have tomorrow with JJ? Have you heard about this, Bruce? Yeah, I have. And that whole report card thing always blows my mind. Okay, so I'm intrigued to hear your thoughts. Why does it blow your mind? Do you think it's inaccurate? Do you think it is something that's a little bit not maybe a perfect reference of what's actually happening? Is that what you're saying?

2:17:18Bruce Arians:Well, to my knowledge, not every player gets his voice heard. It's just a select few. So they're bitching about the food. They're bitching about the locker room. They're bitching about this. It's a bitch session for a few guys, all right, not the entire team. If they're going to do it, get everybody's opinion, write it down, and sign it.

2:17:39Pat McAfee:Put your name on it. Yeah. Let's have a little transparency. I think that is what the NFL is saying as well. What you just said there is like, I think there's an agreement to maybe do some sort of report card or judgment amongst the NFL and the NFLPA. But I think they're saying that they're supposed to be a part of it. Like, hey, and also who's getting asked? How many people are getting asked? And there has been stories. You're saying who's going to ask a select few, maybe like five guys on one team are being asked. Who are those five guys? Ten guys on another team. Who are the ten guys that are getting asked?

2:18:05Pat McAfee:When are they getting asked? Is it when they're on their way out? Are they actually like – there's so many – is what the NFL is saying. Yeah. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And the players are saying, well, the ass facilities are getting called out for the first time in forever. So there has to be some sort of balance of getting a proper voice to be heard, but also getting some change in the actual things that are needed in professional football. I do agree with all the players being polled, not necessarily, you know, signing your name next to, hey, F-F-F-F-F, Darius Butler, because now at the top they look at it, oh, you don't like it here?

2:18:41All right, get the fuck out. So I agree with that part, getting everybody to do it. But we all know how tough it is to get 60, 70 players to sit down for 10 extra minutes and go over this whole survey. Like, you know, top 100, we barely can get all the guys to vote on that. So that will be tough. But I do agree. You don't want it to just be five or six guys on the team to go and do it. But, you know, we'll get deeper into the conversation tomorrow. I can't wait for it. But, yeah, I agree with you on that standpoint.

2:19:09Pat McAfee:The reason why we enjoy the report crowd so much is because it's great fodder when they come out, AJ. They're always dropping at the perfect time when there's nothing to talk about. And then we just start murdering these facilities. Oh, my God. We're probably a big part of the problem here. Definitely. And by problem, we view it as solution. Yes. So that is kind of where –

2:19:28Bruce Arians:If I'm the trainers and strength coaches, that too as well because they grade the trainers and the strength coaches. That's the one where if I was on the NFL side, I'd be like, hey, you've got to make sure you talk to a good chunk of people from like, I don't know, you need 30, 40 guys because if you just talk to five slappies, they might not like the trainers and feel like they didn't get respect enough and they didn't get enough time with the coach or whatever. So, yeah, you need a good chunk of that team, I think, to actually do that.

2:19:52Pat McAfee:Yeah, and I think they would cite like different situations where maybe the training room or equipment room got a bad score and then literally a month or two later, star of team comes out and says, hey, I owe it all to this particular group right here. And it's like, well, the report card basically, or the portrayal of what the report card said was the complete opposite. It's also being reported that the NFL is saying, hey, this is violating a non-disparagement agreement that we have amongst each other as well. You guys are basically just broadcasting all the things that are ass in our side of this entire thing.

2:20:25Pat McAfee:You're not allowed to do that, okay? We're not allowed to disparage each other. Do we ever do that to you? And then people start pointing out, yeah, there's been numerous times where people have said things about players and stuff like that. Yeah, but they're supposed to keep it to a minimum. We shouldn't be given a report card. So I think there is an answer in this entire thing, but it is a fascinating little development on the development of each franchise.

2:20:44Bruce Arians:Yeah, and it does make sense because you could see how, like, this is meant to ultimately do more good and kind of improve some things. And like A.J. mentioned, you know, with the strength coach and all that kind of stuff. but it really does just turn into looking at different franchises and be like, how much money are they making? This cheap fucking owner, this guy won't spend the day. That's kind of what it just morphs into.

2:21:05Pat McAfee:We start showing pictures from the buildings. Exactly. We start looking online. What are the pictures in the building? Look at this. So there's the team meeting, special teams meeting, and the cafeteria. This place is a shithole. What a shit bag of an operation. Is that the exit sign? It only says EX and P are lit up. The I isn't even lit up. It's like a fucking motel. that is what it turns out for us.

2:21:27Bruce Arians:You can see why I don't love that. We also find out new information. Maybe I was the only one, but who knew there was a three-story townhouse that the KC owner sits in at the stadium? I had no idea. Which, again, all the power to him. It's his stadium. He's the owner of the damn team. But you can see where if there are five or six guys getting interviewed, they can be like, well, I mean, shit, I can't even get two tickets to a game for less than$5 ,000 because they all had ticket prices, whatever the fuck. But you can see how, if they don't bring it up, how is anything going to change for the players?

2:22:03Pat McAfee:Yeah, I need some sort of public something, I think. JJ's got the answers.

2:22:06Bruce Arians:Yeah, got some good ones. JJ's got the answers tomorrow.

2:22:09Pat McAfee:He's very passionate about it. Okay, anything we missed today? Anything we missed today?

2:22:15Bruce Arians:Pirates are going to spend money.

2:22:16Pat McAfee:Oh, yeah.

2:22:17Bruce Arians:Oh, yeah, they thought about spending money.

2:22:19Pat McAfee:Hold on, hold on, hold on. Can I set the table for this? Yes, go ahead. I am I'm so thankful you brought this up You're so right I get a text From Jet Passan At 10.10pm last night Late night for him I think he's an all-nighter Oh, raw What am I talking about? Yeah, you're 100 % right There's no way he's going to see this last message And also, I think he's a late-nighter This is like one of the busiest times of the year for him too Yesterday, 10.10pm Patrick, period the Pirates are doing exciting things. I responded, selling the team. He goes, exciting baseball things. I don't know what all I'm allowed to say.

2:23:04Pat McAfee:So why don't you go ahead and tell me what has been reported about the Pittsburgh Pirates? No, just let it fly. They have the number one prospect in baseball. Correct. He's 19. Yep. An actual dude is what Judd Passant says. And I think he's going to be, I'm not going to say this.

2:23:20Bruce Arians:No, you can. They're going to give him the opportunity to be the opening day shortstop next year, if that's what Passant said.

2:23:25Pat McAfee:Yes. He said he thinks he's going to be their shortstop opening day. Last time a teenager debuted was Juan Soto. Juan Soto got paid$750 million. Yeah, he's pretty good. By the New York Mets. They're going to spend money, too. They're talking to Schwarber.

2:23:39Bruce Arians:Yes, correct.

2:23:41Pat McAfee:So hold the fucking phone. Yeah.

2:23:44Bruce Arians:So we kind of ripped on them when Bruce brought up the thing about how it said, like, hey, they are going to spend money in this offseason. and we said their last big free agent acquisition was they gave John Jaso a two-year,$6 million contract a couple years ago. Josh Naylor, the wobble body first baseman for the Seattle Mariners who got traded from the Diamondbacks at the deadline this year, who hits bombs. They made an offer for him, like$70-plus million. He ended up re-signing with the Mariners. But, yeah, so there they go. They were going to spend upwards of$78 million. Almost had them. Yeah.

2:24:18Bruce Arians:Primed. So they miss out on him. But yeah, now the big thing is they're interested in Schwarber. But hold on. Yeah, you can see the writing on this wall. Kyle Schwarber's going to get$200 million. You can see the writing on this wall. They're going to have to spend a lot of money. The big issue now is that these guys don't want to fucking go play in Pittsburgh. That's kind of the... No, this is... You got to triple what they would get somewhere else. Exactly.

2:24:43Pat McAfee:Triple PNC Park, Paul Skeen, Cy Young Award winner, the Hundo Boys. on the mind for sure but jason kendall's walked that land no i know i know shorber though yeah i

2:24:54Bruce Arians:don't i don't know exactly what he's going to command on the market but yes it'll probably will be around like 200 million somewhere in that range pirates might have to give him 250 275 and

2:25:04Pat McAfee:you're saying we almost spent 78 million on one guy but but in years past they wouldn't they wouldn't have even like that wouldn't have even they wouldn't even send a text saying that they did?

2:25:15Bruce Arians:Correct. They tried to get him and he obviously was like, no, we just played in the ALCS. I don't want to go fucking play in Pittsburgh. I'm going to re-sign in Seattle, but they're trying. Stepping stones. If you think about it like this, two years from now, they might actually offer a guy$80 million. They won't just think about it. They just got beat to the punch there. There was nothing they could do because the Mariners had right of first refusal to get him. Oh, so we didn't

2:25:38Pat McAfee:get it in front of this guy.

2:25:39Bruce Arians:No, I don't think so. They're planning, though. He heard wind. They've been planning for 40 years Yeah exactly B.A. knows he was with the Steelers

2:25:47Pat McAfee:He's been in that city before he understands completely How everybody feels I do appreciate a good Post saying hey we almost thought about thinking About doing it for sure I'd be encouraged

2:25:55Bruce Arians:By this if you're a Pirates fan I'd be Very encouraged by this Now they have to do it though now they have to spend Some money though because they got your hopes up No we tried

2:26:04Pat McAfee:You don't want us to spend it on insert name of somebody that isn't Schwarber yeah right

2:26:08Bruce Arians:Well that's what like if it's Schwarber like Schwarber's not going to sign with the Pirates. Come on. That's not going to happen. But that tells me. Money talks, brother. Money talks. We don't got it. We don't spend it. But that tells me that there's a chance that if they don't get him, they might panic and go give Pete Alonzo like a massive. Okay. Yeah, they just need bats. They need. And, you know, you don't necessarily need to spend$250 million on one guy, but they need to solidify a couple different positions. I think they're going to try to because I think they realize, like, hey, if we have another season like we did last year, like Skeens is gone.

2:26:42Bruce Arians:Like we're going to – like he's – we cannot waste.

2:26:45Pat McAfee:I know it's hard to just fathom this as a sports fan of another team, especially as a Yankees fan, and I'm not even considered a Pirates fan. You guys say like they're scared Paul Skeens will be gone. They don't care that Paul Skeens will be gone. Yeah, no. That's my mentality. No, they don't. That's the worst part of it.

2:27:02Bruce Arians:But they could luck into – they could luck into like making the playoffs last year. Like that's how good their pitching staff could be. they just can't you can't score one or zero runs in 112 of your 162 games you got to score a couple

2:27:15Pat McAfee:runs so but the the owners just see oh paul skeins that's a bump in bobbleheads that's a bump in tickets that's a bump in nachos so for about two more years here we got a bump in this guy that's all they see they don't like you were thinking about it as if you were an owner of a team and you cared about its success that is how you were that is true so whenever we read something and and I'll go to Hammer with a little bit more information on how he read this as a Pirates fan. When I read that they were primed to spend upwards of$78 million, I go, that's bullshit. That sounds like that's not real.

2:27:49Pat McAfee:That's them saying, we thought about it. We're primed to do it. Why am I so negative, Tone? Is there any chance that maybe this Pirates team is different this offseason than they've been for our entire lives?

2:28:02Bruce Arians:This is the greatest news Pirates fans got in the last 10 years, okay, that they were primed to spend. They've never been primed to spend anything. So I'm thinking they're going to get Tucker and Bregman and Schwarber and Alonso. I think they're going to get everybody. World Series is coming home.

2:28:15Pat McAfee:And they could say, yeah, we're thinking about it. And that would be this tweet, right?

2:28:20Bruce Arians:Bob Nutting. Hey, if they're thinking about it, it's a lot more than they normally do.

2:28:24Pat McAfee:Well, they're thinking about it enough to send the press release that they're thinking about it. I don't think it's an actual. I have no faith.

2:28:29Bruce Arians:I trust Jet. If Jet says it's true, it's true.

2:28:33Pat McAfee:And if we had a 19-year-old starting, come see the young buck, the guy who's just young bucko, actually.

2:28:40Bruce Arians:Young bucko. There you go.

2:28:41Pat McAfee:Check out the young bucko. What's that?

2:28:44Bruce Arians:AJ said for two and a half years. I feel like they, do the Pirates, do they want to be like a farm team for the rest of the major league? That's what they have been. No, that's the Reds job. Oh! They're some stars. Schwarbo, bring them home. He's not too far from Cincinnati, Middletown. You guys ain't ever going to pay him enough money to go there. Yeah, I don't think he ordered since he's writing big checks. Didn't he say, oh, what? You want me to sell a fucking team? I will if you keep talking shit to me. Opening day. Red pants. What are you, not coming to the games? Okay, I'll move the team to Florida.

2:29:16Bruce Arians:Suck my dick. That's basically what he said on opening day. With red pants.

2:29:22Pat McAfee:That was kind of the messaging. He had to walk that back, I think, a couple different times.

2:29:26Bruce Arians:I wasn't serious. I mean, I wouldn't move the team.

2:29:29Pat McAfee:Love the passion of the city and everything like that. Pirates fans. Paul Skeens, man.

2:29:34Bruce Arians:This is going to be a very active. We're going to see a lot of movement. So just to add a little more context to the conversation, the guy, Naylor, did sign a five-year,$92 million contract. So a bit of a discrepancy in what the Pirates were offering. Extra year, though. Okay, that's fair. 14. Oh!

2:29:59Pat McAfee:Is that exciting? No.

2:30:01Bruce Arians:Taking a victory lap on that one? Ty just buried him.

2:30:06Pat McAfee:Alright, Tom, we appreciate you, buddy. Why don't you come on out here? Why don't you come on out here? Let's get the hell out of here. What a day. Good for us. And tonight we got two balls.

2:30:14Bruce Arians:Yeah. Four hoops. Pumped. And MJ. Well, let's not hang our hats on that happening. Maybe.

2:30:22Pat McAfee:We embarrassed ourselves, though. Go ahead.

2:30:25Bruce Arians:No, he'll be there. I just thought he should maybe change like have Tariko and Jordan just change a shirt, change your pants maybe so it looks like you're wearing different days. These are different conversations. That's a good idea.

2:30:36Pat McAfee:Same setup, same seats, same angles, different days. Look at the shirts. Good to see you. Welcome to Insights. And they should do a full... Yeah, every time.

2:30:44Bruce Arians:Yeah. Great to see you again. Been a while.

2:30:48Pat McAfee:And then right back into it.

2:30:50Bruce Arians:They should do that. Tarika looks so cool. As I said last week, Mike, and he goes, you have Michael reference thing. Yeah, you know, three weeks ago when we were sitting here, Mike, and they'd break to each other.

2:31:00Pat McAfee:You'll be able to see the wink subtly with the jib cam. It would be for ball-knowers only inside. Everybody that's there knows. But we don't. I think tonight he's at the desk. All right.

2:31:13Bruce Arians:He's lead the show. He's run the show.

2:31:15Pat McAfee:Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice about changing life. We're in this thing together. Hey, shout-out to you, B.A. You look so cool, man. We appreciate you. Thank you, brother.

2:31:22Bruce Arians:Great show. Better win next week.

2:31:23Pat McAfee:Hell, yeah. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.