Jayden Daniels vs LSU + JP Poll Debut & Teams On The Clock

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Why did I search the internet for answers to my cold sore problem? Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole filled with images of alarmingly graphic sores in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that. Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care, fast. Healthcare just got less painful. At Lowe's. Save $10 on one-gallon cans and $50 on five-gallon pails of select interior paint via rebate. Plus, get two 2.5-quart or 3-quart mums for just $8. A fresh look and savings? Even better. Labor Day deals are on now at Lowe's. In-store and online. Valid through 9-9. While supplies last. Mum sizes vary by location and exclude Alaska and Hawaii. See store at Lowe's.com for more details. Look, I know. There's a lot going on. A lot of breaking news. But it's not June. It's August. We can't lead with personal related news. We've got to lead with college football because there's too much to talk about. We're jam-packed. We're high atop a sunburned downtown Nashville, Tennessee. It's Thursday. It's August 13th, the year of our Lord, 2020. Teams on the clock. There are a lot of them. Some may surprise you. You can come up with your own list in your head. But flat out, no ifs, ands, or buts. There's some teams that have to get it done this year. I've got six of them. The JP poll comes out tonight. This is not an SEC quarterback ranking situation. I'm not going to put it off. I'm not going to bump it to the end of the show like I responsibly did the other night. But I will say, you need to understand if you're new around here, the JP poll power ratings. Not power rankings. And the JP poll is spat out by the model, not by me. I don't have to agree with this thing. And good news is, I don't. Because there are a lot of things in this that I have a problem with. But we will go through that one by one tonight. The Jaden Daniels stuff, yes, I'll touch on it. But I'm also looking forward to the fact that Matt Campbell's joining us on the show tonight. One-on-one. We spent yesterday up in State College, Pennsylvania. Lovely day. They said, locals said it was a little warm. But low 80s and lower humidity was like heaven for us. So we stayed up there as long as we could. Got a lot of good stuff with the Penn State head coach that we'll talk to him about later on in the show. Hey, they're watching us in Harrisburg, PA. They're watching us in Valdosta, Georgia, New Orleans, Louisiana, Glendale, Arizona. Again, a massive news day here at Pate State. If you're aware of it, cool. If you're not aware of it, we got our own show with ESPN. That's the short of it. The long of it, I will talk about later in the show tonight. All because. Because of you. Thank you so much. Savannah State is calling. We have to mute that right now, and we will hit her back. Thank you, by the way, for subscribing to the channel. This week alone, we've had thousands and thousands and thousands of new subs. And with good reason, because it doesn't cost you a dime, and it doesn't sign you up for anything. But man, believe me when I tell you, it helps us out a lot. So thank you. For those of you who have already done it, and those of you who are on the fence are about to do it right now. Three, two, one, now. Sub. Right now. Sub. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Let's dive into the show. A lot to get to. If I were to ask you, hey, college football team's on the clock this year, who would you say? I think the first one's obvious, and then we'll go through the list. I got six of them. Texas. Obviously, Texas is on the clock. Obviously, Steve Sarkeesian has not a super team. Super teams don't exist anymore. But about as close to it as you can get from a roster standpoint in modern college football, he has. I think we can conservatively argue they've got a top five, situation or better, at quarterback, at wide receiver, at running back, especially with what they did in the portal. They have an argument for having the top offensive tackle in the country, and probably at least a top 10 offensive line, if not better, will be conservative with this. I'd say top five defensive line may have the best edge player in the country. It went and got Biles out of pit at linebacker. You can't let that slip away. And that's why I've kept saying, I think it's largely dumb, people do championship or bust type content. Except with Texas, that really is the vibe around them. And there's a reason that's the vibe around them. You cannot let that slip away. That is not a once in a lifetime opportunity, but it certainly is an opportunity you'll never know that you'll get again. Because even if you have a lot of money to spend, you still have to get all the pieces to come together at the right time. And these are the right ingredients, right proportions, and they're all on schedule. And this is the year it needs to happen. Toughest schedule in the country? Okay, still needs to happen. I just wanted to mention that so you understand that I understand it's not going to be easy. I didn't say it was going to be easy. I said it's necessary. So they're on the clock. Next up, the Clemson Tigers. They played in Austin in a playoff game two years ago, which meant this time last year, it was time for Clemson to take the dreaded next step. And they did. It was just a step backwards, a couple of steps backwards, actually. Now, when you have expectations and you fall short in college football, there are two words that sort of circle around the program through the entirety of winter and spring and summer. And those two words are bounce back. Because automatically, when you're down one year, it's like a tennis ball. It's like a little ping pong ball. It just bounces back. Well, Clemson's on the clock for obvious reasons. Last year was bad, but also because everyone expects them to bounce back. Well, everyone inside Clemson expects them to bounce back. I don't know that that's a given. Now, I will tell you, I do hope it is. Just it's good for business for us when Clemson is good. Got a lot of friends over there. I'm not fighting it. I'm just trying not to get sucked into it. I'm trying not to get sucked into the automatic assumption that if something goes bad one year, it rebounds the next year. This is, after all, the natural life cycle of things in college football. No, it's not. So it's not assumed that you just bounce back. Because as much as you want to maybe assume that, I've got to go on the other side of the coin. And if we flip this coin, or the paper, as it were, if we flip it over, there's an uncomfortable scenario on the other side of the paper that says, there's nothing written on this paper, but I'm going to pretend like I'm reading it. What if last year was the last year? What if last year was the last shot? Like, last year's roster definitively looks better than this year's roster. And I, I know, you know, Dabo was on our show, and he's been at his own podium, and he's been very vocal doing the whole, oh, we're just a bunch of nobodies. We're going to try and win a few games. We'll just see what happens. Yeah, it's not quite that dire, as the J.P. Poll will show you in a little while. But I'm just saying, what if it's no better this year than it was last year? It gets really uncomfortable, you know? So I think Clemson, for many reasons, is on the clock. I think USC is on the clock. This one's pretty straightforward, too. At least we have clarity on some of these. Like, at USC, it feels like we have clarity in a sense that it is playoff or bust. No one disputes it, by the way. No one around the program disputes it. I'm not saying the words playoff or bust have come out of Lincoln Riley's mouth, but he has spoken in the way you would speak if you understood it was playoff or bust. Now, they're five years in. This is totally fair. As a level of expectation, if you're a USC fan, sometimes expectations get out of whack. This is not one of those cases. I would also say, if you've got a third-year quarterback and your specialty is quarterbacks, you've got to get it done. If you're also talking about line of scrimmage talent and you've got it probably in the best supply to compete in the Big Ten that you've had to this point in your coaching life cycle there, you've got to get it done. You've got to make the playoffs. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because I think that's pretty straightforward. South Carolina is interesting to me. It's not playoff or bust at South Carolina. In fact, two years ago, they almost made the playoff. The next year, aka last year, it was the whole, can we take the next step? They didn't either. It was a familiar refrain in the state of South Carolina. Clemson made the playoff and then fell back. South Carolina almost made the playoffs. They fell back. Now, if they fell back to 6-6, it wouldn't be fun, but it also wouldn't have been a crisis. But they didn't. They fell to 4-8. They were competitive in some games too, but they fell to 4-8. That erases everything. have built up. It's like Windex and then a full paper towel over the grease board. Nothing's written there, which means you didn't get fired. You've still got everything to play for, but you're starting from scratch. You don't have any of that goodwill wind in your sails that you normally would have at South Carolina if you're two years removed from that. Also, I know I've got Dylan Stewart here. I know I've got Lenora Sellers here. I know it takes money, especially if I'm a donor, but even if I'm just a season ticket holder, I know it takes money to compete in this game and we don't shy away from it, but are we really going to watch these guys leave from here and have nothing to show for it? That's kind of the attitude right now. I have told you on this show over the spring that I thought it was kind of, I didn't say stupid, but I thought it was kind of maybe put in cart before horse to have Shane Beamer on the hot seat and I will just be real with you. I underestimated the vitriol that is born from going four and eight. I'm not going to blame South Carolina fans for feeling that way. Totally fair. I just, if I underestimated some things in the spring, that was one of them. And for that reason, Jesse, we've got Shane Beamer on the clock. Florida State, I'm not sure what to say. I'm not really sure what to say because, oh boy, if I go to some of these other places, I can find people who are selling lots of hope. I mean, you don't think they're selling hope at Clemson right now, you don't think they could package this year's reality up in a way that could convince you maybe they're a dark horse to compete in the ACC. Absolutely. They can. I can't find that at Florida State. I can't find it anywhere. I mean, the people I would normally count on if I've picked Florida State in a game to make me feel good about it, just blind homerism, those sorts, and they're out there. Even they're not selling this year as anything to look forward to. And so, I mean, the clock here with an over-under win total of five and a half, it doesn't feel like there's any kind of positive. Now, I know we've had those situations before in college football and crazy stuff happens. So, it's not like I'm writing them off. I'm not mailing anything in. I'm just saying I look at them and then I try and measure them against SMU or measure them on the road against Alabama or playing Virginia, a very, very veteran Virginia team. And then going to Louisville and then going to Miami and then playing Clemson and that's Halloween. I just got you to Halloween. Multiple losable games here. Don't feel great about much of anything. I mean, we haven't nailed down an offensive line rotation down there at all outside of left tackle. Quarterback is very iffy to me. I don't know. So, you know the conversation around Mike Norvell. I like Mike. I would love for it not to be a reality, but it doesn't matter who I like and what I'm rooting for. They're on the clock. Tech. Scale of one to ten, Jesse, how surprised do you think the college football public is if you put Texas Tech on the teams on the clock sort of list? An eight? Wow. Yeah, I would agree with that actually. But if you think about it, I don't get why people would be surprised by this because it's a different situation out there at Texas Tech. They're not bashful about it. They've gone about roster construction a different way. They've looked at this new era, this window, maybe if it's a window that we're in in college football. And they said, hey, if that's the way things are going to work for a year or 10 years, we're going to be ultra aggressive in that window. And we're going to construct team by team. And we're going to go for it. And we're going to go for it in pound for pound, probably the most winnable conference in America. And they did it last year. And they made the playoff and they ran into a brick wall. So what do you do? You regroup. You largely keep everything else. Everything else was good. You just got to get better at quarterback. And then they tried to. And then Brendan Sorsby is not there anymore. But Will Hammond still is. And we were out there in the spring and Joey spoke very highly of Will Hammond. And I can promise you, he's not messing around when he says we're ready to embrace the villain role. You're not going to scare them or have them shy away because they're unpopular. Maybe people are saying mean things about them. That'll work in an inverse way. But still, it's not viewed as a success to just get to the playoffs. It's not viewed as a success to just get to the playoffs. And let's say they missed out on the playoff. I understand up until five seconds ago, no one ever got heat on themselves for going 10-2. That's not the world we live in now. It's not the world they live in. Let me put it that way. A lot of folks go 10-2 and have a ticker tape parade. That's not what would happen in Lubbock, Texas. So I'd put Texas Tech on the clock. Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not, though. I'm not. I got to say thank you in advance and then remind you guys of something. As you know, or maybe if you're just checking back into the show, maybe you don't know this. So I'm going to tell you right now. We named our 2026 tour the other day, the Don't Tread on Saturday tour. Obviously, that's a banger of a name. And obviously, if you're listening on podcast, I'm going to go ahead and tell you these designs are incredible. We built this to be much more than just a tour name. Like, quite frankly, if you're like me or anybody behind the glass here or pretty college football show, you love fall Saturdays and you kind of love the core of what this sport is about. And if you feel that way, you've probably been really fed up with just the general direction some things have gone over the past couple of years. We tried to encapsulate that in a concept. And that concept is don't tread on Saturday. Leave the stuff we love alone is basically what we're trying to say with that hat or that flag or that T-shirt. This stuff has flown out of our store. So confirmation for us here internally that we were right, that that would strike a chord. So I appreciate you guys. And we hadn't really even started with that. We got more items coming, but paintstatematerial.com right now is where you can buy those. I cannot wait for the first time we go on the road this fall to be walking through a tailgate scene and see a Don't Tread on Saturday flag. Can you imagine, Jesse? Do you cry? What do you do? Do you tickle? Do you hiccup? I am right now. So Don't Tread on Saturday, full line available at paintstatematerial.com. For details, chat GPT can do more than answer questions. It can help you get real work done. Chat GPT work is built for bigger projects with multiple steps. You bring the goal along with the information it needs, like briefs, notes, files, feedback, calendars, data sets, or project plans. Then chat GPT can help turn all of that into something useful, an analysis, a tracker, a deck outline, a prototype, or a workflow. It can also use approved apps, connected tools, files, and browser context to help move the work forward. And you stay in control. You give direction, review drafts, approve actions, redirect the work, and choose the final output. 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And we spit it out in a form of a power rating, and we like to keep it internally, and then a couple of years ago, someone said, well, why don't you just present it publicly? So we did, and the entire world burned to the ground because apparently the general public was not prepared to differentiate between the concept of a ranking, which is where people just stack the teams in the order that they think they should be, and a power rating, which could not care less, about your win and loss record. All it cares about is if you, Team A, played you, Team B, today on a neutral field, who would we favor? Not who should be. Take all that out of there. Who would be favored? Now, there has been a misconception out there that I have to get into before I unveil the preseason JP poll. Some people are under the misguided notion, these are FanDuel's numbers. These are not FanDuel's numbers. These are the model's numbers. In fact, FanDuel disagrees with the model on quite a few of these teams. To take it a step further, I disagree with the model on a few of these teams. So I yell at the model as much as you guys do. You think it's you versus me. No, it's us versus this thing right here. Remember when it was so drunk on Texas a couple of years ago, and I thought about manually overriding it, but then I eventually said, nope, that's got to let the wheel go. And if we crash into the rock, we crash into the rocks. So please, please pay attention when I tell you the function of this is different than how I would stack the teams if I were ranking them. Let me be abundantly clear about that. With that in mind, let's go 25 to one here. There are some surprises, so much so that I have two pieces of paper in front of me. I do want to tell you guys, actually, you can keep that up for a second, Bradley. Just before we rank, or excuse me, rate these teams 25 to one. The field has never been more compacted than this. I know that's not a big surprise. I just want to confirm to you the gap between the number one and number 10 team right now, according to the model, a little over a touchdown. There have been times where the gap between number one and number four was way over a touchdown in recent history. So yes, the field is very condensed. The gap between 12 and 32 is just under a touchdown. Mind-boggling. Here is the kicker. The gap between 22 and 44 is six points. So you may be power-rated 23rd, and another team's 31, and your mind says, wow, how could so-and-so be eight spots below so-and-so? It's like one and three-quarters points or something like that. Very minuscule. For the record, there will not be a G6 team in the top 25. The reason? There are at least 25 teams in the country that would be favored against the highest-rated G6 team. However, I want to inform you of who that is. Boise State, according to the model, is our highest power-rated G6 team entering the year. This will, of course, change every week. We got them at 45. The next highest G6 team starts at 61, and that's USF. Okay? With that in mind, let's dive in 25 through 21. Washington, 25. I'm going to read them really quick, then I'll give you some notes. Washington, 25. Auburn, 24. Mild surprise to me here. Illinois, 23. Florida, 22. Penn State's all the way down at 21. So you see right off the bat, Penn State will be ranked a little bit higher than their power-rated. But how about Illinois being 23? Just my first beef with the model here. I would not have Illinois ahead of Washington. Even in power, power ratings, I wouldn't. So we hit up FanDuel, and we said, whose side are you taking here? FanDuel said Washington minus seven. Like FanDuel, and I wholeheartedly agree here. I think the model's on drugs when it comes to Illinois, all due respect. The model is way off. Okay? Washington, seven points better than Illinois. That's a big gap, considering how condensed everything is and compacted everything is. However, to give the model credit, Florida, 22. Auburn, 24. They're within one point of each other on a neutral field according to the model. Well, those teams play in week three, which means if that's a neutral field, you go to Auburn, you tack on a couple of points for home field advantage. Theoretically, if the model's right, that would mean Auburn minus about one to one and a half against Florida in Jordan-Hare Stadium, right? We hit up FanDuel, and they said, yes, that's exactly what would make it. Auburn minus about one to one and a half if that game happened today, and it will happen in week three. Auburn, a short favorite against Florida. So credit where it's due to the model. This Illinois, there's no credit to be given out there unless it's well ahead of the curve. Next up, 20 through 16. Here we go, Jesse. What did we spend all of last week screaming about? The coaches had Clemson number 23, and then the model looked and smiled and didn't say a word and said, I got something for you next week. Clemson is number 23. Clemson is number 20 in the JP poll. Sometimes I hate that my initials are on this thing. Brigham Young's 19. Tennessee's 18. Louisville's 17. Missouri is all the way up at 16. What are we doing? What is it doing? So some notes here. The first thing I wrote is, what must Dabo Swinney have on the model and the coaches? To be 20th and 23rd respectively in the JP poll, and then the coaches poll, and then LSU's going to be higher. Like, I'll spoil this for you. LSU's 9th. I'll get to the rest in a little while. I want to remind everyone, okay? And I'm not necessarily saying I'm on board with having Clemson at 20, but if the model's dead on the money with LSU and Clemson, what you got to avoid is if Clemson goes down there and loses by 13 points in Death Valley, in week one. You can't be dropping them. Or you can't be looking at a power rating, expecting them to drop. Because that would be things playing out exactly as they should for the number 20 team going into the number nine team's building, where there's already, oh, about a 10 and a half point gap on a neutral field. You add in home field. That suggests the number nine team should win by two touchdowns. Well, if LSU beats Clemson like 33-7, 17 or something like that, that's kind of how it should play out. So just a fair amount of warning, even though I may disagree with them at 20, if that's a two touchdown-ish type LSU victory, you're not going to see me saying I told you so. That's actually validation the model's right about those two teams if it goes that way. Big difference in power ratings and rankings. Also on this, how is Brigham Young behind Louisville? Like just right now, if you had to pick, I got immense amounts of respect for Jeff Brom. How can you even know anything about Louisville right now? Some of you may say, how can you know anything about any team? I'll grant you that. Louisville's very transfer-laden though. Brigham Young, everybody's 27 years old and ready to go again. They're there this year, just like they were there last year. I hit up FanDuel. I said, I think Brigham Young should be ahead of Louisville. What say you on a neutral field right now? They agreed. Brigham Young minus one and a half against Louisville. That's what the line would be, according to FanDuel, if they had to put a number on that game and it were happening today. Jesse, do you think Missouri is higher than you expected them to be? You're a big Austin Simmons guy. You've bought a ton of stock in this team this year. I don't know. Maybe, look, maybe the model's right. There is somewhat of a track record of me doubting the model and then having to sheepishly come around to the model's way of thinking. But the model works in very mysterious ways. I think that's one of them. Heaven, Missouri at 16. Top 15 time. Michigan's 15. Kind of where they would be ranked, ironically. Oklahoma at 14. Just bookmark it. Oklahoma 14, USC 13, Texas Tech 12, Texas A&M 11. It is well documented that this model is in the tank for Texas. So much so that it is anti-Oklahoma. I think it's very safe to say, that this model has got some anti-Sooner black magic to it. We all understand the concept of Sooner magic. The model is about anti-Sooner dark magic. Because having them at 14, I, you know, as much as I'm down in the model right now, I'm going to tell you, for the sake of argument, Texas is 6. I'm going to show you that in a second. I'm giving you this frame of reference for a reason. So OU's 14th. Texas is 6. That means about a 6.5 point gap between those two. teams, right? On a neutral field. So we don't have to wonder about this. We hit FanDuel up because that game's going to happen. It just so happens Texas plays OU on a neutral field every year. Unreasonable minds can try and change the name of the game from the Red River Shootout, but whatever you call it, you know it happens every year, including this year. So the model suggests the gap between Texas and OU, six and a half points. FanDuel right now, Texas minus six and a half. So FanDuel and the model are locked arm in arm here. Personally, I think OU's a little low. That's just me talking. What do I know, especially when it comes to me versus a computer? Texas Tech's at 12. Do we think that means they would have been top 10 with Brendan Sorsby? And I don't know why I'm asking, that rhetorically, when the model's sitting right here. The answer is yes, they would have broached the top 10 with Brendan Sorsby, but he's not there. So that's the way it works right now. Top 10 time. There's a few teams we haven't heard. Bama's at 10. LSU's nine. Ole Miss is eight. Pay attention to nine being LSU, eight being Ole Miss. I'll come back to that. Miami is seven. Texas is six. All right. So, Ole Miss ahead of LSU. This is not a massive deal, but you know how when rankings have come out so far this year, people have had one through seven in pretty much any order. And then it's been assumed, all right, however you order those teams, there's a gap. There's like a cutoff between seven and then eight and then eight through 14 or whatever. That's like the tier two of teams. The model does not agree. The model says Ole Miss should be in tier, tier one, because there is a three-point gap between Ole Miss and LSU. Three points is a very, very sizable chunk to be between one team and the team right behind them, especially when the field overall is so compacted. So the way the models see in the season start out is there's a top eight, Ole Miss included. Then there's a little bit of a fall off. And then you begin your LSU, Alabama, A&M, et cetera. So that's interesting. We're going to track that early in the season. Okay, your top five, no huge surprises here. Indiana five, Notre Dame four, Oregon three, Georgia two, Ohio State one. Several of these teams will play each other. Just to give you a quick frame of reference, Ohio State one plays at number five, Indiana this year. This gap, between Ohio State and Indiana in the model, implies about three and a half points. There's about three and a half points between one and five. That implies if they played in Bloomington, which they will, the model thinks about pick them, something like that. FanDuel has Ohio State as a one and a half point favorite versus Indiana in Bloomington. All I can say about this is the era of the super team is long gone. The era of one, two, massive gap, number three, another massive gap, four through 10, that's gone. You've presumably got like 14, 13 teams here that have a shot at least. Now that's the model talking. I'm just disseminating the message. It makes for quality entertainment at the very least. It's good to have the JP poll back, even if I don't agree with it, because you got to understand the ecosystem we've built here where I get to create content on a show hosted by one person, but then yell about it, not being right. And I think it takes a lot of mental gymnastics to get there, Jesse, but over the years we've gotten there, thanks to the JP poll. We have gotten a lot of places, thanks to QuickTrip. If we tried to script the transition, it would have sucked, but we didn't script that. So here we are. What you can script though is, well, you can of course script a trip to QuickTrip, tougher than it sounds even, but you will also download the app before you get there. In fairness, I haven't advocated for this enough in the past, but it's just free money sitting there. You're going to go anyway. I mean, it's one of the best places to go in the United States of America, QuickTrip. You can get your fill up out front and then you can head inside. There's all kinds of glorious things in there. Cold brown tap, snacks. But if you download that app, you can go in there and get the 49 cent BigQ. And whomst amongst us can claim we've lived a full life if we haven't done that. So QuickTrip is a longtime partner of ours. If you missed our commitment to QuickTrip a couple of years ago, I highly suggest you go find it on the internet. We played it on a recent show. QuickTrip Joe's doing fine, by the way. For people who have been asking about him, he's just as angry as you are that Oklahoma was 14 in the JP poll, but looking to climb. So appreciate them. I can't believe some of the stories that come across our timeline sometimes. Quick cough there. Every now and then I wake up and a story just slaps me in the face. A story is broken overnight. Usually it's bad news. Sometimes it's just stupid news. This would fall into the latter category. I wake up this morning, five o'clock, Jesse. We had a full day today. For reasons I'll mention later. And I see this ESPN headline. And I swear I'm still dreaming. But I checked myself. I pinched myself. I may have low-key slapped myself. And there it still was. Quote, an attorney representing Commander's quarterback, Jaden Daniels, informed LSU it can no longer use his name, image, and likeness and said he felt profoundly disrespected after LSU allowed cornerback DJ Pickett to wear his former number five jersey. If, you think you misunderstood me. I get why you would think that, but you didn't. Jaden Daniels wore number five. Jaden Daniels won a Heisman there. And he thinks no one should wear number five again. There were allegedly promises made to him during his DJ Pickett being him. There were allegedly promises made by the prior staff to DJ Pickett. Hey man, you come to LSU, you can wear number five. And then Brian Kelly said, oh, nevermind. We're not going to do that. Last year. And then Lane comes in and says, they promised it to you. Okay. We're number five. Don't care. And then Jaden Daniels or someone representing him combinations and possibilities are endless there. If you know, you know, uh, said, no, no, I feel profoundly disrespected. And he reached out to LSU and there was talk and Lane said, yeah, he's going to wear number five. And so Jaden Daniels attorney says, yeah, you're no longer using his name, image, and likeness, but that wasn't even the end of it. It's already stupid enough. I guess. Stupider as these stories tend to do in August, just why we need football, Matt Moscona, friend of the program, uh, early this afternoon, the LSU Jaden Daniels saga takes another strange turn. Sources confirm Daniels camp wants LSU to return its copy of the Heisman trophy, something LSU has no intention of doing. And I'll tell you why, because it's LSU's copy of the Heisman trophy. He continues Daniels contacted LSU leadership, but before fall camp lane, Kiffin has personally spoken to Daniels. Again, we need football games in the worst possible way. So this is a dumb story. I think we all understand that the universal reaction was refreshingly pretty much the same. I mean, I saw some people that were kind of on the fringe minority say, well, you know, he did win the Heisman there and well, no one's taken Joe Burrow's Jersey number. It is, like, cool. Okay. I had eggs for breakfast this morning. If we're just stating fat, cool. It doesn't make it any less stupid. So there are two possibilities here. Really possibility. Number one, Jaden Daniels himself is driving this in which case it's one of the most mind numbingly stupid cell phones in recent college football memory. There'll be a new one by next week. Possibility. Number two, this is the one I lean towards. Jaden Daniels is probably buried in pre-season camp himself and someone representing Jaden Daniels, someone in his camp chose to pursue this cause they got nothing better to do and a lot of time on their hands. Either way, it's a terrible look either way. It is not even Pennywise pound foolish. Cause I don't know where the Pennywise comes out of this. Like what's the win for Jaden Daniels here at this point is the win. Yes. The school that put me on the map, the school I went to because I wasn't cutting it at Arizona state and I wanted to level up and I won a Heisman ad, even though we didn't win much more than that, that school can no longer use my name, image, and likeness. Have fun LSU fade into obscurity. Like, well, what do we, what's the win here? So it's not even Pennywise pound foolish. It's just dumb. It's just stupid. So Jaden Daniels came out later this afternoon and, you know, kind of put out the whole screenshot on Instagram. And he said a lot of stuff that was basically nothing. But basically what he confirmed without confirming is, yeah, this is largely my team. My team's handling this. You got a team, Jesse? Do we have, sometimes you just got to man up and take responsibility, right? Like if you're telling someone, give me my Heisman back and stop putting my name in your mouth, just say it's you, unless it's not. And if it's not you, get those people out of your camp. Even if they're related to you, get them out of your camp. Or at the very least, stop letting them make decisions for you. Because this is not peewee. It's not Pop Warner. It's not middle school. It's not even your sophomore year of high school, dude. You're a full-grown man. You play in the National Football League. You won a Heisman. It's a jersey number. Deal with it. LSU though, even at its best, even in the best of times when LSU is humming, there's a crisis out of left field like every other week. So this means nothing when it comes to LSU and their opportunity to do whatever you think they're going to do this year. This is standard operating procedure for LSU. LSU has been many things. They've never been normal. To the point where I celebrate it. I respect it, but I do not respect this. I do not think much of this at all. You know, we're going to be down there in week one. We're going to be down there in week one as Clemson comes to town. We're going to be down there not only because the Don't Tread on Saturday tour is headed to Baton Rouge, but also a brand new show is headed down there. So a few weeks ago, a story leaked that I did not speak about on this show because it was a leak. That leak was that there was a new ESPN show coming with yours truly and Taylor LeJuan and Will Compton. This morning, that news became official. Officially, as of this fall, myself and the guys with Bustin' with the Boys, Will Compton and Taylor LeJuan will be live every Friday from two to three Eastern time on a campus somewhere in these great United States of ours. It's a dream come true. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. It's a major deal. I don't think I need to say this again, but I'll say it at least one more time. We could work as hard as we could possibly work and we could beg as much as we could possibly beg. And this would have never happened without our people, without our audience, without their audience. And there's obviously significant overlap there. So I say thank you at least once per show. I've said thank you five times today. Here it is for a sixth time. Thank you. I appreciate you guys. I want to take you behind the curtain for a little bit. Whatever your opinion is of ESPN programming, I had one too growing up. And my opinion of ESPN is there's nobody who broadcasts games as well as ESPN. However, when it came to college football, Monday through Friday, I wasn't satisfied with what I got there. I felt that way as a kid. I felt that way as a young adult consuming content. I had to go elsewhere for the good college football commentary. And it never made sense to me because I knew ESPN was invested in college football. I knew that I could tell by the media rights they owned, but I could find like 10 or 15 NBA shows for every one college football show. And I always wonder, like, why does like the global superpower of sports media not take the number two sport in the world more seriously during the week? I couldn't do anything about it. And then when I finally could do something about it, my attitude from building this show from scratch, our attitudes always been, well, if major media is not going to cover college football the way they should, we'll do it. It's no coincidence that shows like these have scaled so much. You had nowhere else to go to get this sort of content. Last December, we're in Atlanta for the SEC championship game. Pat McAfee has so graciously allowed us to do the alt cast right there on the field on ESPN. It was awesome. That you know. What you don't know is the day before, there were some pretty important meetings there in Atlanta. And there were some pretty high level ESPN folks there. And I got to give them immense credit. They sat down across from us individually and asked, what do you think? What do you think about college football at ESPN? Permission to speak freely, to speak your mind. And I spoke my mind. And I explained my viewpoint, the good and the bad. And I said, man, I just, I wish that college football was taken more seriously and treated as the number two sport in this country. It is outside of live game broadcasting. And that was it. The message was received. And a couple of months later, this opportunity was put in front of us. It was extremely difficult to keep quiet for five months. But this opportunity was put in front of us. So huge credit where it's due. Sometimes when people say, give me your opinion, they don't really care. ESPN cared. So whatever you think about any network, ESPN included, I am extremely excited about this. Because you guys know as well as I do what Fridays are like in the fall. Saturday, we all eat. Friday is when you set the table, which is all we'll try to do. We'll try and do with this show. But the building energy on a Friday in the fall is unlike anything that you could experience. See, if you're a hardcore NFL fan, the day before Sunday is Saturday. And so you don't have to have all that nervous energy. There's wall to wall college football on where even if you're not a huge college football fan, you at least got something to occupy your mind and make time go by faster. Friday crawls by. Because if you're a college football fan, there's nothing the day before. And so the minutes feel like hours. And what a breath of fresh air for us to be allowed to have a whole block of hour-long programming on ESPN every Friday in the fall to just set the table and acknowledge how awesome the energy is on a campus and how many people are coming into town and what could be on the horizon. What do we think about the next day? It's just a hangout, man. It's just us, because we love this sport, getting to hang out with each other on a Friday afternoon. So I hope you'll give it an opportunity. Because myself, along with Will and Taylor, both of our staffs, we've been given the opportunity of a lifetime. Now, I promise you, we won't screw it up. But it'll ultimately work if you guys make it work. So I appreciate you in advance. You can go to any game you want to, theoretically. I guess you can't go to two games at one time. But if you're going to games this fall, quick reminder, the code is back. I get asked about this more than anything. Any code that we have on this show, Jesse, do you have the SeatGeek code? I need to buy tickets. I want to go to LSU for week one. I want to go to Arkansas to see Ryan Silverfield's home opener. I want to do whatever I want to do. I want to go see number 23, Illinois in action. No one said that yet, because they haven't seen the JP poll. It just came out. But whatever you want to do, go to SeatGeek right before you do it. Right before you check out, enter promo code. This is important. PATE10. P-A-T-E-1-0. That gets you 10%. All orders up to $200, and $20 off of any order above $200. So I keep debating with SeatGeek. Hey, can we just give away free tickets? Shockingly, they haven't gone for it yet. What they have gone for is, here's a pretty hefty discount code. And we appreciate them for it. That's what we were looking for. Negotiation's tough. So SeatGeek. P-A-T-E-1-0 before checkout. SeatGeek.com. It pays to discover. Terms apply. ChatGPT can do more than answer questions. ChatGPT work is built for bigger projects with multiple steps. Then ChatGPT can help turn all of that into something useful. An analysis, a tracker, a deck outline, a prototype, or a workflow you can keep shaping. You give direction, review drafts. Approve actions, redirect the work, and choose the final output. Health care just got less painful. Bahamar. Located in Nassau, Bahamas, offers your choice of three luxury hotels over 45 fine diners. and nightlife venues, John Batiste's all-new Jazz Club, the Caribbean's most luxurious casino, and one-of-a-kind experiences for the entire family, like our 15-acre tropical water park, wildlife sanctuary, world-class golf course, and so much more. Visit Bahamar.com today. I've got bold predictions, and then we're going to bring Matt Campbell in here. I had a really good visit with him yesterday. First up, bold prediction time. What do you believe? Could it rate 9.5 or bolder on the boldness scale? We will see. I've got four of them here. First up, Shannon Dawson, are you paying attention in Coral Gables? Chris from Miami says you're going to average 40 points per game this year. Miami averages 40 points per game, and two players end up as Heisman finalists. So 40 points per game is tough, but five teams did this last year. Two years ago, when Cam Ward was there, Miami averaged 9.5. Nearly 44 per game. So this has happened. There's precedent for this. What about the two Heisman finalists, though? That's tough, especially in a year that's as loaded at quarterback as this year is, and you've got Jeremiah Smith out there. It could be tough. Bama did it in 2020. Who was it, Mack and Devontae? And then no one's done that since. So I think the first part's doable. The first part's very doable. I may even halfway predict that part. But the two Heisman finalists in a year this loaded, that's going to be tough. So I'm going to put a 9.5 on that. Next up, a geographical prediction. So the Tide Watch from Johnson City, Tennessee said, Break out the map, Mitch. Which states border Great Lakes? If you're listening on podcast, can you name them? I could earlier today. Jesse couldn't. And then he failed miserably on his Canadian provinces. But there are no contenders up there this year. The Alouettes, the Rough Riders, the Blue Bombers, none of them could even get in the MAAC. So we're left to talk about which states. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Eight states in all. For those trivia-minded out there. Border Great Lakes. So no teams in those states are allowed to make the semifinal. That eliminates Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana and Notre Dame, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Do we think we'll get a semifinal with none of those teams? I'm willing to put a 9.25 on this. Only because you could see so many combinations. You could see Miami and Georgia. And Texas. And give me one, Jesse. Oregon. Yeah, Oregon. So this is possible. But I'm not going to go 9.5 or Boulder. But man, I supremely appreciate the Great Lakes trivia question. This was very well done. Next up. This is more geography. This is from Longview, Texas. The only Texas team to make the college football playoff will be the winner of the American Conference. That's a 10. That is worth a 10 on the boldness scale. So keep in mind the complete and utter reign of chaos this would be. If this prediction came true, firstly, that means no Texas Tech in the playoff, no Texas, no Texas A&M. And keep in mind, if Texas Tech doesn't make it in the Big 12, that also means it didn't come at the expense of Houston, TCU, or Baylor. This also means, I guess, Texas State, probably. No, Texas State is in the Pac-12 now, which is insanity. So UTSA probably has to win the American. And then none of these teams can make the playoff. That is a 10. But Jesse, if we were to just walk it through for a second, what kind of world is that? Texas and Texas A&M and Texas Tech missed the playoff, but UTSA makes it. Does Texas as a state survive? I don't know that Texas survives. I don't even want to think about it. That's a 10. And lastly, supposedly somebody named Chase submitted this prediction, but I have my suspicions that it's a burner for reasons that you're about to find out. Anthony Calandria goes for 40 total touchdowns, helping Nebraska win 10-plus games, and Nebraska sneaks into the playoffs, under Matt Rule in year four. Yeah, that's drugs. That's a 9.75 on the boldness scale. You could read the prediction if you wanted to, but I had Jesse read it to me today, and I'll tell you what it sounded like. It sounded a little something like this. What's up, Josh? Just sitting here at your studio. I'm going to make myself nice. We leave one day. We go to Penn State for one day, and that's what happens. Loiterers get in the building and do that. Soiled our set. Whole new chair. The upholstery had to be redone. But man, playoff Nebraska? 40-plus touchdown Anthony Calandria? Last year had 33 total, by the way, at UNLV. And let me take it a step further. You know, since we had an intruder here yesterday. I saw Will Compton last year. I looked in those eyes last year. So you don't know what it's like. I know what it's like. Not just on the camera, but off camera. To watch that hope build, and to watch that chest get bigger and bigger as those predictions come in. First, it was Nebraska could win nine, and then it ends up Nebraska can win ten. And then Nebraska's going to the playoffs. And then here we are. We're a Dilla-Riola-less Nebraska the year after. And we're left with predictions like this. Nebraska making the playoffs. Anthony Calandria. 40-plus touchdowns. Complete and utter drugs. There's no way. There's no way. I'll put a 10 on it. That's a 10 on the boldness scale. But go Big Red. Love the people up there. Love the fine citizens up there. I just don't love this prediction. Okay. If you disagree, and you think Nebraska's going to win ten games, I would highly encourage you to get over to FanDuel right now. They are the exclusive odds provider of Pate State, and they have a ton of value for you when it comes to betting Nebraska. I can promise you. But if you're more sane-minded, and you just want to, you know, look at the odds to win the ACC for SMU, or something like that, you can go do that over there as well. I mean, we had a segment littered with hypothetical odds from FanDuel Mike earlier today. So imagine the real thing over there. Appreciate FanDuel so much. Must be 21-plus and present in select states. For Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino, or 18-plus and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets, which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms. Terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com slash RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Or visit ndgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts. Or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York. Yesterday, we spent the day at Penn State. We went up to State College yesterday morning. Low 80s. Beautiful day. Our boy Greg Kincaid helping us with the in and out. Always takes care of us up there. Friend of the program. Alumni of the program, I would even say. And got to watch practice up at Penn State yesterday. Awesome day. New staff. Matt Campbell's staff there. You've got 20-something Iowa State players who have come in. And you're kind of watching them mix in with the Penn State team. The Penn State guys who were there and are still there. Really good to catch up with Coach Campbell and talk a lot about the behind the scenes. And, you know, a lot of that's kind of really good access to get. But that's the behind the scenes. I wanted to talk on camera. So Prez took the equipment up there. And we did. We set it right up on his patio there. Right outside the office. And we talked for a good 20 minutes. Yeah, 17, 20 minutes. Something like that. I just wanted to know how things were going. And so here we are yesterday, just 24 hours ago, with new Penn State head coach, Matt Campbell. All right, man. Last time I was here, it was like 10 degrees. You were being introduced as the head coach here. No games have happened. It feels like a long time has passed. But I'm going to get the word from you instead of me putting words in your mouth. But everyone kind of wonders. You take the job, and then all of spring goes by, and all of summer goes by, and fall camp's finally here. What's the life like of a first-year head coach during that time? Well, I think it's a, it's so constant that every block is new every block there's change and change is happening for everybody in the organization not just myself the staff every player whether they were with us and came with us you're in a brand new environment whether the Penn State players and staff that stayed here it's a new culture and a new program trying to be built and I think even as a head coach sometimes you know being at one place for 10 years you can almost take that for granted that man every day is a new day and you got to re-establish the culture the standards the expectations in every block you have to make sure that that alignment so you can really grow yourself forward is there and so it's been man it's been a race to get to the facility every day and a race to make sure our alignment the standards and expectations on how we want to grow ourselves forward are put in place and it's been a it's been a really exciting journey but it's it's taken everything we have to get ourselves where we are today and really appreciate the effort of everybody involved because I think we've made great strides in the real world let me scratch that in the normal world if what happened here happened out there it would feel like oil and water and by that I mean you've got Penn State guys and then you've got a lot of an Iowa State staff you know a huge chunk of an Iowa State roster that comes in it feels like that wouldn't work outside of a football building yeah and yet you guys have made it work but I'm interested to get your perspective so far just like what has that dynamic been like here well it's certainly been unique right and I the word that I said when the first team meeting and I said when we can align ourselves on the value of trust then we are going to have a chance to build ourselves forward and finding trust Josh it doesn't matter what organization what great company what great family when you look at success in anything you can really cut it open and the value of trust is running through the organization or through the family and I think one of the things that you know we've tried to do a great job of is how do you build trust in a short amount of time in a high stress environment where everybody wants to certainly have their own individual successes and yet make it about the team and make it about what we're trying to get accomplished and I think that that's we've always kind of every day moved ourselves back to are we establishing and valuing the value of trust are we everything we're doing in the program is it bettering the trust or is it breaking the trust of our program and that's really what we've kind of hung our hat on was there ever a point or has there been a point where you take the Penn State job which is different level up in profile of job maybe than the one you had prior and you looked and you said the trade-off here for being the face of that program being the head coach at Penn State is I may need to delegate a little bit more here may need to relinquish a little bit more there or is the way you do it here pretty much a mirror image of the way you do it at Iowa State yeah I think what we're really fortunate is we have great people and I think I learned you know after our program that I have to do a great job of aligning our people and making sure nutrition academics strength and conditioning our coordinators our position coaches everybody in the program is aligned to the value of the trust that we're trying to build in the program and then making sure that we're bringing the right people the right humans in terms of the players into the program and I think that taught me a great lesson and I think when the opportunity came here at Penn State we were able to almost pick up all of those great people and all those great people came with us and from nutrition to strength and conditioning to life after football to a lot of our coaching staff and then the new coaches we at least knew what we were looking for what values they had to have to be aligned with how we were going to build the program forward so I would tell you I don't know if I feel like there's any difference of me as the head football coach here at Penn State than there was me at Iowa State I think you know we've really seen a lot of different things and I think we've really stuck ourselves to the right values surrounding ourselves with great people and then making sure we're building the right foundation for our young men to Sprint in here every day to become the best they can be on the football field and really off the football field interesting to watch you guys kind of going through practice first fall camp you're here a lot of the players that you know are here with you you've learned some new players how would you describe where this offense is right now yeah I think you know we have had the ability you know we didn't have Rocco we didn't have Chase soul we didn't have Brett Eskelson in spring bowl and so I think in a positive way we almost had to kind of reteach everything from scratch and we really had to fundamentally hone in to figure out what are the pieces that we have available we kind of know what those guys can do but what else and who else can help this football team be successful and then really go into the summer and say all right these are where we think we have the ability to go how do we make sure the offense has an ability to go itself forward I think the positive is some of those playmakers we know exactly what they can do um man what Rocco can do what Chase can do what Brett can do Ben Bramer Gabe Burkle awesome but then you inherit some unbelievable pieces this offensive line you know we're really fortunate to come in and feel like some really talented young offensive linemen have the ability to grow forward in our system which was awesome um you know Andrew rapalay is a young man that's had great moments here and got to work with him all spring Kobe Howard's a young talented receiver that's really flashed and had great success um you know we knew what Carson Hanson can do but James Peoples comes in and really had a great spring almost every day got better and even through fall camp so far as a guy that continues to do great things Quentin Martin's a young man that rushed for 100 yards in the bowl game last year and we really got to hone in and work with him through spring ball so I think how we want to play football really how we want to play football on the offensive side being a number one a tough football team the ability to run the football in critical moments have a presence in the running game the ability to be disciplined especially in in critical situations third down red zone coming out all the situational awareness those things I think we feel really confident because you have a quarterback and you know how to build around that quarterback what his skill set is and what he's got the ability to do I think one of the most interesting coordinator pieces of news was Danton land coming here from USA when you guys are putting your staff together most of us will never go through that but how much is he on your radar at the very outset versus you realizing oh wow this is a possibility let's go all in on this yeah well I think it started out uniquely obviously with John Haycock you know John was such a huge piece of our success at Iowa State and um obviously a guy that I had great trust in and knowing where John was at the end of his career and really close to retirement um you know we certainly gave John the opportunity to see if did he want to come with us and you know knowing where he was that man maybe this wasn't exactly he was ready to retire and be done um I think that immediately said okay what's the next step and you know we're really fortunate Dion Broomfield who was our safeties coach and co-coordinator at Iowa State I think is a rising star in our profession and you know we sat down and talked and said hey let's let's put here's what we want to be let's collectively think about this and Danton had worked with Dion um at the Houston Texans and so um you know as we were on the plane coming here the first thing I said is you know I I said man what do you think about Danton Lynn and instantly had a big smile on his face and the first phone call I think after we met um quite honestly was to Danton Lynn is hey would you be interested in coming back home knowing that one I had such appreciation for watching what he did at UCLA then I was watching what he did at USC and saw the growth and kind of saw the effort and the energy that his guys played with and just was so curious to understand a lot more about him and after about an hour and a half conversation with him I knew if we had the opportunity to go get Dan Lynn bring him to a place that he cares about he's passionate about and knowing what kind of teacher he was um I just knew it would be a great fit and it was a home run hire for us because I think since the day he's been here aligning and leading his staff and then watching and aligning and leading the players around him um he's done an unbelievable job you guys are as we sit here today talking beautiful day by the way State College you guys are a few weeks away from opening the season yeah in our world you kind of want to have final answers on everything from depth to uh who's going to stand out to who may be red shirt blah blah blah I'm really interested in how you view this because I think maybe sometimes it's okay to not have everything figured out when you get into the season and maybe week two maybe week three you're still figuring some things out kind of what's the line of I gotta have this drop dead I gotta have this figured out versus I'm okay with this kind of sorting itself out week one or week two well I think you know coming from such a developmental program at Iowa State and knowing that you know especially over the last couple years as we can we continue to grow and get better at Iowa State I think one of the things that we came became comfortable with is this what you said is knowing that yeah there are a couple things the quarterback and some other areas that you want to have a really good feel going into the start of the season but we also know man from one to one I think we have 112 players in fall camp this year is we're gonna need all of them we're gonna have to all of them. And, you know, last two years, 2024, we lose our top five linebackers by week three of the season. And, you know, we go on a great run and we're playing with our sixth, seventh and eighth linebackers the entire year. And man, the development of those guys paid off when we needed them to step in and be ready to play. Last year, we lose our entire secondary by the fifth game of the season. And so I think for us, always understanding, and I think it's helped me as a head football coach, the development of every player in our program, what can they do? What's their role? And knowing that, man, by the fifth, sixth, seventh game of the season, that those development, that may completely change for some of these guys, especially when you have brand new schemes, brand new coordinators. And so I think being okay with the player situation is, I feel really confident in that. I feel the thing that is bigger for me is the non-negotiables, how we practice, how we prepare, how we go. How we do the little things. What are the standards of execution, the standards of commitment to becoming the best you can be? Because I still think it's all going to fall back to what are those standards and what are those expectations? Knowing that adversity is coming, knowing that we're not going to play perfect all the time. We're going to have hard moments. How do we react as a culture and a team? Who's leading our football team? And that doesn't always have to be the best player. It's the senior leadership, our coaching staff, you know, and what we're going to do. Watching that evolve, to me, I'm probably more concerned on that than I am the depth chart and making sure we've got enough trusted players that we can put in the football game to be our best when our best is needed. If I'm a fan of Penn State, I got a new head coach. I love Penn State. And therefore, in my mind, I like to picture you just driving in with a huge ear-to-ear grin on your face every day. And everything's wonderful. And you're infinitely grateful for having the job at Penn State. I mean, the latter is true with you. But it's not easy. It's not all smiles every day. What are some of the hardest things you've dealt with here so far? Well, I think for us is the first thing that you said is meshing a brand new football team. You know, you are dealing with young men, and we were really fortunate, 60-plus football players that decided to stay home at Penn State. They chose to come here. They were prideful about being a part of this program and wanting to grow forward. I think the second piece of that is they're going to bring a collection of players from across the country. And you're right, there's 24 from Iowa State. We've got guys from UCLA and Oklahoma State and all over the map that chose to come here. And that's college football a little bit today. But I think, again, a standard and an expectation in every area, not just on the field. I think understanding, man, you are going to come eat breakfast every day. You are going to be accountable to sit in the first two rows every class. Man, there's a way we're going to come into this facility, and we are going to have expectations. We're going to provide you world-class structure and world-class opportunity for you to become the absolute best you can be in all these areas. But there's got to be an accountability from you to be able to understand those values, and there's a standard expectation of how you respond to those. And I think, really, that has been the absolute fight. And then the other piece of that is also the ability to understand this is all about the team. I think one of the great gifts we've had is understanding what it actually means to put this uniform on, what it means to put this uniform on, and what it means to put this uniform on. I think it's really important for us to be able to understand what it means to play in this unbelievable stadium in front of this fan base. You know, it's not a, it's not a right, like, there are so many that have come before us that have given us this platform to do something really powerful and really special at Penn State. And so having a little bit of humility and gratitude for who has come before us and what they've accomplished, and understand when you put that uniform on, it's bigger than you. It's bigger than me. It's bigger than our staff. It's bigger than any player that's played here. We have an opportunity to build something because what we've done to give us this platform. Okay, now the flip side of that coin is when you take a new job, you have a million and one concerns in your mind. What are some of the things that have been pleasant surprises? Maybe things that have been above and beyond what you would have expected? Well, I'd say the first thing is how much the young men here love football. I think that's one thing you almost, growing up in this area, playing high school football and college football in this area, you almost forget how much football and the passion for it is. I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's incredible. And the passion for every young man, they love the sport of football. And it's one of the things, it's an absolute joy. They want to be great. They want, they want to become the best they can be. And I think just understanding we've got a locker room of guys, they love it. But if, if we could just do football 24/7, our guys would love it. And yet we're still 18 to 22 year olds, and there is a process that it takes to become your best at the sport of football. So the challenge at times is understanding the process and the why we're doing and asking them to do it. And asking them to do how you do anything is how you do everything. And yet, boy, the joy has been competition, man, whether it's dodgeball, whether it's winter conditioning, or whether it's our guys going out to compete on the football field. Our guys love the sport of football, and they love playing football. And that's been awesome to be a part of. All right, I'm gonna get you out of here on this. It's an interesting world we live in, because you technically possess the capability to just overturn a roster every year. That's not your strategy. It's not necessarily what you go about things, but technically you could do that. So when you're putting your fingerprint on a program, when you're sort of, for lack of a better term, installing your culture, what's the fine line of doing everything we can to win immediately, but also setting it up for sustainability? Well, I think it goes back to that value of there has to be standards in everything we do, and we are not going to win at all costs. We are going to demand standards and expectations, and hold people accountable to those. Because at the end of the day, it's still about the team. And I think as our world's getting crazier around us, the reality is who can build team? Who can play for each other? Who, man, when you have the bad quarter, the bad half, man, when you lose a game, who are the teams and the cultures that fight back? And they don't give in, and they continue to play for each other. And to me, I still, I will, it's how I believe in building football programs and teams. And I think that's the key. I think that's the key. And it still has to be about the team. And so, you know, we're not going to waver off of that, whether you're the best player on the team or you're 1-12 on our team, you have to live to those standards. And if you can and you don't, then you can't be here. You can't be a part of it because I can't cheat the team. It's got to be about the culture, and it certainly has to be about our football team. Matt Campbell, we appreciate it, Matt. Man, I appreciate you. Thank you. All right. Appreciate Matt Campbell for letting us head up there. That was a really, really fun trip. We'll see you next time. Bye. We'll, you know, we probably get out to a couple of more places before the season starts, but really wanted to get back up there to see how things were going. Guys, appreciate you so much. All we ask is that you subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. And if you have, thank you so much. If you haven't, just understand it doesn't change anything for you. You don't get signed up for anything. It's free for you. It just helps us out. So that one small return in lieu of inserting $5 every time you watch the show, we would never do that. Thank you so much. We'll be back Sunday night. Until then, for Director Bradley, Producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. Let's have ourselves a great weekend. 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