PMS 2.0 1489 - LIVE From Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, NFL Divisional Round Recap, Big College Game Preview, Sean McDermott Out as Bills Head Coach, Adam Schefter, IU President Pamela Whitten, Nick Saban, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

20:27Pat McAfee:Maybe like tomorrow, national championship game tonight? You mentioned it, Bills Mafia. They have been loud about Sean McDermott for a while. And kind of if you've been a fan of the Bills, and I've been hearing a lot from them because I talked about the interception, which they don't call an interception. But if you've been a fan of the Bills, This has kind of been what the program is. You get to whatever point and then you choke and then you trick it off. And how this season ended in particular with Josh Allen not playing his best football, him having four turnovers, defense giving him opportunities.

20:54I'm surprised that this is the time that they felt like this was the time to move on from McDermott. Maybe after the 13-second debacle against the Chiefs a couple years ago. But it's surprising to me when this news came to date. Now this made, what, 10 fired head coaches. So these teams, these organizations aren't afraid to move on. But this is, you mentioned the era before Sean McDermott. I know they didn't get to the mountaintop, but they did win a ton. And now this job has to be, you know, one of the best, probably top two jobs right up there with Baltimore. I can't imagine what the odds would have been before the season for Harbaugh, Tomlin, and McDermott all to be gone now.

21:27And now, Connor talked about it. You have the last two MVP quarterbacks on teams with no head coaches. With ten head coach openings. This is one of the most insane head coach opening cycles that we've ever seen, specifically because of the quarterbacks and all the teams that are available. And, like, in this situation, like, you have ten openings. Like, are you – that's probably why they had to move so quickly because all these other nine are already into second interviews. They're already into second rounds. Yes, you become probably the belle of the ball with you and the Ravens, but you're already behind the eight ball unless you said, oh, if McDermott loses this game, we're moving on, and you're already planning for this, which who knows if they were or not.

22:05I don't know if they were actually planning for it, but McDermott almost feels like a James Franklin-type situation in Penn State. Wins a ton of games, you win all of them, but you don't really find a way to get over the hump and win that big one. And if you're a head coach, especially if you're a defensive head coach, you need to win early. You need to win your first three, four, five years of you taking that job, I feel like. Or it's just going to be like, okay, cool, this guy's good enough to get us to the first, second round of the playoffs. And then for whatever reason now, like you said, we have ten head coaches that have gotten fired this year.

22:31That's just the world we live in now in the NFL.

22:33Pat McAfee:Harbaugh's deal is officially signed with the Giants. Remember, there was a little give and take, so we'll assume he is off the – yeah, unless he writes a note, we assume he's off the table. But it's like, who is going to get all of these jobs? So, good luck to McDermott. Obviously, heartbreak for the Bills. Another one, too. Stefanski, is that finalizing Atlanta? I believe so. I believe so. I saw some people not happy about that either. I get it. DC Youngfly believe was like we like should door. I don't like this guy. And that was like a great take. I didn't even we're trying to get shit door down here.

23:10Pat McAfee:We're not trying to get that guy down here I believe was the take which is an incredible on that but congratulations to Stefanski who knows who the bills go from here but before we talk about the Broncos who kind of led to all this stuff. Incredible win by them. Hey. Balls. Like we've been pretty positive. towards the ball. I feel like we've been pretty positive. I mean, that was a direct shot. We'll get to that in a second. But LaFleur, still the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. I do wonder if policy's policy was we've got to look around and see who could potentially be the next head coach.

23:41Pat McAfee:And who's going to fill all of these jobs around multi-billion dollar organization? Yeah, and I think, you know, I don't know if they put all of their chips in the, hey, if we're going to do this, it's going to be to go hire John Harbaugh. And clearly that moves pretty quickly. But then I think, yeah, you look at all the other candidates, it's like the Packers kind of have everything they need in place right now. So if you don't want to go, you know, give the job to a guy who's never been a head coach before, especially if Jeff Halfley leaves, too, then what? You got a new offensive coordinator, a new defensive coordinator.

24:13It's kind of like you're almost blowing everything up and trying to start over. And you have your quarterback. You have a defense that was, you know, top five in the NFL before everyone got hurt. So I think it was a situation where it's just like, hey, let's not panic here. I know what all the fans are saying, but he's the best guy available right now, so let's just stick with him.

24:30Pat McAfee:Okay, well, congrats to LaFour. Yeah. And congrats to the Denver Broncos. Yep. What a team going into the season. They were Lombardi favorites. Now they're hosting an AFC championship game. D-Butt, did we expect this out of this Broncos team? And I'd like give a massive shout-out to Bo Nix. Hey, Bo. Man. You're a tough son of a bitch, buddy. That was him doing the interview afterwards, leaning on one. not happy. Hey, why aren't you happy? Well, we got a lot to clean up or whatever. You guys got a broken ankle at that point. Finished the game with a broken ankle. Obviously, special win in overtime.

25:06Pat McAfee:Josh had a chance in overtime. Defense got to stop. Josh has a chance. Doesn't make it happen. Broncos are able to get the job done. Love this for the Broncos. What are your thoughts on the reality of them maybe winning the whole damn thing? Yeah, a lot of the talk was, you know, Josh Allen and the Bills, but it's really the Broncos. Broncos made the plays Bo Nix, he was unbelievable in big-time moments down the stretch when he needed to make big-time throws and make plays. It sucks that he won't be able to continue and fight for a chance to go to the Super Bowl and possibly win it. But everybody that we talked to leading up into the season was like, hey, who's your pick this year?

25:37Who's your sleeper pick? And everybody was going with the Broncos, and they came all hot. And then during the season, they were winning games in different type of ways, late in games, somehow, some way, week in and week out, they just found a way to win. And they did it again this weekend. It was unbelievable. by the Broncos, the defense, and then obviously the quarterback in the offense. I didn't know what to expect in Bo Nix's second year, but he came coming into the playoffs. He's tied with Russell Wilson for the most wins by a quarterback to start his career off, so he's a winner. He came and played a ton of college ball.

26:07Obviously, he's hit the ground running, and Sean Payton has done a tremendous job with his team now, and now we'll see what to do with the stud, man.

26:12Pat McAfee:I can't believe they say it's Buffalo over. New stadium, new coach, new era. And some teams back. We'll talk about that in a couple headlines. Let's go to the number three headline out of the weekend. The NFC's West is the NFC's best. Now, listen, we talked about it during the year. This NFC best might be a real problem. We wondered, could all four make it? Well, Cardinals. Clearly not. So, Cardinals, what a terrible position they're in. They tried. Wonderful city. He's taking that job. I wouldn't be signing up for it right now. I wouldn't be signing up for it. And I don't know if Kyle Shanahan is necessarily signing up to continue to play against whatever the hell McDonald is building up there in Seattle.

27:04Pat McAfee:Monsters across the board on the defensive side. And then you go to the Rams. Last year, they were this close to beating the Philadelphia Eagles who beat the hell out of everybody else in the snow. We all remember it. They miss out on that. Matthew Stafford doesn't complete it down the red zone. All offseason, he opts in in a moral chamber. I believe was the name of a moral chamber to get himself more healthy than he's ever been. Remember when he wasn't playing because his back was hurt? His 39-year-old senior citizen has a bad back going into this year. They are screwed. Where's Stetson Bennett?

27:33Pat McAfee:Did you get him off the farm down in Georgia? Raising hell somewhere. Anybody get him back into L.A.? That's what they're going to have to stare down. Instead, NFC Championship against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West all season. Multiple teams in there. We've talked about maybe being the best team in ball. The Rams for like eight, nine weeks. Yeah. Who's beating them? Niners. Wait a minute. Brock Purdy's rolling. It's without Fred and Bosa. They don't need him because Salah is doing his entire thing. And then the Seattle Seahawks, I mean, granted, they're so far north left. I guess they're up this way, actually, on the map.

28:11Pat McAfee:If you were to look at it at this particular center, that'd be north, you see. And that would be. If you were a weatherman in it. That would be solid. They're way over here. So you don't really talk about them much. And then after Pete Carroll gets kicked out, Geno Smith gets sent out of there. They're not supposed to be in a position there. They should watch them play football, and it's like, Seattle Seahawks are a really good football team. Seattle Seahawks are a problem. Their defense is unbelievable. As Foxy's computer comes back from being frozen, we get the graphic up there. Hey, way to battle back there, boys.

28:43Pat McAfee:Way to battle, boys. We're still battling. No, we're still in it right now. Okay, okay. Good work. Keep fighting. Well, you're still battling. As I'm talking there, by the way, there's a full conversation happening about, hey, can't cut cameras, don't have any graphics right now. So I start spinning a whole web. Okay, right there. But it was worthy of conversation. Strictly because it feels like we forecast that this was maybe going to happen. Then for it to actually take place the way that it does, that Rams win. Yeah, right. After that Caleb play. Yeah. Are you the Williams wizard? The ice man.

29:15Pat McAfee:Whatever he does, throwing the ball 55-some yards in the air, fade away zero degrees when you need it, in the corner to Cole Komet, knock over two. Yeah. What was that? A lot of people upset about a lot of other things going on in that game. I mean, you kick three field goals, you win. You know, if you had Chicago Bears plus four and a half, you'd like at least one of those field goals to be attempted so that we can maybe get into the dance here. Ben Johnson made it. And we're back, baby. And we're back. Good work, boys. Good work, boys. There we are. And we are all the way back. But the Chicago Bears, after this play, I think they're supposed to win.

29:49Pat McAfee:There's no way the Rams in that place after that game can win. That's the mental toughness, I think, of this squad, and that's their ability. What a special time for the Rams and also the Bears. I think they should be pumped. They're way ahead of schedule, I think, in a build that wasn't supposed to happen. Yeah, I mean, this is what – that was the epitome of what the NFL playoffs are. It's going to come down to a couple plays. You've got to deal with the elements. I feel like we saw that with all the games this past weekend. And we all know how real momentum is. So when something like this happens, especially in the home stadium for the Bears, you think it's going to be over.

30:20I would have loved to call it when they got the ball, they got on the score. You got to go for two here, especially with Ben Johnson. I believe he said after the game they had struggled in some goal line situations, short yardage situations, so he wasn't comfortable going for it there. And they had an opportunity in overtime. But that's what these games come down to, either making a stop or making a big play on offense. And Cam Curl made an unbelievable interception. There's a ton of great interceptions all across the league this weekend, but this is a great interception. Maybe some miscommunication with Caleb Williams and DJ Moore, but you got to take advantage of those tips and overthrows.

30:52You got to have those, and Cam Curl got one here, and then obviously Matt Stafford did what needed to be done to drive down the field and put the thicker kicker in position to send him to the NFC Championship.

31:01Pat McAfee:Yeah, shout out to Mevis, by the way, burying the kick, and I don't know what happened to his microphone when he was doing a post-game interview. I appreciate them interviewing him, but he comes from cold weather. He said, I'm used to this type of stuff. You're not used to going to the NFC championship. I'm very proud of Mevis. Like, legitimately. I am very proud of him. He kicks the ball very well. He's very comfortable in who he is. And he has shown up in a big way for the Rams on multiple occasions. Ben Johnson has to walk over and shake McVay's hand and the Rams' hands after that battle. AJ, as you're watching that all take place, what are your thoughts as a man who, you know, Packers legend?

31:35Pat McAfee:And I don't know how you felt about the Bears this year. I mean, honestly, I respect what the Bears have done. I respect Ben Johnson. I think the handshake was a little more cordial than I thought. I thought it might be a little more. I thought there was a lot more respect. Yeah, definitely. Which they both are football guys. They probably said, hey, this is an all-time battle that people are going to talk about for years. Obviously, Chicago, it's all down the drain because you lose. But I think Pat said it. They are ahead of schedule with this Rams team. Imagine what it does for your team to go on the road, cold, windy, snowy.

32:02All of a sudden, it looks like, hey, this guy, they're a team of destiny, the Chicago Bears, and the Rams still have the fortitude to find a way to win. And that's huge. And I think it breeds confidence through that whole roster when you get a win like this on the road. Yeah, and shout out to McVay. Like, McVay is now almost in that kind of allure of, hey, he's never going to get talked about as Coach of the Year or any of those awards, but he should be up for it probably every year. For them to go into Chicago like that in the weather, in kind of the preparation you probably have to do just to get ready for something like that in L.A.

32:32nonetheless. Yeah, I mean, I didn't even see this staff, But McVay now has 10 postseason wins at age 39. You know, like that is kind of the stuff of legends. You hope he coaches for another 20 years. But just while he's here, it's unbelievable what they're doing. Well, that's what kind of what people are saying, too, is like hoping he would coach forever. Like this is the whole conversation when the Amazon, you know, opening came up. It's like he's basically on the John Madden trajectory where it's like he's so good so early, but he clearly just puts everything into football. But, I mean, yeah, what else can you say about this guy?

33:05It seems like every time in, like, a big moment, you know, he's not cowering, and those teams typically find a way to win. And it was a full team win. Obviously, the kick at the end, there was a punt down inside the five, the offense, the drive at the end, and then the defense came up with multiple turnovers, multiple fourth down stops when the Bears went for it. Like, it was a full team win that they could build on and move forward with.

33:24Pat McAfee:Yeah, and the Bears ahead of schedule. For sure. There's no way they're supposed to be this good, this quick with Ben Johnson. They're very fun, too. And it feels like afterwards they were all very excited for what they're going to become. You know, it felt like the culture. Listen to Komet talk. I mean, this was his first target of the entire game. Obviously, Stacey Dale's one of the greatest iPhone shots in the history of sports. Stinger. Now they lose, so it won't be shown. But if they win that game, Stacey Dale's footage is being used in every documentary forever. And probably still will during the entire rebuild during Ben Johnson.

33:59Pat McAfee:But it's tough we're not going to be able to really celebrate this play. We were sitting in one of the restaurants that kind of turned into our office. We spent a lot of time at this place at the hotel, and it was all Bears fans in there. And just getting a chance to experience all of that with the Bears fans. The quiet before that play, it was like just a hush in the entire spot. Thought they were screwed, but had seen the situation with Caleb so many times this year. Didn't want to give up hope, kind of gave up hope. Yeah. Especially with how it was all kind of going. And then when this happens, I mean, it was an absolute explosion.

34:37Pat McAfee:Shout out to the Chicago Bears fan base. Okay. That was cold, windy, snowy. That place was loud. That was a really cool. Singletary on the sideline. Holding the signs. And like kept dropping the signs. Yeah, it was good. Live graphics, basically. We did not. Mike Singletary is one of the greatest linebackers in the history of ball. We don't need him doing prop gimmicks on the sideline. Okay? Now, granted, I like that they add him as a part of broadcasting. That's right. So I'm kind of torn on it all. We look up. We see him. Singletary. Good to see him. There you go. Cheer, guys. Look at this traffic.

35:11Pat McAfee:He drops one perfectly. Nails it. Drops another one perfectly. That's harder than you think. What if you drop all of them? It's so cold. Yeah. He nailed it. He did. He killed it. But the immediate follow-up was, I don't know if I like that. The hell is he doing that? I don't know if I like what they just claimed. To Mike Singletary, but I like that they had him a part of it all. And then immediately afterwards, Caleb had success. He was like, obviously, bringing some juice. Let's get to the number two headline coming out of the weekend. And nobody wants to do this. We don't want to be the ones that kind of say this, but.

35:41Pat McAfee:Yes, we do. The Revolution Region's football revival is the number two headline coming out of the division around the weekend. Back in the AFC Championship game, the New England Patriots. Now, it's an entirely different team. But this one, right in the middle, the Ohio guy, Mike Vrabel, is the tie between the two. Similar football teams. Defense, insane. Offense, going to be smart. Now, quarterback puts the ball on the ground a lot. Quarterback puts the ball on the ground a lot. Don't know if it's hands or just a complete lack of fear so he has no awareness of what could potentially happen around him.

36:20Pat McAfee:Make big plays whenever they have to. It is eerily similar to the old Patriots. Stephon Diggs making that catch? Yeah, right. Booty making that catch? Of course, it's a divisional round. Patriots wide receiver is going to make a catch like that. It just felt like it was back in the day. And I was just so happened to be sitting next to a loud asshole who has a microphone every single day. Conman, it felt like it was back in the day. Is that what you were experiencing yesterday? It felt like it was full euphoria. It felt like it was a utopia of sorts watching this Patriots team get back to the AFC title.

36:56Yeah, I mean, honestly, just sitting here listening to you say all that. I can't wait to hear everyone else talk about the Patriots. It's amazing. It's incredible. Fourth down, got to have it. Drake May basically puts the ball through Pop Douglas' stomach. Wonderful. You know, how can he get any better? You really don't think he can? Oh, yeah, it can. Carlton Davis, the third. He's not the first or the second. The third, yeah, perfect knee placement. Worked on that all week in practice, by the way. And that's just the difference in the Revolution region. Marcus Jones, the pop on this pick six was what kind of brought it all back for me.

37:31You know, you're talking about the good old days. We are back in the good old days. Someone had a sign, and that was the greatest sign I've ever seen. The pop on that really did make me think, like, okay, here it is. We are back. And then you pointed out the one case on we love booty play. A catch like that, Stephon Diggs, of course. I mean, revenge.

37:50Pat McAfee:That was the commercial that he made after the Minneapolis Miracle where he was catching everything. Yeah. That was that. Exactly. That was that in a nutshell. Great dance, too. I don't know what he was doing. He dropped something? He dropped that thing on him, I think. Oh! That thing! I think he's putting that thing on him, I believe. But again, I'm not sure. I don't really know the dances. But this one here, the Kayshawn We Love Booty Catch, I cannot emphasize enough. Those are the type of plays that maybe we hadn't had over the last six years. Like, not just, you know, last year in Drake May's rookie year because we had that exact play, actually.

38:26Kayshaun Booty down the left sideline in Drake May's first start on Derek Singley Jr., one of the best corners in the entire NFL. For him to make that catch, that's when it kind of – you start looking around and thinking, okay, maybe this is kind of what we've always been dealing with, where everything does go our way. And, yeah, we're all the way back, boys. Get used to it because Drake made 23. He's already made it as far as Josh Allen's ever made it. And then when you think about Mike Treble, this is his first year culture. Just kind of getting started, but already perfect. There's nothing that guy can do that anybody in New England will be worried about.

38:59Pat McAfee:Okay, I appreciate that. I know the next 20 years are us staring at you guys yet again. Legit. Competing. Legit. Could be that way, especially if McDaniel is just going to hang around. And the Bills are going to possibly work their way into a shoot of a curse. I mean, there's a chance a curse could come. Now, I don't know if McDermott would necessarily be the one that occurs, but you've got a tough one coming up, bub. There's no doubt about it, man. I mean, I'm worried. Let's go back to March 2020. Boston Conner. Is that the Patriots mindset past Tom Brady? It sounds like you're on the Jared Stidham campaign trail.

39:33Pat McAfee:Stud him. Stud him. Sell the shirts. All in on him. Why? Because you watched one video that put together his best throws from his high school career down in Texas, and now all of a sudden Jared Stoddum is the hero that's coming into doing. Hey, look, I didn't dub him the king of high school football in Friday Night Lights in Texas. Someone else did. I'm just, you know, telling you guys. Tom Curran said the guy couldn't hit literally a single member of the offensive side of the ball for the New England Patriots the first day of training camp, and then 10 days later, he showed vast improvement. Yeah, so 365 days later, what is he?

40:05He's the next GOAT then, right?

40:06Pat McAfee:That's probably what it is. So that was you in 2020. about a weekend, by the way, to the world stoppage right there. About a week into it. I think at that point, we thought to ourselves, one more week. Yeah, we're almost done with this. I think that's what we thought at the time. At the time, if we're reliving it all, which we kind of did this morning whenever we saw that clip, you were a believer in Studum. And you know who else is a believer in Studum? Sean Payton. Oh, yeah. He looked like he was fresh out of Montana. Hoodie, jacket. I like our number two. I like what he is. Well, it's the biggest moment.

40:36Pat McAfee:You got an incredible defense. You got some guys around you, and you got the New England Patriots coming to town. Studdum. Good luck, brother. Ben DiNucci also signed off of a CBS. I watched him play a flag football game a couple weeks back. DiNucci, spinning it. Spinning it. It does feel like this Patriots easy road just continues, doesn't it? I won't go that far. Easy road. Easy as schedule in the NFL. Look, Studdum will be ready, and that defense will be ready. They'll have their home turf. I trust Sean Payton in this type of situation. Still have him ready to go. But that defense, talk about the Patriots.

41:11Obviously, Drake May has been tremendous, Josh McDaniels. But what Zach Kerr has been able to do with that defense, the interior defensive line, what they did on the back end, Carlton Davis with two interceptions, Marcus Jones with another pick six, and then Big Milton and Barmore in the middle, man. Like, this defense has been unbelievable. So, yeah, the future is bright up in New England. I forgot.

41:32Pat McAfee:What's that? What's that? He's picked up the Patriots. Oh, yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa. He got dragged up there. I can't make that statement here in this stadium with this backdrop with my family and friends watching. And that's why you're not allowed. I can't make that statement. And that's why you weren't on the bandwagon. That is my home. And I got a call on the phone at 2009 April, and it was Robert Kraft saying, Hey, Darius, how would you like to be a New England Patriot? So, yeah, maybe I will be coming home, but I won't be making a statement here. Okay, so you're not ready to commit. No, no, no, no, no.

42:02And I'm going to release a full statement at a later date? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. It's now or never. I mean, it's too late. Honestly, no. It was yesterday. And now it's over. No, you mean yesterday. No, no, no. Yesterday. That's how you guys say it. That is how you guys say it. That's how you guys say that. That's how one person does. Hopefully we can hear what he has to say. That dipshit will probably have some sort of swing where he predicted what he actually, what happened yesterday for New England, even though he took the Texans. This would be if Drake and the Patriots are able to take down the Denver Broncos and Jarrett Stidham.

42:33And this will be the first time ever that a quarterback has beaten three top five defenses on his way to the Super Bowl.

42:40Pat McAfee:Unbelievable. Ball's on the ground. He's getting good bounces because he's living good, as he should. But what that Texans defense was, and we thought they were, we thought they weren't going to be able to score any points. And I'll tell you what. One defense heard a lot of that. You know who broke their back yesterday? Their quarterback. Okay? Davis Mills plays that game. Might be a difference. I didn't see a lot of people feeling sorry for C.J. Stratton. He turned the ball over five times. I mean, Josh, I don't turn it over before, but everybody was – Oh, I feel so bad. Josh was crying. I'll be back, Josh.

43:13Keep your hand up, Josh. Maybe because CJ's doing too many side quests during the offseason. Oh, okay.

43:18Pat McAfee:I heard he did a softball game, and it was a gentleman and drove somebody home. Okay, that's all I heard. On a side quest. But on that note, CJ Stroud, young. We assume he's going to be back a bunch. Josh Allen, watching him just kind of lose and lose and lose. I think, and then he gets emotional about it. I think everybody's like, oh, no, is Josh ever going to be – you start to worry a little bit. Deion Dawkins crying too. I like how invested they all are. Now McDermott's gone. They have a new culture. They just kind of bump Brady up there to keep the crew in there. Who knows? New stadium. Tear it down.

43:51Pat McAfee:It's time to blow it up, Buffalo. See, that's Patriots fans. It's time to change it. The number one headline, ladies and gentlemen, is the big college game. Yeah. Miami hosting the Hoosiers in a stadium that might be all Hoosiers. Now, at this exact moment, Tony, where does all the money lie? It's all on the Hoosiers, 70 % at least on the Hoosiers. And then on the over 47.5, also more than 70 % on the over tonight as well. We're looking at 47.5 there, which is a pretty high total. And the 8.5 is a huge number for this game. Not to mention the touchdown props as well. I believe, Tony, you let me know there's a lot of money coming in on Elijah Sirath, Malachi, Tony, some of those guys scoring.

44:36A little parlay. A little parlay, perhaps. But Diggs also made the point earlier about basically every game Miami's played in, they've been underdogs. But right before the game starts, I don't know, hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of dollars coming in on Miami to drive that number down. So eight and a half, pretty high number right now for IU.

44:55Pat McAfee:71 % of the public bets are on Indiana. You know shout out to DraftKings for providing the number there for us. The reason why they're on Indiana is because they've just been smacking people. You're talking about maybe greatest college football team in run of all time. Who is it? Who? Who? Who? Who's yours? Of Indiana University. Joining us now the president Dr. Pam Witt. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us Doc. Love that IU. We did some research, and I got a chance to learn about you whenever we went down there for game day last year. You have had numerous jobs throughout the university world.

45:33Pat McAfee:Most recent was at Georgia. And you told me that you enjoyed or saw or appreciated one of the words, what the Georgia football team and Georgia sports were for the university as a whole. We talked to Dr. Joe E. Aveciaria of Miami last week. It feels like you've had the vision that sports are good for the university and can provide for everything else. How do you feel about where you guys stand at this moment? And congrats on having the vision. Let's go. Yeah, Doc. Congrats on being a sports visionary for universities. We appreciate that. Well, thank you. Thanks. You know, part of what Indiana University is, is it's a sports school.

46:08We're a great academic institution. I could sit here all day and brag about the tremendous heights we're reaching, billion dollars in research expenditures, first one in the state, et cetera. So we're getting championship across everything, academics and sports. But part of our DNA is athletics. And if we're going to do athletics, we're going to do it right and be in championship games. And so I feel very zen today. I mean, we've done what we needed to do to get here, and here we are.

46:34Pat McAfee:The hay is in the barn. You know, we've done all the work. Now we just got to go execute. Obviously, Coach Signetti becomes the perfect hire for Indiana and for Bloomington. I talked about this because, obviously, I marry into a Hoosier family. The reason why they love basketball so much is because Bob Knight. Signetti is like Bob Knight. He's an older coach. accountability, discipline. He's not throwing a chair, okay? He'll have one beer. Who's your beer? Hope you shared that one with him. But it feels like he was the perfect hire for your university and your fan base. Did you know that when you made the hire that he would be such a big hit with the fans?

47:07Pat McAfee:And why exactly was Sig the right guy for what you wanted to do? Well, you've got to rewind it. So this actually started five years ago when I came to Indiana and met with our amazing athletic director, props to Scott Dolson. Hell yeah. Best athletic director in the United States. And sat down and said, hey, Scott, college football is about 75%, 85 % of revenue in college sports. I think my exact words were, we can't treat it like an intramural sport anymore. Let's get serious about it. And I really unleashed the beast with Scott when it happened. So we took a couple years and we got ready. We built the infrastructure.

47:40We hired the right staff. We moved to contemporary jobs you need to do in college sports. We raised the funds that we needed. And then we were ready to bring in the right coach to be successful, and we got the best coach in the country. And you betcha we knew he was going to be good. We were watching.

47:54Pat McAfee:And the fans, they love this guy. How could you not? He's special. Deebut has a question for you, Doc. Yeah, Doc, I want an example of how much, because we know sports are important on the campus, but football is kind of key, especially here now in the Midwest, you're having a powerhouse. What's an example of, like, how your life has changed or an experience you had last year, obviously, with success, but then this year been the top team in the country. What have you experienced personally, whether it's been family, where you live, on campus? Give me an example of what's changed for you. Well, college football is the biggest stage in college sports.

48:26We all know that. And, you know, the experience with the 806 ,000 living IU alum, incredibly well-educated people all over the country, plus others that have stayed with us, has been such a sweet, important part of the journey. but really the sweetest thing that stuck with me the last couple years is walking across that campus and getting high fives and hugs from the best honking student group in America well where'd you say they're honking that's best honking or flipping I guess we're gonna flip it now right if we're trying to

48:56Pat McAfee:find my words I might steal that one and call it my own there are some shows I'm on I'm not supposed to say anything so best honking student section best talking student population in America. These kids, they are the best. And this is for them. We want their college experience to be amazing. And you know what? When you have a superstar football team, your experience is amazing as a college student. So this is for them. We love them. So I went down to the Little Five, one of my early years here in Indianapolis. Little Five is like a little bike race where they do down in Indiana and it's their big festival weekend like that is the big weekend I went down there and obviously I have a lot of Indiana Hoosier friends now and at the time I was around them they're like little five was the greatest weekend in all of college or whatever and it was a great weekend but Morgantown is like that every home football game where the entire state comes for the home football game I'm happy that they're getting a chance to experience 60 ,000 70 ,000 people come in there because I feel like the student and the alumni are ready for the excitement now on that note rose bowl was all hoosiers the fans peach bowl was 95 literally all hoosiers they're calling this home game for miami but obviously we've seen all the planes we've seen every hotel we've gone to it's red everywhere seemingly people live down here in miami who are hurricanes the dolphin stadium yeah okay oh no no no no no no don't do that We'll see.

50:27Pat McAfee:We'll see, Doc. But it has been incredible. You said 806 ,000 alumni. They've shown up in a big way. They're celebrating. What do you expect tonight? Like, honestly, what is the expectation from you guys? Just a little bit of info. Well, I'd wind that back to the Big Ten championship. Because for us, this journey has been Big Ten, Rose, Peach, and now championship. Everybody that can get a ticket and get in the stadium is going to. I think Miami is a great city. They have a great fan base. Trust me, as I walk around in my IU gear, they are not shy about letting me know how they feel about Indiana.

50:59And so I would expect Miami's going to turn out. They love their canes. But, I mean, if you can get in the stadium and you're a Hoosier, you're going to be here.

51:06Pat McAfee:It feels like that. That's why the tickets just continue to go up. Because normally, like, falters. And then$806 ,000. And then you heard her say, well-educated alumni. Yeah, hang on. Like, hey, most of them have paid back their student debt and are. Doing just fine. Doing just fine. Dentistry school. You're talking business school. What are the others? You have a lot of high. Yeah. Kelly School of Business really is top in the country. Jacobs School of Music. We have the biggest med school in the country. The incoming medical school class, only 6 % got in that applied to get into med school at NIU.

51:42So across the board, it's really phenomenal. Computing. And you know what? We're an engineering school now, too. So checking it out.

51:49Pat McAfee:Just popping out engineers now. Congratulations. I talked to some Miami people that thought the honking Hoosiers can't afford to get into this game tonight. And I'm like, I don't think you get it with who the Indiana Hoosiers. A lot of schooling down there. Never good at ball. Always good at schooling. Now the ball is getting a chance for all the schooling people, to your point, to say, hey, oh, yeah, and we're also smarter than you as well as we roll. Congrats to them. AJ, there's a new king in the Big Ten. I know you have a question for the dog. Yeah, congrats to all your success. And with all that success, I guess, how do you continue to plan for the future now that you guys are here, especially these last couple years as far as facilities, infrastructure, all of that?

52:27How do you know what to do and what not to do? Because you can't just snap your fingers and all of a sudden you have a renovated stadium where you have new facilities for everyone to use. But how do you keep up with all the rest of the teams now that you guys are in the national championship? This is part of a big long-term plan. I wasn't kidding when I said we started this back in 21. We've been working and rolling for years. And the plan continues. And thanks for giving me the opportunity to shout out. This is thousands and thousands and thousands of people investing in Indiana University football.

52:55And I've got to shout out Pete Yonkman, who is the brains behind what was our original NIL collective. That's kind of graduated into more sophisticated areas. Pete happens to be the CEO of Cook Medical, fantastic Indiana-based company. But he's the unsung hero in a lot of this. And so thank you for giving me the opportunity. What's his name? What does he show? His name's Pete Yonkman, and he's one of his well-educated Hoosiers, undergrad degree, law degree from IU, and he's the CEO of Cook Medical Company, big international company. We would like to let Mr.

53:26Pat McAfee:Yonkman know. We appreciate his services to Hoosiers. Also, we have that bucket open, don't we? Yeah. We have that bucket open. Always. Yeah, we'd love to talk about the Cook Medical Group. Yeah, we need a medical company. New king of the Big Ten, Iowa Hawkeye, Ty Schmidt, has a question for you, Doc. Yeah, you know what? And I actually love it because I'm a Big Ten guy, first and foremost. I appreciate what you said about the best honking students in the country. You have to say that. That is not true. But that's just coming from another Big Ten guy. But I am curious. You can tell him he is full of honking.

53:56All I know is when he said that, his nose grew like Pinocchio.

54:03I actually just have a big nose, Doc. I think you just saw it a little bit different. Get some of those med students. But I am curious. You mentioned the alumni base. Was there any world in which when you first got the job at Indiana, did you think down the road, like, hey, there is a chance that people not just from the Midwest, but from all over the country are going to come to school at Indiana because of the football team? Like when I was growing up, you know, a lot of kids from the Midwest would just decide, hey, I want to go to Alabama because I want to be a part of that. And now you guys actually have that.

54:32Like, have you noticed already that enrollment is starting to come up maybe from pockets and areas that it never had before because of the football team? Well, we're about to watch it. So since I started in 21, our applications for Bloomington have increased 60 % to 6-0. And it's been incremental. And actually the biggest increase was before we were good at football. So we've got, as I said, we've got a lot going on at IU as well. So we've already obviously seen a big increase this year. But we'll watch it and see. You know, we expect it.

55:02Pat McAfee:I'll tell you this, Doc. One of your newest, loudest Hoosier fans right there. Big time. I'll just say this. No matter what happens tonight, it's just incredible to be a part of it in Indiana. I didn't really have a college football team growing up, and now I've adopted the Hoosiers in Mendoza and Sig and yourself. And just so thank you for bringing great, high-quality football to Indiana. It means a lot to the people, and you can see it in the city, especially, I'm sure, around Bloomington. Thank you. I appreciate it. And it's a new era. We're going to be competitive from here on out. So go ahead and get all your Hoosier gear because it's going to be worth it for a while to go.

55:36Pat McAfee:Yeah! Adidas National Championship here on this massive big college game day. We can't thank you enough for joining us. Adidas. Hey, appreciate you so much. Hey, I made it on the Pat McAfee show. Thank you. We got a doc on, and it's not just any day you're on here. Obviously, it's one of the greatest days of the calendar year, not only because it's a big college game day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is obviously a phenomenal day to kind of do a little introspective, a little bit of thinking about what this world could be and what Martin Luther King was pitching. such a long time ago in which a world in which is a complete utopia and together and unified and something I think we're all striving for every single day.

56:14Pat McAfee:Ball certainly helps that. I think football and sports bring people together. I think Doc understands that. The sense of community is a great thing. We're lucky to be a part of the sports world, and we hope this only continues to grow and grow. You cannot drive out darkness with more dark. You can only drive it out with the light. Shout out to Martin Luther King. Let's be above the bullshit and the hate, and let's enjoy the hell out of today. Shall we? Go Hoosiers Go Hoosiers Hoosiers Hoosiers Hoosiers Hoosiers Hoosiers He's putting you in your face I don't like you I learned a new word today You'll learn a few new words tonight We'll be back on the other side Goodbye Thank you This is Marshawn Lynch AKA Beast Mode checking in this holiday season.

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57:43Download the PrizePix app today and use code TPMS and get$50 instantly in site credits when you play$5. That's code TPMS on PrizePix to get$50 instantly in site credits when you play$5. Win or lose, you'll get$50 in site credits for just playing. Guaranteed. PrizePix is good to be right. Must be present in certain states. Visit PrizePix.com for restrictions and details. Welcome back to Uh Yeah, That's a Pepper Thing First up we've got Harrison wrapping his Dr. Pepper in a tiny quilt so it feels at home Oh how tender That's a Pepper Thing And over to Becca who's whispering affirmations to her can You're sweet, you're unique You're the best thing I ever poured over ice She swears it makes it taste better It's not a science thing But it's a Pepper Thing Why do they all do it?

58:25All for that sweet, delicious, truly one-of-a-kind taste of Dr. Pepper It's a Pepper Thing oldu, yin!

58:50Pat McAfee:We'll see you next time. yourself right now, Pat, do you? No. Are we live right now? Yeah, we are live. It is an honor to be here. There's some great shots getting taken. We're watching somebody's open camera. I can cut to that. I'm cutting to it now. They see it. Okay. Boom. That's what we've seen. Now, over in the distance, there is a... Where the hell is that? Here it is. The Dukes. What are we doing here? What is this? Maybe we don't have four. can somebody here is working I assume these can't these TVs are not our show yeah we're asking you guys not our show thank you guys appreciate that welcome back uh okay okay this is our thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you uh welcome back wow geez that was that's the that's the craziest thing that's ever happened the dukes mayo That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life.

1:00:02Pat McAfee:No, but the flyover was awesome. It was. That's Darius J. Butler. A.J. Hawk is here. One half of the hammer. Dive. Cowboys AP. Tony's here to talk to the table at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmitter here. Boys, it's the big college game. Hell, yeah. We're down here in South Florida. What a great time to be alive. Conman, as you look at this particular matchup, is it Cristobal and Signetti battling each other? Or at this point, is it the boys delivering in the biggest moment? You've got to say it's the boys. You know, for the big college game especially, you know, Jimmys and Joes, not X's and O's.

1:00:33Mendoza, you know, him being the bona fide number one overall pick back in, you know, the city he's from, Miami, right down the road from his high school. That, but also the Carson Beck kind of tour that he's been on. Revival for Carson Beck, if you will, as well. You know, he should be at least flying up, you know, draft boards, and it feels as though he has made a great name for himself, even more so proving it on the biggest stage.

1:00:58Pat McAfee:And I don't want to bury Carson Beck because we've been very impressed, especially at the end of that Ole Miss game where he kind of took it upon himself, made a couple massive throws, obviously runs that one in. Incredible leadership. He's told the story about whenever they were playing Ohio State a couple weeks back. Ray Lewis came up to him when it was 17-14 on the sideline right before he took the field and said, Hi, I never introduced myself. I'm Ray Lewis. Why don't you go out there and win us this game? Carson Beck goes, Well, holy honking hell. I guess we got to go do that now. Okay, right.

1:01:33Pat McAfee:He has risen to the occasion. He obviously perfect for this Miami team. Last year what Cam Ward was able to do with Cristobal obviously brought them into a little bit more of a spotlight. Carson Beck transfers in there. Cristobal gets his culture set up more. They got a veteran team too. Let's go to AP Tone, a man who wrote college football book multiple times now. Everybody's talking about how old Indiana is. Miami's old too. Miami's got a lot of vets. What's the year that CBS Sports did? Yeah, so it was 4.3 years of experience for IU's 22 starters. That was not including the kickers. And then for Miami, it was 4.1 years of experience for their starters.

1:02:12So this is two very, very old teams. We talk about, like, on the Miami defense, Keontae Scott is 24 years old. Mesidor spent two years at WVU before he came to Miami. Bain's older. And then you go to their O-line. They're all juniors and seniors or grad students. Carson Beck's old. Like, these are two very, very old teams and experienced teams, and that's probably a big reason why they're here.

1:02:34Pat McAfee:Wow, that's a transfer portal difference. Guys sticking around, maybe taking a full year of eligibility to kind of go play and maybe win a title, also get more experience. And with how much everybody's getting paid at some of these schools, why not? Now, delaying$200-some million, which could come in your second NFL contract, certainly a decision for later on down the road. But what Cristobal is selling is obviously special. Carson Beck came in at a big price. And I think tonight, D-Bud, as you have a little bit of film on this, I believe, this secondary for Miami. Now, here's some stats on Fernando Mendoza and Carson Beck from Hembo, okay?

1:03:09Pat McAfee:Fernando Mendoza's incompletions to touchdowns during this playoff run, outrageous, obviously. Five incompletions, eight pass touchdowns. That's two college football playoff games. Five incompletions, eight tuts. Unheard of. Carson Beck look at his scrub 27 incompletions I could do that anybody could do that but whatever you talk about Mendoza and his efficiency nobody's really been able to stop him tonight there's a suspension for the first half from one of the starters how does the Miami secondary fare tonight in your eyes against this offense that's been incredibly efficient yeah I guess I'll just start where you left off with Mendoza he's obviously been tremendous probably the number one pick Heisman winner and the thing about him is when he finds the matchups his guys are gonna go up and make the play.

1:03:52Charlie B, Surratt, Omar Cooper Jr. But when you look at this Miami secondary, obviously it starts up front with the game records. We mentioned Mesidor and Bain, but then these secondary, you got some difference makers right there in the middle. Let's start with Keontae Scott, and I compared him to Charles Woodson last week, and the last time we covered him when I was talking to A.J. because he can just impact the game in so many different ways, whether that's pressure in the quarterback, covering in the back end, or making heads up plays like this down here in the Cotton Bowl when he had this tremendous pick six that absolutely changed this game when Ohio State was driving to make a play.

1:04:25So this guy's the leader on the back end. He sets the tone. Jacoby Thomas as well. You talk about a tone setter. You talk about a player that wants to tackle players through the ground. He said growing up his favorite player to watch was Sean Taylor, and that's who he tries to play like. That's how he approaches the game. He's been an unbelievable game changer with five interceptions. And then the true freshman, Bryce Fitzgerald, another Miami kid, Columbus. He also went to the same high school that Mendoza went to. We saw him get two interceptions in their first game against Texas A &M. Another game changer on the back end.

1:04:56Now the question marks come out on the cornerback. You talked about Xavier Lucas being suspended for the first half of this game, which is terrible. I hate the rule. I can't wait until Coach Saban gets it changed. But he's suspended because of his hit in the Fiesta Bowl against the Ole Miss wide receiver. So he'll be missing the first half. So who will start opposite of Ethan O 'Connor? Would it be O.J. Federick? Would it be, I'm sorry, Antoine? Jabory. Yeah, Jabory Antoine, a true freshman who we saw kind of get targeted once he came into the Ohio State game. He's kind of held his own. So that's going to be the question mark, especially in that first half.

1:05:30And once again, it doesn't matter who's out there. Fernando Mendoza is going to give his wide receivers the opportunity when he sees one-on-one matchups. And throughout the season, throughout the playoffs, they have made those big-time plays. But I'll be keeping my eyes on these secondary guys.

1:05:43Pat McAfee:Is there any Miami guys playing corner for Indiana too? Any South Florida guys? Both their starters. What? Yep. Love that. Love that. Love that. Just got a pond. They let ponds get out? They got a pond named after him now in Indiana. He's a South Florida kid. He plays like a South Florida kid. In the other corner, he's from Miami Northwest. And so, this is a homecoming for them as well. Obviously, they're quarterback. But you got cornerbacks who are going to be playing. Now, these tickets are expensive. So, I don't know how many family members they're giving tickets to or how many comps they're giving to the players.

1:06:11They're providing tickets. But they'll be out there, man. But it'll be a tremendous matchup. And I can't wait to see it tonight.

1:06:16Pat McAfee:It is a little chilly here. As you see, I have long sleeve on. The boys have long sleeve on. There's jackets everywhere. Coach Saban, who's going to join us here in a matter of moments, shivering behind the camera. I mean, absolutely shivering over there. Jen Lotter reported, just final thought here on the corners, because everybody's talking about the suspension. The suspension, obviously, for the first half, it's like, I don't know if it matters against this Indiana team. They do the unguardable stuff. Jen Lotter reported that Surratt sent a bunch of clips of Devontae Adams and Aaron Rodgers' back shoulder work to Fernando Mendoza before the season.

1:06:48Pat McAfee:And I'll tell you, they do it whenever they want. And it's like Mendoza's accuracy and then the athleticism and the grit, I would say, of these wide receivers. Surratt, Cooper, Becker, Norcoski. I mean, you start going through it, they're going to make plays for him. But Mendoza puts it in a spot that's unguardable, seemingly. Yeah, that's what you want from a wide receiver. You have one-on-one opportunities. And honestly, throughout this entire season, I can't think of a time where Mendoza targeted Surratt on one of these back shoulder fades or a slot fade. And he didn't come down with the ball.

1:07:16And the same goes for Charlie B out there. Charlie Becker, his roommate, he's going to make big-time plays down the field. So, it's going to be one-on-one. You're going to make tight window catches. And then Omar Cooper, Jr., he'll make the catch as well. But he does the best, in my opinion, with creating separation. So, he'll have opportunities as well. But when you talk about covering these guys, it starts with the guys up front. It starts with number three, Mesidor, and number four, Reuben Bayne, getting after that quarterback and wreaking havoc.

1:07:41Pat McAfee:Everybody's going to try to get Fernando Mendoza off his spot. Alabama tried their best, and then he just ran. Then Mendoza started running. And then all of a sudden you got a spy on him. Well, that opens up something behind him. This Indiana offense has obviously been a symphony of chaos, basically, for defenses. And then on the defensive side, they've been able to blow up and stop everybody. Let's get away from the big college game quickly. Let's get some more information on the massive NFL news this morning. Joining us now is senior NFL insider, obviously a man who's a Michigan man, Adam Schefter.

1:08:11Hey, Schefter. What's going on?

1:08:14Pat McAfee:Schefter, we're down here at Hard Rock, obviously having a time of our lives. We wish you were here. Let's talk about some NFL news that are happening as a goat is literally waiting in tow. McDermott fired this morning. We chatted about how the Buffalo Bills fans that we know and talk to, they haven't been happy with McDermott anytime Josh Allen hasn't won a Super Bowl. Is that what the Buffalo Bills front office and Bean were thinking? Or how likely was this if they didn't win a Super Bowl? Was McDermott gone regardless. I don't know how you define where he would have been safe or not. I think that they had to have a successful postseason outing and another run that ended short of a Super Bowl title.

1:08:55I mean, if they got to the Super Bowl and lost, would he have been back? Maybe. But they did. And it's nine seasons of five division titles and a lot of wins. But they lost in the wild or divisional round this weekend. and they haven't been able to get past the conference championship round. This is a year where there's no Lamar, no Mahomes, no Joe Burrow, and they couldn't do it. And, you know, I remember the Denver Broncos back in the day had John Fox as a head coach, and they had a lot of great wins. And they were the number one-ranked team three straight years, number one seed, I believe. And when they couldn't get to the Super Bowl, they wound up moving off of John Fox and hiring Gary Kubiak, and they won the Super Bowl the next year.

1:09:36And I think Buffalo felt like it needed to shake things up to try to advance, right or wrong. And I think we're in a climate now where teams see what's going on in Baltimore. They see what's going on across the league with all these. And they're not afraid to make a change. And that's exactly what happened today in Buffalo, I believe.

1:09:53Pat McAfee:Okay, so Brandon Bean gets promoted, the president of football operations and general manager. He'll be leading the head coaching search. There's 10 jobs as a total now. Obviously, Stefanski gets his gig. Harbaugh gets his gig. eight jobs open still. Who do we think is the leader in the clubhouse? Is it Brady? And what is kind of the thoughts of what the Bills look like going forward, Shefty? Well, I think, Pat, what you're looking at is, obviously, it's going to be somebody that Josh Allen feels comfortable with. And it's going to be somebody that they believe can get them to the next level. Some combination of those things.

1:10:27So is that Joe Brady? Is that Brian Dayball? Is that the Broncos quarterbacks coach, Davis Webb, who played for the organization, backed up Josh Allen, and is close with him? Is it one of those three individuals? Or do they veer outside that and dip their toe into this assistant coaching pool that's on the interview circuit right now? There's a lot of ways they could go. But I think they're going to want to make Josh Allen happy and whole here. And it wouldn't be a surprise if it's some kind of familiar face here. And by the way, everybody's going to want to go coach Josh Allen. Everybody.

1:11:04Pat McAfee:We talk about Brian Dayball whenever his name got mentioned earlier. It's like he's got to be pumped. He didn't take the Penn State gig and they maybe didn't offer if he's going to be the Buffalo Bills head coach back with Josh Allen. Good luck to him. Joe Brady in his 30s, still very young. Maybe that's his spot as they move in to New Stadium. Are you getting any news right now that is relevant for conversation as we speak here? Yeah. Zach Charbonnet tours ACL. Damn. That sucks. Okay. Okay, so Charbonnet tears ACL. Obviously, incredible season this year. Bo Nix breaks his ankle. Is there any other massive injuries coming out of divisional round here?

1:11:42Carlton Davis, I thought, got taken out of the game for the Patriots. And I think he was in concussion protocol. I think. I'm not sure of the exact injury. But when you're talking about injuries that end the season, Bo Nix and Zach Charbonnet. Bo Nix obviously going to have the surgery tomorrow on his ankle, broken ankle. And that was, I mean, that was unbelievable, that injury. Nobody expected that that was going to be the case. And when it happened after the game, people didn't think it was real initially. They thought it was one of those made-up stories. Like, wait, wait, this guy that just finished the game, that just led them to the end.

1:12:23He's out for the year. And by the way, Sean Payton handled that incredibly well. because rather than let it swirl and spank, he stepped in. He told everybody the truth. He kind of propped up Jared Stidham, who's going to be starting the AFC Championship game. I think this is unbelievable. Jared Stidham stepping in there. He is the first quarterback to make his first start of the season in a conference championship game since Roger Staubach in 1972. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

1:12:54Pat McAfee:Staubach, Stidham. That is the type of game we're talking about. Obviously, as soon as this injury happens and we see from Sean Payton dressed up like, you know, he's literally straight out of Kevin Costner's Yellowstone. He looked awesome out there. But him coming out breaking the news, we're all heartbroken for Bo Nix. And then maybe if you've had a cocktail or two or some edibles or anything like that, you start going, oh, Sean Payton's calling Drew Brees. Can Drew Brees throw football? No, he can't throw football, right? That's kind of the thing. Well, then he's maybe calling Tom Brady for two games?

1:13:24Pat McAfee:He needs them for two games with that defense, with what they're able to do on offense. We automatically start going into fantasy football is what we start thinking. Who's available? Phil Rivers isn't available. You're not allowed to get Phil Rivers. No way we're going to do that. He likes Stidham. I assume he's very confident. And was there ever a thought that maybe we're going to go fantasy football here? I made that call to ask, and I was told, no. They believe and trust in Jarrett Stidham. Jarrett Stidham is somebody that, you know, people forget this, But when the Raiders benched Derek Carr, they turned to Jarrett Stidham, and in his very first start for the Raiders, he threw for 365 yards.

1:14:04Connor is off mic laughing. Who was coaching, Shefty? Who was coaching that game for Jarrett Stidham when he threw for 300-plus yards? That would be one Josh McDaniels, I believe.

1:14:12Pat McAfee:Boom! Boom! All right, all right. Shefty, we appreciate you joining us. You're the man. We hope you enjoy tonight's big college game. Who do you have winning? Who do you have winning tonight? I haven't seen anybody or anything derail this Indiana story. I would expect it to continue tonight. You've got the president of the school on there, Pat, of course. You've got the president of the school on and then watch the school lose that night. Come on, man. We had the president of Miami on Friday. Just to be clear, we have a non-biased, just so everybody understands that. We appreciate the Big Ten man picking the Big Ten school.

1:14:44Pat McAfee:That's Adam Schefter. We appreciate it. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is the man who started his entire thing, I think in the NFL maybe, but then in the Big Ten. This guy was born in West Virginia. It gets cold there. Then once he moved south, he said, I'm never coming back. Became the goat down there. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Nick Saban. Yeah, Coach. Thank you. Coach, how you doing, man? A little chilly down here. I thought you South Florida folks didn't have it cold. This feels like more of a home field advantage for Indiana. It's chilly out here, Coach. This is the coldest I've been in this part of the world since I've been coming to this part of the world.

1:15:23Pat McAfee:So, what do you think that means? Did you bring it with you? I tried. Indiana tried to bring it. What do you think of the crowd? What do you think the crowd's going to be tonight? Oh, I think Indiana will have a ton of people here. I mean, they have traveled so well. I mean, that game in Atlanta, three-quarters of the stadium was Indiana. I think it was 90. Oh, yeah. I legitimately think it was 90%. Oregon so far, and Indiana experiencing something for the first time, which let's talk about. I know Signetti's been coaching a long time, long time coaching football. His dad coached football. I made decision 25 years ago.

1:15:51Pat McAfee:I'm a college football guy. Yeah. Is that what he said? Yeah, exactly. I'm not an NFL guy. I'm not interested in the NFL. I'm a college football coach. So he's been doing college football his entire time. This is his first time leading a team into a national championship. I don't know if you remember back to LSU before you did it for the first time with them. What do you think is going through his mind, and what is he trying to get accomplished today, day of national championship? Yeah, well, you know, I think whatever you did for the 15 games that got you here, you want to make sure your team stays in that mindset.

1:16:18I mean, I know there's a lot of clutter out there when you're playing a big game like this national championship game. But that's not where you want your players to be. You want them to be focused on the things they have to do to go out and play well and execute and let everybody else talk about all that other stuff. So, you know, that's the key. I think one of the things that these guys are going to have to go through, which Kirk's going to have to go through, is he has done this phenomenal job at Indiana. So everybody wanted to come to Indiana. People wanted to transfer there. Everybody wanted to go there because they wanted to prove something.

1:16:51That's how it was at Alabama. And then when you went in 2009 and you climbed the mountain successfully, you become the mountain. Now everybody wants to come because of what your program can do for them. And that dynamic changes everything dramatically in terms of how you've got to motivate your players, how you put together your team. It's easy to pick guys. like our 2019 was the first national championship at Alabama Julio Mark Baron all those guys came to Alabama because they want to prove something they were Alabama guys but once we won everybody was coming to Alabama for what Alabama could do for them and that changed the dynamic dramatically and that was a more challenging for me as a coach I think Sig will be able to figure

1:17:36Pat McAfee:it out but he has certainly done a great job rallying the troops and let's talk about Chris obviously five-time national championships here he said to us last week and I'm sure he's reiterated it during one of the 30 media things that they both have had to do he said he didn't want to go to his grave without Miami being Miami again how do you think he's done building this place back up and what do you like about the identity of his team that he's built well I think their identity is built on physicality which doesn't surprise you for an old offensive line coach i mean that's what those guys harp on all the time but um i think he's done a phenomenal job i think they've done a little built these programs a little bit differently and it's taken you know a little longer for mario to be able to bring it to where he wanted to bring it didn't have as many transfers had a lot of guys that he tried to recruit change the culture here and i think he's done a phenomenal job but i'm going to tell you what they're being around here living around here there's never been this much excitement in this city since maybe the 1972 dolphins went undefeated it's phenomenal and i think it's contributed to by fernando being from here you know mario having played here uh both of them are you know cuban americans and there's a great community here and a lot of people have been successful that way uh it speaks volumes for you know the city but it also speaks volumes for our country and people have an opportunity to come and have a chance to be successful i think it's phenomenal i had a little cafecito time oh yeah a little bit ago it is a beautiful culture down here that we've been enjoying tone has a take on miami uh in fernando mendoza and then a question for you yeah i do i i the take on for miami and mendoza is just i know how good he is and how he's going to test the miami secondary here early but then you were – a lot of is being made, you know, about you and your coaching tree.

1:19:27Obviously, Mario was with you. Sig was with you. But there's a situation in this game where Miami's D.C., Corey Heatherman was with Signetti for three years at James Madison. So, how does that change things? Like, does – when you're playing your ex-coaches or coordinators and stuff like that, do you have to do things differently? Do you worry that he knows who you are? How does that all work when you're coming to do a big game like this? Well, when I went into it, I never wanted to change things that much for our players. Yeah. You know, thinking that they know what we're going to do. Well, we know what they're going to do, too.

1:19:59So it kind of evens out. But it still comes down to your players being executed what they do. And the other guy doesn't know when you're going to do what you're going to do, even if he knows what you might be going to do. Amen. Amen. But the only time I really changed significantly was when LSU beat us in 2011. and we played them in the national championship game for a second time. I thought we had to change, but we had a lot of time to do it. In those days, you're playing one game for the national championship, so we had a whole month to do it. But that's the only time I ever really changed a lot, whether it was special teams, how we were going to do punt returns.

1:20:37You know, all those things changed so that they couldn't take advantage of what they knew about us.

1:20:42Pat McAfee:Go ahead, A.J. Yeah, we've been – Coach, if you're the Miami offense, I guess, How do you slow down this Indiana defense? We've been watching firsthand now from the end zone. We were lucky enough to call these games. And the movement, the stunts, the twists, everything that this D-line does for Indiana and the linebackers coming from depth, the skies and everything. I guess what would you do if you were to the Miami offense to try to slow them down? Well, I think the key to the drill is Miami's offensive line, can they handle the movement up front by Indiana? And look, when you watch Miami's offensive line, They are one of the most well-coached offensive lines.

1:21:18I mean, they come off step, step, second step on the ground. So when you move, they collect you. And they don't take big splits. So there's not a whole lot of area to penetrate. And I did a tape on this, you know, for tonight about how they collect people when they move and how they take over people and how they bump. If they can't control the line of scrimmage in this game, they're going to have a hard time. If they can control the line of scrimmage and do what they did to Ole Miss and have, what, three or four or five 13-play drives where they kept the ball for 41-and-a-half minutes in the game, that's the only way they're going to have a chance to win.

1:21:53But I tell you what, I wouldn't bet against them. And Indiana's not as big, but they're more athletic, and they are quick as hell, and they execute, and they are not going to beat themselves.

1:22:05Pat McAfee:We were talking about you thinking about these two rosters because obviously the Alabama team that we've kind of grown up to see, you've got five stars all across the board. And you've said multiple times, I've learned I'm not that good of a coach if I don't have good players. So I need to have great players. You look at this Miami team. Go ahead, Todd. Yeah, speaking of that, Coach, when you do have that massive star disparity between two teams, we were talking about it a little bit earlier. Is there a chance that some of these guys for Indiana maybe in a crucial moment, we see, hey, this is why this guy was at JMU and why he didn't initially go to an SEC school or an ACC team.

1:22:39If we do get that moment and it's close late, do you think Miami has any advantage because they have played close games throughout the playoffs, whereas Indiana has just beat the shit out of everybody and they haven't played a close game in almost a month since the Big Ten championship? Well, you know, I got a little theory about the first part of what you said, about the stars. We never, ever looked, and I know Sig doesn't either, at how many stars the guy has. because I think what you all need to do is look at who's given out the stars. No. Yeah. They don't know their ass from a hand from the sand when it comes to what a football player is.

1:23:18So why would you as a coach depend on somebody who's not even a coach evaluating players to give them stars? You know, I say all the time, Josh Jacobs had no stars. Damian Harris was a five-star. They were both really good players, don't get me wrong, But Josh Jacobs was a first-round draft pick, and Damian Harris was a third round. Josh Jacobs still playing. Damian Harris is not. So when you evaluate the players on your own in terms of the criteria of what you're looking for at each position that fit in your system and the criteria of the kind of people you want to make the culture of your team what it is, which I think SIG has done a fantastic job of because it's culture over system.

1:23:59I mean, if you don't have a good culture, you're never going to execute the system no matter how good it is. So that's what they've done such a great job of at Indiana, in my opinion. So I'm just not a big fan of the stars. I never knew how many stars a guy had until signing day. They went to your place? Most of them. They had five.

1:24:19Pat McAfee:And if they didn't have five, as soon as you offered them, it was funny how those changed. Oh, we got actually a new piece of tape on this guy. Saban likes them. That's a five-star. That's a five-star. But it is, to your point about SIG, you have to adjust. Hungry, want to prove something, too, like, okay, now you've got to carry the torch. It does feel like Indiana has maybe got to that. Miami, too, though. I mean, that's the Carson Beck kind of coming in. Hey, you've got to continue to live up with what Cam did last year and what we were able to accomplish. Good job turning these programs around.

1:24:48Pat McAfee:Go ahead, D. Yeah, but this team kind of around Carson Beck, you talked about the energy down here, the excitement down here. It's a lot of hometown kids down here. Malachi Tony Reuben Bang Fletcher Junior. What's the messaging in that locker room get prepared for this game in your home stadium because I know outside there eight and a half point dogs. We didn't really know that when we played they probably know it now in this environment. So what's the messaging in that locker room coach crystal ball to the gossip not make the moment too big in front of your family your home crowd. What's that message going into this big game tonight.

1:25:19Well you know you guys have heard me talk about this before there's nothing more that motivates this young generation of people than being disrespected and i'm sure that miami's probably using the whole fact that they're eight and a half point dogs in this game as a disrespect you know they're making us irrelevant in terms of all that we've accomplished and nobody wants to be irrelevant so i i think that uh that's probably part of it but i do think that you have to control the outside noise you know what I was talking about the other day you can't get caught up in the hype of this game that's something for fans that's something for people to enjoy it's the entertainment business that's the way it should be but if you want to execute as a player you have to have intensity you can't play too emotional and make dumb decisions and play undisciplined type of football which you know to me is going to be the challenge for Miami yeah because when they've struggled, it's because of the mistakes that they make.

1:26:19Yeah. And they say we have resiliency and we can overcome those mistakes. That's great. And I always coach resiliency in our teams. I want them to be relentless. I want them to be resilient. But at the same time, just because you can overcome it doesn't make it okay to do it. Yeah, you start chewing up. And make mistakes and put yourself in a hole.

1:26:39Pat McAfee:Yeah, you start chewing up Chris the ball on game day. Well, he deserved it. hating those penalties. We're in real time watching them happen. It's like, yo, and Tone actually said they've been getting to like this point and then just pulling out the biggest gun they possibly can and shooting themselves and then immediate penalty, turnover, penalty. It's like started happening in that big of a game this late in the season. You'd think it wouldn't. And then obviously there's a suspension happening with that. Good news. Good news for tonight's game. This is the best officiating crew that we've seen.

1:27:11Yes.

1:27:12Pat McAfee:We've been doing this for multiple years now on the field. A lot of interactions with the refs. This particular show here, and I would say me, D-Button, AJ, the most, strictly because you guys haven't, you know, you get it. We understand what a ref can do and what a ref can't do for a game. We've seen friends get fired because of bad officiating, and we've seen, like, no accountability to refs. And we know how important they are to literally how every single game goes, what they're letting, what they're not letting. the Big 12 crew. Mike Vander... Vanderveld. Mike Vanderveld is the white cap. Great.

1:27:46Pat McAfee:This is him right here. He's got a lot of moxie. He's very comfortable, and he lets the boys play. This crew lets the boys play. They like football. They appreciate being there, and I think the college world got it right with this group, but that bodes very well for both teams, I guess, but definitely Miami. Absolutely. Definitely bodes well for Miami, coach, because they like to hit. Some of those penalties you're talking about, shooting themselves in the foot. Some of those are big hits that I think in one of the games they wouldn't be called. In that game it was called. These refs will not call those hits.

1:28:16The A &M game was the ones where they were on. We mentioned it several times on the broadcast. Like, wow, these guys are really head-on down here. It's kind of just they're letting it happen. But, you know, Miami played a clean game against Ohio State. Nope. They wouldn't beat Ohio State if they didn't. They were physical in the game, and they actually out-physicaled them when you watch the film. but they have to play that kind of game in this game. One good thing about this officiating crew, I do think it's a good crew they'll let them play, but the whole idea that this guy's getting suspended for this game.

1:28:48That's not the refs. We can't blame these refs. Can't blame these refs, but it's going to change the future of college football because I don't think people are going to buy into this getting suspended for the next game. Find the guys, do whatever you need to do, but this is a national championship game. People are coming to see the best players play. It's not really fair to the players on Miami's team or that young man that he's going to have to sit out the first half of the national championship game. And I think you're going to see that mindset change a little bit because of what's happening.

1:29:19Pat McAfee:So D-Bott actually before he got up here said, unless Coach Saban can change this before tonight, you are going to have to be one of the driving forces for these types of things. You actually, your voice does carry a lot of weight. And I appreciated that last game day you said, this guy, what are we doing? He's going to miss a half-0 next game. People forgot about the hit already. And if you want to kick him out for the rest of that game, do it. Do what you got to do. And I'm thankful that they don't send him to the locker room anymore. Like, you're allowed to stand on the sideline with your team because you're a part of the team because something happened, which is good.

1:29:50Pat McAfee:But we don't need to carry over punishment the next time. I don't think any of us really do. Especially with the professionalism of sport. To your point, it's like, let's put the best – this is the national championship. The guy's healthy? Yeah. What happened? Well, he kind of led with his shoulder. He tried playing football too much. It was the last. A personal foul is a big enough deterrent. You don't have to sit him out a half of the next game. Because you're right. No one remembers that. We still don't remember it. Yeah, that's what it is. If I'm launching my head at somebody's head, like, I'm not thinking, oh, I don't have to sit out the half of the next game.

1:30:22Like, 15-yarder is bad enough. Like, that's a huge deal, especially on third down. But let me say this. If I was coaching this group up here, the best deterrent I had as a coach was first the bench. But second finding your ass, okay? Because for years I try to get people to go to class for years. I tried to people like you get you to go to The only way would have been fine. You take your money. The players are making money now Yeah, they should be fine when I started finding players. They started going to class. They didn't miss training table They did they they were on time all of a sudden it's amazing

1:30:58Pat McAfee:I would have got out of a loan. So I don't know if you know this I got$40 ,000 out in loans in college just to have a good time. I thought if I made it to the NFL, I'll be able to pay it off. And if I don't, I'll be in debt with everybody else. There's like 40 % interest on those. 40 % interest. I don't like that idea, though, Coach, especially college. Don't find it. Find a coach. You know, it's a great saying. You're the coach and you're allowing it. So I think find a coach, find the school, you know, let the kids figure it out, keep their NIL. So you're either coaching it or making it happen.

1:31:32Pat McAfee:Yep. Or allowing it to happen. Yeah. Yeah. Allowing it to happen. Did you agree with that? Interesting concept. That's what I always told our coaches. That's how I got on our staff's ass about getting guys to do the right thing. Yeah. Was if you ain't coaching it, you're letting it happen. Yep. I wouldn't have gotten to class. And I would have felt terrible about the special teams guy that would have been taking it on the shins. And he would have came and talked to me and was like, I can't. I don't know what you want from me. Okay, just check the grades at the end of the semester, please. Coach, I had one more question for you.

1:32:03I saw a quote this week. It was from one of the IU players. I can't remember who it was, but he said, Coach Sigg doesn't really coach us. He coaches the coaches, and then they coach us. What does he mean by that? Well, I think when you observe things, you're observing things. Okay, so you can either go directly to the player and say, hey, you used the wrong footwork, you had the wrong hand placement, whatever it might be, and coach the guy over top of the coach that's coaching them. Or you can go to the coach and say, hey, look, these guys are not using the right footwork. They don't have the right hand placement.

1:32:36And when I used to coach the coaches was all the time is when we watched the film after practice. You know, on the practice field, I got to be honest with you. I coached a secondary the whole time I was a head coach. And I was the GA for whoever the secondary coach was, but I was taken over. But everybody else, I like the coaches coach. And then when we watch the film, you know, I would coach the coaches and say, this is bad footwork with the offensive line. Or the receiver's not at the right depth in the route or whatever it was. Or the punter is not taking the right steps. And when it's New York protection, he's supposed to kick the ball to the left.

1:33:15The ball went that way. We always coach the coaches. And I think that helps them develop. But the other thing I always did with Signeaults is every time we hired a coach, I made the whole staff interview. Because it's two things. It's the whole staff learns maybe a whole new system that this guy runs on offense, defense, or whatever. So it makes them better coaches and they have better understanding. But it also gets us a better chance to evaluate can this guy actually present to players like we're the staff as players. And how good is he at teaching? So I'm sure SIG does that too.

1:33:53Pat McAfee:Yeah, I think it worked out. How did you feel about the quote about you don't go to war with warm cookies? Warm milk and cookies. Warm milk and cookies. What do you think he's trying – he's talking to his players there, right? Absolutely. To the media. Everything him and Cristobal were saying for all this was directly to the players. Like Cristobal comes on and he's like, all my guys care about is work. Okay, that's all they care about. They don't talk. They just want to work. It's like, oh, he's talking to the boys right now. Hey, if anybody's asking any questions, we're just here to work. And then Sigmundi's smiling in some of these things.

1:34:21Pat McAfee:A lot of people saying, hey, Sigmundi's seemingly smiling in a couple of these moments. We need our edge back. Yeah, it's a psychotic smile. It's not like, oh, hey, hi, dude. He's thinking 40 steps ahead already. What a wonderful college football story it would be for Indiana, but also Miami. Tonight, a lot of storybook shit can happen here at the National Championship of Big College Football. And we're thankful you joined us all year. You had a hell of a year this year. Yeah, well, you know, let me say this. It's good for college football when teams like Indiana do what they've done. I mean, it's great for college football.

1:34:56It gives everybody hope that we can turn our program around and we can have success if we have the right people and the right culture. But it's also great for college football when communities like Miami, the U and the tradition that they have, get back into it where there's a lot of interest in that. So this game to me is tremendous for both sides and whoever wins it's going to be great for college football now

1:35:20Pat McAfee:I didn't get the memo because I'm not a part of it Who are you SEC people pulling for another national championship rooting for anybody other anybody else or what are you guys? Miami because it's kind of southern you got to break up the Big Ten streak. Yeah Yeah, I can't have what do you want to me in this in this day and age of the culture? We have now in college football paying players name image and likeness transferring it's an advantage for the Big Ten. I don't care. You'll never convince me otherwise. The North? The North. The North? Because people in the South would not go to the North unless you paid them.

1:35:56Right, right. Jeremiah Smith. Yep. Hey, talk about the tradition, though. I know you had to deal with this on your sidelines with all the former champions and all pros and all these Heisman winners that want to come back and be a part of them as they should. But with Miami, how do you deal with that, with all these Hall of Famers? It's probably living local. How do you decide who can be on that sideline and who can't in these type of games? Well, I used to try to let them all there, but the college football playoff people wouldn't give me enough passes. But at the same time, I think it's good for your players to be able to see people who have been successful in the program and what they learned at the U or Indiana or wherever it is, that they know that they have a chance to carry on and be successful because they identify with, you know, those kind of, you know, people that they can see have success.

1:36:48You know, I mean, it's great for them. And I think we should let that happen in college football as much as we can because a lot of the guys that play this game, they need role models. And those guys can fill that bill for them, at least from an athletic standpoint. And some of them do great things from a character standpoint and a community support standpoint, which is good for players to see as well.

1:37:09Pat McAfee:Yeah, Michael Irvin is a mascot for the Huracan. I know Kaney is, but Michael Irvin is. Sebastian. All right, it's not Kaney, Sebastian. We're in Kaney's building right now. I guess I should have a little bit more respect. Sebastian is his name. Great mascot. Sure. And then also Bicey. Yeah. Bicey's a good one. Bicey is the Hoosier mascot. How did you feel about your ex-players maybe giving speeches in the middle of the game? Did you hear about this, Carson Beck? Incredible. Ray Lewis walks up to him. Ray Lewis walks up to him. And I love that Cristobal is like, yeah, if Ray Lewis wants to talk to my quarterback before a drive, like, go ahead.

1:37:49Pat McAfee:Ray Lewis walks up, introduces himself. Hey, Carson, my name's Ray Lewis. Why don't you go in this game for us? And then walks away. I think that's beautiful. I think that's a good thing whenever the entire university is kind of pouring in. Can't have everybody talking, I think, to a lot of these players. How did you manage that? Was there any, like, did alumni come back, speak to team, talk to team? Like, how comfortable was everybody whenever they came back with your teams? I think the guys were comfortable, and they were always welcome. Don't fucking talk to my players. Is that what you said?

1:38:22I never had to deal with players trying to talk to players during the game.

1:38:27Pat McAfee:Okay. But, you know, once you establish a culture in an organization, which Miami had a great culture when Ray Lewis played. And Ray Lewis has talked to our team, and I got a tremendous amount of respect from him as a personal leader and as a player. But when you establish a culture, the players expect the other players to live up to that culture. So we were having seven-on-seven one day, and Julio Jones was there getting rehab, and he was watching seven-on-seven. And in those days, the coaches weren't allowed to be out there. So a receiver drops the ball, kicks the ball, cusses the quarterback, cusses the DB and all that.

1:39:00Julio calls him over and says, that ain't how we do it here, son. And it was like 10 years after he played there. But I'm saying that tradition and that culture and people being responsible to carry that on is important to me as a coach that players are doing that to reinforce what you're trying to do. But they know that that's helped past players be successful. It can help me be successful.

1:39:25Pat McAfee:Can we get Julio and Ray Lewis in the West Virginia Mountaineer building? As soon as possible. I think we need a lot of that. I think we need a lot of that. Coach, hell of a season out of you, man. A lot of fun. I hope you have an incredible offseason after tonight. And you're the man. Thank you for everything. Well, it's been fun. And you make it fun for me. And I appreciate it. Hey, the Predators. Good. How are they doing? Hey, they beat Colorado in Colorado for the first time. Great win. Big win. And then got the lining kicked out their ass the next night. But I'm with him. Long season. I'm with him.

1:40:02Pat McAfee:Long season. I'm with him. Thanks, Golden Knights. We appreciate it. Ladies and gentlemen, the GOAT, Nick Saban. Yeah, Coach. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Coach. Enjoy it. Appreciate you. Hey, he muted you as soon as I said it. Said, get this man off the stage. That's what Nick did back in the truck right there. Hey, you're the best. Can I get a selfie with you? Boys, boys. Hell yeah.

1:40:28Pat McAfee:You look great. Yes, sir. Hey, we might have to fill tonight. Might have to fill tonight. Just something to think about. We're still live, obviously. We might have to fill tonight. All right. Did you see how long it took to get in here? U.S. Open, right, was the last time the president was at an event with a lot of people? Yep. That was delayed, what, an hour? Yes. Do you think they'll delay the start of the game? I don't know, man. It was getting in. Yeah, there's a chance it happens. Of course, of course, President. Allegedly, too, he wants to pilot Air Force One himself for the flyover. All right, all right, all right.

1:41:09Pat McAfee:We don't know if he's doing that, but honestly. But he might on the way here. What did you say about the flyover? The flyover is actually Air Force One, potentially. One of the police officers or security, whoever, when we were walking in, he was like, he said something. He said, you know what, that actually does make—there's a chance that Trump gets here and says, you know what, I think I want to flip the coin. There's like a 90 % chance that's going to happen. And we assume he is. We assume that is the case. But getting into the building, I mean, for us— Oh, yeah, it was crazy. Secret Service checked every one of our bags all the way from the top of the bag to the bottom, every zipper.

1:41:48Pat McAfee:They checked my toiletry. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, what's down here? Oh, look. Yeah. I don't know what that is. Believe me, when Bone went through, you should have seen him scrambling because you know what he carries around in his backpack. Well, I don't know if he carries around. Yeah, his plug was kicking around. Hey, Sodexo. Sodexo is one of the stadium suppliers of food. and I'm going to be honest, they've taken care of us everywhere. They have the Colts building. They have Lucas Oil Stadium. They have Hard Rock here. And they'll obviously be incredible this evening for everybody and they're going to move a lot of food in here.

1:42:25Pat McAfee:Obviously, the stadium caters move a lot of food. So Dexo wants to showcase something they got for tonight. They're calling it Thor's Hammer, not a penis. Okay, fair enough. Looks like it. What? Look at this thing. Is that a brontosaurus leg? The head's sick. You grab him the head's sick. Oh, you. You. You showed out. You showed out. Brother, can you put this on real quick? Hold on. Hold on. With the mashed potatoes down here? Garlic mash? It's on you. It's on you. It's on you. Okay. So, Chef, good to see you. Nice to meet you. Where are you from? From England. Okay. English cook here. Go a little beef.

1:43:07Pat McAfee:Hey. So what is this? This is Thor's Hammer is what you guys are calling it. And where will this be available in the stadium tonight? This is a Thor's Hammer. We're going to be serving this in our Sobeque. Yeah, it's a smoked beef leg with a pineapple barbecue glaze. Oh. Pull off the bone. You should be able to pull that bone straight out. What's his name right there? Chef Jason. Chef Jason, great work. Thank you for the delivery, pal. So Thor's Hammer here should just. Look at that. There you go. Oh, look at that thing. Oh. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, God. Oh, I'm ripping this. Vegetarian.

1:43:45Doors hammer.

1:43:49Pat McAfee:Doors hammer. Doors hammer. Looks good. Obviously, we cut through this. And then how is this to be enjoyed? Just straight to pieces? Are we making a sandwich? What do we got going on? We got a bit of smashed potato on the bottom. I got some slice here if you guys should try. However you want. Share it or just eat it all. Yeah, we appreciate that. I'm going to grab a piece here. You want a garlic? Oh, that's good. You good? Oh, yeah. That's incredible. You want that tone? Oh, yeah. Pineapple barbecue glaze. That's okay. Do you have a soccer team? I have. I'm Arsenal. I'm from North London. Yeah, Arsenal supporter.

1:44:21There we go.

1:44:22Pat McAfee:Yeah. Are you guys good or are you guys ass? We always finish third. Yeah. Oh, that's good though. You're getting a champion. Yeah, but we never win. It's always, it's like every year. Top of the table. That's better than Burnley. Yeah, you guys have any respect for Burnley or? No. JJ's hammer is about to get swung, you know, if we don't worry about it. Chef, we appreciate the hell out of you. Thank you, guys. The food is incredible. I know you guys got an incredibly busy day. Thank you for making time to stop by and so good, man. Thank you, guys. Bon appetit. Hey, merci beaucoup. Is that the right one?

1:44:56Pat McAfee:Yeah. Well, for England. Bon Appetit is French, right? Thank you. Go Arsenal. Go Arsenal. Up the arsenals. What do you think about the MLS? He does. He just said shite. No, he did not. This suit is really good. It's so good. To be honest, I don't really know how to do the good TV with this happening. There's no way to. But these people wanted to bring us 45 pounds of beef while we're alive, so I said definitely yes. Sodexo is taking care of us. Who's the other one? There's a couple others. Aramark is one. Yep. Is that Atlanta? I believe so, yeah. And the Pacers building, I believe, is Sodexo as well.

1:45:39They hooked up during the finals. That's some good beef right there.

1:45:42Pat McAfee:All right. Wow. Compass Group, Aramark, and ISS are the big three alongside Sodexo. Okay. Everybody focus. That is unbelievable. Yeah, it is. that is too what is that dessert no those are plantains these are I'm telling this thing right here pal you want some this thing they explained it dessert last night the plantain cut me off some meat so good the game day camera operators are being forced to work long days because of our show being here you want any of this meat you want some of Thor's meat you want some of Thor's You want some plantain then? All right, all right, sounds good. Thor's meat.

1:46:25Pat McAfee:Okay, let's make our picks because we're not going to be able to be here for too long. Obviously, this will be the game day set for later tonight. And Foss and I, a guy named Zoe, one of the, who knows all the corporate titles, high in production. He's like 6 '10". You guys know who he is. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's the one that mentioned the thought of like, because I think getting in for all the ESPN people, just in like the private production area. Hey, we're here to work. We don't have a lot of bags. We're just here to do it. How long it's taken everybody to get into that area. I mean, this is...

1:47:00Pat McAfee:It's locked on. And Miami, notorious late showers, right? To things. Oh, yeah. Another kind of thing. I'll be interested to see what this looks like at kickoff. First, maybe end of first quarter, second quarter, even third quarter. Right. Major streets around here shut down too. That streets you don't typically shut down. Well, that's about that. with the end of the game too. Like hopefully it is close, but if it's not in the third quarter, you wonder if some people kind of see on the horizon, the long, long way out of this place. I heard the Uber situation here is really good to get out of. Yeah.

1:47:34So I'm happy we're here.

1:47:37Pat McAfee:Yeah. Yeah.

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1:49:29Pat McAfee:What we're telling people who are down here, though, coming? Leave now. Yeah, just plan on hanging out in the stadium beforehand. For sure. That's not going to happen. You're going to be stuck right outside. But in your head, you should be thinking. That should be the plan. You know, we'll hang out. Yeah, we'll do stuff around there. Of course, we'll walk around, maybe go to the Mark shop. Yep. Buy a shirt. You know, we already spent$10 ,000 to be here. We might as well spend another$300 on a shirt. Maybe. That's what your mindset should be showing up to the game tonight. Now, what will actually happen is you're doing this right outside.

1:50:01Having to pee because you've been drinking all day.

1:50:03Pat McAfee:in a single file because you're getting checked. Exactly. Individually. Oh, let's not talk about that. It's a big college game Monday. It's a big college game. You need to be trying to get here maybe now, though, if you are coming to the game tonight. We assume that there will be a lot of Hoosiers fans. Who knows what the Miami fan base will look like. We're obviously excited to experience it all, and also the last college game of the season is going to be an absolute dogfight. These two teams try to hit the hell out of each other. It's a perfect time. I mean, we might as well make our picks. Okay.

1:50:37Pat McAfee:We'll start with Ty Schmidt, Big Ten, Iowa Hawkeye football fan. You've been on a sideline here for all the games of both of these teams through the playoffs. Who do you like? How do you like it? We will use the eight-and-a-half-point spread as the depiction for the picker. This is not straight up. Okay. Yeah, I'm a Big Ten guy, you know, and Indiana for the longest time was a laughing stock. It was, hey, can't wait to go to Bloomington and beat the absolute shit out of these guys. Get some of our third, fourth string players, you know, get them a little burn. A couple touchdowns maybe. That is no longer the case.

1:51:11Sig is the, maybe the best leader in all of mankind, but certainly the best football coach in all of mankind. So, yeah, I know that's a big number. Everything we've seen, it's going to be hard for me to pick anyone other than Indiana minus eight and a half. I think there's a good chance that they roll tonight like they've been rolling for the last month. Ty believes in Signetti and the boys.

1:51:38Pat McAfee:AP Toad, I don't know how you've been seeing the field lately for football. Immaculately. Okay. Okay. Well, how's the night go then? I think it's going to be a slow, lower scoring first half, kind of feeling each other out. Miami's going to try to run the ball, get short third down situation. So I think it's going to be tight first half lower scoring. But in the end, IU second half, they're going to open it up. Give me IU 2713. Oh, okay. Zach's score prediction. Two IU covers with an exact con man really going at Thor's hammer there. Got no knife. So what you got to do without a knife. We got a big old knife right there.

1:52:19Toss it to him. Here you go. Catch it. No, you can just put it down. Look, I mean, it's a big college game, baby. This is why we play. Eight and a half points feels like a ton, you know, and it does feel as though the U is back. I want Miami to be back because, like Saban said, it's just good for ball when programs like Miami are back. I don't know if there's a number you could give me that would be big enough for me to not take IU. It could be 13 and a half, and I would still – Oh, spread. I could go all the way there with Indiana, and it is a home game. we know how the big college game works it's a corporate bullshit bunch of guys who aren't the fans of either team going to be in these stands for at least probably you know 30 of the stadium okay so i'm not worried about any home game anything like that all right djt is here i know sig is going to show out i know some of these boys indiana too this you know florida can say, hey, we're a red state.

1:53:21You know, we get it. Indiana's as red as it gets, brother. Actually. Red and white, exactly. Hoosiers. It is DJT basically central, all right? So, yeah, I'm going to take the Hoosiers 8.5. I'm going to take the Hoosiers 13.5, 20.5. Okay, I think it's – 20.5 hold? I think it could turn into a run-up where, you know, in the fourth quarter a lot of Miami fans left and SIG saying, hey, you know what, this is going to be the most dominant thing ever, 45-20.

1:53:52Pat McAfee:Okay, so that's three IUs. A.J. Hawk, former Big Ten Player of the Month multiple times, obviously has a tree on the campus of Ohio State. Who do you like? How do you like it tonight, H? It was interesting hearing Coach Saban talk about, you know, how you're going to block this Indiana D line. I like Indiana 30-17. Okay, that's a cover. Okay, so four people saying Indiana covers tonight on this particular set. Are we about to have a New England Patriot NFL live type situation? Is D-Bot going to come to his senses and say Indiana, or is he staying with Miami D-Bot? How's it going? How do you feel about what's happening here?

1:54:31Kind of expected. This is kind of what the public is feeling, too. You said, what, 70, 70-some percent of the money on him, even with this, on the Hoosiers, even with this big spread here. And I know it is a great story, and we love stories in sports. It's back-to-back years now. I'll see he's done tremendous things with this team. Number one team in ball. Got the Heisman winner coming home. Could he win it all in front of his family, in front of his friends? No, he won't. Five national championships from this team. Miami Hurricanes. You'll see a bunch of the legends on the sideline. Chris Ball, he went back for a reason.

1:55:02And this is the reason a bunch of these boys stay home. They win it to win the Miami Hurricanes, their sixth national championship tonight.

1:55:08Pat McAfee:D-Bot's got Miami straight up. Yeah, plus 250. Plus eight and a half. Carson Beck is an underdog? 2-0 at Georgia, beat Texas twice. 3-0 at Miami. 5-0 as an underdog with an 80.8 QBR. That's out of 100. Carson plays his best whenever you're picking against him. Cristobal is certainly pulling from that. The Miami Hurricanes, South Florida boys all across the board, they don't like shit getting talked about them. And on the flip side, this Indiana team has been a machine, an absolute juggernaut. Perfect fundamentals, perfect technique, perfect play calls at the perfect time. And they've steamrolled everybody they've seen thus far in the college football playoffs.

1:55:50Pat McAfee:Will that continue tonight? We shall see. I'll be making a pick on game day. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. From myself, Con Man, congrats to your Patriots. Hey, thank you very much. Ty Schmidt, congrats to the Big Ten representing tonight. Thank you. Tone Diggs, you're seeing the board immaculately. Congrats to you. Thank you. A.J. Hawk, the Big Ten's here. Yep. D. Butt, South Florida, Brown County Hall of Famer. Congrats to you. Thank you. Let's enjoy the hell out of the big college game tonight. Football's wrapping up soon. We'll be back tomorrow. Goodbye.

1:56:20Pat McAfee:All right. I think we got to get out of here, boys. Okay. All right. Let's enjoy this day. We thank you for allowing us to do this for a living. Tonight is going to be special. The last college football game of the season. It's been an incredible season for college ball. Obviously, the behind-the-scenes stuff need to get worked out. But the ratings are up and to the right for football. And that's how it's going to remain for the foreseeable future. And we're thankful to be a part of it. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Great work in the truck, boys.

1:56:47Pat McAfee:Great work, boys. Great work back. And then Truck B, too. Good job, Truck B. Oh, yeah. Good job, Truck B. Good job, boys. Fosso, Rollman, entire game day crew, thank you for working extra. Now, granted, you guys got six-month vacations after this. Okay? You guys have had a hell of a season. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. Be a friend. Tell a friend. Something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Come on!

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