PMS 2.0 1627 - Thursday Night Football Recap, NFL Week 2 Preview/Picks, Nick Saban, Ian Rapoport, Stanford Steve, Ole Miss Head Coach Pete Golding, & AJ Hawk

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to this wonderful Feel Good Friday, September 18th, 2026. This sports program begins right now. Football is the absolute greatest. I'm so incredibly lucky that I'm down here in Oxford, Mississippi, the home of Ole Miss hosting LSU and Lane Kiffin coming back to town, obviously with his Tigers as the Ole Miss faithful, the Ole Miss grads, the Ole Miss team, the Ole Miss, you name it, hey, the man that is standing on the other side of this graphic. Now, last night I got in here late night, got a chance to chit-chat with some bros that are certainly living. A couple of lads popped into me, Gumpy, and Big Joe's hangout time. Reese Davis was over there. Matt Garrett was over there. Pete Thamel was over there. We were having a good time out on the patio enjoying this Ole Miss weather, which it's going to be another scorcher. Shout out to whatever's happening. What's happening with the weather system. Is this because cows are farting? I don't know, but it has been hot. I've been sweating for whatever the case. A couple bros come in, you know, sit down amongst us. Great conversation. Good conversation. Great enlightenment of what it was like. They said Lane Kiffin, when he was coach here, it was the first four years of our college experience. We loved it. It was the greatest time of all time. We were obviously in every single game. We're making it to the playoffs. We might win a national championship. We're the talk of the town. And Lane is doing everything that Lane does for us. They talked about how great it was. Which is what made it so hard, they said. Which is what made it so hard whenever he backstabbed us. Whenever he bailed on us. Whenever he was a traitor and hopped in a plane, went down to LSU, and then said, woe is me, about not being able to poach his players from a playoff team that's trying to go win a national championship. Now, that is not what Lane would say he was trying to do, but that is how the Ole Miss people view it. That is certainly how the Ole Miss people view it. So whenever you talk to, like, Kirk Herbstreit, who's been out doing College Game Day for 31 years. And you hear him chit-chat in the production meeting about how, like, wow, this is, this might be the most anticipated, intense game that I've ever, that I could ever recall. Now, obviously, you've got a lot of hate rivalries. There's a lot of teams that hate each other. Ohio State, Michigan, every single year, there's been a lot on the line there. And obviously, that hate is deep. There's some people that don't even say Michigan. They say Ishigan, you know. And then the team up north. And in a way, the Ohio State faithful react whenever they lose to Michigan. There's obviously a lot of passion there. I just feel like this is like a real personal vendetta. I hate you. I hate you. situation that I know Ole Miss and LSU are rivals. But this Lane Kiffin exit and Pete Golding introduction in the middle of the playoffs, in the middle of showcasing what current college sports could potentially look like with a coach seemingly having to make a decision before the most important games of his career and certainly of his school's existence, has to make a decision on whether or not he's going. Now, did he put himself in that position to have to make that decision? Yes. But with the way everything was set up, with the transfer portal, whatever it was, and what the money was, and where he was going, and inside the SEC, it was just chaos, cluster. And what Pete Golding did was come in there and lead a team to a couple huge wins in the playoffs and inevitably keep his quarterback and running back, who might be the two best players in this entire game. So whenever you talk about the intensity, the environment, the passion, the game, this has everything. The pageantry is going to be ridiculous. I heard there's chandeliers in tents while they're tailgating out here. So I think these people are going to be dressed very proper. I think they're going to look awesome. I think they respect their college. But I think there's going to be a lot of number ones sent to the head coach of that LSU Tigers team with a lot of words being said that are certainly loud. I do appreciate that there's now been a conversation about whether or not it's safe. Like, is it going to be safe for this guy to return? And that's when you know you're doing something good. Whenever people are wondering if it's going to be safe to go play a football game, that's when you know the sport is in a position where there's actual fear coming from some of these home field advantages. There's actual moments where you have to wonder, are these people going to let me out? Are they going to let me out of here? And I know Lane has obviously experienced this before. We're going to showcase that, I think, tomorrow on college game day. But it feels different for me down here. And the people that have been around college football for a long-ass time, they're saying it feels different down here as well. It's going to be a special time in Oxford. Very thankful and lucky to be here. They set me up in air conditioning this week. Ooh, nice. We are always very grateful for that. Shout out to the crew that pieced this entire thing together. Absolute legends across the board figuring it out. But that game, obviously, tomorrow. These two teams, first time they're top ten taking each other on since, like, the 70s or something. I forget what it was. So tomorrow's going to be absurd. Last night, though, A.J. Hawk, hold the phone. A.J., thank you for coming to the Thunderdome. You look fantastic. This man has won a Super Bowl and a college football national championship. The Buffalo Beals, hey, this might be a biblical year for the Buffalo Beals in their brand-new stadium. Now, they debuted a beauty. Hey, that sounded loud. There was obviously a lot to cheer for. But it sounded very loud. The lighting was spectacular. The grass looked good. How will that hold up late? I think that'll be a topic of conversation. And then Josh Allen, we were chit-chatting a little bit before we went live. I was very lucky and fortunate to grow up in a city where we played pick-up football, tackle football. We would find a yard. We would play in it. Sometimes, you know, you get kicked off those yards. Sometimes, owner of yards understands for the good of sport, for the good of society, we'll let these boys play. You know, sometimes you go to a church, you play in this. Different groups of friends. I played on a soccer team that was in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. So, I played pick-up football with them whenever I would travel over there. East Hills, obviously, played in Plum. Penn Hills, where Aaron Donald is from, I played in some pick-up games. Every time you go to one of these pick-up tackle football games as a kid, especially if you're not used to the group you're playing with, there's normally one of them that is better than everybody else. Okay? He's going to be the best tackler. He's going to be the best runner. He's going to be the best catcher. He's going to be the one. Okay? And everybody else is just kind of trying to fill in, trying to have a good time. We're playing football. Josh Allen is the kid in the tackle football game. The pick-up game. Who's better than everybody at everything. I assume if this guy was to play on the defense side, he would have had two picks last night. He just takes the game over. He's clearly the Josh Allen show. I like that Joe Brady understands that. I appreciate that their offense has weapons. Now, we're going to learn more about D.J. Moore. Allegedly, it's a sprained A.C. joint is what the initial reports are, which is an absolute bummer. But, A.J., this guy can take over the game however the hell he wants to. This is multiple games in a row. Now, we didn't know if it was just going to be the first week against Houston Texans where he's back. He's backed up on his own four-yard line with three minutes left, drives the entire length, wins the game. It's like last night, he was definitely going to score the first touchdown in the brand-new stadium. Definitely. No questions asked. We appreciate him for this rushing touchdown. Follows it up with a passing touchdown. Just absolutely beautiful. Just kind of walks right down the field on his Detroit Lions defense, which what are you – do you guys play football up there? I don't know. I don't know what the hell is going on. But maybe this is just what the Bills are. That was a special performance last night, I think, from Josh Allen and these Buffalo Beals. I'm a Detroit Lions fan. I am shiting my pants about what this year might be with not being able to stop a damn soul. Shuck last week with the New Orleans Saints, 30-plus points. Josh Allen, you need to get off the field. Can't stop them. It was an electrifying evening, an electrifying start to the Highmark Stadium, obviously, for the Buffalo Beals fans. But, A.J., this might be the year for this Buffalo team. Everybody's forgetting about Lamar, I think, in Baltimore, how good they looked in Week 1. But it's hard not to get. Really excited thinking that this team might be – this team might be the best team in the ball right now, this Buffalo Beals. Yeah, I think they might be. They're built, too, to go the distance. And when they play late in the year, like, think of the different ways they can beat you, especially Josh Allen. We know, like, he's feeling it right now. He seems to be absolutely in his prime physically and mentally. But I think Dano was talking earlier today on ESPN, like, what do you do to stop Josh Allen? What do you do to stop this offense? He spreads the ball around so well. We know how good James Cook is, too. Credit to that guy for how well he runs. Dalton Kincaid, everything. Even Keenan. Keon Coleman is getting involved, too. So, I think when you think of stopping Josh Allen, I just don't know exactly what coverage I would run. I don't know what my defensive – I don't know what my front, what their rush plan would be. Look at this little sidearm angle. Like, he throws from all the platforms, as they say. He has all the superlatives, everything to do. What I love about him is the confidence that he, like, breeds in the rest of the team. Like, when Josh Allen is under center, he is in complete command of that whole offense and that whole team. The whole stadium, he has them eating out of the palm of his hands. I think, as the people – we used to say the old people when I was growing up, and I just wonder, like, what you can do to stop him. If this dude is healthy, how do you stop the Bills' offense? 76 touchdowns, 314 first downs, 5,593 yards of total offense. That's what he's on pace for, says Hembo, if he was to keep up his week one in week two start. Now, my big question is, can he survive, man? You know? It's just like when you watch – like, Jeremiah Love. We watched Jeremiah Love. This is the most recent one we did. And we get attacked for this because, you know, we don't know ball and stuff like that. But I think about the humans a lot more than I think anybody else. I think we judge humans more so than everything else in most people. Jeremiah Love, the way he was running in the preseason, we thought, this guy's never going to survive. This guy's never going to be able to survive. How is he going to be able to survive? He ends up getting hurt, calls it a learning lesson. We'll see if he's able to survive. He is electrifying. Andrew Luck, I was very lucky to be teammate with Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck thought to himself that it would be – disrespectful to ball to give up on a play. So, like, if he – just throw it away, give it – go down, just sack – white flag this thing, bro. We got four downs, okay? Three downs and then maybe a punt. This is why the sport was invented this way. But it's like Andrew Luck wanted to show respect to football. So, like, if he was to get tackled, he's going to get tackled, okay? Like, this is what this is. This is football. If I bail out here, I'm 6'5". I'm bigger than somebody. This is kind of disrespectful to the sport. That is kind of how he viewed it. So, he took a lot of massive hits, okay? We're talking about Joe Burrow, where he came in and said he wanted to get hit so he could wake up, and we go, do that, Joe. You can't be doing that. You can't do that. Josh Allen, he's out there. He's delivering this. He is delivering the contact a lot of times. Exactly, but he's in a lot of, I mean, we're in a lot of contact for a franchise quarterback, and I know he's big, he's strong, he's an actual cowboy, looks out for his boy here. I liked Kirk pointing that out. Josh Allen could have certainly just walked into the end zone there and said he sees Dawson Knox go, early beginning of the season, let's get my guy on the board here. Let me go ahead and drop this off. Incredible play design. Joe Brady seemingly throwing his 100 on the paint as well with Josh. Understanding who Josh is. But it's like, if Josh can survive, it feels like it's going to be tough to get off the field against Josh Allen. Feels like he's picking up first downs whenever the hell he wants. 10 yards, seemingly easy. Now, let's go to one half of the hammer. Done! Cowboys, AP Tone. Can you tell me, Tone, because I don't know. AJ, you might know better than me. What do you got for me? I guess it is a little surprise, a little sleight of hand. You get the ball on a two-yard line and a one-yard line two times. You got Jameer Gibbs as your running back, and you throw it both times whenever there is thousands of people riding on a one-rush touchdown, one passing touchdown for either team. You're on the one-yard line, running play action, throwing slants. Now, it worked out for both of them, so brought that way to go. But how does this happen to us, Tone? And we would like to say to the people, we apologize. And as you have seen, I think, I've been burning sage all around Thunderdome, okay? Trying to get the bad spirits out. Look it up. Been around a long time. It's an old church. Old church we're in there. I'm burning sage to get the bad vibes out, you know, hoping that our bet would hit. Turns out it didn't hit. So I'll have to do something different. But Tone, how does that happen? And last night, the over hit easily. I assume Sportsbook's lost bad on that. How do we kind of view week two starting in Buffalo? Yeah, everyone was on the bills and everyone was on the over, so the Sportsbook took a bit of a haircut on that one. But as far as our boost goes, which where we had to have each team score a rushing and a passing touchdown, the bills took care of that very, very early. So all we needed was the lines, and the lines get a passing touchdown, and we're good there. So then all we need is a lines rushing touchdown. And then this, I don't want to use the T word, but terrorist of football, Drew Petchick, the OC for the Detroit Lions. It worked, Tone. He hates football. He hates ball. Okay, he hates us. I'm sure he's heard maybe what we've speculated about him in the past, maybe this season. Maybe he saw the boost, and he said, I'm throwing on the goal line every single time we get down there. Yes, they scored touchdowns, but I want it to be shown in the record books when we talk about our boost and our boost records, that this one should have an asterisk next to it. We were on the right side. It was the correct bet. It just didn't happen for us because of, you know, some people and their grudges. Yeah, I just, it worked. You know, so it's very frustrating. But if he goes, three dons doesn't work, it kicks a field goal there. I mean, we're singing a different tune. Tone certainly went after him a little bit there. Harshly, we'd like to say that, just like at the beginning of the show where it says, like, the opinions of some people on these microphones doesn't necessarily, I don't think that guy is a terrorist, but he certainly was disappointed last night. I was certainly pretty bummed out. Let's go to the talks table at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Con man, that Buffalo Bills window that you New England Patriots fans were hoping was closed, it might have just opened all the way back up, with a brand new stadium that was spectacular on television. Yeah, it was incredible. And Kirk Hurtstreet came on here yesterday and he kind of displayed it for us, but then actually seeing it live in person, this entire thing, the intros, the lights, everything seemingly was perfect for the Buffalo Bills. I don't know what it was about the grass, but the grass did look greener. There's a reason they didn't bring in Bruce, the little bison, because he probably would have ate all the grass on that field that looked immaculate. And to be honest with you, if there is a home field advantage right now, it would be Buffalo. Herbie also mentioned how their fans kind of bring a college atmosphere and that came through from start to finish. Bruce Smith was the inaugural legend of the game and he let it off perfectly. I mean, they went from that right to the kickoff. It was loud start to finish, even when they were blowing them out. I was very impressed by the Buffalo stadium, by the crowd itself, and that is going to be a tough place to play. If you're going to Buffalo, you better strap it on and you better try and play some defense, which the Lions did and did not do well. Okay, so the question, I guess, kind of is going to linger, and he's a former teammate of mine, so I love the guy. I'm happy he's getting an opportunity. I am a huge fan of his. Kelvin Shepard now, D.C. Ty, I think if you're in the NFC North, I think you're liking what you're seeing out of that Detroit Lions defense, but if you're a Lions fan, you're going to be very worried. They had to get off the field like seven different times it felt like last night, and every time Josh Allen just, boop, boop, boop, easy, cake, first down. Now, the Buffalo Bills might be a biblical offense when it's all said and done, so maybe we're harshly judging it, but man, this is two weeks in a row where they've let offenses just dice them, Ty Schmidt. Yeah, I mean, I think you do take it maybe with a little grain of salt because the Bills obviously look unstoppable early here, but you mentioned it. Week one, they had that massive lead against the Saints, and you know, they end up having to go into overtime to beat them. I think it's pretty clear their offense can score with any buddy and will keep them in a lot of games, but early on here, they kind of have the feeling of like shades of the 2023-2024 Bengals where it's just like, hey, we're going to have to score 45, 52 points to put you away, and when you look at how deep the NFC is maybe shaking out to be, I just, I don't know if you can do that. I think, I don't know if they're going to make a change defensively. It's still a little early for that, but if they don't change things right now defensively, I mean, we're talking just free runners, guys wide open, blown coverages. If they don't change it quick, like, I don't think it's crazy to say, like, it's going to be very hard for Detroit to make the playoffs trying to score 50 points a game to beat everybody. Ty, right there, that Hembo stat, the Lions have allowed nine touchdowns on 10 red zone trips. That's brutal. Like, that's, that is very tough to get a win when that happens. Was there like a number when you were in the league like that you were looking for for your defensive red zone touchdown percentage to be, or was it just like, hey, let's try to hold them to three every single time? You always want to hold them to three obviously, but I don't know. I think every defensive coordinator has different, like, target goals. The good thing, we got a guy coming on here in a few minutes that we can ask him what his red zone philosophy would be when he was on defense and offense, but no, I mean, if they're scoring nine out of, they're scoring nine out of time, nine out of 10 times, they're not just scoring, they're scoring touchdowns. That's what's killer. You need to hold them to field goals as much as you possibly can, and Pat, I think you might have someone there that might have a couple answers for us on how to defend things like that. Yeah, certainly, ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, former NFL head coach, former NFL defense coordinator? Yeah. Yep, okay, former NFL, and then obviously the greatest college football coach of all time, Nick Saban, had a baby. Hey, coach! Coach, we're talking about last night's game. I don't know how much of it you got to see. The Buffalo Bills could do whatever they wanted to the Detroit Lions, and maybe the Buffalo Bills have the greatest offense in the history of football, which actually could be true, and the way they're talking about Joe Brady bringing in that youthful energy and the boys wanting to step on throats, and everybody kind of being on the same mission could kind of change how they finish these games or how these games go, but if you're the Detroit Lions, back-to-back weeks not great, weeks one and two, what is your messaging to the team, and if you got a chance to see this, what did you see out of the game? Well, I think the Buffalo Bills are just a dominant offensive team. I mean, they've shown that. I mean, Josh Allen's probably the best player right now in the NFL. You know, Joe Brady, I've always had a tremendous amount of respect for. He was at LSU in 2019 with Joe Brady, and they were lights out. They had great players, but he did a great job with them. So they have a combination of really good players, really good coaching, and I think they're going to be hard to beat, but if they can stay healthy, and the way this guy plays with reckless abandon at quarterback, you love it, but hopefully it doesn't bite him in the ass. Oh, you're saying the same thing that we were kind of saying there at the end. It's like he was running the ball. He's taking a lot of hits. A lot of hits. He's huge, though. You know, and there's a Buffalo Bills fan that works with Game Day, Matt Garrett, obviously. Gigantic head. His head is this helmet. Huge. Huge. Powerful. His head is this helmet right here. Okay? That's what it is. He's a gigantic brain guy. He's doing a great job, too. We are big fans. He's a Bills fan, though. And he says, you know, Josh Allen, he said last night, always ends up getting dinged up. It's like everybody in the NFL gets dinged up. Like, that does happen, especially if you're going to get tackled. He just has to stay away from missing time. Because if he's on the field, it feels like if he needs to make a play, he's going to make it. Almost feels like how Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey felt in the middle of their, like, Super Bowl run. Like, if they need to make a play, they're going to make a play. Josh Allen feels like that right now on himself. Okay, let's pivot away from last night's game. Let's go to tomorrow's game right here. Hey, you've experienced some returns to places after you've left them. LSU, you win a national championship. You leave LSU. You come back with Alabama. There's a lot of things being said. You're able to put it to rest, though, by beating them, which is a huge deal, from my understanding, the way you tell the story. How do you feel about tomorrow for Lane, actually? Do you feel like he is the type of person who loves the chaos? So maybe he's, like, going to be even better in it? Like, and how does his team react to all the chaos that is happening because of him in your eyes? Well, let me say this. I just saw Barrett Jones, who played for us at Alabama when we went back to LSU, and you can't really prepare your team for the chaos that they're going to come into. But if you can get your players to stay focused on what's going to happen on the field, then you've got a chance because I actually think that the emotion of the game and the situation for Ole Miss. playing at home with all this hoopla going around them, it's going to be harder for them to control the emotions of the game than it is the team on the road. You know, I love to play on the road in these kind of games because you don't have the distractions. You don't have the distractions. I mean, you're not exposed to all this stuff 24-7 unless you're watching TV. And I used to tell our players, don't watch TV and focus on the game. Well, it's not TV now. It's their phones. You know that. But your phone's a TV, so what makes a difference? True. But anyway, that's what I think the key to the game is, is, you know, what is your message to the team in terms of how you can keep them focused on what's going to happen on the field and playing in the game? Because, you know, great competitors love games like this. That's why they came to a place like this. That's why they came to Alabama. That's why they came to LSU to play in games like this. So now you have the opportunity. Focus on the right stuff. Okay, let's focus on the right stuff, which is on the field. What do you see from these two teams? Because I was down there for LSU Clemson on the field, had eyes on it. That was pretty, that was pretty dominant. I mean, it was incredible. Now, Louisiana Tech gives them problems. Obviously, the next week, that game's closer than anybody could imagine. Sam Levitt has some turnovers. Obviously, there's the doubtful injury report that is certainly cute that has come out from Lane Kiffin and LSU. But on the field, Trinidad, Kiwan Lacey, both Heisman candidate conversations going into the season. Right. Ole Miss, LSU, how's on the field matchup in your eyes? Well, in my mind, both of these teams are fantastic offensive teams. They've got really good players. I think Trinidad Chambliss is probably the most dynamic player in college football in terms of making plays when they're not there, but being very efficient in making plays when they are. I mean, this guy's a fabulous player. They've got a great runner. And so they got a great offensive team. LSU's got a great offensive team, in my opinion. You know, Sam Levitt's playing well. They can run the ball. Lane's a great play caller. Charlie Weiss does a great job. They're always going to get the best play by seeing what you're in on defense and taking advantage of it. But I think the difference in the game is how does LSU's defense match up with Ole Miss's defense? Because I think LSU's got some really good players on defense, and they've played really well on defense in two games, regardless of the rest of the stuff. Ole Miss has struggled a little bit, especially in the season. But I think they've got a really good defense. And I think they've got a really good defense. And I think in the secondary, giving up some big plays to Louisville, you know, when they played in that first game. Now, Pete's a great defensive coach. I'm sure he'll get it fixed. But I think right now, LSU's advantage is they have a little better defense. Okay, so you like LSU's defense. I did too. As I was watching, I'm going to do some tape on them. I know you got some tape tomorrow on game day. I'm excited for that show. Let's continue to talk about this game. A.J. Hawk, obviously the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, has a question for you, coach. Coach, we've seen the injury update with Sam Leavitt. Obviously went from doubtful to, I guess, probable now. Questionable. I don't know. They don't have the NFL injury reports. But I guess if you're Ole Miss' defense, the old thing is like, oh, we got to test him early. Let's see how healthy he is. Do you think that Ole Miss defense, has anything changed for them to try to get him to move around outside the pocket, do something to see how healthy he truly is? Well, if I was a betting man, I would say there's absolutely nothing wrong with Sam Leavitt. What do you mean by that? So I would be actually psychologically telling the defensive players that this doesn't matter. Sam Leavitt's going to play. He's going to be the best. We got to stop him. You know, don't lose your edge because you think he's not going to play. And then he shows up and plays and it's a downer. So you're expecting him to play whole? You're 100%? 100%. What? That's awesome. Is that how everybody in the SEC views that? As soon as Lane Kiffin puts that into the injury report, everybody that's ever been around him says, thanks. Thanks, Lane. We have to read that. Now we move on. We move on. That's amazing. This guy is a menace, bro. An absolute menace. Okay. Let's stay in the SEC. AP Tone has a question for you, coach. Yeah, coach. There's a big one in the SEC this weekend with Auburn and Florida, both programs looking to return back to their glory days. And they have two new head coaches in Alex Golesh and John Summerall who are coming in from Tulane in South Florida. If you're a coach making your SEC debut at night, they were coming in from Tulane and South Florida. How do you, like, if you're a both coordinators in the SEC, but how do you, how do you think these coaches are going to approach this one? And how do you feel about this one in the, their opener SEC openers for them? Well, I've been really impressed with Florida. I mean, they can run the ball, you know, Aaron has played really well at quarterback for him. They got some good receivers. I think John Summerall probably inherited a little better roster and added to it at Florida in terms of the kind of defense they can play. So I think he's going to be a good quarterback. I think he's going to be a good quarterback. I think Florida is a little bit further along as a team just based on the first two weeks of the season. I think Alex is going to do a really good job at Auburn. Byron Brown is a really good quarterback. Now he killed Florida last year and Florida had a good defense and he ran all over him and he was the difference in the game and maybe the best player. I think that Florida's defense better play with a lot of discipline in terms of how they control this guy in the pocket and how they don't give up explosive plays because his ability to scramble. I believe the last time Summerall and Golesh took each other on, Summerall had his way. Yeah, I believe. Yeah, John Summerall, when he was at Tulane, beat Alex Golesh. Golesh? Golesh? Golesh. Golesh? Sorry, Golesh, you're a legend. I appreciate what you're doing at Auburn. South Florida, last time they met, 45-10. Wanted to throw up. So he's been thinking about it since then. We'll see if that motivates or doesn't motivate. Let's move up to the Big Ten. Hey, the North had a massive win. Michigan beat Oklahoma. Welcome back. And then a massive loss. Ty Schmidt has a question for you. Yeah, coach, just curious, when it comes to the Big Ten, like, how do you handle, you know, maybe these early, like for Ohio State, obviously they have a lot to play still. How would you handle, you know, kind of this week of preparation when they have a Kent State coming in and not have like another deflating loss after what just happened at Texas knowing that, hey, everything we want to do is still out ahead of us? Yeah, well, I think players recently respond a lot better to bad things happening. I think, you know, the challenge is, is when you have a big win, how do you keep the players focused and not have the rat poison sort of affect them psychologically in terms of the things they need to do to improve? Because when you lose a game like Ohio State did, their players are going to be out to really prove that this is not the kind of team we are. We can play for 60 minutes. We're not going to lose our edge in a game again. So, you know, I think sometimes when we lost an early game, that really helped our team, you know, improve because sometimes when you win all the time, you need to lose just to get everybody back on track in terms of what they need to do to prepare the right way and go out there and be able to execute like they can. So I see Ohio State bouncing back with a vengeance. I think Texas is going to have to do a really good job of they got an easy opponent, which will be easier for them to do is to make sure that they don't sort of, you know, let the rat poison affect them. hire new coordinators was hire guys that were going to have the character, the leadership, the ability to present so that they could affect players in a positive way. But I also wanted to buy into the system because I didn't want to hire independent contractors that was going to come in and change everything for 50 players in the room who already knew the system that we were in that was already successful that they were loyal to. So how that all fits together and getting the right guy that's smart enough to be able to adapt to what you want to do but also have input in adding things that will help that and make it better but still impact the players in a positive way, that was always a challenge. Now, fortunately, I had a couple times where, unfortunately, we didn't hire the right guys and they couldn't do that. And that was really a tough thing for the head coach trying to manage, the toughest thing I ever had to deal with. Because your players know, too. The players know, too. Yeah, especially the ones that have been there before. That's right. So then whenever they're there again and it's like, this ain't good. How long does it take, Coach? And Oregon actually has more. More players returning than most teams. And maybe that's an issue for them. Go ahead, AJ. I'm just wondering, Coach, how long until you realize, hey, this might not be the right decision, this hire is not going to work out. How long does that take? Well, for me, it took one game. Okay. So because, you know, you have a plan. You try to get the guy to implement the plan. And that's the key to being a really good coordinator, in my opinion. Not necessarily. Not necessarily just the planning. But when you get in the game, can you implement the plan and take advantage of the things that you plan for so that you create an advantage for your players situationally? And, you know, I think Lane does that probably as well as anybody. I mean, he has a good plan. He sees what the defense is in. He's always running the best play, the most advantageous play that he can against them. And it creates a lot of problems. And it creates a lot of big plays for them. So, but you have guys that are great planners. They're not bad teachers. They're good coaches on the field. But when it comes to the game, they get marbles in their mouth. And they're calling the wrong thing at the wrong time. I mean, I remember games that we had when it's third down and six on the 45. And it's four down territory. And the defensive coordinator is putting dime in the game. I said, hey, man, it's four down territory. It's like third and three. We ain't putting dime in the game now. So, I mean, that can't implement the plan. So what did you do? So hold on. So after one week, this ain't it? And then you just said, give me the headset? Like how do you, that's a pretty big decision to have to make in front of everybody, a coordinator. Yeah. Well, I actually did what you said once and took it over when I was at Michigan State when I was young and dumb. And that probably wasn't great. But what I did, always did, was I tried to shift some responsibilities so that the staff could share more of the big picture stuff and have a little more input in what we're doing. Even in implementing the game plan on game day. Well, and you have to empower the other coaches that are probably maybe better coaches than the current coordinator who are probably not thrilled that that's the coordinator and they're not the coordinator. So you have to kind of balance that all as well, right? Yeah, and that's a tough dynamic. Yes. Yeah, certainly, especially if you like to keep them around, you know, for when this guy is gone. That is something you need to do. Replacing great coordinators. Is difficult. Yeah, and I assume in your documentary they'll dive into that. But that is something you were able to do. And we all just said, like, these coordinators were lucky. They were lucky to go to you, okay, because they got baptized in the Saban waters. And then what do they do? Boom, head coach here. Bang, head coach there. Hey, this guy had a massive collapse publicly. Nobody really likes him anymore. Boom, come down to the Saban waters, drink from it, bathe in it. Bang, head coach. Now you're back on top of the world. That is how we talk about it. But it feels like from your side, you're like, thank God these guys came down here and continued the standard of Alabama football because it's not easy to find good guys. I think that is a very difficult thing to do. That is true. But it was easy. It was easier for me for what you just said because guys wanted to come because they thought that was a way to enhance their career. If I go back and coach at Alabama and we win and I do a good job, I'm going to have a chance to be a head coach again. Or I'm going to have a chance to get to be a head coach because we're going to have success. So I was able to get some of the better guys out there to come to Alabama because of that, because they could see that they could enhance their chances of being successful. So I was at an advantage, really. Yeah, you were an advantage. Yeah, I would say. I was at an advantage. No, no. You were an advantage just in general. Okay, last question. We've got to talk about the ACC has a huge game. Go ahead, Con Man. Yeah, Coach. Sorry for asking about the ACC. I know how much you hate it. Louisville SMU. They're a good conference. I like Miami. They're in the ACC. But I love them. I think Mario's done a great job there, done a great job recruiting, putting the roster together. They're well coached. I've watched them play. They're very good. So let's take Miami out of the ACC. There you go. There's other teams. Well said, Coach. Unbelievable. Go ahead, Con. Yeah, I figured you'd bring up Miami, especially because disciple of yours to that conversation we were just having with Mario Cristobal. But SMU Louisville, kind of a sneaky game of the weekend almost, aside from Ole Miss, LSU. They're going in. It's on ESPN, too, of course. But still, massive, massive game. How do you approach it? How do you approach a game this big, especially in conference, this early in the year? Is it one of those things where, hey, empty the clip, play, do everything you can to win this game, call every play you possibly can, don't hide anything? Or how do you approach this if you are Louisville and SMU? Well, I think the big thing is have a good plan, but have a plan that the players can execute. You know, like sometimes in games like this, people wanted to do too many different things, to your point. They wanted to do something to trick the other team. And, you know, my whole thing was, hey, how about they know we're going to run the ball on first and two at the two, and we knock it up their ass anyway. That's the kind of team I wanted. I wanted the players to believe in that and believe in what they were doing. In fact, I've had players come to me, especially on offense, when we'd put all this stuff in because we were in a big game, and the players would come to me and say, Coach, we believe in what we've been doing. I mean, we've been scoring 45 points a game, and what we've been doing. Why are we changing all this stuff just because we're playing in this game? Because they believe and trusted in what they were doing. So it's a fine line between, yeah, we have to make some changes because they know what we do. We have to break some tendencies. They know what we do. But at the same time, we've got to do the things that our players can go out there and do and execute well and have confidence in so we play our game because it's going to be about what we do on the field. It's not going to be about what the other guys do. But I think this game that you're talking about, it's going to come down to which quarterback plays the best in this game, who takes care of the ball and who makes the most plays because they're both really good players. Yeah, very good players. Kevin Jennings versus Lincoln Cainholz, 77% completion percentage for Jennings, 68%. 403 total yards per game, 375. 14, damn near 15 yards per attempt to 13 yards per attempt, eight touchdowns, two interceptions, 4-0. Rush to touch. Lincoln there can move. He's like a Josh Allen. This guy. He's fun to watch, too. He'll throw some suspect balls, I would say, but that can certainly create some electricity for the squad. And then Kevin Jennings, he's been in that system so long that whenever they're down in Florida State and they didn't have any communications, like whenever he got to Rhett Lashley, that was how it was anyways. So you're talking about a lot of experience, a lot of talent. They're talking about him like, hey, why isn't he in the Heisman conversation? Yeah, well, you know, but his M.O. is taking care of the ball. If he takes care of the ball, this guy's going to make enough plays. And I always try to tell our quarterback, if you can eliminate the bad plays, you guys make enough good plays. But when you try to force things to make more plays is when you get in trouble. Eliminate the bad plays and keep the good ones, and we're going to be great. That's good coaching. Good coaching. Score more points. Score more points than them. Oh, that's it. It's an easy game. Easy. Hiring coordinators, easy. Easy. They all want to come. Some of them, man. Oh, probably. Coach, thank you so much. I know you have a. A couple friends with you as well. I'm happy they got a chance to hang out. Miss Terry's here. Great to see you. Obviously, entire team. Miss Amy back there. We're very grateful. But, you know, I really appreciate, you know, that Jason and Lisa made a huge commitment to Nick's kids and to the Saban Center, which is an educational center for young people, to come on this trip. And they come on this trip to see you. No. And to meet you. That's why. Yeah, right. It was an incredible time. It was an incredible time to meet you guys. They were at the meeting earlier. I believe we got to. I'm going to a hilarious event this evening. Are you going to that thing? If you're going, I'm going. What do you mean? There we go. Yeah. Or what? Because you're going to be where it's happening. Mud wrestling? It's a good call there. Governor's ball? No, it's not mud wrestling. Whoever said that, I think that was Chris Mad Dog Russo back there in the studio. It's a cocktail hour. I've never done a cocktail hour before. Oh, they're the best. Is it before, like, a dinner? Or a wedding? Yeah. Yeah, I think it is. I don't think there's a wedding. I think this is like a super. This might be like the biggest suity thing I've ever potentially ever walked into. I'm pretty pumped up about the opportunities. I don't know how many of these I'll get invited to, so I think I am going to go in there. Jorts and a tank top, for sure. Yeah, it sounds good. For sure. Get slammed, dude. I love cocktail parties. They're the best. Because I get a ginger ale with a twist, and everybody thinks I'm drinking when I don't. Genius. Genius. Giving toast to everybody Don't do that Oh yeah That's what I'll do tonight I'll smoke some sage, too, to keep the good vibes. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, all right, ladies and gentlemen, the greatest of all time, Coach Steven. Hey, Coach. Thank you, Coach Tone. Quick to you. What's going to happen in this game? What's the line? Where are the betters? So the line has been anywhere between minus three to minus one and a half for LSU, depending on the injury report and what time the injury report comes out and what you're looking at. Back up to minus three right now. Total is 58 and a half, which is a ton of points. 24-20, I think, was the score between these two teams last season, but they've had very, very high-scoring games between these two. I mean, it's going to come down to the quarterbacks, Sam Levitt, Trinidad Chambliss, and then that LSU defense, if they can get Trinidad under control or maybe just say, hey, he's going to get his. We just have to make them matriculate down the field, if you will. But, I mean, just one of the most anticipated games of all time. Very, very excited. Do you think it lives up to the hype as far as the scoring? I do. I think so. I mean, like, LSU has a very, very good defense, but it's very hard. Like, Trinidad is absurd. We watched that last year in person against Miami. And then the Ole Miss defense, I mean, they had a very, very hard time against Louisville. Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe that was a wake-up call. But, yes, when Lane and Charlie Weiss Jr. are calling the plays on the other side, I do think it's going to be high-scoring for sure. Tom, man, what do you think? Are you excited? Yeah, I'm pretty jacked up. And even if it's not high-scoring, this is one of those games, because of what the atmosphere is going to be, because of just all the fodder around Lane Kiffin and all the hate from Ole Miss to Lane Kiffin, it's just going to be awesome to see what it's all about. You know? It feels as though this will be one of those crowds that you remember. And even if it is just smash-mouth 2017 defense, that is going to be entertaining, too. I can't wait to watch this football game. Yeah, Pat, can you imagine what that first third down that LSU is on the field, their offense on the field, how loud that Ole Miss crowd is going to be? So, I got to experience that down at LSU whenever Clemson had their first third down, first big third down. And it was deafening, obviously shaking, and that was after a two-hour delay or whatever the case was. And it almost felt like the most obvious pick-six in history. Like, it felt like the most obvious. And I actually said that. I told Gumpy, we were sitting in a – oh, what's his name? What's the fine gentleman's name? Great man. He was a great man. He was a great man. He's a great man. Oh, my God. Great person, sitting in his suite. Ed Orgeron. No, he does, Coach O, for sure. But nonetheless, I'm sitting there, in there, with Gumpy. We got great seats. Reese Davis is doing some handshaking back here. We just kind of get the chance to do this. Very, very thankful for Ray, I think is his name. Nonetheless, the place is going crazy. Gumpy's right next to me. I'm like, this is the most obvious pick-six of all time. Timeout is called. Remember, Clemson calls timeout. They leave the field. Then they come back out. Same. Gets loud again. Same exact formation. I'm like, so they just let – they just let them see, basically, what they're about to do. This is the most – this is a clear pick-six. Like, I wish in real time I could have gone, gone and did that pick-six. It was so clear. It was so obvious. And Sam Leavitt has turned the ball over already. So, if this place, which I've heard, yes, can get crazy, I do think that is the difference between, like, college environments and NFL environments. It can actually rattle folks. It can make people make bad decisions. It can make, you know, have to hurry up or make something you were not supposed to do. I think Ole Miss does have quite an advantage. But if Sam Leavitt and LSU come out and just kill them, that takes the entire advantage away. And then everybody walks out of here just thinking, like, well, I guess he did the right thing. Now, let's go back to last night's game. You were talking about can it live up to the hype. I can't believe last night's points lived up to the hype. I can't believe with how much everybody was talking about it. Even the sports book, we talked to DraftKings. They were heavily – tonight there's more action on the over for this, they said, than any action on Jalen Brunson during the NBA finals or something like that. It felt like everybody on earth saw the same thing that we were all seeing. And, obviously, it hits way over. Now, there was a couple injuries and some other storylines, coming out. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, with his weekly wrap-up with Rap Sheet and Friends, he being Rap Sheet, us being the Friends, junior NFL insider for ESPN and NFL Network, Ian Rapoport. Yeah, Rap Sheet! What's up? What's going on? What's up? What's up, junior? I'm down here in Oxford having a good time. I hope your life is spectacular. We're back at it for week two of the NFL. Debuted a brand-new stadium last night. I think Highmark Stadium certainly showcased itself well. Let's talk about some of the storylines coming out of there. DJ Moore sprained a C-joint is what we saw. What does that mean for a wide receiver? It means that it's probably best-case scenario. I mean, he landed hard. You know, all the Twitter doctors were kind of up in arms about, you know, reading his eulogy and all of that. And then it's like sprained A-C joint, day-to-day. We'll see if he's able to play next week. They got kind of a little extra time, obviously, because they played on Thursday. But not major. Separated shoulder, essentially, which is what an A-C joint sprain is. I think, you know, should be okay long-term for sure. So, definitely good outcome for the Bucs. What else? Okay, the other storyline out of last night, as we will continue to ask you about some injury updates here in a rather of moments, the Detroit Lions' defense has just been decimated with injuries, but also dominated by other teams on a regular basis. And Foxy will probably tell you a little bit more. We love Kelvin Shepard. We really like Kelvin Shepard. Love him. We like – I genuinely love Kelvin Shepard. But, I mean, there's got to be a lot of eyes on that. What are we thinking from the Detroit perspective? Because is Josh Allen maybe going to go on? Is Josh Allen going to go on and have the greatest season of all time? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. And they just ran into a buzzsaw here. That should be said. But what are the conversations on some of these teams or some of these units that don't perform great early? Yeah, I mean, I would say, you know, Kelvin Shepard is a really good, young, respected defensive coordinator. And my guess is the Lions are going to be fine. But what I think you see early on this year, and Cowboys are kind of going through it as well, even the Texans, who are awesome, and I think he's going to be one of the best defenses in the NFL, week one. Week two. Week three. Looked a little different. You know, you haven't tackled a ton. A lot of coordinators put a lot on the plate of a lot of these young players. And you get into week one or two, and some can handle it and some cannot. And then some others have to face Josh Allen, which, you know, when you have Buss in the secondary, which is what it looked like, who knows, that doesn't help either. I expect the Lions to kind of get it together. And I would also say that, you know, as we kind of get through the season, you look at the teams who still have needs. I would wonder about the Lions looking for another, looking for a little help in the secondary. Like, is there a corner available, potentially, that they could say, you know what, we're going to go sign this guy, we're going to go trade for this guy. Who would that be, Rap? Who's out there? I mean, Joey Porter Jr. is the one that comes to mind. As of now, like, I haven't sensed a lot of activity there. But for me, you know, and I know, I'm sure we'll get into that in a sec, but if there is a trade, I mean, those trade partners would make sense to me. Now, can they do a deal? Are the Lions? Are the Lions interested? What about the money? I mean, there's a lot. But I'm just saying, like, the Lions have never been shy about making a big move to fix something or add something. I would say that would be one I'd be kind of keeping an eye on. What would that be worth? Weren't they saying a first-rounder or something? Is that what the conversation has been around since this conversation started with Joey Porter Jr. potentially being shopped around the block? Yeah, I mean, a first-rounder would be great. You know, into the season, there's not a lot of precedent. Like, I don't know if there's – actually, I'm not sure if there's any precedent of a player being traded in-season for a first-rounder. I'm sure I could find someone. You know, but if it's – you can always make it work with compensation, right? Like, let's say it's a second-rounder plus something else. Like, you can always find a sweet spot with additional picks. But, I mean, you know, that's a situation that I am – I mean, obviously, we've talked about it, but, like, he goes out to the walkthrough yesterday or the practice yesterday while reporters are watching. You see the trainer leave with Porter. You know, we'll see what his – what his status is this weekend. I'd be a little surprised if he plays. It's just – I just don't know how that gets better. They don't negotiate during the season. That's been their historical stance. So, how actually does this situation get better? Yeah, it's their public stance currently as well. You know, so they came out and said, we will once again let everybody know that we, the Pittsburgh Steelers, do not negotiate during the season. Now, that's a great leverage piece to have as an organization that has a pretty high-priced potential free agent. Amongst them, so you can just say, oh, that's what we do. Sorry, just what we do. I know Baker Mayfield put a deadline on his – I was just thinking that. I was just thinking that. Like – Yeah, sorry. But Omar Khan – but if Omar Khan sets precedent here and pays somebody during the season, then they pay somebody during the season. You know, so that's always the constant battle that a franchise is kind of figuring out. Baker Mayfield saying there's a hard deadline and then accepting a big money afterwards. It's like precedent has been set that if Baker puts a deadline on it and you offer him over $110,000 – $110,000, he will take it, okay? Now, the precedent for the Pittsburgh Steelers is that if we don't do this, you know, so as soon as you do one, obviously you do a bunch more. But they did pay $30 million a year to a wide receiver, which they've never done in the past as well. So, interesting dynamics wherever you talk about the business behind it all and what Omar wants to do and what Joey Porter Jr. feels like he deserves at this exact moment. I feel like they should have been trying to get this deal done before the season started if Omar had been telling him publicly and also saying publicly we won't negotiate during the season. So, I mean, what are we doing, man? Yeah. I mean, you know, get his mind over there. Yeah, I mean, I just – you really broke down the good points that it's like – you know, and precedent is important and teams stand by it all the time. But the Steelers – and I don't mean to like – this is not picking on the Steelers. Like, you do what you need to do to get the deal done. But, like, they've also been big on not giving guarantees into the second year. And they've done it for a quarter. but then they also did it for TJ, who was special, deserves all the things but then they did it for DK who you needed to do it because it was a trade but so it's like you do what you need to do it's like parenting right it's like you do what you need to do to get through to the next day to then be a parent again right like you have to hold the screen for a second like obviously it's bad you don't want that but like hey look I'm working and like you got to give the screen you know it's like you do what you got to do to survive the next day so we'll see what happens I just I've been thinking about it a lot and I have not come up with any good answers unfortunately okay thank you for doing that rap just continue to put your mind around it and maybe we can get to the bottom of it at some point we're trying to get to the bottom of a situation that's uh burning over there in the natty go ahead Ty Schmidt yeah rap sheet just curious uh Joe Bureau Joe Burrow he didn't practice Wednesday or Thursday and kind of you know sent red flags up hey what's going on with this guy we saw him kind of land awkwardly it looked like an elbow but then they were saying it was his back uh he did practice in full today was this just out of like an abundance of caution or how should we be uh looking at this situation with Joe Burrow is he going to be less than 100 going into Sunday yeah I didn't view it as an abundance of caution it felt like he was pretty tight like you're the hit you're talking about which I think was the sort of sideline scramble it's tough to know but that was kind of what I thought like and what they thought uh that he you know developed the tightness in the back I guess but like sound like Wednesday was not great Thursday he did throw a little bit so that was a little bit better Thursday and then today through and from the reporters on the scene like Ben baby and others sounded like you know he was as close to 100 as you could ask maybe not quite there but like it's not a great thing you know he's a rotational athlete like definitely something to keep watching he's gonna play um but how close to 100 is he gonna be like yeah I mean that's the hit right there it's not it would probably for me cause a little more than back tightness I would say um we'll see if he's actually 100 you know hopefully he is okay Joe Burrows certainly warranted of a conversation if he's missing practice this early because of how big of a superstar he is let's look at some of the other star statuses around the league rap you can kind of bounce around to see what you see and tell us what we can maybe expect from them this weekend okay so we'll start with Aaron Donald I mean he went through practice yesterday um sounded like he was all out there all the time like my understanding has been the target has been Monday Night Football at home against the Giants we'll see how he goes through the week but like that would be a very very cool debut um and I would say that's that's definitely one that we're watching and keeping an eye on but the hope is that he plays on Monday night Zay Flowers was back at practice that's great uh didn't seem to do very much that's not as great maybe that's one that takes another week uh but official status is coming there um Brock Bowers hasn't practiced yet I was told one or two weeks so hopefully if it's not this week he's going to be back in practice and he's going to be back in practice and he's next week uh Nico Collins did not practice today that's not good uh he had a little hamstring pro in the week doesn't seem serious but like no practice Thursday no practice Friday generally not great and then Kyler you know if he can get to a full participation today then I would say it's likely he starts Sunday um but that's another one that you know it's concussion so it's basically going to be decided by the doctors and we'll see what they think they end up deciding since what like 2024 has anybody only missed one the rest of the game with a concussion I don't think everybody misses two weeks at least right AJ and that kind of yeah I was gonna ask I was thinking the same thing has anyone got knocked out in one game left for concussion and then gone on protocol and made it back for the following game wrapped yeah it it has happened I think it's a little less than 50 percent sort of historically about whether a you know for me it's like I want to get as much information as I can it's almost impossible to report on concussions like they're all different every player is different every how they respond to the protocol is different so like you can't guess you know so like it looks like based on where he's progressed that he has the chance but like you really just don't know until the doctors clear him yeah the doctors clearing him all comes down to him clearing himself basically you know because it's a lot of how do you feel how do you see there's a lot of that type of thing that can happen and there's a baseline sort of measure that they have to get to to be clear and that's the independent neurologist who ultimately decides so the independent neurologist and also the baseline test which is a whole nother how'd you do on the baseline is a question yeah yeah did you rig the baseline which some of these meatheads do okay some of these meat just so people understand they're in go ahead I think that's I think that's why whenever they talk about like NFL doctors and trainers they're like I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't staffs and stuff and people like put them down you know whenever a mistake is made sometimes there is ineptitude as you go ahead bop your mic around sometimes there is ineptitude of course and all that but the difference between like an NFL doctor and like your doctor is like a lot of people are lying to the NFL doctors because they're trying to play so they keep their jobs so they don't get fired okay so that that's like an entire thing so just the thought of a doctor having to make a decision on how somebody's brain feels and then also the thought of the players tanking the baseline at the beginning of the season so that whenever they're potentially knocked out later and a little bit slower they're trying to guess what these are all things that guys are based on it's like 30 questions right AJ isn't like 30 questions if you remember yeah I don't know I just I quick through them so fast it didn't matter exactly it's like 30 questions AJ I never had to take a follow-up baseline though I never had to take one hey you got you got dinged up take this and we'll compare I never had the the second one so these guys are taking the baseline like the NFL is like hey we're gonna take care of this we're gonna do this entire thing and I'm like yes I agree I'm happy we're doing that good for players uh for the rest of our lives like everybody has to take a baseline test now it's a new thing that's being initiated because of Dr. Will Smith you go in there and then guys are like looking at each other like we're not trying to do good on this right like what do you mean it's like no we're trying because when we take this again we're gonna be we're not gonna be able to see anything they're gonna take us out of the game yeah right then we get fired so guys are tanking the baseline test so they can take the baseline test and then we're gonna take the baseline test happen not everybody just saying guys at bottom of roster who are trying to survive in this entire thing so the concussion thing is very much like a baseline thing but also how are you feeling do you have a headache so hopefully Kyler gets back but if not the Carson Wentz experience lives on we got 20 seconds till a hard out anything we missed that needs to be brought up rap sheet uh Cooper Rush looks like he's starting again for the Falcons Michael Penix not quite ready didn't take the reps today so from QB3 to Falcons starter in a couple weeks let's say Cooper Rush again okay he didn't play great we'll see if he gets better that's Ian Rappaport AJ Hawk we'll be back on the other side be a friend tell a friend something nice it might change your life goodbye there's nothing worse than waking up sick and this time of the year with the kids back in school surrounded by hundreds of others yours may bring home a whole new world of viruses and bacteria your family may not have immunity to no kids viruses are everywhere and one ugly strand just showed up now it's 2 a.m your throat feels like strep and your fever's spiking urgent care get dressed and wait in a room full of sick people you're a doctor good luck folks or open your medicine cabinet and smile because you have a fully stocked medical emergency kit from the wellness company it's an urgent care and drugstore at home it contains essential prescription medications in your name for over 30 common conditions strep throat sinus infections pneumonia UTI stomach bugs and more plus telehealth doctors standing by for questions I trust my medical emergency kit and I can save $45 right now visit urgentcarekit.com slash sports promo code sports that's urgentcarekit.com slash sports promo code sports every game every practice every moment we rely on energy more than we realize from the courts and fields we play on to the gear athletes use to the technology and transportation that bring fans together energy powers it all and energy transfer helps safely deliver the energy that keeps it all moving oil and natural gas help make thousands of everyday products possible supporting sports and the moments that connect us so whether you're playing watching or cheering it on it takes energy visit it takes energy.com to learn more he's the absolute greatest and that is why I'm down here in Oxford Mississippi as Ole Miss and Pete Golding who'll be joining us I believe about an hour from now on our digital side of this particular program hosts Lane Kiffin in LSU LSU three-point favorites over under 58 and a half both offenses are obviously electrifying and the crowd is going to be a bit loud when it comes to Lane Kiffin what will it have in store after an incredible day of college football how will the nightcap go well it's first time they've been top 10 teams face each other since like the 70s whenever you think about how Pete Golding got his job it's because how Lane Kiffin left this particular job and if you ask the locals they're very excited to welcome Lane back in a way that they think he deserves Lane Kiffin excited to come back in here maybe ruin their entire to hell with Lane Kiffin party that they're hosting now 1962 was the last meeting between LSU and Ole Miss in which both teams are ranked inside the top 10 Ole Miss won 15 to 7 so if history tells us anything maybe Ole Miss wins this one in a low scoring affair like it was the last time they were top 10. teams or maybe they light it up in the last team with the ball is the team that wins LSU's defense very good 142 yards allowed per game Ole Miss's defense has certainly given up some yards 395 and a half can Sam Levitt quarterback of the Tigers keep the ball or will he be a turnover machine if he's able to do that LSU probably wins pretty mightily if Ole Miss's defense can step up look at Ole Miss might get one of the biggest wins that they've ever had I just got a text from Hembo saying hey I think you could say that this is the most anticipated sports event in the history of the state of Mississippi he started looking into it and I'm like all right thank you for doing the Mississippi history but I would say Kirk Herbstreet and others are saying is this might be the most anticipated at least college game day that they have felt we have no idea what the crowd is going to be like out there we have no clue how this is all going to go and obviously tomorrow night we have a bit of a feeling but until it happens how do you really know back in the Thunderdome a man who made the travel over from Dublin Ohio which is inside Columbus I believe a college football national champion Super Bowl champion Ryder Cup winner A.J. Hawkins Ohio State Michigan obviously a massive rivalry not a lot of love for either side even though Whittingham came out and said I got no problem with Ohio I mean I kind of like Ryan David sat down with Urban Meyer too sat down did an interview with Urban yeah so obviously maybe you guys are all kumbaya up there in Ohio State Michigan but I know you're no stranger to hating a team just naturally this is what sports does we hate this team this is what rivalries are it feels a little different down here how does that affect the game you think actually A.J. you know as a guy who played in the Ohio State Michigan rivalry a lot as somebody who grew up in Ohio and understood how the Ohioans would treat you guys if you were to lose to Michigan how do you affect it how do you think it affects the players Lane born in the chaos is his team ready for all that because they're certainly getting dragged into it because of it all and then for Pete Golding it's like does Pete Golding know that his life is just chaos too because the way he got a head coaching job as Lane left it's like who do you think it benefits and how do you think it affects the players here all the drama outside man I think it definitely affects the players but I think it affects them for each squad like hey I want to I want to represent I want to do this for our guy like who is who is behind their coach more is it Ole Miss with Golding or is LSU in Lane Kiffin and I know Pat you can tell me if you've had any of this I'm sure you had some of this with Rich Rod in college like if people are I don't know like there's so much talk of Lane Kiffin we know that I think he's even mentioned how this is kind of taking some pressure off the players because they're focusing so much on Lane's return to Ole Miss all this I think if you want to ride with your coach and you want to like have your coaches back that's how I think this affects you like man they're saying if I'm if I'm LSU and I'm on a team I'm I'm all in on Lane Kiffin I'm thinking like hey they're saying crazy stuff about our coach or all the stuff we need to make sure we go out and we represent and we win for this dude and same thing with with Ole Miss and Golding I think both these teams have a feel of that and we'll see Saturday night I guess how it all plays out but that's how I would want to rally behind my coach yeah and let's go to the toxic table con man uh Lane Kiffin we heard him at halftime say the whole world hate you mm-hmm now you go tell him you can go fudge yourself okay that that is what he said but he didn't say fudge no no no I didn't he said F dash dash dash to the team and it did rally the boys and they did crush in the second half so I think he has built up that hey we are hated mentality he uh I believe he employed some of the fraternity Bros around LSU campus to come before practice hold signs and chirp to the boys as they walk into practice so I think that is something that has happened he's obviously put up quotes from people saying they hate Lane or they hate LSU all around the practice facility it feels like Lane is trying his best you know to kind of let the lads know but I think they have rallied around Lane thus far had a sandwich game last week but I do think they come in here understanding they're the villains understanding that the bad guys understanding they are the reason well Lane more specifically is the reason for the most anticipated game of the years thus far so I think the boys are ready for that type of pressure or how do you think they handle it uh Connor and then on the other side Ole Miss what an opportunity to stick it to a guy that is being certainly uh talked about as a guy that stuck it to your entire University yeah and that's what's awesome about the LSU side of this thing is like you can rally around your coach here and and it feels as though you know the first couple games Clemson and the sandwich game that you mentioned LSU of course you got to take care of business but all eyes have been on week three for both of these teams and even Ole Miss having to play Louisville week one that was a big game that was the only ranked matchup of the week sure that was big all eyes have been on this game so for LSU it's one of those things hey we're going into an environment where our coach is going to get basically berated with every word in the book that you can imagine and we kind of have to stand on business for him and I'm sure Lane thinks the same thing too like hey I want to put up a hundred goals on these guys and I need you guys to go out there and execute for me with me against this team and then yeah for Ole Miss I I don't know I I wonder how the Ole Miss team feels about it you know I don't know how much hate there is from the Ole Miss players towards Lane Kiffin but of course the environment the the people around him you know I was just in my head picturing what would happen to you if you were to pick LSU on game day tomorrow and what that type of reaction would be like but I think the outside perception is hey LSU is probably going to go in there and kind of beat their ass but I don't know if that's how people are feeling in general that's kind of what I'm thinking but I hope that that's not the end result just because for sure the the hate from Ole Miss is real and the people and the fans and the entire state for LSU I just don't know if it has that same mentality within the team because I don't know if the players actually hate Lane Kiffin for what he did because they kind of understand the business of the entire thing it feels like that's the one aspect of NIL when it comes to the players and coaches that has changed a little bit when it comes to coaches switching jobs but I I can't wait I I do hope that it is kind of a route shootout who's the last one with the ball type of game but no matter what I mean that first quarter uh hopefully it's zero zero by the end of the first quarter just because then it will be one of those hey the environment's going to start to cook start to eat here a little bit but I can't wait and I do uh just wonder now I strictly want you to pick LSU just to see what happens uh behind you after that would uh kind of basically be like a Bama Georgia once you call the dogs and then pick Bama yeah I understand that you would like me to do that just strictly for the chaos I'm just just um have you thought about that naturally have I thought about it yeah yeah yeah I've thought about it here I'm going to send a video that I was sent it was making its way around um college football circles this is um this is the video from practice of Lane hiring the fraternity bros I just sent it to the group it might come through uh trashy I'm not connected to the internet let me know if it's blurry I'll set it but there there's actual like due diligence being done on people saying terrible things to these guys before they're walking into the stadium like that's the attention to detail that I think college football has that maybe you know no other sport has and I I said at the beginning and I made it if there's conversations about like is this team safe to go play a football game in a place I like it I like that that is even a thought yeah here's the uh here's the video look at all the turn of the sound up shit weeks is it that crazy though like that is that is a hilarious thing to think about and it's like that's what college football has that nobody else has and you know obviously there's already a bunch of sheets on windows and signs and good one we assume tomorrow morning is going to be outrageous like we uh this is this is cool I'm very happy that this is happening all right let's pivot to last night and to the NFL slate as a whole let's go to one half of the hammer died Cowboys AP tone what did last night tell us about NFL week two potentially tone digs it kind of carried over a um a trend from week one where the favorites uh the favorites had their way kind of in the week one I believe they were ten and six in week one and then now obviously the favorites start again with a win here in week two and the high scoring continues again in week two we talked about you know a tide for the highest scoring week one of all time then you score 70 points in the first game of week two it doesn't feel like it's letting up as far as points are concerned in this one and the favorites so far are covering because of all those points normally when the the dogs and the dogs start covering and winning is when it's a low scoring game and you know in and kind of in this situation where the cream rises to the top with the scoring and the good teams and the favorites that's kind of what the trend has been from week one to week two so far 117 teams have allowed 30 plus points in each of their first two games 93 of them want oh and two 21 of them want one and one three one two and oh 20 26 bills 2 000 Rams 1991 bills so the bills have lived this life a couple different times I think obviously it's a massive compliment to what Josh Allen is capable of accomplishing can you hang on that long and win in the end or is your defense have to make some plays at some point let's assume Jim Leonard is able to get the Bills defense a little bit better but that Detroit Lions defense man Foxy in the back they're talking about maybe trading for Joey Porter Junior does that solve it yeah i mean anything will help this defense has been i've watched a lot of lions in my entire life 32 years of living this defense is up there with the worst they've ever had they're comparing this defense right now to the 2008 detroit lions defense do you know how many games the 2008 detroit lions won boys zero zero games okay so we have three games until our bye week we have the jets we have the panthers we have the cardinals we better win those games the defense better look better and then hopefully after that bye week we get brian branch back i'm not expecting kirby joseph back but that would be an absolute bonus and then to your point why not go get joey porter jr yeah i just couldn't i mean are they willing to pay him and give up give up what at least one first round no historically the lions and brad holmes have not done that they don't go get a from outside the building pay him and trade a lot of assets for him because they value those draft picks so much so if they did do that i and most lions fans would be absolutely shocked there was a uh we guys were talking about with rap the first round pick it during the season minka fitzpatrick got traded in week two from the dolphins to the steelers for a first round pick so that was the the one that i could find sauce last year yeah oh yeah oh yeah that worked out and quinn and williams it works out when you do it minka was a great pittsburgh stealer sauce gardener is gonna have an incredible run with the indianapolis colts we're waiting for that to start he still has yet to win a game right uh i think so yeah he's still i don't even think he won a game last year with the jets right and then he came to the colts we didn't win a game i think you're once he got here and then we start really definitely yeah so sauce needs one sauce needs one we appreciate sauce a big time trade like this obviously maybe what joey porter jr's team is waiting on maybe that's why he showcased that he could practice that he's out of practice is he still hurt the teams want to hurt give up a one or something like that obviously storyline will continue to develop especially if defenses continue to be asked the conversation around the monday night game with the rams and the giants is is aaron donald returning and why have they not told us they don't have to tell us aj right they don't have to tell us so we just kind of just have to live and die by we're just going to find out right before game time that aaron donald's playing i guess i mean they got to designate what's he designated right now do we know i think he was full in practice yesterday full practice but they have they won't commit to whether he's playing or not he's got a lot of to be playing right i mean i know we assume we assumed he was playing the first game kind of but now i think we feel like he's got to go yeah i and if you look at that game just from a logistical standpoint i believe the giants are traveling out on saturday i heard this from gordo from the monday night countdown team they're traveling out i think the giants are traveling out earlier to la than the rams travel to australia so that'll be you know kind of something to see how it pans out across country trip new york and la on monday night football cannot wait to see if john harbaugh's giants can go back to back with their style of play aj they just pummeled that dallas cowboys team dallas scored in both of their possessions in the second half it did not matter the giants just kind of boa constricted them out of physicality out of their entire life ty schmidt giants might be for real there's a lot of these games this weekend where we i think we are going to start crowning teams even though it's way too early time yeah no i i agree and i think you know especially it's kind of what we talked about in the preseason and in the offseason leading up with the giants it was how big of an impact is john harbaugh going to make and i think it was easy to say hey you know he's going to come in and he is a winner so he's going to win things just got stale in baltimore but it was very evident in that cowboys game just how different they look the philosophy looks completely different jackson dart looks like a completely different quarterback he looks much more comfortable than he did week one and you know i think for a lot of these teams around the league who we're maybe kind of hesitant to to crown the the difference between going you know one and oh to two and oh especially if we thought that team might go on to like look at look at some of the teams that could potentially go oh and two this week i mean you think of the packers the rams the broncos like there are a handful of colts colts sure you add them to the list there are a handful of teams who had legitimate super bowl aspirations who again oh and two record doesn't mean that you know you can't do everything you want to put the patriots on there but but it certainly does we i mean we've seen the stats like you know digging yourself out of that own two hole when you're not playing your best ball like this kind of just goes to show how we talk every year there there are probably four to five teams every year who are much better than everyone anticipates and they put themselves in position to you know be a playoff team early on in the season yeah i uh i would like to see my team be undefeated from the beginning to the end only one team has obviously done that the 72 dolphins you're gonna lose a game at some point we all just understand that but stats tell us you lose early and you lose often that probably means your team might actually be ass you know that actually that might mean your team is not good now i'm not saying the culture dead okay because they took on a baltimore ravens team let's flip to the other side let's not talk about being dead let's talk about being alive i think we all crowned josh allen in the bills last night even though we are a little bit worried about their defense right yep very yes we're a little bit worried about their defense baltimore ravens not a lot of conversation probably because they beat the colts maybe they don't have enough respect for the colts lamar jackson looked perfect their offensive line looked perfect jesse minter's defense looked like they were everywhere obviously we didn't have an answer for anything in special teams the guy hit a 58 yard field goal so whenever you talk about the baltimore ravens i think you have to talk about maybe a team that can get it done this year then the kansas city chiefs they're back to ground and pound with great defense patrick holmes still patrick holmes travis kelsey looks like he drank from the fountain of youth and kenneth walker the super bowl mvp's run all over the yard and they're coming out and saying hey yeah we're trying to run through people this year travis kelsey told jason kelsey hey we since day one of the enemy being back in the spring the only messaging from the team has been hey we're gonna run through a mother's face okay that's what he said we're gonna run through a mother's face run through it run through it run through it and they did so they're telling people openly like hey this is the chief's brand of football and they slaughtered the number one seed in the afc last year so it's like the team's at the top that we have to give credit to seattle seahawks still the seattle seahawks even with drew lock i think so he looked pretty damn good we'll see defense definitely still is tough one on the road with michael flores boys okay so we got to show respect to the seattle seahawks because they're super bowl champions we watch hard knocks we respect the hell out of them buffalo bills obviously we're crowning because josh allen's going to get it done in the end if he needs one no matter how many points the defense gives up is how we feel uh chiefs we got to feel good about how they're playing because the way they're playing is something that can sustain into the colder weather into the playoffs and if patrick behold starts picking up his shit and and by picking up his shit i mean they start utilizing his shit more alongside that kenneth walker once they're able to suck up the linebackers and drop in behind travis kelsey obviously goat in the tight end community uh if they're able to do that i like them and in the baltimore ravens i got them sitting atop a lot as well new york giants can obviously move their way into the conversation of teams that we think can win in the end but i don't think it's just winning a game i think it's a style in which you do it so that leads to the chicago will they after last year having so many turnovers and kind of live and die off of that on the defensive side will they be able to shut it down a little bit more as their offense potentially does historic stuff feels like there's six to seven teams that i have kind of maybe uh looking like they could go on a run but obviously there's question marks across the board aj yeah let's see who can get back on track too that's the thing like of those teams that are oh and one there's there's multiple squads i feel like that we know we assume they would be in the hunt for the super bowl so i want to see who goes i mean it's much different being one of those teams that are one and one and oh and two like the dallas cowboys they start out oh and two there's they're going to panic a little bit obviously the la rams go oh and two that's a little bit of a panic situation i want to see teams like that indianapolis colts and afc south you don't expect them to go oh and two so yeah it's a huge week i think for a lot of these teams i'd like to hear that and let's stay in the afc south the jags in their last nine games are nine and nine and oh okay plus 177 point differential is that good yes yeah so i think maybe we put the jags into that list which is wild to think about tone i i don't know if anybody would have expected the jacksville jaguars to be in hey that might be super bowl team whenever it's all said and done with how they've started but it's been quiet down there hasn't been a lot of chatter liam cohen might be a mastermind and the defense is huge we see them whenever they come into the loud house every single year maybe the jacksville jaguars have a year where they can go on a run tone yeah i agree and over that nine games trevor lawrence is like number one uh in qbr and points and he's been playing unbelievable and a the first guy in the first clip that we showed was when jacoby myers when they made the trade for jacoby myers and he came over so now they have three legitimate really good wide receivers with travis hunter in special packages as their fourth wide receiver and then you talk about like on that defense they have proven guys with heinz allen on the outside and javon walker and then the linebacking core is great and then travis hunter when he was uh targeted last week was incredible so if they can get all these pieces with liam liam cohen can call the shit out of a football game and he i feel like he's got the pulse on that team i love the jaguars and they've got a huge test in a bounce back spot in denver this weekend so that'll be one of the games uh this weekend i'm definitely gonna watch you want some pies analytics love them please from paganegi since trading for jacoby myers the jaguars are nine and one against the spread and have gone over their team total in nine of ten regular season games their only spread loss was his first week with the team when he arrived in the building on tuesday of game week feels like what you said there about jacoby myers being a separator a key player in the game he's a very accurate whenever we're talking about picking games which we'll do I got a super-surprised guest picker alongside of us. I think you guys are going to be pumped up. No way. No way. Thamel? Yeah. No, not Pete Thamel. He's obviously in the trenches right now trying to figure out if two F-15s are going to be flying above Lane Kiffin as she comes into the building. They're going to be putting fenchies around where the away team, visiting team buses drop off their team, so maybe nobody can bum-rush the bus as Lane Kiffin gets off there. They're trying their best to absolutely protect these lads. But, yeah, it's going to be the other guy. What? Yes! Woo! How incredible is that? I can't wait to see Stanford Steve, man. He's obviously got a good lean on things. He's been on the road already for 45 straight days to start football season. So we appreciate him. Ladies and gentlemen, it is Friday, so I think it's only right that we do some things that normally kind of wrap up the week. Ain't that right, Ty? Like on Friday, it feels like we've become adults now where we're trying to wrap up the week. Yeah, you've got to let people know kind of like what's going on. If they missed, you know, hey, in case you missed it, this happened maybe early in the week or maybe spotlight. Hey, this was one of the best things that did happen this week is AJ, you know, smashes some stuff on the desk and makes a bunch of noise. Watch that sage over there, AJ. Watch the sage. Hitting the demons out. You got the demons out here. We're good. Exactly. But, yeah, Pat, you hit the nail on the head. You know, hey, we've got to wrap up the week. Got to put a nice little bow on it for people to understand what they missed kind of going into the weekend. Yeah, and it's not always just, you know. You know, berries and gumdrops. No, not well said. It's not always, what's that old cliche there? Champagne and roses. Candies and nuts. Candies. None of these, okay? It's not always super. It's not always glitz and glitz, okay? It's not always super positive. There are some things that happen every single week in the sports world that just make us say, oh, no. All right, listen, you remember Akron last week. Yeah. Marty Wims, the second, won the season ticket raffle to call the plays for the first series for Joe Moorhead's Akron squad. Now, it started out good. We're running hurry. There you go. Thank you. Akron zips. Started out, we're running a little hurry up. Fumble! Oh, no. Marcel Williams with the fumble there. RMU, Bobby Mose, linebacker Jake Lepinto recovers that. Akron will go on to win 45-10, but this whole song and dance about having a fan call plays, it wasn't on the fan. It was on the player that fumbled that thing. And all we could think is, Marty Wims is having an Arby's delight. Marty Wims is on top of the world. Marty Wims might be the most famous alumni at a school right now. And then all of a sudden, Marty Wims is let down by a wide receiver. I feel like he got the full experience of a play caller and of a coach all in one while we were all saying, oh, no. AJ, don't you think it's nice he got to experience that? A player like that. Letting him down or a bad bounce happening on the field. Yeah, he understands how tough it is to win a ball game, I guess. But also, was his going directly into the speaker of the quarterback? That would be awesome. And did he berate this player afterwards? Did he feel like he was going to be the coach? What if he did get in his face and was super pissed at him? Threw his hat. Take off the speaker system. Break a clipboard in half if he had it. I hope he didn't miss the opportunity to do all those things. But all I know is, if you let a fan call plays, they win the game. Maybe others should think about it. Let's stay in college football. We love this guy. Remember, this dude had his team running gassers while people were still in the stadium after getting a win, but not good enough. This guy has done a lot of things saying, hey, here, we play differently. Hasn't showered whenever they lost. He'll keep that going as they lose the pit 27-13. And ref stripes. Doesn't even move. Doesn't even budge. Frank gives him a little. Fake cobra strike there with the head. Not even a budge. You know, not even a budge. I have massive respect for that. It's like whenever Kobe was staring down to Matt Barnes' ball on the inbound pass and Kobe doesn't even budge. You think to yourself, wow, that guy is unbelievably focused. This ref locked in. Doesn't even see Fran try to get into his space. Throws the flag. Insult the injury. This Syracuse run for Fran Brown. I know there's a lot of high hopes. It seems like we only really talk. We only really talk about them when something not great happens, AJ. And for that, we got to say, oh, no. Go ahead, Age. Look at this ref. Not only did he not flinch, he didn't peek at him. He didn't look at him. What did Fran say here, right there? What do you think he said? I think he said, what you doing around here? What you doing around here? Good news, though. Two plays later, Damon Ferguson, Jr., 32-yard touchdown. Boom. It would then go up 14-zip with 12-38. Remaining in the second quarter. Brown actually disclosed afterwards, he's told the backdrop, I feel like you're blank and cheating. Okay. Okay. I like that. I'll tell you what. As somebody that grew up in the area and has friends that are alumni of that team, they don't, or that school, they don't go to the games. You know, they stay at home and watch those games. A lot of yellow seats. They stay home and watch those Pitt games. I think if you were to tell Pitt people that refs were cheating for their Pitt football team, I think they would. They would be pretty surprised by that. I think they would. So they're trying to help us win? I didn't know that was the case. I had no idea they were trying to help us. I like that Fran Brown's keeping it real. Who knows how long that all happens. Okay, let's go to the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Par 4, first hole. Okay. Rom finds a green side bunker here. Good to see Rombo Bombo DP World Tour in the bunker. And great swing. Good get. Boom. Hits the flagstick. Too good. Too good of a shot. Right on line. Would have skipped by. Probably came to settle pretty, like, two, three feet away. Instead, hits the flagstick, hits the pole, rolls back to the fairway. And for that, we just go, oh, no! Rombo Bombo. AJ, sometimes the golf gods just kind of smack you in the mouth. Feels like that's what happened here for Rombo. Yeah, did we have audio on this? How did Rombo handle this? Was he okay with it and just brush it off or what? He snapped his glove in half. Yeah, he freaked out. Well, so that was the par 4, first hole. He would go on to shoot six over on the day. So how did he react? Not great. Okay, I would say that's the answer. And Rombo, sorry about it, pal. You can't help but just say, oh, no! That was a big oh, no. Was he coming back on the tour? Maybe. Not after that. I think so. Did he get out of his deal with Liv? Well, Liv's dead, so no deals left. Yeah, but they owe a lot of people a lot of money. I don't know how they're getting that. You know, that was a part of the conversation, I guess, at the very beginning where people were saying, like, who are you doing a deal with and what does that mean? You know, like, what does that mean? What if they don't want to do a deal anymore? Are you going to do anything? And now it's like, yeah, I don't know. What are you going to do? There's a lot of money owed to a lot of people, I think, in the Liv world, which is why I think the new guy that was wearing the Chanel Adidas' whatever the shoes were the first time we see him talk, I think he is very much wanting to keep it going. To potentially, you know, try to make right for these people that are owed a lot of money. I don't know. I think that situation is only getting louder and louder, but it does feel like the future of the PGA is about to be very strong. And after talking to Rolap and what he said about Brooks and other stuff, it feels like there is going to be a path back for the good golfers, the great golfers that they want back on PGA so that the best golfers in the world can compete against each other. But I think it's going to take a little bit. I think there was some damage done. I believe there was some damage done. Look ahead to the slate. Let's go ahead and start picking these as Outer Guy has not made it on time. What the hell, Outer Guy? I don't know. Maybe our clock's off. Might be lost. Maybe he's trying to find his way. But yeah, we are currently sitting at 1.30 Eastern and it is officially time to pick the NFL Week 2 Sunday slate. Hell yeah. Let's do it. Last night, we were all on the Buffalo Beals. Minus five and a half. Even Chuck Pagano, after he did a little whoop-de-woo switch or roo, which he had a gimmick and a prop, which we respect and appreciate. Good for him getting on the right side. Bad for us not winning our Super Boost. And for that, we would like to apologize to all parties. Okay? We would like to apologize to all parties for that. We should have had it two times. The Detroit Lions were on a one-yard line. Okay? They got Jameer Gibbs as the running back. I don't know how they don't hand that off. I don't know how we don't get a run. End the round if you want to do something cute. I don't know how any of that happens. But they throw it twice. They score two touchdowns. So, I guess we can't actually be mad, but we certainly aren't happy with what the Detroit Lions did on the one-yard line. We have now lost two back-to-back boosts, boys. Yep. We're due. We're all right. We're all right. Till now. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I can't. If you cut back to Thunderdome, please, I have a big surprise for you guys in about 35 seconds. Oh, okay. Ty, what do you think the surprise might be? To be quite frank, I have no idea because I was expecting Steve-O, other guy, to be there on time. But my guess would be that he might be running stairs in a stadium right now. If I know other guy, sweating out a couple of the booze cocktails he had last night, I saw he was embedded with the Ole Miss basketball program. So, I assume he was doing the mic and drill all day yesterday. Maybe his joints are a little sore. Maybe he's a little sore from, you know, having a knockdown drag-out basketball practice. All right, let's see. Yeah, who's the surprise, Pat? Yeah, the surprise is the other guy. What's up, boys? Hey, good to see you, Mr. Steve. Thank you so much for stopping by. Obviously, we know you're a good gumbler. You make good picks. We're about to pick the entire slate. Thank you for being guest picker alongside of us. How has your time in Oxford been? We did get a chance to see you catching up with Coach Beard and the basketball squad. I know you went to a nice dinner last night. Yeah. How is Oxford, and how are you expecting it to go over the next 48 hours? You know, when we were in Baton Rouge, I got the feeling, or everyone I talked to, that they were like, we're not going to Oxford. Like, this is why we hired Lane. Go there. Get a win. Good luck getting out of there, but we'll be here for A&M next week. So, the riffraff from Baton Rouge, I think, is going to be minimal, and I just hope it's more of a celebration of Ole Miss to show out what they can bring to the table. It's an incredible place. People have been awesome, and obviously, they've been waiting for this game for a long time. Yeah, a long time for sure, but also, like, I hear a lot of Ole Miss people saying, oh, we're supposed to be hospitable now. We're supposed to be hospitable now. What's that all about? And, yeah, it does feel like that. I'm excited to experience this place for the first time. I've only seen photos. I've only watched videos over the last week or so trying to learn about their culture, and are you ready? I cannot wait for a nice. There's been a lot of names thrown around for who's going to do that. Yeah, certainly. Yeah, I cannot wait to see who's all going to be in town. Let's go ahead and get to these picks with the other guys. How have you been seeing the board lately? The board hasn't been good, one and two. Steve? I'm winning Superdog. How about NFL, though? I don't bet week one NFL, ever. Well, it's week two. Here we go. I'm ready week two. Okay, so this is your first time really making NFL picks on a season? Right now, yeah. Okay, so when? Week one, I have no one plays in the preseason. You can't go off of that. I need some tape. I need some substance. Very level-headed of you, Steve. Yeah, I like that you're able to do that because we're not able to do that. Yeah. Like, we're not able to just not make a pick. Understood. I get it. But I think you are doing it right. Week two, do we think we know? Yeah. All right. Let's believe. Okay. Let's believe. Eagles, Titans, Eagles favored by seven. Do you believe that the Philadelphia Eagles, who sneak away with a dub last week after a couple poor decisions were made by the commanders, take on the Titans in Nashville? I think Tennessee Titans fans are wondering what their team is as well. Will Coach Sala be able to turn around? Cam Ward is now getting hyper-focused on, upon, is this guy a real NFL quarterback? Jalen Hurts, I believe in Jalen Hurts. He's won a Super Bowl, favored by seven in Nashville. Stanford Steve, Otterguy. How do you see it? It can't be worse than it was last week for Nashville. I'm going to say Eagles win, Titans cover. Wow. Keeping it close. Tone, what are the percentages of bets on that one? I assume everybody's just riding on the Eagles pretty heavily. Yeah, 87% on the spread, and the money line was 97% for the Eagles, so it's probably going to be a popular Survivor League pick this weekend. So if the Titans win, then probably everyone's going to be out, especially after the Cardinals win last weekend. Okay. So maybe don't hop on that train if you are in a Survivor pick. AJ, who do you like, who do you hate here in this one? So I was leaning Eagles early, but I tell you what, the other guy came in there and made me believe. So I think the Eagles probably win, but give me the Tennessee Titans at home at plus seven. All right. So you like Tennessee with the points. AJ saw the board very well last week. Very well. He always sees well, well. No, he does not. Not always. No. No, that is not true. It's not a guarantee, Steve. Okay. You're right. He had a great offseason. He's got new focus. Yeah, he had a great offseason. He has a good read, a good lean. It's going to be normal for him to be in that position. I think he's going to be as right as he is. Okay, so you're both on Titans plus seven. Yeah. Toxic Table, how do you feel? He ain't going to catch me dead betting the Titans right now. No chance. I'll take the Eagles minus a touchdown with an extra point heading into Nashville. New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens. I just watched the Ravens favored by seven and a half. They looked flawless. Saints obviously put together a wild second half performance, forcing overtime. Inevitably, they're going to win. They're going to make the right decision by going for two instead of letting that game end up as a tie. They lose off a fade call, which could have been a blown coverage. It wasn't a blown coverage. Are you high on the Saints? Are you high on the Ravens? Enough to cover seven and a half at the bank. Stanford, Steve, obviously you know Baltimore well. Yeah. How do you feel about the Ravens favored by seven and a hook? Yeah, I thought they were really impressive last week going into that tough place to play. Thank you. You know, like that's a big-time road win in the history of those two franchises. There was a lot on the line there. And the Ravens would win. But a new regime came in and looked buttoned up and impressive. The Saints, I'm worried that they're not healthy. When they have all their receivers, they got some good guys. But Olave is constantly getting dinged up, went in and out of the game last week. I like the rookie receiver, Trey Lance's brother, Bryce. So we're going to go, again, Ravens win, Saints backdoor cover. Okay, going to keep it close. NFLweather.com is telling us likely some rain showers, 80 degrees. Going to be okay, but likely a little bit of rain. Who does that help? Who does that hurt? I think it helps the Ravens mightily with Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson's ability. Also at home, you know, a team goes up there in the rain, gets smacked around, the bank starts humming, maybe Shuck's not ready for it. I like what the Saints did to the Lions late, but I don't know if I like them against the Ravens. I'll take the Ravens minus seven and a hook while you take the Saints plus seven and a half. AJ, who do you like? I think the Ravens too much of a, you know, overall the whole team is great. Ravens, defense, give me the Ravens minus seven and a half. And this is a lot of overreacting by me, okay? Because you saw it firsthand. Well, not only this game, but also the last game. It's like, yeah, Eagles will kill the Titans. Titans suck. It's like one game. This one, Ravens are the best team I've ever seen in my life. They'll kill the Saints. It's like just one game, but I'm doing it early, and I'm just trying to say this publicly so that we all can see what we're probably all doing that have natural dumb brains like mine. Browns, Bucs, yep, Bucs going to kill the Browns. I'll take the Bucs minus eight and a half, even though Baker Mayfield turned it over a bunch last week. Even though Baker Mayfield and the Bucs didn't have their best outing against the Bengals, I like them a lot more than I like the Browns. If this was in Cleveland, maybe different conversation. Down in Tampa, give me the Bucs minus eight and a hook. Steve, who do you like? Yeah, I picked the Bucs to win that division. It didn't go well last week, getting off to a bad start. As bad as I want to hold my nose and take the Browns, I can't. I'm with you, Tampa. Yes. Smart. The Browns are the one? The Titans weren't. The Browns are. Cheeks. Oh, geez. I mean, that was bad. Bad ball. Bad. Well, Deshaun, what you're expecting, 500 yards? No, I'm not one of those people. I want to find the, where are those people that are expecting 500 yards, five touchdowns per minute? Yeah, Connor, Boston Connor. Guy got paid $230 million guaranteed. We need to put up some offense is what Connor said. But, yeah, nobody else is expecting that. Just efficient offense. I think, or any offense at all would be good for most parties. AJ, who do you like? How do you like it? Yeah, I mean, I don't need to, I don't need to, you know, go on and on. Give me the bucks. Minus eight and a half. Oh, he doesn't want to belabor the point. He's not an Ohio guy. Yeah. I grew up a Bengals guy. I grew up a Bernie Kosar fan, but a Bengals fan. So, yeah. And also Jim Brown, great up there. Josh Cribs, obviously, a Cleveland Browns legend. We go through a lot of Browns legends. Peyton Hillis. Yeah. That's the fullback, right? Or the running back? Eric Metcalf. Almost killed Joe Thomas. Oh, Metcalf. Yeah. Well, yeah. The Cleveland Browns, it did come out that Joe Thomas had to go speak to a psychologist because of the team. And we'd like to let Joe Thomas know that we appreciate your service to ball, bro. No doubt. And the way you had to fight through. But I do appreciate him saying, I had a perfect game. We lost by 30. Imagine that feeling. Yeah. I'm a punter. Yeah. I do. I do imagine that feeling. How many perfect games do you have? Him? No, you. I mean, I didn't give up a return for like a month and a half. A yard. What was the team's record, then? Yeah, exactly. So, against the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, when I was a young lad, fun story, win the punt, pass, and kick. We've all seen the clips. I'm down to a national punt, pass, and kick. You got haters naturally, you know, who are going to come out even at that age. I had a lot of haters then because of who I am. That would go on to be my life. And I probably deserve a lot of it. So, I'm not saying woe is me in this entire thing. But a lot of people say, punt, pass, and kick is in football. Who cares about that? Okay. And I would always say, it's literally what football is. Okay? There's no tackling or anything like that. So, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team that I won the punt, pass, and kick for on Thanksgiving. In that game, I punted, I passed, and I kicked. We lost by 24. So, it did not matter. It did not matter what I did. I did not mean to bring up that memory. Second half of a game, punter. We're down 17. You know what I'm doing? Nothing. Are we punting? No. We're going for it. Can I offend? Can I affect this game at all? Absolutely. The only way is a bad hold for Vinatieri. Were you worried about staying loose on the sideline? Well, so that's a whole other game. We're down 100 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thank you for bringing that up. I look at Chuck. I go, hey, we're going for it, right? We're down so much. We've got to go for it. He goes, absolutely. Don't worry about it. Untie my shoes. Okay? It's fourth quarter late. Untie my shoes. We're not going for this. All of a sudden, it's like, what, fourth and six or something. Punt team. Punt team called out there. We didn't win. We didn't jog out there. Antonio Brown is returning. Oh. Yeah. Crib. Ray Pius. I was the only one with my shoes. Shoes tied? I tied. Okay. But I was the only one with shoes untied. Everybody else did that. So, yeah, there's a hopelessness that comes with being a punter, but you're also the least athletic person on the field. I could imagine being in an impactful position like left tackle, having a perfect game, and just being like, I can't even affect this game at all. Correct. I could see how that could take place. Yeah. Because, for me, it was a lot of that. I hope these guys win so I can be happy for the next week. That's literally. That's literally the goal of the punter the whole time. I hope we win so I can be happy and not suck it in the way. So thanks for bringing that up. Sorry. Geez, real drama. I just asked if you had perfect games, and you went to that. Well, I think I have had a couple very good games. I don't know if there's a perfect game out there. We'll check the tape. But if you're not winning, you have to be miserable. It don't matter. Win. That's right. He got a gold jacket, didn't he? Who? Joe Thomas. What are you saying? You're saying, hey, Joe, get over it? Boo-hoo. Yeah, right. What do you mean, boo-hoo? This guy. Should have asked for a trade if he was that miserable. I don't like that you're this upset about Joe Thomas being transparent. He's a Hall of Famer. I'm happy for him. Yeah, but this is. Phenomenal career. Miles Garrett wrote this in a letter to the Cleveland Browns. It ain't about being in the Hall of Fame. It's about winning championships. Is that guy ever going to play again? I don't like that. Let's get back to the picks, please. Let's get back to the picks. Thanks for ruining my life, Steve. I was in a good mood. Does it feel good? Friday. I burned sage yesterday on the show. I don't know if you saw that. Had a lot of bad spirits and bad vibes out as I wasn't able to see the board well last week. Okay. I burned some sage. You'll see it. Okay. It's out there. We're winning. That's right. Let's win. Because of that sage. Okay. The library here, Oxford, Mississippi. Good spot. Enormous. What is it? Food? Food. There's no books there. Food? Ice cold beers, I bet. They sure do. Not after Steve went there. They sure do have ice cold. And I'll take another one. They know how to do it. Funky's right down the street from there. Another one. Another one. Yeah. And then there's the other one. Not tonight. Curfew time. Oh, okay. You got curfew on yourself? Okay. Yes. Friday night curfew, of course. What time is curfew, Steve? About 1030. Okay. Listen, if the man. Central time. I'm still three straight weeks on central time, still not registering, and then we'll be out of central time. And then you got to adjust accordingly. Okay. So 1030 central. What time is your bedtime? Okay. I like that. Do you turn off your phone or something at that time? Yeah, you do. What? Jeez. I like this. Hey, good discipline. Des and I are out there early doing SportsCenter. We're getting ready to go. If he has the discipline to not bet week one, I'm trusting him on this one, too. That's true. Yeah. That is kind of crazy. Thank you, Tom. Let's get back to the boards. We're very proud of you. Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears. Bears favored by four and a half. Kyler still in protocol, but was doing practice. If he was coming back, that would be certainly a surprise. Carson Wentz experience. He becomes the first backup quarterback since like Fran Tarkington or something like that to come into a game, have three touchdowns and zero interceptions. Obviously, backup quarterback doesn't get any of the reps during the week. So Carson going in there, doing his thing. Spectacular for the Vikings. Over under 48 and a half. Ty Schmidt, anything we need to think about this NFC North battle? Well, I don't know about the, I mean, I think the Bears will win. Me personally, I will be betting the Bears team total over until they convince me otherwise. Okay. So the Bears offense trying to be historic. They certainly started that way. I would imagine the percentages are all over, are all, all about the over in this game too, Tom. 66. People are going to block. 66% is on the Bears as far as total is concerned. Yeah. 81% to the over. Careful. Okay. Careful. Blocked running a lot. Glory. People are just going to, they heard Ben Johnson before the year. They saw what he did last week. Everyone's betting the over. Okay. Last night though, everybody's betting over and a hit. Correct. So people win sometimes. Gee, Steve, we need, I thought he was going to be positive. That was the narrative last night, Thursday night, but then you got Josh Allen. Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Bears favored by four and a half. I'll go with the Bear. Who do you like, AJ? I'm taking the Vikings here plus four and a half. Steve? Vikings plus four and a half. Vikings going to get, they got to force some turnovers. They got to get after them and force some turnovers. Good number. Flores. I'll take the Vikings plus four and a half. Okay. I'm riding with you guys. Just Flores is a monster. Yeah. I was leaning Bears. I was leaning Bears about 30 seconds ago. Me too. I might still go back over there. Let's talk this one out here. So. You know what? Actually, give me the Bears minus four and a half. Yeah. So that's, I'm in the same boat here. Yeah. I'm doing the same thing. Trust my instincts. Yeah. But the Bears defense. Stinks. Stinks. Stinks. They get turnovers. They used to. No, last year they did. I don't know about this year. Didn't they get three early? I think they had a couple against the Panthers, but that's the other thing with the Panthers defense. A lot of people are saying. A lot of people are saying their DCs also might be on the hook after this weekend as well. Ever. Yeah. Canales had to come out and say, I like them. That's not good. After one. That does suck. Week one. Yeah. That's not a good. That's not a good start to things. I don't think. Okay. This is a good line. Dumpy. Who do you like here? Skull, baby. Okay. You like plus four and a half. Okay. Is that because Flores did great things for you? For the Miami Dolphins? Yeah. I just don't think the Bears defense can recreate what they did last year. The turnovers, they lost a lot of guys on the back end too. I just don't think they can do it. All right. I'll take the Bears minus four and a half. I don't love it though. AJ, you're there as well? Yep. Bears minus four and a half. Okay. So Steve's the only one. Let's go to the other NFC North team. The Green Bay Packers favored by three and a half taking in, taking on the New York Jets and MetLife. Hey, brand new Jets potentially. I like what I've seen out of them. Very quiet around drafts. Draft time, no leaks. Obviously, Aaron Glenn saying, how about them motherfucking Jets? And the boys are rolling. They've been quiet. They've been working. They looked a lot better than we thought. And did they have a 15 person or a five? Did they have five tight ends on the field at one point? Yes. Yep. Sadiq in the backfield. In his bag, bro. So Frank Reich is out here working. Love Frank Reich. Right. Do you? Yeah. He resurrected Stanford last year. Did he? You guys alive? Yeah. Yeah. We beat Cal. That's all I wanted. I love that. Okay. Shout out to Frank Reich. But then he said, he wasn't coaching anymore. Yeah. And then he goes to the Jets. Quickly. Yeah. So I think he was excited to baby. I learned this one. I helped out Andrew. He loves Andrew. We all love Frank. Who's ever been around Frank? Hasn't had the most amount of success as of late. Could anybody have success in Carolina? I guess we're learning right now with Canalis. But whenever you think about him with Geno Smith and Aaron Glenn, I don't think you immediately think this team is going to be the one that saves it. But maybe they are for some reason. Do you have faith in the Jets covering three and a half against the Packers? I don't. I do not. I read a trend and a stat that I'm going to go with here. LaFleur is 7-0 ATS in week two games as a head coach. Give me the Packers. Okay. Even though that O-line does not look good, Ty. Yeah, I know. There will be changes on that this week, I believe. Yeah? Okay. Did the stats account for a week one collapse? I didn't read any of that. I just saw week two 7-0 ATS. Yeah, but what about week one, fourth quarter, last time you were on the field, shit the pants? What did they say? Six in a row? Yes. Yeah. Stops this week. Okay. Packers minus three. Jets are better, though. Yes, they certainly are. A.J., who do you like? Because Fireman Ed's going to be in there. We already saw him working down in that. Yeah. Yeah, we know he's still doing it. Now, give me the Packers minus three and a half for sure. All right. I'll take the Packers as well. Sorry, Aaron Glenn. You guys are going to have to prove that before we buy in, I think. Steelers, Patriots. Patriots favored by five and a half at home as Aaron Radges and Mike McCarthy travel up the Foxborough old school classic matchup. Let's go to one half of that. The Hammer. Done. Cowboys, AP Tone. How do you feel about the Steelers traveling up the Foxborough as five and a half point dogs? Michael Pittman has not practiced yet this week. Maybe we'll see Jeremy Bernard make his kind of debut for the Steelers in that offense. We'll see how that goes. I am worried about the pass rush on the right side of the Steelers' offensive line. If they can handle that, then I feel pretty good. They caused, what, five turnovers last year against Drake. They're going to need that again to win this weekend. Okay. Intoxic Table, Boston Connor. Can't go 0-2 after a Super Bowl appearance with that offseason that it was. How do you feel about the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to town? We're going to beat the shit out of them. This is going to be an absolute rout. Travion Henderson's back this weekend. I believe Carlton Davis is out. Kind of match that Michael Pittman being out. Don't matter. Don't care. We're going to piss all over them. And also, just a messy game in the Northeast this weekend. It's going to be raining big time. We might run for 250, 300, 400 yards. Okay. 300, 400, 500 yards. That's crazy to think about a historic run game there for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Will they watch this game together? Absolutely not. Yeah, we have to hold hands. Tone Diggs is a big want-to-watch-games-by-himself guy. Tone is? Yeah. Connor is kind of as well, except for whenever we're down in the suite and there's a bunch of people around. Yeah. I don't know how people watch with big groups, honestly. I don't know how you pay attention to anything. It's tough. Yeah, like we're down at that suite, and it's nice because me and my daughter now are watching the game. Nice. But it's hard to. Especially if people don't know ball. Yeah, that's the hardest part is when you watch with a bunch of people, and then you get a question like, why aren't they just running the ball down their throat and going to score touchdowns? It's like, all right. It's a lot. It's all fantasy people out there now, too. Yeah. All they care. Throw to my guy. Throw to my guy. I'm like, that's not the point. Jamar Chase said he's sick of the fantasy football people at the EMs. You're sick of them, too? I'm sick of them. Aren't you one of them? Are you one of them, Steve? I'm not. He's a gambling man. He's a gambling man. He doesn't even take player props because he hates fantasy so much. Good for you. I like that, Steve. You've got to stand for something and fall for anything. Steelers, Patriots, five and a half, Steve-O? Tricky number. Both offenses didn't look crisp last week. I kind of agree with Connor that they're going to run the ball. I'm still worried about that Steelers defense. Give me the Patriots. Yeah! I like that that's a reaction to Stanford Steve picking the Patriots over the Steelers by five and a half. Five and a half. A.J. Hawk, who do you like? I like the Steelers on the road. Shut up. Shut up. There we go. Shut up. That is why I did it. You know what? I'll take Big Mike McCarthy. Come on, man. That was five and a half. I'll take a plus five and a half. Oh, and two. I think the Patriots win, but maybe this one is just ugly. Man, you could see the Patriots winning by 20, though. Yeah, you could. Yeah, you could. No, yeah, but you could also see this one being a cagey affair, especially with the way T.J. is playing in the defensive line. I'll take the Pittsburgh Steelers plus five and a half. Bengals, Houston Texans. Texans lose to the Buffalo Beals last week. First time they've lost to Josh Allen down there. Bengals coming to town. Joe Burrow, full participant, obviously. We'll keep an eye on how he is health-wise, but it feels like he's ready to go. Sexy Dexy and the Bengals did great things against the Bucs last week on the defensive side. Steve, who do you like in this one? Bounce back. Texans at home. Give me that. A.J.? Give me the Bengals. Okay, he played for the Bengals from Cincinnati. Feels obligated to pick them, which I respect and appreciate. I will take the Houston Texans minus two and a half. Shout out to AFC South in a big bounce back. Carolina Panthers favored by two and a half against Cooper Cush, it was announced by Ian Rappaport, starting again for the Atlanta Falcons. Jack Strand needs to get some rub if Cooper Cush is going to play the way that he played like last week. I'll take the Carolina Panthers favored by two and a half going into Atlanta. You, Steve? Agreed. A.J.? Make it three. Give me Carolina. Raiders traveling to the Chargers. Chargers look like ass. Raiders look pretty good. Now, Kirk Cousins did have a turnover, had a couple bad balls. There is a chance that he's only going to get better or maybe get worse as the tape continues. The Chargers look really bad. Or the Cardinals looked very good. Stanford, Steve, who do you like in this one? Is the Chargers favored by almost a touchdown and an extra point? I was watching some Linderbaum cut-ups. He dominated last week for the Raiders. The problem is Kirk can't throw the ball down the field. Chargers bounce back. I'll lay the six and a half. Wow. That's a lot of points. A.J.? You like Jim? Our ball bouncing back? Or Kubiak continuing the yippee vibe? Give me Kubiak and the Raiders plus six and a half. I like the Raiders as well plus six and a half. This might be a little bit of overreaction by us because of what we saw. But, hey, we're daily sports. Jaguars, Broncos. If we want to overreact, here's a good one to do just as such. Go ahead, Steve. This line reeks. Watching the Broncos the other night in person not be able to tackle Kenneth Walker. And Jacksonville look as good as maybe the best team in the NFL last week. Off a week one impression, it doesn't make sense. I'll take the home team. Okay, so it doesn't make sense. So you're taking the stinky number. Broncos minus two and a half. Jags have won their last nine games. Plus 177 point differential. Regular season. Give me the regular season. Sorry. Give me the Jacksonville Jaguars plus two and a half going into Denver, although I expect Denver to play better. Yeah, give me the Denver Broncos at home. I expect that Denver defense to be ready to roll. Miami Dolphins taking on the Seahawks. San Francisco 49ers. 49ers favored by 12 and a half. I think Gumby has been on record as saying that could be 25 and a half. Give me the Niners over the Dolphins. We all feel this way. No. What? What are the percentages, Tone? Because this line's going. There's nobody betting Miami. The line went down. 73% on San Francisco on the spread. For good reason, other guy. Give me the points. Give me San Francisco all day long here, Pat. Okay, plus 12 and a half for the Dolphins. Chop Robinson. He's out as Gumby was giving us a team report. We have one minute before the hard out here. Seattle Seahawks favored by three and a half going into Arizona. Love Arizona, but I also became a Seahawks fan because of Hard Knocks. Give me the Seahawks minus three and a half, Steve. I love the toys that Perced has to play with. Give me the Cardinals. Oh, no. Give me Seahawks here. Okay, Commanders, Cowboys, Cowboys, can you get a stop in the second half? Favored by three and a half at home. Washington coming to town. Who do you like, Steve? Dallas. Okay, AJ? Dallas. I'll do the same. And then the Indianapolis Colts are getting six and a half. Give me the Chiefs on this one. That was quick. Okay, we got a hard out. Nothing against the Colts. I just think the Chiefs are the Chiefs right now. Okay, the Chiefs is still the Chiefs. Who do you think? I agree. Give me the Colts plus six and a half. Obviously, the Chiefs get a win, but the Colts cover. We are live here in Oxford tomorrow morning, 9 a.m. on Eastern for College Game Day. We hope you will join us. It should be an absolute blast. Have the greatest weekend of your life. We'll see you on Monday. Burn some sage. Get the evil. Get the evil spirits out. Goodbye. I feel like we did that. Nailed it. Crushed it. We're still alive, Steve. Got it. You nailed that hard out. Thank you so much. You know, it doesn't always happen. Do you know I can do this to you right here? Steve, did you buy that T-shirt or did they give that to you when you went there? I know the owner. He's a barrel guy. It's like a full-blown college bar. Oh, dude, it's incredible. Is it weird not being in college and being there? No. Oh. No, there's other adults. Oh, good. What's your problem, Logo? No, I'm just wondering. I'm talking like a full-blown college bar where there's not adults in those. There's like, I want to say, five different bars in there. Oh, okay. I love that. Hey, where we're staying at, I saw a bank. I think I saw like a state capitol, maybe. No, it was closed last night, 7 p.m. What? Yeah, why is everywhere closed early around here? It's like it's a banking community. They like to get after it during the day here in Oxford. Hell, yeah. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. You'll see. We went to a patio. We sat outside on a patio last night. It was basically the only thing that was kind of going. 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, full tilt, they'll be going. Oh, that's nothing. What do they drink? What's their. What is it like? Do they have a. Hotty toddies. Okay, what all goes into that? I believe it's whiskey. Wide. Bourbon. Wide. Honey. Wide. Lemon. Wide. Sounds pretty damn good. And I think they, what, they just say hotty toddy to each other? Hotty toddy, dude. Hotty toddy. Hotty toddy. Hotty toddy. Don't mess around and go to it. The brown, the brown liquor, like neat. I can't do that. No, yeah. I need ice. Give me, give me a buffalo. Give me a diet buffalo. Yeah. Amen. I'm drinking diet buffaloes now. Okay. Do you know what that is? I believe. No. I'm guessing buffalo trace and diet. Go. Very perceptive. Oh, buffalo trace. It was a tough one. The buffalo trace people that drink buffalo trace, like generational, oldest distillery I believe in America, from my understanding, the people drink it and eat, I think, a lot. So me putting diet in it, I think people will be pissed off. But it is so good. It is so smooth. So I'm a diet buffaloes guy. Okay. I like that. Not like baby buffalo Bruce last night. Yeah. How'd you feel about the baby buffalo last night, Bruce? Did you see this? No. Dude. What the fuck? Peter was riding him in. The NFL game. No, we didn't have. I was at a snack bar. They didn't have a TV there. Snack? Snack bar? What, you're getting on to us? Was that a pool? No, it was just the name of the room. Went to every bar in the city last night. It is tough, the Amazon situation. You saw me when I came home from dinner. Yeah, it was early. You weren't early, but it seems like you were in a lot of places. The Amazon situation here, we're five seasons in. If you are traveling, like a lobby TV or restaurant TV, they haven't figured that out yet. And if you have. People that have DirecTV don't even know they put it on a channel now. Which I just learned right now. Yeah, they have. It's on there. Thank you for that information. Yeah. That's very kind of you for the good of ball. All right, let's get to a break. On the other side, we have. The man. We have somebody that's pretty important to this entire fucking situation down here. Coach Golding, head coach. What? Hell yeah. Yeah. Football team will join us on the other side. Let's go to a break. Let's take four to five minutes or so, and let's bounce back and do some real journalism, boy. Hell yeah. Yeah, that's Baby Bruce right there. Okay. Did you see that was Baby Bruce? Saw that. You missed that. You missed that. It's a baby bison. That bison lost its mom in April, okay, due to complications potentially from birth. So now Baby Bruce, his mom, bills him off you. There you go. A lot of the bills people say, can't we get a bigger bison, though? Why do we got to get a little baby bison? It's like a couple years. Breastfeed him? Yeah, full grown by five. He's going to grow with the team. Are you going to give him a nip? A what? Yeah. You got to feed him. Get him milk. Maybe Coach Belichick. Is that what they're saying? Oh, come on. That was a bad angle. People are coming after him. I don't know if it's a bad angle, Steve-O. Bad angle. The guy's 90 years old. What are they calling him? They're calling him Coach Boobachick. No, they're not. Yeah, they are. Who said that? That's disgusting. I've seen it everywhere. That's disgusting. You can still bench 500. Of course. That's just what happens when you become 90 years old. All right. Let's get to a break. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We've got Coach Golding breaking it all down for us, which we're certainly grateful for. Utter guy. Great work. Appreciate you. Great work. You're the man. All right. Be a friend. Tell friends I'm nice. It might change their life. Take five. Bye. Strong communities are built in the places where life happens, where families build their lives, where students build their futures, where businesses create opportunity. Bloom Energy provides reliable power for the places communities depend on every day. From hospitals and college campuses to stores and factories, clean, quiet power that uses little water right where it's needed so communities can keep moving forward. Bloom Energy, power America relies on. Buy five quarts of Mobile One full synthetic motor oil and receive two times O rewards points. Plus, get a $10 gift card and receive a 2311 die cast after rebate. Terms and conditions apply. Get details at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Subtitles by the Amara.org community Hello, beautiful people, and welcome back to this glorious Feel Good Friday, September 18th, 2026. We're on the eve of the biggest game in the history of Mississippi. Hour 3 starts now. Football! Listen, football is the greatest thing to ever be created. We are incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about it every single day. And joining me now, live, here in Oxford, on the eve of the biggest game of. Nah, he was in a playoff line. Uh, on the eve of one of the most anticipated games he'll ever be a part of for the rest of his coaching career. He is the head coach here at Ole Miss. Had been here for three years before getting the head coaching job, and then five years before that, he was with Coach Saban in Alabama. Ladies and gentlemen, absolute legend, Coach Golding! Yeah, Coach! Point to introduction there, brother. Appreciate it. Well, to be honest, because I was looking at the camera that I couldn't see the screen, I had no idea what was happening over here, so I was trying to get it done with as quick as possible. But thank you for joining me. Thank you for joining us. We are very, very grateful. Thanks for the hospitality. Can we talk a little bit about, you know, nobody really chats about your perspective in this entire game. Lane Kiffin, obviously the exit from Ole Miss was what it was. You were kind of put in a position that I think was very difficult and did a great job of keeping everything together while there was full chaos happening around you. How do you feel now, after, like, having a crash course in head coaching during the playoffs, the most important time with all that, versus a regular season heading into this anticipated game? Is it the same? Is it the same feeling as whenever you got dropped into this all at the playoff time? Or do you feel a little bit more experienced, even though you're short in your career here? Yeah, I still feel like I don't have it all figured out yet. I can promise you that. But, no, I mean, obviously that transition was a little different based on the timing of it and everything else. This one, having the staff in here, 51 new players are in here. You had all your offseason. You had all the summer. You had fall camp. So it definitely feels more yours, so to say, you know, to this point. But the feeling and the preparation feels exactly the same, man. Like, always a concern. Are you doing the right thing? Are you putting them in the right position? Are you staying on their ass and doing everything that you need to to give yourself your best shot? But, no, it definitely feels a little more real doing these things, you know, and all those type of things. Just for you, you know, I ain't digging all this. Yeah, well, we appreciate you stopping by. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I know you don't love chit-chat. I would rather just do your coaching. You've done a great job handling it all. A lot of pressure, a lot of chaos, like I said. But just something I don't think anybody has really seen before. And then now that comes to this weekend where Kirk Herbstreit has been around Game Day for 31 years is like, this is maybe the most anticipated, what, week three game in the history of college football potentially with the amount of hate and the amount of attention, the amount of energy. How are you treating that with your team? Because obviously a lot of the lads on the team know Lane, were brought here by Lane. I think a lot of your scouting probably brought here by Lane as well. But the intentions outside of your football team in this campus is to hell with this guy. How do you kind of balance that with the lads and what is your messaging? Well, the good thing for us is the football piece of this, whether we were playing Louisville or we played Charlotte, if we didn't roll to three cloud and we busted it, it was a damn touchdown. You know, so like regardless whether Coach Kiff's on the other side or not, if we're not going to execute our plan at a high level, then we're not going to win the football game. That has nothing to do with Kiff, right? That's based on us. So I felt like, you know, the Charlotte week was really good for us last week, you know, to come in and really focus on ourselves. And in that tape, like I thought you saw a half of football where both sides played really well at the same time and we both swung. And then we came out of third quarter and we played like shit on both sides, you know, and so this game, for us, as we know, it's a top 10 matchup, really good football teams, got good players, got a good coach. We got to swing together for four quarters, right? Louisville game, defense did the first half, offense did the second half. Charlotte, offense, defense, first half, neither one of us did the second half. So it's time for us to put four quarters of ball. So I think everybody's trying to do that right now. Tone actually has a question for you about that Louisville game that we thought was maybe a little scary there to start the season. Yeah, Coach, obviously there's kind of some similarities between the two teams. You know, Sam Levitt can run and throw, Lincoln Kienholz can run and throw. Brom is an incredible play caller, obviously with Coach Kiff and Coach Weiss Jr., they obviously great play callers as well. Are you happy that you kind of got that experience against Louisville from a defensive perspective, kind of preparing for this game? Yeah, I mean, going into it, I absolutely was not, you know, I mean, Coach Brom's a heck of a coach, has done a great job and they're a talented football team. I think that back is one of the better players that we were going to see this year and did some good things coming out of it. Absolutely. You know, my big concern that we kind of talked about it in SEC media. We got good players and I love our team, but I didn't know how we were going to respond to when we got hit in the face and we got hit in that face, you know, several times in that game. So to see the resiliency of the players and to be able to come back and finish it the way we did to be game one. There were a lot of lessons for us, you know, to learn to be able to use moving forward because we're going to get punched in the face again tomorrow night, you know, and we've showed the ability to respond. We're going to do it tomorrow night. You talk about 51 new guys. There's a couple of key guys that are still here that have had some big experiences in some big games. Ty has a question for you. How about that? Yeah, coach. Obviously, you're a defensive guy, but how, you know, comforting is it having Trinidad Chambliss kind of there as that anchor to kind of just, you know, be steady, Eddie, and calm everyone down. You mentioned, you know, hey, there's a good chance we're going to get punched in the face tomorrow night. How nice is it having that guy playing quarterback and knowing that he can kind of, you know, just steady everything and go be special at any moment in the game? Well, you know, I went and watched my, I got a, you know, fifth grade son last night and I went and watched his little junior high game. And I don't care. I don't care what level you're coaching. If you don't have a quarterback, you're screwed, right? I mean, you go watch that and you watch football when you don't have a quarterback. It's tough to watch. So to have a guy that had been in this system, right? JDB is very similar to that system, right? That's had a lot of success. And I had a lot of success at the place that he came from. Yeah, it was division two, but the kids used to winning, understands what it takes to win. So for that to be the leader of your team, right? Obviously, you can sleep a little better at night when you've got six with the ball in his hand. So I love everything about the kid. He prepares the right way. He's a great human being. Our guys rally around him. They trust him. So, yeah, you feel good with the ball in six's hands. How about Lacey? Let's talk about it because they might be the two best players on the field every time you guys step on a field. Keeping them here, huge deal. Congrats. Yeah, appreciate that. That was a village. That was a village keep there. Yeah, I think it was. Obviously, a good idea as well. And I think we heard the story or the angle in which you pitched them about what they've done for this school already and how your legacy could be forever. What do you think Lacey's legacy could be? Especially tomorrow night. As all eyes are upon the LSU Ole Miss rematch. Yeah, I mean, I think y'all see him play. He's a special talent. He's got really good balance and body control. Can take it the distance. But what I love about him is how he plays without the football. I mean, if you watch him on third down and picking up protections and how physical the kid is. So even during camp, like I didn't put him in a green jersey. We put him in a red jersey. He went through it, and he was thud and all that. So his toughness piece on our team I think has really, really improved that our guys really respect. So to come off the year that he had last year. All eyes are going to be on him in sixth this year. So not going to get a lot of favorable box counts a lot of the times with five in the backfield. But I think, you know, you saw he can extend plays and he's got really good balance and body control. And he's got to make some guys miss tomorrow. Okay, so riddle me this. Were you a head coach of like a high school team or a junior high team? Or is this your first time as head coach of a football team? This is the first rodeo, brother. What a way to get dropped in there. Now, on that note, you do come from an institution of coaches who have had success. Success in college. A.J. has a question about that. Yeah, he's obviously talking about Coach Nick Saban. He was on the program earlier today. I'm just guessing from your time on staff with Coach Saban, what's a couple things that you took away from him? We've heard all kind of the great stories. You guys sneaking around playing golf behind him so he doesn't see you. All of those fun things. But I guess what was it like truly day in and day out being a part of those staff meetings? And how do you use some of that, I guess, in your own head coaching nowadays? You know, for me, you know, for the longest time coaching, like, I felt like discipline was like when I signaled a defense in, did the 11 guys line up where they were supposed to and they do their job the way that I was telling them to do it. Like, that's how what I thought about discipline. And I never thought about it was the length of your socks or is your shirt tucked in? Is your jersey pulled down? And so coach was the first one that made me realize, like, look, no, no. The self-discipline piece is here's something I know I'm supposed to do, but I don't want to do it. Can I make myself do it? And so we're either making these guys do this Monday through Friday. So when that decision comes up on Saturday and it's late in the fourth quarter, and we call cover two, and he knows he's supposed to go jam quarterback hole, but he doesn't feel like doing it and he's not going to do it. So the self-discipline piece to me, like, I learned so much from Coach Saban. And it's not just for the players. It's everybody in the building. And the ability to hold people accountable the way he did on a consistent basis and not get tired of it at the age he was at. That's got to be exhausting, right, Coach? I'm sorry to cut you off, but it has to be exhausting, right? Because you can't. Holy shit. Gene, man, I learned so much from him and really appreciated my time, obviously, you know, at Alabama with him. Yeah, accountability is something that's an all-the-time thing. You know, how you do anything is how you do everything. There's all these cliches because they're absolutely real. And, you know, Coach Saban is obviously the greatest of all time. I was very lucky to be with Coach Rodriguez, who has a similar type mentality. So if you show up a minute late, how the hell do we expect you to do something right on a football field whenever we all need it? Absolutely. You're still molding men, right? Do you still feel that way? 100%, man. Because it is. You're professional now, but do you still feel like you are molding men and creating better people for the future? And I know that's a little deep. No, it's not deep at all. I think we definitely are. And I think when you see the additions to our staff, like they're unbelievable dudes. And, you know, I realized real early I'm not great at everything, right? Not good at a lot of shit, right? Let's make sure we hire people that are really good at those things. So the guys that we put in this program to be able to lead these guys by example, but more importantly to set programs in place, like the Future 40 program and our character development and bringing Shep been. and getting all these things that have nothing to do with football but everything to do with it. Does that make sense? Yes. Because at the end of the day, to me, when you're a good dude and you work extremely hard and you're grateful, you play better, right, because you approach things differently. So I think we're definitely responsible for that. That's one thing for Coach Saban that I was so grateful for. The amount of resources that we put in that had nothing to do with X's and O's based on the development for them to be good husbands and good fathers and good businessmen and good community people was unbelievable. So we're definitely trying to do the same thing. Pretty crazy how the football gods seemingly bless the people that are doing it right too. Then, you know, the hard work. Football justice, baby. Yeah, there it is. I like it. Football justice. I'll start using that as if it's my own. Thank you for giving that to me. We actually use it the other way when they screw something up, you know, and then they get hurt or some bullshit happens to them. You should have done it the right way. Just FYI there. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I like that. I'll use it in my way. You use it in a way that it's actually meant for. But it does feel like the harder you work, the luckier you get. And if you do things right, it feels like the ball bounces your way. There's a lot of people that are saying maybe lane. Didn't do it the right way whenever he exited here. Can you do a proper exit? I think is a question. But there's also a lot of shit that lane does that you got to learn from. I assume as well. Con man, you have a question. Yeah, coach. I have to get your reaction to the midweek injury report. Did you have one? Did it change anything? Or did you expect something like that? Well, I got the text before, you know, the report went out like from lane. Hey, our quarterback's out. I'm like, yeah, buddy. I bet he is. I've been around here a lot of Wednesdays with you, man, for three and a half years. And I think our first one, we had 42 guys on the first ever SEC injury report on a Wednesday. So I was like, yeah, man, see you Saturday. The text to you is my favorite part. Obviously, the injury report is going to go public. But a text to you directly. Hey, man, they're going to see it on the Internet. But yeah, you know, man, no quarterback this week. Just give a heads up. Get ahead of it. I think he talked about how you, Charlie, and he obviously been around each other a lot and how you become a head coach. Is because of a lot of decisions that lane made bringing you in, I believe, would be a part of that. Obviously, him leaving, setting it up for you. What is your relationship like with him? Because obviously your fan base is going to want to, you know, kill this man tomorrow. Figuratively and metaphorically, I guess, both ways. But for you, I know you have history with him. So how do you balance that? And what are your thoughts on what you can take away from a lane Kiffin head coach that you got to coach under? Yeah, first off, I learned so much under Kiff. You know? I mean, because what I loved about Kiff was you saw the model in Tuscaloosa. And a lot of guys came through there and went other places and tried to recreate the same thing. And it wasn't Tuscaloosa and you weren't Nick Saban. And so what I loved about Kiff here, I felt like a lot of the because of, and we won because of a lot of things in Tuscaloosa, we did here. And some of the in spite of things, right, that Coach Saban believed in, but Coach Kiffin didn't, we didn't. And we did it another way and still won. And so that was really healthy for me to be able to see that you can play music at practice and still win 11 to 13 games. Like, you know, because we hadn't had that for a while. And you can not have to wear a suit, you know, on the bus and still play really well. There's other things, right, to be able to do it. So I really appreciated that about Kiff that there was still the attention to detail and doing things right and holding people accountable and hiring really good coaches. But also as a piece to, all right, I see it this way. When I have fun, this is what I believe in. This is how I want to run my program. So that really helped me with taking over this, right, to where you want to continue to do things that we've done that allowed us to have success. But then, you know, what's your twist on it? And kind of what you're not. Negotiables and how you want it to run. So I really appreciate that for him. I really appreciate how he treated me and my family, you know, throughout the process. So, you know, we became really good friends. There's things professionally in every profession, right, that you don't respect. And probably the same thing that he done about me at times. But I don't hide it from him. I'll call him and tell him, you know. So there ain't no beef between us that everybody tries to make and all that. So everybody's got business decisions every January. Coaches do. Players do in the business we're in. And they're going to do what's best for them and their family. I ain't got to agree with it or I ain't got to disagree with it. So. I ain't here to judge him. I wouldn't be standing in front of you without him. I know that. Yeah, but every once in a while you'll send a shark tweet out. That's for a recruit, man. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Of course it is. Okay, so you look at the stats and the numbers. Yeah. Seems like LSU defense versus Ole Miss defense a lot less yards per game. Your thoughts on defensive performance against Elaine Kiffin? Because obviously you know Elaine very well. Yeah. Elaine knows you guys very well as well. How do you think that kind of. Joust takes place tomorrow? Like I think they're thinking what I'm thinking, what I'm thinking about, you know? So I mean, everybody's thinking, okay, well, we did that when he was here, but he thinks I'm going to do that. So I'm not going to do that. Like, so you can start playing all those games, you know, but I think either side of the ball on offense, they've been really effective when they get in the right place versus the right looks and they take care of the football. All right. And they have at least 12 possessions. That's kind of the number normally in these systems to get to better win football games when you actually look at it. So we got to do a great job with our possessions of taking care of the football and in plays with a kick. Hopefully. They're P A T's all right. If not, hopefully field goals and then defensively the explosive pay piece that we haven't been very good with the first two weeks, you know, you've got to eliminate explosives, which is tough, you know, versus a Kiff team and Charlie does a great job creating some of those. So we've got to eliminate explosives and we've got to tackle really well in the perimeter. Um, you know, we've got to take the football away on defense, which we haven't done on a consistent basis yet. 12 possessions. If you look at the data, it's somewhere right in there. Probably. That's a, that's a huge piece of information. And I'm going to sound like a genius when I say this tomorrow, once again, football, you might want to check it before you say it, you know, believe me, I don't know. We live, we live in that world on a regular basis. Is this real? I think right. Golding seems like a smart guy. Yeah. Send it to your ass, man. Depends. Yeah, but obviously it is a hurry up, but also wait because the green dot situation, but they are trying to get as many possessions as possible. What have you seen from Sam Levitt in lane Kiff or Kiff's, uh, system or Charlie Weiss's system that makes you go, okay, perfect fit for each other or for you. We like the matchup potentially. Yeah, I think in that system, when you got an elite athlete, a quarterback that still has arm talent, right. They're really hard to defend because, because so many times they're extending drives and extending series when it wasn't a design quarterback run, right. And the play broke down and they didn't have the route of the luck they wanted. And then he can extend the play. So been really impressed with his athleticism. You know, I knew he had led that league prior to getting hurt and scramble attempts and scramble yards. So like I knew it, but then seeing his top end speed, he's kind of got a punt returner bill to him too. As well, as far as sticking his foot in the ground and making guys miss. So I think the key to the game for us is on base downs, not allowing him to extend plays for first downs. He's going to escape some and all that, but I think containing them on base down is really, really important. And then getting them the third down, you'll have a plan obviously, but I think containing him and make him like a pocket pasture on base downs is really important. That's if he's healthy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is, if he's healthy. Um, okay. Last question. And we appreciate you taking time here. Obviously massive weekend for you, hospitality. Here has been great. This is a great setup. So we appreciate that. Who's somebody tomorrow, you know, that could catapult themselves into a conversation on your team. Who's somebody like under the radar that if they have a massive game with all the eyes here could change the trajectory of their entire careers, you think? Yeah, I think several guys on offense could, I'm really excited about Caleb Odom getting back healthy. You know, he played in Louisville, got a little banged up, didn't play in Charlotte. Um, he's a big piece of the offense with JDB and that tight end position. He's long, he's got size speed. So I think he's somebody that could potentially. You know, play well, um, defensively, I think some of our edges, you know, I think Blake purchase is starting to come into his own a little bit, uh, the development at Maldonado and the other edge, right. And I think Perkins, which everybody knows the name, I think he's going to have to have a really good game, you know, for us to be successful. We appreciate the hell out of you, coach. Good luck, man. Absolutely, man. Congrats on all the success. Yeah. Appreciate you actually so early and you can put the tail of the tape up, put the tail of the tape up, please. The number of head coaching games, like four in one, you as a head coach. And it's like, what are those games? Oh, the biggest games. The biggest games of the year. So you getting dropped into the fire. I don't know if you were this gray whenever you got dropped into the fire or not, but it, you have done a miraculous job handling the circumstances. Congrats you on that. We can't wait to watch your team. Appreciate you, brother. Cheers, bro. Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, a little silver fox. Yeah, coach. Thanks, coach. Man. Well, Tom, what do you think of him? What do you think of coach Golden? He seems very calm, cool and collected. I think his team probably takes that same person. Yeah, he's awesome. Um, uh, listen to him talk at the sec media days, uh, this summer. And I came away with the same, uh, opinion after just talking to him there. Like he is very cool. He's very honest. Um, and I think the players resonate around that. Yeah, I'm sure that's how he gets all the, I could easily see him walking into anybody's living room and talking to the parents. Like he just seems like actually a real person when we know sometimes these big time college coaches, they're not even, they don't seem like they're humans. They're such, they're all ball. He seems like you actually have a real conversation, Pat. I know you, uh, you got to catch up with him a little bit, but I know he's on his way. How's it going? Yeah, he's awesome. I really enjoy him. Yeah. Just good. Energy. Good vibes. I, he said it off the record, but I'll say it to you here. I said, how do you feel going in? And he said, I feel terrible every week. Okay. Okay. So this guy is a miserable psycho. Okay. Exactly what you need. So I appreciate that. That's his mindset. But yeah, what a situation to start your head coaching career with everything that it was trying to rally and wrangle and lasso and keep and retain. And then also who's leaving, who's staying, who cares, who doesn't care. Biggest games. All eyes. Oh yeah. Andrew quarterback. He was out of Ferris state a couple of years ago. He might be the best player in football. So take care of that. Let's make sure that isn't wasted. So just the way he's been able to do it and how he's been able to do it and what he's had to have done is, uh, is really cool. I like his personality. Maybe his personality is the only one that could have done it all too. Yeah. You know, like maybe this personality is the perfect timing for the perfect situation. And then on the flip side, like Lane Kiffin, 118 games. He's won as a head coach. head coach? That's a lot of wins, bro. That's a lot of wins. And this guy, the reason why all the energy and all the attention and all the noises is because he's a damn good football coach. Be who you can afford to be. Lane Kiffin can be however the hell he wants to be with his injury report, his tweeting, his comments, his lawsuit, you name it, because he's a damn good football coach. We're in for one tomorrow. Lucky to be down here, AJ. Very thankful to be down here. Yeah, Lane Kiffin's another one of those offensive gurus. We talked about that yesterday. Like, young coaches, what are you, offense, defense? I mean, we know Godin, what he can do defensively especially. But, yeah, Lane Kiffin can score points. He's always scored points wherever he goes. I think that's why he's always in demand. Sam Leavitt, nobody's buying it. This guy might be a little bit hurt. Not even an ounce. Like, they're not believing it at all. Like, Sam had to feel something, right? He had to be banged up a little bit, right? Well, he was limited, I think, in practice, right? Yeah, yeah. He wasn't full go. Can they say what? What? What it was? Speculation. Oh, it's all speculation. Okay. They don't have to say upper body or anything? Sounds like just a classic Lane thing. Yeah. Just feels like Lane Kiffin being Lane Kiffin from the sounds of everybody that knows Lane Kiffin. He said, well, before the report went out, I got a text from him saying Sam was hurt. It's okay. All right, dude. Immediately. All right, I get it. Well, the NFL, though, right, don't you only get fined if you don't put somebody on the list? You have to properly place them on there. The NFL has, like, a very strict, hey. Like, this is what it needs to be if this is what this is. Also, can't be this if it's this. Because remember, Lamar did, like, summer practice one time. Yep. Yeah. And then he was labeled as something, but he was like, you can't be labeled as that if you do this. It's like, the NFL has a very, very strict, this is how you got to do it. And obviously, it's because of competitive balance, fairness, gambling is happening. Also, the fans knowing what the hell is going on is probably good for the sport as opposed to bad for the sport. The NHL doesn't view it that way, though. And the NHL is in a boom. The NHL will just tell you nothing. Hey, you need to know everybody out here is healthy and ready to go. This guy, this guy's got an upper body. What does that mean? Well, something above his hips hurts. What is it? His spine. Okay. Don't we think we should maybe tell people that? Nope. If the fucker can skate, we'll let him skate. And that's just what we're going to do. College football, you would assume, now granted, who's the entity that's going to rule that? Yeah. You'd say they're going to try to rein it in or make it more like the NFL, but who's going to do that? So, it has to be college. And conference commissioners would have to be the ones that would do it and enforce it and stand in the pocket whenever they're getting sued to not be able to enforce their rule. What are you doing if your SEC's playing Big Ten, but say the Big Ten has restrictions, SEC doesn't? Then what? They all got to get on the same page. They're all on the same page for this one thing that's going through D.C., the couple good votes, from my understanding, for the bill. Whether people think it's good for society or not, I guess that's a big judgment call. But every single conference commissioner's on it, every single everything that is around the sport seemingly saying, "This is good, have to amend a couple things," feels like it is a real feel-good Friday, real good momentum out here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's have the greatest weekend of all time, shall we? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You going to the snack bar tonight with the other guy? I don't think so. We're locked. Cocktail hour. Oh, yeah, congrats. Yeah, we got a cocktail hour. You got to mosey it around, make sure you talk to everybody, you know, shake hands. So, the reason why it is a disadvantage to run a media company out of Indianapolis, as opposed to New York or Los Angeles or Connecticut or a big city where all this shit happens, is because those happy hours where everybody's doing deals, getting everything done, you know? All the suits are patting each other on the back for doing their suit stuff. They're all living in their LinkedIn worlds, a lot of theory talk happening, but they're all around each other, you know? And people normally do business with their networks. So, I, running media company in Indianapolis, miss out on a lot of happy hour conversations, the relationships, all that good pop-up, whether that's for guest booking, whether that's promotion, whether that's a deal, like, that is something that is a downfall of running a company out of Indianapolis versus other cities. Now, for me personally, me having a built-in excuse not to go to any of these fucking things, also awesome, okay? Like, that is an awesome thing. Ah, sorry, couldn't go to the handshake event. I'm an indie, you know, it's in New York, I'm so sorry. You know, ah, sorry, can't do it. Getting invited to them, like the upfronts, had a blast because it was a big spectacle, big show, good to see people, and every time I do it, I think to myself, man, it's probably a good idea to do these types of things, you know? Because, like, when you're shaking people's hands, you do it, and then there's, like, 20 minutes in, and I just get to the point where I'm like, ah, fuck it, I need to get out of here. Oh, this sucks. Yeah, I start, like, ah, I start getting uncomfortable, you know, I start to sweat normally because I run hot, and, ah, yeah, then I have to get out of there. But I'm excited for tonight, I'm thankful for the opportunity to go to this, but it does feel like this weekend down here in Oxford is a, ah, has a Super Bowl feel, a CFP feel. Mm. It has a, ah, it has a main event of the evening type vibe, and that's how it should be. I think, shout-out to college football for creating it, shout-out to sports for being the greatest of all time, shout-out to you, AJ, for driving over here today. Thank you, buddy. Thank you, Argyle. Thank you, Argyle. Toxic Table, incredible work this week, even though, Ty, you took a, ah, a piping hot pice and missed the first half of the, or part of the show with Chris "Mad Dog" Russo subbing in. Thank you, Toxic Table, good work, boys. Thank you. You too, pal, you too. A pretty positive response to you being Chris "Mad Dog" Russo. You know, there's a couple people that are impressionists that say you didn't do a good job, and then there's, like, a majority of people that said, like, that was awesome, we need to see more of that. It's like, all right, yeah, let's definitely think about that, Ty. You got it, whatever you say. How do you feel about Chris "Mad Dog" Russo? You think he liked the barking? Ah, I'm guessing he didn't like it, but that, I would, I would hope he didn't, 'cause that would be "Mad Dog" to a T. Mm-hmm. I wouldn't want to hear that, like, oh, "Mad Dog" thought that was great, he wants more of it, 'cause, quite frankly, that just wouldn't be the "Mad Dog." Yeah. And that's-- That's awesome. That's a dog in him. Exactly. It is, isn't it? That's doggy. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Da-da! Cowboys, AP Tone, good work this week. Thank you, you too. Come here, Tone. 0 for 2 on boost this week. Okay, here we go. Well, I mean, one was plus 600, so how often is that gonna hit? Well, they say one-sixth. I would like to let everybody know that our next boost is our best boost. Mm-hmm. Last Saturday morning, we hit on one, I don't know if we're doing that again, or if we're just putting out some picks for the later-in-the-afternoon games tomorrow on DraftKings, the best sportsbook on Earth-- shoutout to DraftKings, by the way. If you're of age and agreed to gamble or trade responsibly, we would love for you to come join us on the best sportsbook on Earth. Shoutout to DraftKings. Even though we lost last night, which I don't love, we're gonna win, aren't we? Hell yeah! We're due. We might not, though. You remember, this is kind of the reason why we got out of this game a couple years ago. Oh, we're gonna-- But this time, we're telling everyone to be responsible, so who cares? Who cares if they lose? Yeah, we're being super-duper-- we can't reiterate enough for you to be responsible. Don't be an asshole, 'cause we don't-- there's no reason for you to be assholes here, okay? We just need you to gamble responsibly, so you have a good time with the game, and maybe we'll find some winners, AJ Hawk. Maybe. What would be an example of being irresponsible, if you're a gambler? Well, somebody just putting all the money they have in their bank account in there. Yeah. Don't do that. Not being able to pay rent. Some people do that. Pay rent or mortgage, stuff like that. Yeah, some people, a very small amount of people, though, so we gotta remember that. Just like in anything, there is a small amount of people that are gonna abuse it, and we need to reach these people and tell them to stop doing it, but we know, 'cause we are in the world, a majority of folks do sports gambling how you're supposed to do it, responsibly. Just kinda pepper a little bit more, a little bit more of dialed in on a game that maybe you weren't as dialed in as, and obviously, you're not jeopardizing anything in the future financially for what you're trying to pick in a sports game that is impossible to actually predict, so I think as long as people are told-- Numerous times not to be assholes, I think society will understand and will continue to move forward, but we need people to not be assholes, 'cause they will ruin it for all of us. Yeah. Agreed. Like Adam Sandler in that movie, he was a bit irresponsible. Yes. Yes. Highly, highly irresponsible. Gotcha. Yeah, 'cause there was like, and it was hard for me to really feel bad for him, 'cause there was like six different times he could've just stopped in that movie, so I was pretty confused by that. Did I miss something in that movie, Ty, 'cause I'm a Sandman fan, and I thought he did an incredible job acting there. Obviously, I love Adam Sandler, but I couldn't buy into the uncut gems, because there was like five to six different times where I think he could've stopped, and it's like all over, but he just kept going, so I'm like, I don't know how bad I feel for this guy. No, I think you hit the nail on the head, kind of a cautionary tale, you know? Do you wanna wind up like this guy if you're, you know, being irresponsible and doing all the things that we're telling you not to? I don't think so. Bad things happen to bad people, so don't do bad things. Mm-hmm. Yeah, don't be irresponsible. That's right. 'Cause irresponsible things happen. Mm-hmm. All right. We're gonna have a weekend. Make sure everybody does the sage. Yes. Okay? Yeah. A lot of talk about that. I did see that. Quite a bit. Quite a bit. Mm-hmm. Everybody's kind of misrepresenting what that was, you know? I don't know what that's all about. You've been saging for years. Yeah, it's not the first time that you've had sage. Exactly. I'm a believer. I'm also in the state of Indiana. I have respect for our laws. I always say, when they are in a state where it's legal, which, for instance, DraftKings, all 50 states. Yep. Go ahead and come join us if you're gonna be responsible and of age. Come join us. I'm in Indiana. Everybody needs to relax. But boy, they got really loud out there. They got really loud out there jumping to conclusions. It'd be like that sometime. Especially whenever the Buffalo Bills come out on fire. It do be like that. And they're just smoking the Lions right in front of everything. Mm-hmm. And the internet's like, "Oh, he told me you ain't smoking." It's like, "Are you safe? Are you talking about safe?" Let's go behind the glass. Great work back there this week, boys. Good work, guys. Good work, guys. Good week, boys. Phenomenal stuff. Graphic Design Boys. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What's up? What's up? What's up? Way to go, boys. Way to go, boys. Way to go, boys. Way to go, boys. Way to go, boys. Good work, guys. Way to go, way to go, boys. Zito Production, really good work. Obviously, Mitt, phenomenal stuff. And to all of you. Thank you. It's because of all of you that we get to live the coolest lives of all time, talking about the greatest thing to ever be created, which is sports, more specifically, football. We'll be live, college game day, 9 a.m. Eastern, 8 a.m. local, Oxford, Mississippi, kicking off another day of magic across the college football world, then leading into an NFL Sunday slate that's going to be jaw-dropping, Sunday night football, Colts at Arrowhead in the home of the Chiefs. And then Monday night football in Los Angeles with the New York Giants coming to town. Yeah, right, life is great. Thank you all so much. To the boys, you're the best. I'll see you guys on Monday. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. AJ, anything you want to say to the team? I hope everyone has a great weekend. Nice. Hell yeah. I hope everybody has the greatest weekend of all time, actually. Hey, Gumpy, really good work out of you there. Good job, Gump. Really good work, boys. Good week, everybody. Good week. Good week, thank you. Good work, Gumps. Good work, everybody. Biggest spread of the weekend is against the Dolphins, Gump. Fair play. Fair play. Team on me, team on three. Have the greatest weekend of all time, baby. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye. This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files, and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting Work Mode, available on Plus and Pro plans. 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