PMS 2.0 1491 - JJ Watt, Indiana Linebacker Aiden Fisher, Indianapolis Meteorologist Adam Feick, In the Trenches with AQ Shipley, Everything DB with Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

20:38We went to those, I mean, the conversation's been had many times, but you started to go smaller linebackers and more shell coverages to account for these receiving tight ends and everybody spreading it out and throwing the ball around. So now as those small linebackers and shells have been implemented, now offenses are going back to heavier personnel and running the ball at them to take advantage of that size. So we're just going to keep twisting ourselves around and around. Hmm. You should be right now, baby. Right now, I'm a rapper, baby. Right now, right now. Is that? I believe that is Flo Rida.

21:14That is Flo Rida? Oh, yeah. Before we dive into more football questions, have you ever been to a Flo Rida show? No. Oh. Good feeling. Big fan. Big fan. My house. He's got 15 of them, Jage. He goes. Banger after banger, dude. He needs the halftime Super Bowl conversation. I would like to officially announce official flow into the halftime Super Bowl conversation, just strictly because we drove almost an hour to get to this event. Almost an hour. Signed up for 35 minutes. It ended up being 55. It's Miami football. Shout out. And even the people in Miami tell you the original time, hey, how long would it take us to get there?

21:5525 minutes. Okay. How long would it take us to get there? 40. what's the actual time? Probably an hour. That's probably going to take you about an hour or so, but it could take you 20. Like, if there happens to be nobody else moving in the entire city at the same time as you, there's a chance you'll get there. So we signed up for a timeless voyage, basically, to get to this particular event, and it was all strictly to watch Flo Rida, just strictly because we hadn't been there. He lived up to the hype. We had talk up on the stage. Talk was singing with him. Talk delivered as well. He might be on tour, but Flo Rida needs being a conversation for going.

22:32right round, round, round whenever we're talking about Super Bowl halftime. Okay, and you need to get to a show for flow. Let's get into some ball talk now. You just mentioned Vance Joseph, where you played for him. I don't hear his name a lot for any of these head coaching jobs. Has anybody really talked about that? His name has been out there, but I think they're still alive, so he can't interview or do anything until they're actually done. Yeah, I'll be excited to see how many coordinators here from these four teams end up getting poached or interviewed or become the bells of the ball for this coaching cycle.

23:02Jade, you put out a couple of tweets about the coaching cycle, which is fascinating. Nearly a third of the league is looking for new coaches. Each of the last two MVP-winning quarterbacks won a two-time winner, both in their primes looking for their new head coaches. One of the most historic franchises with only three head coaches since 69. Also looking for a new one. Didn't mention the MVPs down there for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but certainly a lot of consistency being turned over. You also put out another tweet about Mike Vrabel, Ben Johnson, Liam Cohn set the bar extremely high in turnovers and turnaround.

23:28around. Liam Cohen is certainly one to look at. It's just like late in the hiring cycle, didn't know if he was going to be able to hire staff. Is Trevor Lawrence a guy? We don't know if he's a guy. And then in one year, they turn him into a juggernaut AFC South champions. Now, I ask you this, JJ Watt, as you look around at the current hirings that have taken place, got Harbaugh at the New York football giants. I thought he did well. Shane introducing him, very interesting. Shane should probably not be on a microphone, I guess. Is that probably what we Yeah, never. They actually, I think, cut off his lips so he can't speak anymore.

23:57And it felt like they kind of had his lungs in the rear naked, too, where he's running out of air. Hard to breathe. We had a couple interesting press conferences the last couple days where it's people that aren't always up there tossing out some stuff that, man, you've got to be this. Yeah, Jage, we will get to Pagoula. Today's been wild. Yeah, we will get to Pagoula for sure in the Bill's situation. That's certainly another job opening that you certainly talked about there. But let's just talk about the hirings that have happened already. Harbaugh gets the New York football giants. Stefanski goes to Atlanta.

24:27Salah goes to Tennessee. Halfley goes to Miami. When you think about what these hirings are saying, do you think the best guys have gone off the board? And, like, who are you looking at now to potentially fill these other jobs? Because to your point, Baltimore, gigantic. I mean, that's a gigantic job. They were supposed to win a Super Bowl last year. That same roster basically going to be there. Josh Allen, supposed to win a Super Bowl. Who's going to be the one that's going to figure that whole thing out? We'll dive into Brandon Bean and Pagoula's press conference, which, incredible. We need to get Pagoula on a microphone all day, every day.

24:57Let's get him streaming like he's iShowSpeed. Let's get him like he's streaming like he's Kai Senna. I need to hear every thought that comes out of his brain because if you give him an opportunity, it sounds like it's going to come. It sounds like he's just spitting those things out. But when you look at these jobs, these are some massive jobs, Jage. Who the hell is going to get these jobs? I mean, that's what's interesting about this whole coaching thing and the way the rules are set up with the coordinators in the championship games because obviously, I mean, Harbaugh was, he was going to be up there from the beginning and you knew that somebody was going to jump on that.

25:26And it seemed like them and the Giants were going to line up. But then you start to get into this cycle of like, okay, we don't want to wait because we don't want to lose out on a guy. But we also want to see these coordinators for the championship teams, whether it's Shula, whether it's Kubiak or whoever it may be, Vance, Joseph. So these, you have to like, you're playing this dance of bird in the hand, two in the bush type situation. and it's also I guess the coaches were also playing that a little bit with the Bills situation that pops up after both Harbaugh and Stefanski get their jobs lined up so now you sit there and you wonder like man are they pissed they didn't wait are they happy but back to the tweets that I had put out there I think this year when you look at the situations that have come up and I'm talking specifically about the Ravens and the Bills where you have these guys who are legit bona fide already won mvps in the national football league and you look at what vrabel and ben johnson and liam cohen and then a year before mike mcdonald were able to do with those organizations don't get me wrong those teams all have quarterbacks that were drafted high besides the seahawks um they all have quarterbacks that were drafted high and have potential no doubt but none of those quarterbacks have won mvps so they they're like there's nobody out there saying that any of those quarterbacks were on the level that Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson were at that same time last year.

26:51So I look at those two jobs and I think you just fired two coaches who did a really good job for a very long time. No, they didn't accomplish that ultimate goal in these last few years with those quarterbacks, but you're not here to rebuild over time. The new coach there needs to win immediately because it has clearly been proven that what's happened recently isn't good enough so now it's time for this to turn into a super bowl in the next one to two years and that is very hard to do john walker the fourth year there had been three prior fodder fodder's fodder fodder's fodder's fodder he was john walker walking around at the beginning saying there'll be three more of me hopefully four or five he says remember now don't look too far back whenever these teams are absolute ass texans three and 13 three years ago patriots three and 14 and then two four two four uh four c or four games last year yeah four and 13 years yeah yeah sorry yeah a lot of numbers there you get it three years ago the broncos five and 12 bears three and 14 rams five and 12 it's like it is crazy how quickly you can turn things around and then if they were to put the jags there you would just say laughing stock for a very long time even though they have players and you talk about liam cohen going in there and not only the Duvall thing, but the actual convo was he wasn't going to be able to hire enough coaches.

28:10Remember that? He wasn't going to be able to field a staff because it was too late and he burned too many bridges and yada, yada, yada. It feels like he did just fine down there and now everybody else is going to be expecting the same damn thing. Well, the other tough thing with those teams though too, if you put that back up, like all these teams, right? Texans, number two overall pick, they get C.J. Stroud. Pats at three, Drake May. Denver at 11, was it? Or 13 with Bo Nix. Bears, number one overall they get Caleb and then the Rams you know they uh three years ago I guess they already had Stafford but still like there is the argument you need to have either that top pick or you know you go like the Rams and you sell the farm and you bring in even that upgrade from Goff to Stafford was enough to get them over the hump like it is it's very difficult too because all those all those teams have very good quarterback yeah and if you just go nine and eight or whatever you to your point you're not gonna be able to get up to the you know to get that's where the Steelers were kind of living for a long time, which is why Mike Tomlin stepping down is both a breath of fresh air because if they're asked next year, maybe you're able to get a high pick or maybe a new voice comes in and does his thing.

29:14Coach McCarthy, I do believe getting an interview with the Steelers. Very, very, very, very, very real interview with the Steelers today. Coach Mike McCarthy, obviously he's a yinzer. We've enjoyed getting to know him, but I wonder how Coach McCarthy feels about this particular coaching pool with how many jobs are open. I'm sure he's pretty pumped up. It's like, hey, I got a lot of experience. I got a lot of success. Stepped away from the game for a year. Maybe got to see it from a different angle. And there's a lot of jobs open for Coach McCarthy right now. Pittsburgh would obviously be one. I think he would hold very near and dear to his heart as he turns it around.

29:48So, you know, old names, new names. They got a lot of jobs still open. And Buffalo, who's going to get that gig? Brandon Bean and Terry Pagula did a press conference today. They sure did. You know, Bruce Arians yesterday on our show. And we are, we would like to say, Brandon Bean's been very good to us. Like, very good to us. Maybe the nicest GM in all of sport to us. We appreciate Brandon Bean. We like what Brandon Bean does and how he operates. Great golfer. Everything about him. Talk shit. Yeah, he's a shit talker. Like, we like Brandon Bean as the person. Now, granted, the conversation is certainly warranted to help.

30:22You also like Dan Orlovsky. You got no problem going at him, so you got to have no problem going at your friends. Love it. Love it. That's what I'm about to do, yeah. McDermott gets fired. Bean gets promoted. That's a weird turn of events. Even for us liking him, that's a weird turn of events to happen when the same outcome happens every year. Yeah. I think you're also kind of intrigued by it. So then Bean and Pagoula, owner Terry Pagoula have a press conference, and Pagoula takes it upon himself basically to be like, let me set the record. Brandon Bean didn't come in and say, Sean McDermott can't get the job done.

30:55If he was a power play guy, I'd sniff him out. I'd get him out of here. It's like, okay. you're going to continue to talk here and make us believe that you certainly have a clue on what you're doing. Then he continues this kind of unraveling. But he also didn't pick the draft pick, but it's not a power play. Yeah, the revenge things are coming out like, well actually, Keon Coleman, everybody said it's on Brandon Bean. Turns out Sean McDermott up on table for this guy. I think his staff wanted him. Pagoulas, I was actually there. This guy got up on the table and said he won a key on Coleman. He guaranteed he'd be good.

31:30He said, if he's not good, you can fire me. Now you know. That's why I fired him. That's basically what Pagoula did today. Nothing Bean did was bad. It was all on the people that were out of here. I appreciate him going to bat for his guy. Obviously, he just promoted him and everything like that. Then the immediate counter-argument was like, well, which one's the Bean like that didn't work out that McDermott was maybe like, uh-uh. I don't think that's a good play. Can we get more context on all this? But it is fascinating because Greenberg, and you said this as well, Mike Greenberg puts out a tweet that says, somehow a team that has Josh Allen as a quarterback just made their job less desirable this morning.

32:05I don't think that's necessarily true because Josh Allen is an MVP and you get a chance to be his head coach. But it's a fascinating place that you're kind of walking into right now, especially after that presser, JJ. Any coach looking at these situations, and there's not many that have carte blanche to choose whichever job they want. but any coach looking at situations going in with current gms who have been there previously i mean you look at what happened in new york there like some of the obviously the discussion was around who am i reporting to how is this whole thing going to work who is telling the main boss the owner about my performance i want to be the one talking directly to him that seems like what the conversation in new york was around because we see what happens here when the coach reports to the gm and the GM reports to the owner.

32:53Well, the person sitting next to the owner in the booth every single game and the person reporting to the owner, generally that information is going to get sifted up a little bit differently than it actually is playing out. So who do you think is going to win that power struggle 90 % of the time? It's going to be the person giving the information because they can give the information they want. So it's not lost on anybody that the GMs stick around a whole lot longer than the head coaches stick around. And if you're a coach looking at situations, I think you can't look at this one any differently because you still have Josh Allen, but you certainly are like, all right, this guy just got promoted when his coach got fired.

33:30What does that mean for my standing already starting out? If you're a young lad who shouldn't be a head coach, but getting an opportunity to be a head coach, having a GM who like oversees you and kind of decides what's happening, I think you'd be much more likely to do. But Harbaugh goes into the Giants and obviously there was no, Hey, it's on paper, but we're collaborative. Shane comes out and says, Harbaugh reads that thing, the contract. Somebody reads it to him. He goes, hey, you're going to report to Shane. Shane then reports to the Amara family. Harbaugh goes, I don't think that's how this goes.

34:01No, I'm not. And John goes, yeah, just change that for sure. And the agent goes, okay, you got it. Agent calls back over to the Giants. Hey, yeah, line four here, clause two, it says that Harbaugh reports to Shane and Shane reports to Amara. Yeah, just go ahead and get rid of that. Everything else is good or whatever. and then the Morrow family replies, okay, we'll call Shane to change that because his team is actually writing up the contract right now. Okay, call Shane. Hey, you need to get rid of the whole Harbaugh's reporting to you thing in there. That's going to be how this building runs, though, doesn't it?

34:32Oh, let me call Harbaugh. Then that person has to call. So Shane says it's just on paper. It's not that big of a deal. That's just kind of the chain of command. So then the agent doesn't even tell Harbaugh that. He goes, yeah, we're not going to do that, though. Harbaugh's still hanging out. Harbaugh thinks that thing has been removed. We're not going to do it. That goes on for what? like a day. It felt like that took like a day for that to take place. And then inevitably, in the end, Harbaugh's like, am I going up there? And he just like, hold. Gets called back. Do we remove that? Yes. Yeah, you're the guy in charge, by the way.

35:00Go ahead. Go up there. And then he walks up there and then... What happened in Jacksonville last year, too, is it not? I remember that correctly, right? Wasn't that a Jacksonville-type thing last year? The Jacksonville thing was Cohen Wentz didn't take the job because allegedly he wanted Trent Balky out. Then they fire Trent Balky. Cohen comes in. Gladstone guitar. Remember Khan, I believe in an interview with Balky on the call. Yes. He goes, I will certainly move on from that guy. Yeah. In the Zoom call. Like it was the Brady bunch. We need more owner press conferences is what we need. That's what we were trying to do to Bashadi, like making that song.

35:37Like, bro, we need you out here. Do we have a song for her? Pagula? Yeah. You're gonna lose her with Pagula. I mean, that was just the first pipe down pagula yeah i mean pipe down yeah we could probably make a couple for pagula there but it is you know because all of these coaches all you hear them talk about is alignment i want alignment i want alignment at the top with the gm and with me and a quarterback too that'd be great if we could just have alignment at the top that's all we really care about all the people that have been head coaches before and have been fired and then they go on to be a head coach again hey why did it not work at the first spot well we didn't really second spot why'd you get alignment everybody was together so there are that is such a it's like it's a it's a thing that you would think as a fan of sports is the most obvious thing in the world we are all doing whatever it takes to get our organization the best possible situation at all times people just don't understand or i mean it's the fact that everybody is covering their own ass at all times you have to look at when contracts are coming up for gms for coaches what needs to happen for them to keep that job into their next contract, how they can spin it or manipulate it or make a certain move so that they can secure that next contract.

36:52It might not be what's best for the team right now, but it's what makes it look like you're doing what's best for the team at that moment. There's a lot of that going on. It has to appear as if it's good for the team and also has to definitely be great for my ass. That is not just a football thing either. Almost has become a societal issue as we lack accountability amongst humans, but that is not for me to forecast about because I'm a doofus who potentially falls into the same problem because I'm going to be looking out for us at all times, boys. Hell yeah. I just know that. Let's talk about a hiring that happened that got me jacked up, J.H.

37:26Special teams. Shout out Danny Smith just got the job down there at Tampa Bay. Love that he got hired. That does get me jacked up. Not what I was going to talk about, but good time to bring up great inzer Danny Smith getting a job down there at Tampa Bay. How old is Danny Smith? 72 years old. That's what I'm talking about. Acts like he's 35, though. He'll be down there for the next 20 years. They move on from Coach Tom Moore, who retires. They bring in Danny Smith. Need a senior with a lot of juice on the roster. So I appreciate them doing that down there in Tampa. I think there was a couple teams that wanted to hire Danny as their special teams coordinator.

38:00So Tampa Bay getting him, obviously, great news. But that was not what I was referring to. What I was referring to was something that's going to boost the ball as a whole next year. Harbaugh has a new human. he's going to have to talk about and describe out there in L.A. Go ahead, D-Buck. Yeah, it's about a couple teams wanting this guy. I believe he removed himself from consideration for the Browns' head coaching job and then got the job for the O.C. out in L.A. We had Dan O. on last week, and he said the Chargers would be the spot he would pick if he was an offensive coordinator. What's your thoughts on Mike McDaniel to L.A.?

38:32I think it's great. I think it's great from a fit standpoint. Obviously, you got Herbert out there, and there's so much you can do with that offense. their offensive line gets healthy um they they have untapped potential still uh obviously everybody kind of expects them to be something better than what they have been recently and i think this has a chance to help unlock that but i mean from an entertainment standpoint and like you guys are alluding to everything that comes along with this i would just could we get hard knocks there tomorrow like the conversations like the the inside information like that would just be glorious to see those guys interacting.

39:08Well, Herb, too. And McDaniel. I mean, that relationship is going to be spectacular. You're not kidding. He's going to have him jacked. He's going to be like, alright, we're going to get you jacked. McDaniel's going to come out next year just yoked up because of Herb. There's a chance. And also out there in LA there'll probably be some signs. You know, shout out to McDaniel getting a chance just to go back to what he probably wants to do, which is just offense. But the way Harbaugh is going to describe McDaniel's brain in offense is going to be spectacular. Like, this was just the first thing I thought of.

39:40Wizard of Ball. He's going to be saying so many different things. He's going to refer to him as a little guy, which is so much. Yeah, Poindexter maybe. There's so many things he's just going to talk about. What if he walks into those off-white Air Forces with the tags on there? Jim just... This guy's got tags on his shoes. Forgot to take that, bro. So cool. Like, just everything Jim Harbaugh realizes about McDaniel is just going to be like an epiphany, seemingly. And then he's going to carry it right into the press. I was just outside. Guy got tags on his shoes, pants, shirt, and hat. I've never seen that.

40:11Four tags. You ever had a guy with four tags still on his clothes? That's what we got around here. They're not franchise tags either. These things are forever, from what I've been told. It's not just one-year deal. Like, just the thought of Harbaugh sitting with McDaniel and being like, this is the guy. Imagine if he brings some Cuban coffee to him, and he starts drinking the Cuban coffee, brings it over from Miami, and I'm like, wow. You guys ever had this stuff? This is great. I like this. Cafecito, he said. Aceto. There's just so many opportunities, especially if they're good. Need them to be good.

40:39Their ass. If their ass, Harbaugh is going to be beating the shit out of him by about week 12. Take the tags off your shoes. Put some regular khakis on. Put some khakis on. We're not wearing, what do you call them, joggers? I'm a runner. You put your runners on. Take your joggers off. Like, there is that also possible outcome. Whenever MCDC said it wasn't a good fit, right? Allegedly, that's what we're hearing for Detroit with McDaniel? Correct. That was fascinating for us because of all the weapons that Detroit has. Almost feels like a better suit for McDaniel in his offense. A lot more speed, seemingly.

41:16A lot more weapons, a lot more options. So, for Los Angeles Chargers to be the ones that are like, yeah, we want him, I'm pumped up for it. I mean, did you see him dripped out in the airport? Like, I feel like that outfit alone. I think he had a Bottega leather tie on, which is, I think walking into the Lions building with that on alone might have been like, all right, I don't know if this is the fit for the grit organization. L.A., though. I'll tell you what, man. The fuck is that tie? I'll tell you what, man. Is that a cow on your, what's going on here, man? We're going to wait until later, but we're going to have to head to the bathroom right now.

41:52It's swirly time. I'm getting pissed just looking at you. There's a chance. Yeah. He had that fit on, man. He had the two Bottega bags on top of each other fitted out. He had those headphones that nobody else has. They look like they're old, but they also look like they're from the future. You can't really tell. Yeah. Yeah. I mean. Good fit. Just look at that. Him walking into MCDC's office. Coach, what it do? Yeah. Get out. Get the fuck out of here now. Hey, it's all about the right fit. That's what we've been saying this whole time. Exactly. It's all about the right fit. Now, there was a fit in Cleveland that was seemingly out of sorts, even though they went to a playoff game and one playoff game.

42:36Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Jage, what's your take on the whole Baker-Kevin Stefanski situation? Everyone kind of knew about this. Okay, there we go. So, yeah, I mean, like, I don't know. I feel like everyone did know about this when it first happened, but now we're just kind of getting more information about how this shook out, and now Bate gets to play him two times a year. And I'm guessing you never had anything like this because you're going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. He fist fought a coach in practice. Yeah, but you know what I mean. No denial. We still have yet to get the full story. We're beyond that.

43:14We're years beyond that. But just what is your take on this whole situation as we get more information coming out? I absolutely love this. I this the Ben Johnson thing with the Packers anything where there's like legit real animosity and it's being like this is the National Football League this is sports it's supposed to be competitive you're not supposed to like each other we're not all supposed to be friends at the end of the day like this is awesome and this is going to create some great television in this fall when they play each other twice this year like this is what it should all be and I like that we're kind of swinging this pendulum back a little bit to some of this hatred to some of this animosity where people don't like each other like we we have the jersey swaps we have all the pictures on the field after the game we all have friends on other teams because everybody trains together but there is nothing better when two teams absolutely hate each other and it's like a deep down actual hatred and you can see it play out on the field can't wait to watch it i like that it's getting public that's what you're talking about with the pendulum swinging like i like that we know that there's dislike that there's disinterest that there's distaste for each other i appreciate the ben johnson matt lafleur stuff i love that the whole entire mcveigh family tree thought to themselves this guy's attacking all of us he's not just chopping down one branch he's attacking the whole tree here whenever he's doing that to lafleur publicly this is all coming out it's like yes yes and then for this particular situation i don't know if we ever heard from baker right on it no i don't think we ever heard from baker on it and i don't think we ever heard directly from Stefanski on it other than what his actions were.

44:55Last game, Baker Mayfield was there. He had a, what, torn labrum and a fractured left shoulder. Correct. Both of them in his left arm. And Stefanski went out there against the Pittsburgh Steelers, had him throw the ball 60 times. How many times? Exactly four, 38 times, okay? Had him throw 38 times. And in the game, he got sacked nine times. So you're talking about boom, boom, boom. Chubb, best running back maybe in the game, off the field, playing against a team that has a great defense regardless. So it was like, Stefanski's trying to kill this guy. That's what we were thinking while we're watching the game live in real time without even knowing what was about to happen, where they basically run him out.

45:35Then there's shit behind the scenes happening with, you know, Odell Beckham Jr.'s dad cutting up videos. And then nobody really from Cleveland saying, we want to keep him around here, even though he's making commercials in a stadium saying it was his house. It was like very ugly. It was very Cleveland Brown-y if you're from Pittsburgh. It's like Cleveland Browns are doing everything that the Cleveland Browns would do. This is the first time we've really heard Baker come out and say, yeah, I don't like him. I don't like him. It's like, all right, now we understand exactly what the situation was over there.

46:02I think Baker has come out, though, and said that he's matured a lot since that time until what he has become now, both at Carolina, out at L.A. He's got a chance to kind of learn and have a different perspective and all that as he was growing through it. But, yeah, it sounds like Stefanski and he did not get along at all, Tosh. No, not at all. And, you know, now you're kind of starting to get the thing to where people who are either were in the building with the Browns or taking Stavansky side and kind of saying like, you know, Baker was he was a prick to support staff and people who work there and all that kind of stuff.

46:32and like you mentioned that is when Baker was kind of like hey I had to kind of go through all that stuff to mature and become a better pro and uh I mean I don't know I love it too like anytime a player hates another coach because everything is so either no comment or I got so much respect for this guy like it's refreshing when a starting quarterback in the NFL will come out and be like you know what fuck this guy can't wait to play this guy twice a year and shove it up his ass I got shipped off like a piece of garbage. He said, sorry about that. No, no, my bad. Just to add to the rivalries as we're going through them all, Liam Cohen and Bob Sala twice a year now because of that whole entire feud after the Niners game.

47:10Cheap my name out your mouth. Yeah. That's going to be incredible. I hope they keep it going. I hope they don't like, nah, that's old news. It's squash. I hope they're like, nope, yep, now he's got to see me twice a year. That would be awesome. We're in a little different positions now, aren't we? Jacksonville Jags, King of the Castle. So what are you, Sala? Oh, you're in Tennessee, Titan learned. Okay. Good luck over there, buddy. Did Sala say, like, too, like, I will fuck your world up, Liam, in that little exchange? Like, that little exchange there, I'm pretty sure that was his verbiage. And then we put a tail of the tape up, and we had Liam Cohen's height wrong, you know, and he said when he came on the show later, you guys are trying to make me look bad on the tail of the tape.

47:53It's like, no, I thought we put a lot of respect into that tail of the tape. just in case you two were actually going to brawl, which we were maybe getting to the point where these coaches are actually going to fight. And I like if the family trees are going to start taking offense to other family trees. Because then the leader of the trees are going to have to have a meeting at some point and kind of say, hey, this is the territory. This is what we need to do. You can't be doing this. You can't be doing that. And then you've got to go tell your capo, which then goes and tells everybody down the line.

48:18You can whack this guy, and then we'll whack that guy. You can't whack this guy. This guy good. This guy not good. Can't do it. They're going to have a meeting of the minds here. And 6-1 versus 6-4, 2-20 versus 2-50 is a little bit. You know, that's potentially problematic. Now, with that being said, head coaching records, if it comes down to that, Liam Cohen's going to be in a good spot. This was at the very beginning, obviously, 3-1. And, oh, he's continued to win. I was trying to figure it out. I was very confused there for a second. This was the tail of the tape that we put out. It has not been updated.

48:50We did not expect to bring it back up in this exact moment. Good find back there. But with that being said, Liam, much better head coach than Robert Sala. Right now. Right now, however we're supposed to talk. I lost a lot of weight from just looking at that photo. Liam Cohen looks much better than that to pick. And we don't know if it's stress that he hasn't been eating or, you know, potentially Liam Cohen. There's a chance. Or this battle. Maybe he was like, I got to get in the gym now. Preparing for Sala. Go ahead, Jade. Sorry about that. I got plenty of insight into Liam Cohen's weight loss.

49:23I mean, it's a ridiculous topic to have a lot of knowledge on, but I do. We had him multiple times this year, and it came up multiple times. It was Baseli. When he got there, like the very first day that Cohen got there, Baseli was like, you got to get in shape. It's ridiculous. You can't look like that. Love that. You look like a fat idiot right now. He got him in the gym with him in the mornings, and he was like, they went through like a gym routine and like nutrition and stuff. and then Cohen just, he switched it to the afternoon because he was working in the morning, but he worked out all year long.

49:56And yeah, I think he said he's down 40 pounds. God damn. Salah, I don't know, bro. You're coming into a different AFC South jungle down there in Duval. Salah is a brick shithouse, though. Yeah, and his head. Yeah. He is. Also got a number one quarterback. I mean, if you're looking at last year's, again, we go back to that last year's, you had Lawrence, you had Caleb Williams, and you had Drake May, top three picks. Sal is now working with the number one overall pick. Those guys were able to turn things around unbelievably quickly with those court. You got to turn things around quickly in this world.

50:29I like Cam. We got a chance to chat with him a couple of times because he's come to the Miami games. Looks like he's excited, you know, bought in, just ready to play ball. Basically feels like he's just all going to come down to the OC there. I mean, he's got to get a great OC. Like if you're going to go defense coaches, I don't hate, obviously. I mean, I think they're trying to set a culture, but you have to get Cam Ward a great offensive coordinator. If we go back to hard knocks with Salah, Salah's entire thing is like his defense was great, the offense was ass, right? And then I think the hard knocks, he actually finally just said it.

50:58Hey, we're going to be good on the defensive side. You guys, right up there, just kind of circle the offense, offensive line in particular. You guys are going to decide whether or not we're worth a shit this year. Could you please? Now let me tell you a story about an eagle and a crow. Okay, and then he did the entire thing, readied a couple lines, and then got up to where the eagle can soar and the crow can't. that was gone. That's what I remember from his opening team meeting. It's like the Vince Vaughn, John Favreau clip where he's like, nobody's pointing fingers at anybody. You're a problem.

51:27I like that he was that blunt about it. At that stage of his head coaching career, it was pretty obvious. Like, hey, if this group right here could do anything, I didn't draft him. I didn't get to pay him. I am the head coach here. Our defense is going to have our shit right. If you...

51:44Big guys. He wanted to say it. He did not, though. He was straight. You big guys can get it together. We might have a good team here. That would be great if we were able to do that. He probably learned from that the first time around. Oh, yeah. I assume that is going to be main focus for the second time around. My brain, what I am good at, we are going to have a good defense. We have to have the offense figured out, I assume is what he's saying. Yeah, now he doesn't have the same talent, I would say, that he had on that Jets defense with Tennessee right now up front. You obviously have Simmons, and that's a great piece to build around.

52:14You got some other pieces that haven't quite worked out that they brought over, but you assume that he has a good evaluation of defenders. And then him coming from, well, he was in Shanahan's tree earlier, so hopefully he has another offensive mind, maybe a guy we know, maybe a guy we don't know that he does bring over and kind of bring the best out of Cam Ward. We saw a flash from Cam Ward, and like JJ said, you get a great offensive mind around him, obviously pieces. Cam Ward could be one of the best quarterbacks in the league, we think. Think back to C.J. Stroud's rookie year. Offensive coordinator was Bobby Slowick.

52:43They get rid of him. He goes to Miami. He's without a job. This makes all the sense in the world to go get him right now. Okay, so slow it goes down. Tennessee don't love that. Back in the AFC South causing us problems. The Titans currently right now, if you were to look at their win-loss records since Vrabel, they're the worst. Ooh! Yeah, they're the worst in everything. They're just the worst in everything since kicking Vrabel out of town. And Vrabel's now in the AFC Championship. How's he doing? Yeah. Pretty freaking good. Get him out of there. All right, last question here for you, Jage. Big topic of discussion around the NFL.

53:13And it will be for the entirety of the offseason, it feels like. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, J.H., Bob Kraft was on WEI Afternoons, and he basically said, hey, the NFL has three priorities right now, one of them being an 18-game season, moving the preseason to two games, and then also an international game for every single team every year. What do you think specifically about the 18 games? It feels like we've talked about this for years, basically since the 17 games became a thing. But do you think they also have to change, you know, bye weeks? What are some of the things you expect to see once that 18 games is implemented?

53:48I don't know if we have enough time between now and getting off the air on ESPN to go through all of this. You got three minutes, okay? The value of the 17th game was never given back to the players in the proper manner. And that's because of, we all know, Pat, especially D-Butt, like the guys at AQ that know the CBA negotiations and everything. You have to fight for what this is worth. Do not give this 18th game up for less than it is actually worth. And unfortunately, that's just looking forward the way that it's all going to shake out. They're going to give a second bye week. They're going to take away preseason.

54:28A preseason game to an 18th game is not even remotely close to the same thing. A preseason game nowadays, people don't even play in them at all. So now you're taking zero plays, and you're replacing it with 65 plays of the highest intensity, most difficult. Oh, no, they're throwing it. Yeah, they're throwing it. Did I freeze? Did I freeze? Somebody's trying to silence me. Who's doing it? Who's doing it? Could have been correct. Are you now in their pocket? Are you now in their pocket? I was giving you a whole floor. I said you had three minutes. Do your thing, please. They're going to try and get you with a second bye week.

55:04No shit. If you play 18 games, yeah, you better have a second bye week. That shouldn't even be – don't let them use it as a negotiating tool. That's a non-starter. It needs to be financially equivalent to what it's worth to you. It wasn't the same for going from 16 to 17. You have to find a way to make it right going from 17 to 18. The players get screwed in every single CBA argument and negotiation ever. have one of the worst figure it out yeah well the good news is the last nfl pa president was really using his time officially that's what we learned uh 1961 through 1977 it was 14 games six preseason games so it had 20 games there then it went 16 to 4 now it's 17 and 3 18 and 2 is probably what's next i asked roger cadell about that at the draft and uh for you it's a funny that they are trying to make that an argument.

55:57And he was like, I think I speak for everybody. We'd much rather have a regular season game than another preseason game, right? It's like, yes, certainly. In the negotiation, who knows if it'll be treated the same. And you talk about players losing all the time. I agree. I think there are bad negotiators in there. But I want to let you know, whenever we get an extra guaranteed cold tub in every building for that 18th game, people's knees are going to feel better. That's what I'm saying. Two at a time. Two at a time. It's going to happen. Jay, you're the man. Why don't you go be the president of the NFLPA?

56:27Ooh. There were many, many deep discussions had during the last CBA, and I understand completely the issue at hand with why it's difficult to get every NFL player on the same page because of the length of contracts, because of who's been in for long enough, who understands the dynamics of it all. It's very difficult. You know who else knows that? The owners, which is why they win every single negotiation ever. 30 billionaires and their lawyers negotiating against you is going to be tough. you gotta stay in your own business and JJ would do that, that's why he's future first bout Hall of Famer, we're back on the other side be a friend, tell a friend, have a nice

57:08Hello beautiful people and welcome back to our Humble Above, the Thunderdome on this Watt Wednesday, January 21st 2026, our tour of the program begins right now Football is the best It's just the best. So much drama. We got billionaires speaking for the first time in a long time. We're incredibly entertained. We got new jobs opening up. We got new hirings happening around the NFL. And oh, yeah, we still haven't figured out who the champions of the AFC are or the champions of the NFC. Well, we only have to wait just a few more days. The New England Patriots. Back. In the AFC Championship. It's beautiful.

57:50It is. Taking on the Broncos. back in the AFC Championship game. You know what teams haven't been in the AFC Championship game since the last time these teams were in the Championship game? Who? A lot. 85 % of the teams have not been in the Championship game, basically, since... the broncos but more specifically the patriots they've done it again these people are primed to have 10, 20, maybe with modern science, 30-year run at the top of the AFC. And I'll tell you, it's a different vibe coming out of all the mass holes. At Boston, Conor is a great depiction of that. Because they're still at the moment of saying, oh, they don't believe that we're back.

58:35They don't believe that we're good. So they're still fighting chip on shoulder all night. Oh, yeah. And that's going to be for the first three, four years of this thing. And then after that, they're going to be the, we are the Kings. We are, yet again, the Kings. This is all possible unless the Denver Broncos, with Jared Stidham at quarterback, are able to topple them at home as five-and-a-half-point dogs in the AFC Championship game. And then the Los Angeles Rams take on the Seahawks in the NFC Championship. 6.30 Eastern, 3.30 local over there. The 12s will show up in a huge way. We expect both these games to be absolute bangers, and the storylines coming out of them are going to be spectacular.

59:13But that's not where the storylines end. Storylines are everywhere. in football right now. You know, the transfer portal opens up basically for Miami and Indiana for five days or whatever. So we still see mega moves happening around college ball. Coaches are being hired. Coaches are being slandered. Players are getting made fun of and owners are saying whatever they're thinking because they're billionaires and they rarely have to face any punishment for any of their actions. That's right. I make the game. So what are you going to say? One bad call. all right change it then you're the owner right that ref contract is up here in a couple months as well so whenever you talk about the state of football being a constant flux we're in it right now we're also in the best time to be alive where we're just a couple weeks removed from the super bowl which is going to be the best week out in santa claire cannot wait to get out there cannot wait to celebrate ball and cannot wait to talk for another hour or so with these fine gentlemen the toxic table i've lost a connor and that ty schmidt ty packers aren't in there no no no no No, they're not.

1:00:15And, you know, hey, maybe next year. We'll see. You got to hire a good defensive coordinator. D, but the Eagles, the Chargers, the Dolphins, and the Colts, and the Panthers are not in there. You're a Panthers fan. I did play there, but. You were kind of starting to ride for him a little bit this year. No, I was excited. You know, Cam came back, beat the drum. I like, you know, what Young did. Yeah, but they're not on my list. No, but you're a fan of the Colts right now, right? Absolutely. And you pop up on the Patriots bandwagon. I'll always be a fan of the Colts. I'll always be a fan of the Dolphins.

1:00:47No, but also now the Patriots. My bandwagon, that's different. But you put it on the Patriots, play for the Patriots, play for the Colts. You would assume he's also a fan of the Panthers, right, because he played for them as well. Absolutely. That would be the third team of his three-team playing career. So you'd think he would just get on board with the Panthers. So you're saying, yeah, definitely good for Charlotte, but they're not a part of the Patriots. I didn't get a text from Bill when he shipped me out of New England. So I almost want to send him one of those Baker Mayfield tweets right now.

1:01:11Essentially like a piece of garbage. You should. Shit me out. The Patriots being back. Outrageous. The Rams still there. Crazy. McDonald being able to turn over the Seattle Seahawks. I guess I should point that out. Seattle Seahawks back in the NFC championship game. We're not really giving that any love. That's a potential return to real greatness for them. And then obviously the Rams or the Broncos being back. It's a huge kind of what is old is almost new again in this world of football. Yeah, just huge for everybody on that graphic and more with just legacy. Like, these are true, like, legacy games.

1:01:46We always talk about the regular season is the regular season. Then you get into the playoffs. Then you get into these championship games to punch your ticket to the big dance. Then once you get there, whatever happens for coaches, for players, for quarterbacks specifically, like, this is going to live on forever. So we only got three more. We got to enjoy them. We talked about the storylines. There will always be, you know, NFL will always, you know, dominate the story. It'll be the combine. It'll be the draft. But we got to appreciate these actual football games, meaningful football games that we have left.

1:02:15You talk about legacies. Sean Payton, we assume Hall of Fame coach, right? Yep. Vrabel, we assume Hall of Fame coach, right? McVay, we assume Hall of Fame coach. So, it's just got McDonald out there. And guess what? I think Vrabel got to win one. Has to win Super Bowl as head coach. I think so, yeah. I think so as well. I think that's accurate. We assume he will. Yeah. But no guarantee. No. True. There's no guarantee. We got to remember that, too. with great quarterbacks. Josh Allen hasn't been to one yet. And everybody on TV says he's the greatest, most talented quarterback we've ever seen touch a football field.

1:02:48And I love Josh Allen as well. But it's not promised that you're going to get back to this point. I heard Ben Johnson in the press conference. Somebody said, hey, how do you build off this year? He was like, look, we start back at square one just like every other of the 31 teams out there next season. And we know every year it's a different group in their locker room. We see now with owners speaking up more, some of the shit that goes on behind the scenes and why teams are bad year in and year out, decade and decade out. Not the Bills. The Bills are obviously a good team, but it's a lot that has to go right.

1:03:18Injuries for you to get to this point where you're playing on championship weekend with a chance just to get to the Super Bowl. There's no building off of this. We go back to square one, Ben Johnson says. How do you build off this? There isn't any. I don't think you guys. You should, actually, because you guys haven't been here in a long time. It's so hard to get here. And then think about getting there, like you're the Denver Broncos, starting quarterback breaks his ankle right before the championship. It's like that's a heartbreaker. Crazy. That is. And it happened to the Niners, I guess, when they played the Philadelphia Eagles a couple years ago.

1:03:47Was there six injuries in the first half? Yeah, like second play. Brock Purdy couldn't throw a football. Then somebody got leg whipped. Got Bosa, I think. Bosa did, yeah. Bosa, shoulder, Fred Warner. Went down. There was like four injuries in like the first quarter, first drive for the San Francisco 49ers. It's like you've got to get so lucky injury-wise. We're not talking even at this stage. You're talking for an entire season you have to get lucky injury. And Kahneman mentioned earlier, when Carson Wentz went down in that kind of MVP caliber season, and Nick Foles thankfully stepped up and played great, and it did go right for them.

1:04:17You went on and won a Super Bowl. Like so many things just have to go right for you to actually get it done, and then people are going to talk about it forever. And a lot of times, a lot of that context is left out. Obviously, quarterbacks are different, but you can lose a star pass rusher. Michael Parsons, like you use a star receiver or tight ends banged up or your best guard is playing with a messed up injury. So a lot of things have got to go right from the coaching staff and the players. On Micah Parsons' note, Hembo sent us a stat on Micah Parsons. You know, do you think you guys had the lead whenever he got hurt or something like that?

1:04:48Yes, yep. From his injury on, you guys went 0-4. Yeah, let's see. The Packers were leading Broncos 23-21. We're talking about the Broncos. When Micah went down, they never won another game and had four sacks in their final four games. I mean, you talk about an injury just to crack everything for a team. That was the Micah Parsons injury. So back to the point of getting to championship weekend, so much has to go right on every single play for you to be able to get to a point to get here because the way salary caps are allotted, the way teams are kind of pieced together, you lose one or two pieces just accidentally for three, four weeks without knowing, let alone a flu comes through.

1:05:22Something like that happens. That can derail everything you have going on. A flag. Oh, a terrible flag. That changes the whole course of careers. People have to move their families because of bad calls, which goes to Pagoula's point. Want bad call? Yeah, exactly. Let's get these refs out of here. Who's in charge of it? Me? They're going to listen to me? Yeah. All right, I'll say something. Okay. It's like, thank you. Go in there. Let's go ahead and make sure we do that. Got to get so lucky to win. That's why what the Patriots did for 25 years. Insanity, actually. Well, and that's the thing about losing one or two pieces, and then some of these teams that are not even close to our radar gaining one or two pieces.

1:05:58Like the Patriots and Drake May. They weren't in this conversation last year when we were forecasting or the year before or the year before that. We talk about Mendoza a lot, and who knows, because a lot needs to happen in Vegas. But Mendoza goes to Vegas. Are you that surprised if they become a legitimate team in the next three years with Mendoza? Yes. A lot of these teams – yeah, I guess for Vegas, maybe it is a little different. Definitely with the Jets, you would think that too. But some of these teams come out of nowhere. The Commanders. The Commanders weren't good this year, But if they're great next year with Jaden Daniels and he stays healthy, nobody's that surprised because they just went to an NFC title game.

1:06:37And that's the whole conversation about Burrow and the Bengals. If you look at the Bengals from when they went to the Super Bowl to now, it isn't a full-blown collapse, but it's pretty damn close. It's pretty close, even the Lions. The Lions were the kind of class of the NFC, not the top, but they were up there, and then they missed the playoffs. It's like every year is so different, and that's why it's the greatest league on earth. Like NBA, all these other leagues, you kind of know who's going to be there. Wow, the Pacers, obviously, championship pedigree. And that's a perfect example of a team kind of coming out of nowhere.

1:07:12And also enjoy it. Yeah, enjoy it while you have it because you never know. The next year it might be absolutely awful, but also who knows because no one watches the NBA. But, again, that is the NFL. Now, on that note, I heard the numbers were up. Were they not up? Yes. I think their numbers were up. I don't know. I haven't seen them. I mean, to be honest. So I saw last night it was Lakers Nuggets, I believe. I turned on in the middle of a Luka. Luka was getting. Bit of a scorcher. Yeah, I think he went from 26 points maybe to 33 points in like a minute and a half run or something like that. And it was like, okay, Luka's still doing it.

1:07:46LeBron had a cool pass. Per usual. Okay, and then I changed the channel. I went to something else. Should have stuck on that because I basically just did an internet clip on the actual TV. Yeah. So I think I gave him a rating, but that is what NBA is. It's hard not to just digitally take in the NBA. Show me the three highlights that happened last night. Come on, guys. I'm telling you, it's hard for me right now, man. Maybe once football is over, I'll dive in. Last year was easy because it was like Tyrese is in there. His gray shoes are by far the best ones he's had. I had them on yesterday. I should have worn them today.

1:08:18I didn't know I was going to shout them out because obviously everything is scripted in this particular show. But whenever you watch just like highlights and get the score, who's in, who's out. That's really all I'm doing with the NBA right now. I don't like that because I think we should pay attention to these sports more. I think everybody's doing the same thing I'm doing, I think, that I know. If you're flipping through the channels and you land on an NBA game and they don't have starters in, it is an absolute certainty that I will not be returning to that channel unless I'm watching the Celtics and Luka Garza is just fucking out there.

1:08:49You've got to have a personal connection. Yes. You see KD locking down Wemby? Yes. now all of a sudden I have a personal connection to that yeah it's like wait a second Kevin Durant was originally the potential full NBA changer too tall he's he's too skinny to be how tall he is he's got pull on weight Slim Reaper said I don't think so pal okay actually I'm just gonna go ahead and do all this other shit so for him to now have to face the next hey this guy's gonna cheat is the game changer in this and then for him to take it upon himself love that I love everything about the KD still got it. I like that everything's happening, and this isn't a playoff game.

1:09:26This is middle of January, him locking it down. It's like there's always good highlights, good storylines, and the NBA will get us through a time whenever we need them. We need to remember that the NBA will do that for all of us. The playoffs are incredible. That run when it is like NBA and NHL playoffs every single night, multiple games, those are great. The only problem is like in the NBA especially, it's typically 1-2-3-4 as far as seeding goes. That's going to be in the quarters, then the conference finals and then the finals. There is never really a surprise seven or eight seed making a massive run.

1:09:59In the NHL, you can make an argument all eight can go and win it. At least the eight seed can at least go and win it. That's how the Florida Panthers basically started this entire run. Seeding is kind of stupid too. That's one thing I don't – I love hockey. About the NHL? Yeah, I don't like the seed. You're from Hockey Beach. I am. The hockey town. No, no, the town. A.K.A. Hockey Beach. You're in a hockey beach, yes. You're in a hockey town. You just got to get in a dance this year. Sorry, Foxy. Playing like a bunch of hockey beaches. Oh! Little baby back hockey beach. I just saw Bobby come out of the net and start throwing him things.

1:10:38It was sick. He didn't get the best of the other guy. I liked it. I didn't know that happened. Goalies? Yeah, I've never seen goalie scrap. Yeah, it's usually a pretty dramatic situation because think about the crowd. The crowd's all back. They could see the entire... You see a lot of pads in movement coming from one side, and then obviously you see the other one agreeing. It's like everybody immediately gets excited about it. The least amount of fighting experience these days. You know, probably the most to lose if they were to hurt themselves, right, in this situation. Them getting after each other is a beautiful thing.

1:11:12Yeah, this is good for hockey. Obviously rips the helmet off. I'm going to keep my helmet on, obviously. Nope. Boom. bang bang with all those pads it's going to be tough and when you lose these hockey fights which we are fans of we are fans of the hockey fights we like that in 2026 a sport has uh fighting still as a way to handle business amongst each other like hey what you just did we don't like we're gonna have to fight for that then let's move on if you're losing those i feel like you know in boxing how you just like kind of hug hockey you got to get that thing to the ice yeah because As soon as you get to the ice, normally help is on the way.

1:11:47Now, I have seen a guy getting his ass beat, like, oh, we've got to get this to the ice. Guy picks him up off the ice, continues fighting. That's the worst-case scenario, I think. And some of these fighters, not these goalies, obviously, and once again, we can't say thank you enough to both these over here in Shark KJ and down here in Hockey Beach, having the goalies kind of get after it, you know, anytime that's happening. but some of these hockey fighters I think they could have been professional boxers if they wanted to and then they're like 6 '7 as well what was Zadano? Chara on skates I believe was 6 '9 I think he is 6 '7 or 6 '6 off skates and he was a professional fighter could you see him in the business?

1:12:27unless he was 6 '9 and then 6 '11 on skates 6 '9 without skates and he was an actual professional fighter he's the tallest ever Tom Wilson was like 6 '4, 250 right? Yeah, and he's a menace. He's a problem. That whole Capitals team is just so mean. Ryan Reeves, Revo. Revo got his bell rung. I saw that. Ovi will run you, too. Ovi will run you. The Russians aren't scared to kind of run you. Gino Malkin will get in a fight if he has to. How are the Penguins doing right now? How do you think, Pat? Pretty damn good. And Malkin, I've seen Malkin get called kind of a crybaby. not as much as mix it up I'm a fan of the bad news bees all we do is throw down granted we got our freaking shit pushed in by the Dallas Stars last night that's because we're a throw down team in Texas hockey they're finesse and finesse wins in a seven game series finesse wins three times but that's the thing about one of those teams rooting for a team who actually is trying to beat your ass is one of the best parts of being a fan that was the Florida Patriots Yeah, there was like audio coming out from the bench from the coach just saying, hey, listen, we're up four, but let's make sure we're getting bodies on these guys.

1:13:46Game six, game seven, let's see if their bodies can handle it. It's like everything is a spar, basically. Every extra little shot, just trying to make them survive. In the NHL, the injuries, they'll tape you together. Oh, yeah. They don't care. Literally flip you up, put you on the ice, and kind of just shove you out there. Say, do it. Go, go, do it. I'm getting paid less than every other sport. You're lucky to do it, right? Oh, yeah. You got a broken spine? Cool. Let me tell you about Mario Lemieux. Guy had cancer and a broken spine. Scored two goals and had an assist. So, I have a broken mouth either.

1:14:18Go ahead and get out there and do it. That is kind of the hockey culture. Beautiful thing. We can't wait for full NHL time and NBA time. Is Big Ten basketball happening? Full swing right now, baby. Is Big Ten the power conference in basketball? Yes, it is. Really? Yeah. Who won the national championship last year? Florida. Yeah, that's right. Okay, so that's the SEC, obviously. Right. They had, what, how many teams were in there? 13 or something? Yeah, they were the conference last year that had a bunch of teams. Normally Big Ten. Oh, so this year Big Ten's back to being on top whenever it comes to hoops.

1:14:48Who are the teams I'm hearing about? Because there's some blue blood basketball schools up there in the Big Ten that I'm excited to kind of watch take March Madness. Sure. You know, you're always going to have your Michigan State. Michigan this year is arguably one of the best teams in the country. Nebraska. Purdue. Yeah, Nebraska. at Purdue as well. The Iowa Hawkeyes are pretty solid. But if you're watching Big Ten, the only team you're probably going to hear about is the UCLA Bruins because their head coach Mick Cronin won't shut his fucking mouth. All he does is bitch and whine about everything.

1:15:24Any opportunity he gets to, they just beat Purdue, number 14, in the country the other night. And how does he spend his time at the podium? By going at the Big Ten and bitching about their schedule and pouting about how they got to go on the road and all this kind of stuff. Listen, everyone deals with it. Okay? The Big Ten wasn't asking for these fucking schools from the West Coast to be in the conference. But guess what? Their moron of a commissioner basically said, like, I want this anymore. Okay? Pac-12 no more. And they folded the whole league and the Big Ten said, you know what? UCLA, you're a blue blood.

1:15:56You're a blue blood. USC, you're a blue blood. Oregon, we'll take you for football. We're going to need you for football. So, yeah, we'll give a home for you guys. they come in you don't hear anything from Oregon complain about travel because guess what that's kind of just the way it is when your commissioner decides hey you're not going to play schools around you anymore you're going to start flying to Piscataway New Jersey and shit like that but for some reason uh Mick Cronin that little sawed off fucker he's the only one who's got any issue with it and he complains all the time and if it's not that he's complaining about his players or he's complaining about NIL or he's complaining about you know that it was 68 degrees in Westwood, in LA, instead of 75.

1:16:34This guy's the top five highest paid coach in NCAA basketball. Quit acting like you're a fucking garbage man, pal. Okay, your job's not that difficult. Okay, just shut up. Do what you gotta do. Especially don't be bitching after you beat the number four team in the country. I hope Tony Petiti calls him today and he's like, listen, you little rat bastard. You like coaching in the Big Ten? Okay, do you? Because guess what? We'll toss your ass out of there. We'll bring in Cal State Northridge to the Big Ten. All right, so let me – I sense a little bit of – I'm sick of it. I've hated this guy since he was at Cincinnati, okay?

1:17:08And whatever, that's fine. UCLA is, you know, John Wooden, the greatest to ever do it. Statue downtown. Statue downtown. He'd be rolling over in his fucking grave if he knew Mick Cronin was coaching the Bruins. If you are a Big Ten basketball fan, you hate this guy. You just do. Everyone does. And I'm sick of it. I'm sick of hearing it. I'm sick of all the potting. This guy lives in LA and he's making like$7 million a year. Shut up. Okay? Just shut the fuck up. I've been wanting to say that for, I don't know, 2026. I've been wanting to say that for about 10 years. 2026. Sounds like you're pretty well prepared.

1:17:49Yeah. I want to let you know you nailed it. I don't know how many times you practiced that. Oh, I've said that verbatim to anyone who will listen many times over the course of the last 10 years. So why we waited 10 years for this exact moment is because now he's attacking the Big Ten, and you're like, excuse me, sir. Yeah. Shut up, pal. Just be happy with your seat at the table, okay? Okay. And again, if you want to bitch and – like if they played five out of their first seven games on the road, you lose all five of those or four of those, sure, you can bitch and want a little bit about that. You just beat the number four team in the country last night.

1:18:22Maybe – and he's a self-serving prick, so he'd never do this. But maybe, you know, shout out your players. Say, hey, congrats to my guys for fighting their asses off and getting a top five victory. But what does he do? No, he pats about how much they got to fly on their private planes and, you know, all that kind of stuff. I'm done with it. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is another Big Ten hero. He's a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, Big Ten human of the century. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. Yeah. Did you know this? Have you caught this diatribe before about Coach – Mick Cronin.

1:18:57Cronin? Yeah, a little bit. I actually talked to Ty about it, I think, on the trip because the Ohio State Buckeyes had beaten Mick Cronin in the UCLA Bruins a couple days prior to that. So, yeah, I got to see a little bit of him on the side. He's a fiery coach, I would say, on the sidelines, no doubt. Yeah, he's not just fiery. I guess what Ty's saying is he's miserable all the time. You win a game, you're whining. You lose a game, you're whining. You don't have a conference, you whine. you end up in a conference, you whine. It's like, hey, you're UCLA, dude. Let's go ahead and do this thing. I do remember that he, I think a lot of things you said, I do not know Coach Cronin well enough to know.

1:19:34I don't know him at all. Okay, this is just from outside looking in. Yeah. All right, this is your thought. Until I meet him, I would like to reserve judgment. Sure. It does seem like he is a bit negative on a regular basis. All the time. Yes, he buries his players a lot, right? He does. In that kind of thing. Yeah. That might be his style of motivation. He's won. Yeah, he was good at Cincinnati. He's won at all? No, he's never won a big one. Are you kidding me? Guy's 5 '3". This is a soft-off little fucker. You think these guys want to listen to him when he's getting under their asses? I don't think so.

1:20:06Didn't he have a team that fought everybody at Cincinnati? Cincinnati and Xavier got in a big-time scrap. I can't remember if he was there at that time. I think he might have been, but I just don't like it. You can be like Sig. Sig is, I mean, he's a boy. He's a hard ass. I don't think he's having too many lovey-dovey conversations with his players. It's probably not that easy being on a Sig coach football team. You ever hear one of those guys say anything negative about him? Or any of those guys who wouldn't run through a hail of bullets and bombs to play for that guy? No, I don't think so. No, he wouldn't.

1:20:42He wouldn't. You don't hear too many guys defending Mick Cronin. That's all I'm saying. We'll see if he wins. if a natty or not. He won't. Because he might. He just beat the number four team. He won't. Not this year. He just beat the number four team in the country. Number four. Number one team right now, you know who? Who? Arizona. Cold Peak. Oh, we like Arizona. Number two team? UConn Huskies. Michigan. Wow. Men's? Purdue. Yeah, men's. Number one in women's. Undefeated. 18-1 men's. 13-game win streak. So you guys stay independent because of basketball? They are still. They're in the Big East.

1:21:12Oh, so they're not independent. No. Just football is independent. Just football. Yeah, no one wants them. Unfortunately. They're recruiting in the Northeast. You guys keep all that money. That's why, right? Yeah, if they make the playoff. They got to figure it out. But, you know, Coach Candle. You get a lot of money. Yeah, you do. If you're an independent like Notre Dame and you make the playoff and everything, it's really good for you. But if you're an independent like UConn, it kind of stinks, I think, being independent. Yeah, they're saying John Candle is pretty much next signet. So he's gone then.

1:21:40No. He's going to build. He's going to bring his promise. Isn't his name Justin Candle? No. It's Coach Candle, all right? I mean, your last coach went to where? He's irrelevant right now. He went from UConn to Colorado State. His name's Jason Candle. We're both wrong. That's what I said. I apologize. Jason Candle. John Candle. Hey, come on. We're talking to Mike a long time. Sometimes you mix little things up. Light the candle, all right? To your point, Johnny Candle. I believe in Johnny Candle. Jason Candle? I don't know. Yeah, Jason Candle's a good one. It just makes me think of Jason Campbell.

1:22:13and then my first thought is, why isn't Jason Campbell the coach? Well, it would be cool if that was the situation. Jason Campbell, though, I heard, is from Wachita. Oh. Every once in a while, you speak into a mic. He's a shocker. Get some things wrong. I think he gets wrong. The pride of Wichita. D-Bott said he gets people daily that come up to him and say, Wachita, how'd you do it? He said, honor. I believe it. I believe it. That's a significant moment. WWE game. The video game. Yeah. It was on the game. Signed on the game. Business. It's the business, kid. That is the business. I was lucky to be a part of the WWE Unreal on Netflix, AJ.

1:22:52Sweet. That debuted yesterday. I appreciate the fact that it exists so I could show, like, you know, Mackenzie when she gets older and if baby boy, you know, and everything, and hopefully their grandkids. It's a cool thing to kind of remember and have and keep. When I originally heard about the WWE Unreal on Netflix concept, except I, like everybody else, I think that's like wrestling fans, hated the idea of it. Just like, I don't like that we're doing this. I understand that now we're in a world of having to make content, having to keep up, having to evolve, having to see all this other stuff.

1:23:25I just thought, I don't like it. I like the suspension of belief. I like people thinking what they're seeing. I like whenever the wrestlers live their gimmick full time. I don't like hearing other names other than what I see on TV. That's just kind of what I grew up on, I think, as a wrestling fan. So as soon as I heard about this WWE Unreal, and I'm not saying anything that anybody else hasn't said. It's just like, I hated it. I did not like that it was happening at all. So then you watch season one, and it's like, all right, is this going to ruin it for future generations? Like, are fans going to stop being fans of wrestling?

1:23:55Because now they legitimately know. There's obviously always everybody had an inclination. Everybody kind of maybe knew, but once you see it, then it's like an actual reality as opposed to just in theory. Because you always want to have a little bit of belief of what's going on is actually naturally happening. Like when Adam Cole came into our studio, that was a shoot, brother. Yeah, that's right. That was a shoot. It was. Shoot means for real. Work means work. Feels like they're making everything look like a work, and you can't feel as if there's a shoot happening strictly because of this WW Unreal.

1:24:25That's what I was worried about, because you want people thinking a shoot's happening even though it's a work. And you can't work yourself into a shoot. If it's a work, it's a work. You can't let it be a shoot. So whenever I thought they were giving away Unreal, I thought they were giving away the work for shoot. but instead what I learned is it was pretty cool to see how the sausage was made in the storylines and I think learning a little bit more about this business that I'd been a fan of my entire life was cool because even though I was able to work there and lucky enough to be a part of some of the things that had going on I didn't know all the other stuff that was still happening up in Connecticut or in behind scenes or anything like that I wasn't even handed script whenever I was commentating I had no idea what was about to happen I knew like carryover from last week I knew the storylines I thought what was good could happen and maybe i'm the first commentator ever i don't i'm not 100 % sure you would have to check with that but i legitimately had no idea for most things that were happening now if i was involved obviously would have to be because there's a lot of pieces but like i enjoyed the thought of like this is this is entertainment i'm gonna disappear after watching unreal it was cool to watch and then when i was asked if i wanted to be a part of it i immediately said no i said no they bring camera in here i say this is my building turn camera off camera guy i'm good friends with everybody basically at wwe behind the scenes we get along very well with they're all hard-working good people guy puts camera somewhere else hides it in there tells me you know afterwards like hey we did get some stuff just so you know that and i was like joey i appreciate you doing that but also why'd you do that i don't like that i'm a part of this he said you're gonna like it when in the end though you're gonna want to to remember this.

1:25:58You're going to want to remember this. And that's how I feel after watching it. Like I hated that I was a part of it. I didn't want to be a part of it. Obviously there's other people in the wrestling world that should certainly be spotlighted. I think representing the wrestling world, as opposed to me outsider who just had an opportunity to do some things with them. But after watching it, I'm like thankful that they documented it. You know, like I'm very thankful that I have a chance to relive it if I have to, you know, later in life. And, uh, I think it's only helping the business after learning how people have become fans of the business because of the show.

1:26:26So I didn't even really think of that angle. I thought you were going to lose people. I didn't even think about the people that became fans of wrestling because of that show. So lucky to be a part of it. Thankful to be a part of it. It's available now on Netflix. I think Jelly Roll has a seg on there somewhere. Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch were a part of the episode, the first episode. And yeah, it was interesting watching it all back. And then that interview, that camera was really close to my face. Do you guys know how close that camera was to my face? It didn't look that close when they set it up up there.

1:26:53that lens was my face ain't supposed to be like that that's the first thing i thought to myself jeez louise you can't be that that's that's not a good thing and then it was the whole thing i was like okay good let's see how this do the uh do the wrestling marks are they appreciative of the the series uh i don't know i think at the beginning of the halo but now it just all adds fodder for them on the internet so i think they like it because it adds more stuff you know i think i think it's cool it shows how much like goes how much everybody cares like that's what i i take from like i think it should bring more fans on that maybe are casual or don't really watch much wrestling they would watch that and be like yeah okay i'm gonna check out the product now because these guys are like they are so all in and just there's so many moving pieces too i think the effort and the thought behind every decision that is made is showcased in there which i appreciate because like once you hear about all the things that are going into one particular thing and how many opinions and ideas and thoughts and breakdown it's like wow there's some really deep thinking stuff happening right here in front of our face changes too yeah and on the fly injuries you talk about injuries travel all that type of stuff that changes on the fly i think it's i think it's overall it's good for the business but boy at the beginning i hated it and i did not want to be a part of it thankful that i was lucky and honored that i was yeah as a fan growing up as a huge fan huge mark and then kind of getting away from it getting back into it when you were into it and then um when uh when paul hayman came on the show i think the unreal stuff had just came out and i don't i I forget who asked him, but I feel like he gave a great answer.

1:28:18And I kind of was like, okay, it may be cool to see a little more behind the scenes and talking about, you know, being in 2026 now with all the access and all the different, you know, shoot sports as well. So it is interesting to see. Yeah, it'll be a cool thing to show the later lineage of my life, you know, to say, hey, this is what this was, you know. I mean, Bruce Prichard pitching I was winning. Shout out, Bruce. Yeah. Appreciate you, Bruce. It's a shoot sport, though, you know? It's a real sport. So how could you have somebody beat somebody in wrestling that's not supposed to do that? And that's why I'm out on it for now.

1:28:58That was crazy. There were some things that were said in there. I was like, ooh, it's interesting to do that. Like, Chelsea Green can't beat these. It's like, why? Why not? Anybody can beat anybody. And I think that adds that, too. I think that adds to that whole thing with Unreal. It's like, what is it? A ranking system? Like who? It's wrestling. Yeah, exactly. Oh, we're down on ESPN. Completely down on ESPN. Oh, yeah. It just came back, it looks like. And five, four, three, two, and. Interesting. Still blue screen. Wow, I still see blue screen over there. I have to talk about business. I'll tell you what, Lishan.

1:29:36Jeez. Lishan, you put a blue screen up there. This could be good. We could act like we're doing it on purpose. You know, we could act like we're doing it on purpose. And we're back. Boom. You know, back in the day, what's his name? The guy? Andy Kaufman. Yeah. He would put in static into the actual show so people would have to stand up and hit their TVs. Like just trolling as he's making TV. Awesome. Only had like three channels. We're forced to watch this thing. This guy puts in the middle of ee, ee, ee. Starts going like this. Everybody in their houses gets up. Come on. Starts hitting the TV.

1:30:09Then it goes back to work and make him sit down just on purpose. So we'll act like that was on purpose. A lot of people still don't know F-bombs are muted on ESPN. They think something's wrong with the audio. Because it is muted, I think, far too long. It's like a good three to five seconds when it drops. When I'm watching on ESPN, I'm not on the show. A lot of people, hey, what? Something's wrong with the audio. No, just watch it on YouTube if you want. They're very long. Yeah. I have multiple times I've said, like, can we shorten that or whatever? We should shorten that. And they go, well, you know, this is just a safe buffer.

1:30:41unless we were to hire somebody that did it on this side i don't think they are ever going to agree to shortening it from my understanding from what has happened but with that being said live and uncensored right here on youtube baby that's right baby like we always have but now speaking of being live we got to do a segment that we do every single week live you know aq shipley travels out from the desert this guy's a number two color commentator around the nfl via some poll yeah that's right a poll certainly happened he said he was good he's also a guy who loves ball. He's a Super Bowl champion, obviously, and a guy who watches every single minute and every single play of every single game of the big boys, the offensive linemen.

1:31:20Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to go in the trenches with AQ Shipley. AQ, we cast you this week with ranking the four offensive lines that are left for championship weekend going forward. You came back to us with this list right here. Seattle Seahawks, number one O-line. And championship weekend, Rams, number two. The NFC's got the big balls. Then the AFC championship teams, the Denver Broncos come in in third. And then dead last or third runner-up. The New England Patriots offensive line is the lowest-ranked offensive line of championship weekend. AQ, would you like to explain your rankings, or how do you want to break this down on how you got to this point?

1:32:01Yeah, we'll start with the worst of the weekend and the worst moving forward. And it starts with just one guy. It was Will Campbell. He's been struggling a little bit recently ever since he came back from his injury. But the other, the rest of the group, I texted Conman. I said, not bad. Pretty good group. But you can't give up all the pressures and all the sacks off the left side. I really like this group. But if you take a look at this particular play, they need to do more of this. They need to run behind big on Wendu. We've talked about him a bunch this year. This is a cross dog blitz. If we can run this back real quick.

1:32:30AJ knows a lot about this. He ran a lot of this in Green Bay. So the first linebacker to the right, he's going to blitz, and they're going to get someone over the top. Look at Onwenu. Transition into the double team. Get that. Get everybody down inside. Bounce it outside. You get a huge run off the right side. Okay, what is his dims? Onwenu, I believe he is 6 '3", and I believe he's about 3' wide. Yeah, that guy is like an actual spark plug there. What a body mover. This is against Houston Texans defense, obviously incredibly heralded. Now, you're saying Will Campbell's struggling since returning from injury.

1:33:04What is it? Power, finesse, technique, everything? Well, the big thing is he – I thought this whenever he was coming out of college. I thought he struggled a little bit against the bull rush in college. Early on in the season, he's getting a lot of finesse guys off the edge. He did a good job. But any time he gets pressed, any time he gets the long-arm bull rush, which Will Anderson ate his lunch in this past game. What is the answer to that as a tackle? If he was going to his shipyard, Will Campbell's showing up at the shipyard every single morning, what's the answer to potentially stopping that fire because that's going to continue as long as people know that that's what's going to happen.

1:33:36Do you want a quick set to make you? No, I think the biggest thing is you just got to anchor quicker. When you watch him, he walks his feet back. You got to anchor. So once you feel the bull rush, you can see it. Once they're up the field and they turn into you, that's the bull rush. Immediately, get your hands on, anchor, get both feet in the ground, and then we start rolling the head. Hey! Then we start rolling the head. Hey! There it is. Hey! That's called bull hop press right there. That's a perfect technique. It's great reps. It's perfect. A couple good reps. You see, and also the same, because they're grinding, holding on.

1:34:08That's it. Hopping backwards. Is that why the arms are a big deal with tackles? Yeah, that's the other thing. They questioned his arm length, and I know a lot of O-line coaches have questioned that. But again, at the end of the day, he played against a lot of these guys with long arms in the SEC. So I don't necessarily fully attribute that. I think he's just a young guy that's got to figure it out against these guys who are studs when they turned into a bull rush. So the bull hop drill is the one that would make his offseason better for him next year? Absolutely. We've got bull hop press. We've got to get a little stronger.

1:34:36We've got to get a little stronger. We've got to develop a little bit. And Vrabel will do that certainly in the offseason. I'm excited to see what Will Campbell will do. And once again, there's only four offensive lines left. So saying they're the worst ranked. Correct. This is championship weekend. So this offensive line got the Patriots to the AFC Championship. Obviously, you wouldn't make it without them. They were also my number six. I know we only ranked the top five throughout the year, but I showed Conman. They were my number six throughout the year. Good offensive line just whenever it comes to championship weekend.

1:35:00All good offensive lines. Let's go to number three. Yeah, let's take a look at the Denver Broncos here. I got a two-clip sequence here. These are back-to-back plays. The reason why I want to show this, take a look at number one, Evan Ingram. See him right there in the wing? He's going to go out. This is an RPO. Look what it does to the linebacker. That's how you get the big gaping hole. Okay, cool. We did it to the left. Let's go back to the right on the next play. Evan Ingram, send them out again. They must have had a tell on Buffalo's defense. That's again another big, gay, big hole. Need to do more of that.

1:35:32Need to do a lot more of that because they kind of abandoned the run a little bit. They wanted to get the quarterback involved in the run game, which obviously ended his season. I wish they wouldn't have done that, but just hand it off. And there's a possibility that J.K. Dobbins is back this week. Oh, J.K. Dobbins. We've got to play some zone, AQ. We can't be chasing guys in the flat and they're running right behind us. We've got to play some zone now. So that's what you meant by tell, A.J. You think is what AQ said? Like, they knew that that was man-to-man coverage. If we just flare this guy out, we should remove a body from the box, AJ?

1:36:00Yeah, you don't even have to block him. I've been a part of that early on in my career. We're matching up tight ends, and they come out with 12 personnel tight ends on the line, both sides, and just run us to the flat, and our two outside backers are gone. We're on the sidelines, and the guy's running right behind you. And you guys are just married to your assignment, so you have to go there, even though probably your intuition from the way people talk about the way you played ball was telling you you need to be inside to make a tackle. Yeah, but then you peek inside and make a tackle, and he pulls it and throws it to the guy in the flat, and he turns up for fourth.

1:36:26That's the pass option. And who's that on? Yep. That's on you. You got both. That's all you. Your number one responsibility is that guy in pass coverage. But, hey, I'm like, all right, the guy's almost knocking me over running behind me. And do you think that's why every coach says, do your job, just do your job, do your job? Because something might feel stupid. Like, for instance, you're definitely just getting run to your own sideline right now, but if you don't, there's a chance it's on your ass. Right now, it's on everybody else's ass. We need this to just be on it. Do your job. Just do your job.

1:36:53That was obviously on Sean McDermott. That's why they kicked him the hell out of the building. Yeah. And then as a pro, sometimes you just got to massage it. Sometimes you got to show the quarterback one thing, maybe get back in there. Yep. You got to play the game. All right, let's go to the NFC, the two best offensive lines remaining in AQ Shipley's eyes. Los Angeles Rams, what do you think about their offensive line? I love their offensive line, but here's a big reason why. Look what they do with Puka Nakua. Nobody does this. They motion him across. They used him as a fullback on the front side in an ISO scheme.

1:37:23Then we take a look at the backside combo. Coleman, Shelton, the center. The right guard, Kevin Dotson. They get him back from injury for the playoffs. And all of a sudden, you get movement, and there's another big gaping hole. I love everything about that. The Los Angeles Rams able to run the ball. Everybody talks about Sean McVay as this offensive wizard. A lot of it goes through the ground. A lot of it goes through the ground, and they completely switched. I know I've mentioned it at nauseam this year. They've switched from an 11 personnel team to a 13 personnel team. The other interesting thing that they do is even when they're in 12 personnel, they can use Puka Nakua as a tight end or a fullback, and it becomes 22 or 13 personnel.

1:38:04And what they're able to do with him, I mean, he inserts as a ISO fullback on this play, and it's incredible and gets the kick out. It's incredible. Yeah, they were doing that with Malachi Tony down there in Miami. It's an interesting little new wrinkle. if you have a skill position that can be added into your box, basically. You got a new big body. Okay, let's go to the number one offensive line you save for the rest of time this season. Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl. That's what they can say. Let's start with their fullback, Robbie Oots. I love this guy, and ever since they got him back, Robbie Oots has been fantastic.

1:38:36He was a tight end. Oots? He was a tight end at Alabama. They make him a fullback, and they love to go I-formation. Look at Cooper Cup, setting the edge, get this thing started on the edge, pull some guys around, you get Oots out in space, outrun. And what a fullback does, we've talked about it over and over again, is it creates leverage. It allows the offensive lineman to work back. Gray Zabel, another phenomenal game. This rookie's been outstanding. Cooper Cup in the run game, outstanding. And this is one of the last plays you'll see of Charbonnet this season, but Kenneth Walker's a dog. Yes, Kenneth Walker be walking three touchdowns, obviously.

1:39:11Oots in the fullback position, they're the nickel of the offense. You have to be a linebacker and a corner. The fullback has to be an offensive lineman, a tight end, a running back. And, oh, yeah, he has to know everybody's play. And don't be too slow to get in the way. What Oots is doing there is special. Oots is Boots going up and down. I mean, look how fast that guy is. Oots is Boots all over the field. I mean, I love that his name is Oots. That's a perfect fullback name. How do you think you spell Oots? Can I get country of origin? I would guess Czechoslovakian. I'd guess O-O-O-O-O-O-T-Z.

1:39:56I think it's O-U-S-Z-T. That's wrong. Okay. That sounds like something like that. Country of origin would have helped. I think we would have got that. Definitely would have helped. That's top four. Congratulations. Number one overall offensive line in the trenches is the Seattle Seahawks. Their defense is outrageous, too. Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, Patriots. I guess we lost signal sending to them. They lost signal. Bruce was telling me in the middle of that why we went to a blue on the thing. Here's a little transmission issue. Maybe it's because of the cold. Hey, listen.

1:40:30Possibly. They're saying it's about to get so cold, trees are going to explode. That's right. What? Yeah. Yeah. So, it's awesome. Wait, what? Yeah. Trees that have been forever and ever and ever and ever? Yeah. So these trees have been able to weather storms in the past. Forever. All of them. From what we're reading, there's a chance these trees say, I can't do it anymore. Boom. Max velocity. Okay. Exploiting trees are possible in the Midwest and Northern Plains on Friday and Saturdays. Temperatures are forecast to fall below 20 degrees below zero. So Exploiting Tree Risk is right here across the top.

1:41:04You see, most of Michigan is really in trouble. Minnesota. The Dakota's really going to look out there. And Illinois misses it. But Wisconsin, I'm sorry. So good luck as you roll over there. Is that Saskatoon? Saskatoon is up in Calgary. More north. That's Calgary. But on that note, I would have thought that these trees in this particular part of the world could have been through cold weather before. But they're saying now's the time. Historic. We got messaging from the trees. They said if there's one more, one more cold day, we've had it. Saw a video of a tree blowing up in Iowa. You did? Yeah, that's what I want to see.

1:41:53Had a lot of smoke. This one has 87 ,000 views. We have no idea. So cold in Iowa, trees explode. Just so happened to have a perfect camera shot on this particular tree. Okay, okay. That's what happened. See that before, Tom? No human interaction there, right? No, no. But all I'm saying is, it's about to be cold. Okay? Obviously, the things that have just been reported are reported by those people and not by us. Just look out for the trees. Maybe go have a talk with your trees before it gets a little bit too cold here. I'm going to cut them all down. I'm going to cut them all down and get them away.

1:42:22That's just dangerous. I got to cut it. My place is tree lined on three sides. I got a long couple days ahead of me. And I'm not laughing because I think this is all bullshit. I'm laughing strictly because I've never heard this before. I'm 38 years old. I feel like it gets cold all the time. so now just this popping into my life is awesome and i appreciate where we are as a society joe never told you that before joe and rsa let's go and bundle up i'm gonna get cold out there them trees boy the bark's been through a couple it's about to go through another one i think the only time trees are mentioned maybe smoke some was dropped by the door you know every once in a while hey we got blizzard coming hey let's go to hammer time what year was that blizzard where they told us basically just go ahead and lock it down for about, I don't know, two weeks.

1:43:06You don't have school. Was it the one in 94, 95? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, I think it was 94, 93 maybe. It could be early 90s. I think it was the 93 blizzard. Joe Lowe's not. I think you're right. 93 blizzard. I think so. The blizzard of 93. Do you remember? I do remember. Just nothing for like two weeks. Joe Norto basically going on TV and was like, hell's coming from this guy. Everything shut down. Nobody leave their house. There was another one in, what was this? I want to say 2009 through 2010, you would have been down in Morgantown, Snowshoe, West Virginia. Got a bunch. It was a big one, too, that Joe talked to us about.

1:43:39Russia's getting 100 feet or something. Yeah, they got 80 feet of snow. How do we believe that one? People are jumping out of their building. What's that? It's propaganda. I mean, we question everything. We question the moon landing, and we're not going to question 80 feet of snow. Okay, so the Grok put together the 80 feet of snow. What we hope happens. Oh, you think this is like a race between Russia and America? I don't trust anything that comes out of the USSR. Okay, so this is a rekindling of the Cold War with we're the coldest. We got 80 feet of snow. They beat us. Is that what you're saying?

1:44:10Are those trees exploding? I mean, you would think that's much colder than here. The snow is keeping them bundled up. They're warm. They don't have trees in Russia. All right, joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a national champion who needs to stay away from any cold trees because this man's future is incredibly bright. Obviously, what we've seen him do over the last couple of years where he transfers from JMU, goes to Indiana with Coach Cignetti, becomes a multiple-time All-Big Ten player. Now he's a national champion. We can't wait to see who drafts him in the NFL. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us, linebacker Aiden Fisher.

1:44:41Yay! Aiden, how you doing, buddy? Good. How you guys doing? Watch out for these trees, Aiden. I don't know if you've heard. There's a chance these things are going to happen. I'm hearing them. Yeah. Well, don't. Don't. Going up north, man. Okay. All right. Stay south, baby. Go train down south. Congratulations on winning the national championship. You made some huge plays, obviously, in that game down there. But your team seemingly always perfect, fundamentally sound. That's how we talked about your defense. You guys obviously heard the outside noise about how perfect and attention to detail your defense was, and did you take pride in that?

1:45:12Why do you think that was kind of your guys' M.O. throughout the entirety? Yeah, I think for us, you know, everybody talks about, you know, the misfits thing and nobody's really the fastest or the biggest, the strongest or anything, but we just do all the little things right. And then when it comes down to those little details that you talk about, I think that was kind of like the separating factors in a lot of these games where we came out on top. But, I mean, yeah, it was just a bunch of guys that just really wanted to win. Even when I first came here, just a really good mix of guys that just want to win and are hungry for wins.

1:45:45We just kind of got the intangibles that were made up of the right things. Yeah, it was fun to watch your team. I like the way you guys celebrated together. I like the way you played together. I love the way Sig operated. I think you guys got a celebration coming on Saturday down there in Bloomington. Excited for the city to kind of show you love and your state show you love. Can you talk to me about, you know, Fernando wasn't able to really go as much as he had the previous two playoff games. Felt like it was going to have to be the defense that answered the call. Did you guys take that onus upon yourselves before the game?

1:46:15During the game, is there a moment where it's like, hey, offense obviously not going to be able to score 50 today. It can be us. You guys get a blocked punt for a touchdown. You make crucial plays whenever you had to have stops. Is that happening during the game you guys are having that chat saying we can win this, or is that the mindset of the defense for the entirety of the season? Yeah, I think a little combination of both. Those close games that we knew we were going to be – points were going to be scarce. It was going to be a lot harder to score a lot of points versus great teams like this.

1:46:47and then we kind of knew at halftime going into that third quarter, you know, it was just going to be a war and that we need to, you know, tighten down. And when it came down the stretch, you know, we're going to have to make some plays. We're going to have to put some points on the board for us. You know, we're going to have to eliminate, you know, a lot of their points. So, obviously, Miami was a great offense. You know, their O-line was great and they have, you know, guys all over the field that are going to play on Sunday. So, we knew that we were going to have to, you know, really lock in for the last couple possessions.

1:47:12And I'm glad my guy Jamari Sharp was able to get that pick to seal it. Him taking off his helmet was spectacular. We were right there. You know, we were standing. Did you see us? Do you not see anybody? Can you guys know that we're there? It feels like we are a bit distracting. It does. Now that I'm looking back on it. I mean, Conor's, when that kid misses that 50-yard field goal, Conor's in the end zone going like this right next to the ref with his Adidas jumpsuit on. And when Sharp gets that pick, he runs two yards in front of us, basically. And I see him contemplating on taking off the helmet.

1:47:43and then you see the moment where he goes, ah, fuck it, yep, won the national championship in my hometown. Can you talk about that moment and what you guys did and what you guys said immediately after this, knowing that you guys just won the national championship in Miami Stadium? Yeah, first, I spotted you early with the jacket on, so I was able to see you behind the goalpost. But, you know, just seeing Sharp go up and get it, that's a guy that he's just as humble as ever. You know, I'm so happy he was able to do that, and, you know, his hometown against his home team. And then once he did it, it was kind of just like disbelief.

1:48:17You know, I think if you would have told me two years ago transferring from JMU to here that we were going to go win a national championship, it would have been hard to believe. But just an unbelievable feeling. You know, these guys, it was an emotional moment for, you know, everybody involved. And then we finally got Sig to, you know, crack a smile for longer than five seconds. So that was good to see. Yeah, and it seems like he's still a little joyful. You know, he's going to have a busy couple days here with the state of college football. He's got a busy couple months. Actually, we're just right back in it for SIG with the way college football is.

1:48:49Tell me about his demeanor a little bit and how you guys feel about him. Because we love it, obviously, outside looking in. We don't have to play for him. But it feels like he is an accountability-driven coach. But he isn't an asshole, it sounds like. So how does he kind of balance it? And why do you think the outside world is saying he might be the greatest coach in ball? And do you agree with that particular sentiment? Well, 100 % agree with that. You know, SIG does a great job. not only with the football details when it comes down to the schematics, practice, scheduling, everything like that.

1:49:20But I think the way he communicates, he'll get on you quick. He'll be yelling. He'll say something to you to kind of get you to check your temperature a little bit. But right after, he's going to come back with a smile and a wink. So he knows the way he communicates and operates. It's all out of love, and he just wants you to be your best. I know a lot of guys talk about it. He just demands your best and wants you to be the best out of love, not only for the game but for you as a person um and i mean that's just sig do a t he just wants to win he wants the best to have his players um and he just wants to hold more trophies up go ahead aj yeah aden i've uh seen where some scouts have called you a supercomputer in human form i don't know if you have heard that compliment that they have given you or not but uh obviously it's a very high compliment like you're speaking of what you can do as a leader on the field and seeing things and your instincts is that something you always had or did you develop that over your time yeah I think it's definitely something I developed um in high school I played quarterback so like I'm a little familiar with how you know some offensive things work um but then obviously getting with coach Haynes and the coaches I've been around uh it's been more so learning about football instead of here's your job go do it um I think that's really helped me a lot uh and it's just been great to you know learn football um not only just the x's and o's but uh you know what is everybody looking forward from specific players and kind of what they like to do and things like that.

1:50:40And, you know, having Coach Haynes makes my life a lot easier. Aiden, they said there was a milk check on you. They didn't know that blitz shake was coming, you know, in the national championship. That was stupid. I mean, you quadruple deked them. I mean, you want glove side. Then you want stick side. I mean, you were all over the place, Aiden. That was beautiful. Now, you transfer, obviously, from JMU. D-Bud has a question for you. Yeah, but speaking of Coach Haynes, what was this game plan going against Miami, and how did it change? because we have a perfect perspective. We can see you guys are very gap disc.

1:51:08I know Fletcher had the big run. You guys are always kind of on the same page. What was the specific game plan going against this team? Yeah, first of all, we just had to stop the run. You know, their O-line is huge. They do a great job, you know, getting people off the ball. And then the running backs were elite and, you know, great weapons on the outside. So our whole plan was really just stop the run. You know, and then when it came down to obvious passing situations, We're going to have to show a lot of disguise. We're going to have to hide a lot of blitzes. And I think that's something our defense has really been built on all year.

1:51:40A lot of looks we give you, anybody can come, anybody can drop. You guys have seen Coach Haynes. He'll drop a nose guard. He'll drop a D-tackle. It doesn't matter for him. He just wants to do some crazy stuff, the exotics. Are you all right? It's been crazy. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it. Yeah, it happens to me all the time, too, especially after potential good times were available. you know the last couple days national championship good times let's talk you know yeah amen i heard you guys have been celebrating you don't have to out yourself for any particular place but can you quickly we got 30 seconds uh before like a hard out here on espn we'll continue on digital but can you tell us a little bit about fernando mendoza the teammate because i love the fact that he drinks beers with the boys let alone the fact that he's a super nerd can you tell us a little bit about him the human that we maybe the rest of us don't know yeah i mean i think what you see in the media is really what you get with him um he's such a good person to be around he makes everybody not only better you know obviously players but better people um he is he really is special uh just being around him I mean the dude's hilarious uh I would love for everybody to just have a conversation with him at some point instead of just hearing him speak in the media like the dude is funny um you know he cares about everybody he will do anything to learn everybody's name uh I'm pretty sure there's a story that everybody's walking in for a team meeting one day and his little brother has the roster up so Fernando can look at the person and say their name to him just so they think like, okay, he already learned my name.

1:53:06So that's just the type of guy he is. Special stuff. We continue digitally. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. Hey, you nailed that. Holy fuck. Wow. That's a supercomputer. You saw the countdown on the screen there? I was working on it. I saw the 20 seconds. I was like, I got to speed it up a little bit. I got to get going. Yeah, but you chose to tell a story there. That was a good decision because some people panic. I think NFL people should be looking at what just happened there. Impressive. Hosey right there. Yeah, exactly. And also, forecasting. You're like, what's a good story that I can get in this short amount of time that is kind of on the same note that I'm telling?

1:53:38I mean, the catalog of shit that you had to cipher through there. Pretty good. Because could have won, let's go, what he did at Kilroy's with the boys. Could have done like, as he sunk the base at Knicks. Could have done that. Hey, we were potentially at 11 the other night he did this. Instead, not the right story, not the right time. What's a good one that I can tell quickly? oh, the gimmick with his brother holding the roster. Bang, then he made the decision. Personal one, there it is. Yeah, that was good. Hey, Aiden, that was good. Appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. You didn't choke all over yourself.

1:54:05But on that note, you said he's hilarious. Also incredibly hardworking. Was that your guys' culture, you think? And that's just like the only guys that come to Indiana? And will that be able to maintain? We saw a lot of turnover, obviously, from last year to this year. We're about to see that again. I mean, yourself kind of moving on. So what do you think the Indiana culture is going to be able to remain? And is that one of them? Like you've got to work your ass off while also being a human? Or kind of how do you guys balance that and think of the culture? Yeah, honestly, I think that's what it is right there.

1:54:34You know, just guys that come in and work extremely hard. But I think even Coach Zay kind of talked about this team was so close and so special that it was like once football was over, you know, we're going to go kick it with the boys. You know, we're going to go do something. Like if we're just kicking it at the house, watching a game, you know, really doing whatever. Just be a normal person. We're cracking jokes. We're playing board games. Just doing anything stupid that we can get our hands on, just having fun. But I think this culture and this program is kind of built on hard workers. And I think it's going to be like that for the rest of the time, at least for when Sig's here.

1:55:10But I think the guys they brought in are all guys that just want to win. You kind of look at where people have come from with the Michigan States, the TCUs, guys that are hungry to win. I think they're kind of like-minded like the guys that are here right now. I love to hear that, especially as somebody who lives about an hour and a half north of that place. Would like to see that place continue to have celebrations on the weekends. Yeah. I like that there's a little national championship celebration taking place. You choose to go and follow Sig to Indiana. They were the losingest program in the history of programs or whatever whenever you guys get over there.

1:55:40The recruiting pitch, I guess, was something that was either easy or hard. Not sure of the exact story. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Aiden, a lot of times when we hear these coaches taking bigger jobs and guys go with them, Like it's always a glowing review of the player talking about, hey, this guy's, you know, the best there is. He's going to fit in great at this new place, even if it's a level up or whatever the case may be. And I don't know if this was exactly how it was, but the phrasing was basically like when Sig was pitching you to come, he's like, you know, I think you could be a pretty good player.

1:56:07Like you said, something like that, which obviously isn't exactly what you'd expect for someone who went on to, you know, be an all big 10 linebacker a couple of years ago. How did that go? And like Pat said, did you have any expectations when you came here? Were you aware that Indiana was the losingest program in the history of Division I, or how did that entire process go? Yeah, it was wild. I had no clue that Indiana was losing its program. I just knew they were in the Big Ten. I knew kind of historically they weren't great, but I didn't know they were as bad to the degree as the most losing program.

1:56:42but uh talking to sig um when i was getting recruited here was you know all about you know stick with the development stick with the growth of the coaches uh and then we sat down and went through the schedule you know one by one and he gave me every single reason why we're going to beat this team this team and this team and we went down you know 12 teams doing that so uh at that point i was pretty convinced uh that he was going to turn this thing around um you know if i could have predicted this two years ago absolutely not but uh you know I'm glad I did coach Sig is the man um and it's unbelievable what he's been able to do here it's it's unbelievable okay let's talk about coach Sig a little bit more go ahead Connor yeah and congrats again on the natty when you think about coach Sig and even you know the DC Brian Haynes like did they change anything at all when they went from JMU to IU was there any sort of philosophy or even just you know demeanor team meetings anything like that that you would say like yeah jmu those first couple years might have been better at iu because of the change or was it more so hey everything it was the same start to finish and that's why you know the continuity was a reason you guys won it all yeah outside of like schemes growing um you know these coaches growing as people and you know the way they've been able to level up what they do uh everything's been the exact same which is crazy to me like team meetings are always the same um our schedule for practice is the exact same it's been since i got to college as a freshman um like little tweaks here and there but like other than that it's been identical uh all four years so even coming here like they're like so how's practice look do you think he's gonna change it at all i was like no thursdays are gonna be red zone wednesday third down like giving them the whole rundown and nothing has changed about in four years which is crazy he's been given a lot of speeches about his philosophies i mean maybe not a lot of them, but every one of his speeches that he's given publicly about philosophies have been ripped, clipped, and posted in leadership councils and business councils, like, hey, this is how this guy thinks.

1:58:38And a lot of it revolves around being efficient, I think, like most of his quotes. Yeah, like my practice is really quick. Team meetings, four or five minutes or less. If it's over an hour, I'm wasting somebody's time. Don't want to waste a kid's time. Don't want to waste my time. I like to be quick and efficient with every single second I have. Is that accurate? Is that what is actually happening inside the building from what he was saying in these speeches that go very viral and being like, this guy gets what 2026 is maybe more than anybody? Yeah, that's exactly what it is. I mean, we are in and out with practice, team meetings.

1:59:07He comes in, he gives us the alright, and then he starts in maybe five minutes and he's out. So, everything is just so efficient and quick here. He just values your time, and I think a lot of players are really appreciative of that. Okay, does he... So, it appears... This is good. We're sorry we're just trying to learn as much as we can about this thing that is signetti because boy what an insane run from whenever we were at jmu and he goes do we like the ncaa and they just boo is that they boo it it's like this guy has now become the person that like uh in my world like billionaire business people are like hey who is what is the story about this guy and we just so happen to have known him for a few years so i think everybody's kind of learning about him as we go right here he delegates a lot of the communication with the players to his assistant coaches is he talking to you like how does he kind of manage that because we'll see the timeouts on the field and uh him smiling shouting out his dad to rest in peace frank and uh who was a football coach definitely what he's doing right there god jesus everything and also his dad saying hell yeah massive smile then the the gatorade bath that he's been waiting for what his whole life yeah i mean that is legitimately what that is that's a special moment but how how is that whole process with sig like what is he what is is he is he do you does he coach you directly does he coach his coaches like are they because the timeouts he's standing there looking we don't know where he's looking no he's still we've seen it every game void he's looking either at the stands he's listening to something he's look we don't know what he's doing he's got good pose obviously the face is what it is at the time but the huddle's behind him he's not like interjecting himself in there unless it's wait we're not kicking a field goal we're going for it or something comes upon him how does the day-to-day go it's the coaches it's him what is your relationship with him if that makes sense yeah most of the time uh it's really just the assistant coaches are kind of giving us the day-to-day stuff uh say we'll do the team meetings and he'll kind of give us the rundown of the day um you know he'll break down the opponent a little bit um but it's mostly you know our assistant coach is kind of going through the thing uh and then during games you know he'll like timeouts or tv timeouts or anything he'll kind of come up and give us the situation um you know even when we were in this last game it was you know this is the situation you're in this time he plays that they can probably run including timeouts um and then he just kind of gives a rundown but i think the you know play to play everyday coaching is more so you know coach haynes shanahan uh and then the assistants as well what are your thoughts on the Paisons eyebrow that he drops on a lot of things?

2:01:40Is that everyday practice as well or just in the games? It's everyday. I think it's hilarious. I think Fernando does it the best. See, that's what I'm talking about. Fernando's a dude. Sounds like Fernando's a dude. He is. Yeah, okay, good. Alright, last question. Let's talk a little bit more about ball and what you have planned. Go ahead, AQ. Congrats again on the National Championship. I know we're going to have to turn the page like we always do in football. Celebrate quick, move on quicker, right? And so, what are your plans as far as training, all-star games moving into the NFL draft? Yeah, I'll be starting training next week.

2:02:12I'll be down in Fort Lauderdale training Bomberitos. You know, taking it from there. We'll kind of see how it goes. I'm excited for it. No exploding trees down there, I don't think. No, it'll be alright. It was cold. Hey, that was not like a warm national championship, though. It felt like it was perfect for ball. Exactly. Yeah, you had a little breeze going, too. Roof open. It was nice. How was the grass? Slick? Not slick? No, it was good uh compare the the grass that we played on a couple weeks ago and this grass is great the rose bowl oh yeah we're sliding everywhere you guys demolished alabama man that had to be so that flight back had to be spectacular i couldn't even fathom it was a good time it was a good time i mean because alabama you like obviously you played at jmu but like throughout all of our lives yourself including you're younger than us so mostly it's like bama bama people in other conferences were like we want bama like that was always the statement and you guys being counted out underappreciated all year i was very lucky that i saw you guys on a regular basis because i live here so like that oregon prediction i've never been more sure of something in my life whenever i pick you guys to beat oregon it's like that was sick and well hey thank you for winning dude that was a big fucking deal for me too obviously for you guys it's good but these people in the college football world some of them hate my guts so when i get something like that right it is hey and way to speak with us this past week and you were the only one so we appreciate that okay when do you see that afterwards before the game yeah afterwards afterwards yeah because that's happening right before kickoff basically so you guys don't know until afterwards the oregon one that you guys saw before the game I think some of us did see it before the game because that was the later slate wasn't it?

2:03:49Yeah, it's a 330 kick. Yeah, so we got to see that one, yeah. Okay, because they talk about how much motivation this generation, your generation, uses from this shit. How much outside noise do you guys, like, kind of accrue and utilize as motivation? Shoot, in this program, not a lot. A lot of these guys don't even have social media, but seeing things like that, just, you know, when you turn the TV on, that's pretty cool and get you motivated a little bit. Yeah, I think Saban says this generation more so than any generation in the history, if they can build up any disrespect. It's like, let's find it as much as we can.

2:04:21Oh, yeah, we'll find it. Sig says, donate it. Here's disrespect. We've never fucking won a national championship. The school had 2 ,000 people in the stands last year. Let's fucking keep this thing going. Congrats on Turnaround Indiana. We appreciate you coming out here and doing that for the state. And enjoy the hell out of this national championship celebration. Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me on today. It's been awesome. What are your dims right now? I'm like 235. Solid. How tall? 6 '1". That's not bad. Perfect. Not bad. It's a perfect height. What's your projected run? You don't have to give an exact, but you'll run not embarrassing, right?

2:05:00I don't think I'll embarrass myself out there. I think I'll be all right. Yeah, and then the fucking... I'm going to hit a six for a sack in the backfield. Let's go, Aiden. The computer. Let's go get the computer. Appreciate you guys, man. You too, ladies and gentlemen. Aiden Fisher. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say he's not going to embarrass himself running. That would be the question, right? Yeah. Just naturally looking at him. Those rookie, that's why you always talk about the rookie wall and how long the rookie just got off a natty. Going down to Florida, start training next week. Combine's what, a month?

2:05:31Yeah. Training's not easy for you. That's like some of your hardest training of your life. Oh, yeah. This life goal is about to happen right here. Oh, yeah. You're trying to get your body, obviously, in the best shape because you know how they're going to pick you apart at the combine. Whatever injuries, which we all get injured, especially if you're going through a 16-game season, which is insane. And then you try to get a little faster. You're trying to shave off, you know, whatever, tenths or hundredths off your 40-yard dash and all the different, you know, 225, all the different shit. And then you got to go and actually learn the playbook, try to get on the field, probably play some special teams.

2:06:01Never done that before, New York. Got to figure that out. Although at IU. Yeah, and it's program. There's a chance he did. That's crazy to me. I mean, Charlie Becker, we thought he was a bad, bad spot. Thank God he wasn't for Indiana. Yeah. Thank God. Plays best ball after that game. I wonder if they gave him something because he looked like that was not good. And maybe it was his fear of what it could be more so than actual injury of what it was. Because sometimes something feels real bad and they're like, oh, no, oh, no. And then you get to the sideline and it kind of all figures itself out, which is probably what happened here.

2:06:31But Charlie Becker ends up getting obviously a fourth down catch and a later third down catch, does a celebration, just does contested catches, which is what he's been doing since November. Tone, is that the date? What was the date? November 1st, he only had seven catches, I think, on the entirety of the season. Is that accurate? Yeah, it was. And then obviously when Surratt got hurt for those couple games, he had 100 yards in each of those games. And I was like, oh, this is a guy. We need to go at him every single game. Is he coming back? Yeah, he's a true sophomore. He'll be back. And then they got wide receiver from Michigan State, who's really good, right?

2:07:03Marsh. Very good. Yep, Nick Marsh. And then they also got a kid from Tulane who's really good at wide out. And then Cooper was an outside guy last year. He moved in the slot this year because their projected starting slot got hurt early in the year. So they'll be fine at the wide-off position. Oh, Cooper's back? No, no, no. I'd say the guy who Cooper moved into the slot for was hurt all year. He'll be back. Cooper, I think he is a redshirt junior, I think. So he could be back, but I think a lot of people were expecting him to go. He felt like a Sunday guy the way he runs and catches. Had a little nuke to him.

2:07:37Had a little de-hop to him the way he was moving. I really appreciate the way Coop played. I like him. And then Surratt. I mean, he just makes bats. I like him a lot. He's outrageous. Yeah.

2:07:49Indiana. Indiana. Nowakowski. Nowakowski, don't sleep on him. That's his vibe. Touchdown. At handoff, touchdown in the national championship for one yard. He, I mean, he was in motion in the Rose Bowl and the Peach Bowl, like 65 % of the plays. not a lot in the national championship of Nowakowski motion. No. I wonder why. Would that have mattered I guess? Mix it up. Switch it up. Cooper Jr. had some big plays in motion. Yeah, he did. Big conversions. He's their best separator. He'll create separation with the guys. The other guys, they're just going to go up and make tough grabs. Alec Pierce. I can't wait for that play because I've never seen that in the NFL where they send the guy in motion, make it look like it's going to be like a tush push, and then he basically helps the center on the combo.

2:08:37So C85, or 65, whoever that is in motion. Yeah, that's actually the starting left tackle that they put in motion. He goes behind, and then it ends up being like a three-on-one double team, essentially. What's it in the middle, like duo? Yeah, it's basically duo. It's just a quick inside dive. So it's duo blocking, but it's just a quick handoff. I dropped a duo during the national championship. Was I accurate? Do you know? Yeah, you were. Okay, good. So I think that's a duo right there because it was center and guard. Yep. I felt real smart on that. You guys make us smarter. Let's get smarter on the other side with everything DB and D.

2:09:07We don't even got any bad D. Nope. Only good D, AJ. Let's go. Wow. So you just couldn't find any bad D? Is that right? You know, just so much good D out there, Paul. They just had to run with that. I just love that good D. Okay, good. He was gobbling up all the good D. He was not. He was watching film. Good defense was played out there. Putting bad D down. They said hungry, hungry, hippoing all the good D of divisional round. That's Davis Butler football. Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot of good D slinging around there. Oh, yeah. That D was here. That D was in the East. Yeah. That D was in the West.

2:09:46That's right. And D-Bot said that D was the very best. No bad D. Just great D all over the place. Let's get some of that D on the other side. Jeez Louise. It's a problem. Jeez Louise, he said. You got to relax on X, too. The games are going. I'm trying to focus. Post replays. Well, the first couple times I did it, I didn't at you. I needed you to also experience, you know, the immediate response. I was adding somebody. I've been adding people into my tweets just so they can experience the ride. The mentions. It's been one of my new things. I'm like, the person that I'm talking shit to right now needs to experience what's about to happen.

2:10:33because I'll send these out into the void. Okay, out into X. And I don't, I mean, it's good that I don't think about it. I should a little bit. I don't even think about people like taking some of these things serious. Like, hey, you should pick through what you should take serious and not serious. That's putting a lot of pressure on people that are on X. So there'll be people that see this and just. No idea what the saying is. No, not any of these. That's probably. Yeah, so I would like you to take the. So now I'm atting the people that I'm doing the inside jokes with just so you can kind of experience what I'm going through as well.

2:11:02Yeah, but I mean, you could have, you know, been like, wow, Denver, talk about an all-you-can-eat good D buffet. I mean, you could have said that, but you didn't, you know. Maybe this weekend. Yeah. Hey, holy shit, with that Seattle defense is capable of? Mm-hmm. Oh, top-notch West Coast D coming out. There's a chance. Just put defenses out there. And, Bruce, is that you using light mode? Do people still do that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's me. Oh, yeah. That's you, too? Yeah, I do light mode, too. that's what the account that's what the app is no you're not you're not in the minority i think uh i think a lot of people use dark mode yeah i'm dark mode okay yeah i was flustered that people did do dark mode though really yeah i didn't know as many people did dark mode that do like right now there's gonna be people calling me a serial killer because i don't do dark mode that's what i've been called over the past but this is what the app is like this is what the app has always been So like in my eyes, this is the app.

2:11:57This is how I feel. And also I use it as a flashlight all the time. Okay. That makes sense. It's got to turn down the brightness though. Because at night that thing. A lot of blue light. A lot of blue light. So we were really worried about that for a bit. We're not anymore. Those glasses work. They just work really well. Yeah, and people fell for it. I mean, we got new shit. We got trees exploding out here. Exactly. We got a key point. AJ, have you heard about these trees? I hear it's not just a cold weather thing from what I'm hearing. What? What? Check the chat. Check the chat. Yeah, you mentioned that Aiden wasn't going to have to worry about that trading down their floor.

2:12:41It turns out they do explode in heat as well, allegedly. Trees are exploding in heat. Is that from the same source? From Max Velocity? Yeah, Max Velocity. I'm out on this guy after reading this tweet right here. Whoa! I lived in Michigan for a long time. I ain't never heard of exploding trees, Max. Well, I think that's why I kind of wanted to bring it up is because I've only lived in cold weather climates. People have wondered why. You know, a lot of different people that don't. You hear Nick Saban's thoughts. You got to pay people to go to the north, brother, because it's cold. It's cold. I never once hear a tree explode.

2:13:18So whenever Max philosophy thinks of a different angle to describe the fears of what could come from cold, I get jacked up about that. This guy's reinventing the world. This guy's reinventing the universe. I appreciate that. Now, if Max Velocity's right, and all of a sudden we just got to... That's not good. If that's the case, you need to go board your house up right now. No. Board? We don't want... Yeah. With all the wood from all the trees, you cut down. Well, that's what I'm saying. Board up just as in, like, cover your fucking windows because we got trees exploding. That's what I'm saying.

2:13:47We need steel because the wood on your windows could potentially... Well, pipes can explode too. That's a good point. Oh, yeah. Wood floors. Because the boards are... I just assume the boards that I'm putting up are treated. Watch your paper too. Shit. No one's safe. What does this do for oxygen? Paper's good. We already killed the tree. I can't wait to smoke some of that. If they get one of these redwoods somehow to somebody use a bottle of that shit. Put that thing into one of those volcanoes. Get one of those bags. Back that thing around. the iowa video said that the tree filled up with ice and then it's got nowhere to go and eventually it just explodes so who's dumping water down these trees how would it blow up like that thing i can understand like like just cracking all over but to blow up and look like there's a an explosive charge to it that's a bit far-fetched for me yes max velocity says it might be far-fetched that's why i'm giving you a warning did max velocity build the graphic that said exploding tree risk.

2:14:54Is that his graphic? We have done nothing to Max Velocity's work, strictly because we do not know Max Velocity. Can we call Jim Cantor, please? I would like to know if this is real. I think I'm a foxy. Fuck this guy. He doesn't know. We're going to find out. Yeah. We're going to find out. We need to call Weather Paisan Jim Cantor. There's no way we're going to get a hold of Jim Cantor right now. That guy is in a fucking eight foot snow drift. Ten, do you have his direct number? I'm looking. He's in Russia, right? Can you Did you FaceTime him? No, he's an American hero. He's not in Russia. You never go to Russia.

2:15:26You never know. For the weather? To discover weather? 80 feet? No. Yeah, I think he'd go to Antarctica if he had to, if it was a new weather thing. Okay, so I was about to rank places there. Antarctica or Russia? Which one are you heading to first? Just for, like, vacay or for? You would only go there for seemingly work. Let's say you're filming. You find the aliens and all the special bases that they have built up in Antarctica. That's where you're going. And a portal, maybe, and everything like that. Antarctica's got great conspiracy theories. Yes. Great ones. Russia, too? Russia's got good ones.

2:16:09Because what's real? What is it? We'll never know. 80 feet of snow. Did they get their yachts back? I know a lot of their yachts got seized. That's a cool question. So I actually read a story about somebody's yacht. I think Larry Ellison got a yacht. And the name of the yacht. Did you guys see this story? No. No. It's crazy. Not a great name. Didn't name it. Coopy pants or something weird? The name was back in reverse. So he would have had to. Sure, a little pig Latin move. Whenever he looked at it. And I think it read out something that was not really good. Did he change it? Change it to Ronin, I believe.

2:16:47R-O-N-I-N. Great movie. I believe it's the name he changed it to. Sly. Yeah. Speaking of Sly, you know he was Miami Hurricane grad? Yep. Learned that. How about the list of names of people that went to Indiana and to Miami? Unreal. That was crazy. That was really crazy. President of Ireland. Yeah, four-year president of Ireland went to Miami. No, Indiana. Sorry, Indiana. He looked like he was 120 years old. He probably is. That's the Irish. Yeah. We age. He might be 47. He didn't look 47, but he could be. Let's get to a break. On the other side, what will we be doing? Watch some good defense. Why did he rename his yacht?

2:17:27I don't understand. Did you look it up? I am looking at it right now. I don't understand the... Just read it backwards, I think. Not publicly, but... Did he not know this when he bought it? Yeah, that was my big surprise. Larry Ellison, he's worth 400... Founder of Oracle, I think, 400-some billion. I think it came out on, like, an actual tabloid thing. Let's get to a break. You've got to be careful what you're buying. You can change the name, too. Not ships. Ships. Ah. I think ships is an interesting thing. I can see why you changed it. Yeah, I don't know. I think ships have a thing about name changes and ships.

2:18:05If you name that. Yeah. Why would that person name it that ship? That's why. Yeah, whatever. I don't know. Especially when you look at the country of origin. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I don't know. So that's an interesting story. Might not be real, but. Bet the knee, though. That's interesting. Let's keep an eye out for everything. shall we? Let's take a break. Exploding trees, new topic of discussion. We had a polar vortex a couple years back. That was a sick thing that came out of nowhere. All right, we're going to rain, and then guess what's coming? Polar vortex. It's going to freeze it. Like it's fucking Jack Frost's birthday.

2:18:42Exactly. That's what's coming to your front yard, and your driveway, and your sidewalk, and your streets. I want to leave the house about two weeks and now do you live in a place where there's trees and it's cold yeah fucking watch it these things are sick of it sure you might have heard of previous cold temperatures in northern Minnesota but these trees now fucking done with it what'd they say? one more time yeah one more time and we're fucking done self-destructing source says from the trees said we're not doing it anymore. We're fucking sick of it. They're killing themselves. No. They're sacrificing themselves, they said, for the betterment.

2:19:32I mean, either way. Yeah, I guess. This is a square rectangle thing.

2:19:40What if one of us does get killed by an exploding tree in the next two weeks? There's a chance I've talked a little bit too loud about it. I have started to think about it. It would be a good clip. Good clip to put out. Hopefully we get it. I guess I would. What's that? Hopefully we get the clip. I mean, talking and then, yeah, maybe you'll have footage. Oh, hey, like you pick up security footage of one of us walking and boom, we just disintegrate because the tree decided to explode. I think we all do happen upon trees. Yeah. Not anymore. I'm taking a wide berth when I see the next tree I come.

2:20:09What do you think the radius? 100 feet. 100 feet, 100 yards maybe from every tree. That one we saw exploding wasn't that big. Yeah, small glass radius. But I think it was kind of a smaller tree there. I got to start hitting fairways. Yes, you do. Yeah. True, you do. If you're golfing, I guess there was a heat wave. Major winter storm is coming. We hope everybody will be safe Friday through Monday. It's about to be very cold. Large Arctic high ushers in cold air. Upper level disturbance pools and moisture. Sprawling system tracks across the south. Significant ice and snow for 30 plus states. All right.

2:20:41So hell is coming from the winter. We agree with that. It's going to be hard for me to believe trees are going to explode, but I'll tell you what. Just keep an eye out. Yep. Just keep an eye out. Max Velocity. He's out there. He might know some things. Did Jim Cantor answer our cold FaceTime? I don't have his cell phone number. I sent an email. Call the other guy on the morning show. He's been there for 200 years. Oh, okay. Yeah, we'll just call some other guy. No, the man. No, the man. Yeah, Al Roker. We got to get the guy who interrupted the football game a couple weeks ago. Oh, my God. The local guy.

2:21:20What was his name? What was his name? What was his name? He's from Pittsburgh, I think. Yeah, he is. He wore the suspenders. Yeah. The other guy. I know you want to watch the game. We are legally obligated to be on the screen right now. Again, don't know why they have me up here. It doesn't look like the storm cell is that extreme. But again, you know, we can see it over here. Kind of forming. Kind of forming. There's a chance, if there was to ever be anything, you would certainly be in this area. But there isn't. Shout out to that guy. What was his name? There it is. Adam. Adam. Fike. Yeah, Fike.

2:21:58Fike. Weather. All right, we're going to try to get a hold of him and see about these explosions. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice might change your life. Take five. Five.

2:22:31See you next time.

2:22:41Hello, beautiful people. Welcome back to our humble about the Thunderdome. On this Journalism Wednesday, January 21st, 2026, our three of the program begins now. Football! Is the best, that's A.J. Hawk, and obviously we've got Championship Weekend ahead of us. Denver Broncos will be hosting the New England Patriots. The Seattle Seahawks will be hosting the Los Angeles Rams. The Talks at Tables here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt, nine-year NFL vet, host of everything DB, who wants good D? There's Jay Baller. Yep. Hey, baby, DB. We'll get to everything DB, slinging good D from DB here in a matter of moments.

2:23:20Host of In the Trenches, ladies and gentlemen, 12-year NFL vet, Super Bowl champion, a guy who looks like a lot of people on the internet that they say don't like a lot of people, A.Q. Shipley. A.Q. Don't you think that is the biggest comparison you get? because there's always somebody that kind of has this version of white that is saying or doing something that, you know, and everybody doesn't like. I'm a happy person. I like a lot of people. Except for whenever they steal your skeletons. Then they're dead. They come back, do some push-ups, you know. Then they're back in the good grace. Put them back together.

2:23:52This guy hold out from 190 yards out. What? What? Wow. Justin Rose? I like Justin Rose, yes. He was an accent actually. Real life. In real life? Mm-hmm. Good shit. What club? 7-iron. 190, 7-iron? Yeah. Jeez. That's piping the golf ball. Are you golfing a lot right now? Are you, like, good golfing? No, that was the first time I've golfed in a long time. I was feeling pretty good. I was feeling pretty good. What hole is it? 14, uphill, little drive, bunkers left, bunker right. You guys will see it on the Phoenix Open here shortly. 14, up the hill. Up the hill, and there's a little bank off the back right.

2:24:30You'll see it. One hop into the bank, up the hill. My caddy says, oh, that's going to be good. Boy started jumping. Luckily, they ran down the fairway because I did not want to run 200 yards. So you were walking there? No, no. Had to cart, but I was in the middle of the fairway. Music? Music playing? Music was playing. You were boozing a little bit? Boozing a little bit. So you're boozed up. You're banged up. This is the 14th hole. Yeah, I was feeling good. Yeah, I bet you were. Yeah. Maybe you get into that tournament, Phoenix Open. I think I should get an exemption. Okay, what is it? The race management?

2:24:58You're playing on the course? When's that tournament happening? Just next week, right? It's Super Bowl week. I forgot about that. Same week as Super Bowl week. Yeah. That's impossible to get to. Koepka's playing, too. Oh, shit. Yeah. Koepka's back, what, next week? I think so. Torrey Pines. He'll be back next week, I think. And then he's playing in the Waste Management. He's going to get a huge pop at that par three. Yeah. Sheffler's playing in it. I think seven of the top ten are in it. Really? Yeah. Where are we at? Santa Clara? Mm-hmm. How far is that? Hour and a half flight. Come on. It is.

2:25:29I think you guys have invited us every single year. Every year? Which we are very thankful for. We would love to host you. Well, that's what I've heard. I've heard it's like, and it was. We saw it. I didn't know what I was walking into. Just got done with our show. We're in Arizona because of the Super Bowl being there. We're talking to a man who owns a lot of golf courses in Arizona, not the one that we were necessarily in. Yeah, Doug Goat. Yeah, Doug Goat, Bob Parsons. So we head over there and right into the par three challenge. Yeah, the shot of glory. The shot of glory, yes. and it was end of show.

2:26:00Who knows what's being... Somebody gave me a lollipop, I think, and some other snacks of some sort. And they might have had a little bit higher, whatever, THC. I thought there'd be none in there. It turns out there was probably maybe 120 combined in there. Walking into that shot of glory, I had no idea what I was doing. Then we got a chance to look around. That seems like the greatest golf tournament to go to if you were to go to a golf tournament. It does feel like the best one. It's just always during Super Bowl. So anybody that goes to Super Bowl cannot go to the Phoenix, the Waste Management Open.

2:26:28It's tough. It is tough. The perfect setup is winning. Why don't you guys move that? Why don't you pick that up? Why don't you move that to? I know. It doesn't end on Sunday, does it? It ends Sunday. I'm not kidding you when I say this. Last year, Thomas Dietrich was the winner. He makes the putt, hand the check, a drive home, and literally walked in the door as the ball was getting kicked off. Oh, so it's perfect timing for you. Everybody else can't be there. Phoenix is the best. That place is the best. Love it. How long have you lived there now? 2014. 11 years. Crazy. 12 years. You're a full-time Arizonian, brother.

2:27:00Yeah. I'm a Phoenician, if you will. A Phoenician. You are a Phoenician. Yeah, you are. Yeah. You're a Phoenician, aren't you? Crazy. Crazy to think. Maybe one day you could be a Phoenician, AJ. Joining us now is a man who's going to describe something that I don't think any Phoenician would ever have to experience. Ladies and gentlemen, this man is a weather extraordinaire. He is a meteorologist G. He is a man who interrupted a football game just a few weeks ago and understood that there's going to be a lot of people that weren't happy about it, and he's just telling you what he's legally obligated to do right now.

2:27:31Man from Pittsburgh, Yenzer, now out here in Indianapolis. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Fike. Yeah! I mean, you hit the nail on the head right there. I have to. Yeah, I was legally obligated, and I appreciate the fact that you were telling us because everybody was mad, for sure, because we're looking out our window, and any time anything's interrupted live sports-wise for weather, if you're not the direct area that's being affected, there is nothing more infuriating. Okay? Like, you're talking about two hours away from here, and right now I can't watch the game because of what's taking place. What you were trying to tell everybody is like, hey, this is the rules.

2:28:05I don't know what to tell you. This is naturally. Watch it on your phone. This is what has happened now. So we appreciate the reality of the business. Now let's talk about the reality of the business. There's big cold front snowstorms coming to 30 states in the United States right now. Is this the winter storm from hell that we're going to have this season? How can you describe what's about to take place? And do we have to worry about trees exploding in the northern areas if it gets colder than 20 degrees below zero? Where do we stand with all of this right now, Adam? If you could kind of be a weather expert for us as we watch ahead for a cold-ass weekend.

2:28:40Yes, exploding trees are weird. I haven't gotten to experience them, but it's when you get those huge temperature swings. It goes from warm and then temperatures drop rapidly. but to not be a complete nerd because no one wants that no we do and that's why we called you yeah we did we actually said we need a suspenders guy on the program and then we got to oh shit yes we do adam if you could be a complete weather nerd that would be cool because you then we can ask you what the hell you mean if we don't get it okay so in easiest terms possible there's basically two low pressures that are going to work through one is just this weak little alberta clipper what this does is it brings in this really cold air so you can go from temperatures above freezing to your as cold as negative 20 these bring very little precip but it brings very rapid temperature drops so that's what you're going to see with exploding tree risk so basically you got moisture this in your trees you got sap when that gets really cold really quickly anything that's liquid when it freezes expands so what happens is your sap that's in the bark is moist it starts to expand like an ice cube.

2:29:48Like when you put water in an ice cube tray, it expands a little bit, starts to overlap over the top. This is the same with those trees when it freezes so rapidly. What happens is it expands. It sounds like a gunshot goes off as the bark is exploding a little bit. Okay, so it's not the inside, the inner working of the tree, because we thought potentially... It can be. It's more so the sap that's underneath the bark and in the tree as well. Okay, and you said not a lot of precip whenever it comes to this particular drop in pressure. It goes from warmer to colder, and then all the moisture that's within the tree right now expands and boom, all of a sudden we got boom, boom.

2:30:24That's what you just said. These air masses are so dry. Think of this as basically what stays over the North Pole most of the year. It's so cold, it's so dry. It's that dry that your lips are just constantly chapped for like a week straight. There's little to no moisture with it. Okay, and that's what we're getting this weekend, they're saying. They're predicting how many states and where from. So that's going to be north. That's going to be your southern Canadian provinces. That's going to be the Great Lakes as far as the northeast U.S. And that's sort of what's colliding with the warmer air that's to the south towards the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Valley.

2:30:58And that's why you're going to get this large area of heavy snow. You're going to get that large swath like it's showing of the freezing rain, sleet, all that fun stuff as well. But with how strong that low pressure, well, the high pressure and that cold air mass is with all the warmth and moisture as well, it's just going to be a large swath of every precip, even light precip. You can see through the northeast, through the central plains, still could see some snow showers as well. Even here in Indy, it's, I mean, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, temperatures are going to be well below freezing. It's easily could see high temperature stuck in the teens in some spots overnight, very cold.

2:31:36But I mean, it's just going to be crazy. I don't think it's going to be some big historic big event. Everyone, you see on social media all the time, everyone trying to hype up everything. Trees are exploding. Yes, trees are exploding. That's what we're talking about right now. Yes. But yeah, it's going to be crazy. Okay. So you think it's going to be crazy, but it's not going to be generational is what you're saying. So let me just try to, if I can maybe try to understand what you just said there a little bit. So we got the North Pole dry cold. Okay. Hitting some Southern cold. We got no precip in this one.

2:32:09We got no precip. But the south, especially around Mississippi Valley area, you got some precip there. So when those meet, those are going to entangle. And all of a sudden, you got that cold and you got that precip. And then we got bullshit all over the place. That's what you were saying is about to happen. Now, on that note, when it's warm and cold air, and you're not saying the south pressure is necessarily warm. It's still cold. But is it vastly warmer than the cold air? Are we going to get a tornado? Isn't that how tornadoes start? and then warm and cold air hitting each other creates a tornado.

2:32:38That's what I've learned. I mean, you're correct there. There's different ingredients you need for tornadoes. This is a, since it's a low pressure, you don't get tornadoes that form in the low pressure. Okay. You get tornadoes that form along some sort of boundary or front. So you have your, let's say, your low pressure is far to the north. Your cold front is going to sag through. You're going to get storms that fire along the cold front. This isn't necessarily going to be a cold front driven storm. it's a very strong low pressure that this moves through so it's a large area rather than a small narrow area thank you adam how long is this going to last do we know are we 100 sure how long this could last or could this be forever is this the rest of our lives i mean it depends on how long you live okay that's a good call adam yeah yeah that's a good call let's assume we live normal never know when you're gonna die yeah you're 100 we have no idea what tomorrow's gonna be 100%.

2:33:31You're 100%. That's what I was alluding to as well when I was like, hopefully, you know, if we were to live normal length lives, if I was to live another six months or so from this exact moment, which we all hope we will. Hopefully longer than that. But just say I am though. We're going to get out of this thing. How's this winter going to be? Because I don't know what the groundhog, I don't know what Punxsutawney Phil said. How long is this going to be? And are we expecting a very cold ass next couple months? Or what's the projections, Adam? So right now, it looks like the rest of the month, even to start February, it's just going to continue to be cold.

2:34:04It's like this low pressure we're seeing moving through to the north, this little clipper system that's going to bring the cold air. It's just going to be clipper after clipper after clipper that just continues to bring shots of cold air. It doesn't mean it's going to be cold the entire time. It will get warm at times, but it's just going to continue to be these shots of cold air, especially through the end of the month. but at least in terms of the storm it's more so just going to be a Friday through Monday once we get past Monday we see this specific storm out of the area that's what I was talking about there Adam mostly is when am I going to not have to deal with this particular clipper coming in now you say no precip here, this is that area boom, we got up here a little Saskatoon a couple of the Dakotas, they certainly going to deal with problems maybe some exploding trees up here you know because the sap gets into the bark AQ and when it gets cold just like an ice tray, you know the water boils over a little bit because it's a little expander boom it can sound like gunshot but really it's not that big of a pump until it is okay and down here you got a little precip coming here you see these arrows banging the boom of the boom of the boom right here we got a lot of stuff coming now where is that going to go is it going to go here is it going to go here is it going to go there is it going to go here we're not exactly sure but what we think is low pressure not a lot of stuff coming through just gonna take a big air gonna take a big air everybody's gonna get affected 30 different states okay it's good this entire thing up here you know what it is okay it's football time weather sucks in here you know what it is It's cold and going to be shitty But we got no precip coming from the north So your face is going to be dry If you're looking north But your asshole is going to be moist We appreciate you Adam Thank you for the breakdown buddy That was great Thank you Hey face the camera a little bit more when you present Don't leave your back to the camera Yeah Come on Okay Okay Fike Are you currently chasing the storm?

2:35:44Yeah Are you out there right now with this low pressure right now? I'm in the wind in an unclassified location Are you looking for some exploding trees? Unclassified? Okay. You can't now. Sick fucker. What's on your back window? Are those gun mounts on your back window? What is that? Yeah, for Gatlin. Those are strobe lights. Oh. Storms! You're chasing a storm right now. All right. Not right now. A couple months down the line, probably will see me chasing a couple tornadoes. Nice. Maybe one tornado becomes two tornadoes. becomes Jim Cantor looking at his heels. Wait a minute. Boom. This is Adam Feig.

2:36:23Is that Feig? You're the man. We appreciate you, ladies and gentlemen. Adam Feig. Thank you. Yeah. All right. So that middle area is where it's going to be a lot of dancing. Yeah. Where we are. That Alberta Clipper. It's coming. Well, they got a couple of different clips coming. Clipper after clipper. A lot of precept. So get back to him. Ask him what Denver's got going on at home game. Can we call him back? Where was he? He's on. There he is. Mr. Feig. Holy Feig. Mr. Feig. You know what, Pat? I'm impressed you got my last name. Not a lot of people get that right. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.

2:36:56I'll get flick, frick, feck, fic, some other words, but you hit the nail on the head. You got it right first try. I didn't even know country of origin either. No. Which we do normally try to ask for to pay our respect. People call me McAfee all the time, and then I have to go. It's McAfee, and then they say, like the antivirus? And then I have to say, it's not just an antivirus. They're actually full scam detection. And John McAfee, rest in peace, I think, everybody's saying at this point. They're a great app. But anyways, hey, where's Denver at? And what do the Denver Broncos have to deal with?

2:37:30They're hosting Sunday massive AFC championship game. Massive AFC. Massive AFC championship game. Mr. Feik, the microphone's here, though, or this one. And they can't. Meat to the camera. That's the rule. Meat to the camera. Yeah, meat to the camera. but what about the buzz to the ears these two? What's going on in Denver, Fyke? Can you please, can we talk about Denver? I would hope if the graphic didn't cover up Colorado, but for them it's likely snow. Low pressure is basically going to form once it gets past them, but still can deal with some snow showers, especially since they're in the higher elevations.

2:38:07All right, Fyke. We appreciate you, man. Ladies and gentlemen, just got all the answers. That's right. Might be the next Denardo, which you know what that means. Easy. That's a tall task. We don't want this guy climbing Everson today. I know, but he's got strobe lights behind him. I'm nowhere close to DiNardo. You can't compare me to him. That dude's a legend. That's how we know he might be on his way. Exactly. He might be on his way. And there's many more Pittsburgh meteorologists like Dennis Bowman as well. They don't sniff DiNardo's jock, Fyke. They trained under him. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Fyke.

2:38:45Yeah. Donato has like a... This is his first time on the show. He doesn't know us yet. He can't be doing what you just did. No, no, no. But he gets it high of 26 on Sunday in Denver. It's not bad. Well, after a storm comes through, he's going to be a no pressure zone. But before then, he might have a chance for some precip. Yeah, the question is how much precip? I like that we just got up with the modern lingo. Yeah. Clips coming in. What coach and trees fight from? Donato. His pet's pretty... No, he's not from Donato. Nah. I don't know if Donardo's got a tree. You're from the same hometown as him.

2:39:17It's got to be Dennis Bowman. Is that what he said? It's got to be Dennis Bowman's tree. Oh, for sure. Who's Dennis Bowman? I don't know. I don't know why he just mentioned Donardo. Well, you hate Donardo's. No, dude, I'm on the train. Come on, don't start that. You just told us you went back to Moon Township and pissed on his grave. He didn't say that. You said that? Did not say that. Oh, boy. I waved to his water tower as I drove into town. That's very nice of you to do that. There's no snow coming to Denver. It's just going to be chilly. Just going to be chilly. See? Not from Donato tree. Fucking knew it.

2:39:50Whoa. Jeez. Miss you, Joe. He said he didn't have a map in front of him. He said he could have seen. Well, Donato would have had a hand-drawn one. That was the difference back in the day. Could you imagine back in the day the technology? Donato just literally got out of bed. Made me smile to see. Watched him blow. That was about 10 miles an hour

2:40:18DiNardo waking up in the morning Smoking a cig Looks like it's gonna rain out there doesn't it Yeah it does About 20 % or so Go right to the set Go right to the set We fucking can feel it I bet you that's what he did Love you Joe That guy was batting a thousand and just strictly off of eyes and feet. The game has changed. He's got arthritis in his knees. He knows when a storm flood's coming. Golly. Gotta be a storm coming. Headache. Massive headache. Gotta change in that. Atmospheric pressure for sure. I'm gonna add a little pressure change on that. Rest in peace, Joe. Joe said it would. You done good, Joe.

2:41:03And it did. 2026, driving around with gimmicks on his back. Don't know the fucking weather. He pulled the people over? He's coaching you up, though. He did tell me. I didn't want to get too deep into it. It's an interesting microphone situation, Fike. Okay? But on that note, this one always sounds... Yeah, it is. See? And we're back to this one. Yeah, two different ballgames. And every once in a while, AQ's microphone will get in there, especially if the person's sitting there. Yep. Yeah. Which he does. Yes, he does. Yes, he does. You like to bat that thing around, don't you? I don't. You like to bop that thing all around, don't you?

2:41:41Speaking of Joe Donardo, he'd be what we like to call a great D. Great Donardo. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to get to some good old D. With everything DBs, DB Darius J. Butler. Darius J. Butler. Like I said earlier, we had some great defense from last round last weekend. This is the New England Patriots. Once again, a defense that's not talked about enough, in my opinion. This is Carl Davis III. Great job in quarters coverage. just having a great feel, having vision on the quarterback, seeing the route develop in front of his face. You run it back to the beginning. This is a route, especially throughout this year, we've seen Ram Moore because you kind of find a weakness in the quarter's coverage.

2:42:21You pause it here. The slot receiver, he runs like a little hitch route. Once he does that, he kind of belongs to that quarter flat defender. The corner can get ran off by that number one receiver that's in his face. But when you have vision, you trust your safety, you can see the route develop, a little bit of pressure on Stroud as well. helps this and then he sees the play and makes a fantastic catch along the sideline gets his knee down adjusting his mouthpiece while doing it just an unbelievable play by seven right here yeah it feels like your guys's defense has been special for two years now right don't you think last year even before variable defense was good or no it was okay but not like this it wasn't dominant like this is one of the better defenses in the entire nfl obviously you saw that kind of play a factor in the preparation with them getting zero credit again play amazing still don't get any credit It's Stroud's fault, not the cause of the defense.

2:43:11And that's why Sunday, like Sunday, especially with that temperature, like no matter what, even if Bo Nix was playing, it feels like it was going to be a massive defensive battle. Can't wait for Sunday. Patriots D in the playoffs thus far via Hembo. Nine sacks, six takeaways, one touchdown allowed. Only four defenses had ever done all three in a two-game span in the playoffs. The Giants, the Bills, the Bears, and the Steelers. You know, still curtain conversation talked back there. The Bears obviously celebrated. 1992 Bills, I assume that's the legendary, one of the four falls defenses. And then 2000 Giants, who led that one?

2:43:48Stray in them? Most of it. Was that the record? I wonder. They also are the first defense since the 1985 Bears in the playoffs to allow less than 250 yards in both games, 16 points in one of the games, four yards per rush, and have three sacks in both games. Or sorry, less than 16 points in both games. Is that between the numbs right there? He had a couple other ones as well. There's a lot of stats coming out about this Patriots defense that is like, hey, we were talking about the Houston Texans defense for good reason because what they were doing and winning games and we saw what they did to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 14 points literally within a minute and a half, flipped that entire game open in Pittsburgh, end and error for Mike Tomlin.

2:44:30It's like, holy shit, this Houston Texans defense is unbelievable. And then we talk about how this year there's been more great defenses around the NFL as opposed to like one or two. We never really brought up the Patriots. You know? Never really brought up the Patriots. Because Drake May MVP season was the conversation. The schedule. Or, I mean, the negative was the schedule. But the Drake May MVP season was the positive push for the Patriots. Normally only one per team. You know? Yeah. One dominating storyline. They're in a good spot, though. What a great spot for that defense. And so they definitely feel disrespected by the national media.

2:45:07No one talking about them. So they're going to continue to roll. Yeah, definitely feel disrespected because it wasn't even a chatter about it. And then, oh, this is the number one defense in the world, huh? Yep. Okay. Yeah. And that is exactly the message that got sent was, okay. And it's like they can win the Super Bowl, it feels like, just by them damn selves. It's going to be hard to get a yard against them going. 1 ,000%. They got a couple of young safeties in there. and Gonzo, which isn't talked about a lot because, you know, he doesn't get targeted a bunch, and when he does, he doesn't give shit up.

2:45:35Not a lot of ball production with picks and things like that, so you won't see a ton of highlights of him. He had a great forced fumble in this game, but he's phenomenal. But we talk about defenses, especially great defenses. We all know it always starts up front, and Milton Williams in the middle. He has been dominant. Barmore has been great as well. But this player right here, this pick six, it started with Milton just dominating, penetrating, trips up the tight end, trying to come across and be in the flat. And if he's in the flat, he's kind of like an outlet for C.J. Stroud. He could just dump it off.

2:46:04Instead, Stroud makes a terrible decision. First and ten, just eat this or throw it away if you can. He just throws it up for grab. And Marcus Jones, he's dynamic. Every time he gets the ball in his hands, he has a chance to score. And he did right here. And this kind of changed the game. It was a back-and-forth game with a ton of turnovers. Houston, they obviously caused a bunch of turnovers as well. Great defensive battle. But this is a big-time play when you're able to not only stop an offense, but turning it to instant points for the defense. That's the first time I've been able to see his front face shot there whenever he was running with the ball.

2:46:35He doesn't see a damn thing, and he's just running as hard as he possibly can blind and ends up running into the end zone. He can't see anything, just legs just doing the job. We need to head this way. Incredible touchdown. Just an absolutely incredible touchdown and finish right there. And then obviously a nasty face mask. Could have your neck broken potentially there. Instead, get up and do your dance. Yeah, dogs everywhere. He's unbelievable with the ball. How many touchdowns total this year? I believe that's his fourth touchdown this year. With punt returns, interception returns, he's unbelievable.

2:47:06And this was another big-time play by this defense. Milton causing a disruption. Highest paid defensive Patriot player of all time. Across the board, all Patriots. Highest paid Patriot player of all time. Was supposed to be a Carolina Panther on free agency frenzy day. Instead, Vrabel comes in. At the time, people said overpaid. paid a tax to get him to go up to New England. And then the big dogs make big plays. I forget the big dogs show up in January, I think is what Vrabel and the D-line say to each other. And he certainly has. I mean, every game he's wrecked. I mean, him and Barmore. I mean, I think that was a big disrespect from last week that they took from it because all the talk was Anderson and Daniil Hunter, whereas Barmore and Millen Williams, by far the best duo in the middle across every D-line.

2:47:53You know, Jarrett Verse, of course, he's great. And to what you said about the May being the conversation, the Rams had the same thing. Rams defense, amazing, but the conversation. Yes. Stafford, you know, like the MVPs do hog those, you know, headlines rightfully so. And the teams want those conversations to be the headlines too. Yeah. Because the team would like Drake May to win the MVP. So it's like the more conversation about Drake May, the MVP, better. But I think what is getting missed is, I mean, they might have the defense. Yeah, absolutely. If you go back to the clip, you don't even need to run the play, just pre-snap.

2:48:24They play a ton of nickel. They almost don't care. Like true nickel, not even like big nickel. Obviously, Marcus Jones is the biggest guy in the world. And you're only able to do that if you have some dogs up front that can kind of handle the run game. So Marcus Jones right here, this is 12 personnel, one running back, two tight ends, and they're in true nickel. And I believe earlier in the season, Dan O, which he had to kind of pick something like an Achilles heel for each team, and he said their number of nickel snaps, Nickel reps could come back and bite him in the ass at some point. He had to pick something, so I'm not trying to point at him and say he was wrong, love Dan O.

2:48:59But when you're able to do this with the dogs up front, then obviously you can keep a playmaker like Marcus Jones on the field. It'll definitely help that defense. Unbelievable that they're able to do this so quickly. Absolutely. Flip it around and be known as a defensive genius squad. Through and through, dogs everywhere and shut down, locked down corner and Gonzo's back. Oh, they got Rivas Island at one point. Now they got Gonzo's just locking it down. Nobody's talking about it. New England Patriots love it. Their fans are getting mad at everybody, and now they get a chance to prove there may be.

2:49:25The next 20 years of dominance is happening. I don't like even thinking about that. Milton's got to retire after this season. Same with Gonzo. This is his first deal. Gonzo is 23. Gonzo's retiring too? No, he hasn't got paid yet. He hasn't even played his best ball. They got two rookies. It's plenty safe. No, they're retiring. If they win a Super Bowl, maybe they're done. Oh, just one, sorry. If Rable retires, goes out on top. Yeah. Says I never had to cut off my – You might. To win another Super Bowl. Yep. Yeah, their defense is all young. What? Yeah, they hit on legitimately – I mean, not even including free agents.

2:50:01I guess if we include free agents, they hit on like 15 different signings. Like half the guy – I mean, the guy that pressured right there, KC, Chason, I mean, that's a one-year,$1 million player. Like every single person – 44 right here. Every single person that they've brought in has made a massive impact. Arguably the best signing on offense is Morgan Moses to play right tackle. Yeah. And he's an aging veteran that they bring in on a low deal. Let alone Garrett Bradbury. Garrett Bradbury last signing. So now they're doing good deals. Yeah. Vrabel. They're young. Kind of ruined. You can make the argument we basically broke the bills.

2:50:45Agula needs to keep talking. Yeah, Pat and Terry Pagula. Exactly. Pat Pagula. Yeah, that guy. Broke him. McDermott, see ya. Bean promoted, though. Bean promoted. And by the way, I checked back in on that since the show started. He's getting better even more. He said some interesting things. Again, and we like Brandon Bean. He basically said, unless Jesus Christ is up for getting drafted, we're taking Keyon Coleman tomorrow. No more buzz. Did you hear a buzz? Small. I heard the buzz. wasn't that small. We were kind of buzzing about the bones on the jumpsuit. Yeah, buzzing a bit. That could have been what it was.

2:51:23It's back. Buzz, you hear a buzz? Yeah. You hear the buzz? I do not. Let's get to some good D. There's a bad buzz, though. Yeah. Do you hear the buzz? I don't hear it. Do you hear a buzz? The fuck, man? Not right now. Not currently. Let's do some good D. Speaking of beating the bills. Do you hear the buzz? I heard the buzz that time. I heard the buzz that time? Sorry. Is it like a quick? Yeah, and it's a weird one. This one's coming from somewhere else. It's like Truman Show, like we're hacked. It's like a deeper. Fike? Adam Fike could have tapped our systems. I'll Fike off. It was a low-pressure system, though, so no precip.

2:52:02Got a couple clips coming through my ears right now. Yep. One wave after another. No pressure. Fike is going to be a perfect way to say fuck on ESPN, by the way. Oh, my God. I didn't fike in thinking. Holy fike. There was a show from Ireland, I think. Mrs. Thomas' boys. Brown's. Yeah, there it is. Mrs. Brown's boys. And instead of saying fuck, I think they say might be fike. Could be. What's that, AJ? I didn't say anything. Is it better than fudge or fudging? Yes. Obviously, I knew the answer. Are you going to drop Mrs. Brown's fecking is what they say? Oh, yeah, feck. Yeah, yeah, fecking, yeah.

2:52:47Mrs. Brown's Boys is a great show, I will say. I got introduced to that on a computer one day on the internet. It just popped up. Unbelievable idea. That guy runs shit over there, I think. Sorry, Mrs. Brown runs shit. All right, let's get some good D, which he had too. Right. Yeah, it was interesting. Absolutely talking about killing the Bills. This Broncos defense, another great defense coming into the year. Obviously, the pressures, the sacks. One of the things were they weren't creating a ton of turnovers, and they have been doing that. That was the story of this game, a bunch of turnovers from Josh Allen caused by this defense.

2:53:21This one is kind of like some type of quarters look. So if you see Hofenga up on the offense's left, he's kind of going to pass this off, and you'll see P.J. Locke come out of the middle of the field and just beeline, undercut the receiver, and pick this off. Great job reading the quarterback. Now, Josh Allen, it kind of looked open, if you can see it from the back copy, kind of looks open at some point. If he throws it, if he leads him kind of over Hufanga's head, but it's all about angles and where you throw this ball. And when you're a DB and you have the opportunity to undercut it, you better put two hands on it, and P.J.

2:53:54Locke did. This was a big-time deep throw to turn into a big play by the Broncos, big-time play by P.J. Locke. Josh Allen just off, or what do we think? Yeah, he was off this game. He was off this game. I don't think he completed a pass that had like over 20 air yards. Didn't he have a broken thumb or something? What happened to him the week before? Yeah, he did get hurt. I don't know if it was a broken thumb. Finger? Yeah. He might need foot surgery, right? What's that? I read Ray's game. He might need foot surgery, correct? Stafford had the thumb and finger because he hit it on somebody. But Josh Allen, his knee got twisted right at the goal line as well.

2:54:31He had a couple different little dings. But I do believe Sean McDermott made him throw that ball. He pulled it. Yeah, fucking gross. And Hufanga being there kind of forced him to put a little more air on it. And it's just a great read and a great play. And, I mean, it didn't look like anything was physically, in my opinion, wrong with his throwing mechanics per se, but just a great play by the Denver Broncos and being a little sloppy with the ball. This ball right here, this is obviously you've seen this clip a ton of times now with Jaquan McMillan in the slot against Brandon Cooks. Man-to-man coverage, basically third and 11.

2:55:06And so you bring your pressure. You're going to drop like two robbers, spies in the middle of the field because always his legs are a threat. You hear it all the time with Tony Romo on the call. So great job and great position. And once again, if this ball is put out there a little bit more, Brandon Cooks even now still has the speed to get behind defenders. He kind of got to stop, go up and high point. It does a great job, just doesn't come down, finish the catch. McMillan does. Great job finishing this play for a fantastic interception. Okay, interception says D-Butt. It's actually on good D.

2:55:37AQ Shipley, what do you think this was? I think it was a tie. As they hit the ground, tie goes to the offense. Final answer? Final answer. Still at this moment, you believe that the Buffalo Beals got screwed right here? Based on the language in the rule book, yes. A.J. Hawk, do you agree with AQ or do you agree with good D's DB? I agree with DB. I believe this was an interception. Okay, so defensive people in this particular setup are saying that was not a catch. He never, ever caught the ball. The ball was definitely not on the ground. Got to finish it through. If he rolls over and his ball just goes out and rolls on the grass, it's an incomplete pass.

2:56:25I don't think anybody said it. That's a catch. He had it going when he went down. You could say that about every tie ball in the history of football. I'm saying remove McMillan from the pitcher. Let's just say he rolls over. As he finishes the roll over, the ball is just out. I get it. I'm just saying every single tie ball where the defense comes away within the history of football, you could say that. But you're saying it's a tie ball. They're not saying it's a tie ball. A tie ball would indicate that he ever had it. They're saying he never had it. Yeah, like the tie ball where they're like both on the ground ripping at it and stuff, yeah, that goes to the offense.

2:56:56But that's not what this is. Yeah, they're saying the situation. Right there, he's got the ball. Right there, he's got the ball. He's rolling over. Right there, he's down. Hip was down. But you've got to possess it to the ground for it to be a catch. Survive the ground. You could say that on, again, every single tie ball in the history of the game. So you're saying you're 100 % sold, not just a screenshot. Based on the language of the rule book, yes. Interesting. Because I thought Cooks never officially had possession of ball. But I guess while falling, has it in his hand. And then hip touches.

2:57:28Yeah. And then what would count as a catch? Hip touch. Survive the ground. Exactly. Did he have possession enough of it before the hip touched down for them to call it a catch? We saw this called an interception, too. What is it? Joint possession? It was called a catch for Devontae Adams. The one Otten. Lions. Yep, Lions. And it happened another time, too. Browns, Bengals. Oh, you're saying the next day. T. Higgins. The next day. You're talking about the other one that happened this weekend. What about with this angle, AQs? Catch. Hip down. That's a catch. The ball is moving. It's a catch. All right.

2:58:08This is a microcosm of internet. Also, that's a subjective call. Because clearly if AQ or somebody like-minded AQ was calling Don, that's a catch. Think about where we would be in this moment. Think about where we would be in this moment right now. If that was a catch. I assume more people were pissed that they just didn't review it. They just called it an interception on the field and then just ran with it. Yeah, but they're definitely, I mean, that is 1 ,000. We bring up one tweet where one guy sides with that. What about the other 9 ,000 tweets? And also we got a guy that drives a fucking Batmobile to fucking practice.

2:58:45Wait, what are you talking about? We haven't shown the tweet yet. Foxy put this tweet on the back just as a, hey, do we want this? AQ, you actually called for this to be shown. You called for this by bringing it up. Now, the amount of people that don't understand what a catch is in a rule book flabbergasts me. Talking to you. And it's not the officials. The two plays yesterday were not difficult calls, and they got them both right, Joe Burrow says. That's an offensive guy. I didn't even know Joe Burrow's tweet. That's his first tweet in over two years. Yeah, he's going to go high brain in his bat cave now.

2:59:14Okay. All right. Well, you don't like Batman. You don't think Joey Burrow has a right to have an opinion on a catch? I do. I'm just saying there's 9 billion other tweets saying it was a catch. Yeah, those are all Bills fans. You want fossils, AQ? That's good. Bones? You want any bones for a Christmas gift? If I got a fossil for a Christmas gift, I would give up a sack the next week. Love it. Yes. Just don't take the gift. I figured. The spite runs deep, I guess. What if it was T-Rex? A little baby T-Rex? Didn't they have a little baby Rex in there? That was kind of what people called me. That'd take even more of a fucking slight.

2:59:56Oh, you'd be upset about it. Oh, this guy. Miss a cut block. See you. Good luck. Thanks for the mammoth tooth. Let's go to some more good tea, shall we? I don't believe you. You have it right in your house. As soon as you walk in, we see that. Yeah, of course. Agreed. I'm on your side. It's a dinosaur. Quay would walk in and break it immediately. What the fuck is this thing? It's not breaking that. It's not Legos, dude. It's not millions of years. Yeah. But anyway. That's not true. Chris Shula's defense. What's that? Dinosaurs? No. How many years? How many years, dinosaurs? I don't know. It really just depends on your beliefs, I guess.

3:00:34That's what I'm wondering, though. How many years ago would dinosaurs be? Carbon dating would indicate 300 to 400 million years ago. That's a hell of a run. They're still getting bones for gifts? That's a good gift. It's a great gift. You're remembering 300 million years ago? I can hear the, in your voice. What's that? The disdain. No. Yes, I can hear it. I think it's awesome. Now that I'm learning it's 300 million years old, I'm even more excited about that. I was changing week to week. Hubble Telescope, discovering new stuff all the time. Yep. We're at Mars. I think I saw us at Mars, I think.

3:01:11We were out there. They were doing some time conversation there about how long that place has been dried up in their expectations. They did that with the moon, the moon dust. And then you look at it, it's like, that's Arizona. Doesn't it look pretty similar to what we've got here? That's so far away. How'd they get that thing all the way there? What's it talking to? Good question. Fucking great astronauts at NASA in Houston. That's who they're talking to. You need to have respect for fossils if they're gifted to you, though, is what I'm saying. That doesn't need to be something you're holding against, Joey Burrow.

3:01:42I'm not. What Joey Burrow was thinking is I'm giving a 300 million year old gift. Yeah. And these guys don't know that I just went and bought these at the local Toys R Us. They have no idea. They're big dumb idiots. They're liming. They don't know shit. 3D printing. Chat GPT, how do I make a fossil? What do fat people love? bones bones okay bones let's go some more good deals shall we here we go direct cover two and as an underneath zone defender you always a lot of times you are the defender in conflict a lot of times you have high low routes you got routes in front of you usually you have routes behind you this one Loveland he's going to be the number one wide receiver he's going to run we used to call this a China route some people call it an Indy route but it's going to be Indy 7 concept so he's going to go inside corner sees him and then he's going to sink back and play hot or low now on the broadcast i forget who was calling this game he said the receiver loveland in this instance should have probably sat down if he sits down he holds the corner i'm not sure we're not in those meetings so he goes inside makes it much easier i will tell you from a cornerback's perspective makes it much much easier much easier i'm sorry once he vacates my flat and i can just sink back we kind of saw it with jamari sharp in the national championship game once you don't have a threat in front of you and you are a flat defender, you can keep sinking back, have vision on the quarterback, go up high point, and make a big-time interception against Caleb Williams.

3:03:09Caleb's not expecting him to be there? I mean, from my perspective, you see him drop back, and if Caleb knows the route concept, you should know that this tight end is going to keep moving. If he does sit down once again, then it becomes easier. If you see Durant go high, you just throw it to 84. If you see him sit, you throw it behind him. So you can kind of see him, and even in his next interception, it'll be something similar. You see him there. A lot of these throws are anticipation throws. You're throwing to a spot to beat the zone coverage. Durant does a great job reading it, feeling it.

3:03:39I don't think Williams did a great job feeling it in this point. Okay, so that's the development of a quarterback. Yeah. That is exactly what we're referring to. You want to take that profit right there. Now, it is tough. But also knowing that that guy's going to drop off of his responsibilities. In theory, he's supposed to be out here, but we don't have a wide receiver out here to eat up his time, so he's probably going to drop back. That is like the development of understanding defense. Yeah, so not only for Caleb, but for Loveland, too, because he's a rookie. And once again, these routes, a lot of times these routes, it's dictating on what the coverage is doing.

3:04:10So sometimes if you have a zone defender sitting there, quarterbacks just want you to sit in the space. Like instead of continuing to move, you kind of find either the first hole or the second hole. So you got two under routes here, two indie routes. So if he just sits here kind of on the numbers, once again, I'm not in the meetings. I don't know what he's being taught. but if he sits there you give another option to Caleb because a lot of times especially NFL at this point in the season you can see the pressure in Caleb's face from his right side it's a lot easier to make these reads and decisions when you're sitting on a microphone looking at a screen than it is when you have big D tackles with D ends in your face but it's not only the development from the quarterback position but from the receivers as well and this is a young you know great tight end I think he'll be great for a long long time but I think this is a learned experience for the quarterback in the tight end.

3:04:53Fernando said it's like a puzzle every time This is kind of like what he was referring to exactly and what you have to learn when you get to the NFL. It's like, hey, yeah, they're in this. You should know that he's not going to do this because we don't have a route for that. It's like, okay, what do I got to know? Well, I got to know my play perfectly. I got to be able to diagnose what they're in. And then I got to remember what everybody's roles are and if we have somebody to occupy or not. That's like the quarterback position that like whenever you talk about Tom Brady, you talk about Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Patrick Mahomes, these guys.

3:05:22It's like not just knowing what your team's doing, also knowing what they're doing and what the right answer to what they're doing is. And that's why you rep it so much. That's why you have walkthroughs. That's why you have meetings. And these quarterbacks, especially all the veteran quarterbacks that we've been around, these are the things you'll hear them, hey, I want you to, when they give you that, I want you to sit right here. Like, this is exactly where I want you to be. And that was a perfect example in the game. This is second and long. You hear us all the time say, like, during games, hey, get back on track.

3:05:48Make it third and manageable. If you just take that check down, now it's probably third and eight, and you're in a situation instead of a turnover, just trying to force a ball into a place that you want to be open, you expect it to be open, but the DB does a great job, not only sinking back, taking it away, but going up and getting an interception that was critical in this game. Man, quarterbacks got hurt a lot. It is. And this is another example of it right here with Cam Curl making pretty much the game-winning interception to set their offense up in overtime. Empty formation for Caleb. He reads it.

3:06:19DJ Moore is up top. It's going to be two in-breaking, deeper routes. DJ Moore, I think Caleb expected him to come flatter across the field and maybe run a little harder because a lot of times these throws, they're anticipation throws. And once again, the windows, if you run it back a little bit, you look at the zone coverage and you look at all of the underneath droppers. And if you pause it right here, you can see that when you're throwing deep or kind of in the intermediate parts of the field, you have to layer and get it over the underneath droppers, but you also want to beat the deep droppers.

3:06:49So when you play good zone coverage, you guys on the same page, Everybody's getting to their space, into their spots. We saw it with the Indiana defense in the National Championship. And then you have to anticipate these throws. Good protection up front. So you had an opportunity. Once again, it's second and eight. If it's not there, tuck it and run, pick up a first down, do all these different things. He's different. You know, he can break it out to his left. We see him do it all the time, maybe up the middle, maybe just throw it away. But instead, he wants to take the big play. Once again, this has kind of been the conversation around Caleb since coming out in the draft.

3:07:18and Cam Curl makes a great read and a phenomenal interception once again, fully extending, turning around, holding on to the ball. In these conditions, you know, throwing is tough, obviously, but catching the ball is tough, especially for DBs, and this was a big, big, big-time play by Cam Curl. Man, that's it right there. Yeah, that's it. Chicago Bears fans have their heart basically ripped out of them. What did you say, A.K.? I saw you pointing early on the wide copy. Yeah, so as you said, you wanted them flatter. They always say between 18 and 22 yards, you want this deep kind of over route.

3:07:49He continues to take that angle up here. If he goes 18 to 22 across the ball, that's exactly where he threw it. I have a question for AJ. Linebackers all drop to the sticks. You guys just have like three-yard drops, four-yard drops, six-yard drops, two-yard drops that you all know, or is that just strictly feel right there? Second and eight, you've got to know the down distance because you know you're dropping just beyond the sticks most likely. Stay square, keep your eyes on the QB. and you can let them. A lot of defense have like a five-yard no-cover zone, they call it. They'll let you catch it within five yards, and we want to come up and smash you and staple you to the ground.

3:08:21Do you have – how often are you at sticks? Is that basically all the time? If you're in a zone, yeah, if you're in a zone, absolutely. You need to be at the sticks. Every single down? No, I mean, it depends on down and distance. Obviously, like second and medium to short, yeah, you need to be at the sticks. It doesn't do you any good to let them catch it at five and fall forward to seven yards and get a first down. Like, you need to know. First and ten. Where do you drop? About the sticks, yeah, depending on what they're running, you know, off the route combination. You're going to, you're like, you got to initially push out, get, get to your drop and then get square.

3:08:52And that's when you break out of tensions and you got to pass everything off and everything. Then you have different droppers have different keys. So like you can see like, uh, independent of formation too. If it's a three by one, if it's two by two, you know, in the team that you run, some teams are like just sticks based. Like they're going to get someone at the sticks down there in every concept. So sometimes if you see like if I'm a cover to cover to carry and I'm carrying my number two receiver, but I can see vision. I can see number one sit down. I know instantly I can drop down and settle in my drop because I know my safety doesn't have that same stress from number one.

3:09:26So he can squeeze and relate closer to number two. So all these different things are happening in different downs. And then in this defense is more of like a spot drop defense. We just call it high school zone. So a lot of times in NFL, you'll run zone, but it looks like, man, because you're matching the route that comes to your zone. But this is more of a spot drop. So we get into our spots and you'll see once Caleb gets ready to throw, those two interior droppers are kind of rallying about to rally to that that running back right on the C. So if he catches that turns around before he even turns around and get square, he'll get vice tackle and it'll be third and short.

3:09:57But they're not breaking on that until they see the breaking intention. So it's all these different things that go into different coverages. and then when you're back there and you have that depth as a deep safety and you can read and see and feel what's going on in front of you and then you just go and be an athlete and make a play on the ball and that's what Cam Crill did right here. There's so much going on, dude, all the time. The NFL is awesome. You've got to rep that a thousand times. That's like breaking – you get your spot and you break – you'll do that every single day. You have to be lightning quick.

3:10:24Like you say, break on intentions. I'm not waiting for him to cock the arm back and throw. When I see that he's committing and he takes his hand off the ball, boom, we are flying forward. Old school Chicago Bears with Erlacher and them and Lance Briggs and those guys. They were unbelievable at this. So you were a very explosive athlete, you would say. Linebackers have to be very explosive because they're from a full standstill to full quick burst of speed. I mean, you would hope, yeah. It's all relative to other people. How much did you weigh? How much did you weigh? I weighed 248 at the combine.

3:10:57What do you weigh now? I mean, I drank water. I thought I needed to be heavier, so I was chugging water before weigh-ins. Eating bananas? Smart. Peanut butter? Just chugging water. Just water weight. Yeah, just before the weigh-in. Yeah, you can put on about six, seven pounds. I mean, you hold those jugs. Oh, yeah. We can transfer this? Yeah. We can't hold the jug when you're on the scale. Okay. With my hands. Yeah. Yeah. And most guys are trying to go the other way, you know? You got AQ drinking down whenever they give the night before colonoscopy so that he can just dump out everything in his body before weighing.

3:11:34Magnesium citrate. There it is. See, that's once you get in. That's right. For the combine, I was drinking too. Water? Oh, yeah. I played at 295 in college. I think I weighed in 308, 310 at the combine, something like that. So I was trying to get up. During your best years, what were you weighing?

3:11:55305. During your bad years, what were you weighing? Pushing 320.

3:12:03It's going to happen. The job requires different things, especially on the different jobs that you had. King of wedge, we need a little padding. Yeah, I had 11 kickoff returns against New England in the AFC Championship. 11. Hey, what was the score? I think it was 49-16. You were on it. You were on the team. You told me. I think it was 49-7. I think, yeah. His bonus, what was that called? Player performance? Player performance bonus is huge because there's kickoff return. Yeah. This guy's getting extra reps all over the place. I don't know if it's keeping up with the brain trauma, but it's certainly a little bit more money in your pocket.

3:12:44Still sharp. Sharp as a thing. He is. Let's head to Hammer. Don, Don. Don, why don't you head on over here, brother? Will do. All right. He got ready for Hammer. Sweet. Don's giving out winners, right? Hey, Gumpy, are you guys on a winning streak or losing streak? College basketball was pretty good last night. We got another full slate this evening. Okay, college hoops is where you do eat. You are a good gambler giver, I believe, during college basketball, right? Because you're betting on the teams we've never heard of. Yeah, like Miami, Ohio, we're getting two points last night. They're 20-0.

3:13:18They have lost all year. And every game, they're like a short favorite. It is insane. There's a chance we talk to their coach pretty soon, I think. Yeah, I think there's a chance. That's a good story coming out of hoops. Finally got ranked this week, first time all season. I mean, if there's a coach we should talk to, his name's Mick Cronin. Jeez. Fuck Mick Cronin. I hope he gets that clip of time. He definitely will. Oh, yeah. Is there a way to change that around, you think? You think maybe a meeting of the minds between you and your coach? I don't think so at this point. Isn't he from Iowa? No.

3:13:49No. Maybe. I believe he was born and raised in Cincinnati and then coached at Cincinnati. He's a bit of a hometown hero there. And then they obviously got sick of his shit, and he went out to UCLA. He's a good coach. That's the thing. He's a winner. He's a good coach. He's just a sought-off little fucker, and I haven't liked him for a long time. And I'll see that changing anytime soon. You guys need to meet each other. That might just be his entire gimmick. You said he's a good coach. That might be his whole gimmick. Could be. Never satisfied, always miserable. The players need to get better. Big Ten stinks.

3:14:20That might just be his motivator, his driver. I just don't like him looking a gift horse in the mouth. The Big Ten? Bingo. Fucking lucky. What's a gift horse? It's a horse that shows up with a gift. Yeah, what? Have you ever met one? Many times I've looked a gift horse in the mouth and said, no, thank you.

3:14:43So, I think we all have. Yeah, plenty of times. You have to at some point. You have to. Yeah. Gift horse. I mean, it's not always a horse. Hey, that was some good D. Appreciate it. Good D. D-buck. That was good trenches. Thanks, boy. Same thing, too. Seattle, top-ranked offensive line. Don't trust the fucking quarterback. Yeah, it was like the Eagles from a year ago. Wow, everything's kind of the same as it was in the past. Interesting. Except for this weather. We got trees blowing up. Yeah. Let's keep our eyes out. Yeah, be careful. Thank you for traveling out here, AQ. Thanks for having me, boys.

3:15:21You too, brother. Great work, boys. Tone, good to see you. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Team on me. Anything you say to the team, AQ? Hey, it's Championship Sunday. Every single ounce of effort you put in since April shows up this week. 60 minutes, all you got. Bring every fucking thing you got because the Super Bowl is on the doorstep. Let's fucking go. Okay, so you're talking to the teams that are playing the games. All four teams. And me. And Connor. Bring everything you got. Yeah, always do. Super Bowl's right around the corner. That's right. Hell yeah.

3:15:54I feel like I nailed that. You did. You did. I think the boys are going to actually just listen to that right before the game. Perfect. Cronin might turn that thing on. He might. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three, two.