A Look Back at the Best Hires of the Offseason + 1 on 1 with P.J. Fleck | The BFW Show 9.28.26

What's up Brandon Walker College football show fans, you can find every episode of the Brandon Walker College football show on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen, add free on Amazon music. On game day, gets sub stacked high at Jersey mics, like the number 13 original Italian loaded with meats, cheese and toppings or the number 56 big Kahuna 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. Being 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 to 100 calories. And here's a 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. Last 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, Brandon Walker, College Football Show live on a Monday as we recap what happened in week four and we look forward to what might happen in week five. We will have our games draft a little bit later, we'll have our voice mails. My top 25 is dropping. We've got a couple topics to hit off the top, then PJ Fleck will be at the end of the show. And if he does well on this show, if Liam Blutman does well, I will punch him in the nose and rub his blood on my face. So that is something to look forward to. You might see me at the end of the show with Liam Blutman's blood all over my face, thoughts Liam? Should I want to do terrible then? I don't want my blood on your face. Do you think the player from Minnesota didn't want his blood on PJ Fleck's face? No, I think he did. And remember, I don't want blood on my white shirt. I just, that happened after we wrapped on Saturday night, right? That was the late game. You never know when just a clip that you'll be talking about 10 years from now is going to happen. But whatever PJ Fleck's Minnesota career is from here on out in 10 years, we will be talking about it, remember the time PJ Fleck won at Washington and rubbed his, uh, players blood all over his face? And that wasn't the top five weirdest thing that day. No, no, no, no, Texas, Texas players were rubbing other body parts all over Tennessee. So we got, we got a lot of stuff on the show, got a lot to get to again, it is week four. How are you doing, Liam? Are you good? I'm doing really good. How are you doing? I care more about you than me. Well, thank you very much. Say hello to, uh, what's that? It's a brand walker house. What was that? Uh, hello to, uh, let's see, Colin Miller says, Sup Girl Car Brandon. I drive a four def 150 brother. I don't know. Oh, I know. That's not a girl car. That's a, that's a man car. That's a truck. That's a toolbox on it. It has tools in it. Huh? That's, that's what men drive. Men are, they're just, oh, all right. So chat, welcome, welcome, and, uh, good to see everybody and, uh, I'll be referencing you, chat, uh, throughout the night, uh, so we'll do that. Uh, first of all, a couple of suspensions to pass down in college. Well, not that you don't already know about it, uh, but USC linebacker, uh, Desmond Stevens was suspended one game for, uh, his hit and reaction, uh, against Dante Moore at Oregon the other night, where Dante Moore was sliding, uh, Stevens hit him high or hit him late, riding to the ground, concussion for Dante Moore will, uh, we'll find out later how long Dante Moore is out, and then Dylan Stewart from South Carolina, the very talented, but kind of, I don't know what the word is, trouble's not the word, but like he, he finds himself getting into this shit on the field a lot. And we'll talk about that in a minute. I want to go back to Desmond Stevens Liam, that hit was dirty. It wasn't right. You shouldn't do it. But if you're talking about the context of a football game, that hit unfortunately happens from time to time where a quarterback is sliding a player doesn't check up, bang, bang and the heat of the moment speed. It's a dirty hit. Now, if Desmond Stevens had stood up after that hit and put his hands on his head and said, oh my God, what have I done? Or if he had turned and looked at Dante Moore, uh, in the prone position and been like, oh, shit. And then, like, just showed concern, showed where Moore showed anything. I don't know if he's suspended today, the fact that he decided to throw a personal parade and walk around and champion himself like he had done something. That feels like what got suspended here, what are your thoughts? I completely agree. Like I could be an honest man, I am an honest man. The hit itself is dirty, but when you slow it down frame by frame and turn it into microcosms, of course, it's going to look as dirty as it is. And that is the vendetta and the agenda that many are trying to push, but like you said, the hit happens a lot. It happens too much, but that's the game. That's football. That's the sport that these guys all signed up to play. It's violent. It's gladiators going up against each other. It's a brute deal. This will happen eventually. It is the just the lack of remorse, the gloating, the show boating, the look what I did, I sent this man into a hospital, that's the issue. Well, there are ever a situation where we consider maybe sliding puts quarterbacks in a more prone position than they would be if they didn't slide. I did see a tweet about that. It's an interesting thought that more quarterbacks should kind of like just belly flop down. Die forward. Yeah. I mean, because you still leave open the opportunity and when you slide, you don't really have control. You can't really, you're not in a position of defense. If a guy hits you, your head's going right to the right to the ground and like, I don't know. Obviously sliding is safe as long as nobody ever hits you, but in the bang, bang nature of football, that might be a discussion for another day, but what's not a discussion for another day? Dylan Stewart, if you saw his highlights against Alabama the other night, it was basically getting it was, it was, it was getting dominated by blockers. It was ignoring his coaches, it was punching an Alabama player in the end zone. It was everything you don't want to see. Does this guy not know that he's not playing for his checks on Saturdays? He's playing for checks on Sundays. Like, there are scouts and people watching him. He has top five in the draft talent and he is giving them every reason to doubt he could be the pick. I don't know what happens to these guys. I don't know if it's the money they're getting in the NIL now, they feel a little bit more comfortable, but like every single time you step out on the field, if you're that caliber and quality of player, people are looking for reasons not to pick you. It's not like they're looking for reasons to pick you. They're looking for reasons not to pick you and he is and giving it to him. And I thought I was very struck by the fact that this suspension is indefinite. It is indefinite. Like, he could be back in a couple of weeks. I don't know. They might not bring him back. I don't know what he said to Shane Bimmer. I don't know how he's been acting in practice, but that is a significant suspension for a team that frankly is is absolutely going through it right now. Well, great news to the indefinite suspension. Did they mention it? Did they already do it? How many games do you think it is? Or should I say, how many games do you think it is? It's just one. They said indefinite this morning indefinitely suspended for one game and you know why? Shane Bimmer's butt is on that hot sea and he's going to need his best player to be able to play football and help him steal a gamer to the maybe keep his job safe. He was never going to be suspended for three, four games. It was never going to happen. That'll show him Shane. That'll show him, buddy. The SEC and South Carolina have announced a joint one game suspension of starage Dylan Stewart for throwing a punch in an Alabama player. Such action against his opponent. I'll tell you. It's just for the punk. Huh? Yeah. For the three punches. I guess I thought maybe South Carolina was suspended for the way he acted too, but no, I guess the SEC stepped in and made him suspend him. So, yeah, Shane, you're really, you're really killing it down there. I, in the race to be the first coach fired. It's Norville, Loxley, Bimmer. Is that is that our three horses right now from from everything I've heard. Loxley was supposed to happen yesterday or today in Maryland, come find the money to get done. Oh boy. That's. Man, oh man, these buyouts in, in, I, I, I, I, I'm like extremely confident that the AD and the president, Marilyn are both on board right to get this over with and they can't figure out the money somehow. I've heard it's an absolute mess in their athletics department and that this could be a bit of a Penn Stady search where they miss and miss and miss. It's a crazy world where, where we get locked into these situations we, we talked forever and ever. Should we pay the players? We're finally paying the players. And we're still giving coaches these contracts that it'll cost us $50 million to get out of. It's not even that much. - God bless the coaches, 10? Oh, that's it. - That's it. Come on, Van Pelt, get off a 10 right now. What are we doing? What's Van Pelt doing over there? Van Pelt's got money, it's falling out of his money. He said, "Told Stanford Steve to tell us to feed this." - Yeah, SVP's money's got money. What are we talking about? Speaking of money, and we're gonna get to exploring. So I have a coach hiring suite from the offseason. Here's a good chat. Brandon, what is your honest thoughts on the six and a half point line for Saturday's game? I have the gut feeling, six and a half is too big for the way Camario Taylor is dealing at the moment should be a lot closer. Now, I listen, the one thing about Alabama is I've gotten to this point many times in my life. 1999, we were 8 and 0, played Alabama got beat. 2014, 9 and 0, played Alabama got beat. 2012, 8 and 0, 7 and 0, played Alabama got beat. Like every single time Mississippi States had this moment against Alabama to prove we belong where it just hasn't happened. So I'm not gonna comment. I'm not gonna try to say anything in the world that would indicate I don't have a healthy fear of Alabama for this weekend. So there's that. Let me tell you about something about college football. Nobody in the sport knows how to do anything halfway, except to spend your star player when you're possibly gonna get fired soon. You're not gonna go to the game. You're gonna make a day of it. You've got the tailgate, the food, the gear, the traditions, somehow you're $300 deep before kick off. Then your buddy finally pays you back for the stuff you bought for everybody. Good, take that money. Take that money in your VINMO balance and spend it with the VINMO debit master card. Because in college football, there's always something else to buy. More food, more gear, more cowbells. Whatever your school considers a Saturday necessity. And with the VINMO debit card, you can spend your VINMO balance right away with no monthly fee or minimum balance. That's important because apparently nobody in college football has ever heard of a budget. Spend your balance instantly with the VINMO debit card. No monthly fee or minimum balance. Learn more at VINMO.com. Slash card. VINMO balance account required to use a balance and get the card effective November 1st, 2026. The VINMO master card is issued by the band court bank in a. All right, so in the off season, we had a bunch of coaches hired. And I have a couple of versions of this tweet rolling around, but the one we found or one Liam found from December 24th to December 30th, something like that. We've got to my definitive top 10 of the off season coaching hires. And I want to bring it up right now because we're four games in. We're a month in. We're a third of the way through the season for some of these new coaches. And I certainly think, guys, like John Somerall, we get an A+ Bob Chesney out there at UCLA A+. Lane Kiffin, you still think that's a great hire even though they do have the one loss on their record. I'm just trying to think Will Stein. Certainly early returns are very good at Kentucky. Early returns have gotten good for Oklahoma State. So bring up that, bring that up, Loki. I want to look at this tweet from December 30th, 2025. Top 10 coaching hires this year. So here we go. This is what I thought on December 30th, 2025. I lane Kiffin LSU number one. I had Kyle Wittingham, Michigan number two. James Franklin Virginia Tech three, Matt Campbell, Penn State four, Pat Fitzgerald, Michigan State five. John Somerall, Florida six, Bob Chesney, UCLA seven, Eric Morse, Oklahoma State eight, Charles Huff, Memphis nine, Brian Hartline, USF 10. So I would go, I definitely think, I'm still going to keep Lane Kiffin at number one, I think, because just over the next five years, I think he's going to win a national title and I don't really begrudge him losing that game at Ole Miss. But I am moving John Somerall and Bob Chesney up near the top of the list. I would take them as a pair and go up to number two and number three, I would move Kyle Wittingham down. I would move James Franklin down just a little bit. So I would go, probably Lane Kiffin one. I'd go Somerall two, Chesney three. I probably maybe keep James Franklin at four, although Will Stein is certainly somebody to talk about. Who am I missing here that wasn't on the list? I didn't have Goalish on the list, because I didn't believe he was good enough higher. I still don't. This isn't that crazy right now. Other than, you know, Matt Campbell with the disappointing loss the other day, and Fitzgerald really hasn't, you know, it takes longer to turn the corner of Michigan State than maybe at Florida. So thoughts Blutman. I'm looking at first year head coaches on my phone right now to recollect everything. Jim Marcus Shepard, Oregon State, I think a slam dunk higher. He's easily in the top 10, no brainer. He's closer to five than 10. Who else comes to mind? Jim Moore is the first year higher. Toshle Poy is definitely not on there. He completely botched what could have been a research and said, "Cal, Jason Candle, you con." Yeah, I just, what do you think about? I mean, some are all in Chesney, obviously have to come up through one month of the season. I would say early returns. They are judging the jobs they've done at this point. Those are probably one and two. And then Lane would follow behind them at three, but I still think long term Lane is the best hire of the off season. Jimmy Rogers. Jimmy, yeah, Jimmy Rogers. I don't know, that wasn't great the other day. I don't know. Really? I thought, I was state competed right there with Iowa, they were right there with Utah for the majority of the game. I think Iowa State is a sneaky solid team. They were down 14, nothing to Utah in six minutes. Yeah, and they lost what, 20, 14. There was 21, 14. There was 21, I'm losing. 31, 17. 30, 17. It was a seven point game in the fourth quarter. All I know is I had Iowa State plus eight and a half, so shut up. Oh, Colin Klein, Colin Klein, yeah, Colin Klein. I don't know, that was a super disappointing loss on Saturday. That was, what, seven point game with four minutes left? All right, all right. What do you want me to say? I had eight and a half. They lost by more than eight and a half. That's all that really matters to me. So I don't think we can monitor this throughout the entire season, but certainly some role in Chesney have been among the most important so far. And Will Stein, and Eric Morris. Frankly, Eric Morris has turned the corner to where his standing as a first-year coach is way ahead of what it was certainly after week one. Thoughts Liam. Eric Morris is killing it. I said on the last show, I think, Oklahoma State has the best chance of any big 12 team to win a play-off game. Bob Chesney, John Sumerar, the easy one to link him, and I guess you slide in that three, I agree with you there. I can't wait to win more games. And John Sumerar was going to continue to do the same. Everything he says is a great quote. He is a phenomenal quote. Can I just throw a theory out? It is not a prediction. It's a question. What if Ole Miss isn't that good? Now, the question is, isn't, is Florida good or not? The question is, Ole Miss had this huge emotional win over LSU. They came back the next week, gave it 52 to Florida. Florida has to go to Missouri this Saturday. Is there a world where the same emotional hangover, maybe not to the level of Ole Miss LSU because of who the coach was. But Florida did just win their biggest game in a long, long, long, long, long time at home. Now they have to go on the road. I get to Missouri team who's pissed off and probably thought they let one get away on the road and start for the other night. Is there a world where Florida goes on the road and finds a tough out in Missouri? I mean, like sure that world exists, but I don't think that's going to happen. Like John Sumerar was the top five coach in this sport. I don't, they're never speaking of the Ole Miss win again. They're never speaking of the Auburn game. Now that stuff matters. It's always focused on the current week and like he's so locked in in militaristic. I don't think there's any thought of Ole Miss. I don't think there's any hangover. I see people trying to say, "Oh, it's a sketchy spread of 4.5." No, it's not that spread makes complete sense and they're probably going to beat Mizu by double digits. All right, let's have a good honest disagree with good American disagree. Good. I think it's crazy to call Sumerar a bona fide top five coach in America. Name your five. Fair enough. Obviously Ryan Day is up there. Signet is up there. Signet is one. Kirby's two. Ryan Day is three. I mean, I still like Lane more than Sumerar. Even though Lane's got a loss, but we're not talking about a four game snapshot in September of 2026. We're talking about the whole picture. I think Lane's probably up there. I think who am I missing? Freeman's a hell of a coach. Crystal Ball's a hell of a coach. So I think maybe it's not five, but maybe six or seven. Yeah, maybe six or seven, but saying he's five is pretty quick. The sound is sound good and smooth off the cuff, but like that's just me saying, I think John Sumerar is one of the best coaches walking in this sport. And I am not afraid, never afraid to stake a claim like that. And I think that he will continue to prove himself. I think they could beat every single team on their schedule, except Georgia. I'm just worried people might be overreacting to a very good month of football. That's all. I mean, maybe, but it's hard to overreact when I come on the show last week on Monday and say that I think there are top eight teams. It's hard to overreact with that. I'm not overreacting to anything. I'm reacting to, I didn't do preseason rankings. I didn't do all these preseason thoughts. I decided this year I'm going to do things differently. I'm going to watch, I'm going to soak in and I'm going to evaluate and relay. And I'm just relaying what my true honest thoughts are. That's good. There's no preconceived judgment. I like disagreements. I like, I like having a good old fashioned and your nose is large tonight. What you don't even know that much ball. I feel like now you're trying to get personal. You're not a very good, you're not good at confrontation Liam. See, yeah, cut out, I think, yeah, no, I, I clearly did not cut out, you're not very good at confrontation. All right. You're better than me right now. Yeah, it's just early. That's just, I just think if I'm a Florida fan and I'm more negative about my teams than anybody else, I'm just, I'm just, I'm terrified of this Missouri trip. I'm just terrified of this Missouri trip after, after, after how easy it was at home against Ole Miss and Ole Miss having one of the worst defenses in all of college football. Um, they can't tackle for nothing. No, they're, they're terrible. I was like, I don't think, I don't think Florida line was stinky, but that's a story for the last week, not this week. So it was stinky to any observer of the sport who was convinced Ole Miss was legitimately a top five, top 10 team, they're stinky and people don't gamble. Sure, I'm not, but I'm not, I'm not really talking about you. I know that you had a high opinion in Florida, but everybody else, they were like, what, when they looked at that line and Mr. Big can, South Carolina is minus two and a half against Kentucky this weekend. The South Carolina, I've seen recently, doesn't belong as a, as a two and a half point favorite over air right now, they don't belong, like if this ring light behind me grew legs, it would not be a two and a half point dog, South Carolina, why are they two and a half point favorites over a Kentucky team who went to Texas A&M and won handily. Now A&M's not that good, but like Kentucky went on the road and handled them, why is South Carolina two and a half point favorite, that line smells out loud and yet got about South Carolina. You got to bet it, you got to bet it, Liam. Yeah. I would agree. I think South Carolina wins this game. I think it's a bit of the law of averages and there are so many good teams in the SEC and yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like eventually they're going to break through and win and get the six seven win mark. This does feel like a complete South Carolina spot. And this is, it's not must win, but it is a bit of desperation. They've dropped too straight. It's been ugly. They have to put their best foot forward here. This one guy in chat, QA something says you were all in on South Carolina like three weeks ago. I need you to learn Brandon Walker. And I want you to realize who South Carolina was playing in week three. Maybe start doing a little math. I don't know what to tell you. Draft Kings. The football season is heating up and every week feels bigger with draft Kings. Draft Kings sports app is now live in all 50 states. That means from Texas to California to Florida. 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Non-withdrawable rewards issued as $50 click to claims every seven days for 14 days. Terms at dkng.co/offer, limited time offer, nationwide based on sports book predictions in free-to-play sports contest availability varies by state. Is yours. So we got PJ Fleck, about 15 minute interview with PJ Fleck in just a minute, probably about I don't know, 15, 20 minutes from now. But right now I'm going to unveil my top 25. You have your top 10 for this week? Yeah. You want to do your top 10 first? You want to do my top 10 first? No, do yours. You do yours. Let's do my top 25 then. Here is my top 25 for this week. I have got number one, the Texas Longhorn, still there because of that win over Ohio State. And I think the win over Tennessee is going to age well. I didn't drop Tennessee all that much. I think Tennessee is still a solid team. Number two, I got the Georgia Bulldogs. Is this, did you do this graphic or did Jeff D. Low do this graphic? This one. Lucky. Did he send you one? Is that on social? Yeah. Oh, we don't, we don't, what? We don't put that one on here? Yeah, we were scared of moms and your socials. Okay. Scared of monetization. Huh? Everybody subscribe and like and all that. I got Texas one, Georgia two, number three, Miami number four, Notre Dame five, Ohio State, six Indiana. I did dock in the end a little bit for that performance Friday night. If they're going to rob us of any watchable football in the first three weeks, I'm going to dock you a little bit when you finally show up and play a halfway decent team with the Paulson. You don't look very good. So they drop a spot in Ohio State moves up a spot. I got Alabama seven, Florida eight, the Mississippi State Bulldogs nine, BYU 10, Texas Tech 11. I got Iowa up to 12, which I believe is higher than the AP has them Ole Miss 13, which is lower than the AP has them. I don't know why they didn't get docked more for giving up 52 points on the road. And they went over Louisville where that one took a shot. So I'm not sure that people are paying attention enough. I got LSU 14, 15 Oregon. I got 16 Utah, 17 UCLA. That's higher than the AP. 23rd in the AP. That's pretty crazy. USC 18 Oklahoma State 19, 20 Tennessee, 21, Boise State, 22 Kentucky, 23 Houston, 24. I still got Missouri in there and 25 Wake Forest. As the one lost Miami, but played very well in the second half and went on the road and beat Louisville. Where's Nebraska? I believe it is west of Iowa. I think it's south of South Dakota. It's north of Kansas and it's east of Colorado. That's where Nebraska is. Thank you very much. I don't know why you're asking geographical questions, but that is in fact where Nebraska is. So my says Oklahoma State beat Oregon. Hurray. I think Oregon's a better football team. Don't know what to tell you. I think Oregon is a team that got beat, but I'm not going to sit here and be beholden all season long to this team won this game on this Saturday. Just as what it is. I don't think Missouri does suck, I think Missouri will also a very tough game on the road the other day against one of the better quarterbacks in the country. I think a lot of teams are going to go to sorrow and lose this year, so I didn't drop Missouri very much. No due no VT correct and correct Virginia Tech. I know they're undefeated, but it hasn't exactly been an oil painting lately. It hasn't been the prettiest thing you've ever seen. Nebraska is right outside this list, but what win has convinced you about Nebraska? What have they done to convince you that they are a top 25 team? They'll have a chance. They win this week. They'll be five and no within the end of coming. You've got a chance. All right, Liam. What do you got? I don't know if Luke is playing the supper or not. This is the first blood model rankings of the 2026 season. I don't do the preseason, but I don't care about that. I wait. I said, I evaluate, I take stuff in and I give you truly widely. One is Georgia. I think Georgia would be I genuinely believe, well, there's 136 teams right now. I think Georgia beats 133 of them by double digits. I think Georgia is far and away. The best team in this country. Miami. I have it number two. I think that they're going to play a lot of uninspired football and just ready to get back to play off. And that's where you're going to see Miami at their best. I still think they're great in the trenches and most times they're going to have the best player in the game. Thanks. Amal Kaitoni. Three is Notre Dame. Given that ban for the Dow, a run game should get better as the year goes on. I would think defense is so good, learn more, maybe the best defensive player in the country. Him and Carlton is nasty. Four is Ohio State. Five is Texas. I know Texas. Be a Ohio State. I also know Ohio State was the better team for about 50 minutes, which really doesn't matter when you're talking about the win-lost thing, but I think Ohio State's a better team. I'm sour on Texas because I don't like the offense to be quite honest. Six is Alabama. I'm starting to get really hip to Alabama, being mighty dangerous. Keelan Russell, Jeff Collins, but I had a great video on him today. Keelan Russell is carving in the offense lines, holding up seven is Florida. Eight is Indiana. I understand Indiana one national championship last year. I think you do deserve to be ranked number one at the beginning of the next year, but I'll do it pretty simple. I'm watching Indiana. I've seen not a great Indiana product through four games. I think you would agree with that. Nine is Oregon. LSU Ole Miss are at 10 like tied. I don't think there's nine teams worth being ranked. I think the top eight's what matters. I hate that mindset. It's not a crime to rank 25 teams. I just I don't want to go through 25 teams of being ranked one like. I don't know, I feel icky about playing Tessie and there why I don't think Tessie is worth the number next, aren't it? I don't think we always have to rank 25 teams. Fair enough. Fair enough. So there's your top 10. It's just for TV ranks. There's your top 10. I have my top 25. My top 25 being probably superior and better, but you know, well, this is fine. Oh, of course. Yeah, you're doing the thing. You're trying. So shout out to everybody who's in the chat right now. Thank you for being here. Shout out to everybody who listens on podcast. Please like and subscribe on YouTube. That helps me out a lot. So here we go. Let's go with my, oh, let's do voicemails after I tell you about Bluetooth. We'll do voicemails and then we'll get to our game draft and then we'll do PJ Flex. So before we do all that, we've got this episode being sponsored by Bluetooth. Guys, what do women won't in need? 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All right, let's do voicemails 312-685-1889-312-685-1889. Please, please, please, please, please call us when you are sad or call us when you're emotional or call us when you are a crybaby. I will play them all unless I don't. And then that's Luke. He's fault. Luke, how many you got? I got seven. Probably not listening to seven, but we'll see how they go. Give me voicemail number one. I tell you, this was the weekend was a picture. We first had a sex assimilating picture and then we had Michigan, we were just picking the game away. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to announce that the Brandon Walker College football show is the official home of Happy Frank Fleming. You can't see him on any other basketball show. You can't see him on your other channels. You can't see him anywhere else. But you can't see happy Frank Fleming on the Brandon Walker College football show. And as we all know, happy Frank Fleming, the best Frank Fleming, voicemail number two, please. It's been a rough day in Oklahoma. I guess my question is where are we going next? I don't know if this is a head coaching problem, offensive coordinator problem, or geometry or problem. I know you haven't been big on brands in the get go. From an outside perspective, what's next? Because wow, that is some team. Appreciate it. Thank you. I don't know what's next. I don't know if Buster Faulkner is next. I don't know. I mean, I don't think Venables gets fired this year anyway. And Buster Faulkner will get a job. So I don't know what's next. You're probably about a year and a half from really facing that decision. I do know it is a head coaching problem. If you continue to have a lingering problem on one side of the ball, that is in fact a head coaching problem. I don't care what side of the ball he calls. If half the team sucks, the coach should get it fixed, whether it's hiring a new guy, doing whatever. But Brent Venables is an elite defensive coordinator. But as a head coach, he is an elite defensive coordinator. And that's half the equation until Oklahoma gets serious about fixing the other half. This will, you'll have a rare good year every now and then. You'll win 10 games when the schedule favors you and the refs give you a win over Auburn. But you'll never be an actual national title contender. So that's where Oklahoma's comfortable being. Let him be there. Three, one, two, six, eight, five, 18, eight, nine, voicemail number three, please. Brandon, this is Terrence. I'm a USC fan. Thanks for having me. I cannot handle Lincoln Riley anymore as my head coach. I can't do any more. Everything he does, since Caleb Williams, even then, was mediocre. It's bad. My question for you is who should be the next coach rehire because I want him tar maxed by 10 states. I want it to be Bob Chesney to food chain UCLA. Thank you for your time. Well, first of all, you're not food chaining UCLA, you're not getting Bob Chesney. I mean, that's just crazy. No, no coaches getting to Southern California, then immediately changing addresses. That's just a terrible idea. As far as coaches out there that you could get at USC, I mean, I do think we might be facing that very, very soon. I think the Lincoln Riley, the bloom is off the rose there. And depending on how bad it gets in big 10 play, and I don't know their schedule coming up, I know they've got some tough ones. They got Ohio State, right? They have a terrorizing seven game stretch. They have a Ohio State coming up. I don't know exactly who else they have, but they were too soft for Oregon. And Oregon isn't exactly rock hard themselves. So that's something right there. As we get further along in the coaching carousel and realizing who might be out there, Liam, you always have a good finger on the pulse of these things. And I know you want Lincoln Riley to get extended, but in a nightmare scenario for you, if USC were to go to the coaching window first and have their pick of guys, who do you think they would be looking for? Their number one choice as well was last year if Lincoln, then part ways, which I'm still surprised at then. There are no more choices. Still okay on the board. I don't know. I mean, I'm doing hard for Alabama to win a lot this year. That's their number one choice. Well, that come to fruition. I don't know. I don't got a crystal ball. That guy coaches that Miami, but that'd be the number one choice. All right, voicemail number four, please. I look at that, man. So they just lost to Oregon 4127 at home. Now, but see some of this though, Liam, like the Washington game isn't nearly as daunting as we thought it was a month ago. The Penn State trip isn't as daunting as it was a week ago. Wisconsin, and that trip might be a little more daunting than it was a week ago, but Ohio State, that's a terrible one at Indiana's terrible Maryland at home. And then UCLA. So that's, you know, eight and four is very on the table here and eight and four probably should get him fired. Yep. Okay. Oh, voicemail. Voicemail number four, please. This is Rhino and Nebraska just want to let you know Nebraska is 4 and 0 for the first time in 2016, but I just want to tell you this, keep Nebraska out of your mouth. Don't mention them again, not a single word about Nebraska old. It could be bad. They could not be stopped. They stopped. Stop the voicemail. Stop the voicemail. No, stop the voicemail. Stop the voicemail. Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska. I will talk about your team. You whiny cry baby bitch. You whiny cry baby bitch, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska. And I will talk about them this week when they go 5 and 0. It's going to be incredible because nothing warms the cockles of my heart like Nebraska starting a season 5 and 0 and ending six and six. And that's where we're always going and we're always headed towards that. And every single time you corn huskers get your, your hopes up and oh, this could be a year. This could be a year. We just need one more win and we're back and it never, ever comes. It never comes. And that's not my fault. I would love for Nebraska to be back. I think it's fantastic. I went out to Nebraska a couple of years ago and it was one of the, it was one of the 35 best stadiums in the country like it is a legit, great place to watch football. I do like Nebraska, but I don't like fans that call in and say, keep our name out of your mouth. You guys, this is a general. I do like Nebraska. I think they're good this year, probably going to win a game. There are people online that will call you or will tweet you and say, keep our name out of your mouth. We don't want you to talk about us. But all cause well fans do is crave and beg for attention. And if you're not talking about their team, they don't care about what you're talking about. So stop lying. Stop lying. That's all. Three, one, two, six, eight, five, 18, eight, nine, what we got. What is our brand? And I just watched tech lose the Stanford, it's two, ten a and what do I do, man? I just don't know what to do. I got my undergrad from tech, my master's at tech, I might just go get a master's at techs or something. There's no way it could be that hard. I'm the spokesperson for the night. Well, the good news is if you got an undergrad and a master's degree from from Georgia Tech, you're probably rich. So good for you. You're probably doing better than I am. So thank you, thank you, thank you very much for that perspective. But yeah, it's an interesting place for Georgia Tech because last year they were one of the more fraudulent teams for the first ten games and they were what, eight and one or something. But you could always tell they were winning these weird games where the ball was bouncing their way at the end. They were very TCU 2022-ish, 2023, whatever it was. No. 2022. Yeah. Anyway, there were very TCU back then, they were, they kept winning games, they shouldn't have won and they felt like, oh, brickies, the guy, brickies, the guy and as soon as Haynes King leaves, it just falls all apart. All apart. Voice mail number five, please. Okay, we're ending. I just watched the Penn State football game on speeches, I'm very speechless. I want to become, I think I'm going to become a Mississippi State fan and a Penn State fan. on the Mississippi State full dogs, family, and come on in. for highs and let's go and I for one welcome you on that bandwagon. You can say our team's name as much as you'd like. I enjoy that. Oh less what? Green Greg was right about what? Mississippi State bandwagans. Last voicemail police. Hey Brandon, great show. Heady Buckeye from Ohio. Question for you and Liam. Victory four best block shots to make the playoffs out of the big 12 Utah out of the big 10 UCLA SEC Mississippi State ACC Virginia Tech. I'll listen off air. I think it's Utah and UCLA. Those are the first two that listen, Mississippi State has helped to a great start. I love Camario Taylor. It is fantastic. I don't know if y'all have looked at our schedule. Somebody in college football fucking hates us. Now, we not only have already two power for road wins and then we'd be the ranked team at home. Our next two games are Alabama and at LSU. We have road trips coming up at LSU at Texas at Ole Miss. That is very, very, very, very nasty. We also have to deal with Oklahoma's defense, which that looks a lot better than it did a month ago for us, but I just want to just slow roll this thing. I don't want to go crazy. We're going to to make the playoffs. We would have to beat. We'd have to win a row game at LSU at Texas or at Ole Miss. And obviously, at Ole Miss will be the one to win because that's the egg bowl, but I'm not counting my I'm not counting my chickens before they pop. So, here we go. Is that all the voicemails or do I have one left? Yeah, that's all. Let's see. Ronnie Schmidt says Mississippi State Van Wagner is going to be a real thing because 99.9% of the world would look for any reason to root against Ole Miss idiots. Hey, out of your lips to God's ears, buddy. Your lips to God's ears. Virginia Tech, now let's think about that. I just, I know it's awesome that they're undefeated and I know it's awesome to Gene Franklin there and he's pumping life back in the program, but I, having watched them over the last four weeks, they're kind of escaping in some of these, right? They weren't very impressive at Boston College. They're kind of just outlasting these bad teams in games. Are they going to be able to to beat some of the better teams in the ACC later on? I don't know their schedule. Let's pull up Virginia Tech schedule because that's a great question. They got PIT this Friday night and that's no walk in the park. I mean, that's, you're talking about a good quarterback and everything like that, but let's say they beat PIT all of a sudden they're 5 and 0. Who do they got left? I don't know what's up in my head. So I want to see it and then we will, we'll deal with that. So they got PIT this Friday night. Then they go across the country to Cal, Cal, not a very good team. Clemson went out there. The Georgia Tech at home. Okay, these are good. At Clemson on the road, October 24th, that's, that's going to be on the tougher side as far as this schedule goes. Oh, no, they're not making the playoff. They're not making it well. They got at SMU. I think they'll lose that game. They got at Miami. They'll lose that game. They got Virginia at home and they got Stanford at home. So I, you know, 93 would be an incredible first year for James Franklin. If you're 93 in the ACC, you're not making the playoff. Do you have any thoughts to disagree there, Liam? No, I think they're an eight-win team. I think that that's just okay. And I once again think James Franklin is gone as soon as possible. And that is Liam Blutman's opinion and one that would be hilarious. This episode is sponsored by Tony's famous Cajun kick less salt more garlic, a clean hit of heat. It's a new blend based in the Tony's tradition. I'm talking, of course, about Tony Shasseries. Great seasoning from down south. You can use this one. Tony's Cajun kick. Tony's famous Cajun kick in place of salt and pepper. It comes from Tony Shasseries, but it has more attitude. Not replacing the original Tony's store locations. 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All right, you want to do the game draft and we can go quickly because we're kind of lagging behind here, but we got PJ Flett coming up 15 minutes of PJ Flett. So here we go. Let's go. What are you pointing at? You're first. I go first. Yep. So I picked the game of the week. It's great week to do it. Did you struggle to get to 10 because I struggled to get to 10? Yeah, I did. This isn't the best week I've ever seen in college football. It means it's going to be great. It's going to be great. Yeah, no, it's always good. I'll do it. Yeah, just give it to me. Give me, give me, give me Alabama, Mississippi State. Give me, give me that. I wish I could get down to Starkville. I wish I could be, you know, front row down there. I wish I could go Thursday night and I wish I could hang out and I wish I could go play golf Friday morning. I wish I could go down there Saturday and be there, but I can't. I got to do this. So it is what it is, but Alabama, Mississippi State, six and a half point favor for Alabama. They do look really, really good offensively and defensively. We've we've we've not been great against the past. So I just don't love the matchup, but Camario Taylor, if you've got him, you've got hope. So we'll go there. That's my number one pick. Who's two and three? I'm not going to pick him by our friends North Western state. We had not mentioned on Saturday night. They lost again. They're playing at Lamar this week. They will not win again. How bad did they lose to I mean, it's never good. Is it? Yeah, it's 52-21. Law points. They scored a lot. Who's pick number two and three? Let's take Florida, Mizzou. There's a lot of leftover hatred. I know Florida players have pictures of Mizzou all over the locker room of Mizzou players intimidatingly standing over them. So that'll be a very fun game. And then also, also, I believe Nikki smokes and Green Greg are going answering the age old question. Who are the two worst people at bars to be in content together? That will be Nikki smokes and Green Greg. Go. Give me a little Ohio State at Iowa. Big challenge for Iowa. Want to see how their defense is able to put the clamps on Jeremiah Smith, if they are and if Julian's saying could throw the ball over the middle. I do think, you know, I was at 13 and a half 12 and a half something like that. I do think Iowa is successful in making them play like a 16 to 6 game or like a 16 to 9 game. And I know Ohio State's elite offensively, but that's that's what I think. All right. Geez. There'd be a lot of questions to be heard about the buckeys of so this, this got this, this got this got dense. This got bad quick. Dan. This got bad quick. All right. I got a couple of teams. Okay. And I'm, I'm, I'm going to be talking teams not games here as I pick four and five. Teams not games. I want to see teams prove it. And I got two teams. I want to see prove it. It's pit ad Virginia Tech. We just mentioned them a little bit. I think pits are very good. Not very good, but pits a solid team with a very good quarterback and Virginia Tech. You know, I haven't been overly impressed, but now why don't you Friday night, the whole world's watching. Go ahead and press me. Pit Virginia Tech. So that's that's four and then five. I know Clemson isn't Clemson anymore. I know that. But I, I am fascinated by the skill talent and the precision with which Miami is playing. And it will be nice to see them actually have to play against somebody with a pulse. It'll be nice to see them have to go on the road and play somebody that can at least fight back a little bit. So give me Miami Clemson. Without a doubt, I'm picking Penn State Northwestern Friday night, new Ryan field, the day you of it, that'll be fun. But big game for Connor Griffin, big game for Matt Campbell, Rock O back, this Iowa State Penn State team. Are they going to be able to get back on track? Northwestern look really sharp last week. I want to see what Chip Kelly cooks up. Then give me, give me a little since the Arizona late night Saturday. Since the four and no, I don't think anyone really saw that coming. That'll be a fun one in the desert. Kind of sucking high into it here. I said, uh, this is not pretty. I mean, I'll trade that to you if you need it. This is not pretty. I guess six next week, you got four. Give me. Another prove it team. Give me BYU at TCU. I like that. And then give me Baylor at Arizona state. Also, I like that. I don't think Baylor, Baylor, I think is sneaking along right here. I think the three and one now, they got the one point loss to Auburn. I think people are kind of not paying attention to them. And maybe they should. And Arizona State's the exact same way. They got the one loss on the road. There should have been a very close loss to A&M, the defense for A&M, scored a couple of points late. So then give me Baylor at Arizona state. How many have you got left? I got one more, right? I picked four. Yeah. Well, Chad, this is a good lesson for you all. Sometimes Brandon Walker, despite being number one, the world doesn't, doesn't pay attention. He did miss one. There's, there's a big time match up between two and 11 this week. South Dakota state ill and noise. They all over that in the MVFC, give me that one easy. That's a layup. Oh, the class, I kiss off the glass. That's so easy. Kevren Evans says, Mensa is not elite. He's good, but hasn't metested at all. I don't like the structure of that sentence. I hate the structure of that sentence. There's this idea that if a guy hasn't been tested, he can't be elite. Where the fuck did that idea come from? Who, who, who, who passed off on that idea? Elite teams can, can have weak schedules. It has happened throughout the history of college football. Elite players have had weak schedule before. Miami has a weak schedule. And no, he hasn't had to prove it against the, uh, against the Texas isn't the Georgia of the world yet. But that doesn't mean he's not elite. That doesn't mean he's not great. We know Malakai Tony. We've watched him, uh, in the playoffs. We know he's elite and we know certain members of this Miami team are elite. So why can't you make a logical leap that, that Daria Mensa is an elite quarterback? I don't understand why you couldn't do that. Why do you have to wait for them to, um, to, to, to beat Notre Dame? Or why do you have to wait for them to beat somebody like that? Yeah, that would lock it in, probably, but still still. All right, um, I guess is that all we got left? Look, yeah, I hit all the ads. I hit everything. Yeah, unless you want to do your playoff. Oh, we got the graphic ray. I don't want to take away from PJ flex time in the spotlight. So PJ Fleck, who, uh, who threatened to spread my blood all over his face. If I didn't play his interview before 6, 50 PM, he's going to win. So we've got PJ Fleck coming up. The very first question is about that viral clip. Uh, so anything else Liam before we get somewhere before we go to this? Yes. Some guy in chess. I won't be watching the South Coast. They came. That's cute. By the way, I had an executive decision. And I won't chat to weigh in. I'm going to stay here two minutes as a chance answers. I actually interviewed two coaches today. And, and I think we're going to do our next show Wednesday night instead of Thursday night for, for reasons. Uh, it's definitely not because I'm flying down to Starfall to go to the Mississippi Alabama game in secret. I'm not, that's not what it is. We might be doing Wednesday night, just to test Wednesday nights to see about Thursday and Wednesday, the difference in them. That being said, I interviewed two coaches today. I interviewed Minnesota's PJ Fleck, who I'm about to play. And I interviewed Wisconsin's Luke fickle. Now I was, I was thinking about that as, as we got finished and we were about to put the show together. I said, show them when these interviews back to back when they're, when there are rivals, when they, when they hate each other. When, when, when, when Minnesota and Wisconsin are diametrically opposed. Any Minnesota fan that watches this will get seconded by the site of Luke fickle afterwards. And any Wisconsin fan watching to see Luke fickle will be seconded by the site of PJ Fleck. If I was watching a show and I saw Jeff Levy's beautiful face fall about peak holding, I don't be like, I'm not watching that bullshit. So I decided to put, uh, to keep Luke fickle for Wednesday, thoughts on that, on, on that choice, Liam. Uh, I like this. If you want to go down the Blutman lore, uh, when I was doing college football content long before I got here, I did a Dakota week where I interviewed Tucker craft and Mark Grinowski at South Dakota State and Cody Malkin, Noah Gendorf at North Coast. They, I did them day after day and I thought that went well. So I like that you broke them up. You've said a lot of words and names there, man. A lot of words and I, you ain't Tucker craft guy. I know you're a Mark Grinowski guy. He's family. He said a lot of family. Um, let's see. Who's, uh, oh, I can vote on this. Is Brandon right or wrong? Let's say I'm gonna vote right. I vote wrong. Oh, shit. Now, what's my assignment? I just lost my whole chat. Never mind. Now, what's my assignment to one log in? Fuck you, Pete. Uh, one log is the worst thing we got. Fuck you, Pete. It's the worst thing in my life. No exaggeration. And no, what? I don't know if your guys work, uh, places are, are stricken by one log in, but fuck Pete. Okay. Fuck him. Fuck him. One, guys coming up next. We have Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck, fresh off of big wind at Washington and smearing his players blood all over his face. Let's go to that right now. Look, he rolled the interview with PJ Fleck. This episode is brought to you by body armor flash IV. And I'm holding something. I didn't know existed. I didn't know they had grape. They got body armor flash IV. They got the grape. I like the strawberry keyway. Uh, the tropical punch is, uh, is yellow. Uh, but it's a very good to, uh, but I'm holding the grape right now. I'm going to try it. This is my, uh, golf course drink when I want to go out in the sun. And I need the electric lights to push me forward and keep me going. Body armor flash IV is exactly what I drink. I usually drink a couple of them. And it, you know, the electric lights fuel me through the day. And I'm able to go out and shoot a 95 and break a couple of clubs. So that's how I like to play golf. Work hard, hydrate hard with body armor flash IV. Grab it at 7/11, whether you're training traveling, just feeling the heat or sharing on your team, uh, body armor flash IV is packed with electrolytes delivering faster or longer lasting hydration without any artificial dyes, flavors of sweeteners. Once again, work hard, hydrate hard body armor flash IV. Grab it at 7/11, all right, uh, big win over the weekend. Miss Minnesota, not Michigan. They're playing Michigan this weekend. Minnesota headed out to Washington and opened their big 10 season with a, uh, with a win out there. And we all saw the clip. I'm going to ask him about the clip. It's the viral clip that's going crazy in college football right now. It's Minnesota coach PJ Fleck. Coach Fleck, thank you for joining the show. Yeah, I appreciate you having us all, man. Thanks for having us on the show. So I've been trying to get you home for a while. Uh, you know, I'm supposed to be state fan wanted to get you home before that game, but it didn't work out. But now it has worked out. And I finally got you on the Brandon Walker College football show. And I got to ask because the clips going crazy, you were passionate, fired up, excited about your team winning a game. Tell me about that clip of the quarterback and the bloody face. What, what, what was happening there, coach? Yeah, I mean, he's our starting linebacker. I've known him for almost six years, almost seven based down recruiting. And, uh, you know, I've known him for a really long time. And you got to get caught in those moments, you know, and our players give their blood, sweat and tears. And I don't know. First thing came my head was just grab the blood on his face and put it on mind. Um, you know, we were talking about doing this whole thing together, you know, we got each other's backs and can't go out there and play physically with them. But, um, it's just one of those moments within a moment that you have with the player. And nobody's crazier than Maverick Baronowski. So I think it just kind of fit based on Maverick being Maverick. And, uh, I guess me being me, does you get to the locker room and looking in the mirror and be like, what, what, when did I do that? Why did I do that? Well, yeah, I don't know. You got to put on your face and you kind of feel like, you know, you're kind of sweating. So it'll just come right off and everybody's like, coach, you got blood on your face. I'm like, yeah, I know. And then you're wiping it off and you still have it all over your face. So he must've been bleeding pretty good from his mouth because, uh, I think I had a little bit too much, maybe on my, on my skin, but, uh, you know, it always leaves room for, uh, a plug though, you know, I mean, we're in 11th place in the, uh, the big 10 habit blood drive. So we got to pick it up, go for fans, go to go for sports.com and give that blood. So I think it does speak to something. The culture that you have built there over the last decade. And I know that college football since you got to Minnesota has changed. But I think you were one of the elite culture builders in the, uh, in the country in college football. Can you just talk about the, you know, building the culture and the fact that you guys are, you know, you do have your guys backs and you do get passionate when they make plays like that. What is it like building a culture in this era of college football? Well, it's definitely unique. It's definitely different than it used to be, but it's definitely different run in a Fortune 500 company in 2026 than it was in 1985. So everything evolves, everything changes and the only thing that stays the same in college football is that everything is going to change. And you better be prepared to adapt to all of that. We define cultures connecting people. It's simply that. And I think that, you know, here at the University of Minnesota, my boss, who's the same boss that hired me, which is very rare in college athletics, where the, where the longest standing head coach AD in the big 10 combination, which I think he allows me to be myself every single day. And he allows me to select and find the right fit of the student athlete that fits here at the University of Minnesota, where somebody's not forcing me to take a kid that maybe doesn't fit here or hey, we're going to pay all this money to this kid just because he's a really good player. You're looking at the character piece of type of people they are. We don't really recruit. We select and find that right fit that fits our culture, because I think just too much of the recruiting piece is one thing. But then all of a sudden you look up, you don't even know your football team. You know, we know these kids inside, not like we used to. And I think we've been able to keep that piece. And not also keep adapting to all the new changes of college athletics with the transactions, but transformational has transactions in it. And we consider ourselves a transformational culture and program in every area of their life, academic, athletically, socially, and spiritually. And we're going to continue to do that. And when this whole thing went to just transactions, we turned up the volume on even more of the transformational. So again, a little risky back then or five years ago when it changed, but we felt like we had to be ourselves and then adapt a little bit and sprinkle in those transactions as well as it kept moving forward. So what's the number one thing you're looking for when you're going out and you're looking at a kid in the eye and you're looking parents in the eye and you're building your program? What is the number one thing you're looking for when you when you select a player? Well, truly, the number one, we're all recruiting people or finding people because they're really good football players. The number one question that I have to figure out, do they love their life and are they self motivators? Are they self driven? That's what I'm looking for. All right, if I have to wind you up every day, then I'm wasting my energy just getting you to the to level zero before we can even take it to a different level. Self driven, self-motivated, love their entire life, academic, athletically, socially, spiritually. How you do one thing is how you do everything. Do you love your life? Do you pour into your life? Are you passionate about your life? Purpose and passion are really, really powerful if you truly believe. And I think that's what we're looking for to start with. Of course, they have to be a really good football player. If you're just a great tennis player and you can't play football, I can care less. All right, we're talking about we already know you're a really good football player, but now let's let's separate it because we have to still build teams. And I think there's a big difference between a group and a team. And if you're not careful in this world, there might be 55, 60, 70, 80 new players on your team every year and you look up and you won't even be able to recognize who your team is. And I think that's it's pretty scary. So being able to keep connecting your football team throughout the year and building a team which takes a ton of work is something that I think we take a lot of pride in doing. So what does it say about your team that they're able to go 2,000 miles away on the road, go into Washington. It's not an easy place to play at all. It's a lot of seasons have died out there. What does it say about this team that they go out there on the road late at night and get that win and do. And then you guys jumped on them early too. It was 14 nothing right? And then you ended up riding that to a victory. You had them ready. They were ready to go. What does it say about your team that they did that? Yeah, I think it says the external voices are quiet and the internal voices are really loud. And that's what you want inside your walls in the football facility is the internal message is really loud about changing our best being 1 to 0. One game championship seasons. Even our schedules every week is completely different based on the opponent we play the time we play where we're headed home game away game. Where we are in terms of health. Every practice is different. So they're taking a one game true championship approach to that. And I thought our schedule was legit. It was on point. Our guys bought into it went out there jumped on them early. I mean Washington since 2022 right. A ranked Washington team number 23 in the country in the coaches bowl is 28 and two since 2022. And they've only lost to Ohio State and Oregon. And it worked out in the last four years. They're 28 and two at home. And it's a blackout. It's a sellout and that's at eight o'clock Pacific 10 p.m. Central and you're spending 40 hours you know from doorstep to doorstep by the time you get back. I thought our kids handled it beautifully. Our staff did a great job operations equipment manager. You know, our operation staff. Greg turn off our general manager. Our diet, dishes and nutritionists. I mean, it takes everybody as you know. But I thought that our people came up with a really good plan for that particular week. And now hosting Michigan is a completely different schedule. And they got to buy into that one just like they did last week. This man is shouting out his dietitians and nutritionists. That's when you, that's when the whole, the whole building gets a shout out. I was looking just to get ready for this interview. I was thinking, "Oh, PJ's been there. What, eight or nine years now?" And I went and looked, "This is your tenth season. Does it feel like you've been there 10 years to you?" Well, I used to have hair, but I first got here. Now I have none. So I think the simple answer that question is, "Oh, yeah, it feels like it flew by." I think it feels like 10 years. You know, people ask me that all the time. A decade of your life is really a long period of time. When you're talking about if the average of age is 80, I mean, that's a naith of your entire life. You probably work for a half of that. So you're talking about a quarter of your actual working life before you retire, maybe even more. That's a long time. But it's so great because the alignment within our organization and the alignment with the administration, our president, our board has been there from the start. So I think when you have that alignment, that's less storms and current that you have to road through. It makes it smoother. Mark Coil, I think, is one of the greatest athletic directors in the country is continued to commit to Minnesota, which has made me want to commit to Minnesota. And the people are in alignment. And then you get the right people and they value all their very similar things. And then you can have a chance to success. It's not guaranteed. In this college football world, man, it's unbelievable. We have 18 teams in our division. There's only seven of the 18 teams two years ago and last year had back-to-back eight-plus win seasons. Think about that. Only seven of the 18 teams could go eight wins, eight wins back-to-back. And 11 teams couldn't even do that. That's how hard this league is. So to have that cultural sustainability and have that sustainability, we've had a success. We never take it for granted because we know it can be gone like that. And I think our kids understand the value of that. You have this crazy knack for knowing what the next question is because I was exactly about to get to that 18 team league in the expanded Big 10. You know, when you started and you're doing that job and you're competing with the Wisconsin's of the world and the Michigan States of the world, the Michigan's and the Iowa's. And now all of a sudden, you're having to compete in the league with the UCLA's of the world and the USC's and you got to get your team ready to go out to Seattle, Washington. Like, have you gotten used to this expanded Big 10 and the world that you live in now? Yeah, I think you just look at the schedule as 12 games and then you, you know, a job as a head football coach is to take all your resources, right? And then get the most out of your resources. And that, I mean, everything. That could be daily schedules, weekly schedules. It could be the players. It could be transactional contracts. It could be your staff. It could be your support staff. Your job is not to complain, blame, deflect. Your job is to find solutions. You are the solution coach. You are the how coach or the accountability coach. You're the solution coach. You don't have time for problems. Your job is constant problems in crisis interrupted by brief success. If you don't understand that, you cannot be the head coach. So it's not constant success interrupted by brief chaos. It's not that it's complete opposite. So if you can't work in the dirt, work in the muck, and that can't become clear to you, then you have no chance at having any type of success. So one game championship seasons, the league is incredibly competitive. Every situation is completely different. And you have no idea. I mean, I love looking at the top 25 right now because I don't think anybody really knows how good anybody is because what's the benchmark? And now there's way more teams involved in that. We started the season with an unbelievable football team in Mississippi state, that you're a huge, huge fan of and respectfully and rightfully so. Coach LeBee does an amazing job. I mean, they're one of the top 15 teams in the country. When we play them in Washington, I'm feeling like this team isn't right, but they should be. They are legit. And now we're starting to find all that out. But I think that alignment, that cultural sustainability, the people that you have around you allow those types of chaos or disorder to become very clear, very quickly and to make decisions with clarity. Well, and your reward for going out there and winning such a huge game is you get to come home and play the Michigan Wolverines with one of the best defenses in the country. And they're coming off a loss. And, you know, they're going to have to see what's inside their building and everything. It's one week after another. And this league, have you had a chance to look forward to Michigan and really gather your thoughts on those guys coming in to what'll be a huge home game for you guys? Yeah, we started them last night and got into them pretty good. And then today, you know, this morning, early in the morning, we've been getting on them pretty good too. I mean, they're very talented on defense, very aggressive, swarmed to the ball. The funny thing is, I mean, they could have ended the game four times on that last drive. They had four chances to pick the ball off. And you know, they just are rare to see them not be able to make those plays, but you watch their defense. They're swarming. They're as good as advertised offensively. Quarterbacks playing at a higher level than he was at the beginning of the year. He's very athletic. Can hurt you with his feet. Can hurt you through the air. They got a really good ground game, big, strong physical up front. Two wide outs over 100 yards last week, which again, I know they want their past game to come around and then they've got some of the best specialists in the country. They're a really good, really good football team. Minnesota hasn't beat them at home since 1977. So when you think about how much they dominated that series at home at our place, I mean, we got it. We're going to have to play really well, really smart. Our guys are going to have to come to play. But we understand how good Michigan is. Last question. I'll get you out of here. I know your time is very valuable, but I got to give you a chance to prop up your quarterback because I think he's one of the most under-talked about guys in the country. He's not going to throw for 450 yards seven touchdowns, but he is just a steadying force. I mean, he's a steady as they go. I think your quarterback's very impressive. Go ahead and talk about your quarterback for me because I know you're a big fan of him. He has interesting. He's from Fayetteville, Arkansas and grandfather played in Arkansas, played for the Vikings, dad played in Arkansas, sister played basketball in Arkansas, he's from Fayetteville, and somehow he came to Minnesota. He was the gay red player of the year in the state and high school and won a state championship. Single-handedly, the best game I've ever watched in high school is still to this day. And then played as a freshman for us last year and really grew up a lot. He's a Jim Rat. He's always in the meetings. He's in the offensive staff meetings. He never leaves this building. He's really learned how to command the entire team, lead the entire team. He's big, he's six, five and a half, 225 pounds. He's more athletic than people give him credit for, but we've got a lot of good weapons around him that support him. He's incredibly poised. He's always in a really good mental space. He's going to continue to get better as time goes on. But you know, all the hype is really real about him, but he's so humble. He comes to the building every day to grow and get better and learn. And you can't ask for anything else when you're a head football coach with the leader of your organization with the player because the quarterback and the head coach have to be incredibly tight. You have to be here. We've always had that. Western Michigan, we're there. We had that because he isn't a head football coach of the players. And he doesn't tremendous job of leadership and connecting our football team. Really accurate pass or big, strong physical kid and only going to continue to get better the more he plays. All right. Big win at Washington. Big game against Michigan this week. He's been there 10 years. coach, great guy, great everything. And one of the best viral clips you'll see all year. It was coach PJ Fleck. Thank you, coach, for making time for us. And I appreciate you, Rosa Boates, Guy Mogo, Gofer. Thanks for having us on the show.