5 HOT TAKES FOR THE 2026 COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON + A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT

What's up Brandon Walker College football show fans you can find every episode of the Brandon Walker College football show on Apple podcast Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon music. The course is calling and your Chevy equinox can take on whatever the day throws at you. Stylish and ready for anything equinox handles your commute weekend trips and even those last minute T times easily load up your clubs and gear with plenty of cargo space plus hidden storage under the rear floor to keep things neat and with a big standout touchscreen the equinox puts all your tech right where you need it. Bold and confident equinox looks just as good on the road as it does down the back roads from the first drive to the final pot equinox is built to do more so you can focus on the game. Football seasons here and whether you're grinding your way through the week or gearing up for kickoff. There's one ride that's always game ready. The Chevy Silverado. 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But the fact that we started this in 2019 and this would be eight football seasons is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting way to put it. This would be eight football seasons. We're going to make an announcement later later in the show. Did I say it that way? Yeah. Yeah. You did. It is eight football season. There you go. We're going to have an announcement later in show. I'll just do a quick announcement right now. So it's just me, Casey, and you're wondering, Hey, last year it was you and big F and T Bob and everybody. This this goes back four or five months that I we made a decision together to kind of pair down, right? And uh, you're doing the announcement off the top. No, this is the announcement. Well, do the announcement later. Well, do the announcement. Yeah. You already are throwing your own blueprint out the right. We're doing the announcement later, but it is it is you and I. We are you and I riding together today. It is. It's seen in a while. I know since what did I see with the Super Bowl? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It's all your Super Bowl. Yeah. We did miss. Oh, Miss Fox News over here. Okay. It's been a little. I've had a little miss Russell. No. No. No. First of all, I've been called Casey Clinton because I'm wearing suits a lot now, which is a very weird thing. You're a suit wear. Well, if you're on that network. Really, if you're just not on Barsal sports, you do have to dress up a little bit more. Your thirst trap. Well, I hung those up a while ago. I am a 37 year old mother. Okay. That is that is thing. I actually was thinking about this when I was flying here. The amount of life that you and I have gone through just to do. I mean, like Tommy Walker turning held 16 crazy. Yeah. Like just seeing that just every like you posted that last night on Instagram. I couldn't believe it. I was thinking about how like when you met me, could you imagine me being a mother? No. You probably still can't. Well, I know you, but yeah, I know a lot of people are probably cutting. But yeah, it was. It's been a long time. A lot of life in 2019 to 2026 and never forget that you did not spoil the secret that I was pregnant. I know you wanted that credit. Then and you still want that credit. I took that one a while. Yeah. You flirted with the idea of telling. In fact, good for me. I've kept several secrets over the years. You've kept a lot of secrets. Yeah. Including one that I've got right now. What's that one. Going to lift your shirt and show your belly. Oh, don't be an asshole. Okay. No, no. Okay. Oh, I thought you were going to say, lift my shirt from different reasons. No, no, no, no. No, no. That's not to later. Once the audience falls out, that's why we'll bring that. We'll bring out the nuclear weapon. Well, I also in my hand right now, I thought that was the secret you were talking about because you you're going to get to meet one of your heroes potentially. So yeah. Um. I don't know how to even say this without. But, um, for for a while now, you know, little Wayne. I've known a little Wayne. You've known a little Wayne. You know, a little way. Yeah, you know, a little Wayne. I do. And a little Wayne is a is a chronicled. He has a documented watcher of wake up barstool. He's the only one. And he watches wake up barstool. He watches wake up barstool. And he's a fan. He'll tweet at us and everything. And then he'll tweet at me. And he said that I'm one of his favorites. He'll he's done. He'll tweet where like, that's my guy. I want to do a collab with him stuff like that. And now he's coming to Chicago soon and you might hook it up where I can go meet little Wayne. Well, I would also like it on record that I told you this. I believe in 2024 that little Wayne was a big, but you didn't believe me. You didn't believe me. Um, and then I sent you even screenshots of where he said that that he wants you to narrate his album. And you still ignored me. And it took him going on wake up barstool and shouting me out. And then you out. For you to realize that I was not lying. Oh, sorry for wanting to hear it from his from his mouth. Sorry for wanting to hear it from the world famous rapper that the world famous rapper knew I was, which by the way, you talk about full circle moments, because you and I are, we've had our over the years are Carpool karaoke or version. I mean, going back to even probably 2019, but I feel like Wayne was usually on the the docket sometimes. Well, you're, you're painting a very flattering picture of that. What am I doing because when you and I get together with Carpool karaoke, you know, it starts with like, Oh, yeah, you know, we do, and let's expect on the name. We first we do boy bands. We do boy bands. Then we dabble back into our favorite rap, which usually is Wayne or M&M. Yes. Um, but yes, no, we absolutely start with that. Mostly it would be us, us arriving back in New Jersey via the private plane. We get to fly on cause they're poor. No, yeah. And we would come back to you, but I would drive you home. We throw on the instinct, throw on, you know, bye, bye, bye, stuff like that. I think at one point during COVID, you came into the city to pick me up to save me. And we took an extra long route. God knows where we were going. Oh, I know where we're going. Oh, I never mind. Never mind. Uh, no, but it would, but yeah, no, it's, uh, it's, it's been a long journey. My, if you told me in 2019, that we would be sitting here and this version of you, this version of me, and I'm, you know, all jokes aside, like I'd be like, what? Yeah. What? But we're going to talk called football. It's called football podcast. Here's how it's going to go cause football podcast. We both brought in, cause we're getting ready for the series and SEC media days starts next week. I believe big 10 media days is here in Chicago next week. Just go ahead and read that text. So that you just go ahead. Let's say this from. Don't, don't read that. Don't read it out loud. Got it. Okay. Just you read it so that you know where it stands. He's going to have his people hit some people up. Yeah, because I will not be here. I'm sorry. It's okay. It's fine. You actually probably don't want me here. No, I'm sure you'll be on Fox News. Okay. All right. That felt unnecessary. Well, here it is. Welcome back. I teed you up there. So this is how we're going to structure it. We're going to structure it with some cultural ball talk. Cause cost football is coming. We are seven weeks away, six weeks now inside of seven weeks to week zero. It's coming. It's coming fast. And we're going to start getting ready for that. We're also going to have we put out the line to get questions from the honest air roughness audience. We got 111 questions printed out right here. I'm very. I love that. Luke. He did this. But I love that you just showed the camera for YouTube. There's probably a bunch blacked out because the people they just don't like me. Well, shout out the shout out, Luke, for, for, for, you know, getting rid of the ones that that shit on us for no reason. So you know, you know what? I do find funny with that. Cause all jokes aside, like, you know, when we go on the road for the culture ball show and all that when we meet people in real life, they're always amazing. They're always so great. I do feel like the comments of I'll finally start listening again. If Casey's not on is ironic because I've always been on. Yeah. Hey listen before I was. I yeah 2018. This exact feed that you are listening to. I don't think watching. So I don't even think we were doing video podcasts. Yeah, but this was. Myself, Johnny Manzell, his agent at the time, Eric Berkhardt and Pat gay Pat was our producer, the producer. Yes. Isn't that crazy to think about. Yeah. Come back season. Oh, that makes sense. You know, no, although I guess come on the back. No, no. Okay. Listen, I don't need any any smoke from you from that for that comment. Yeah. But yeah, no, this is, this is my, my podcast. So yeah, it's, it is. And it will, I will always be. We'll have an announcement in just a minute. How about we, how about we skip the announcement for now? Yes, we put off the announcement. I don't know if you're going to end up doing time stamps, Loki. So I guess they want to go straight to the announcement that can. But we're going to talk college football before that. Yeah. And I will say that the, a lot of people that have reached out in the DMs that are nice. And I'm assuming you see a lot of it. Two people are saying, hey, we kind of miss college football talk. Yeah, I've gotten a lot of wins on this coming back. Wins on this area of this coming back. And that has nothing to do with me or you. That's just they desperately won't call it football talk in their life. But I, I'm sure you feel the same way. It'll never be the same. But this summer, having the World Cup, at least scratched a little bit of an edge. It's helped. Yeah, it's helped. But now we're at that point. World Cups about to end baseball is kind of going to be standing alone. Media day is going to be popping off right as a World Cup ends. It's it's about to go from zero to 60 real quick. I had this conversation the other day and you and I growing up where we did going to school where we did covering the sport for as long as we have. Somebody asked me. Do you think that the World Cup fandom is the closest to college football you've ever seen? And I said, I don't necessarily know if you can compare it just because it's, you know, the world versus college football. But I can tell you, for me, the most excited that I have been outside of college football was for the United States to play Belgium. Now, obviously, that did not go well. But that is the closest to college football that I have felt watching a sporting event. I think it's very similar. It's very similar in the passion, you know, World Cup and World Soccer is unmatched as far as passion goes. College football comes the closest for us. But the one difference I would say in the fans, like fans of England, fans of Spain, they are very overly critical of their own teams. They hate other teams, but whereas college football fans are overly forgiving of their own teams. And if I come out of the clouds and say something, anything about Kentucky or Vanderbilt or, you know, Ball State, whatever. If I say, if I say Ball State's not a fun stadium visit, they're going to freak out. Whereas a European soccer fan would be like, yeah, stadium, we got to work on something. They would be critical of their own teams. I don't think college football fans are as capable of that as soccer fans. Well, just don't, they hate everybody. Oh, and just don't talk about how much you don't like offside calls because this is not soccer, but listen, that is crazy. But I do, I do feel like this summer has felt a little bit different, but you're right. Once we get to July, once we get to SEC media days, and when you and I were at SEC media days before barstall, like that, this is the official start call. That's the first time we hooked up. What year was that? Like 2015. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't even ask my name. It was weird. No, I know. I don't even remember it to me honest. Yeah. Well, me either. Anyway. So, here we go. What I decided to do is let's bring five takes last questions to the table to set the table for college football. Then we're going to answer your questions and then we'll make the announcement. We'll go. Okay. I love it. Do you want to go first? Let's go back and forth. I'll go first. You go first. Yeah. I'll go first. Okay. Because that means that you can finish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Um, well, old school, old school. And by the way, we're not going to read any of my DMs because now we're just reading my text apparently. Sure. You don't want to read your DMs one last time. No, but you haven't been, you haven't been thirst-trapping lately. Yeah, but you'd be surprised. Oh, really? Listen, they're still coming in. The old school Brandon Walker reads Casey Smith's DMs. You remember, you used to be shocked when certain people used to DM me. But yes, now there, there's who knew that when you become a mother, that opens up a whole new type of DM. Wow. Really? Didn't know that. Okay. Good for you. But no, we're not going to do that. Um, so this, this is where if you're an old school unnecessary roughness listener, this is why I wanted to start with this take every year, we kind of connect ourselves and attach ourselves to not even necessarily our own takes, but teams, right? Outside of our teams that that we represent that we love. We're obviously wearing our, our team colors. One of those teams that I have attached myself to over the years, Brandon, I'm going to attach myself again, but I'm actually going to have a real, real reason to this year. All right. You're doubling down on somebody. I'm doubling down. Would you like to guess? Well, I'm just going to say the teams I believe you have attached to ourselves to. Obviously you you attached yourself to Colorado because you really, you really liked Deon. Uh, you've attached yourself at some point once you had an Oklahoma dalliance at some point. You've Michigan, you, you, you attached yourself to that Michigan national title team. Uh, I did a few years before that too. It was more to spite you. I think at some points, but yeah, no, so I'm not really picking up on it. What is it? There's one that you're missing. It's glaring and every year we have the conversation. It's like, well, what has this guy actually done? And I did it into the playoffs. It's organ. It's organ. Okay. And here's the thing. When you sit down and you look at the landscape of college football, and you look at how everything has changed. And even when we talk about Indiana and how Kurt Zignetti turned it all around and you look at the transfer portal, the biggest thing that's happening is these quarterbacks leave all the time. And it, it, it switches over when you look at what organ is bringing back this year. And you look at what Dan landing is bringing. And they, I believe it's 17 and one in conference play now. Obviously it's not translated to the playoff. But when you look at Dante Moore and what this organ team is bringing back. They're loaded. They're loaded. And so every year I've bought into the Dan landing hype, the organ hype, but they've not ever really been able to get over that hump. I believe that this year they can do it because they have, they're, I mean, Dante Moore, I don't know if he would have gone over Fernando Mendoza. He definitely would have been in the conversation. He would have been a first round pick. He's back. They looked great last year. And now you really look at this squad. And you're like, they have had so much success in the big 10. And you have Dan landing and you have your quarterback back. I'm all the way in on them. It's, it, it's time. It's time. If you're going to do it, it's time to do it. Uh, so I'll just go forward. I'll scratch this one off and add another one. But my number three was can organ handle being the best team in the big 10? You know, a couple of years ago, they went 12 and went into the playoff as number one. See, but coming in that year, we thought Ohio State was going to be the best team. But now coming into this season, we, organ's the most loaded team. They're loaded, they've been here. They did want to play off game last year. They beat Texas Tech, but then immediately, uh, lost. And then a couple of years ago, when they were number one, they lost, they got blown out by Ohio, Ohio State. But can they handle going wire to wire as the unquestioned top dog in the big 10? Because I know Ohio State's good this year, but the schedule is a little bit tougher. I know Indiana is defending national champion. But if you look on paper, the most loaded team is the organ ducks. Can they handle it? Because they have and throughout their history in the last 30 years, when they really rose to power and college football, they have shown the ability to get to the finish line. They've not once shown the ability to cross the finish line. I don't know that I believe they'll ever do it. I don't, I've said it on a couple of shows, Dante Moore is a very good player with very good stats. But when the competition got hard last year, he was out and out bad. He was bad against Indiana. The first time he was bad against Indiana the second time. He was not, he was not, he was bad. It was not good against Penn State on the road last year. And I was Penn State and I've had a bad season. But if you remember that double overtime game, he wasn't great. But he did lead a fourth quarter drive to win the game. So, or an overtime drive, whatever. Um, he is a, a good quarterback. But I don't know if I believe in him to the level other people believe in them, which is fair. And I say the same thing about Dan landing. Obviously, he is great. I don't believe in him the way you believe in him. Which has been a recurring thing for me is that I do believe in Dan landing. And then when the lights are the brightest, they have not come through, especially in the last few seasons. But when you look at bringing back a quarterback in this landscape of college football and what that means. And a quarterback that was very highly touted, touted. Why did I say that? Touted. Yeah. That was my Fox News right there. Really. Yeah. Highly touted. I think that that it's okay for me to double down, triple down, whatever it is and say, this could be the year. Now, maybe they just can never get over that hump. Do you tell your Fox News friends about me or am I like the exit you never mentioned? No, I mentioned you. They actually mentioned you. Really? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. They mentioned you. They, they were my family. My uncle would be very proud. It's all he watches is Fox News. Which one, the one I've met? Oh, yeah. I'm called Donnie. That's all about you. Yeah. Didn't he almost, like, back in 2020, wouldn't let Rudy in the house. Yeah, because we told him he voted for Biden. That was when, uh, when we were riding four wheelers and you were the happiest I've ever seen, you're like a dog sticking your head out the window. KC one day, I'm going to move back. I know. I'm never going to think of you motherfuckers. Yeah. I was, I was riding the back of the four wheeler with Katie and you pointed to the tiny little pond with your little boat. Like you were pointing the Empire State Building. Like, look, this is my, this is my three and a half acres. It's a tiny pond. No, the pond is three and a half acres. It's a good pond. That's a much bigger pond than I remember. It's a solid pond. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're looking to part of the pond. No, um, they do, they, they do bring you up. I don't, I don't want to like gas you up right now, but you're kind of a popular guy. You know, I don't want to gas you up. Yeah. You know, when you're right, you're right. Uh, my number one. And it's in the same conference. Uh, the conference has one three straight national titles, which is another reason to question Oregon. You know, Michigan's done it. Hi, Roughnecks. We'll be right back after this word from our sponsor football is back in with Draft King Sportsbook September comes with a boost all September long opt in and get a 50% profit boost every game day with the Draft King's game day boost pass new Draft King Sportsbook customers sign up with a code BSS and get 50% profit boost every game day. That's code BSS and partnership with Draft Kings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem call 1-800 gambler 1-800 my reset Connecticut call 888 7897777 visit ccpg.org on behalf of Boohill Casino and Kansas. Wagertax pass through may apply in Illinois 21 plus in most states void in Canada one football boost per customer maximum bet limits and wagering restrictions apply tokens are single use and expire at the end of the final select game each day win offered terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/promise and now back to the episode asterisk will have states done it they didn't Indiana's done it now it feels like it's Oregon's turn to do when the scc was doing it they did it with four and five different teams Oregon can be the fourth different big 10 team in four years to win the national title and that's when you know a conference is the best conference in the world when they're just cycling through teams and it's not just one Alabama anyway standing in the big 10 what to make of Indiana because last year I misread Indiana I felt like they would be a better team because I felt like the playoff run two years ago was a farce and a phony this is what I felt in august of 2025 I felt like the 2024 run was fake and phony and as soon as they played good teams they got their ass kicked and and and I thought they were just that's who they would be forever and I did think the roster was going to be better last last year, but the schedule was tough first, so they were going to go like 10 and two. I thought they would be good, but then what we saw was the best team in the country led by the best coaching staff in the country. Everything that they showed in 2024 was not fake. It was not funny. It was not a far. It was a sign of things to come. They took, uh, two years ago, they took a good transfer quarterback and were good. Last year, they took a great transfer quarterback and were great. Heisman Trophy, national champion. They took Kurt Signetti and his staff, the best coaching staff in college football took the worst program in the history of this sport, one of them and became the best team in two years. It's something we have never seen. We could never fathom when we came up with the, uh, the 12 team playoff. We worried would it be just Ohio State in Georgia every year. And then two years in Indiana, the worst program comes and wins it. And they won it because Signetti and his staff are so great and incredible. But now you do it once, great. You do it twice. You're on top of the mountain. Now Indiana's looking down at college football, they have never been there. What do you make of them? They go out and get Josh Hoover from TCU. Could be very good. You got to believe in the, um, the pedigree of this coaching staff, they get a lot out of the transfer quarterbacks, but Kenny B is good as Mendoza. You know, you got the receivers, you got your bringing Nick Mars, you got Charlie B from Nashville, Tennessee. You got, you got all these guys, the defense brings a lot back, but also lost a lot. And now I do think the schedule has gotten a little tougher. So what do you do with them? Do you put them at number one out of respect for what they did last year? Or do you look at Oregon and say they're more talented and put them, I don't know what to do with Indiana. I don't know my complete deck. I do know I'm done doubting the abilities of Kurt Signetti to get the most out of this team. So I have to think at the very worst, they'd be a playoff team that's going to be held to deal with in January. Well, what you just hit on at the very end of that was I think even going into the national championship last year, we kept saying if they can get this done, it's because Kurt Signetti has completely evolved the way that college football can be. I'm not going to say he caught lightning in a bottle because I feel like sometimes I can be a little patronizing. He caught lightning in a bottle because he was that good at it. Can I say, can I say something to the morons and the idiots that participate in college football discourse on this? Of course, please. There are morons and idiots that when you, when you pray as Indiana, you pray as a job Signetti is done. They will come back and say, yeah, you did it with 24 and 25 year olds. Yeah, you did it with old players. Yeah, you did it with these guys at the fifth and sixth year. Well, good for fucking him. Good for him to be able to counterbalance the budgets, the NIL budgets of Ohio State and Georgia and Texas and all these teams that are going to go by the best transfers and the best players every single year. And they certainly went out and bought players too. But good for him for figuring out, you know what? If I got 24 year olds out there playing against 19 year olds, I'm a leg up. Good for him for figuring that out. And that's the new world. The new world opened up a bunch of possibilities. We thought it was just, oh, they're going to pay players now. Well, yeah, they're pay players now also gave them a little bit more eligibility. Now you can be creative inside the box and go get older players. And we speak a lot of hyperbole in this business and not just in college football, just in general and the podcasting entertainment world. But it's not hyperbole when we say they were the worst program in college football. So the fact that he was able to do that, I don't give a shit. If it's he had older players, he went out and did XYZ. That is allowed. It's not an illegal thing to do. And that is why and I, I will say, I agree with you that they need to kind of, I don't think they need to follow up with a national title to stay in the conversation. But I, they could go over this year. And in my opinion, yes, that would taint it a little bit. But I think that Kurt Signetti will forever be talked about in college football because of how he changed it. Because who else is out there that could look at what Kurt Signetti did and say, oh, I could do that too. And it's not, you don't have to be Kurt Signetti. You just have to be as talented as he is doing it. If you're ranking anybody with Kurt Signetti, the best coach in the country right now, you're either lying or stupid. It just is what it is. Nobody could do what he has done the last two years. Now, we find out this year if they are the best program in college football or if they had the best team last year, that's what we find out this year. Do you think, I mean, and I love Fernando Mendoza, I think he's going to be great him being in Vegas. I don't think what he did is irreplaceable. No, I don't think so. But I also don't like, I don't think it's irreplaceable. And I also don't think that Kurt Signetti is going to have a problem finding somebody to help replicate it. Is it Josh Hoover? I don't know that answer. But I don't look at Fernando Mendoza as a joe burrow type person where it's like, you had to have him at LSU with that staff, with that roster. I think he was obviously a major part of it. And I think he's going to be a successful NFL quarterback. But I do think Kurt Signetti is somebody who can find somebody who can replicate at least a little bit of it. I'm to the point if Signetti and staff want a quarterback, I'm just going to trust they're going to be. Yes. Yes. All right. What's your next one? So the coaching carousel as a whole, there's not necessarily one specific take. But when we look at the coaching carousel every single year, it's like, okay, when are the dominoes going to start to fall? And we spent a lot of time in the off season, Brandon going into last year. What's it going to be? Who's going to be first? And then when you look at the moves that were made this year, it feels like, and maybe it's just recency bias. This has been like the most electric off season to go into coaching carousel changes because you look at Kyle Wittingham and Michigan, obviously Lane at LSU, Matt Campbell at Penn State. James Franklin, who I have not liked for the majority of this podcast, you and I have gone to war a lot of times with Penn State, I'm actually kind of excited to see what it looks like with him. I think you're a rejuvenated James Franklin is incredible for college football, I think it's incredible for him. For whatever reason, they wilted on the vine there at Penn State. Two years ago, they were in the final four, let's not forget that they did have success there. We had like, he had no success. Well, he did have success there. And now he's, he's back to a school where his recruiting can make a true, true, true difference. And I, I couldn't be more in on him. And by the way, there's more like Eric Moore, Oklahoma State like there. You go on down, down, down, down, down, the SEC carousel, so many new coaches. And there's some coaches you don't think that are that excited, like Silverfield or Arkansas. I don't think Arkansas fans are over the moon about him. Auburn fans, I believe are a little bit on Golis, but they're not over the moon either. And so there's a lot to parse here. There's a lot of coaches in big name places that I think looking through this season, we're going to like, it's not even just like, obviously Lane is the number one. I think that that's pretty unanimous across the board. But when you look at where all of these teams could be by middle of October, that's crazy to me. So the coaching carousel and it's kind of an overarching thing. That's an exciting story line to follow. My next one is right along the lines. It is, it's absolutely Lane at LSU. I am a little bit more bullish on Lane Kiff and then a lot of other coaches are, a lot of other people are. I think he has slammed on a top five coach in the country. He, what do you win 10 games four times at LMS, like Ole Miss is not a school that does that. They're not a school that has won at that level and that's not even insults. That's just the truth. He walks in there in six years and wins 10 games four times, ends up building a team that gets to the national championship semifinals last year. Lane Kiffin is a phenomenal head football coach. Now he's at LSU, a place that is going to stop at nothing with the transfer portal and the money and the resources to win national championship. They're tired of not winning national titles. When LSU is good, their national title good, when they're mediocre by God or they mediocre. But I think with Lane, it's going to happen quickly. The only thing, and I think this is a fascinating LSU season, like week one, they've got Clemson. I don't know what to make of Clemson. Obviously, they haven't been as good as Clemson used to be, but they're still, Clemson's still, Davos still, still a good solid program. They've got to play them and then week three, they play Ole Miss in Oxford. Can you imagine? Lane wins that game. Look the fuck out because LSU is often running. They're gone. After when we was at 2021, when we went to Tennessee, and that was like the golf ball mustered, like they're all throwing that. What is going to be in Oxford, Mississippi week three? But if he wins that game, the arrows for Ole Miss and LSU football, if he wins that game, just they're so sharp. If Ole Miss wins, if Ole Miss stays up and LSU probably stays up a little bit, but if he wins, and my thing with LSU and Lane is such a good coach, I believe in everything they're doing this year, except I can't believe Sam Levitz, the guy they focused on, or they got it for quarterback, because I look at everything they brought in, the receivers, the defense, the tackle from Colorado, Jordan, Seaton. They paid so much money for the best players in college football, and then they ended up with a guy who just frankly wasn't very good last year. He's going to be with the best coaches he's ever been with. He's going to be with Lane and Lane's done a great job of getting a lot of quarterbacks, but for them to put what they got in there, and then Sam Levitz, the guy, that's the one part of LSU I don't believe in, but I believe in Lane so much it might not matter. I, a few, what, two years ago, right? Yeah, when he had a scatterbone, Jordan, Tyson. Right, 100%. And I'm not saying that, because now we look back and obviously, like, Cam was a huge part of that, but there is something with Lane, because even you look at Jackson Dart, and you, I mean, Jackson's obviously incredibly talented, but it was getting him with Lane that really elevated him to where he is now, and I think he will be very successful with the Giants. And so I do trust Lane. My thing with, with the immediate success of Lane at LSU is that he, and he is who he is, and he is the reality TV show, the reality show, King of College Football. There's been so much shit even in this off season, and I'm not even talking about could Ole Miss play, or, you know, could he coach in the playoff with Ole Miss and all that, just all the accusations and everything, but there's so much drama surrounding him that there's something that's there with Lane that's like, can that drama still linger, or is he going to get rid of it really fast? And I know week three is huge. Lane Kiffin will never get rid of the drama. Which is why it's hard to say they're going to win a national title right away. I don't think, I don't know if they're going to win a national title right away. I think they're going to be playoff good right away. But you, LSU fans think they can. And why wouldn't they? Well, 100%. I mean, they've watched less miles and it always wrong when national titles. They, this is the best coach they've ever had after saving. A little left turn really fast. Just do a Brian Kelly said about Notre Dame. Don't care what he's saying. He said he wants to make sure that everybody knows he still supports them, and that he wants to go. I think something I don't know if Lukey can look up the exact quote. But it was almost like I just want to be able to show my support for one day. I don't want it to be about me, but I want to be able to show my support for a Notre Dame. I don't want it to be about me, but I want the camera on me and I want everybody to focus on me. Yes. Um, he, he's just the vote. But I do, I do understand LSU's very high excitement level. Yeah. I still, and it's obviously doesn't matter because he's at LSU. I still think that he could have been just fine at Ole Miss again, go back and look what Kurt Signetti did in Indiana. I just wonder if he can get over that same hump. He got over it last year, getting to the college football playoff and then he left the team. And he's at phenomenal coach. There's just a lot there because built into this is I don't think there's usually, there's an SEC team you walk into the year like, who the fuck is Peyton, Georgia, the fuck is Peyton Alabama? I don't think that team exists this year. No, and I think there's an opportunity for somebody to walk in and shake up things real quick. Because Georgia will be very good. Texas will be very good, but there isn't the monster, like 2021, 2022. Georgia's sitting on top of everybody. What did you use to call him? An 800 pound rolling ball of chainsaws. By the way, Luke, you just pulled up the quote. The, the part that really stood out to me is I want to be out there and I want to be visible for a day, but it's not about me, but it's not about me. I don't, I don't want it to be about me, but they, they don't need to validate me in any way. That's also part of that. Just, just need the camera on me. What, what a guy. What's your third take? Maybe we need to speed this up a little bit. Okay, well, do you want to read an app really quick? Hi, Roughnecks will be right back after this word from our sponsor. It's Fran from Chicks in the office. The weather is getting cooler and Abercrombie's fall drop has everything I need for the season. The best selling A and F Sloan Taylor pant is a closet staple for me. I'm always wearing it to work events. Happy hour. Anytime I want to be a bit more dressed up and the viral Dylan dress is easy, one and done perfection, but my fall uniform will always be denom pair with a handly sweater, a raw free top. It's comfortable, effortless, it just never fails. Find your fall capsule at Abercrombie shop in the app online and in stores. And now back to the episode. Have you, um, have you just been when you haven't checked the score? No, I was too. Oh, the last time I looked at it. Okay. Oh, well, I need to. Oh, you were actually asking me. I thought you were, yeah, it's final. Two, oh, yeah, I knew I just see I said it this morning. Spain had something for France. Spain's been laying in the weeds a whole time. Uh, I love him. Yeah. Well, he's out. I know, but I just wanted you to know that. Oh, you love him, Bob, I love Holland. I listen, the superstars that came out of the World Cup, like from other countries, like I don't want them to ever leave. Did you see him get off the plane with that record? Yes. Okay. Yes. You should get off a plane with a record. I don't feel like it would hit the. Wherever we fly to wherever we fly to the college football. Yeah, we should get off the plane with records. We really should, you know, the the thing with him that I loved other than just he became an internet, you know, superstar and sensation is that he leaned so far into it, like the quote, I love Texas. And he, well, yeah, they, the, all the, the World Cup fans loving the United States was incredible. I get you ready for Fox News to come out. They loved America. Okay. And now I'm just realizing, looking at you that you look just like Arlene. He, he leaned into, did you see the quote where he was like, yeah, my mom's, a mom or never mind, I, that feels like it was more of a Fox News thing that I should talk Wow, talking down to me. No, no, no, no, um, really quick on him, though, yeah, do you think that he's good looking? I know. Well, now you're going to have to think about it. You just said we look alike, but I think he's famous and interesting enough to. I have a girlfriend. He is with six, five. He's built like a British shithouse. Great, great body. The, the face is interesting. It's unlike any face I've ever seen. Yeah, but I would say yes. He is good looking in the raccoon ads to it. I have a girlfriend who is who, you know, like whenever you're younger and you put like pictures in your locker of like your crush, like mine was Leonardo DiCaprio, as Jack Dawson. If she could have a lot of mine was Leonardo DiCaprio as somebody else. Yeah, you had that was your man crush. She is a 38 year old mother. And you would think she could decorate her locker with him. She loves him, speaking of your girlfriends has, has your other girl said anything about? Oh, yeah, she's listening and watching as we speak. Well, not this is recorded. Like a girl. Yeah, she's very well. I don't want to, she's sad. Well, okay. So my third take, the pack 12 relaunch, very fascinating to me. Really? Yes, because I don't think that they're all of a sudden going to make any type of waves. And, you know, the college football playoff. But when you look at these, you just like the comfort of hearing pack 12. I do pack 12 after dark. It's going to be. So when you look at, you know, you, you add Washington state and Oregon state. They stayed. They were the lone survivors of the pack 12. But then, you know, Boise State, Colorado state, Fresno state, San Diego state, Texas state, Utah state. And I'm forgetting one. I can't remember, but I do think that it's interesting that a couple of years ago, and we talked about this when the pack 12 died. And it's, you know, I think that the last year of the pack 12 was probably one of its best in current history because of all the quarterbacks. You look at everybody that was playing and then it went away and it was really second Zaga. Yeah. For basketball only, that's when I was forgetting. I'm interested to see what it feels like and what it looks like as a college football fan. Because we did miss those games, those late night games. And even though a lot of them didn't necessarily, you know, matter, except for that last year in the long term and the college football playoff, it's kind of cool that they're trying to rebuild this quick. I thought if you would have told me a couple of years ago, they're going to try to rebuild and actually put some teams together that we talk about pretty often throughout the season. I'd say, no way, they're dead and they're trying. They're, they're rebuilding. It was a staple of the like the middle part of the podcast announcement coming later. Um, when, um, you know, we'd be doing our 11 p.m. Saturday night recap show. We're tired, we're sunburned, we're everything. And, and Cal and Stanford's wailing on each other. And we're just, and there, there were times that we would be, you know, you talk like one 30 in the morning wrapping up and something crazy would happen. Or the state has a pick six. We'd sit and linger for a second and then we're like, why did we do that? We could have just gone to bed and talked about it tomorrow. Um, but I do, I, from a college football standpoint, like, do I think that in week seven, week eight, we're really going to be like, damn, the pack 12 is making a huge push short. No, but it's exciting. My, my next one, um, is I'm skipping. I'm probably just do four because I rolled my organ one into you. It's archmaning, archmaning question mark or archmaning period or archmaning exclamation point. I think another way to tell the nonballiners this summer is to rank archmaning number one or number two and quarterback lists and watch them come out of the woodwork and say, huh, you're just doing a cause of his name. He sucked. He was terrible. He was awful. I can't believe this. Didn't you learn your lesson last year when he was all up? Listen, if you say that, you either didn't watch, didn't pay attention or you just fucking stupid because nobody, nobody told the truth about archmaning more than me. I was excited about him coming in the year. Then he was straight ass for about six weeks. Asked my dude. He was bad for six weeks. He was terrible. But if you weren't watching him, you didn't notice by October that guy was putting things together, that game where he basically beat Oklahoma, I mean, like he was dominant against Oklahoma. He put together a couple of other games and then by November, he was just damn good. He was one of, he's got the wheels. He's got the mind. He's got the arm. He's got every tool that you want. He's got a Texas team that will bounce back. He's got now, he had Wingo, a great receiver. I think he's a very good receiver. Now he's got Cam Coleman coming in from Auburn. He's got two running backs coming in. Hollywood, some others in Relic Brown that are going to take the load off of him. He's got the best skill position players in the country, perhaps he is going to be very, very good. Now the archmaning question mark is was the first month of the season a tell that he's always going to struggle earlier. He's got some struggle in him or is it going to be archmaning exclamation point what he was in the year goes forward. He develops and it becomes the best player in the country because that is absolutely on the table. And if he does that, Texas could win the national title. If he doesn't, they will miss the playoff. And as who I am with the ring on my finger and the sweatshirt I'm wearing, I don't love to hear it, but you're absolutely right. And there, there's an element of just being a national college football fan and you look around and yes, his name is always going to play a little bit into it. There's there, you know, it would be stupid. I got him to the dance. But the dance is dancing with him. Correct. Yeah. Now we're judging his dancing ability. Right. Because, you know, you can have a last name and not dance. Sure. He, he, he'd be dancing. And he, he, he, he couldn't dance. He had no rhythm at first. Now he looked like me, dancing. He was doing a Lane Beness kicks. No, all this. Wayne will get you right. Don't worry. Lane will get you right. I, I think I said Lane and Wayne. You did Lane well, that's you. That's right. Yeah. That's why. Okay. So my last, I can do for because this is kind of a, not lengthier, but I know we're a month, two months removed from all the drama. But one of my favorite things in college football with Indiana being the national title winner last year. And that was out of the blue, right? You know, that was like, oh my God, we, we also get new villains now. Sure. Texas tech. This season is, to me, and I understand that Texas roots are going to play into it a little bit, but Texas tech has now squarely planted themselves as one of the biggest villains in college football. And I do think it's a little bit less now because Brendan Soresby is no longer going to play for them. And obviously, if you're listening to this podcast, you know all that drama and that saga, but the way that that all went down and the way in college football now that if you have a guy like Cody Campbell and you have a guy that can spend hundreds of millions of dollars to put your team on the map, and you miss step a little bit and they miss stepped a lot of bit. People are going to hate you. A little bit of me kind of wishes. And at the time, I was saying, listen, Texas tech can't do this, man. It's just, it's a bridge too far. This, this, this trend of going and it wasn't text tech. It was kind of source me. Let's try to go into a judge and overturning the NCAA decision is a bad trend for everybody. Don't say local. They get really mad. Just just just back off and don't do it. But part of me kind of wishes they had kept their middle fingers to the air and said, you know what? Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. We're Texas Tech guns up. We're winning. We're playing anybody we want. But I think Joe McWire is a great guy, great coach. I like that they are upsetting this status quo and that they have decided to go all in and they're buying success and they're leaning into it. But source me and the things, you know, the things he was rules nails before you just can't. It was a bridge too far. They dipped their toe in the water. The water, the water was a little too hot and they said, okay, well, well, well, now we might come back to the water later. We might figure out another reason to get in the water. But right now, maybe that one's a little too warm. Brandon, they didn't just dip their toe in the water. They stuck their whole foot in there. They put a 20 minute video out expecting all of us to say, oh, you know what? That actually explained it because nothing changes the internet's mind. Yeah. Like a 20 minute video explaining why they shouldn't be hated for being hated for a good reason. But to me, and I was telling Lukey this earlier because we were talking about Texas and we were talking about archmaning. It was my friends who graduated from Texas and my friends who graduated from A&M. And like, we were the bloods and the crypts meme about hating Texas tech this throughout this whole saga because you had all the Texas tech fans flying out of the woodworks. Oh, typical Aggie, typical long where it's like, hold on, you guys, you guys, but in this day and age for, because Joey McGuire, I like and you, you know, you've said he's a great guy. I didn't even put any blame on him. It was like Cody Campbell was the guy that was controlling all of it. But now people are going to be paying attention to Texas tech solely because of that drama, even though Brennan's not there anymore. Yeah. And there's the thing. I said this is the beginning. I didn't think Brennan source was good enough for all that drama. They were acting like he was the second coming of Tom Brady. He was solid. But I wouldn't, I wouldn't have ranked him inside my top 15 quarterbacks this year. I didn't think he was that all that good when he played. It's Cincinnati. He was fine. But like, I just thought the drama was a little bit too much for a player quarterback of that caliber. And all of this being said, Texas tech is still the most talented team in that conference. They're still sitting on top of that conference. Now Oklahoma State will be better. Kansas State will be better. There will be, you know, you tall, you know, there'd be all these teams. I'm just going to be a obvious team. What in the big 12? BYU. Yeah. They'll be very good. But the thing is, it's like Texas tech. And we talked very highly about what they're doing. Tech's still the best. But yeah. And they, and there was good reason to even say, you know, they could, they actually win the national title. And if you get stuck in the middle of a drama saga, like they did, people are going to be hating you. And I love, by the way, love that. Like that's why college football should be. So I love in this era, you can have new winners, like Indiana. And you can have new villains like Texas tech. Because a few years ago, I don't feel like people outside of the state of Texas would have even said that. All right. My last one. And this is a question for, for, for you and everybody. Here's America ready to handle a good Mississippi state team. You know, we went five and seven last year. If you remember Casey, shut the fuck up. If you remember, well, here we go. Lost the Tennessee and over time. Should have won that one. Lost the Texas and over time. Should have won that. Do you remember where you were for that? I was always more of a senior guy myself. Lost, lost, lost a Florida 2321 had the ball, driving to Winley. Like lost out. Could have won eight games last year easily. But Camario Taylor. Yeah, no, that seems like the fucking truth. He's the man. We're just I'm asking you guys have had fun with Brandon Walker, the college football expert, when his team won any good. Well, guess what's about to happen? It's about to flip. Can I tell you a secret little insight? Well, I understand that you there are mics here. So well, no, I know that they're all we'll wait till the whole matter. In a little insight into to if your team is good. Yeah, they don't like it. Yeah, they don't like it because listen. Now my team be good or my team look good because of an easy schedule. Let's not. Hey, this is supposed to be nice. Okay. Now it's supposed to be this is supposed to be nice. But let me tell you now again, I understand I'm different than you. But I will say that if your team is good and you talk about it, they don't like it. Let me do a quick. Just I had a bunch of takes. I just want to throw them out real quick. Go for it. A&M is very interesting this year because they were scheduled heavy last year. But they were always going to be better this year anyway. So they're interesting. Alabama is very interesting to me and the fact that Caleb DeBora could be gone by October. I think he right now I don't know how many SEC coaches are on the hot seat, but he will be there very, very quickly if they if they stumble on the gate like they did last year. I got one really quick. Let's see. Michigan has an actual actual real coach, a real coach with real integrity on the sidelines. They haven't had real integrity in a decade. And we talked about Kyle Wittingham for years being at the top of the coaching list. I mean, he he's not winning a national title, but he's been there. That's a good guy. And there's a team. There are teams out there that I'm just stirring. You know, I do my annual. This is my win my win total team. I give it a clamp. It hits every year. I'm circling teams like Kentucky's very interesting. Boy, they do a lot of transfer portal. Lake Forest is interesting. I got some interesting teams percolating under the radar here that I've got a really deep diving study. But I know previews will come later, not in this episode. And announcement coming Penn State, good with Matt Campbell, bad with Matt Campbell. So Rocco Beck, Matt Campbell and the dirtiest secret about them is well, they got a lot of dirty secrets. Well, it's been possible in the big, the big 10 to not be very good and get scheduled your way to a great season. They are the candidate this year. That schedule is they don't play Oregon. They don't play Ohio State. They don't play Indiana. That schedule is remarkably winnable. And they're bringing in pretty much all of Iowa State's team, Iowa State's team from last year. They're not going to be scared of shit. They're not going to walk into this league. Like look what I'm looking at. So they open with Marshall Buffalo Pins temple. They are Penn State. They played Northwestern at Michigan, at Washington. Now those two are tough. I'm not saying those two aren't tough, but Rutgers at home, USC at home, Wisconsin at home temple. Like what a manageable schedule that is at Maryland, Minnesota at home, Purdue at home. Jesus Christ. I will, you know, you talk about the long, longstanding beefs. What are you laughing at? This is terrible. Yeah. Yeah. It's not good. It's not good. This is the schedule in the end of hand two years ago. By the way, right before we were, we walked in and record this. We were talking about how Notre Dame schedules like the easiest it's ever been. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. I long staining beefs on this podcast, which we've had. You and I have gone through some considerable arguments over the years. Penn State is definitely at the top of that with Andrew Aller. I have no animosity towards Penn State anymore and I have no animosity towards James Franklin. I don't know what it was. It was like the toxic couple that was together that I just hated and then I didn't want to succeed. And now I'm like, I don't care if Penn State wins. I don't care if James Franklin is successful. I just didn't want him to do it together. I don't mean this word as a negative, but Penn State feels like nothing right now. Yes. They feel like kind of apathetic. Yeah. It's just they're just kind of there until we see them. They're just kind of there. I don't know what to think of them. They were a hot topic for many years. Yeah. Not just with us, just in general, speaking of a hot topic on this podcast. Sure. Hi, Roughnecks. We'll be right back after this word from our sponsor. Been lucky. You should be. Meet the new lucky one sweet tea from Miss Peaches. The vodka drink that's positively doing good, made with real tea and real vodka, non-carbonated, the 100 calories. And here's the scoop. Their new sweet tea is the only Vodka-based sweet tea on the market, simple ingredients in a smooth full flavor that makes it taste just like the real sweet tea. Best part. Every can helps rescue dogs find their forever homes as they work to a goal of donating $1 million to dog rescues in 2026. So if you love true sweet tea, this one's a no-brainer. Pick up a lucky one sweet tea today and give back one can at a time. All right. So let's uh let's uh we have done this the entirety of the podcast announcing coming later. Uh announcement. Um let's just announcement for the announcement. We have 111 questions here. We're not going to read them all. No, no, but we'll go through and just answer the fans and the people. You know I think when we really started doing this was probably COVID. Yeah. Because we were really really stuck at home. And it became a staple. I was actually talking to one of my friends earlier this week announcement coming soon. And the first thing that he said was I'm going to really miss the tweet us your questions. Wow. announcement coming soon. Wow. What friend was that? A friend that you know. That asshole. Never liked him. He's an asshole. Which one? I don't know. I feel like any of my friends you could say that including yourself. Yeah. Can I start with one? Say what? I want to start with one uh from our very own Liam Blutman. Please. Liam Blutman. Number one thing on your college football bucket list you haven't done yet. Outside of you and me watching our team for an national title. Yeah well that's that's just well I'll just I'll just start with the easy one. Okay. It's one that you've always uh been mad at me for and one that you guys you just all get all over me for. Oh god. I like to go to a Rose Bowl. I I famously shit on the Rose Bowl. I famously I famously shit on this this this farce. It is the grand daddy of them all. It's beautiful. And the fact that when progress was happening in college football the Rose Bowl refuses to change this time or refuse to change it whatever and stood in the way forever like get over yourselves. And you say yeah but the sunset. Yeah but the this. Yeah but the that. All right. Put me on the sidelines. Let me take it all in. I certainly that's certainly as far as somebody who's racked up a lot of college football experiences. That is one that is missing from my from my uh you know my my whatever your your bucket list. Yeah yeah um I don't I'm not going to shit on you for that because I do feel like it's one of those takes so So again, we all have. that you, that you really hold on to because you've made it your take, do you know the Rose Bowl's beautiful? I have been there for USC UCLA game. It was beautiful. I've never been to an actual Rose Bowl game, but I've been saying this for a long time. I want to go to an organ football game in Watson really badly. We have traveled all over the country. We've done games everywhere. When I was at ESPN, signlines, I've never been organ and I want to go so bad. Yeah, I've been there either. And I would, I'd be even be okay just to go as a fan. Obviously, it would be great to go with big noon and with the cultural show and all that, but just that is one that every time I see it on TV and it's really rocking. I'm like, God, that would be fun. All right. Let me find one here. Let's just three, Justin Birch, Justin Birch 31, the three most anticipated games going to the season. Well, listen, taking off our fan hat. You won't say a name. I won't say a Mississippi state. Obviously, LSU Ole Miss is way, way, way, way, way, way up there. I think it has to be number one. LSU Ole Miss being number one is, yes, it's the chalk answer. Yeah, but just all the drama. It's got everything, right? It's got like the war feeling of it, like the safety aspect, which I'm not saying anybody should do anything crazy, but like you talk about safety, that's the one you should be worried about. Yeah. What other games? Well, I'm going through my mind. I'm just trying to think in the SEC, well, obviously Ohio State and Texas rematch. That's a huge one. Ohio State and Texas rematch. That's at the tone for the entire season last year. Texas was fighting from behind. There's a lot of to talk with if they didn't, if they didn't schedule that game, they would have went to the playoff, they would have gone not 10 and 2 instead of 9 and 3. And now Ohio State has to return the favor, and they have to go in and Texas feels like the team that's a little bit, oh, Ohio State's loaded to. There's no real real. But it was also so hyped last year and didn't deliver. I know you mentioned this game earlier and it goes along with the same thing with Lane, but LSU Clemson has to be up there too, because I realized Clemson hasn't been who they were after the college football landscape has changed and Davo hasn't wanted to evolve, but Davo is still up there. Davo is always going to be one of the best coaches in college football until he decides to retire because of what he was able to do, but that sets the tone for the college football season too. So, and I'll add my third one, and if you have another third one, that's fine. But I think it's Miami Notre Dame, first week of November. Low key and we didn't think at the time we just saw it was a good game. Maybe the most important game of the college football season last year, because Miami beating Notre Dame is what separated them in the when the committee sat down for the playoff. Miami ends up going almost all the way to win a national title. We find out later in the season that Miami is have turned into what we thought they they could be all along. Miami plays for a national title. Notre Dame does not now. Notre Dame is going to be the one at home. Notre Dame is going to be the one. I think they're going to go 12 and 0 if they win this game. And Miami is the heavy favorite in the ACC. These are two playoff teams. Two teams with national title aspers. Two teams that I would say I would rank both in top five of national title hopefuls. I am going to do a little bit of a cheater answer. Yeah, I've done that this whole podcast. So I'm going to keep doing it because of the college football playoff. And I don't think it should go to 16. That's a conversation for another day announcement coming. I love that the college football playoff now gives us games that we can't even fathom are going to matter. Yeah. Late in October and November because that is so much fun. We're in the past. We know what games matter going into the and it's usually a very small amount. Now you have no idea. So looking forward, it's like I love the idea that sitting here on July 14th. I have no idea what games are going to truly matter in November. That rocks. Comrade Barner says I assume that's an Auburn fan. Orange and blue 34. What team will be like Penn State and Clemson from last season? A team with championship aspirations, but quickly crash and burn. Oh, that one's tough. What do you think about Ohio State? Is that is that my brain? I just don't think they can lose more than two games. I know I know what you're saying. And I do think you know, at Indiana and at Texas is a lot to ask, but even so, I still think they're going 10 and 2. I mean, I find it impossible to answer this question without sounding like a giant hater, but you're okay. You're allowed to be. I mean, let's just be on let's lay facts out here. The recipe for Ole Miss to start out top 15 and fall down pretty quickly is there. They open with a very dangerous game against Louisville in Nashville, which Nashville sneaky close to Louisville. Louisville's a lot better team than they appear to be. And then in week three, they play they play LSU at home. And Lane knows everything about them. Everything. Lane knows everything about them. And I'm not saying I think it's going to happen. I'm predicting it happen. I'll figure that out later whether I predicted to happen. But with a first time head coach, and you can say, yeah, one, two playoff games, he beat two Lane, and then he had one incredible win against Georgia. So give him the credit for the Georgia one. I'm not getting credit for beating two Lane and playoff. I could have you could have been the coach and done that. But anyway, week one is a tricky game. Week three is a circle of three times on the calendar biggest game ever. If they lose either one of those or both, it's going to get tough real quick in Oxford. I don't know. I'm going to figure out later if I'm going to predict it to happen. But the recipe is there. Alabama. The recipe is there. They started poorly last year. They weren't physical. If they start out one in one or two and two or something like that, the fire to board is going to get very loud, very fast. Oklahoma. The offense just didn't come along far enough last year. The schedule kind of helps them get to the playoff. When they got to the playoff, they blew a 17, nothing lead. The defense will be great. But that hasn't been the problem for Oklahoma. So I think there's three right there, two, two that we've mentioned and we've talked about a lot on this very podcast. I don't think it's going to happen. But if you're talking about the recipe for disaster quick, you can also throw in LSU. Yeah. If they lose the whole message, yeah. If they lose week one, but then also with Texas. And I don't think it's going to happen with Texas, but those wheels can fall off pretty quickly too. If they lose at home, get into Ohio State. The season starts to look a little long. So when you when like when we we put on our predictions announcement coming and everybody in the country does, you know, last year, I think like wasn't it tailored one was the like the only person who had somebody left of all like the national college football personalities. Like I could easily see that happening again this year. Last year was just a crazy year when the people don't want to shit on us for, oh, you like Kate Clubnet, you like Drew Aller, you like Lenora Sellers, you like DJ, like, yeah, they were the ones, they were the ones to like last year. Like they were the ones coming in that had the recipe and the the the the I test and everything. It's just like so many teams just stepped on fucking rakes all year long. Like Penn State, even if you thought they're not going to be as good as nobody saw that shit coming, nobody saw a complete collapse, nobody saw a complete collapse coming from blims and when they look like they were up. So in this era where where parity is more alive than it's ever been, there will be more championship contenders fall apart than team that than than we're used to. I mean Oregon could be in there too. Like you talk about the teams that most people that cover college football are going to pick or fans one of those has to fall off the face of the earth. We know that. Who's turn is it? I think it's mine. I have one for you because this has been a recurring recurring recurring, whatever. Re, what a recurring? Re, current, current, current, current, current, uh, Stewie. Now his at is Clemson. So I have a feeling that he is a Clemson fan. Well judged. Well judged. This is a question for you. You see why Fox News is investing so much in that later. Sure. Uh, bigger Colt brand and Walker. I'm adding at brand one because I would like you to answer this. Uh, Texas A&M or Clemson. Now he added some some, uh, some commentary. I'm not going to read it. So the bigger cult is A&M because they have the indoctrination. They have the, they've been a cult for a long, long time. I believe Clemson is just a cult of dabbo and it's a cult that has been shedding followers for a while now. But for, for years, like, I remember one off season dabbo had a video where he was dancing at the ladies clinic and I said, look at this shit. He's doing a gritty. Uh, this is embarrassing and Clemson fans were like, you just, you, you're just mad at your coaches and a man of Christ who's comfortable dancing in front of what the fuck are you talking about? And like, like, they were a true cult of dabbo. I think that is kind of that's easing up over the years. You guys are just in. I think the measure, the true measure of a cult is to look somebody in the eye and say, are you on a cult and they say, yes, and they're completely comfortable with it. And that's you guys. I'm 100% comfortable with it. Right. Right. Yeah. The rings, the grabbing, the nuts, the, well, that's, we, we dispel that. We dispel that. Who dispel that? Uh, on the college football show. I don't remember dispelling. You said that they, that A&M fans grab each other's nuts. And I said, uh, all contrary, the video, they're grabbing their own nuts. Let me hit a couple. Uh, uh, at Pope Gambler, whose, uh, whose name is Oak State. I'm assuming that's Oklahoma State fan. Okay. Expectations of Oklahoma State this year. I don't know that I've got, I don't know what the expectations are. I just know I would like to welcome Oklahoma State back to big time college football. I've been kind of depressed the last. They were such a dependable program for so long under Gandhi. I like that you could count on them. I like that you could, I mean, they were going to win nine, 10 games every year. And then occasionally, they win 11 and be playing for the big 12 championship. And I thought that was amazing. They were so dependable for so long. And for whatever reason, Mike Gandhi had just ended, and it ended very poorly. And they were just so awful. But now with the new hire, the new quarterback, Mastermaker, he's going to be put up huge numbers. I think they're going to be a nine or 10 win team again. And I would like to welcome them back to college football. Well, and remember, we talked about when Texas and Oklahoma left to go to the SEC that it was prime picking for Oklahoma State to take over that conference and be like, this is ours now. And just fell on its face. That was sad to see. And then Texas Tech stood up and said it's going to be ours, actually. Yeah. Real quick. I want to hit Dillf gang 91. Shout out the Dillf gang, which total is higher in the last 10 years. Georgia football teams, car incidents or University of Michigan scandals, just within their football program. I think it's closest. I think it's like 24, 23. Yeah, no, I think it's like going to overtime. It's going to the buzzer. Yeah, it might be going to extra time. - This one's tight. - Penalty kick spreads. - And it. it's still going like we're in the, we're in the, if we were in the final quarter, they're still putting up shots. Oh, there was news that hit Twitter today. The Jim Harby, listen, I'm just running plays at the buzzer. Um, um, Sawyer for Heisman at Bears natty 75. How many games is Mike Norville last at Florida State? There's a, there's several coaches. I never understand when your coach gets so firmly on the hot seat. Why you always stick it out that one extra year? No, nobody believes he can, he can turn this thing around at Florida State, right? Nobody. Nobody, but you also had to look at what was maybe out there. Is the grass greener right away? Everybody was out like everybody's coach's last year. You don't think Florida State could have gotten in line in front of somebody. And what better, I'm not saying they could have got Lane Kevin, but could they have gotten, you know, the Will Stein and Kentucky coach or, you know, they held on too long though. They held on too. I just, I just, by the way, there's, they, there's, they might be the weirdest program in the country. They have that 13 and 0 debacle a couple of years ago when they deserve probably to go to play off, but you couldn't put them in the playoff because they weren't good enough at the time without Jordan Travis. And then immediately just falls apart. And then they beat Alabama, start the year and they're back and they stuck again. Yeah, no, the, when you look at the last few years of college football, that was the easiest team in my opinion to defend that they got left out. I would have been furious in my Florida State fan. Then they spent all summer crying about how unfair it was and they wanted to go to Congress and all that. And then they just sucked ass and it was like, okay, why don't care to defend you anymore? Sure, sure. Give me one. Okay. This is just a projecting one. Ban Hammer at Texas JBQ 85, which coach will have the most cringed press conference this season. That's a great fucking question. It's a great question. Holy shit. Because we don't have Brian Cal anymore, which we, we could always count on him to say something stupid. I mean, I could see Lane saying some stupid after the LSU. Oh, into a house. Why couldn't you see Lane saying some stupid after the LSU Ole Miss game? Like if they win or if they lose, especially if they lose, he's like, yeah, I want a big deal. I just see Lane doing it. The press conference going into the Ole Miss game could probably be pretty cringed, but I also, but here's the thing, Lane for all of his faults, like I don't normally find those things cringed. They're, they're headline leaning, but cringed to me is like when Brian Kelly tried to try a Southern accent. Can I throw, can I, can I throw a coach at you that could do some be cringed that is off the radar? Yeah. Matt Campbell has been at Ohio, at Iowa State forever, and he had very good success there. And Iowa State's not used to having success. And he was able to, you know, nobody was more respected at their job than Iowa State fans respected him. They would have never said anything. Now is it Penn State a place that winning's not enough? Winning is not enough. Winning, you have to win and be impressive. And like the show that you can beat Michigan Ohio State over here winning the national. I can see at some point, Matt Campbell looking around and saying, these mother fuckers here are crazy. And maybe not saying it out loud, but saying something to the effect of, guys, relax. And then Penn State takes it the wrong way. I can see some sort of cringes coming out of it. And of course, let's not rule out Davo as long as Davo exists. But, but the difference is is that people at Clemson love it. I will say with Iowa State outside of Iowa and maybe a couple of other teams. Like Iowa State, you don't just hate, like you're not a hated program. If your Iowa State, unless you're a direct rival, Penn State's different. People hate Penn State. So if he starts talking a little crazy, it could be a little cringe. Just remember when you say that Davo might not be cringed. Remember the press conference of, yeah, we built our program on NIO on God's name, image and likeness. Yeah, yeah, yeah, at Pessie Cry, I don't know what Pessie is. It's Pessie. Pessie? It's a Pessie with a P? Pessie with a P. Yeah. I don't know. Whatever. CR7 goat. Okay. So he's apparently a Ronaldo, Ronaldo fan. But Pessie. I don't know how Pessie Cry is. Anyway, well, underwood, Bryce Underwood go down as one of the biggest bus flops of all time. If he continues to not play well, well, he's going to be coach, actually coach now. But if he doesn't take a step forward from the absolute trash, he was last year. Yes. He would. I don't know if he would go ahead and talk it up this year. I think you would give him at least one more year to be coached by an actual coaching staff and not whatever the fuck that was last year. But like, if he doesn't reach, if he doesn't improve this year, yes, you can start to talk bust. Yeah. I don't know if I would say biggest bust ever, but anytime you have a quarterback that's committed to somewhere else, and then you talk about all the money that was being thrown and everybody at Michigan bragging and LSU crying, yes, you could say that. But I do believe that Kyle woulding him with Bryce Underwood is going to be much better this year. Untrap 14. Who's gotten more to prove this season? Julian Sain or more? Dante Moore? Couldn't remember. I was like, are you making this question up? No, no, no. In my mind, I had every more that's ever played Kyle's football. Spare Elijah Moore? Yeah. It was Julian Sain or Moore. And I'm like, what? Just say a more. Elijah Moore. So Dante Moore or Julian Sain? I would say. That's easy. Dante Moore. I think it's Dante Moore. The thing is is, and we're in our barsel bubble, Julian Sain is always brought up because of the Ohio State and Dave and all of that, but I definitely think it's Dante Moore for everything I said at the beginning of the podcast, like you, you bring back a quarterback that could very easily have been not only a first round draft pick, potentially the first pick in the draft. And you put him with a guy like Dan Laning and all the games they won in the big 10, of course, he has more pressure. I must think this one to you at Justin Kip one, what is your perfect name? A non-home tailgate. It can't be your school, but what's the perfect location, time, food, drinks, music, games, chairs, turf versus pavement, amount of people. So obviously, it's on grass. It's obviously the growth. No, it's not. That's not tailgate. I'm joking. I'm joking. I had to throw it in. You see, there's a new big game boomer out there ranking everything and he had Ole Miss is number one tailgating. That's just somebody's never been there because that's not tailgating. What's his name? I don't know. It's a new guy doing this. I thought he was actually a big name boomer junior. It's a new guy doing the graphics list. And my theory is, it's big game boomer again. Oh, he's reincarnated himself. But we'll say, location, time, food, I think it's late after no tailgating. I think it's, what is it? I think late afternoon going over to the 6 p.m. kick. So this is where maybe my age is showing a little bit? You like the morning? I don't. Not super early. Especially in the South, I'm not trying to get to an 8 a.m. Or something depressing about breakfast foods at the tailgate. Yes. Like the idea of a solid, like you're going to a 330 Eastern kick, 230. So you get there, like late brunch time, so you just maybe start with a bloody Mary. Like 11? I'm a mosa. And you have lunchy foods. But the reason is because you don't have to wait all day because when you have a tailgate that's like later in the afternoon, that's really starting for a night kick, it's a long time at tailgate. Location, time, food, drinks, music, games, chairs, amount of people, amount of people less than 10. You don't want a lot of people. You don't want more people than places to sit. I think 6 to 10 is the right amount of a really small also you need, you need, you need a TV. I'm not coming to your tailgate that's if it now your, if your tailgate is in the morning before game start, I can maybe hear it out. No, you still need the TV. You still do. You need to see a big new kick off, big new kick off and all that. Yes. But I can hear it out a little bit more. Yeah. Like you know, when we used to do the college football show, like late into the day and the TV's on the bus would stop working and like our whole lives would be ruined. Yeah. Like you can't have that. And as far as music, you just have to fit the vibe. The one thing I don't like about going to tailgates when you try to force a vibe, you can't force it. Okay. You gotta, you gotta roll with, if it's country, that's the vibe we're rolling with country. Hi roughnecks will be right back after this word from our sponsor. On game day, get sub stacked high at Jersey mics, like the number 13 original Italian loaded with meats, cheese and toppings or the number 56 big cajuna cheese steak with grilled steak, peppers, onions and mushrooms topped with jalapenos and melty cheese. Get your sub fix on game day and order in store or the Jersey mics app and now back to the episode. Hmm. What? Go ahead. Oh, you want me to read more? I threw this on my mouth. Oh, yeah. You said one from each page. But actually, there was one that I wanted. It's a building one. Hold on. Hold on. Well, now I'm just, all right, without using any of your favorite teams as Derek Datinga. If you could relocate a stadium to a different university, who's would you take and where would you put it? Ooh. Why not grab Austin and put it on the east coast? If we're just, if we're just doing this, Austin on the east coast, Austin's a good looking stadium. And now it's small, isn't it? It's 60,000. Small. But I think that's, maybe 65 percent. Now, hear me out. Yeah. This is going against what I've always said. If you move the Rose Bowl stadium anywhere else, it ain't the Rose Bowl. Because you need the Sunset. Because you need Pasadena. You need the Sunset. You need what's around it. The stadium itself is kind of garbage. If I could take, so this is also, this is a good question. If you, so we can't do anything biased, right? I think this is not biased because it's saying something nice. If you took Memorial Stadium, Texas Stadium, and you put it somewhere outside of Austin, it would be awesome. The problem is it's in the middle of a gigantic city. So I was going to say, take a, take a stadium from a, from a, like, Jordan Hare Stadium, Auburn. Auburn has got an incredible stadium. They've been down. Texas needs a better stadium. Yeah. If you could get, like, if you could take a better stadium from a, from a team that ain't using it right now, like Auburn. But see, their, their stadium is fine. - Yes, it is. It's their crowd. - It's got that big uterus. - Well, that's the logo. - Does that need to be in the stadium? - The logo? - That big thing. - I compared, we're talking world cup, I compared Texas to England because they drink tea, they do that, but it's a very cheese and wine cracker crowd. There's 100,000 plus people in that stadium. It should be much louder, but I do believe that if you have a major college football stadium in an actual city, it takes away the lure. - Real quick on our chance or quick in the Brett Spellman, could Illinois football ever be a respected football program? I don't know if you're an anti-illinois guy, if you are an Illinois guy being sad, they're a respected football program right now. I think Brett Belema has instilled respect in that football program. Charles Shocky says, this is a good one. Pay attention here. - I'll pay you an attention. - Who's more likely to win the next natty in the SEC? Kiffin, DeBore, Kirby, Sark, Finnebles, or Elko? - No bias. - No bias. - I really want to be biased. - You'd be biased then. - I mean. - I think the answer is probably Kirby, because I think George is a title contender this year. He's proven he can do it. Kiffin hasn't proven he can do it, although I think he will win one over the next five years. - Sark is up there because of who he has on their roster. - DeBore will never win one at Alabama. - Finnebles will never win one at Oklahoma. - Finnebles will never win one. - I'm buying in. Listen, I buy in every year, announcement coming. I'm not gonna stop buying in. - Yeah. - I love what Mike Elko is building. I don't think they're gonna win in a national title this year, but I also don't think they're not. - Let me adjust the question. Kirby's already won two, take him out. - Kirby's the easy answer for that, bud. - Who's the coach in the SEC that hasn't won one that will win one first? Kiffin, DeBore, Sark. I'll leave Elko and Finnebles out, 'cause Elko's your guy and Finnebles, I don't think he can get there. Kiffin, Sark, DeBore. You had to put your money on one to win the next national title, which one you take him? - Lane Kiffin. - Lane Kiffin. And that goes against everything I said earlier, where I don't think they can win right away. And Texas is obviously gonna be up there in the conversation to win a national title this year. I don't think Sark can win a national title. And this clip may come back to bite me. I don't know. - Who's on Texas Diggs? Who's on early watch for Governor and a golf cart this season? OG listens will get the reference. - Kirby Smart, baby. - I don't know that I have one. - Governor and a golf cart? - Yeah. - Lane Kiffin. - No, but he's not gonna hold them back. - Oh, that's true. But I don't think, did we think that Kirby was actually holding, I mean, obviously that's what a Governor and a golf cart? - We thought he would sometimes come out with a talent advantage and be very kind of conservative and go into a shell against Alabama. - Sark. - That's not Lane Kiff. Sark's a good one. - Sark's a good one. - Yeah, no. - The reason I would say Lane is because he won't, now he won't hold them back like a Governor and a golf cart would, but he himself-- - That's right, I'm not getting the way. - Right, like he might not be the guy to do it. - Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I got a couple more. - Okay, all right, all right. - Yacht stats and clips at any stooly. Thoughts on if Anthony Kalandry is an upgrade or downgrade from Dylan Ryeola from Nebraska. I would say-- - Dylan Ryeola's pretty up there for a hype bust if he did. - I would say he's an upgrade. Dylan Ryeola just never quite. And now he's doing the thing where he's gonna set a year and try to get better at Oregon. I would say Kalandry has been around the block. He will be better in the system than Dylan Ryeola. K-Daw, Kicker Berry. Will the playoff expansion be like Brandon's waistline? Just keep expanding over the fine self-control that has alluded Brandon to rain it in and keep it where it's at. - Hey, full. - I hate you. I hate you and you're not invited to what's coming up in a minute. - Announcement incoming. Joe Kazmir, this one I was looking for. Kazmir 21, build your perfect program with Jersey's stadium head coach location. - This stadium is Tiger Stadium and LSU. - Yep, I agree with that one. Jersey's, I like USC's a lot. - Coach is a signati for right now for me. - Yeah, that's it. - What were the others? - Location. I just felt like the Brian Winn horse to me. - Sure, sure. - You know I love the SEC and you know I loved growing up in the South. - Sure. - I gotta have some cold weather football games. Now I don't want it to be always cold. So I want a location where it's-- - I like where you're at because I have the perfect look. I think I have a school that has the very perfect look. - I don't want it to be 90 degrees in November but I don't want it to be snowing in September. - And I think I have and I think you need to be in the eastern part of the United States. - Okay, hit me. - You don't need to be too far from the southeast where they really, so I think, forget about the school that's there right now, forget about what they may be, what they have been, what they-- - Okay. - I think the perfect location is Blacksburg, Virginia. - Ooh. - They're sitting right there far enough north where they can have some cold weather games. They're a little mountainy. They're all so far enough south where you're gonna have some warm games. They're close enough to-- I just, forget locate, forget cities, forget whatever-- - Try 'em out, the weather. - We're geographically. - The weather. - You know that you're gonna have that November game that starts at 230 with a bright sun and by five it's completely dark. I, nox will tend to see it's a good location too. - No, it still stays too hot there though. - You need a little bit cold. - I do because, I've said this over the years, never forget the hate, we'd always do hate week. We did hate week for a while. I think I got broken up with in like 2020 and we started hate week because I just needed to let it out. And I said that ended up going viral that I hated the swamp because of the boob sweat. I hate watching college football games and being so hot you feel like you're cooking and I don't even want one of those. So I do realize that it takes a lot of this out. I love when you wake up and you gotta put on a hoodie. - Crisp. - You gotta put on a crew neck. It's crisp and then you might get some pretty cold weather like at the end of the season, but you're starting the season off. Well, I'd rather be cold than hot. You can put more layers on. You can't be in a football stadium naked. That's a fact. - And you've tried. - I have tried. - DHZ, what would be your first three stadiums or games to go to if you wanted to experience the best of college football? - Like in general or this year. - Take it however you want to take it. - The best of college football. - I think you gotta go to Tiger Stadium and let's use the best stadium in the country. I know I beat that drum a lot. - At night, you gotta go at night 'cause those LSU fans do not show up if it's an LSU pick off as early. They show up eventually. - I think whether you want to choose. - Ohio State and Michigan or the Iron Bowl. - Not the Iron Bowl. - It's hatred. Ohio State Michigan is a pretty, if you want to experience college football at its best, even when one of the teams is not good, they're gonna show up. - Okay. And then maybe the Rose Bowl. - You know what, I gave you a little bit on the Rose Bowl earlier. You're trying to take too much. - I love it. - You're trying to take too much. - Well, I'm really trying to rub it in for you. Mark Bullard at Mark WB 1990. What's the most likely outcome for the final number of the college football playoff teams? - Please say it again. - What do you think the final number of the college football team number is gonna be? - 16. - You think it's gonna go to 16? - 16, how quick? - Soon, 16 makes sense. - Right now, 'cause we've got this biweek problem right now, right? - Yes. - Which last year the bi teams are just not winning right now in college football, they're playing the teams that have already played a game, they're losing. So I think put everyone on the level playing field, no buys, 16 teams. - My issue, and I said this when the news came out, that I'm fine with 16. I'm okay with that. It makes sense. We gotta fix the calendar first. We cannot be playing football at the college level in the February. 'Cause right now I'm pretty sure the national championship is what? Like January 27th, or something crazy? They've gotta have to fix that first. - Kirby time says, "Most degree LSU on Saturday nights "the best atmosphere. "What stadiums are your sneaky good favorites?" - Madison Wisconsin, I've said that a lot. - It's a very good one. - I love. - I think Auburn, Auburn's sneaky good. Which Auburn, when they're good, it's not even sneaky, but even when they're bad, it's still pretty damn good. I think we're sneaky good. - Oh, I love going to-- - When we're going, and we haven't been going in a while, it gets crazy. - I mean, I give you a ton of shit. And obviously, you and I have had some pretty big fall on the A&M Mississippi State Week. But even before, when I was working at ESPN, I loved going to Starkville. And people always said, "Oh, it's just Starkville." It's like, "I had great time every time I've been there." - I'm just gonna go, you tall? - Oh, you tall, yeah? - Yeah, you tall. - You know which one I wanna give another chance to, and I don't know if we ever will, Nebraska. Because when we went to Nebraska, the show itself was awesome. There were so many people, literally, as far as the eye could see-- - But they knew they weren't gonna win. - And it was hottest shit. Will Compton hyped up that intro as if it was Jesus himself walking to that stadium. It was a no burger, nothing burger? - Yeah, a no burger, yeah. - No, nothing burger. Listen, I need some more coffee, okay? So, do you have more? 'Cause I have one that-- - No, look, he printed this sheet off twice. - Okay, well, I have one that's a good, that's a good-- - Close it, close it up, then we'll make the announcement. - Okay, Teddy Carrera at Teddy West Side 65. I feel like Teddy's been a big listener 'cause I recognize his profile photo. What is your favorite moment or interaction of the show? You put dot, dot, dot, dot, so far, question mark. For example, when Katie Statz ate Styrofoam, real ball-nowers remember that night. - That was something-- - That was insightful. - That was insightful. She had Styrofoam. She was-- - She had some drinks. - I think North Carolina lost her Virginia at night. - I know she was wearing an A&M football shirt 'cause we had gone to the equipment, and we were at two brothers. - Yeah, we had a good time. - And then we were in a conference room in the hotel we were staying at, and we looked over-- - The Latenta. - And she was just eating Styrofoam. - Yeah, she was up against it. - I actually, do you wanna do the-- I wanna answer this. I don't have a. real best memory because, I'm already there, it's gonna happen, it's gonna start crying right now. I would have to say the first time, so you did a live stream, I still have it saved, and it's in my favorite so I can find it easily. You did a live stream after Dave hired you, and somebody asked you on your live stream, who is the number one barstable person you want to meet? Who'd you say? You said me, which is very sweet. The first time that we actually sat down to record, I don't remember a lot of those shows. You told me we used to have Jack McCarthy do the show. I don't remember that at all. No offense to Jack McCarthy, TJ, and I were talking about how he was an intern clipping us in 2019. But I still remember when you and I sat down to do the first episode, and both of us kind of looked at each other like, so we're doing this, huh? And it was like the stepbrother me, I was like, do we just become best friends? No clue that we'd be sitting here, I would say arguably better looking all these years later. So my mind would be the standout memory to me is the first last year, the first time we sat down together on the set of big noon kickoff. And I looked, I looked across at you and you looked across at me and we were like, uh, look where we are. Look at look at this. So it goes to what I was just saying, it's like that, like you and I, you know, we've had our fights. We've had some bad ones. Yeah, but when it comes to like podcast like ships seven years, we've we've had a couple. Oh, yeah, no, it ended up in. They were never real personal fights. Like we had to we had to hug it out a few times, but they were not, but no, that moment there, I have a photo of us from that day. Yeah. And it was just like holy shit. Yeah, like, and I remember looking across at you and like right when they were coming in coming into my ear, uh, pause. And they were like, all right, case we're going to take a night. I looked right at you. And the first thing I was like, please don't swear on air, Brandon. Please don't. Like first thought, but no, we've come a long way. Wow. You want to read the ad and then we'll do it. Hey, Alabama. 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Well, here it is. If you're if you're if you're of age, power hour every time we say it. I don't know the best way to do it. I don't know if I should get back story. If I should go back over the last few months and the thought process and the fact that this announcement has been six or seven months in the making. I do. So this is one of those things like you know, we always we always talk about the haters online, right? But anytime you're a podcast, especially a podcast at a huge company like Marshall and you're very specific to something, people do like you become part of that experience, right? So with college football, I have met so many people over the years. It's like you are part of our college football family because we are very different than every other college football podcast out there. Still to this day, there are a lot more and a lot of them are close friends in real life. But you and I have always had something very different. One, and I know a lot of our listeners don't like this part, but I'm a woman. Okay. I am a woman. In fact, there is that. I also can sit and talk with you all day every day about anything. But I do think a little bit of a backstory might help because I think that we're very quick to say, okay, okay, let's move on. But a lot of people that are listening probably don't even realize what you're about to say because the internet's loud, but it can be a minor. So I think I'm going to say it and then fill in the backstory. Go for it. This and I don't know if you've picked up on it yet. Context clues, folks. This is the last unnecessary roughness. This is the last podcast with me and KC sitting here talking college football. Not the last show you'll ever see us talking college football alone because she is still on the college wall show. I'm still on the bar store college football show. We're still doing all that all that. This is the very last unnecessary roughness. I'll fill you in on what on why in a minute just to say that what I'm about to announce next is fully with the blessing of KC Smith. And it is something we've talked about for a long time. Not only I will say that it's not only a blessing and encouragement and encouragement. She is she has encouraged me to go out and do this. So starting August 3rd on this feed with this social media. It will just flip over very soon. Lukey behind me behind me, Lukey. Come on, Lukey. Lukey. Come on, Lukey. The brand and Walker college football show. I will be going solo. I will be doing a show by myself with Lukey as the producer. It will just be very similar Monday, Thursday, Saturday night recaps. I'll be doing a lot of conversations. It's something I have wanted to do for a while. Case I went to KC last December. And I said, listen, it's just time. I kind of want to we did it with the sling show a little a couple of years ago, but that was kind of a part of an ad deal. And it's something that I tried and I did it separately to this. And then it was awkward because I was doing that in this. But now the brand and Walker college football show. This show will become that. It will be just me going forward. And I'll be I'll interview people and we'll go forward from that. Now put the unnecessary reference logo back, please. Because for the next hour, so we'll still be here. I want to I want to make sure I'm clear. I did not I am not doing the brand and Walker college football show because I am tired of doing it with Casey Smith or I don't like Casey Smith or I was ready to get away from Casey Smith. I love Casey Smith. Casey Smith is the person that when I walked into this company, people could have looked. I was just I got hired on a whim. I got hired as a as a joke. I could have walked in this company. People turned their nose up at me. You want to do a college football show with me? She could have done that. She didn't. She welcomed me in. I walked in. She she she gave me a platform from day fucking one. Okay. And she didn't have to do that. And she did. And I think I took it and did pretty good. But I don't become brand and Walker without Casey Smith. Okay. So just relax lady. I get it. First of all, you know, you know notoriously do not tell people that you love them. I don't. And I didn't tell you I just said it to those people. Yeah. Well, I heard it. But but I there's a very I can count on one hand. The people who have done the most for me at barstral sports day. Port noise one day and cats is one Casey Smith is in that list of people. I don't do I don't become anything without her. So I did not get to the end of unnecessary reference last year and say I got to get away from Casey Smith. That's not what it was. I just I see I'm just gonna say it. I see the success of other guys out there that are doing so low stuff like paint like other guys. And I'm like, I kind of just want to take a bite at the apple. I want to fucking try it. I want to give it a shot. I want to go out there. And there's no secret. At some point, I want to move back to Mississippi. And I can't do it. If all of my success is tied to the yak and mostly sports, I can't. I got to have something that I can say Dave. This can go anywhere in the country. Let me take it to Mississippi. And that is what I'm doing here. And last year, we had me big F Casey T Bob. That was my solution last year was to make it bigger. And bigger wasn't the answer last year. We, you know, we'll be shot at Liam. He forgot Liam. And Liam is sorry. Sorry. Well, Liam's kind of yeah, Liam, of course. And then. But like bigger wasn't the answer because we would get to Saturday night. And we would have an hour to talk or two hours to talk. And I would introduce it. And I say T Bob, what do you think? He talks for 10 minutes and you talk for 10 minutes and F talks for 10 minutes. And suddenly we're 40 minutes in. I have a talk. And I'm like, and I'm just sitting there and you can see my face. And it's not a shot at T Bob or you or F. But you can see my face. I'm desperately wanting to talk. And I just can't do it. And so I want to get back. I want to get to the solo side of things. But and another thing, there's going to be people on the internet. Oh, yeah, this is this is what happened because a big F. This decision was made in January. This was made a long time ago before me and you because this show ultimately was me and you from the start. T Bob is an incredible college football knowledge guy. He knows what he's talking about. He's very, very good. But he was I think he's ultimately like an alpha number one. And we were putting him into a spot of a number four. And that wasn't that wasn't fitting him. And and you know, and it was just we decided to go for me to go my separate ways. Can you see? I'll let you speak to your own self. But like there's no secret. It looks like opportunities finding you and in parts of in ways that you couldn't predict it. Well, and first of all, I do I want to say this. And I know I mentioned it before I started crying. And I will absolutely cry again because that's just who I am. But you know, you and I have had it's a relationship that's not just podcasting. It's a relationship that's not just co-workers. We've been through a lot of life together. A lot of personal stuff with your family. My family, whoever may be. But when you came to me and you said, this is what I want to do. The immediate reaction was like fly the nest and go because you are far too talented to a not love what you're doing, but be to not have that voice. And while it was a different feeling, last year didn't feel the same. Last year did not feel the same for me either. Part of that, and I think whether it's fair or not, you know, A&M being good and people hating that and hating me took a lot of the fun out of that for me. But I think one of the coolest things that you and I had was that we were together in New York and it was the two of us just yapping about sports and life took us in different directions. You moved to Chicago. I was pregnant with my son, you know, did not move to Chicago and all that. So it made the most sense. But when you brought this idea to me, it was the probably the first time in seven years that you said, Hey, we need to talk that I wasn't like, oh, fuck like here we go. Like, are you are you breaking up with me? Because even when that conversation happened, you know, I know that bar still is so different than it used to be. And we used to all be in the same office and we used to all be literally on top of each other. And now it's so different. And I am a host at this company. We know that I'm going to be hosting the college football show. I'm going to be spending a lot of time in Tampa, which on Gurdon this this football season. So my announcement that coming later. Yeah. So my crazy, crazy travel as it is and football season is going to get even crazier because I will be spending time with coach, which I can't, I can't wait for that. And yeah, I mean, it's no secret that I've been doing more on the Fox side of things since we've partnered with Fox, you know, people kind of forget that we did partner with Fox last year. But it's time, you know, I really think that and you and I agreed on this. If you can end it on your own terms, then that's what you should do because a lot of times it runs it into the dirt and we're not running in the dirt. No, and I don't, I just don't want anybody to think, Oh, Brandon's getting away from this or Casey's getting away from this. We just, you know, it's just time. I want to try this solo thing. And you should and I said that I'll just say it. I'm just I'm jealous of guys like Peyton who have done so well for themselves. And I think I'm better than him. And I'm better than other people. And that's an ego thing I got to deal with. But I can't, I can't deal with it unless I prove it, you know, stuff like that. Well, and then and kind of an inside baseball, inside bar still look. It's, you know, again, you and I did this together. And I don't buy any stretch to look at comeback season. It's like, this is my feed because I don't. It existed before, but it's always been us. We built this together. You have, I remember Brandon's still when you would text me and you would be like, can you tweet me so that I can get to 50,000 followers. And now you have far surpassed me on Twitter, X, whatever. Maybe I got you on Instagram. I'll keep getting you on Instagram. Yeah, I assume you will. But, but we built this together. And so when you came to me and said, you know, hey, I'm thinking about doing this. What do you think? It was just such an easy decision to be like, hey, listen, like this, this feed has been ours. There's no reason for me to hold on to it because what I'm going to be doing long term in my career is not going to be attached to this feed. I want you to have it. I want you to have the YouTube channel. I want you to have the socials because I not only think that you can do it. I believe in you to do it. And as somebody who's incredibly important to me, I want to see you succeed. And so I'm happy to do it. And let's go ahead. It's a good spot right now. First of all, thanks, Luke, you for the last year and everything. Liam and everybody, all of people we had last year, but, you know, this, this thing, Jack and Jack Mac and Katie, the two or three years we had them, the three years, Katie stats was as gigantic a part of this as anybody. Her backstory is still so funny. It's me. I mean, Katie, you know, Katie is not only so important to us as a podcast. I mean, she was in my baby shower. Like, you know, she's an incredibly important part to me. But she would leave the reason she is Katie stats is because she was doing stuff on a necessary roughness. She would leave stats on our desks in 2020 when people were barely there, but she would leave them on Dave's desk for the college football show. And when we used to fly every Friday to Dion's Ranch, which by the way, Linkback is crazy to do that to do the NFL show. Dave one day was like, hey, does anybody know who's leaving these stats on my desk? And I said, Katie, and from then on, she was Katie stats and she became such an important part of our podcast. Jack Mac, I mean, you look back to what he's become. He's an unbelievably big force in social media. And he started as like our third mic behind the computer. Yeah. And he's, he's a testament to hard work. He's made himself something big. And Katie stats is one of the hardest workers in the company. And by the way, if like life was crumbling down for either one of us, yeah, you know, you can call Katie stats. She's going to fix it. There's two of the best people and they are, I feel, and again, T-bob big F, like those are all, you can sit here all day long. They're all incredible people. But anyway, so that's what we're doing. The reiterations that we've had, that's the right word I'm looking for, right? Iterations. But I say reiterations. Yeah. I even said iteration to Lukey earlier. I had a speech now. Don't do that shit on Fox News. And well, what about on big noon? Am I going to do that? Whatever. Yeah, listen, I'll be there to correct you. And you would too, you would, you would yell over everybody. No, the, all the different chapters that we've had and the, and you know, you look back, remember Noah, how great he was and how we made him, we like forced him to have Michigan to pick a college football team because he never had one like all the people throughout the years who have really helped us. But you know, it really did just start as you coming to me and being like, Hey, can we talk about college football? It was like matter of fact, I've got this feed that Johnny Manziel is no longer going to use. And it started that and just what it's turned into. But I believe, I believe that what you're going to do is be massive. And everybody knows you want to go back to Mississippi. And that's the way it's going to be. And who knows, you know, people always love to say, Oh, you're in New York. Well, maybe I'm not, you know, you never know. You never know. So there it is. And if, you know, if there's any comments, Brandon's this case is that we are very good friends with this was nothing like we're getting away from each other. It was just a time for me to try something. I'm going to try it. And if I fail spectacularly, she's going to poke fun at me and she's going to do all that, but there we go. What I said was, is that if you do fail spectacularly, which I do not believe that you will, I will be here to talk shit to you, but right back on air. Yeah. But you know, even even just the way the parcel has changed, you know, it's just, it is, it's time. It's time things run their course. And that's, it's sad, but it's bittersweet. And we're both at peace. Like, I know that sounds so cheesy as my grandma would probably say something like that. But that's the best way that I can put it. This is the most at peace decision that we have. And it makes sense for both of us. And it's going to kind of be sad. There you go. That went back. We got through it. You know, I'm, I'm choking back to it. I'm a great actress. I'm a great actress. No, I do. I also want to shout out all the people who have listened. And this is where it's going to be, aged browning, uh, Texas digs, uh, I mean, we have so many so many. But over the years, we have, and also I thought about this randomly, remember when we had to cancel the trip to college station and how bad we felt because Dave wanted us to stream. Yeah. Like moments like that, but just people really stuck with us. And I will say, like all the assholes, and it's, yes, like I'm going to, I'm a main character. It's like, yeah, the assholes towards me, but there are plenty towards you and towards anybody else who's been on the podcast. But that's such a vocal minority. And I know as soon as this is announced, it's going to, but the majority of people who have supported us. And by the way, it's a massively successful podcast over the last seven years. It really is. And it's in a small, small little college football industry. But um, we have some of the best fans. Yeah. Like, you know, uh, oh, I brought this. Look at this. Where to go. I brought it to show show and tell where did I. Sure. Yeah. Where to go? I don't know. You had it. My, my dad shout out Ron Smith was wearing this the other day. If you're watching on YouTube, this is the original logo. Seven year old shirt. That is an old shirt. And I saw my dad wearing. I was like, I have to take that. I forgot that we had these. I'm not sure. Not wearing it. Well, see, here's the thing. I had to wearing them. Yeah. I had to because one of the biggest complaints on this podcast is how much I talk about it. I know I'm not going to stop fucking talking about you. I'm never going to stop talking about an M he's wearing Mississippi state for the same reason. But um, I wanted to say something to you, which is probably where I'm going to start crying a little bit. Um, I think that you are the most talented person in the college football landscape. And you and I have gone through a lot. But most importantly, I think that sometimes you forget that you're the most talented person in the college football landscape and that you get bogged down with the circuits that we work in. And I'm not saying that in a negative way because it's a great circus. And we're very lucky to work for it. But I want you to remember that and to remember that no matter where life takes me, life takes you wherever that may be, you're always going to have your number one fan in me. Well, there you go. And I love you. You know, I'm incapable of saying it like that. I know. I know. But you did say you love me earlier. But I am very lucky to have worked with you for as long as I have because while I was at barstool, yeah, first, um, you have become such a major part of this company. But I wouldn't be where I am. And I wouldn't, I don't believe that I would be hosting big noon or doing whatever these things if we hadn't had such a successful run together. So thank you. And, uh, and even for like, my mom loves her. My wife. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you're, listen, your wife, she's just saying, every time she's on the road with us, I'm like, how this guy? Yeah. This guy, no, and your sister has become one of my best friends. And you know, my, my family loves you. And I just, it is, it's, it's such a behind the scenes world that I think people forget. So it's easy to throw insults at people from behind the screen. We're, we're two people that, that do love each other even though he won't say it. So we don't have to go any further. No, he's gotten close enough to tears. You know how I feel. I don't know how you feel. Um, I'm proud of you starting August 3rd. The Brandon Walker College football show on this feed. It'll be Monday, August 3rd. It'll be a, uh, probably on six, seven p.m. Kind of deal. Are we still allowed to make an A&M Mississippi state bed every year on the college football show? You know what? You didn't have to bring that up. You didn't have to bring that up because that was one of, that was probably our biggest fight of all time. Yeah. No, I, I think that we had to get sat down by, I would say over seven years, we probably had four, four to five fights. So the, the fight that we're referencing now, which is because you had to drive back, which was 2020 had to drive back from Mississippi to New York because A&M not only beat you, covered the spread hate to bring up old shit. - 20, 27, 14 years old. - The fight was so bad that Dave and Gaz did not want the footage to be released. And then you and I would argue back and forth on text, release it, release it. And then we got over very quickly, like within a day. And then they put that fight in the Christmas video at the end and didn't tell anybody. So like the credits rolled and then all of a sudden it was that fight. But no, we always got over really quickly because at the end of the day, it's sports. It's sports people, it's not that serious. - All right, so there it is. That's unnecessary roughness. Thank you very much for watching, listening, being part of it. And- - I have an ugly cry face too. - Yeah, we're not going anywhere, Casey. - No, I know, but you know, it's like, whenever, whatever, it's over. Okay, it's like, what's the movies where the credits roll and someone's still talking? I feel like I could sit here for like days and days. So just go ahead and end it. I need a glass of wine. Off air, by the way. - Thank you for watching. That's unnecessary roughness.